7/08 WHY is the SEAL staring at me?

We learned from yesterday’s lesson and got up after ten o’clock, just to avoid the morning cold. Don the Taiwanese student set off to his language school; the pair of German ladies left us and started on their brand new journey, while the Korean guy slept soundly. In the meantime the eight-people dorm became pretty vacant and probably, desolated. The occupied the only two toasters for our breakfast and came out with some chocolate chipped baked bread. To hell with drinking milk in the morning, we had orange juice instead! I took a dump in the toilet and brushed my teeth, today I’m wearing my dad’s cool jacket and cool shirt and a pair of cool jeans (so far for all the coolness…) the destination of the day will be the Western Australia’s grand museum.

It’s a shame that the price of the exhibition in the museum was too high for our budget. We kept our heads low as we marched toward the free zone. What greeted us was a large but boring section of the city’s history and some extremely old equipment, book pages in exhibition, even the workers didn’t seem to have a whiff of life. As we complained about how this facility had let us down and was preparing to head outside, a couple of specimens in the next room caught our attention. I took Roxie’s hand in mine and strode forward. The room was full of specimens of any type: mammals, insects, amphibians, reptiles…even some of them were alive! I recalled one of the hilarious moments: a little kid was facing a seal model and had a queer look in his eyes, and then he asked his mom: why is the seal staring at me?

That’s just so cute. I got a golden dinosaur coin and two small models of echidna in the souvenir store outside, in memorization of the great times we had in the museum.

The wind was strong but sunshine was stronger, we were careful about getting sunburnt. There was a moving tow-truck just around the corner selling fresh ice cream with many different flavors, out of curiosity we worry no more about the price and dug our heads in. It felt like summer with the icy touch as the sweetness liger upon our tongues. Still on our feet, we traveled to the center and there was this big mall Target where I almost spent 30 AUD on a pair of boots; Roxie also gave up the wool blanket she had been considering in the first place. We got back to the streets empty handed.

Don mentioned about some kind of Wifi Sim cards to us earlier and we were searching for them eagerly but came to no result. Roxie had the habit of forcing me to ask somebody instead of doing it herself, the second we couldn’t find the thing we wanted. And it’s always me, it’s probably something to do with my gender I suppose: guys have to be strong and tough in order to take care of his other half… though we had no luck in locating the wifi cards but at least we got to another landmark in Perth, the London alley. It was an alley full of shops and towers all built and decorated in an ancient way. From souvenirs to clothes, hats and even crafts of the Maoris, these guys sell almost everything. I bought a cool mug with a kangaroo totem on it for my Mom and one hardwood didgeridoo for Dad. They weren’t cheap and cost me a big bite out of my budget, but considering my parents might go nuts with ecstasy for the gifts, they were definitely worth it. However it started to sound like a pretty dumb idea to be carrying a long wood stick in my luggage for the rest of the trip.

PS. We found the cheapest hair dryer in the electronics section at Myer after a 3-day search. Costing us 19.99 AUD.

Hungry and exhausted, we dragged our numb legs back to our lodge. Three new backpackers filled the vacancy in the dorm and was just settling in. Two of the Mses. were from Taiwan by the way. We cooked the spaghetti and poured in red sauce and some canned chicken, all of them together made us a pretty decent dinner, here’s tribute to Roxie’s improved cooking. It didn’t cost over 5 AUD per person to have this awesome supper, while it’s about 10 AUD-30AUD per meal in a regular restaurant outside, the money we would have saved! As for a side drink, I got lucky and fished out a can of Mother Lemonade in the local convenience store that’s on sale with one dollar, which usually costs 3. We rested for a while and left Britannia again, in search for the Wifi card and infamous Copper Kangaroos at Town Hall.

We didn’t make it to the Town Hall for it was already too dark and I was afraid we might lose our way. At least we found the third shortcut to the CBD! The free computer at the state library let visitors surf freely for 20 minutes but don’t even let me start on the internet speed. It took me about 15 minutes just to say a few lines to my parents on Facebook. It’s about 8 o’clock in the evening and most of the stores were out cold all except Woolworths. We were really in favor of this supermarket and that’s why we come here all the time. There were so many yogurts there and we picked a six-pack with different kinds of fruity flavor. Look like the expense on foods will be the most concerned if don’t quit visiting Woolworths so often. By the time we got back, again, the new guy(a Malaysian, according to Don’s information) was already asleep so we didn’t manage to talk to him. The two ladies from Taiwan were pretty friendly though, we all shared some information about Perth before getting to bed. Now the room was full of Asians. Asia rules! I guess HAHA.