JC Weekend and Oktoberfest!

John Curtin is the dude that founded Curtin Uni. The Uni thought it would be a great idea to name a weekend after him, which is what JC weekend is. For JC weekend, over 400 volunteers go out to small communities around the Perth area and stay for the weekend doing work on various projects. I think I managed to find the smallest community in WA, maybe even the world! No i'm just kidding, I'm sure there are way smaller, but Wyalcatchem is the smallest community I've ever seen. There are only about 300 people that actually live in the town of Wylie (which looks like a scene from the 1950's with it's one "main street" which really is not a "main street" at all.) and only about another 200 or so people that live in the shire surrounding the town. Don't ask me what a shire is because I really have no idea. But I saw a sign that said that so thought you guys might find it interesting too! Anyway, the entire weekend was a huge success and I had a blast. Wylie members are incredibly nice and welcoming and have a way of life that appears on the surface to be relaxed and stress free. Some of the people we worked with were born and raised in Wyalcatchem and had not been farther away than Perth, 3 hours south of the town. The actual town is situated right in the middle of the WA wheat belt so the town is run around harvesting wheat. We got a tour of the wheat bins where billions upon billions of grains of wheat are stored. We got to climb to the top of the wheat shoot where we could see the entire town spread out in front of us. The rest of the weekend was spent painting, caulking (sp?), and working on improving barracks for cheap housing. We also got to help dust a tractor museum down the street from the one bar and general store. Don't be jealous that I got to see first edition John Deer tractors guys, it was really cool, but still, don't be jealous of me. I was just doing my volunteer work. ;) It was really fun to go away for the weekend and meet all these new people and learn about their lives. It was a home-stay weekend and I was with Scott and Mel MacKenzie and their 2 adorable little boys, Campbell (yes, like the soup) and Finley. Campbell called Claire and I his "ladies" and didn't want us to leave. I guess we just had too much fun "breaking into the park down the street" and having tea and scones... aka rocks and sticks with imaginary tea. Needless to say, when we got home and told Mel that we'd hopped the fence into the playground we found out that a gate farther up towards the school was actually always unlocked... whatever, it's more fun to hop fences anyway and it sounds cooler too. (until you hear that it wasn't even locked and then i guess we just end up looking like idiots.) Anyway, it was a blast and Wyalchatchemins' will always have a special place in my heart. Awwww.

Ok so next is a weekend of partying. (Don't worry dad, I did work during the day!) It actually wasn't an entire weekend, that's an exaggeration. Wednesday night is technically the start of my weekend (you can be jealous of this one guys) and of course what would we do on a wednesday night but go to waterford! We ended up pregaming at 32 and learned a fun new drinking game (which apparently American's are already supposed to know b/c I guess it's an American drinking game...) called "ride the bus." Basically, like most drinking games, it gets you wasted pretty quickly... I'm not sure where the name fits in, but it doesn't really matter as long as you're drinking so who cares. Anyway, we were all in fine form and had a wicked fun night at Waterford listening to karaoke and dancing the night away. There was also a bit of fun gossip when 2 of our advisors kissed in the middle of the bar... repeatedly! Hahaha... way to go advisors.

So night 2 of partying was last night (Friday) for Oktoberfest. (I don't have pics yet, but will ad one as soon as Lara puts them online.)Yes, I know we are not in Germany, but Curtin thought it would be fun to celebrate the German Beer festival along with Germany, just for fun. On the way to the festival, the group I was with decided it would be fun to make up fake names for the night. (Don't ask... I have no idea why we thought this was so funny.) Will is now known as Chad, Lara is Maddison, Renee is Alexis, (not lexi!) Mville is Jinny or Jenny or Jilly or something... I think Sarah was Haley and I'm now known as Gertrude. Ha. At one point Sarah and I thought we should be called Petrey and Little foot, you know, like from land before time? Cool huh? So anyway, basically, the entire student guild section of campus was turned into a festival setting with loud music, steins, workers in customary german outfits and lots of beer. It was pretty cool to see the transformation of the campus and the place was packed people having fun. Of course there was the typical drunken events... drunk girls falling on the floor in the bar (yikes), security throwing people out (one guy tried to hold onto a wall to keep security from escorting him... not a good choice of things to hold onto man... you've really got nothing to grip!) and there was even a guy who thought it would be fun to "moon" the crowd from up in a tree. Securtiy got him down pretty fast and the guy had a classic "what'd I do face?" that made everyone laugh. It was crazy, but lots of fun dancing and listening to good music. Elon really needs to get on the band wagon with fun festivals like this. Seriously Elon, think about it. We can celebrate with German beer too!

So I think that's about it for now friends and family. I miss you guys! Hope you are all well.

Eloners, have fun on fall break.

Catch ya'll on the flip side!

Kate