Time Flies

Wow! I can't believe it was August when I last posted. I've been meaning to post more, but stuff has always just come up. Now it almost seems overwhelming. I would love to go into detail of everything that has happened, but that would just make me put of posting. So, instead, here is a quick recap of everything that has happened.

One of Jeremy's flatmates, Abby, took us home with her for a weekend which was amazing. She lives on a farm about 3 hours east of Perth. The scenery was absolutely amazing, especially all of the canola fields that were in bloom blanketing the land in a bright yellow. It was great to see a different part of Australia and be welcomed by her entire family.

For our first study break (yes, first) the four of us booked tickets to Cairns. We stayed with some of the girls going to James Cook there that we had met at orientation. While they were still in class, we had a great time entertaining ourselves and had fun with them when they were able to join us. I got to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef at Green Island which was beautiful. We spent a couple days on the beach. We went bungy jumping, which was a blast. Justin, Joe and I made it to the zoo where we got to feed kangaroos and hold a baby crocodile, snake, and, of course, a koala. Justin, Jeremy and I spent a day at the botanical gardens and the rainforest walk.

After coming back to Perth, we had three weeks of school before the second study break. In the middle, for one of the weekends, we had an adventure weekend put on for us by IFSA-Butler. The weekend consisted of abseiling, or repelling, rock climbing and caving, or spelunking. While I was nervous about abseiling at first, I had a blast and ended up going more than the rest of the group (most were more interested in rock climbing). Caving was definitely one of the times that I was glad I'm so small as I was able to wiggle my way through holes in seconds rather than minutes.

For the second study break, I went on the Northwest trip. The Northwest trip is a trip that is sponsored by Murdoch for international students who are on exchange or study abroad. The trip was 10 days of getting up early and driving in two buses up the coast of Australia. It was an absolutely amazing trip and I met so many new people. Some of the places we saw were Kalbarii National Park, Shark Bay World Heritage area where we went to Monkey Mia, Denham, Eagle Bluff, and Shell Beach and saw stromatolites, Coral Bay and the Ningaloo Reef, Hamersley Range, and Karinjini National Park. Everything was so amazing, its hard to pick a favorite.

This past weekend was packed full and incredible! As Murdoch students we got free weekend passes to the inaugural One Movement Festival in Perth. It featured artists from all over including, but not limited to:

• Hilltop Hoods, the top Australian hip hop act
• Sarah Blasko
• Kate Miller-Heidke
• Blue King Brown
• Fefe Dobson
• Tata Young
• Scribe
• Davy Knowles & Back Door Slam
• Tigarah
• Art vs Science--They were AMAZING
• Matt Nathanson

The festival was all day Saturday and Sunday. Friday we had a party at Cynthia's, a girl from the Northwest trip, and then we went to the beach for a little on Saturday. Then it was off the the festival to catch Matt Nathanson and we were there for the rest of the night. Sunday Justin, Tim and I got up early and headed down to Rockingham to Penguin Island. Is was a nice day out where we saw Little Penguins, the smallest penguin species, the Australian sea lion, pelicans, and more than enough seagulls. After that we headed back to the concert for the night.

I only have two and a half more weeks of class, which is hard to believe. Then for the study break (yes, I have yet another week off before exams) a bunch of people are going to go on a road trip to the southwest to visit Albany, Denmark, and other places. I'm having an thoroughly awesome time and with I could stay longer. I am coming home earlier than originally planed, but I'm excited because I'm meeting up with my parents in Sydney for a few days and then New Zealand for a week before I meet up with Jeremy in Fiji. I hope all is going well stateside and I'll try to post pictures from the past couple months.