Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. It's been awhile. Like a month awhile. That's what happens when I start school again. Sorry Grandma. :)
So, Mom and I had our epic adventure; it was quite epic, and quite the adventure. We did more cool stuff on this trip than most ever do. She's been back home for over a month and still isn't done with the New Zealand portion of her Shutterfly scrapbook. She normally can whip those things out like crazy. (Hmmm, does that mean I should start on MY New Zealand portion of my scrapbook?)
What have I been up to? Not a whole lot really. Since our epic adventure, I've only taken about 5 pictures on my camera. I haven't been back to the beach yet. It got quite chilly here the last few weeks. Which I was warned about. They told me that August is the coldest month, but then once September hits it starts to warm up quick. I even had to wear my down winter jacket a few times last week. We had some Wellington-like weather; lots of wind and rain (but not nearly as cold!)
After Mom left I went on a 4 day field trip for one of my classes up to Smith's Lake, which is about a 4 hour drive north of Sydney. It's an estuary system (that's from time to time open to the ocean) that has various zones of conservation status, and our project for the entire semester is to determine whether these zones are doing an accurate job of protecting the lake.
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| Since it's occasionally open to the ocean, there's lots of marine creatures in the lakes....like hundreds of jellyfish! They were so cool. BUT there was so many of them, that as we were zooming around the lake in our tiny boats, every once in a while the motor went Bump! as it lopped off a chunk of jellyfish. Whoops. |
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| Doing some real important science-y stuff. Note; we weren't worried about drowning in 2 feet of water, the life jackets stayed on to keep us warm! (It was really cold out) |
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| More super important science. I was in charge of driving our boat, and only almost drove us into the shore like, once.... |
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| Getting our super important science stuff ready, also know as string tied around PVC pipes.
The Friday I got back from the field trip, the place I am living at had a boat cruise around the Sydney harbor at night. It was a good way to meet my new roommates (since I had moved in, was there for 3 days, then left right away for the field trip) AND I got to see the harbor bridge, Opera House and downtown all lit up at night. The apartments I am living in are university housing, but it's all post-grad students or final year undergrads. We also have community events ALL the time. Like at least every week there is something going on. Which is pretty cool too, cause it forces me to be sociable. The majority of people living here are international students as well, so I get to continue my international fun. For example, in my apartment, there are 6 of us; 1 American (that's me!), 1 Malaysian, 1 Jamaican, 1 Iranian, 1 from the Philippines, and 1 from Bangladesh. We are quite the mixture, but (so far, and it's been a month so hopefully will stay this way) all get along very well. Also, and I don't know how this happened, I'm still a little confused, because of all of our events, or just because they felt like it, my apartment has a mascot; it's a penguin, and his name is Frank. He makes a guest appearance most all our events. Weird that we have a mascot, I know. Even weirder that it's a penguin, just my luck, right?!
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| Here he is, Frank the Fat Penguin, in the courtyard of my apartment building. (Look Ma, he likes jumping too!) |
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| Most all the pictures from Hanah's visit were taken on her camera, this is one of the few I snapped. Just the Opera House from a different angle. Not that exciting. |
As you know
PEACE.
