On the Road Again

Well, we are off!  I am currently on the bus headed for Coral Bay, and I am so excited!  The last couple of days have been extremely interesting, and like always, full of firsts.  Yesterday, we headed into Perth City in order to rent our wetsuits and snorkel gear for the trip, but in order to do that, we had to drive for twenty minutes.  If you haven't been in Australia or England, then you don't understand how strange it is to get into the car, and look where you are used to seeing the steering wheel, and seeing one of your classmates instead of the driver.  We were definitely freaking out a little on our way over.  After we got our gear, we were dropped off at Kings Park in the city, which is a huge botanical garden and memorial.  We walked at least half of the park, which is three miles end to end, and saw a ton of strange plants and animals including parrots and the boab tree.

After the park, we headed into downtown Perth, and walked around the main mall area.  We found a Target in the mall area, and when we walked in, we found ourselves in a department store that could rival a Macy's back home.  It was huge, and you would never guess that this was the same store that you go grocery shopping in at college!  After that, we found a great Asian restaurant, and had the best udon stir fry ever!  From there, we headed back to the uni by taking the train.  We ended our adventure by getting a free bus ride back home, since the bus driver was off duty, but needed to make a last stop at the university.

Today was the last day of lecture, which was spent going over fish ecology and very basic statistics.  After lecture, we were given the rest of the day off, however we weren't allowed back into our dorms, because the program didn't want to pay for that day.  Instead, we headed back out to the grocery store in order to stock up on snacks for the fifteen hour drive, and then passed the last hour or so watching NCIS in the student lounge.

We are currently about two hours out of Perth, and have stopped at a road house, which is what gas stations are called out here.  Hopefully, I'll pass out in the next couple of hours, and the long hours will go by quickly.  It is eight thirty at night here, so five thirty in the morning back in Arizona, but since there is no Internet out here in the middle of nowhere, I might not get to post this until tomorrow morning when we arrive at Coral Bay.

KK

Here is a video of the crows here in Australia.