Thursday, March 21, 2013

where are the days going?


seriously though, i'm blaming my recent lack of blogging on that the days are simply going by too fast. last week was especially busy, as I took a CPR/first aid/emergency oxygen course tuesday through thursday. i could go into details on how to give chest compressions to dummies, but that's not very exciting. anyway, i'd way rather share pictures and interesting stories than just recounting my daily activities. 


tried my first passionfruit- sooo good. it was surprisingly light to hold.



last weekend was relaxing after a long week. i spent saturday afternoon down at the strand swimming and chilling on the beach (didn't get sunburn!!), and made it to the townsville home rugby game in the evening. i somehow scored free tickets from the doctor i'd gotten my diving medical from, and they were surprisingly good! it was the most fun though sitting with my other friends down in the grass pretending i knew what was going on. later that night we went back to the beach and visited with one of my friends from rock climbing, who had just moved into a sweet house right by the water. one of the very best parts of that day was borrowing longboards from his housemate and riding down the smooth path along the beach. it was only like my third time longboarding but so much fun- i definitely want to invest in one when i get back to LA.


the cowboys (townsville) vs the storm (melbourne)



playing with fire


it was a beautiful day out on sunday, perfect a drive up to mt. stuart for some rock climbing. mt. stuart overlooks townsville and magnetic island- the view from here is incredible and makes castle hill look super tiny. there's also some awesome rock faces for climbing. being the skilled athlete as i am, i managed to impale myself on a rock even before we began climbing. with my shin bleeding profusely, it seemed like not such a good day for climbing after all.. i ended up getting a few stitches at the hospital instead. but i still got some cool pictures at mt. stuart & ended the night with friends in town to celebrate st. patrick's day.


before..


& after




i'm definitely coming back to actually climb soon





mexican beer on st. patrick's day? sure!

monday i only had one class, and after that katrina and i set off to explore the botanical gardens. we rented bicycles from one of the colleges and miraculously found our destination after some near death experiences riding through roundabouts (we somehow had to get on a highway for part of the fifteen minute trip).


the bikes of death










mt. stuart in the background




after the perilous journey back to school, i managed to impress katrina by waving to one of our friends and immediately falling off my bike afterwards (note: no cars around, flat road). got some more sweet scratches but my stitches remained untouched. sorry, but you all can't be as naturally agile as me.  

i spent tuesday by going to class, climbing at the gym, and spending four hours in the bathroom with ryan boiling down a fish head into just its small individual bones... i'd never smelled better. we are both in this reef fish morphology class, and our first project is to reconstruct a fish skull. it was pretty gnarly getting all the muscle and skin off, and there are so many small bits that putting this dude back together is going to be no easy task.  for now, we are waiting for the bones to get clean and bleached- later in the semester i'll start complaining again. 



after a few hours (did i mention the lights wouldn't stop flickering) we started to feel slightly crazy and seizure prone



bones on bones on bones


wednesday my frisbee team won our first game! i might actually be getting better at this game but its hard to say. no promises- i did manage to get body slammed into the ground by one of my own teammates. again my stitches were miraculously avoided, but the doctor did tell me today i need to wait a few days longer to get them out.. 

this weekend i am headed north with the fellow americans from my study abroad group to explore the rainforest in Paluma Range National Park, experience Aboriginal culture in Echo Creek, enjoy the sun at Mission Beach, and go kayaking in Tully (officially known as the wettest town in Australia). good thing i got waterproof bandages!

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