“Exploring the Australian Culture” 7/6-10

This week was filled with a variety of different adventures. After going to the doctor for what I thought was a pulled hamstring, I found out that I had a pinched nerve and the doctor gave me medicine that was making me sick and really tired, but doing absolutely nothing for the pain… so I stopped taking that, and went to the chiropractor. I found out that I had a spinal disk out of place pinching the nerve and causing pain down my leg as well as having a twisted pelvis…so obviously, now I know why I’m in a lot of pain… and this is starting to play into my daily activities with all the walking we do. I just deal with it and try to forget about it. I’m going bungy jumping in New Zealand… so maybe that will just straighten everything out. Haha.

On Friday, my Indigenous Cultures and Histories class was canceled because my teacher in an Aboriginal person she was celebrating the NAIDOC week culmination with a large march. I did not actually participate in the march because WSU told study abroad students not to participate in political marches or protests, but a few of us went down to join the family fun day at the end of the march to learn a little bit more about the life of the Aboriginal Australians.

Friday night everyone was ready for some fun after a long week of classes. A big group of the girls and I went to a fun Mexican restaurant across the street for some food and margaritas before we joined the rest of some group for “pre-funking” and some card games. (Everyone questioned me when I said pre-funking because they all call it pre-gaming) Then we spent the night at Red Square, the dance bar we went to last weekend. It was a lot of fun, and we got to skip on the $15 cover charge again! It was a fun night that I think everyone needed.

Saturday started with what sounded like it was going to be awesome activities, but just turned out to be ok. We started the day at the Haigh’s Chocolate Factory. When we got there, this grumpy lady gave us a sample of chocolate as we went in the door and then shuttled us back into this hallway where we could see a few people working on machines. I guess the lady decided she didn’t like us because we were supposed to be taken on a tour of everything but that didn’t happen… the chocolate was good at least. Then we headed to the South Australian Migration Museum, the first Migration Museum in the world. I’m really not a big museum person, but it was pretty interesting. They told us some information that will help me with a few of my papers that I have to do for both of my classes… so that was good. A few friends and I finished off the day at a little dive diner for dinner.

Today I was excited because I got to take to a bunch of my family who are all at beach week this week. I was feeling a little home sick because I was missing my favorite vacation of the year with beach volleyball and jumping the waves, but it was nice to get to talk to everyone. Grandma said that I’m too far away and need to stay closer to home because she misses me! Today was also nice because I got to sleep in a little bit before our activity for the day. We all went to a Port Adelaide footy game. Despite being pretty cold and rainy and Port losing like 53 to 109 or something awful like that, it was fun to watch and try to figure out what they were doing with these 18 on 18 teams. I got to try a footy meat pie at the game that everyone said we had to try while we were here. It was interesting… and a lot better than I expected.

Tomorrow is off to the Parliament  for my Australian Politics class adventure.



This is our whole group!