Tiger Lil's

Sorry its a bit late.

Good old regular Friday. My morning lab was canceled in order to allow our groups time to meet. So I met with my nutrition education group and we got more of our presentation to second graders planned. It is over fruits and vegetables, so we decided to go with a pirate theme. Because scurvy (a vitamin C deficiency) was found to be an occurring disease amongst sailors and explorers a long time ago. So we are changing it to a pirate theme. At the end of the presentation after the have learned about Vitamin C and fruits and veggies that contain vitamin C they will have to plan a 3 day journey for a couple of pirates (we will pick to kids and give them an eye patch and bandana). They will design a menu of fruits and veggies (proper servings and variety). So I'm pretty excited about it.

Then I went to the bank to open an account and realized I forgot my Confirmation of Enrollment paper back home. I didn't have enough time to go back before microbiology lab. Went to lab and had a little bit of review for our test next week (yippy!) After lab I got my CoE paper and went to the bank and opened an account. Then I had to go to the Public Health building and turn in my information so they can get direct deposit set up and so I can get paid! The lady that I was supposed to turn it in to was out sick. So I ran around for a while and finally got it figured out. I eventually ended up at work at 4 (I was hoping for 3) and stayed until 6 when it started to get dark and I was getting hungry. Went home and had a light dinner/ heavy snack. I met up with a group and we went out to dinner! We went to an Italian place (I don't remember the name) and I got lasagna. It was $10 small and GROSS. I think it is because te cheese is so different. I'm not sure. But I wasn't satisfied.

Then we went to a bar/ club called Tiger Lil's it was an Asian theme bar. It was actually pretty cool inside. To dark to take pictures though. I met some more people there. Including a girl named Vivian who was from Hong Kong but went to University of Illinois for her degree. So we talked a lot about the differences in schools in Australia and back in the US. Also all of the foods we missed. Like bagels, animal crackers, spaghettios, and graham crackers. We went out around 11 to a place called Fast Eddy's. Back in Lafayette, IN this is a drive-thru car service place where you sit in the car while they change your oil and such. In Australia Fast Eddy's is a 24 hour diner like Route 66 but a bit more restaurant class. Anyway we went there to get cheesecake! But they only had the kind that you make and let sit in the fridge. Not the kind you bake (which is what I'm used to). So I got chocolate mud cake instead. It was DELICIOUS definitely made up for the nasty lasagna I had earlier.

Any way after cheesecake, we went back to dancing at Tiger Lil's. There I discovered that Vivian's boyfriend rock climbed!!!!! YAY!!! So there is a quarry near by where he goes to rock climb. So he will take me a some point in time!!

We ended up leaving at 3am. Got a hold of a taxi and got back to Mike's house around 4am. No one was sober enough or awake enough to drive me back. So I just crashed on the couch. I was returned home around 10 and have been getting caught up on things ever since.

Awkward pancake night.

Didn't sleep well last night. Woke up this morning and had to rush off to econ, followed by Nutrition Education, followed by a group meeting where neither of my group mates showed up. Then I had my econ lecture. After that I went to work to discover that the other researching assistant was working today. So I will just go in tomorrow from 3-6 and get some more hours in. Came home and snacked and watched some tv. Then took a nap. Woke up in time for dinner and pancake night. It was Gavin's turn to make pancakes (crepes). It was an awkward night. Mostly because Suzie has found a way to piss off each person that normally joins on pancake night. So they were all dreading her arrival. She doesn't come regularly only every once in a while. She came tonight and every time we would say something she would suddenly think of another thing to say VERY LOUDLY over what others were talking about. I mentioned how I got a pretzel at the mall and there is no cheese to dip it in. She blurts out before I finish my sentence that "The only pretzels she would ever eat are ones from Germany, because those are the only proper pretzel." Another incidence is how she goes on and on about Golden Syrup and how it is truly Australian and you cant get it anywhere else. She brought this up for probably the 10th time (I'm not exaggerating either). So Sophie, who is originally from England, kindly pointed out that it says right on the can made in the UK. Suzie went on and on still. So we then pointed out the English Coat of Arms clearly marked in the labeling of the can. Suzie claimed it was still Australian. So it finally to the internet to prove to her that she was wrong. She is off in her own world. It is hard to describe her mannerisms. So after our delicious pancakes Suzie left to go do homework and we stayed over at Gavin's and watched an episode of Family Guy. Afterword, we all went our separate ways. I came home and watched an episode of The Big Bang theory.

Interntaional exchange fair/ netball

Got up and after getting ready for the day I headed for a 20 minute walk to the post office. Because I am giving a presentation to 2nd graders for one of my classes, I need to turn in a form for a background check. So after I get to the post office and stand in line it is finally my turn. I hand the lady the form, the $10 for the background check, my passport, my bank card and then she asks for a proof of address. This could be a bill or a copy of my lease. CRAP! So now I get to make another trip to the post office and do it all again.

I then went onto campus for the international office exchange fair. I worked at the booth about going to the USA. Most people wanted to know if fraternities and sororities actually existed. And then one of the schools that Curtin has ties with was Virginia Tech. People that saw the pamphlet for Virginia Tech kept asking "Isn't that where they had the big shoot out?" I would respond yes and then they would give a look like "Are you crazy? I'm not going there!" I guess I couldn't really blame them. There were only 2 brochures for Purdue and they both were pretty crappy. I felt bad because there really aren't many attractions to brag about.

After the fair I went to class and then to work for a few hours. I came back home around 6 and my roommate Nickey said that her intramural netball team. Net ball is easiest to describe by combining basketball and ultimate frisbee and then adding a bunch of stupid petty rules. Then I came back and FINALLY got to eat dinner around 8:30. My tummy was so happy afterwords!! Then I watched some tv and fell asleep. So now that I have awoken from my nap I'm trying to quickly finish my blog and my econ homework and then go back to bed.

vegemite and lamingtons

(pictures from yesterday are up on the previous post titled Bike ride and dancing)

Slept in, because I stayed out late dancing. It was a very nice sleep (mostly because I was exhausted!) Took my time getting ready this morning. Went to my Australian studies class. The teacher brought in vegemite and lamingtons for us to try. The "PROPER" way to eat vegemite is to take a piece of toast, lay on a thick layer of butter (not margarine) and then the absolute thinnest layer of vegemite. It pretty much tasted like a butter sandwich, only with salted butter. We also had lamingtons. These are little bite size squares of sponge cake dipped in chocolate and then rolled in coconut. I would have liked them if there wasn't any coconut. I hate coconut. YUCK! But apparently most Australian's have tea time (a few times a day) and eat lamingtons (all sorts of varieties) with their tea.

After the food tasting we watch another true Australian classic called Mariels Wedding. This was yet another pretty dumb movie, but I did laugh at some of the jokes. It was better than The Castle but I still would only watch it once in a lifetime.

After class I met up with Andrew and got my passport and camera back!!! YAY!! Now I can post some pictures from yesterday!!!

Then I went to work for 3 hours. That was my limit before my brain turned to mush. Came home and made spaghetti and a cheese and parsnip bake. The spaghetti was good. I had never really had parsnips before. They look like white carrots. The taste of the bake was ok. Parsnips have a strong distinct flavor that is new and would require getting used to.

Bike ride and dancing!

Because yesterday (Sunday) was ANZAC day the following Monday (today) is an official public holiday. So everyone got the day off of work and the university was closed. So I had no class. I did laundry this morning. And baked a cake for my friend Sayzrin (his B-day was last Monday and he didn't tell anyone). After the cake was finished Sophie, Nickey, and I went on a nice 1.5 hour bike ride. I borrowed a bike from a guy name Mark. He is from Hong Kong and is one of Sophie's roommates. So it was a guy's bike which means that the handle bars are out away much farther then what I'm used to, the seat was way too low (bc he is short), and the seat was at a 45 degree angle upward. So when I sat on it I slid off towards the back tire! So after we fixed the angled seat we were able to start. It was the same route as we did last time (at the beginning of the semester). It was pretty cool. We saw some black swans and a ton of ducks. I got some pictures and video footage of Nickey feeding them.

We got back home and met up with my roommate Suzie. She had just finished frying a steak for dinner (at 4:30pm). I walked into the kitchen and saw the cake still on the stove top where I had left it buy when Suzie fried her stead in oil it splattered all over the cake! So I had to get paper towels and soak up the pools of oil off of the cake. It was pretty gross to see. She said "oops, sorry, guess I should have moved the cake" I was very upset, but I didn't say anything.

So after our showers and dinner Nickey, Gavin, Sophie and I went over to Sayzrin's and wished him a happy birthday! (along with a bunch of other people). Then we took off and went to a subdivision called Northridge to go to a club called The Deen. We got there around 8 and it was pretty dead. We decided that dancing was a good idea because nobody has an early class and we all got our work done today. Anyway, since the club we wanted was pretty empty we walked around and found a bar called The Mustang. There was a live band. We walked inside and it was pretty crowded. The dance floor was covered with people Swing Dancing!!! These people were all older but we didn't care. I took some swing dancing lessons (3) when I was at Michigan State. So we went out on the dance floor and I was trying so hard to remember what I had been taught. I tried to teach the others but we mostly just made it up as we went. It was a ton of fun though.

We took off after a while to see of any other places had picked up yet. Gavin was hungry so we stopped by a chinese restaurant that had meat kabobs on special. The back of the restaurant had a small arcade section so Nickey and I race each other on a motorbikes game. She won. I came in last (out of 4). But we really were neck and neck the whole time!

Anyway after the restaurant we made our way back to The Deen and it had most certainly picked up! There were so many people (our age) it was crazy. They had a live band and it was awsome. We finally got our dancing fix in! So we came back around midnight. After our friend Andrew dropped us off I realized that we still had my passport and camera in his pockets. So I will be able to post pictures tomorrow hopefully when i get my stuff back from him.

ANZAC Day!

Today was ANZAC Day. ANZAC day is a national day of rememberance in Australia and New Zealand, and is commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honor members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during WWI. It now more broadly commemorates all those who died and served in military operations for their countries. Anzac Day is also observed in the Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa, and Tonga.

I woke up at 4:30 this morning in order to catch the bus at 5:00am that took Nickey, Gavin, Suzie, and I to Kings Park, where the dawn service was held. The memorial service we a bit chilly (18 C, 50F). I knew it was going to get hot later on in the day so I didn't quite dress appropriately. We arrived at the service at 5:45am. We were pretty far in the back so we watched the big screen tvs. I found out later on during the evening news that there were 30,000 people who attended the dawn service this morning. It was total silence the entire time while people laid flowers in remembrance of their loved ones for 20 minutes and then a speech about ANZAC day and the importance of it and what it means. Here is what we saw when we arrived.

The screen did show Andrew standing at one of the corners of the monument so I got a picture of that.

I felt bad because I work a tank, long sleeves, and my fleece and was chill and cuddling up to nickey and gavin the whole time. The army guys on post wore pants and a short sleeve button up. I bet they were freezing

At the end of the service we saw Andrew walk past. We yelled and waved and got a quick picture before he took off. He is a bit tired. He had to get up at 3:30am and then freeze all morning long.

We then had 2 hours before the parade started. So we stood in line for hot chocolate. I paid $4.20 for what we would consider a small coffee (they called it regular) and when they gave it to us it was warm milk. We had to go get a spoon and stir the chocolate at the bottom. It was luke warm, not hot. We were half way through and it was cold chocolate.

We headed down to the parade route. On our way we discovered a GIANT tree at the bottom of the hill where the park is.

It was pretty cool. The post office people walked around and passed out mini flags for everyone to wave. We steaked out a spot for the parade and ate out packed breakfasts that we packed the night before.

Here is the beginning of the parade!

The parade was all military personnel. It was the band of the branch followed by all of the active members of that branch in the order of Navy, Army, Air force. (They do not have marines)

Navy

We were able to find Andrew and we yelled his name really loud and he broke face and smiled. Starting with the tall guy in the front Andrew is 4th back. In the second picture he is the second one up from the bottom.

Here is Air Force.

After the active military, came all of the retired veterans also the older ladies who served as nurses and all of the cadets who are at the military schools march too.

Retired Veterans:

At the end of the parade was a bunch of different nationalities that fought with the Aussies and Kiwis. Let me know if you recognize these people:

Even though the banner is folded over these are the American and Canadian veterans. There were also veterans from South Africa, Greece, Vietnam, Korea, Rhodesia, and Turkey.

The parade was 1.5 hours. We then took the train home. Where we ate lunch, showered, and napped. Woke up, ate dinner, and lounged around for what was left of the day. Here is one of the many short videos my roommate Nickey took at the parade. Her camera died so I let her use mine. She took 186 pictures and about 5-6 short videos.

Farmer's Market, Mall, ANZAC prep.

I did not sleep well thanks to some drunken roommates. I was woken up at 8am by a phone call from my friend Anna. I told her on Wednesday that I would go to the farmer's market with her today and to the mall. I assumed we had all day. Turns out she was calling because she had work from 12pm-2pm. So she wanted to go to the farmer's market at 9 and then the mall afterwords. So we did. I got lots of fresh fruits and veggies.

We went to the mall and there were a ton of sales going on. I got 2 skirts for $5 each and 2 tops for $10 each. That is an AMAZING deal for Australia. I was super excited. Came home around 3 and I sat in my room and vegged out. We had been on the go since 8am. So I barely made it through a TV show and then laid down and took a nap. It was a very nice nap :)

Around 5 my friend Andrew came over and picked me up. My roommates were all gone and I was pretty bored. So we went over to his place and I made stir fry with all of my fresh veggies and he got things ready for tomorrow. Tomorrow is ANZAC day. This stands for Australia New Zealand Army Core. Andrew is a member of the Australian Army. Well he did 4 years and is now going to school. He is currently in the reserves. There will be 4 army personnel at the memorial service in Kings Park tomorrow and Andrew is one of them. This is a big deal. After the service there will be a parade of the veterans and the current members of the Army here in Perth. I'm excited that I know someone who will be the ceremony and in the parade that follows.

Andrew had to work from 11-5 today and then had to iron his uniform, polish his brass, and shine his boots. So as a trade of getting me out of boredom I made dinner and we watched a game of footy on TV (well I did, he got thins ready). Oh yeah I forgot to mention that the memorial ceremony is a dawn ceremony. I'm getting up at 4:30am to go with Vickery House (my housing unit). Because Andrew is in it, he has to get up at 3:30am. So it was important that he got to bed early, hence why I made dinner.

Anyway, I'm going to take off to bed early this evening and get some much needed sleep to make up for the last couple of nights and to stock up on for tomorrow's festivities.

Laid back end of week

Didn't sleep well last night because my roommates came home drunk and decided to create an audition tape for the show Glee. So they were all singing "Try to make me go to rehab... and I said no no no" So I had to listen to that starting at 12:30am until 1-2am.

Normally I have lab from 9-12 and again from 1-4. Today my morning lab was cancelled. So I did another kickboxing workout this morning. Then I took a shower and got ready for the day. I met up with my group for our nutrition education project. We have to give a 40 minute presentation to second graders about fruits and vegetables. After that, I came back home and ate lunch and then rushed off to microbiology lab. We got out of lab early around 3pm. So I went to the Public Health building and did some more work. I was only allowed to work 1.5 hours because then I had reached my allowance of 10 hrs a week. Came home and watched some TV, ate dinner, and continued watching TV. I was given an Australian cookbook the other day so I also sat down and thumbed through it. The recipes seem pretty exciting. The only down side is that when I get home to the states I won't be able to cook a lot of the things out of it because we don't have certain foods. It was a pretty good and relaxing day.

Day off!/ Pancake night!

I slept in!! It was amazing. I had every intent of working out this morning. But when I woke up all of my muscles were sore from yesterday's workout. So I stretched for 20 minutes instead. Then I got online and talked to Matt for awhile. I went into work. We were able to find the missing files! YAY!!! Now I don't have to re-enter them. I worked for 4 hours. That was about the time I started loosing my mind staring at words and entering them on the computer. I kept seeing "cool drink" as a beverage that the subjects were recording. I did internet searches trying to figure out what that was. Our database didn't have it as a food for me to enter. Eventually I had to ask another person in the room. It tuns out that it is another name for soft drink. So I entered coke.

So I went home and watched tv shows for about 2 hours and then met up with a few friends to go to the mall! Thursday is late night shopping! The mall was open until 9pm. I became quite hungry at the mall so I bought a soft pretzel. When you buy a pretzel that is all you get. They do not have cheese or marinara sauce for you to dip it in. When I asked for cheese the guy was super confused. When I realized my friends were confused as well I realized it was not a common thing over here.

We then went over to Syzrin's for pancake night!!! The usual gang. This time we only had nutella, sugar, and maple syrup to put on our pancakes (crepes). They were still quite yummy even without the ice cream and bananas.

My morning lab tomorrow has been cancelled. But everyone else still has projects and homework to do tonight. So I just came back and watched some more tv.

Econ Exam!

I did not sleep well last night. I think it was either because I was worried about my exam or bc I had a big bowl of ice cream before bed, or bc there was a cricket chriping in my room, or bc the light post outside my room kept flashing off and on. Either way. I woke up pretty sleepy and then remembered I had an exam and then finished waking up pretty quickly.

I did a kickboxing workout. The first in 3 weeks. It went much better than the run yesterday morning. Took a shower and then hit the books. I studied all the up until the exam, from 9am to 2pm. I even studied while walking to the exam. It was 30 question multiple choice and we had 45 minutes. I answered all of them and only had 2 "?" beside problems. I love it when there are only 2 problems I'm not sure how to do! So I made some educated guesses on those. I think I should come out doing just fine.

After my exam I went to work (about 3pm) I get there and log onto the computer. None of the files I created were there. I searched the entire computer for them (yes I save them from the last time I worked on them) Deb was in a meeting, so I just created a new file and figured I would start where I left off. That why when I find the old files I can just merge them together. I entered in only 1 person's data, saved it, and then restarted the computer. Guess what? It was gone! I looked where I had saved it to and everywhere else. I then created a word document and saved it to the desktop (so it woud be easy to find). Restarted, again it was gone! I think the comuter can't save anything. So I was hoping to get in a bunch of hours today but since it was meaningless to enter them just to lose them I went home. I called Deb when she got out of her meeting and we will get together tomorrow and try to solve the mystery. Came home, went to the IGA and bought things like milk and bread and then microwaved a frozen dinner and watched some TV. There were no good shows on.

Oh yeah I went to do my econ homework that is due tomorrow (econ project due Mon, exam today, homework tomorrow) what a terrible class! I open up my folder with the weekly questions in it and it says WEEK 8, EXAM WEEK, No tutorial classes!!!!! So I do not have class at 10 am!!! Also my nutrition ed teacher is gone for the week so no nutrition class from 11-1, I have econ lecture on wed and thurs, since half the class took the exam today, and the other half takes it tomorrow I have no econ lecture tomorrow from 2-3.!!!!!!!!! I have the day off!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fremantle Tour

This morning I woke up and went running for the first time in about 3 weeks. I traveled for 2 weeks and I was sick all last week. I made it 4 steps (quite literally) before I got a cramp in my side. I spent the next 20 minutes trying to run with a terrible cramp in my side. I stopped ever 1-2 minutes to try and stretch it out. So I will try a kickboxing workout tomorrow morning. Hopefully that will go smoother than today's workout attempt.

After working out I got ready and went to my Australian Studies class. We had a field trip today. We were to meet in Fremantle. So Anna and I left at 11 and took a 1 hour bus there. We arrived at noon and then ate some lunch. I brought a lunch, but Anna decided to go to a fish 'n chips shop and got squid rings. Just like onion rings but with squid inside. I didn't try one because I can't eat deep fried greasy stuff with out getting a nasty stomach ache. Guess what??? Neither can Anna. So poor Anna we feeling pretty ill for the next hour or so. We met the rest of our class at the designated spot. Out teacher showed up about 20 minutes late. That is normal for here (I should have known).

Fremantle is a port city. We walked around the harbor area and learned of its history. Things like the first settlers landed in 1830 and started a colony, convicts didn't arrive until 1850. The first things the settlers built were churches and gaols (jails). The first settlers brought all of their own animals (cow, duck, goats, sheep, chicken....etc), furniture and everything else to make it in a new land. They immediately cut back the vegetation, which was a bad idea. The first settlers were miserable because there was little water, and a lot of mosquitoes. They would land and camp out on the beach and bottleneck there until they were able to make their way up the Swan River towards more livable land conditions. Whaling was a big part of Fremantle history as well. They would go out in a very long boat with a ton of spears and catch a whale, and then cut it up right there on the boat. It made it easier to transport it once they got back to land.

The first jail was called the Round House (a circular jail), when convicts started coming over in 1850's the Round House filled up very quickly. So they had to build a new jail. This was known as the Fremantle Prison. This prison was use up until 1991. It is now closed and they give night tours of it! I have yet to go on a night tour but I would really like to. The Round House then became a police locker and eventually a place for settler families to live until they were able to build a house.

At the Round House there were stocks on display! Here is a picture of a girl in my class who was placed in the stocks.

Stocks were used for public humiliation. For an extra punishment they would nail the person's ears to the wooden board so they couldn't turn their head. People would get sent to the stocks for minor things like disorderly conduct, disobeying policemen, drunkenness or drinking during a church service.

There was also a cannon at the Round House. Yes it is real. It went goes off at 1:00pm everyday! It went off when we were on the beach right below it! Scared the daylights out of all of us.

We also walked around to the back of the Round House to see the famous Dunny (outhouse) that has made its way into tourist items like calendars and things.

As you can see it is about 25 feet above the edge of the sea. Back in the day there was not a fence around it either. I guess they did this so when a person was relieving themself they could have a nice view to look at. It was pointed out that it was a bit of a risk to use at night or when drunk, or both. Because then people would fall off of the cliff. It is hard to tell in the picture but there is about 3 feet from the front of the dunny to the edge of the cliff. It is no longer used now but a fence was placed up around it just in case.

We also learned about Rottnest Island. This is an island off the coast that can be seen from Fremantle. It is a very big tourist spot. It is absolutely beautiful too! Anyway, aboriginal artifacts have been discovered on the island from more than 6,000 years ago. There are even some artifacts beleived to be over 10,000 years old! But this beautiful historical island also had a dark side. It was once used as an indigenous jail. The aboriginies that were arrested were sent there. In the 1900's it was decided that it was too beautiful for a jail purpose and was changed over of recreational use. In WWI it was closed down and used as a POW camp. Now it is government owned and is a family tourist hot spot. It is a lot like the idea of Mackinaw Island for us.

So yeah I learned a lot today. We then took a 1 hour bus back and I started laundry and did some more studying for my econ test tomorrow. I was hoping to get some time in for work but that will just have to wait until tomorrow.

Oh yeah. On our way back to the bus station we walked passed a store that sold Birkenstocks!! I've never owned a pair before but everyone here wears them. They were having a huge sale! So I tried some one. I was motivated to buy some because I tripped when I was walking back from the Air Race on Sunday and broke one of my sandals. The Birkenstocks are SOOO comfy!!! So I bought a pair. They should do my feet quite well for the rest of the time here.

First day at work!

Woke up this morning and went to work. I was trained on how to use the computer program for the first hour and then worked another 2 hours. I would have loved to work longer but my giant economics assignment was due at 5 today and I had class from 3-5. So I had to run home around noon for lunch and to assemble the project and go over last minute details.

It was quite a chore to turn it in. I went to the building where the school of management's main office was located. When I couldn't find my T.A's mailbox I had to ask the lady at the desk. She informed me that I actually needed to go 2 buildings over to the school of economics' main office. The office was on the 5th floor. I get there and immediately the lady at the desk tells me I need to go down to the 3rd floor turn right out of the elevator and turn right again to find the "pigeon holes" or what we would call mailboxes. I get down to the 3rd floor and go right twice and ended up in a computer lab. So then I went back to the elevators and went left twice the discover a dead end. I went back the elevator and found 2 other people looking for the same pigeon holes as me. We went up and down all the hall ways. Eventually the lady from the desk on the 5th floor was walking around on the 3rd floor too. Someone else had gotten her to come down and show us where they were. I finally found the pigeon holes only to discover that there was not a time stamp machine.

All of the assignments here (for every class) are not collected in class but turned into a specified mailbox. They all must have the school's cover sheet on top of them too. There is a special spot on the cover sheet where the assignments get a time stamp. The machine is very similar to one that you would see at a job where you have time cards that get stamped in and out. Anyway I find the mailbox and there is no time stamp machine. I had to go all the way back up to the 5th floor in order to get my assignment stamped and then back down to 3rd floor to finally turn it in.

Then I went to my food microbiology and learned all about how sewage is treated back into water. Important because water is considered a food. Here in Perth they just get rid of the "chunks" of stuff in the sewage and then treat it to kill particular microbes. Then they pump it out into the ocean. Places that have high demand for water and not enough of it treat it all the way back to potable "drinkable" water. These places included but are not limited to Singapore and London. Even though I understand that it is safe, it is still kind of disturbing to think of drinking water "made" from sewage.

Then came home and watched tv, ate dinner, and studied some more for my econ exam on Wed.

Red Bull Air Race!

I woke up and went to the Perth Red Bull Air Race. We left around 11am and returned about 4pm It was hot about 90 degrees and very sunny. We were lucky enough to find a place in the shade. The air race took place over the Swan River. There were inflated GIANT cones that the airplanes had to fly through that determined the course. The pilots had to do different tricks at each set of cones. They fly the course one at a time. The pilot with the fastest time wins! (just like any other race). There were preliminaries all day yesterday. Today the first race was at 12:30. It consisted of the top 10 from yesterday who competed for the top four spots. Unfortunately, the American who was in the top 10 didn't make it to the top 4. At 2:00pm the top four then competed again for placing. It was an Austrian who one followed by two English pilots. Here is some footage of a German who flew the course. No particular reason as to why it is a German other than I filmed a few pilots and this video came out the best.

My roommate Nickey and our friend Sophie got some amazing pictures because they have the big cameras with attachable lenses that are 6 inches long and have amazing shutter speed. They were going to let me borrow their pictures to put on my blog but I wasn't able to get a hold of them. So hopefully later I can update the pictures.

After we returned I pretty much spent the rest of the day studying for my economics exam on Wednesday (only the first half of the material) and the working on my economics project that is due tomorrow. I just need to do a few final touches tomorrow and I will be all set.

Carmela's Birthday

Slept in today. My roommate Nickey and I went to the mall to find a gift for our roommate Carmela. We found a decorative box and bought of bunch of different things to put in it. We even got her a little girls dress up tiara!

After the mall we came back and I watch some TV. Around 6 people were supposed to come over and have a barbie for Carmela's birthday. No one really showed up until 7:30. Around 8 we headed out to the Barbie pit. I finally got to eat my dinner around 9pm. I headed back to my unit to clean up and put things away. All of a sudden the rest of the party came back to the unit as well. only the party had multiplied. There were over 30 people in our unit! We sang happy birthday and cut up the cake. Everyone was supposed to catch the bus at 8:30 to go to the bars but they had missed it. It was also the last bus. So they called cabs and had to wait over an hour for the cabs to get here. The party got very loud and very drunk very quickly. So I just went to my room and tried to study a bit more for my exam next week. Around 10 there was pounding at the front door. Someone had called security on a noise complaint. So security was able to get everyone to disband from the party. Thank goodness!

Nickey and I emerged from our rooms and discovered a very BIG mess in our living room. Beer bottles were everywhere and beer was spilt everywhere. Our whole unit smells like alcohol. We decided not to clean it up. We figured the person that hosted the party could clean it up. It was a pretty darn eventful evening.

I got a job!!!

I met with Deb Kerr. If you don't remember, I worked for a research group at Purdue for 2 summers. One of the summers, Deb Kerr came over from Curtin University in Perth Australia to do a joint research project. Matt and I also met with her and her husband when we were vacationing in Broome. I asked her a while back if she knew of an student part time jobs in the nutrition department. Anyway, I met with her today and she offered me a job! It is entering data. I did that for 2 years and it was mind-numbingly boring. It also only paid $7 and hour. This time it will still be boring but it pays $25/ hour!!!! I was so excited!!! Everything cost more over here so their minimum wage is a little bit higher than ours.

After my exciting meeting I went to my food micro lab. We got our quizzes back. I studied very hard for this quiz. When it was time to take it (3 weeks ago) it turned out to be an open book quiz. So I had studied hard and was able to double check my answers. I was one of the first students done. (Yes dad, I even read through the whole quiz again). Our scores were posted online and I received 7 out of 10. I was very upset that I got a C. I went to my lab today and talked to other students. Turns out that the highest grade overall was a 7.5 Most people got a 4 or a 5. They did not fail and I did not get a C. Over here the grading scale is different. To get a 70% is equivalent to our A. Turns out I got one of the highest grades in the class. I felt so much better after learning that. It a little embarrassed that I was upset about it.

After class I came home and just watched TV and did some apartment hunting for San Antonio TX. I found a few places but have not committed to anything yet. Im still coughing quite a bit and wanted nothing but a nap all day. I did go over to my friend Andrews place. It was just his roommate Mike, Andrew, and I. The other 2 that were supposed to join decided that they had too much work to do. So we watch Robing Hood Men in Tights without them. I hadn't seen that movie for a long time. It was quite comical. Not as good as Date Night was. But still pretty good.

Fire Alarm

I went to me econ tutorial today. Remember the quiz that I took right before I left for break? Well I go it back today. There were 12 questions. At the time I only knew how to do 4 of them. When there were 3 minutes left of the quiz I went through the 8 that I did not know how to do and randomly guessed (it was a multiple choice quiz). I got the quiz back today and decided that God loves me! I got 11 out of 12! I honest to goodness have no idea how. It was pure luck! I hope that happens again on my econ test that I have next Wednesday.

After econ I went to my nutrition education class. This is a 2 hour class. We were about 30 minutes in and the whole room started rumbling and vibrating. Then, the fire alarm went off! There is a construction zone right behind our class room. I thought a big truck was backing up. That Beep Beep noise a big truck makes when it is reverse was how the fire alarm sounded. After about 30 seconds of beeping a recorded announcement to evacuate the building came on over the intercom system. So everyone in the building evacuated. The library on the other side of the building also evacuated. One fire truck came. We stood outside for about 30 minutes before we went back in and finished our lecture.

After that I came home and then went to the IGA to buy some milk and ice cream. It was my turn for pancake night. I ran out of milk yesterday. So I needed to go buy milk to make fluffy American pancakes. I bought the ice cream because it was on sale from $8 for a 1 liter tub to $5. And because my throat is so sore. It felt so good to eat the ice cream!

I watched a couple of episodes that Matt downloaded onto an external hard drive for me. Then Sophie, Syzrin, Mark, Matt, Nickey, and I had our traditional Thursday night pancake night with fluffy pancakes and maple syrup. Then, we all played cranium! It was quite a blast! It was a bit challenging since everyone is from different countries. Not everyone knew the so-called famous person that was being acted out, or the song that was being hummed. It was an educational experience for everyone and so much fun!

Absent Minded

I finally had a night where I slept well! The secret was to not take any cold/sinus medicine. I woke up and just lounged around. Still coughing and hacking and sneezing all day long. I had class at 2pm today. I signed up to work at a study abroad fair booth from 12-1:30pm today. So went to campus around 11am it was bright and sunny out. I got the the print shop and put my flash drive that Matt gave me when he was here into the computer and pulled up all of my documents and printed them off. It was then time to go to the fair. I walked around the international office and couldn't find the booth anywhere. So I went in and found the lady in charge. Turns out the fair is in 2 weeks. Not really sure how I messed that one up so badly. So I had an hour and a half until class. I went back home and ate lunch. It rained on my way home, so I was wet and cold :(

Went onto campus at 1:00pm, it was bright and sunny again. Met with my econ professor to go over some questions I had about the project. She said "Good, good, crap, good, right idea but still wrong...." all the way through my work. So I'm glad I went and learned that all the hard work I did needs to get redone. Went to my econ class and then back to home. It decided to rain again on my way back home. I got home and decided to work on my econ project.

I get home and I can't find my flash drive anywhere. I realize that I left it in the computer on campus. So I hiked back onto campus in the sunshine with my rain jacket. Got to the computer lab and found my flash drive YAY!! Then I walked back home no rain. I get to my front door and my ID card that I need to swipe in order to enter my own house is not in my pocket. I know that I had it when I went on to campus. It was in my front pocket, because stuff always falls out of the back pockets. So I had to book it t to the housing office before they closed and get a temp card. Came back home and did a double check all over my room and book bag. Still couldn't find my ID. So I hiked very quickly back onto campus because I only had 30 minutes before the office closed and it was getting dark. About 20 yards in front of the computer lab was my ID!! YAY!!! Now I don't have to pay a fee to cancel it (so no stranger gets into my house!) and I don't have to pay a fee to get a new one!!! YAY!!! I booked it back to the housing office and returned the temporary card in time.

Finally, I got home and was able to work on my econ project. I came in my room and sat down at my desk and couldn't find my flash drive. AHHHH!!!! Some how I put it in my book bag. But I least I didn't have to go back onto campus to get it! :)

I have pretty much just been sitting at my desk since, working on my econ project, econ homework for tomorrow, and my nutrition education project. Very busy week! Good thing I'm still sick, it just makes this week go by so much easier (sarcasm).

More Sickey Tuesday

Did not sleep well last night. I'm not sure if it is the medicine that I took or because I'm sick. I'm not lying on my death bed sick, but I definitely have a very sore throat, draining sinuses, a nasty cough, and this evening I started sneezing left and right. I thought to myself AWESOME!

I went to my Australian Studies class. We finally got to watch the tail end of Ned Kelly. Turns out the police came and burned the entire building where the Kelly Gang was hiding. The police captured Ned Kelly. The rest of the gang shot themselves in the head so the police could not capture them. Despite 35,000 signatures on a petition to release Ned Kelly, he was hanged in October of 1880. He was 25 years old.

We then watch an Australian cult classic called The Castle. If you have never heard of or seen this movie before PLEASE do NOT do it!!!! This was such a terrible movie. Terrible plot, terrible acting, terrible everything!! The teacher started the movie and then left. So did 3/4 of the class. I was one of the few who suffered through it. I was hoping the teacher would come back and give as extra credit or something for making it all the way through that movie. But she never did. The movie ended and what was left of the class got up and left.

I came back home and worked on my econ assignment a bunch more. I watched the premiere of Australia's Got Talent with my roommates Nickey and Suzie. It was pretty entertaining. For some reason during the commercial break we were talking and an add for The Pacific (a movie about Americans coming to Australia during WWII) came on. Suzie looked at me and sternly informed me that the Aussies did not want the Americans over here. It was a big deal that the American boys came over and stole the Aussies' girlfriends. She said that 250 women became wartime brides to the Americans. Yes that is correct 250. I kind of chuckled to myself because that is really a small number to get pissed off about. She proceeded to tell me that the Aussies had a saying about the American soldiers "over paid, over sexed, and over here" and that the Australians did not need the Americans. I sat very quietly and patiently while waiting for her to finish her lecture/rant. I am a little bit of a history buff and know for a fact that the Australian army was called upon by England to serve and defend Great Britain. The Japanese started attacking Australia and the Aussie boys were all over in Europe. So the Americans who happened to be close by came to the rescue. I'm not sure if she was trying to start a heated discussion, reveal hatred towards America, or just wanted attention. But I just calmly listened to everything she had to say and then replied "Suzie, you would be speaking Japanese if it were not for the Americans."

I'm learning that even though Suzie is Australian she is very wrong about a lot of Australian ways, cultures, and traditions. I know this because I compare what she tells me to what other Aussies tell me and what I have learned from my Australian Studies class. I'm not offended by the comment Suzie said to me about what happened during WWII only because I'm used to her pulling that sort of crap. I just ignore it. I have a million more stories of the crazy things that come our of her mouth. But I won't post them because it is not nice. I posted the WWII discussion because I was most shocked at her audacity to even say that sort of thing.

Sickey Monday

Woke up with muscle aches all over my body, a heavy head, and coughing up gook out of my throat. Well at least I didn't get sick while on vacation. But unfortunately I do have a big economics homework to do for next Monday. I know that means it is due in 7 days. I also have a big mid semester test in Economics next week that I would like to start studying for this week so I will have time to meet with the teacher if I have questions (which I will). I really hate economics. It is just not my thing.

After coming around this morning I met up with Sophie and we went to the mall to do some more grocery shopping. I walked out side to the bus stop in shorts and a T-shirt only to be greeted by cold air and a heavy mist of rain. I would have gone back inside and changed but we were running late for the bus already.

After we got back from grocery shopping we met up with my roommate Nickey and we all decided to put our pajamas back on and go to the common room and watch a movie. We were the only ones there so was watched The Devil Wears Prada and cuddled up in pillows and blankets.

Went to my food microbiology class. Normally we have a professor who is actually pretty good at making the material interesting. Today we got to have a guest lecturer who said "um" and "uh" at least 7-10 times per each sentence. I am not exaggerating either. When he wasn't saying one syllable non-sense words he was stuttering. I spent the whole time counting his filler words and his stutters and have no clue what we talked about. The best part was that there were 84 slide for a 2 hour lecture. He started about 15 minutes late and spent 15 minutes on the first slide. He then realized that we was behind and would speed through a bunch of information and then say "well you don't need to know that" or"nobody uses that procedure anymore." I just kept thinking if it isn't important, or is out of date, why are you wasting out time!!!! I was very sleepy, cold, and miserably sick. I just wanted out of there.

After class I met up with my friend Alyssa and we were able to catch up with each other and share stories from our trips. Her parents flew down from Wisconsin and met her in New Zealand. They rented a camper and drove all over New Zealand. She said is was quite a blast and SUPER DUPER expensive. They pretty much import EVERYTHING so the prices are ridiculously high.

I came home and ate leftovers and then started working on my econ assignment. I also took a nice 2 hour break to watch tv and drink hot chocolate. Which felt amazing. I'm headed off to bed to hopefully rest and recover from whatever little bug is in my body.

Recover day!

Today I woke up and scrounged around for what was still edible of what little food I had for breakfast. I posted all of my blogs entries and uploaded pictures. So check them out! I put 3 hours worth of work into them. Took a much needed shower around 11:30am. I had every intension of doing laundry today but decided to wait until tomorrow.

Sophie and I went the IGA (closest to us, but most expensive of the grocery stores) and bought necessary items like bread and milk.

After that I came home and went through all of my receipts from traveling in order to figure out how much money I spent. It was definitely more than I had intended. I just wasn't prepared for how expensive things were going to be. For example. A head of lettuce was $15 per kg. (this is because of the flooding that happened last month) The floods effected the priced of most produce. Therefore going out to eat at restaurants was quite expensive as well. At home in the US spending $100 on a dinner for 2 meant you had a very nice dinner at a very classy restaurant. Unfortunately, a dinner like that in Broome, Darwin, or Sydney meant you ate out at a regular restaurant. The bill was less then $50 if we ate at a pub. Another example was when we paid $160 for the two of us to swim in the croc tanks. We picked a date and paid about 1 month in advance. Did not realize that we still had to pay and entrance fee of $28 each to get into the Crocasaurus Cove. We assumed that was included in the price.

Anyway, I then went to the Fremantle farmers market and bought produce. When it is the end of the day they sell stuff very cheap there. I spent $17 on 3 very full bags of fruits and veggies.

I came home and made dinner. Then Andrew and Sophie came over and we played cranium. If any of you have every played cranium before you know that it requires at least 4 people. You must have 2 teams. So I bounced around and played on both teams. I would play on Sophie's team when it was her turn and then move to the other side of the table when it was Andrew's turn. The best part of playing on both teams is that no matter what happens, you win!

Now I'm just getting ready for bed. Good night!

Airport day!

Matt and I woke up, packed up, and checked out but 9am. We then headed straight to the airport. We bought an $8 footlong breakfast sub from Subway at the airport and spent our last hour together reminiscing over the highlights of our trip together.

Matt's plane left at 1pm so he went through security around 11am. I then had to catch a transfer shuttle over to the domestic airport. I arrived at noon for my 5:50pm flight. So I took my sweet time looking at every single item in every single shop in the terminal. I was able to catch up on all of my blog posts. I also went for a lot of walks.

I finally boarded my plane at 5:30pm. We left at 5:50pm Sydney time. Flew 5 hours to arrive in Perth at 9:00pm local time.

My friend Andrew was able to pick me up and drive me home. I arrived home and settled in and went straight to bed.

I did fine all day until I climbed into bed all by myself. That was when Matt leaving hit me. So I just cuddled with my teddy bear and fell asleep that way.

Day 2 in Sydney!

Friday April 9^th

Woke up around 9am and took our sweet time getting ready. We had not scheduled tours or appointments. Our plans were mostly sight seeing things with no time limits. We exited out hotel and stopped by a street vendor selling fruit for breakfast. We then walked along the street all the way to the Royal Botanical Gardens. On our way we saw a sign for 50% off opals! So we stopped in because I was still searching for opals for my “mum.” We entered into a very business office like building. The sign said 3 floor for opals. We got up there and were greeted by men in business suits. They rushed us through 2 security doors and then sat us down at a desk surrounded with areas that were blocked off by barred doors with heavy duty locks. (We were not really sure what to think at that moment in time, other than we were in the WRONG place). Turns out it was a jewelry manufacture. They made the jewelry there. So instead of buying it from a jewelry store we just skipped the middle man and bought it straight from them. All of the workers were very nice to us. I bought some earrings for mom and then we continued on our way to the gardens.

We stopped in at a mall just so I could show Matt how ugly their 80’s styled clothes were. It was pretty funny going around to all of the stores. We agreed that the guys had cool cloths but the girls… not so much.

We did make it to the gardens. They were on the north eastern side of the city. It was pretty cool to look out at all of the trees, flowers, bushes, and grassy hills, and then see skyscrapers behind all of it. We bought some sandwiches and had a little picnic in the gardens over looking the harbor, opera house, and bridge.

There were so many birds making so much racquet that we stopped and stared up into the trees to see what they were fighting over. Here is a picture and a video of what we saw.

Do you know what it is?

Bats! Hundreds and hundreds of bats all up in the trees. It was so weird to think all of these bats in the city!

After lunch we walked over to the opera house. We could have gotten a 1 hour tour for $50 but decided against it. We just walked around the outside instead. We were getting pretty tired of spending money by this point in time.

The opera house is actually covered in tiles! We just though it was big panels or something.

After the opera house we made our way to The Rocks. This is part of the city known for shops, open markets, and street performers. We were able to finish our souvenir shopping here. We also were able to walk under the harbor bridge. We wanted to walk over it to the other side of the city, but we were tired and would have had to walk quite a bit out of our way in order to get on the bridge. So we decided to walk under it instead. We then had to walk all the way home. We did stop in a puppet shop! It was really cool. They had some modern toy puppets but most were from different parts of the world and from a long-long time ago. We finished our walk home (about 45 minutes) and sat on the bed and rested our feet and watched a tv show. We then got ready for our last night in Sydney/ Matt’s last night in Australia. We dressed up and we both looked sharp. Matt wore a blue button up dress shirt, black dress pants, and a coordinating blue and black tie. I wore a new black dress with blue accents. We didn’t even know what the other had packed but we matched perfectly. Yes I had heals to go with my lovely evening dress but I wore silver flip flops all the way to the restaurant and then changed shoes out front. We ate at a place called I'm Angus. It was a very nice steak place that has some famous Australian chef neither of us had ever heard of. We both enjoyed our food very much.

The last thing we did for the evening was make our way to the cinemas to watch “Date Night” with Steve Carrel and Tina Fey. We paid $17 each for a ticket and then decided to get a scoop of ice cream (1 because we didn’t get dessert, and 2 our theaters back home do not serve ice cream) 2 scoops= $10.00. We HIGHLY recommend watching the movie. It was absolutely hysterical. We were laughing the whole time. It was a great way to end our journey crossed Australia.

Fist day in SYDNEY!!

April 8^th First day in Sydney

Matt and I took the red eye flight to Sydney from Darwin. We arrived here at 6:30am. We caught a train ($30) to get to central station. We then had to walk 1 block to our hotel. Yes HOTEL not hostel. Matt thought we were staying in hostels for the entire trip. This was my birthday present to him. We are in the 4 star Marque Hotel. It is beautiful. We dropped off our luggage because our room would not be ready until 2 pm. We then set out for our fist day in Sydney!

Our first destination was the Toronga Zoo! We walked to Darling Harbor and then caught a cruise over to the Zoo.

Darling Harbor is where there is a lot of fine dining, the aquarium, the Maritime Museum, and gorgeous fountains and sculptures. Here is the view from Darling Harbor.

On our way over to the zoo we passed under the Harbor Bridge. When Matt and I were looking for things to do in Sydney we found that you could pay to walk up to the top of the bridge. It was very expensive and you were not allowed to bring a camera. You had to pay $35 for a picture. So we decided to save our $$ instead. Here is the bridge and here is a close up of the people who have to wear grey suits and are harnessed into the bridge so they can' fall off.

Here is a pic of the Opera House from the cruise.

It was $100 for cruise and zoo tickets. We arrived at the Zoo around 10:00am along with 10,000 other people. I’m serious. There were actually 10,000 people at the zoo. Turns out the state of New South Wales (where Sydney is located) has all of their schools on break. There were so many kids!!!

The Zoo is locate crossed the harbor and is on a giant hill. When you get to the top, there is a breath taking view of the Sydney skyline including the opera house and the harbor bridge. We did enjoy seeing many of the animals. We made it a point to see all of the Australian animals for Matt.

We became hungry for lunch and walked to the food courts. What a total chaotic mess!!!! 10,000 people all wanted to eat lunch at the same time! Matt and I tried to look for other food places but they only had ice cream carts. Which was fine, but we wanted real food. So on our walk back we spotted 2 giant turtles. One climbed on top of the other and started grunting very loudly. It was very funny to watch all of the kids asking questions and the parents returning answers such as; “they are leapfroggin” or “He wanted a piggy-back ride.” The kids excepted piggy back ride and then started chanting it! Matt and I almost fell over because we were laughing so hard.

We made it back to the food courts and stood in line for 30 minutes or so. We each got a $9 scoop of ravioli. We decided to pass on the $3 (each) breadsticks.

As we finished walking around the zoo there was an enclosure of chickens, roosters, and deer. In this enclosure was a giant tree where a leopard was laying. Matt turns and says “Kaylin, look at the kitty!” I turn to him and reply “Matt, the kitty isn’t real” It was a fake leopard that was very shiny and smiling. We had a good laugh at that.

On our way out we had to exit through the gift shop. I wanted something that said Toronga Zoo on it. I found a coffee mug for $20 and key chains for $12 and decided that we had enough pictures as souvenirs. We had already blown through $120 that day.

Caught the cruise ferry ride back to Darling Harbor and went the Sydney Aquarium! $57 for the 2 of us to get in. It was pretty cool, but again full of kids and groups. The coolest thing about the aquarium is that it floats! It is on the end of harbor is supported by pylons. The aquarium had a Where’s Wally theme. We know this as Where’s Waldo. So in most exhibits they would have a picture out of one of the books as the background with lots of cartoon characters drawn all over it and then Wally, the Wizard, the bad guy, Woof (Wally’s dog) would be hidden in the water amongst the fish. It was pretty cool.

After the aquarium we had had enough walking for the day and headed home. Because it was Thursday it was late night shopping. All of the stores were open until 9:00pm. The walk back was very crowded on the streets and then it started raining. So everyone moved under the awnings along the sidewalks and it became even more crowded.

Matt and I stopped in at a Turkish Kababs place and got lamb kababs. These are pretty much wraps. Lamb, tomato, lettuce, onion, cheese, and garlic sauce. We walked back to our hotel, settled into our room, ate the kababs, and headed to the roof for the pool and spa! Because the pool is on the roof and it rained a lot, the water was very cold. So we went back to our room and took very long showers. The last time we had had a shower was the night before we swam with the crocs. We had to check out, swim with the crocs, and could not have a shower until Sydney. Got to Sydney and or room wasn't ready until 2 pm. So we walked all over the Zoo and Aquarium. We then went straight to bed. We only got about 3-4 hours of sleep on the plane and then hit the ground running all day long.

Cage of Death!!!

Wed April 7^th

Last day in Darwin! We slept in all the way to 8am! Much better then 5:30am. Finally got to eat the free breakfast at the hostel. Turns out is was bread, butter, and orange marmalade at the front desk. He had to go upstairs to the kitchen to even toast it. We were a little disappointed. We then had to pack up all of our stuff and store it at the hostel and check out. We walked across the street to the tour company because we had no been reimbursed for our park fees yet. It was a huge hassle of back and forth. Eventually they said that the travel agent I booked the tour through had the money and I had to contact him in order to get refunded.

We then walked another block to the Crocasaurus Cove. Here we got to see crocs, hatchlings, juveniles, turtles, and other reptiles. We wanted to hold the baby croc but there was such a long line of children that we just stayed our of the line. Don't worry. They rubber banded the mouth shut.

Oh yeah…and we survived the CAGE OF DEATH!!! We climbed into a plexiglass cage and were lowered via a crane into the same water enclosure as the crocs! It was quite a rush.

We were first dropped into the cage of Houdini and Bess. They were a breeding couple. We splashed around and made noise but they didn’t even bother to turn their heads. (First is Houdini then Bess)

We then went into Choppers cage. He was lying in the water with his eyes and tip of his nose above the surface. We splashed around and made a bunch of noise but we were only able to get him to sink 2 inches until his eyes and nose went under water.

Last, we went to Denzel’s cage. Again he just laid there. I learned a very valuable lesson. If I even get thrown into a crocs gage. Don’t panic. They really don’t care and won’t even notice you.

We brought a waterproof camera with us into the cage and got pictures. The staff at the croc cove also took a ton of pictures and even took video. It was $45 for 1 picture or $99 for a DVD of all the pictures and video footage. So we bought the DVD and decided that we would play it at our reception!

Here is the movie.

We were able to go to a shower and rinse off the croc water at the Crocasaurus Cove before we got dressed. Since we had checked out at the hostel we no longer had a place to shower. We then went to the mall area and found a bakery. We tried chocolate chip hot crossed buns. I got a slice of pizza and Matt got a giant bacon and cheese loaded loaf of bread. For dessert we bought a chocolate mud scone. We had never had a scone before. Guess what? It was scrumptious!

We went back to the kitchen/ lounge area of our hostel and ate the food and watched the storm roll in. We then went souvenir shopping in all of the rain! After shopping, we went back the hostel’s kitchen lounge area and caught up some on our blog entries. Again the internet was pretty bad so we could only post a few pictures. When I get back to Perth I will upload all of the pictures. We left Darwin around 10:30 on a shuttle to the airport so we could catch our redeye flight to Sydney at 1:45 am. Once on the plane we both fell asleep very quickly.