Life in Perth, so far...

Well it's been two weeks since I landed in Perth. I've settled in, of a fashion.

Mrs L's daughter Bobbi and her husband Wayne came to pick me up at the airport with their youngest son Aiden (he's 9 months old). I was very excited to be able to put down my bags for more than 3 days! We then went to pick up their oldest son, Ethan, from daycare before heading to their home. Mrs L was working, so she was going to join us after work.

We had a lovely home-made pizza dinner in a lovely relaxed home environment. Mrs L and I went home after dinner where she showed me my room. I unpacked and slept. Mrs L had to work the next day (she has to work on Saturdays) so I slept in (she leaves at 6:30am) I continued to organize my room a little and then if I remember correctly, Bobbi came over helped me with the washing machine, and then came back with Wayne who hooked up the wireless internet for me. We had lunch, and waited for Mrs L to come. I think that was the day that we went to Hilary's harbour (about 4 km away). So I got my first close up view of the Indian Ocean! Sunday we went to a chocolate factory, which was lovely.. (they give out free samples!) then we went to have a coffee at a winery.

One thing I've found curious in Australia is the chooks (also known in other English speaking countries as Chickens). They were roaming loose at the winery and it is perfectly normal for anyone to have up to 4 chickens in their backyards. So in the middle of the city, people have up to 4 chickens, though they're not allowed to have roosters. So they get fresh eggs every day. I'm pretty sure we're not allowed “farm animals” in urban areas in Canada. Mrs L's neighbour even has a pig! (or so we hear.. I've not seen it yet)

So other than the farm animals in the city, it also seems that most people also don't have dryers. Everyone seems to hang their clothes to dry. It was like that when I went to France. I didn't know if it was because clothes smell fresher off the line, or it's more economical, or what, but I have to say, with all the rain we've been having, it's been hard to do laundry.

I think I'm adapting well to life in Australia. I have had to learn to turn on electrical outlets before using them, and pressing light switches down turns lights on and little things like that.

I'm finding taking the bus a bit of a challenge while here in Perth. Their streets are not in a grid, like back home. So bus routes are all over the place and don't go in a straight line for very long. They also have lines that go up to 400 +. I've not figured out how the numbering system works or if it's all willy nilly. I just miss driving I guess and being able to go where I want directly rather than take a bus across town to take a train downtown to take a bus back up again to another location. One thing I do like about taking the bus is seeing the city. I sit back and check things out and know that the driver knows where he's going and will let me off at the right stop (I let him know where I need to get off and he drops me off there).

As for the Multicultural Services Centre where I'm working for the next 10 weeks, I have to say they seem to do a lot of good work for people. They have 6 different locations across Perth, I've only visited 4 of them so far. They do all sorts of great things like helping to find housing for individuals, helping people get ready for the workforce (over the age of 45 I think), they help find funding for training, they help with a seniors day centre, and where I work most of the time at their mental health location.

I work at the seniors' day centre on Mondays. I help with their Italian group. The day is divided up with morning tea, exercises, a morning game, a 3 course lunch and cards, afternoon bingo, then afternoon tea, then they go home (or are driven home).

Tuesdays to Fridays I work at MAITRI the centre for mental health. I have started well, been able to observe my supervisor, as well as start my own client!

Otherwise, it's been mostly rainy here since I've gotten here. From what people tell me, that's a good thing, as Australia is a very dry country and it's abnormal to get this much rain. So people seem to be happy about it. From what I've been able to gather, Australians rely heavily on water that's been damed from outlying rivers to provide water for their major cities. Those dams have not been up to capacity in years. Depending on whom I speak with, the percentage of water in the dams are different, though everyone agrees that they are very low. When they get below a certain level, say 25%, I think that they said that the drudges start to come into the water system. They talk of other systems, such as desalinization plants, and using used water, cleaning that and re-using it. I thought that we had the water recycling plants back home. In any case, this real terror of running out of water is something completely new to me.

Well, I should get ready to go meet professor Linda Briskman (the lady through which I got my placement, I think) I'm going to her place for dinner tonight.

Oh! I meant to say, if anyone has any questions, comments, concerns, tips or other that they'd like to add to the blog, please do under comments. I'd love to hear from you, to know what your thoughts are about my experiences and such. Mom and I tried it out yesterday and I think you can do it without being a “blog follower” though I'm not sure how. Just try typing I guess.

Take care!