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I've finally got internet up in my room! The tech guy LITERALLY walked away two minutes ago. And here I am, posting a new entry in my journal for the sole purpose of your enjoyment, enlightenment, and overall mental well-being. How thoughtful of me!

The wait is over

Andy Tew
2007-05-25 19:53:41

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when the time came for me to read the story in front of (gulp) a couple hundred students, I made a complete fool of myself, much to the delight of the crowd. (You're probably thinking: Andy's never done anything like that before. Nope, never. NOT.) To make a long story short, when every group reader had finished, they had us step forward to receive applause and judge the winner by the volume of said applause. I won, naturally. I pulled
a Roberto Benini and ran out into the crowd, shaking my fists in triumph and shouting at the top of my lungs. Our table won UWA pens. Terribly exciting. The moral of the story is that everyone who met me at the Pub later that evening looked at me for a second then smiled and said "you told the story, right? Right?" or in the case of one German fellow named Phillipe: "Yah, good entertainer! You tell the entertainment! Yah!" So, without much time or effort, I've already transferred my role as the goofball with few social inhibitions from the States to my new home in Western Australia. I guess it was inevitable. After orientation exercises I opened a bank account at WestPac, one of the larger banks in Australia and the only one with an office in the student guild center. Easy to do, saved me a lot of money on transaction fees. Or something. Also when I get a job I can do direct deposit, which makes everything easier. My debit card will come in the mail in about a week. I'm glad to have it done with.

Wednesday July 13th:
Made some major accomplishments on Wednesday. Bought a bike, helmet, and bike lock for about Au$110. A friend and I had scoped out a few places that sold used bikes and one guy struck us as particularly genuine and helpful. Also, he threw in the helmets for free. My bike has 21 gears, likes long rides on the beach and dazzles the eye. It makes it convenient for me to get around campus (UWA is fairly spread out; it's not like that puny hill Amherst presumes to call a "campus") and also I can ride to Perth or the beach, about 10-15 minutes either way. After buying the bike I photographed the Peacocks that roam around the Arts building for an hour or so, then made a visit to the Study Abroad office to claim my student health insurance card. Took a nap after lunch, then went into Perth with some friends to do more shopping. I bought a great one-strapped backpack thing-it's smaller and lighter than my big bookbag but can still fit my camera stuff and a water bottle-that will be very useful in the coming year. I can just tell.

Thursday July 14th:
Enrolled in classes. The preliminary list is: Creative Writing, Psychological Research Methods, Forensic Science, and Medieval in the Modern World. Saw a movie this evening; the new comic book movie called the Fantastic Four. In actuality, it wasn't fantastic at all. The writing and acting were both laughably bad. I truly recommend this movie if you enjoy high doses of unintentional comedy with your typical gazillion dollar special effects.

As of right now, it is Wednesday July 20th. I have had many more blog-worthy experiences this last week, naturally, but I need a little time to write them down. I hope you enjoyed this entry as well as the pictures along with it.

To part is such sweet sorrow, my friends, but I'll end this entry the way Zalmai (my Afghani friend from Amherst) concludes an email:

All good things,
Andy
http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/A2/