My mouse adventure

Well, I guess I’ll write another post. I’m awake, and haven’t really slept at all tonight because of a mouse. That’s right, a stupid little mouse. I hate them, they are disgusting. And there could be one in my room. I think it left. Well, here’s the story. So I ate a peanut butter sandwich at lunch yesterday and the first piece of bread was moldy which I thought was weird since I hadn’t had it that long, but ignored it and just took a piece further in. So then I was going to have another sandwich at dinner because our dinner plans fell through. This time I took the whole loaf off the shelf to open it, and noticed two holes in the back! That’s right, and there were chunks missing from the pieces of bread at the back, and they were starting to mold as well since the bag had been opened. The bigger hole had quite a large chunk of bread missing. I was quite disgusted, something had eaten my food!! And I had no idea where it came from or what it was. Then I saw the mouse poop on my shelf as well! Yuck! It was a mouse, and it had been on my shelf with all my food! Nothing else seemed to be touched besides the bread though, let’s hope not! So I freaked out a little. Then I put my food in my back pack and zipped it up. Then I proceeded to look around for a hole that it could have come from! I had no idea how it got up there, as it is above my desk and not connected. That’s when Loretta helped me to come to the conclusion it must have climbed up the curtain, which is right next to my head when I’m sleeping. Gross, does that mean it crawled all over me sometime?!? After much freaking out and searching, I had no idea how a rat or mouse got into my room and onto that shelf, but I was thoroughly grossed out. I didn’t feel like eating much and didn’t have a whole lot else, so I am also quite hungry at the moment. So we then went over to the next unit to tell my RA that there was a rodent in my house! He told me he noticed there was rat poison in my kitchen and said he’d call them in the morning to see what they could do. So then we left and did stuff for the night, and when I came back home to sleep, I was pretty worried it was going to come back while I was sleeping and needless to say it creeped me out. So I did fall asleep and was alright for two or three hours. Then I woke up and freaked myself out thinking I heard it somewhere. I kept waking up and turning on my reading light to see if I could find it. Plus it’s quite warm in my room, so that didn’t help the sleeping situation, since I wanted to be covered up so it didn’t get me, but it was too hot to be covered up. A huge conundrum there. So, I continued this until about 3:45, when I was sure that I heard some rustling. Oh yes, I also forgot to mention that I put some bags down against the bottom of the door in the hopes they would keep it out if it came in that way. So, I heard the noise, and it was coming from my window!! I guess somehow the mouse came in from outside! I saw it fall from behind the curtain onto my desk and scurry across and down it to the floor. I didn’t see where it went after that. That little sucker was fast. He was tiny too, it was a little mouse, not a rat, I suppose that’s better. So I got up and stood on my bed and reached over to turn the light on. I tried to find him but I suppose he ran really fast and went under my door before I could see him. Even with those bags in the way. I guess mice are so tiny and can make themselves even smaller to fit through anything. But now I’m scared to go back to sleep again! It just grosses me out, that’s so creepy! And there are already enough ants and bugs around here to give me the creeps sometimes, like something is always crawling on me! One night in Lorne we had the doors open and we were eaten alive by mosquitoes! So I still have a bunch of bites from that too. I’m just all eww! I am going to be extremely tired today. I guess I don’t have much to do though. Since I was up I already had a look at my classes and put my preferences in for my “timetable”(like my schedule, it just picks the times for lectures and tutorials). So that’s what we were supposed to do later today. I have one to figure out, it doesn’t appear that I can work it out at the moment so I’ll need help. But if I get lucky and get things to work as they are right now, I will have no class on Friday OR Monday! So that would be amazing. We’ll see.

I guess I can write some of the little differences I’ve noticed, mostly words or phrases. Honestly, the language is a bit of a barrier even though it’s English. There have been plenty of times I have absolutely no idea what someone said to me, and times they look at us like what are you talking about. For example, Loretta asked a worker at Target if they had contact lens solution because we couldn’t find it at K-Mart. The employee was like, “what? Contact..??” So Loretta said it again and pointed to her eyes. Then she got it and said they didn’t have it, since they don’t sell contacts, why would they have that. She suggested going to an optometrist! But I said we should try the “chemist”(pharmacy) because they had some stuff, and luckily they did have some. But that was a little crazy. Target didn’t have any medicine or hygiene anything, besides shampoo and hair dye and nail polish stuff. Some other little word differences, a shopping cart is a trolley here, you take out your rubbish instead of your trash, you don’t call someone you ring them, Sharpies are called whatever the brand name here is, parking lots are car parks, liquor stores are bottle shops, no parking signs say no standing. They say no worries to everything, like your welcome or no problem, things like that. They also say cheers mate a lot as if they were saying thanks. But some also say ta to mean thanks. I heard one girl say “someone cracked the shits” and she said it meant they got really really mad. They call girls either chicks or birds a lot of the time. Being pissed usually means being drunk. They have “cask” wine which is boxed wine, and everyone drinks that because it is so cheap, the beer is really expensive. On the highways they have power nap stops clearly marked, so you can pull over and take a power nap if you’re feeling tired. Much less creepy than rest stops, and more frequent. I guess a lot of aussies drive for long distances without thinking about it since the country is so big, and so they get tired and it’s dangerous. There are a million rabbits, ants, and magpies around everywhere. There are also some really pretty parrot looking birds around here, and there were wild cockatoos in Lorne. Reservations at a restaurant are called bookings, and it’s not called the ticket or check, it’s the bill. They looked at us funny for that one. Cell phones are called mobiles. A few people do say g’day, but really not too many. Everyone says how you going though, like what’s up, how are you. I still feel weird answering that one or trying to respond. Like, good how are you, that sounds so stupid here! It’s funny when they make fun of our accents, it does make it sound funny and stupid when they say it like we do. Especially sharks, when we say it, it sounds so harsh and gross, they make it sound good. Everything is shortened too, like I live on res at uni. Faculty is more like the subject or college instead of the staff. Everyone cusses a lot, even adults, hell is used most frequently by most people. Oh and flip flops are called thongs, swim suits are often either swimmers or bathers. Or budgie smugglers are speedos. I have heard a few aussies say bugga as well. As far as school goes, your course is your major and units are classes. An associate lecturer is like a GTA. Oh, I think it’s this way most places in the world, but last name is either family name or surname, and first name is given name. And my major is commerce, not business. I’m starting to get used to looking the other way to cross the road, and writing the date day, month, year. They also don’t have fresh, soph, jun, senior, it’s just what year you are, like I’m third year. And most students from other countries also say that, so I guess we’re the weird ones, seems to be a common theme. It’s really strange having an accent and being the minority, although there are a lot of Americans here. I actually think I do have an accent, I’ve never thought that before! It’s especially noticeable to me when I say I’m from Kansas, Kansas sounds so hick like or something! It’s really bizarre.
Okay, I think that’s enough for now. Sorry you got another ultra long post that I wasn’t even planning on!! Maybe I’ll be able to sleep a few more hours now before I have to get up again. I enjoyed detailing my frightening experience with you. Wish me luck with my mouse problems! Have a great day!
Love, Alissa