Field Trips

We had a meeting today with one of the professors who is in charge of our 1 credit anthropology course called From the Desert to the Sea. The course is designed to give us Notre Dame students a quick but in-depth look at Western Australian culture and involves three field trips, one of which happened in the first week we were here (see post Kangaroos!). We will be embarking on the second field trip next weekend, a trip to the gold mines at Kalgoorlie. I will keep my eyes peeled for chunks of gold at all times, however, we were informed today that the Western Australia gold rush occurred in the 1850s, so I might be a few years late for finding gold. Much like San Francisco, the gold rush is responsible for the population boom that turned Perth into a major city.

It is about 370 miles to Kalgoorlie, so we'll be taking a flight there. No word yet on whether the inflight snack will be pretzels or peanuts. Unfortunately, they informed us today that we will have to leave college at 4:45am in the morning on Friday, so hopefully they won't leave without me. We were also told to bring warm clothes. Supposedly it gets pretty cold out in the desert at night. I've noticed even just from my room that the Australians aren't too keen on insulation.

Anyways, it should be a fun trip and I'll let you know all about it afterward and post some pictures. As for this weekend, the UWA campus priest has invited all of us to a dinner at his house Saturday. He was a graduate student and professor at Notre Dame for a while so it should be interesting to meet him. Also, the small group of us who bought snorkel gear have found a spot 15 minutes from Perth and we're planning on going out Sunday morning (don't worry the Catholics always hold their mass in the afternoon). The reef is supposed to be a good beginner spot for snorkeling, and although I've got way too much ego to consider myself a beginner snorkeler, I think it is best to start with the small stuff first since the big famous reefs will probably just spoil you.