Tuesday March 13

This entry actually talks about what I did yesterday (Monday) after I posted in my blog. For my Australian Studies class we visited the Art Gallery of Western Australia. We had to get there by ourselves so I went with the two other UMD students and two students from Arizona. When we don't have someone with a car we usually take the buses and trains. The transportation is actually pretty easy and very cheap. We usually take a bus to a station and take the train into the city. We went early and walked around downtown Perth. There is an area that has a lot of shops and places to eat. We finally went to Target for the first time! Seemed pretty much the same but this one was pretty nice since it was in the city. We stopped in some stores but did not have much time to browse. We walked over to the gallery to meet up with our class. We mainly focused on Aboriginal art in the gallery and our professor talked about different pieces made by Aboriginal artists. There were a few different sections of the gallery that displayed art from different time periods. It was very interesting to see how the Aboriginal art pieces differed from the early English settlers that came to Australia. After, a few of us walked down by the waterfront. There is a large open area that has the city on one side and the Swan River on the other. Across the Swan River you can see more of the city on the other side. It was fun to walk around downtown Perth and see all the cool shops. It has been very hot here the last few days but they estimated that Monday would be the last day of the heat wave. It was on average 100 F degrees each day for about four days straight. It should cool down a little bit to be in the 90s. Today, I had class and attended a security session on campus. They talked mainly about how to keep safe on campus and in the city. They said our driving license is valid so I am excited to attempt to drive! Both of my close friends with cars have stick-shifts so I will have to get used to driving on the left side of the road and shifting with my left hand. Let's hope I make it safely.. A group of us went shopping for sheets because tomorrow is the Toga Party at the Tav. More to come!