Updates :)

Hello everyone! Since I last posted we have started school. Which takes up most of the day from nine am until lunch and then sometimes from one pm to three pm. Biology is probably my favorite class; we went on a field trip on Wednesday. We took a train to Healesville Sanctuary and saw some really cool creatures. Katherine, Maddy and I were most excited to see the snake exhibit, which contained some of the top ten most venomous. We also saw an amazing bird show, there was an eagle that was bigger than any bird I have ever seen, it was hard to get a picture of. But the show was spectacular. We also saw tassie devils, wombats, wallabies, kangaroos, koalas, platypus, flying foxes, and the animal emergency room. It was so amazing and a lot of fun. Katherine, Maddy and I got to hold some Red-tailed Black Cockatoos, and feed them, which was an experience I will never forget. The bird had no problem with either of them, but decided I would be a tasty snack and chomped on my fingers, hand and arm. I still have the bite marks.

After we came back a group of us headed out to Batman Park, which was really just a large strip of grass by the Yarra River. We all ran around and had fun, one of the guys, JD, pushed Carter and I around on a cart he found in the park, which was so crazy. Ella and Hannah E. have been going out a lot, they met some Aussies, and they are very tired because Aussies like to stay out late and party. They went to a bar called Cherry one night. Which is apparently one of the places AC DC played when they were just starting out. But we’re all making sure they’re safe and staying healthy.

We’ve watched Ten Canoes and Rabbit Proof Fence for History class, and both movies were really interesting and tear jerking. It’s amazing to see the legends or true stories that exist in a culture that a short time ago, I was not that aware of. Australia is really teaching us to keep our hearts and minds open to everything.

The other day, I went on a walk around Melbourne University campus, which is actually constructed of a whole bunch of little colleges like Newman. I got lost and had to hop two fences to find my way back but it was really fun to just lose myself for an hour and take pictures of the beautiful campus.

This weekend we have two day trips that some of us are going on. On Saturday we are going to see the Penguin Parade, we get to see penguins coming back from their nightly feed. Which is going to be so exciting!!! On Sunday a few of us are going back on the Great Ocean Road to see the Twelve Apostles. If the weather is good we should get to go down on the beach up close to the apostles. I asked my biology teacher and she explained to me that the weather changes from rainy and cool to blistering hot so quickly because when it’s hot, the wind is coming from across the desert and when it’s cold, the wind is coming from across the Arctic ocean. I thought that was very interesting.

Tuesday we went to the Melbourne Museum, only the exhibit we were supposed to see happened to be closed, so we just wandered around and looked at some really cool things. Some of the exhibits were full of wildlife (dead of course) but really amazing to see, and cases full of bugs. The bugs here are GINORMOUS. I’m pretty sure a huge moth tried to attack me in the shower the other day. Not  fun. Yesterday we went to National Gallery of Victoria to look at some really cool Aboriginal art. My group ended up standing around talking to a security guard for a while. He was a very nice man from Chile, and was telling us all about his travels and his latest trip to Bali.

Anyway! Time for class!