Is It Really April Already??

Right now, I'm sitting in my room, watching The Biggest Loser (it's literally on every single day here), and eating a big bowl of ice cream. I guess it's kind of a contradiction but I'm happy either way. I also just found out that The Amazing Race: All Stars is premiering here in 2 weeks! Granted, I'll be away for the first episode, but I can handle it. All in all, things are going pretty good right now!

I haven't really updated in a while because there haven't been any crazy new things to write about. I know I said I'd write after my trip last weekend, but I sat down and tried and couldn't think of what the hell to say. Basically, I've been drawing a big blank lately. Maybe it's because I'm settling in more and things are becoming more of a routine than new and exciting. Who knows...

Since I last wrote here, I have dropped the internship class and am just sticking with what I'm in. Real World never got back and the coordinator was the biggest flake ever. He got someone to get in touch with me who wanted me to help out with something along the lines of putting on musicals in schools. What does that have to do with me at all? Then I found out the class I was going to drop, Live Entertainment, counts for credit at Penn. I just figured I'd keep things the way they were and keep on keepin on. Now I have to look for an internship for fall...

Last weekend I took a trip with Study Abroad to Jervis Bay. I can't for the life of me remember, but I think Jervis Bay is about 3 hours...south?... of Sydney. There were 13 of us on the trip: Me, my neighbor Graham, this guy Jonathon who lives with Caryn, and 10 girls. We left really early Saturday, took a stop in a place called Wollongong (yes, really) for coffee and then headed out to an emu farm. People thought they were pretty ugly, but I'm not going to lie - I loved them. They were just so ridiculous looking and kind of crazy and I wanted to set them free. I say this because it wasn't like a petting zoo... those emus were gonna die. Apparently emus have this really helpful oil in them for medicines, etc. And they also use the meat. I know this. I had some emu pie... I know, I'm going to hell.

Then we finally got to Jervis Bay! We were supposed to take a dolphin cruise that day after lunch but since it was so hot out, our guide Brett thought it would be a better idea to go to the beach instead and come back the next day. We finally get to the beach, which claimed to have some of the whitest sands in the world. I don't know exactly what that means or why it's important, but the sand was kind of close to white, I guess? All I know is that it made a crazy squeak when you walked on it. In a funny turn of events, it became extremely cloudy just as we arrived. Instead of going in the water, I went investigating over on some rocks, saw some crabs, took some pictures, etc. Then Graham and I were determined to set up a volleyball net that came without half of the right equipment. When we were finally victorious, we got some of the girls to play and gave up after it fell for the fourth time. All of a sudden, it became extremely windy, families there screamed and ran off, and we were stuck waiting for Brett to come pick us up. On the way out, we saw a wild kangaroo and I took some pictures. He liked us.

We left the beach and headed to the liquor store. Brett suggested that he, myself, Graham and another girl (Kat) split a 24 pack. The way I obviously interpreted it was that we'd each be buying 6. Little did I know when we finally got on the bus, Brett and Kat only claimed to have bought 3 bottles each, leaving Graham and I with 18 beers to share. This was not going to work out. Regardless, we traveled about 20 minutes into the forest to get to our lodge and it began to pour (aside from the crazy winds). We were stuck in for the night. We showered, watched Finding Nemo (it's everywhere here!), and ate dinner. By that time, we were treated to a special private show by a well-known group of Aboriginal dancers who tour the world. They were really nice guys and had us all participate (the guys had to do a kangaroo dance... it was awkward). When they finished, the rain had stopped but it was pitch black out. Brett still thought it would be a good idea for a nature walk...

(Sidenote: For those of you who want to know how far behind Australia is in TV, Grey's is on right now and Mark just got the job at the hospital. Yeah… that old. Taking a brief hiatus writing this to play poker… Back. That didn't go great.)

Anyway, the first part through a forest in the dark was a little hectic, but I had been drinking a little and was too busy laughing at the absurdity of it all. Then we got to the beach. And it was amazing. It was so windy! We're all laughing because we can't walk fast because we're being blown away. I lost my flip flop (but found it, thankfully) and a girl lost her camera but got that back, too. I can't even describe it exactly but it was just a great experience. We got back, hung out for a little, ate some kangaroo (I can't believe I did it either. It must be sacrilegious or something...), and went to sleep.

The next morning, it was daylight savings (now it's a 14 hour difference from the east coast) and went kayaking on a little river/pond/body of water outside the lodge. We ate breakfast, made lunches, and then went off to take our dolphin cruise. Funny story, though - since the weather had been so bad the day before, the water was extremely choppy. They couldn't promise us any dolphin sightings. We stayed above the ship for a while - it was VERY windy - and after not seeing any dolphins for over two hours, a storm blew in and we headed to the inside of the boat as we pulled into the dock. In the end, we got free vouchers for a return trip, but that probably won't be too likely. Regardless, I had a lot of fun on the trip and met some really nice people, a lot of whom are in a couple of my classes.

This past week class was nothing special. I did have my first project due for Writing and I'm hoping it went over well. For the first time, I stayed awake through my 5 hours of Wednesday classes. I figured even though I don't like coffee I'd try it out and see how it works. After 10 minutes I was on edge, but this was good since I made it through my Cinema class movie. This was bad, though, because it made me pretty gassy. I didn't fart in class, though! It was also bad because the movie we watched, Wake in Fright, involved a 20-minute or so scene involving a kangaroo hunt. About 20 kangaroos were shot, attacked, hit by cars, etc. The thing is though, those scenes were real. Kind of a downer. The only upside would be that in my joke of a Live Entertainment class (seriously, I stayed awake the whole time and still had no notes to write...) we watched vaudeville clips of dogs doing backflips and seals playing trumpets.

Last night, Jamie, Sam, Linden and I went to an Aussie Rules Football game. It's one of the pro-rugby games here. It was the Sydney Swans (really, Swans?) vs. the West Coast Eagles and while we were down by 36 points, we caught up and.... still lost by 1. But it was a great comeback. The first half was slow (and I was pretty tired - I had a ridiculously boring field trip earlier that day and had to be up at 5:45am!!!) but the second half I pepped up and it got really exciting.

That about catches us up to now. That Pussycat Dolls show is on right now and I wonder why this crap makes it over here but not Survivor. It's depressing! Still, I've gotten all caught up on Survivor and Lost (which has been amazing!) and now I guess I'll try to tackle Grey's. The Pussycat Doll show, though, just seems like a cheap rip off of Making the Band. Speaking of which, I'm pretty sure one of these girls was a finalist. Funny. I definitely won't make a habit out of watching this.

In more exciting news, Tara's flight arrives in 8 hours so I better run off and get to sleep. Or clean up. Maybe both? That's impossible. All I know is that this week will be a great one, full of things to write about!!! Then when she leaves, I'mma headin' off to Fiji! Let's hope my replacement camera comes in time (Mom had me email NBC10 and they contacted those schmucks and wouldn't you know, they just didn't realize how easy it would be to ship to Australia. I'm not holding my breath that the camera will come but I have what I have, Caryn has hers, and I'll have some underwater disposables to work with.) To sum it up, the next 2 weeks will probably be sort of amazing!

Leave me some lovin'! Holla!