out and about in sunny Perth

Fieldwork was very busy last week.  I’m not even sure what all I did.  I just know there were lots of kids.  I was definitely ready for the weekend by Friday afternoon.  On Saturday we headed into Perth fairly early to catch the tour bus.  Yeah, that’s right we were mega tourists and it was great.  We took pictures as we road along on the second level of the Perth tour bus. 

Amy and I getting ready to hop on the double decker tour bus

View of the city (and us of course) from King's Park

This is King’s Park.  They have 1,000 acres of botanical gardens with bike and walking trails.  They also have several war memorials, a glass bridge and a DNA tower to check out the sights.  We spent a while there exploring.  A little side note to remember for later…there were 3 guys hanging out at the overlook that said hi to us.  We weren’t really interested in talking to them so we kept walking.

After King’s Park we road the bus around for a bit more before getting off at the cultural center.  There we made a brief stop at the natural history museum and then went to the art gallery. 

After that we walked around for a bit, did a little window shopping and then headed back to Freo for a nap.  Well first we stopped for ice cream and chocolate cake and then grabbed a couple of bottles of wine from the bottleshop (liquor store).  This is where the early comment about the guys we didn’t talk to comes in.  We were leaving the bottleshop and these two guys said, “Were you ladies at King’s Park today?”  You guessed it.  It was the same guys we didn't talk to at King's Park.  They just happen to live in Freo as well.  Small world.  Kind of funny to run into people twice in one day in two different places.  At least I think so.  You can think what you want.

After that excitement we got home and I took a nap.  That night we went out to a local bar to meet our friend Bill that we met at the races last weekend.  It was a fun night of dancing and talking to people from Ireland and Eastern Australia.  It took us an hour and a half to make a typical 15 minute walk home because we kept stopping to talk.  It was a fun night.

Sunday we got up early to make a quick trip to the market before heading to Perth for day 2 of our bus tour.  You read right.  We had not 1 but 2 days of being super tourists on the Perth tour bus.  We took a trip out to Burswood Casino.  No, we didn’t gamble.  We just enjoyed the ride on a beautiful sunny day.  The Perth Mint was on our list of things to do but the last tour had already left (and we were too cheap to pay the $15 entry fee).We did some more window shopping (it was disappointing that we didn’t find anything to buy) and then headed home. 

Perth Mint

So that was the weekend.  It has been a busy week at fieldwork.  I’m happy to say that I successfully planned and lead 2 of my own treatment sessions this week.  Today I had time to get caught up on some paperwork that had been waiting.  It’s hard to believe that next week is the half way point.  I feel like I’m just getting in the swing of things.



Off to the races

Fieldwork has been keeping me busy during the weeks.  Heaps of kids to see and reports to write.  It’s great though.  I’ve already learned a lot about child development and how OT can help kids further their development.  Now for the fun stuff...

Last Wednesday we had Ben and Alberto over for tacos.  We had been having major cravings for Mexican food.  It is difficult to find chips and salsa in this country.  Can you believe that?

On Saturday we went to opening day of the horse races.  It is quite the event.  Excellent people watching.  Women get all dressed up and wear super fancy fascinators.  We spent about 4 hours watching people, watching the horses, drinking champagne, eating fish and chips and talking to people that work for Conoco Phillips (one of them went to Blue Valley North HS-small world).  It was a fun afternoon.

Before we went to the races I had a little spill on the stairs at our house.  We were all ready to go and I went downstairs to grab one more thing and whoosh!  There I went tumbling down the stairs.  Somehow I managed to smack the lower part of my shin on the step, leaving a nice little dent from the corner.  It was rather painful but obviously not that bad seeing how I managed to make it to the races and out to the bar.

Riding in style with my leg propped up to keep the swelling down.
The black thing on my head is my fabulous fascinator.

Sunday is no longer homework day.  We’ve made a pact to get our assignments done during the week nights so we don’t have to spend any more beautiful weekend days inside.  So Sunday we did a little window shopping in Freo before the shops closed at 5 pm.  Then we went for Sunday session at the Left Bank (a bar near Swan River).  Sunday session came about a while back when bars would open for 2 hours on a Sunday afternoon.  Now it’s like another Friday or Saturday night.  Left Bank was packed with people.  We had a burger (with beet relish stuff on it) and fries.  It hit the spot.  Then we left at 7:30 so we could do a just a tiny bit of homework and get ready for the week.

Tuesday night we went over to Ben’s house for an amazing meal.  Toby cooked kangaroo burgers and made a delicious green bean salad.  Amy made a scrumptious potato salad with feta, Kalamata olive and olive oil.  Dig made a wonderful dark chocolate, strawberry pastry with ice cream on the side.  Superb meal and excellent company!

Dig and Toby slaving away while we watched.

In other news... today is Eric's birthday.  So if you see him tell him happy birthday and give him a hug for me (he’ll really appreciate the hug).

Men in shorts

Unfortunately, I spent most of the weekend working on homework.  Kara, Amy and I were getting a little stir crazy after spending all day inside together.  We had a great night though.  Ben picked us up for the charity footy game.  It was a more relaxed game but still a lot of fun. At half time there was a mascot race.  It was pretty hilarious to watch people in ridiculous costumes run down the field.  Some of them fell down and couldn't get back up (I'm sure they were saying, "Help. I've fallend and I can't get up"), some lost their hats/lids, and others experienced both problems. All in all it was a fun evening. 


Subiaco Oval




Mascot Race Competitors




"We are men. Men in shorts.  Short shorts!"



After the game we went to Mojo's (a local bar) to listen to the Sunshine Brothers.  We had a great time listening to the band and dancing off all the junk food we ate while doing homework.

For once I actually know the people in the
 background of my picture (Alberto, Toby and Jasna)

Now for a bit of business...Fieldwork is full on now (thats an Aussieism meaning "in full swing").  I met my second supervisor, Mel, yesterday.  She seems like a cool lady that I should get along well with. I'm excited that things are picking up and I'm ready to start working with clients.  I think that is about all for now.  Hope you all are enjoying the fall weather!

Sorry for the delay

First let me start by apologizing to those of you who have been waiting impatiently for me to update the blog.  (I won’t mention any names, but it starts with an Er and ends with an ic.)  I’ve been having a bit of writers block.  There haven’t been any exciting beach adventures.  Mostly it’s just the day to day work adventures, which are going well by the way.  Things are starting to pick up and I will be taking on my own clients (with my supervisor’s supervision).  They had a welcome tea for us and a new OT that started on Monday.  We tried some authentic Australian cuisine…vegemite (it wasn’t too, although it was in a thick roll so I couldn’t really taste the vegemite), Tim Tams (we’ve already been through a couple packages of these delicious cookies), Cherry Ripes (cherry dipped in chocolate), and my personal favorite Anzac biscuits.  Like I mentioned previously, my supervisor, Kate, and I have are going to get along great.  We have similar organizational styles AND she hates chalk boards as much as I do.  Yesterday was project day.  We have three projects we will be working on throughout the semester.  Two of them are going to be great resources to use if I end up working with children.  The third project has already helped me know what resources are available at the center for therapy sessions.  So thus far things are going great.

Last Saturday we watched the replay of the footy final.  Our friend, Ben, suggested we go to a Seaview Tavern which is owned by a former Fremantle Dockers player and the captain of the team.  The former player, Paul Halseby, was watching the game there.  It’s crazy because he is only 29 and has already retired from the sport.  He talked with us for a while and kindly agreed to take a picture.  (I can't get the picture to load in the blog so you can check out the album to see the picture.)

We are getting quite proficient at riding the bus.  Yesterday we had to go to Subiaco (it’s a suburb about 30 minutes away) to pay our rent.  Not only did we find it, but it only took one try.  Thankfully, the bus drivers are very friendly and willing to help when you don’t know which stop to get off at.

This weekend we are planning to go to a charity footy game played by former players in Subiaco.  Unfortunately, I will also be working on homework again this weekend.  I have to complete a mid-term paper.  Don’t teachers realize I am in Australia and should be spending time at the beaches instead of indoors doing silly homework? 

The reason I came

Fieldwork started Tuesday.  My supervisors are on holiday but left me a schedule to keep me busy.  So far I have been reviewing client files, working on the semester project and observing therapy.  I went with a PT today to a couple of her sessions and will observe a speech pathologist tomorrow.  It is nice to see what the other disciplines do and how we can work together.  This afternoon I had my first therapy session.  Amy and I will be seeing the client together.  It is going to be fun (and maybe a bit challenging)!  I'm looking forward to learning from all the therapists and developing my knowledge and skill base.

On a different note...we went for a jog down to the Round House last night.  It is so much more motivating to run with the ocean nearby.  And the cool ocean breeze is nice as well.  Not much else going on this week.  I'm sure by tomorrow at 5 I will be ready to sleep for half a day or so.  The rematch of the footy game is Saturday so we will probably head somewhere to watch it after we get our fresh produce from the market.  We might take a trip to the Fremantle Prison for a tour.  I'll keep you posted.

First day of work (you're welcome Mom)

Tour and a Public Holiday

Just in case I don't catch you on Skype to give you a tour, here is what our place looks like. 



Living Room



Kitchen

Bar

Dining area with front door that we don't use

1st bedroom (no doors)

2nd bedroom (again no doors)

Gym area

Fantastic closet

Sunday was spent catching up on emails, blogs and homework.  Monday was a public holiday.  Happy Birthday to the Queen!  We went to Ben's house to celebrate.  The food was great, the weather was perfect and the company was excellent.  Ben has housemates from Italy, England and France.  They are lots of fun.  Their house is a short distance from Swan River so we went for a walk after we ate lunch.  Pretty relaxing day.  Off to work tomorrow!



Oysters



Look who just flew in for lunch...

A walk down Swan River

Swan River

Swans in Swan River

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.