Not wasting any time

WARNING: This post is lengthy and probably…no definitely more detailed than you want but Justin wanted the details so here they are.  : )

We’ve been here for almost four days now and already we are becoming townies.  We can get to the grocery store, the bus stop, post office, city market, and the beach all by ourselves.  Here is a play-by-play of our first couple of days…

Wednesday: Landed in Perth at 11:00am.  Then we took a taxi (with the worst taxi driver ever) to our apartment in Fremantle. Seriously, the guy couldn’t figure out the directions and he had a GPS!!  But we made it so that is what is important.  We met the realtor and put our bags down.  At this point we found out that we had to set up the electricity and gas.  Luckily the people at Oliver’s (the café on the corner of our building) were nice enough to let us use their phone.  The gas company’s line was busy so we decided to leave it for the day and go get some basics.  This is when we found the grocery store (Cole’s) and had extra keys made.  Once we got home we ate dinner, took freezing cold showers and went to bed by 8pm.

Thursday:  Got up after sleeping for 12 hours.  Went back to the café to set up the gas but found out we needed a meter number.  You would think the gas meter would be well labeled or at least remotely close to the apartment but no.  After searching for a while we figured it out and called the gas company back.  Thankfully, we gave them the right number and the gas turned on so we could take boiling hot showers.  We spent some time touring Fremantle.  We stopped by the Round House (the first building in WA) and made our first visit to the Indian Ocean via Bathers Bay.  In the afternoon we jumped on the Cat (a free bus system in Freo) to go to the center were we will be working.  Unfortunately, the Cat does not go all the way to work but we knew this in advance.  We thought we could walk the rest of the distance.  Oddly enough we got lost and had to walk a 100 more miles (ok, I might be exaggerating a tincy bit but the walk was long enough that I got two blisters on the balls of my feet leaving me to limp most of the way).  We didn’t get to meet everyone we will work with but everyone we did meet was super nice.  For those of you that know my organizing preferences you will appreciate the fact that my supervisor put my schedule in a notebook with sheet protectors (a nice little package).  We took the TransPerth bus system back to the Fremantle station to find some dinner.  We had fish and chips and Kailis restaurant.  Kara’s friend Ben (the one who was helping us find a place to live) picked us up to show us some of the sites.  Even though it was dark outside the sights were beautiful.

Me at Bathers Bay

View of High Street from the Round House

Kara, Amy and me at the Round House

Seafood Platter at Kailis



Kara and Ben



Friday: Early morning.  Up at 6:45 to catch the Ferry to Rottnest Island.  Lots of walking, unbelievable views, private beaches and a whale citing are the theme for today.  I’ll let the pictures tell you the rest.

Little Salmon Bay

Mary Cove

Fish at Eagle Bay

Eagle Bay

Ricey Beach

Quakka (they are not afraid of people)

Saturday:  Got up early to try and make it to a closed post office.  We lugged our computers around trying to find access to the internet.  I stopped to buy a power adapter for my dying computer and we found a way to get internet at home.  So now I can post every detail of every day!!  We spent the evening in Perth and Northbridge checking out the night life. 

Well, sorry if that was too much information but that is what I have been up to.