perpetually sweating

i wouldn't exactly be exaggerating by blaming the heat for my lack of recent blogging. anyway, the past seven days in review start with a second trip to the strand on saturday. the tide was surprisingly lower than it had been the last time i was in the water; this time i could walk all the way up to the edge of the net (if i wanted to). not lying, something definitely nipped my foot and it wasn't katrina or arielle playing a trick on me. i avoided the water for the next twenty minutes in favor of developing an interesting sunburn on my left thigh with a vague handprint outline. on the post swim walk from the strand to the bus stop (a whole 20 minutes), i swear we all looked like we had been trekking through the desert for days without water. we shuffled along, groaning incomprehensibly in between croaks of "water..." the rare water fountain where we could replace the near boiling substances in our water bottles with some nice lukewarm H2O was definitely well received. in our altered state, we couldn't resist getting gelato at a highly recommended shop. i chose wild cherry and chocolate hazelnut - excellent decision. somehow, we recovered in time for a night in the city at our college's club sponsor, mad cow, where we finally found cold beverages. some even had ice!

sunday morning my friends and i gathered at rotary, which is student housing where groups of people share a kitchen and its up to them to cook their own meals. each one of us brought a different food item- with my culinary expertise, i thought it wise to come bearing nectarines and orange-mango juice. we had a diverse meal: bacon, eggs, SO MUCH TOAST, peanut butter & jam, chocolate chip muffins, and the most exciting- kangaroo! tasted kinda beefy to me, and it was really tough. overall i liked it. 

this week classes finally began, and i'm really excited about all of them. each includes some sort of field trip, the first of which is next weekend. this weekend though i am finally going diving! i'll be getting my advanced open water certification while getting my first taste of the great barrier reef. ryan will be bringing along his GoPro so hopefully we'll get some cool videos and pictures to share! i'm also excited about rock climbing club, which i've recently become involved with. they climb twice a week at an indoor gym, and on weekends go on trips to both local and far locations. it's a great way to meet people, stay active, and see some cool places!

somehow i've been trusted enough to earn a belay license..

a few of the animals living in one of the marine and topical sciences buildings where i have class!