Day 4 of vacation

Aussie slang word of the day is.....

Joey: Baby Kangaroo

On Monday I booked my flights to Salt Lake. I will be in SLC from June 21st-July 15th. That is less than a month away. I can hardly wait. I have three weeks left of the semester. This semester has really flown bye. Grad school has definetly been intense, especially these past couple weeks, with all we have due at the end of the semester. I also recently started prac on Tuesdays. The past couple weeks I have been observing a speech language pathologist at a language development school. The language development school is for children preschool- 3rd grade who have language impairments. They do the same curriculum as other primary schools (elementary schools), but with an emphasis on language. This week I was at Armadale community health centre, where I observed a speech pathologist who also works with children. It is a government owned health care centre for kids, so services are free. She works with kids for language, articulation, stuttering etc.

They are keeping us nice and busy this semester, but I have really enjoyed it so far. Sadly, this is pretty much the only break I will get inbetween semesters from here on out. So I plan on living it up!

I can't wait for the semester to end, because then it will be vacation time!!!! I can't wait to see my wonderful family (both sides of course), and friends. :) Brandon is flying out on July 3rd until July 16th. He then will be flying to Niagara Falls for a 3 day conference for work.

On with the family vacation that I have been dragging out for far too long.

On day 4, of my familys vacation, it was overcast and rainy, so we went shopping in the CBD (central business district).

We ate lunch at a place called "shmears," which is a block away from Brandons work, and one of our favorite lunch spots down town. They have amazing sandwiches and salads.
Australia is famous for fire opals. So in remembrance of Michelle and my moms visit to Perth, my mom bought us all a pair of opal earings. I love them. Whenever I wear them I think of my mum and sis!

We had a wonderful day shopping, and walking around the city. Later that evening we decided to go out for some Chinese food. We are still learning the area, so unsure of where to go, we picked a random Chinese restraint online, and boy was it spectacular. This was probably one of the most memorable experiences from my families visit. We pull into the parking lot, and not taking into account that we are the only cars there, we walk in and are seated. Not a single soul is in the entire restaurant. I will now paint a picture of what it looked like inside.... The tables had plastic coverings on them, with little paper napkins folded into a fancy triangles (like you would see at a nice restaurant, except they would use cloth napkins, not paper ones). The wallpaper was peeling off the walls, due to either a leak or the mold growing on the ceiling. Our waiter was a very short, very buff Asian man with a strong Australian accent. It just didn't fit, no matter how you looked at it. The most classic part of the dining experience, was when 'home on the range' began playing in the background, but Chinese style. (you know the type of music I'm talking about that plays in Chinese restaurants). By this time we were starving, slightly on the delirious side, so once the music started we all burst out laughing. I'm talking about the laughing where tears are pouring down your face, your side aches, and you can't breath, type of laughing, and no matter how hard you try you can't gain your composure. Everyone, but Brandon is laughing hysterically and a sweet Asian woman walks over to take our order. She was a bit concerned when she saw my mom was crying, little did she know it was out of laughter due to the music/ ambiance of the whole place. She didn't speak much English. We explained not to be worried, that we were only laughing and hadn't had a chance to look over the menu yet. She left looking a bit concerned and had her son take our orders instead, because his English was a little better. So then this short, buff, Asian man somewhere in his mid twenties comes to take our orders, and before doing so he proceeds to ask us what personal training is like in the US. Very bizarre. We finally gained our composure enough to order. I'll admit, we were slightly worried about getting food poisoning, but we survived, and had a night we will always remember. It doesn't look nearly as hilarious in this picture as it actually was, so you'll just have to take my word on it.