April 5th - April 17th

Hey everyone...

Alright, so I realize I haven't written in a while...I know. I have been a busy girl! School has been absolutely ridiculous lately! Who would have thought I would go on study abroad and actually have to do schoolwork?!?! What a ridiculous idea right? Hah...anyway...I've been spending a lot of time on assignments over the last two weeks. I have one more due next week...wish me luck!

I should probably go in order of the last two weeks and let you know what has been going on. On Sunday the 6th, I went to Magnetic Island. It's only a 20 minute ferry ride from a Townsville and definitely worth the trip. Brendon, Callie and I rented a car for the day to get around the island. So yay...I drove for the first time in almost two months! We went up to Horseshoe Bay, which is gorgeous. I am hoping to have photos put on my photo page tonight as well...we'll see. It is a time consuming process...we'll see what I get done. If they aren't up, keep checking over the next couple of days and I promise to post some photos! Anyway, we spent a few hours at Horseshoe Bay which was great because it was the first time I have found shells in OZ!!! I was so excited...there are some pretty cool ones here! I'm hoping to go spend another day over there and just spend the whole day looking for shells! hehe....anyway...after hanging out at Horseshoe Bay, we grabbed some lunch at one of the restaurants right there. It was so amazing to have some Mexican food! I haven't had any since leaving home, so I was craving it quite a bit!

After lunch we decided to do a trail walk on the forts trail. I believe I have mentioned to you all about the wild koala population on Magnetic Island. Supposedly, if you are meant to see a koala, the forts trail is the best place to do it. On this lovely Sunday afternoon, we must have been meant to see one because right on the trail in a tree just to the right was this beautiful little koala sleeping the day away. Koalas sleep almost 20 hours out of the day because their diet of eucalyptus leaves isn't very nutritious. I bet you all thought you were going to get a biology lesson out of this huh?! Anyway, I got loads of photos....it was so cool to see him sitting up there. We watching him for a while and at one point he woke up and moved a little bit. We continued on the Forts trail after a while of watching. At the end of the forts trail before heading back is an old military building. We walked up to the top of it and got a beautiful view of magnetic island. We then walked back down the trail and watched our koala friend for a bit longer!

Once we finished the forts walk, we returned the rental car and headed back to uni! The week was spent studying, relaxing, socializing, etc etc...

The following weekend was the Davis Cup. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but basically it is a tennis tournament in which all countries around the world compete for the title. This particular match-up was a tie break between Australia and Thailand in order to qualify for next year's tournament. I wasn't able to attend the first day of the tournament because I had a lab during the middle of it. Unfortunately, this was the day that Lleyton Hewitt played singles. For those of you who don't know, Hewitt is a famous Aussie player who used to be number one in the world several years back. I attended Saturday's match, which was a doubles match. Hewitt did play in this match, so at least I got to see him play even though it wasn't in singles (which is his specialty). He was meant to play on Sunday as well, but because Australia had already one the tie-break he chose to let another player play so that he didn't risk further injury. I got some good shots from this as well.

The Saturday night of this weekend, I attended a party at my friend Lui's apartment. He is a member of the dive club. His apartment is up on Castle Hill...which is the big red hill in the middle of Townsville. It was amazing being up there at night looking out over all of Townsville. Absolutely beautiful view. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos up here...too much socializing going on! The next day I may have been a bit hung over for the Davis Cup, but I still went and enjoyed myself! =D

That's pretty much all that's been going on over here. This whole week has consisted of study and assignments. Next weekend is the beginning of lecture recess, where I will be away for 3 field trips. Don't worry...I will have lots to tell you then. I can't wait to escape Uni work and get to do some actual field work. My first trip we'll be collecting data on the coral species we chose with our partners. Then I'll be in the outback trapping/observing wildlife. Then back to Orpheus Island where i'll be studying reef fish behavior! Too much fun! Anyway, I'm sorry I don't have too much to say! I will write again soon and get those photos posted.

These last few weeks have just been work time, not play time...too bad. Lots of fun things to come...no worries! Miss you all!

Love,

Krissy
xoxo