Classes, Stereotypes, and Witches

Interesting right? Not so much. But we'll get to that later. So classes have started, and I'm pretty much excited about all of them. One thing to note: The Australian Lit & Film class that I dropped to take Conservation Biology has Aubrey from Maine (new friend in the making), Alan, AND Michael in it. Crazy.

So I had Indigenous Women first, and the professor herself is an indigenous woman, go figure. No exam in that class, just 2 papers and a group presentation- I think its going to be very interesting. Same professor also teaches Indigenous Studies that Kristin and Alan are in together. She seems really cool and had no problem with me switching the workshop time.

Next I had Photography and Digital Imaging - we're going to be doing mostly camera work the first 8 weeks or so and then the last few weeks is all Photoshop stuff. Sooo exciting - I mean thats what I do for fun!

Finally Conservation Bio. I think it's going to be challenging but the professor seems awesome (as most Bio Prof's are). Plus - bonus part - we get to go on field trips! One trip to Kings Park (just a cool plant park and I've actually already been there), one to Penguin Island (awesome! The most northerly wild penguins in the world come here!), and finally to the Perth Zoo where we get to see behind the scenes stuff and learn about their breeding program etc. Alan was jealous when I told him.

So classes have been going well so far, now for todays excursion. After my biology pre-lab (where we talked about how to do labs) I went to the library and found the fun books! Yay Anne McCaffrey! But I digress, got back to my flat and was just lazing about when Kristin showed up. She convinced Alan and I that we should all go to Freo *Fremantle*. In the midst of this conversation we saw Michael wandering up the hill towards campus so I shouted at him until he turned and walked back down to our flat, and decided to come with us. After dawdling and playing cards for a bit we headed out to the bus and rode it into Freo.

Got to Freo and didn't quite know what to do, so we just wandered around a bit. Found a little cinema hidden away, and wandered down to the pier and the water. Theres a little beach there and a McDonald's sitting right on the beach - how they got such prime real estate was beyond me. We had fish and chips at Joe's Fish Shack, having to shoo away the boldest seagulls in existence. We found a couple bookstores after that, Michael and I had more fun there than Alan and Kristin. We stopped at another il Gelato for some ice cream then caught the 99 bus back to Murdoch. This is where the "interesting" starts.

So we got on the bus, I sat next to Kristin and the boys next to each other in front of us, Kristin next to the window me on the aisle. After a bit, the people in the back of the bus (a group of 3-5 aboriginal girls) started talking really loudly and obnoxiously. I glanced back a couple of times and Kristin glanced back once. The boys did as well but under the pretext of talking to us. We didn't really talk about them but shared some glances with each other, knowing they were drunk. At one stop, they got up to leave and as they passed us, one girl reached over me and full on punched Kristin in the temple. Not just like a slap, but a punch and then called her a b**** and told her not to talk about people. Her friend behind her started pushing her off the bus and all four of us were in shock. As soon as they were off and the bus started to pull out, is pretty much when it hit me what happened. I got immediately pissed and concerned for Kristin. Kristin is one of the sweetest people I've ever met, willing to do whatever it takes to make people feel comfortable in situations etc, and here this little Witch just punches her over an imagined offense when she's pissed drunk... Grr. So yes, here is the stereotype. We shared the incident with our native Aussie friend Sarah, who explained that Aborigines are stereotypically drunk, or sniffing petrel, and also hate Americans. Previous to this experience I would have discounted it as unwarranted prejudice, but now I must say that some stereotypes are not always to be discounted, as well as the fact that PEOPLE SUCK. Sigh. So Alan and Kristin are going to the police tomorrow to report it, and there was a camera on the bus so that might have caught the whole incident. I doubt anything will come of it, I mean Kristin won't press charges or anything, but at least she's doing SOMETHING about it. Those 2 don't have class tomorrow the lucky stiffs. Oh well, it's definitely past my bedtime so I'll just finish up what we did tonight after that messy incident.

We watched Hocus Pocus. Yes, the one with Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker. I'd forgotten how hilarious and great that movie is! A good end to a messed up night.