class and such

So we have been in australia for a week and what a week it has been! Orientation was last week and it was a good time. We had a big group meeting with all the international students, had a special meeting for just the walkabout kids, met our professor and tutor, and went to festival day which is when all of the clubs and organisations set up outside at the Uni and try to get students to join. Murdoch University is absolutely beautiful. There are plam trees right on campus and the main quad looks like something out of a tropical state park haha. Our apartments are in a great location compared to the rest of the city. We are right by; North Bridge which has a lot of night life, the bus station, a shopping area and the Center Business District (CBD), a great park called Kings Park, beaches, and all that. The bus ride everywhere is pretty much 25 minutes haha. The living arrangements are nice. Just what we need. Living with everyone has been awesome. I share groceries with some friends across the hall and we sit down and make dinner like a family almost every weekday. We have gone to the Zoo and seen all of the incredible animals. We were only a foot or 2 away from some rhinos and lions. We have been to 3 beaches, the best so far is Cottesloe. A great place especially on sundays. The food here is just like the food at home, but at the market the food is cheaper. I have officially tried kangaroo and it was really good. It was like a very lean steak. hmmm what else...well sunday, we went on a ocean kayak trip. We left at 7:45 in the morning and kayaked all day. We saw sea lions, pengiuns, and some beautiful fish. We also snorkeled at Penguin Island and swam out to a rock shelf you could sit on and swim underneath. You had to swim down to the bottom and as you went under if you looked up you could see all of the fantastic rock formations and shells. It was sooo amazing! Well yesterday and today we had Uni and the first day of class was fun. We learned all about the history of the media in Australia. We also got to get to know our tutor Mary-Anne. She is terrific, so much fun and its very interested in us as individuals and as a group. A tutor here is not like a tutor in the States. It is more like a T.A. only it tends to be a post-grad student and is more of a teaching position. So today is Media Frenzy Day #1. The group was split up into 2 groups; 1 that did print and 1 that did radio. I am in the print group and so far we have practiced interviewing, sharing information, learning about news values, and the 5 W's and the H. Well now we have to work on the article that we are writing as a group. I have to do the backround research on the water shortage in Western Australia. Now its time to get back to work. I'll update again soon.
Cheers!