heat wave!

ok, ok. so i think i spoke too soon with my last entry stating that since it's "fall" now, the weather will be cooler and more enjoyable. I was punished for jumping the gun on that and witnessed the following days after i wrote that to have temperatures reaching between 100-108 degrees fahrenheit! (by the way, i just did the conversion now - before that i just knew it was flippin' hot!) i heard on the news that the day it reached 108 was the hottest day on record for perth in march!

this lovely heat wave coincided with my first week of classes! I am taking 4 "units" (or classes) in total this semester, but the schedule is a little different than the traditional full-time load that i was anticipating. 2 of my core units, 'language acquisition' and 'language teaching methodology' are both being taught in "blended" mode, meaning we have a face-to-face tutorial only every other week and then an online tutorial (with a posted report/discussion) the week inbetween on the assigned topic. then i have one regular unit, 'educational leadership' that meets weekly, and the fourth unit, 'qualitative inquiry' (to fulfill a research methods requirement) is only offered in "compressed" mode meaning that it's taught during the second week of our 2-week break in april every day. so that's the courseload for this semester. i think it should keep me busy for a while! keeping with the education theme of my course of study, i think it will be interesting to see which style of class works the best for me.

in other developments, after a long and painful process dealing with the student administration and the uwa campus news & gifts store, i finally received my student fare bus pass last week. i don't even ride the bus that much, but once they started being difficult with me, i declared war and was determined to get one! it is a great deal less than the normal fare and since it's a smartrider card, you don't need to worry about carrying change with you for the bus. today, i even used it to go to the drivers licensing center downtown to get a drivers license. unlike the hours (even days?) usually spent at the mva in maryland (some of you know what i mean here!), i was out of there in less than an hour and should have the license mailed to me within a week! talk about getting all my transportation needs fulfilled all at once! tonight we're off to our 2nd match of the western force vs. new zealand hurricanes. don't know how much support the 'hurricanes' will get tonight - there's a cyclone (george) currently hitting western australia in the north!