Water, Water Everywhere

Have I got a funny story for you. My apartment mates and I have been living in Perth for a week now and tried doing laundry a few days ago. The washer wouldn't work, so we placed a complaint at the hotel's lobby. Only a few hours later I heard a knock on the door and a chubby, friendly maintenance man stumbled into our apartment and fiddled around with the washer. His conclusions were the same as ours- a broken washer. During his meddlings, water was poured into the washer and the draining wasn't working anymore. He's on his hands and knees chatting me up like non other (typical Australian friendliness) and I look down. "Um, sir, the water has leaked onto our floor." His reaction was absolutely priceless. Where in New York the man would be cursing up a storm, this maintanence man simply said "Oh boogers" and smiled at me. I did my best not to crack up. Too bad there wasn't anyone around to witness this with me. He tripped around a bit grabbing towels, taking his time, eventually cleaning up the problem and removing the old washer from the apartment. That same day, he returned with a brand new washer (the hotel has been treating us very well) and installed it. By this time, let me tell you, I knew the whole man's life story. I don't know whether he really enjoyed talking to me or if he wanted to slack off from working. Either way, I was eager to leave the apartment, which I did for the entire evening. When I returned with Will at about midnight, we walked into our apartment to greet another maitenance man holding a gigantic vacuum cleaner with a very distressed look on his face. Aparently our third roommate, Lauren, tried doing laudry, left the room and returned to find that the washer didn't correctly drain the water- instead it spilt all over our apartment. Witnesses said the water rose to about 3 inches high. So, Will and I were moved to another room for the night, while the staff of the hotel finished cleaning up. This however is not the end of my saga... The next morning, Will and I returned to our apartment to get ready for the day. I showered and was making a pb and j in my towel (I like to hang out in my towel, just ask LuAnn) when I heard a knock on the door. I yelled to my roommates asking one of them to kindly answer it, because I was indescent. They did and a third maitenance man walked in, fixed the drainage problem and stood next to me, as I was making my lunch (with only a towel covering me), and again began telling me all about himself. I've made many friends with the maitenance men at this hotel, which could be a good thing, but could be a creepy thing as well...

The title of this post was not only for that incident. We have been going to some absolutely beautiful beaches and unique fishing towns as of late. Perth is right on the coast so there are so many awesome water-related activities to do. Yesterday we went to a town called Rockingham, where off the coast is an island that houses the smallest penguins in the world. They were adorable! We've also been to Scarboro Beach, which has some massive waves, Cottesloe Beach, and Mandura, which is a quaint fishing town that had some great fish and chips. A group of my friends and I went to King's Park for sunset and played frisbee all night. Other nights we sit on the beach at night looking at the stars for hours on end. The city center of Perth was hopping on Saturday afternoon and we watched street performers for hours. And that doesn't even touch upon the night life here. We've found a perfect Australian bar in the city called Mustang and I totally dig it. I love leaning across the bar ordering a pint of Toohey's New (which is my favorite beer down here, by the way). I couldn't be happier, except for a sunburn I got yesterday. I love it here.

Classes started today and it was a bummer to be sitting in a classroom for 4 hours when there is so much I'd rather be doing. But, I guess the classes are why I'm here, right? We're learning about Australian media for our first class, so it's right up my alley. We're thinking about going to the beach after class tomorrow, how great is that?

GOOD NEWS! I booked a weekend in Lancelin (north of Perth) to learn to surf with 5 of my new friends for the end of the month. I am beyond excited!!!

So, a little water leaking onto my kitchen floor can't even begin to put a damper on this trip...