Bathroom update

Now a week has gone by... And I still spend as little time in the Hall bathroom as possible. I don't know why... Maybe it's the fact that there's two bathrooms on my floor. I've used both and I'm still not sure if there are designated men's and women's bathrooms.

Here's my reasoning: Try to get a mental picture. Think of my wing as an H. I live in the bottom left part of the H. I know for a fact that girls live on the upper left part of the H. However, the upper half of the H share a bathroom and the lower half share a bathroom. BUT, I met a guy the other night who lives in room 3307 (I'm 3317 which means he lives in exactly the mirror image of my room. AKA the bottom RIGHT part of the H.) Theoretically, if I could control things, I'd make the whole bottom half girls and the whole top half guys, that way the girls could share the one bathroom and the guys could share the other. But it's not that simple.
1) I have seen girls enter and leave both bathrooms. I have even used both bathrooms.
2) I have never seen a guy in either bathroom.
3) I HAVE, however, seen a men's razor and men's shaving cream in the far bathroom.
4) I have also used the toilet in the far bathroom when I have had to put the seat down. And we all know which gender NEVER REMEMBERS TO PUT THE SEAT DOWN.
5) Neither bathroom is marked as guys' or girls'. I assume that this means it's sort of a free-for-all.

Now, not that I'm completely weirded out by guys and girls sharing the same bathroom. I could care less. It's just foreign to me... And I feel awkward since I'm not a hundred percent positive that's how it's actually working...

Either way, I'm going to keep using my detective skills and I'll keep you readers updated on the bathroom sitch.

In other news, I've started my tutorials today! In my math class, we've been learning how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions. The first problem, I kid you not: (4 - 7). This is probably the most brain-numbing class ever. I would honestly rather be taking a near-impossible math class because I'd have something to actually engage my mind in. But no. In this class today, I did the "tutorial assignment" beforehand, because I assumed it would be collected in the tutorial. Oh, how wrong I was. My instructor spent 35 minutes going through every single problem on the whiteboard, in very inadequate English, might I add.

Let me translate a few words for you:
Number = lumber
Negative = nacteev
Denominator = delomulator


At one point, we, the students, had to explain to him how to do a problem because he didn't understand in English what a family of fractions was. He said "I don't know how to translate into Chinese so that I can understand this."

I'm not trying at all to be racist or stereotypical in any way, I'm just trying to convey the difficulty of getting one's attention to latch on to a person whose speech you can't understand while they try to explain to you how to add 1/2 plus 1/4.

Here's a little side story to take a pause from the school-related news.

     On Saturday, I spent the day mostly with Andrew's little sister Kim, who also happens to now be my adopted little sister. She's so cute and we get along so well :).
     ANYWAYS, we go into this really cute store called Live. I'm looking around at the jeans, wondering what size I'd be in Australian sizes. This really nice salesgirl comes up to me and starts helping me choose jeans to try on. I can't deny her the satisfaction of helping a foreigner find their size and favorite cut, so I let her do her job. Maybe I'll even but her a pair.
     So there I am in the dressing room, trying on tons of adorable jeans that fit me perfectly, until I look at the price tag. My stomach dropped to the floor. $280 AUSTRALIAN. That makes almost 300 bucks American. No way can I afford these jeans.
     "How ya goin' with the jeans??" I hear her call to me. I started to sweat. Oh God, how am I going to get out of this one? I ask myself. Just then, my brain thinks up the most brilliant plan. I grab the pair that I like best and leave the dressing room in my own reasonably-priced clothes.
     "Are those the ones??" The salesgirl asked.
     "Yep!" I said cheerfully. "I just need to run and find my boyfriend who has my credit card on him." Lie.
     "I can only hold the jeans for half an hour..." she said reluctantly. "Do you think you'll take longer than that?"
     Yeah right, I thought. Like you'd really sell those jeans in half an hour anyways.
     "Oh no, he's just a few shops over..." I told the girl.
     Then, I grabbed Kim, and made my swift escape, never to return to the store again. Whew.

Anywho. Saturday night, I spent a nice night at Andrew's sister's boyfriend's parents' house. That's a mouthful. And Sunday, Andrew and I spent a gorgeous, sunny day in Glenelg near the beach, where I managed to make it all day in a pair of shorts.

And that's my life story. Keep checking back for updates.

I miss everyone so much. Especially my mom and dad. And my friends. And my dogs. Okay, I guess I just miss everyone a lot. I can't wait til all you guys move into your dorms and start your classes so I can hear your stories too :) I also can't wait to see everyone. Exactly 4 months!

Talk to you all soon.

THIS WEEK'S WORDS:
Flat white = a latte. Basically coffee with cream and lots of foam on top. My personal coffee drink of choice, although I also add two sugar packets.
Also, their coffee sizes are TEENY here.  large coffee from the cafe here at school is smaller than the smallest size at Starbucks.

PS PLEASE if you read this regularly, I'd love to hear from you :) even if it's you just clicking follow at the top right of the page, or leaving a comment. Even an anonymous comment I'd appreciate. Just let me know that you're there, reading my posts :)