You’ll have to bear with me as I develop a writing style for the trip. I apologize ahead of time for the live journal/xanga nature of some of the text. I’m not a fan of that whole style of bringing in personal emotion and all that jazz into my writing. Though I guess in this situation, it just has to do. The trip: In bullets because I don’t think paragraph form would work for now • I ended up teaching some kid on the plane how to solve a Rubik’s cube. • Saw crop circles of some kind • Lightning on landing • Delayed flight in Denver by about an hour and a half • Landed in SFO 15 mins earlier than expected and yet was still 30 mins after flight to Sydney should have taken off • Apparently, the flight to Sydney was having problems so they fixed them and waited for us. We didn’t have to go through security and got a ride on a bus to our plane. • Plane trip to Sydney was one of the most miserable experiences I’ve ever had 14 hours in a spot of less area than my luggage took up was pathetic and horrible. • Food wasn’t so bad on the plane… wasn’t that great though • The sunrise from the plane at about 610 AM Sydney time was worth the whole flight. There was the dark layer of clouds on the bottom, then a line of yellow then to reds then blue in a rainbow-like fashion. • The total time of night experienced was about 20 hours • Got a phone ‘card’ at the airport, but don’t have a phone to use it… • Bus driver from the airport to the university was really cool, he told us various things about the city and the country. • Winter in Australia is like a cold spring day although the weather can change from warm to cold in a few mins so having a layer is always a good idea. • Got to the international affairs office here and signed in and got our keys. • I Saw Carlos get off another bus while we were waiting for our transport to take us to our apartment. He got back on his bus and left before our bus came. Our bus came, we got to apartment before Carlos. The apartment and first excursion: I Met Liza on the bus and airport and we made small talk, turns out we are in the same flat. The three of us got into the place and saw that our 4th flat mate’s bags were in one of the rooms, but she was nowhere to be found. We settled in a little and make a list of the stuff we would need, various cleaners and food mostly. Jess, our 4th roommate came in somewhere around this point. She was a little bit surprised to find that two of her roommates were guys. She apparently went shopping and brought a few items of food. We then left to go to the Macquarie Centre which was a few minutes walk from our apartment. We all went down to the food court. There were about 8 of us at that time, Carlos, Jess, (not our roommate) Liz, Liza, [two guys I can’t remember their names at the moment, and two girls I can’t remember]. Liza and I went to grab a cup of coffee. Long story short, regular cups of coffee don’t exist. We ended up ordering a “white flat” which is a shot of espresso with hot milk added. Close, but not quite. I got some food at some Chinese restaurant and sat down with the group. After lunch (which felt like a late dinner) at 1:00pm we did our shopping. When we got back we unloaded and cleaned just about everything in the apartment because the people that lived here before were gross. The power problems we’ve been having to this point were really dumb. I couldn’t plug anything in without frying it. Later on I got word that most ac adapters would do well with the Australian power. At this point, all I had left was my laptop and my battery charger. Both of which have ac adapters suitable for 100v-240v. I killed my alarm clock, my power strip, and my shaver. All of which were cheap and not really needed. First meal: I made dinner which was pasta mixed with cream of mushroom soup and celery mixed in. Turned our that we didn’t have any spices at all, so I grabbed a packet of complimentary Ramin noodles and used the spice pack from that to season the noodles. Tuna was also involved in there somewhere. July 26, 2005 I haven’t had much of a chance to call home just yet because of the time difference and being really tired. I haven’t had internet so I couldn’t even email. Today I’ll make my phone call and we’ll see if we can find the school wireless connection that isn’t being detected by our computers. Saw big white parrot, but the poor thing only had one leg. Figured out how to use the phone card I got and called home. Also found a wi-fi hot spot. I talked to some people for a while until the battery ran out. July 27, 2005 Today we were oriented. The first bit of it was funny in the way that a stand up routine is. The head study abroad advisor was a little older than us and he was hilarious. As he was going through various differences of the cultures, various jokes to American stereotypes were not avoided. Australians really do think that they are genetically better then everybody else… seriously. There are 4 types of rugby/football/footie. Don’t ask me to repeat them. Tim Jordan, my adviser turned out to be a young guy and not a 35 year old middle aged guy like I had originally come to think. Quote of the day regarding the sometimes overly friendly nature of Australians: “In two minutes, don’t be surprised to find that we pat your back, change your name, and make derogatory jokes at your mother.” The bar: Bars aren’t as much fun as I thought they would be. Maybe it’s mostly because the drinks are way too expensive. But since I’m trying a bit of everything, this would be no different. We ended up going with some people from our flat to the bar right up the street. The Ranch it’s called. We walked up to the door and were carded. It still feels weird to be able to go into a bar and not be 21. Another thing that seemed weird to not me was the abundance of police in the bar when we got there. I believe the count was seven total plus one dog sniffing people. I ordered a cosmopolitan at the recommendation of my flat mate Liza. Vodka and cranberry juice are a good combination, but I think I’d rather take the shot of vodka, and then chase with the juice, but that’s just me. I sat walked around and talked to a few people. Nothing overly fun and exciting, but interesting nonetheless. The flat mates and I got tired of the scene and left. We want to get up early the next morning and make use of the wireless connection at the mall, turns out that the close at 6:00pm every night. Yeah, that actually sucks more than you think. Things I’ve learned so far G’day – Typical greeting How ya goin’ – Added after “g’day” Good – “The only response to the above question, we don’t really care about your dog, it’s just a saying” –Study Abroad advisor After listening to a bunch of Australians talking today, I’ve come to the conclusion that they really don’t talk too much different than us. It’s early on and these guys have been around Americans for a bit so they are more than likely trying not to throw too much at us. I still don’t quite feel right using the lingo here. It seems too unnatural. Bah, I’ve gone too journaly. Time to stop for the night. July 28, 2005 Downtown Sidney Today I got my MQID card, although I had to run around the campus for an hour or so before getting it. Later on that night everybody and their mother went down to the docks where there is a hotel. I ended up giving one of the Australian beers a shot. Victorian Bitter ‘VB’ is a good beer so far. And this is coming from someone who hates beer. We got bored because the bar scene is the same loud music and the inability to talk to one another. Funny enough, I thought that was the point to bars and sipping a few drinks… socialization. We rounded up a few willing people around for a walk around the city. While there isn’t really anything interesting to write about, the pictures say all that’s needed. We saw the Sydney Opera House from across the harbor and got a nice view of the Harbor Bridge. We then caught a bus all the way back to campus. July 29, 2005 Surfing Today we went out to Manly beach by bus with a group of people to give surfing a try. We got to the beach that is set in a cove. This place is awesome. The waves weren’t too big, but big enough to wipe out pretty hard. What did I learn about surfing today? I stink at it, pretty bad too. Carlos chimed in at the end of the lesion with “well, just so you don’t suck at skydiving.” I had more fun just lying down on the board and watching the waves as that came in under me before they broke. The water was insanely cold, but we were given wetsuits. I thought at first that wetsuits were really thin… Wrong, they are pretty thick and quite insulated. So that said, only my hands, feet, and face (when I wiped out) were cold. Overall, it was another interesting experience. After we got out lesson, we went and ate somewhere a bit off of the beach. There is no short of abundance of good food here, especially ice cream. We visited the wharf that was right there and took some more pictures of the cove. Aug 1, 2005 First day of class: I had my first class today. Biol227: Ecology and let me tell you, it was a blast. Well, maybe not. At least I think it will be interesting. Apparently just about every lecture is recorded and put on a website an hour and a half after the actual lecture. Pretty awesome, huh? And this particular prof has her entire presentation online as well as some variations of the notes she will give. (Blah blah, I know.) Then I ironed out a few problems that were in my schedule, like the fact that I had 8 credits when I need at least 9 or else they deport me. Yeah, deported… From Australia. Wandering about Sydney: (Same day) Today Liza and I decided that after class we could go into town and just walk everywhere we could. Caught the usual bus to the end of the Harbor Bridge and made our way to the Opera house. Liza sat down to write some postcards and I walked around the building and took some pictures. Then I sat down and wrote a few while she walked around. Anything after that just consisted of lots of walking and that’s about it. The pictures will pretty much tell all. Aug 10, 2005 Tonight was fairly interesting. Carlos and I went on the school sponsored harbor cruise which turned out to be a floating bar with dancing. I ended up just watching out the window because everybody was simply intoxicated beyond the point of having fun. It wasn’t as bad as I make it seem. The harbor at night is a very awesome sight even though I can’t exactly show you. Taking night pictures with a slow shutter on a rocking boat just doesn’t work out that well. So the pictures I will post in a few days with either be good out of luck, or somewhat blurry. After we got home I sat down on the couch and was going to puts around on my computer for a little while before going to bed. All of a sudden we (Carlos and I) hear this shouting from across the street. It was some drunken guy coming home from the bar. Vulgar things I won’t repeat here. Then we heard him kicking at our building entrance door. I jokingly said to Carlos “Hand me that bottle, I’m going to throw it at him.” Turns out I didn’t need to do such a thing. The idiot punched through a glass door. I was out on our balcony at this point. After I heard the glass shatter, I heard the sound similar to water being poured on the ground. I saw him grabbing at his wrist and blood was going everywhere. It turns out that he lacerated a major artery in his wrist and managed to scrape his neck as well. I rush downstairs because the kid is now in pretty big trouble. There are a few other people down there at this point as well. Someone was calling the ambulance and other people were tossing about paper towels. I started looking around for something suitable for a tourniquet. I saw a kid that was wearing a tie and I kind of just grabbed it off of him. I tied it on but he wouldn’t stop moving because he was so drunk and belligerent. Then someone else took it off of his upper arm (which it would have been more useful) and wrapped it around his wrist where it did him no good. I didn’t want to risk getting any blood on me so I just left it go. At this point I go to wait outside to flag the ambulance down. Apparently there was a security guard from somewhere that heard him yelling. He had phoned to police. The kid then made his way outside and went to start walking around. The girl who had phoned the ambulance kept hold of the back of his shirt so he didn’t walk out in the road. The police arrived soon after that. The idiot kid started to antagonize the police. They knew that trying to calm him down would be useless so they just made sure he didn’t go anywhere by forming a bit of a circle around him. He was still losing so much blood as time went on. The ambulance arrived and the kid was still being uncooperative. The paramedics weren’t making any great attempt to restrain him. I’m guessing because they didn’t want to get blood on them and risk getting stuck by the kid. I think they were just waiting for him to lose enough blood and just pass out. At this point a girl that kind of knew the kid walked by and was obviously upset over the matter. I can’t remember what happened after that because I pulled her aside and was trying to calm her down. She called her roommate or friend or something and they soon arrived to take care of her. By this point the kid was on the ambulance and getting taken away and everybody was getting seen by the paramedics that were still there. Making sure that anybody that came in contact with blood got it cleaned up properly. No worries about me, only a small amount got on my hands and I have no cuts at all. Quite the interesting night I’ll say. I’m pretty sure that once the kid recovers, he will be charged with various offences and consequently deported as he was a study abroad student. Good job kid, you made it 16 days. On a lighter note, classes are going strong and are going to get fairly hard really fast so I’m not sure what is going to come in the way of updates. I know for sure that I’m going to begin planning some trips, they include: • West to the outback • Scuba certification • North to see the Great Barrior Reef • Skydiving (Don’t read that if you are closely related to me i.e. Mom, Dad, and grandma) • Hiking • Horseback riding • …And more Saturday Aug 27, 2005 Southern Highlands So I started off the day at the crack of 8:30am. Did some last minute shopping for things I needed to the trip. Money, a flashlight, and those granola bars. We loaded into the van about 10:00 and took off for Kaima. The trip was 2 hours long and not terribly fun being cramped in an 11 passenger van. The Kaima blowhole was really awesome. (Check out the pictures when I post them.) We then bounded across this volcanic rock and looked off into the great distance that is the Pacific Ocean. The view was awesome as you’ll see. After we were done with that, we took off to the Minnamurra rainforest. I’m sorry to say, that even though it was interesting, I would much rather have a day hike at McConnel’s Mill. There are some really nice pictures of a waterfall that was at the end of the trail. When we all got back to the vans, we took off to Kangeroo Valley where we saw no wildlife except a diseased a dying wombat. Poor thing was just sitting there on the side of the road. Bummer dudes. We went to a little pub for dinner. I think I’ve decided that I’m going a tour of steaks around Australia. So far, the 30$ one I got a few weeks ago holds place number one. After we finished up with dinner, we did a little night-hike to see glowworms. We winded down a neat little path with our flashlights (aka torches) and got to the end of this path. We turned our lights off and after out eyes adjusted, the wall had little specks of glowing-ness. It was pretty cool. No pictures of this though, the flash would kill the poor little critters. The hike back to the car was awesome because I took off in front of everybody and set down in a clearing and had a nice look at a sky that wasn’t polluted with light. I got to see the Milky Way in all its glory. It was truly amazing. I hope to be able to lay out under the stars all night sometime. Once the group caught up with me, we went back to the vans to head home. It was a really awesome trip. I hope to get the pictures up soon, I promise! Thursday September 1, 2005 The plans are in for spring break. And the results look promising. I'm going with a group of four people. Tim, Jess, Liz, and myself. We are starting off the trip by flying into Hobart which is in south central Tasmania. We are going to spend a few days hiking and camping while viewing various sites there. After that, I'm going to split off of the group and come back to Sydney because I have an Ecology field trip that will last four days. We are going to be up at Smith Lake (wherever that is) and they say that is was a good time. We'll be doing various experiments that I'll have to write up sometime after I get back. But I won't have any more practicals after that for the rest of the semester which will be really nice. While I'm on the field trip, the other three are going to fly into Brisbane (pronounced Brisbin) and they'll do some touristy stuff there. After that, we'll all meet up in Prosperine where the Whitsunday islands are. It is said that these are the most beautiful beaches. This is where we are going to go scuba diving and sailboating. Laying out on the beach sounds like fun too. After that, we'll be on our way home. In the meantime, I'm going to be getting my scuba certification. Two night classes and a weekend of real ocean diving. It's going to be awesome. There are talks of doing a few weekend trips, one to Alice Springs (where the outback is) and to the Blue Mountains where there are some nice trails and campsites. Also we might do a weekend up to Melbourne (pronounced Melbin). I've found a few places that have paintball so I'm going to try to organise at least one trip to play a few rounds to get it out of my system. After the semester is over, I'm going to be going to New Zealand where were will hike and camp as well as skydive. I'm really excited to get over that way. Well, that's the adjenda, now it just has to happen! Friday September 2, 2005 Today Paul, Randy, Jess, and I went into the city to get the next week set up with scuba lessons comming up. We got the instruction book that will tell us everything we'll need to know about diving and how to do it right (and safely I presume) After that Randy and Paul went back to play soccer with other people while Jess and I went up to Manly beach where well be taking the lessons. We took the ferry up to the Manly wharf and walked to the beach from there. After laying out for about an hour and deciding that even with the sun out, the wind blowing off of the water was just too darn cold. So we got packed up and decided to walk toward the other side of the beach where there are cliffs. We made our way up to the highest point they had and took tons of pictures along the way. The sunset that night was really awesome as well. The pictures I took dosn't nearly do it justice. After that we went home on the ferry. Saturday September 3, 2005 Today Jess, Liza, John, and I went to the Blues festival up at Hunter Valley. It started off with a 3 hour bus trip. I read a newspaper that had a lot about what's going on in NOLA and the hurricane. I can't believe some of the stuff I read. But I'm not going to dwell on that. We got there and layed out our blanket and got our picnic food out. We had bread, cheese, salami, and a roasted chicken. Yes, a roasted chicken. John went off and got a bottle of wine and some glasses. We ate, drank, and became merry. The music was very good and the people dancing were really funny to watch. I took a video of this one guys that looked like a chicken trying to peck the ground, but couldn't get close. Very funny. When it got to be close to 5:00, we had to pack up and get back to the bus. After the long ride home, we went into Chinatown and ate at the Nine Dragons and got a pretty good meal there. Then we headed home and fell asleep rather early. Good times. Tuesday, Thursday September 6 & 8, 2005 SCUBA certification: Parts I & II The past two days a few of us finally got to take our first few SCUBA certification classes. We learned pretty much the basics of not dying underwater. Tasmania Day 1 We left for Tasmania on Saturday morning. We woke up at 5:50am for an 8:40 flight to Hobart. Nothing really interesting happened on the flight down. We landed and got off of the plane... via stairs to the tarmak. There is a first for everything. It seems that Hobart International airport is the smalled airport I've ever seen. We went into the airport and pcked up our bags. It set in that we were in Tasmania when Liz said "Where the hell are we?" under her her breath so only the 4 of us could hear. We had a good laugh and headed out of the airport and got on a shuttle to our Hostal: "The Pickled Frog". Yes, I laughed too when I heard it too. The driver was a good natured guy that was small talking jokes on the way. I've heard it described to me that Tasmanian peoples are like our southern folk. Turns out it's a very accurate description. He asked us what plane we flew in on. When we told him JetStar, he pointed to a church and asked if we needed to thank God for making it in one piece. (I'm sure he uses that joke a lot being an airport shuttlebus driver). But nonetheless, it was really funny at the time. We got to the hostal and got checked in. We went to our room and wondered what we had gotten ourselves into. It was basically a cheap and run-down motel room with one lightbulb hanging by the wire and a rusted sink that poured equally rusted water, and 5 beds. We dropped our stuff off and walked around the city. There was a market that we browsed around for a while and got some food. Later on that night, we booked a dinner cruise around the harbor. The boat was a tiny little thing that fits a total of about 25 people max. To be honest, there wasn't much to see around the harbor, but dinner was pretty good. After that, we headed back to the hostal and got some sleep. Day 2 This morning we woke up early. Tim and I went to look for food while Liz and Jess went for the car. We decided that PB&J sandwiches and a few misc things would be the best food that would keep in all sorts of temperatures. We got back to the hostal where the ladies were waiting with the car. A 1981 Mercedies Benz, Brown. It ecen had the old, "grandparents' car" smell. You know the smell. The car was nice because it had plenty of legroom. We ended up naming is Sophie. Don't ask, I just thought I'd tell you. We packed the car and headed up to the Freycinet National Park. Along the way we stopped at a nice view of Marie Island. We walked along the beach and collevted some shells along the rocks. There were so many there. I ended up finding a white, round object that I hope to be a pearl. But the more I look at it, the more I think it is just a marble. But it would be really awesome if it was actually worth something. I'm going to have it looked at by a jewler sometime. This is the point in the trip when the girls renamed the car Pearl. Once again... don't ask. There are plenty of hiking and wonderful things to see. We got some maps at the information center. We could have paid $5 per person to camp by our car about 100m down the road. Or we could have hiked to our campsite a few kilometers away. The choice was rather obvious, we wanted to hike and save money. Actually, we just wanted to hike. The only catch was, it had to be self-sustained as far as equipment went and we wouldn't have any contact to the outside world due to no cellphone coverage. But there were 4 of us and Liz is EMT and we are all seasoned hikers so we were up for the challenge. The hike was really awesome and there were so many awesome views to see. I'll let the pictures show you just how it was. I couldn't seem to take enough pictures. The first part of the trail was hilly and rocky. the second was well covered woods with kangeroos all over the place, and the third was along a beach that seemed to take forever to get across. We go to the campsite at the end of the beach just as the sun was setting. We pitched the tents and say out on the rocks along the beach as the sun came out. We ate some sandwiches and watched the stars come out. It got cold... Fast. We layed out with our sleeping bags for a little while, but we soon decided to get to bed... At 8:00pm. It's kinda funny becaue nobody else would be even thinking about sleep at this time. The girls came over to our tent and layed down for a while. It was wayyy too cramped so they didn't stay long. But they left a nice warm tent for Tim and I although it didn't stay warm for too long. Day 3 I woke up about 5:20am. We set the alarm to go off at 5:30am so we could make our way to the wineglass bay lookout a little after sunrise. I just kinda layed around keeping warm and thought about where everything was so I could grab and throw it where it needed to go as fast as I could because it was so cold. Once 5:30 hit and we all were awake, we made a dash to get all of our gear and food packed. It was still dark, but the moon was just setting and gave us light. We set off for the next leg of our hike. We had to backtrack half-way down the beach and find the next trail. By the time we got to the next trail, we were already warm enough to shed some layers of clothing. The next section of clothing was through a swamp that had a raised wood sidewalk so we weren't waist deep in crud. When we go through the swamp, we walked over a tiny hill onto Wineglass beach. The sun was good and up by now and greeted us as well. There was soft, white sand along with the sound of roaring waves. We sat on the rocks on the north end of the beach and ate some breakfast. The next section of trail was up the mountain to the lookout. It was very rocky and really, really steep. We found out later that this part of the trail was supposed to take the average hiker 1h 30m. We did it in 45m with taking pictures and resting twice for water. When we got to the lookout, we were all in shock at how beautiful the view was. After a longer rest and plenty of picture taking, we headed back to the parking lot. This part of the trail was similar to the first part of the trail we did the day before. We also did this part of the trail in half the time expected. We are just that good. We got back to the car and decided what we wanted to do next. We were origionally going to spend the next night on Marie Island but transport to and from was too few and far between. So we decided to go to the middle of Tasmania to Mt.Field National Park and do the few walks that they had there. This is also where the famous Russel falls are located. It was a wonderful walk, there are plenty of pictures. After we were done walking around there, we headed to a place Tim had called about to camp at. "It's right after the bridge, there are toilets and you can build a fire" is what the guy told Tim. When we got there, we saw a small building for a toilet that was incredibly gross, there were two burn spots in the ground, and no real place to pitch a tent. It was rather amusing but at the same time disappointing. So we looked up in the trusty book and found another place that was about 30 mins away and allowed campfires and provided wood. As we were driving there, we saw less and less civilization. (When I say less, in the 30 mins that we were driving, we saw one 'house' and a car along the only road which was the major highway in the area.) The girls were getting a bit worried because the place wasn't comming up. But we soon saw signs that said "camping" and some number of k's away. We followed signs and got to the place. There was a trailor park with a sign saying "If gate locked, go to tavern for a key." Which seemed pretty shady. But we were getting tired so we decided that we should try to find the tavern. We went up the road a ways and came to this tiny little township that couldn't have had more than 100 people living in it. We somehow managed to find the tavern even though it wasn't marked. So me and Tim walked in and asked about the campsite. The bartender was pretty cool and said I'll take you guys down there and get you settled. I didn't feel like I was in one of those horror movies anymore. He took us to the site and showed us where the wood was and where we could sleep. Nobody else was camping even though there were about 30 trailors. After some time, we got a fire going with the wet wood we had and cooked some Aussie hotdogs. We packed everything back in the car except for what we needed for the night so that we could pack up and head out fast. Mostly because it would be another cold night. Day 4 I didn't sleep to well during the night. Mostly because I couldn't keep my feet warm and the ground was wet so there was no insulation whatsoever. we were all up before the alarm and ready to leave. I heard Jess from the other tent "Ready. 3, 2, 1, GO!" And then bustling comming from the direction. I put my boots on and the layers I had and Tim and I packed the tents while the girls ran for the car to warm it up. Our fingers were numb by the time we had it packed. We didn't even try to roll them up into the bags because it would have taken too long and more than likely wouldn't physically have been able to do it. We were out of there by 5:20. The view of the countryside was awesome at this time of morning. The sunrise was slow and backlighting the hills. We were heading back to Hobart to drive to the top of Mt. Wellington. The mountain is 1271 meters tall and provided quite the view. There were snow all around and it was quite cold, but there was no wind so we were able to stay fairly warm in the sun. Once again, plenty of pictures from the view. Once we were done freezing, we went back to Hobart and grabbed some coffee and got showered back at the Pickled Frog. I got dropped off at the airport about 5:00 becaue the car needed to be dropped of that night. I ended up waiting for 3 hours for the plane to take off. I landed in Sydney and started my way home. I started of on a train, and got off at the right stop to connect to the train that would take me to Epping station (where I could get a bus from there back home). But the guy on the platform I asked to make sure I was in the right place must not have understood me. "Does this train go to Epping station?" I asked the guy. "Epping?, Yes" he said with a really thick accent. I wasn't convinced, "The Epping train comes this way along the track, right?" I asked. "Yes" the man replied. I got on the train and was following the stops on the map just to keep making sure. It was about 10:00pm by this time and I was tired and nobody was on the train to confirm anything. When I saw that the train was at a station out of the way of the train I was supposed to be on, I got really pissed and got off. I got to the street and hailed a cab. "G'day, I'm trying to get to the corner of Epping road and Herring road." He looked at me like I told him I wanted an all expense paid vacation to New Zealand. "Where is this?" He asked. (He was also not Australian and had a thick foriegn accent.) He eventually figured out where I wanted to go. By this point, I'd been up for some 17 hours after a great night of sleep and all I wanted was my bed. I finally got home and unpacked my things and began a wash of my clothes. I checked some email and kinda began sorting things for the next day. I had to be in campus at 9:00am to leave for the Ecology field trip. I decided that I'd just wake up at 7:00 and pack everything then. I put the clothes in the dryer and set my alarm. Ecology Field Trip I woke up and looked at my clock. It was 8:30, I had overslept a lot. I thought at this point that I was screwed and would end up failing the course because the field trip was not optional. I told Carlos that I was going to be making a good bit of noise and that I was sorry. He didn't care too much, he understood that I was in quite a bind. I began throwing stuff in two bags that I decided I would take. I grabbed the clothes from the dryer and packed them because it was about the same number of days as the Tasmania trip (and they were grubby clothes already so they were appropriate for what I would be doing.) I grabbed things that I knew I'd need for the trip like a calculator, notebook, and disecting kit and put them in a bag as well. I threw everything else I didn't think I'd need on my bed which also included one wet tent. I threw the bags on my back and headed for campus. I got there and people were waiting with bags and things. I made it. I looked at my cellphone clock... 8:50. Pretty darn impressive if you ask me. I got lucky. But just so the God's of Australia could spite me further, the coach we were going to take didn't arrive until 9:30. Go figure. I got some much needed sleep on the bus up. The trip itself was really awesome. I ended up meeting a ton of Aussies. I learned a lot about ecological experimental design and even more about Australian culture. At night, Dave Brisco, one of the tutors (professors) cooked dinner. Even though he was cooking for 60 people, everything tasted awesome. I stuffed myself every night because I knew my body needed the extra goodies that PB&J couldn't provided. By the end of the trip, I used up every singe article of clothing I brought and didn't need anything more. I had every bit of gear I needed for the week. I'm still quite pissed that I slept in.