Bring it, Australia

View of the city from Kangaroo Point. So grad school is actually kind of hard . . . I don't think its necessarily harder than Undergrad, but its definitely hard after going a year and a half without school. Or maybe its the fact that I'm in Australia and my class schedules get in the way of traveling, but I'm not sure. I have my first presentation next week and finally printed out some calendars to start planning out all my projects. At Carolina you could print when I first started college free of charge. That was extremely helpful in classes where teachers used power points because you could take notes on the printed out slides and it was much easier to follow. Here, printing is expensive. We've only been in class two weeks and most of us have spent almost $20 on printing. Yikes.

But I do enjoy the extra free time. Granted I have to spend a lot of time doing reading and preparing for class, but its nice to sit outside on a beautiful day, or have time to get in a workout without getting up at 6am like I used to. Operation beach body is in effect. Joining the school gym is outrageously expensive (over $200AUD for a semester). Looks like I'll stick to walking to and from campus every day, going for runs around the city and the occasional strength training. Lets just hope I can keep it up because summer is just around the corner. (Sadly for all my Americans, your summer is coming to a close which means you'll just have to come visit me and stretch out that summer!)

Adventure planning is going along smoothly. This past weekend the roommates and I grilled out on the Barbie and threw a house-warming party at our house. It was a great success and everyone had such a great time. Our porch is even more amazing than I originally thought and we moved all the couches to the porch and had a dance party in the living room. (I did most of the dancing, obviously) Awesome. We've even planned another party for this Saturday because a lot of our friends couldn't come to the party this past weekend. I shall introduce everyone to more American drinking games which have been a hit so far. After a group meeting tomorrow I'm heading to the Australia Zoo with a few girlfriends. I've heard it is one of the best zoos in Australia and I'm so excited. More kangaroos please!!!

Spring Break plans are also going beautifully. Hanne and I decided we're going together and its going to be awesome. While I could probably never top my American spring break trips . . . this one will make it close to the top of the list. Our plan is to fly down to Sydney for a few days and enjoy the city. See the sights, hit up the clubs and try to stay out of trouble. We're then heading across to Adelaide to catch a boat to go DIVING WITH GREAT WHITES. Great odin's raven I'm excited. Sightings aren't guaranteed, but the group we're looking at going with has the highest rate of great white sightings. YES, bring it Australia.

And the mom and the pops are planning their visit and its going to be saweet. They're arriving just after exams end and we have some big plans. They're going to land in Brisbane and see my lovely dwellings, my campus and this city I have come to love. Then we head up to Cairns, the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest. After a few days we then head over to New Zealand to Auckland and then Christ Church. Finally, we'll end our grand adventure in Fiji (AWESOME) for a nice relaxing few days before the big flight back home.

Best quote from our party: "Everything in Mexico ends up in America: Cocaine, Illegal Immigrants, Swine Flu."