Mandurah, WA

Today I spent the day with Catie, Catherine, Erin and Whitley in Mandurah and it was a beautiful day! First off I had a bit of a scare on the first train because I couldn’t get my debit card to work in the machine to get a ticket. It cost $9 for a day pass and I only had $7 cash. Catie couldn’t get her debit card and the train was about to leave to we just hopped on without a ticket. Now we knew this was wrong but every time we had been on the train, they never check to see your ticket so we thought maybe this one time it would be ok because we tried to pay for a ticket but couldn’t get it to work. Anyway, we get on and we see that two men in uniforms are coming towards us checking everyone’s ticket. I am terrified to say the least I was thinking of the worst possible outcomes. I thought they would send us to jail; they would ask me for my visa and I wouldn’t have it because it just got mailed to my house in Birmingham about a week and a half ago; or that they would give us a ticket and say we weren’t welcome in their country anymore – I didn’t know what we were going to do! I started saying Hail Mary’s and Our Father’s like I never have before. Catie kept looking at me saying she felt like she was going to throw up and it was just awful. Thankfully, by the grace of God, there was a boy that didn’t have a ticket either and he kept them occupied until we got to the next stop and we got off that train so quickly! We met up with Catherine and she had some cash that we could borrow to get a ticket for the next train and I was so thankful! Whew! Just thinking back on that from this morning brings my stomach to knots! Anyway, it worked out better that we got on the next train because Erin and Whitley were on that one and we were able to travel together for our adventure in Mandurah. Whitley just got here last Tuesday and she is from Macon and goes to UGA. She is so sweet and I am so glad she is here; I can tell I will be good friends with her.

First we went to the estuary in Mandurah and hired some kayaks - they don’t use the word rent here like we would. So we got 5 single kayaks for an hour and we kayaked around the estuary and it was gorgeous! We saw a huge pelican and lots of other birds that I couldn’t recognize and other kayakers and people riding their boats and it was a perfect day to be on the beach! After we kayaked we went to the marina to a great fish & chips place. I ended up getting squid instead of chips and it was delicious. Then we went around to the markets and looked at the shops. I bought a beach towel of the Australian flag and when I got home tonight Monique told me that I was looking more Aussie now. J I also got a didgeridoo! Well, it isn’t a real one it’s just a small one as more of a representation but it has really cool designs on it and you can make some noise with it too! I also got a few more postcards so keep sending me addresses if you want one!

Last night Catherine, Catie and I went to the Mullaloo Beach Hotel for dinner and it was delicious. It was about fifteen or twenty minutes away and on the way there we passed by a cemetery. But it wasn’t just any cemetery – it is the place where Heath Ledger was buried! I immediately remembered back to my freshman year when we found out he died Alice and I went to the 3^rd floor cubby of Owen Hall (where we spent most of our time anyway) and we had a memorial service for Heath with the other girls that lived down there! Allison, Rebecca, and Lindsay for sure and maybe Molly Anne and Missy were there too? I remember Libba thought it was silly but we were so serious and sad about this tragic loss! So girls, I will hopefully get to visit his gravesite and I’ll put some flowers there from the cubby.

That’s pretty much it for today! I need to write lots of lesson plans to prepare for Monday but Tracy has been to the video store today so I’ll prob just watch a movie and save the work for tomorrow!  

Exodus 3:14