The First Chapter Comes to an End

It is Thursday evening and I am basically done with school for the third week, excepting my 9 am Vertebrate Zoology lecture, which means that I will have been here a month by Saturday. It is crazy how fast time goes while you are in school compounded with being in another country trying to enjoy it.  The purpose of this blog is to just give a general highlighting of what has transpired over the past month, skipping over everything I have already talked about.

Classes:  After having three weeks of classes here, I can officially say that this semester should be easier than any I have had at Notre Dame so far, but far more interesting.  Vertebrate Zoology emerged from the depths of first-perceived boredom as a darkhorse for my second favorite class due to interesting class material behind Psychosocial Aspects of Exercise Science.  That class is possibly the single class that has captured the most of my attention thus far in my college career.  I mean the lecture material is interesting and I have to take a ballroom dance tutorial in conjunction with it where I am forced to dance with multitudes of beautiful Australian girls. Rough, I know.  I have now also worked with cadavers for the first two times in my life in the last two weeks of my human reproductive lab (first week male, second female).  Popular Music and Culture is actually a fast hour fourty-five minutes every Thursday.  The material is pretty interesting and for 40% of our grade we have to go to a pub or club and write an ethnography paper about our observations (I mean it is a bit more academic than that but I had to make it sound kinda cool).  Which brings us to one of the greatest things about the University of Western Australia: Lectopia.  Lectopia is an online website that stems from their main student page.  A decent amount of classes use this system, including the "Behavioral Psychology" class (aka. Intro Psych II).  What is Lectopia exactly you ask?  Lectopia streams a recording of every lecture online that you can listen to and view the slides simultaneously in the comfort of your room or library.  All the benefits of going to class without actually going.  I have never been one to skip classes but my two Psych lectures are at the inconvenient time of 10 am, and this allows me to get other stuff done and catch the lectures later.  Awesome.

Friends:  I just thought I should give you guys a little reference on some the people that I am living with and becoming friends with in case I mention them is subsequent posts.  That way if you ever get introduced to them when we get back to Notre Dame, you can base your all your opinions of them on the couple of sentences I give them before you even meet them.  Not even close to everyone is mentioned since I figured you'd make it halfway down the list and get bored so do not take offense if you haven't made the list at the moment (I don't even think anyone on this trip reads my blog anyway, but disclaimers are always good).
Alan:  Most of my readers already know him, but if you don't think engineer is one big goofy guy whose super fun to hang out with and has a love for The Cat Empire and 'Pumping' boxed wine in a water bottle.
Derek:  Lives the floor above me in Tommy which is very conducive to late night cribbage games, which are awesome.  One of the nicest guys I have ever met.  Major flaw:  Vikings fan.....yeah.

Erin:  Again, most already know the legend that is Erin.  One of the single nicest human beings alive on the planet.  Her only flaw is a glaring one however.....Bear's fan.
Kelly:  Formerly from Wisconsin, this geology major now calls NC home.  She loves to play frisbee and is terrible at making many decisions.  Major friend plus: Bleeds green and gold
Kevin:  A geology major.  Pretty similar (so therefore good) sense of humor to mine, loves playing can-jam, and is quickly picking up the greatest card game ever invented.
Mary Kate:  A California girl that loves life, is almost always in a good mood, and always looking to go camping.  One of the kids I am traveling up the west coast for spring break with.
Spencer:  The most unconventional kid around. My old roommate's freshman year roommate.  Recently went to an Anything But Clothes party in a suit of armor made from boxed wine cartons.
Will:  Crazy kid.  Likes to skip his geo classes a lot (which happen to be all the classes he's taking) and hang out with Aussies a lot.  Knows everything about Australia.  The other kid I am going on spring break with.
Zack:  A Texan through and through; loves his Rangers and Cowboys.  He picks up Sheepshead very quickly and loves DC++.  So far I'm pretty sure he holds the record for most download files.