School Week

Hey Everyone!
Sadly, this is our last full week in Melbourne. I don't have any pictures to upload at the moment but just wanted to give an update.
I don't know if i mentioned this in my last post but I'm pretty sure it was close to 115 degrees in Sydney on our first day there. It was so uncomfortable, you could feel your skin frying under the sun and forget about breathing, it felt like you were breathing hot coals.

Yesterday we had a free morning. I woke up terribly sick, and stayed in bed working on my papers until lunch time. After lunch Ella, Hannah and I went in search of cold medicine and coffee before having to get on the field trip bus at 1:30. I'm seriously starting to hate these buses, the air just dries me out and I feel icky after I get off. But we went up to the summit of Mt. Donna Buang. Since Mt. Donna Buang is sort of shaped like a body, the name translates to "the body of the mountain". Or something close to that. I can't quite remember off the top of my head. It was about 26 degrees C. at the top of the mountain and there was a huge look out tower. The look out tower was amazingly high but the view was spectacular. Being a little afraid of heights, it was a little scary but hey I made it up there and back down. Coming down the mountain, we made two other stops: The Ten Mile Picnic Ground and The Rainforest Gallery. We made all of these stops for our biology class, because we were taking about plants and as we made our way down the mountain the types of plants changed.
The majority of the trees on Mt. Donna Buang are Alpine Ash and Myrtle Beech. Alpine Ash are very old, some 300-400 years old, but there are wood beetles killing the trees and as the trees get weaker the Myrtle Beech trees take over.

Our last stop was in Kingslake where we had a presentation on some of the severe brushfires that have devastated that area. Then we went on a night walk, looking for Greater Gliders. It was hard to see, walking around in the dark forest at night but with the few flashlights we had, we did find some gliders. They are white and gray in color and about the size of a house cat. They sit high up in the trees eating the eucalyptus leaves. It was so freaking cute, Ella said it made her think of Rupert. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures because it was far too dark.
The last thing we did was walk down to a reservoir. At the reservoir a bat trap was set up which essentially looked like a giant harp but was really some metal tubing and fishing line.
The bats get tangled in the fishing line and fall into a waiting canvas ditch. This does not hurt them and researchers use the technique to tag and release them.
There was one little bat in the bag when we were there.
It was about the size of my palm and was a fully grown male. We got to pet him, and let me tell you. I would love a bat pet. He was so soft and adorable, though he did bite our guide, and it looked like it hurt. The bat may be tiny but it had little sharp teeth, kind of like a vampire bat.
Again, I couldn't take a picture :( but I can just tell you how cute it was :)

Today, we are in class again and have a field trip to the public library. Yes, I am excited for this, I love libraries. I'm pretty sure I told my mom once that I wanted to get married in a library....
Anyway, I have two out of three papers done. and I'm feeling a lot better today!
Love you all,
I'll keep you posted.