Study, Study, Study...

Hello all,
It has been a while since my last blog entry (excluding the previous one about A-level results) and so I felt it was time to update you all on my antics in Australia. In the last blog I had just been drinking lots of beer, watching cricket, going to uni and had had my first ‘clubbing experience’ in Perth. Has anything different happened over the past two weeks? – Read on to find out!

I’ll begin from the day after the last update of my actual blog (12th August)...
This day was Beni’s 25th birthday, so after a day at uni we went out for dinner (Beni, Ina aunty, Dilip uncle and I). We went to an Italian restaurant where I had the best meal that I have had so far in Australia. For starters we got crustinis with pesto, cheese, olives and truffle oil drizzled on top of it, it tasted fantastic! For my main meal I ordered gnocchi with a tomato sauce, it was absolutely divine, the gnocchi just melted in your mouth! This was all washed down with a bottle of fine Italian white wine (I don’t just drink beer).

Ina aunty and I from Beni's B'day

Not a lot happened the next two days, apart from a meeting about the one thing I can’t stand about Geography, a field trip! Next week we’re going to some small town north of Perth for two days and we have to do a project of our choice on it, sounds like great fun!

On the Saturday (15th August), I was just at home during the day but in the evening I was heading out with Beni and her mates to celebrate her birthday. We had a few drinks at home whilst watching Madagascar – interesting combination, right? – And we then headed to the city. The first bar we went to was a bar called Hula Bula. It’s a Hawaiian themed bar with quirky decorations and amazing cocktails. It’s quite similar to Mahiki in London but nowhere near as expensive as Mahiki. The music was very interesting at this place the DJ played some random country tunes, some Bob Marley, a bit of Stevie Wonder and Kaushik masa’s favourite ‘in the summer time’ and in addition to this a bit of dubstep! We moved on to another bar called Luxe bar. It was quite a classy bar and I was easily the youngest person in the bar by at least 5years!

Several drinks later, we left Luxe and the plan was to head to a club but when it came to going clubbing, loads of Beni’s friends decided to drop out! However four of us continued with the plans and went this club called Eve which was an interesting experience to say the least. The club itself was actually quite cool and about the size of Watford Oceana. However the crowd ranged from 18year old chavs to 40year olds desperate to find someone to take home for the night! In addition to this rubbish crowd, the music was just the boring generic dance and RnB music that I can’t stand! Having said this I had a good time because of the people I was with! Our night ended at about 3.30am and I was in bed by 4!

The next day I surprisingly wasn’t hungover but Beni and I decided to spend the day in our pyjamas and I didn’t shower until 4pm that day, something that mum would never ever let me do! I spent that time reading and preparing myself for another 6hour day at uni!

On Tuesday (18th August) I didn’t have any lectures but I still went to uni for 9.30am and headed straight to the library. I was in the library until about 1 when I headed off to another DJ and production lesson. Instead of heading home after this lesson, I went back to the library for a few hours! In the evening I went to see a My Sister’s Keeper with Beni and one of her friends. It’s a very good film and I recommend it to anyone who hasn’t seen it!

The next two days involved more time spent in the library! Six weeks into my first year at Nottingham I had not even considered visiting a library, I’ve been at UWA for 6weeks now and I think I have spent more time in the library than I did in a whole year at Nottingham! However, after library sessions I was rewarded with beer when I got home and some very exciting cricket courtesy of England!

Friday and Saturday were spent watching cricket and working. On Sunday (23rd August), had my first taste of Aussie rules footie. I went to Subiaco Oval which is the main stadium in Perth, to watch Freemantle Dockers (one of two local teams in Perth) vs. Essendon Bombers (a team from Victoria). Essendon are meant to be one of the best teams in the AFL and Freeo are at the bottom of the league with two games to go. However Freeo absolutely demolished Essendon, winning by 57points which I’m told is a big margin for victory. Freeo beating Essendon is kind of like Man United losing to Burnley... Oh wait that actually happened didn’t it?!

The footie game its self was a very interesting and enjoying experience. It’s a sport I can see myself getting into quite easily. I’ll give you a quick break down of the rules. There are 15 people on each team and there are goal posts at either end of the pitch. The goals are made up of four vertical poles meaning three gaps to score in. If you score through the middle post its 6points and its one point if you score in the outer posts. You have to kick the ball (it’s like a rugby ball but more bouncy) through the posts. To get the ball from one end of the pitch to the other you can either throw it to your team members, run with it (but after 15metres of running you have to bounce the ball as you run), or you can kick it. If you kick the ball more than 15metres and one of your team mates catches it then they get to pass the ball without any of the opposition trying to block the pass. To get the ball off the opposition you have to intercept a pass. There is contact in this sport, if someone is running with the ball you are allowed to rugby tackle them and they have to release the ball before they get to the ground otherwise they get penalised for ‘holding’ and the ball goes to the other team. The match itself is pretty long; it’s made up of four quarters each 30mins so in total the match is two hours. If you want to know more about Aussie rules ask me about it but I would say it’s pretty much a mix between rugby and football!

The footie pitch

In terms of the atmosphere, I was a little disappointed. I go to quite a lot of football matches and have been to at least 10 of the current premier league stadiums in the country and have experienced different atmospheres. There is no separation between the home and away fans in an Aussie rules game but at the same time there’s no real chanting or singing. You’re allowed alcohol at pitch side so it ends up being just a few drunken Aussies shouting stupid things and making a fool of themselves, it’s very funny to laugh at!

I came home from a fun day out to homemade pizzas and to watch England win the Ashes, it was a great time to be an England cricket fan in Australia. So the next day, I went into uni wearing my England cricket shirt. Although it was very early on the train, so many people commented about it with people saying to me that ‘the English are cheats’, ‘the English didn’t deserve to win’ etc. I went to my first lecture of the day and a guy sat next to me wearing a Shane Warne t-shirt with a black arm-band because they had lost the Ashes, he looked at me and said “Great I had to sit next to a f*****g Pommie (what they call us British) didn’t I?”. The lecturer also made a comment about my shirt at the end of the lecture in front of everyone – I was proud to be British!

Since Monday, nothing exciting has happened. I have been to the library everyday this week because I have so much work to do. I’ve got two deadlines next week (i managed to finish them both today, thats why Im writing the blog) and a mid-semester exam! I shouldn’t complain really because at the end of the day that is why I’m in Australia, to study!

I also realised today that I’m just about half way through my studying at UWA and then its two months of travelling before I return home! This time really is flying by!

I hope all is well at home and I have decided that I’m going to try and avoid watching Spurs the whole time I’m here because it seems to be working well for us so far! (Note that I’m writing this before the game against Birmingham today).

I've been taking some pictures of the sunsets here and I just thought I would share my favourite one with you.

Miss you all,
Mihir