road trip, day 2: wave rock

wave rock is SWEET

(R-L) kevin, shibs, me, april, chris & patten

honestly, wave rock was legit. pretty stoked that we made it even though the drive was 4 hours. the rock, made from granite, is 15 metres high and 110 metres long. the formation was caused by water erosion and weathering and was discovered 60 million years ago when it emerged from the ground.

we, being ridiculous and just generally excited to be out of the car and standing up, probably had way to much fun on wave rock and took tons of pictures.

(the fact that kevin is also an aspiring model/camera whore created about 90% of them).

a couple of kilometres down from wave rock is another rock formation called 'hippos yawn'. it's called that because it looks like a hippo yawning, for obvious reasons (unless you're chris, direct quote "how does it look like a hippo? i don't see it!") really chris, really?

we ended the day by watching the sunset on the top of wave rock. the view was absolutely beautiful and we were extremely lucky that we caught the sunset just in time. it was amazing, definately something i'll never, ever forget.

road trip, day 1: the pinnacles

today, a bunch of us went to the pinnacles desert!(L-R) anna, katie, shibs, kevin, me, april, chris & patten

Since there were so many of us going, we took two cars (and i got to drive one of them--on the other side of the road) here's proof:

We woke up at 8, met up at 8:45, and we're on the road.

The drive was relatively easy, took us about 3 hours, and it's honestly in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE! but the drive is seriously worth it. i've always wanted to see the pinnacles and i still can't believe i actually have.

When we got there, we were able to walk around the desert, and then drove around on a driving path. if there was ever a perfect day to walk around a desert, this would have been the day.

road trip this week :)

the other night we watched 7 pounds--such a great movie.

so so good :)

today, me april and kevin laid out in the sun, it felt great--it's been colder the past couple of days, and by cold i mean probably 60 degrees farenheight. i feel like jack (my grandfather) because he always talks about how cold it is when it's 70 degrees.

i'm PSYCHED because this week we're taking a road trip to the pinnacles desert and wave rock.

can't wait!

pinnacles desert

wave rock

the pong/board game/dance party

"i get by with a little help from my friends"

to celebrate the end of classes

(and to just generally have a good time)

we had a pong/board game/dance party.

good times.

breakfast for dinner night!

every once in awhile, we decide that we don't feel like cooking anything except pancakes...

this was how breakfast for dinner night was born

oh, how i will miss it.

a WA winter

remember when i left to come here and it was winter in massachusetts?
the temperature was 10 degrees with a wind chill negative that.

let me remind you what that looked like:

now, just for fun, let's look at what WA looks like in winter time:

i rest my case.

mary&steve

mom and dad,

happy 25 years of marriage

love you both!

xxx

finished

CLASSES ARE OFFICIALLY FINISHED!

never thought i'd say this, but i'm sad they are.

it means i'm that much closer to going home

&

leaving this incredible place.

rottnest island!

today was rottnest island day!

rottnest island is an island off of WA that is owned by the government--that means it is illegal to own land on the island (unless you work on it), and you cannot own a car.

our way of travel? bikes, of course!

april, chris, shibs, and i headed to freo this morning at about 9, caught the 930 ferry, and were on our way to rottnest.

rottnest island is known for it's quokka's, an adorable marsupial that is only found on the island. in fact, whoever first came upon quokka's thought they were actually oversized rats, and they're everywhere--therefore, ratnest, or rottnest. island was born.

but they're actually a lot cuter than rats, we swear!

the island is measured to be about 11 kilometres long, and we biked for atleast 9. i don't think my ass has ever been this sore--definately not going to bike ride again for awhile.

it was absolutely beautiful, though. the island has over 60 beaches, not including those overlooking bays. you can ride around the island for as long as you want and stop at beautiful beaches to snorkel.

but it was so fun!

and for those of you who have never seen a western australia beach, here's a video of one:

shibs was excited because he didn't have to bike for awhile, as we all were.

oh, did i mention april and i skinny dipped in the indian ocean?

--you only live once--

kirkland and his 23rd

lastnight , a bunch of us went to 'little creatures
brewery' in freo to celebrate kirkland's 23rd birthday! kirkland's actual birthday isn't until tuesday, but he's leaving to go back to the states on wednesday, so an early celebration was good!

he will be the first of the australearn group to depart

how sad is that?

it was really really great to see him, i've been so busy that i haven't been able to hang out with him as much as i'd like, but lastnight was a great reunion for the both of us! and the nacho's were AMAZING. seriously, if i hadn't eaten that jalapeno, they would have been even more amazing.

and 'little creatures' is also amazing! it was my first time being there and i fell in love with it. the whole atmosphere was awesome.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KIRKLAND!

i'll miss you!

freo, heave ho!

freo, heave ho!

freo, way to go!

hit 'em real hard,

send 'em down below!

according to urbandictionary.com, australian rules football, or commonly just called plain "footy" here in oz, is "the worlds greatest sport". this is how the rules work:


-it is against the rules to push a player in the back, but it is allowed to run in from behind him, jump up, stick your knees in his back, and catch the ball.


-if you tackle a player, you get a free kick, unless the refs decide the tackled player did not have a chance to get rid of the ball before he was being tackled, in that case the ball is bounced.

basically, urban dictionary took a stab at footy.

chris, patten, april and i went to a footy game lastnight and we were clueless.
absolutely clueless--as in 'what the fuck is going on' clueless.

it was so fun, though!

(and we got free blow up 'fremantle football club' anchors--which look more like fallic symbols, but we have learned to pretend they don't).

april's flatmate, shibs, was watching it on tv and saw us! it was funny--a cameraman was a row or so to the left of us and was pointing the camera right at us, of course we didn't think much of it, but hell, we were on tv in australia, so you really can't complain, eh?

The game was at the Subiaco Oval, only a 20 minute train ride from murdoch station, and it was the Fremantle Dockers vs. the Hawtorn Hawks (all the way from tasmania). Freo ended up losing, but it was awesome to be there! i'm really glad we went. let me just say that (aside from steve yarmosky and maryland basketball) these freo fans were the biggest sports fans i've ever seen in my life. seriously, i have never seen anything like it. it just proved the fact that australian's love their country even more.
it was awesome.

reality sets in

today is my one month mark to my departure back to the states. remember my last post about my one month departure date until i go to australia? i was terrified of leaving massachusetts, which is weird to me now because i'm so so comfortable here. if anybody reminds me of the time i have left, i suddenly get a feeling of anxiety. quite honestly, i don't want to leave here at all. i feel like i've been here forever and i love that feeling. i was talking about it to a couple of friends lastnight, remembering the first view of murdoch, when my australearn group first drove up to the student village in our hippie van. everybody was still confused about driving on the wrong side of the road, everyone had no idea what was to be expected.

i can honestly say that i am more comfortable here than i have ever been at bridgewater,

which hurts me to say a little bit, because i know i have so many friends at bridgewater that love me and miss me and can't wait until i come back--and don't get me wrong, i miss my friends there too, but i've lived in massachusetts my entire life. not much is different in eastern mass than it is in western mass (minus the mountains, of course).

but sometimes, you need to completely remove yourself from your comfort zone in order to feel completely comfortable with life again.

i know to some people this doesn't make sense, but to me, it does. i love this place and i'm planning on living it up for the next month. therefore, the next couple of posts will be about me taking all the oppurtunities i can, traveling all i can, experiencing everything i can, because i know now that good times can happen so quickly.

--it's time to appreciate everything here for what it is--

"when i was a little kid

my father told me to see the world for him.

so i took my things

and painted pink sunsets over the vast oceans"

-steel train

the learning journal, post 2

in a couple of days, my complete learning journal is due for EDU260 (the same class that the goldilocks performance was for). it's a lot of hard work, but i enjoy doing it if i have some good music to listen to (www.myspace.com/goblindpilot). the learning journal has three parts; the lecture portion, the workshop portion, and the reading portion.



i have finally finished the workshop portion (applause)! it seemes to take forever, but i'm really proud of it. after i finished the workshop portion, i went straight to work on the lecture portion. i have to say i'm breezing right through it, which is good--i'm hoping to get to the reading portion as soon as possible. the reading portion will definately take the longest because all of my notes on the readings for some reason can't be found on my computer. it's a mystery.

update: the lecture portion is officially finished! i'm celebrating with an episode of lost (YAY!) and then onto the readings i go!

lost!

okay, so now would be a good time to explain to you my completely and utterly absurd obsession for the tv show, lost. so i totally missed the bandwagon on this one and started watching the show from the very beginning this past december.

i finished season one (so good!) but then i came here and unfortunately, abc.com doesn't stream anywhere outside of the US. therefore, i have been completely lost free and i hate it. HATE it. especially because a new season started lastnight in the states and i am still only caught up on season one.

so i decided to do something about it. after months and months after trying to find a loophole and watching the episodes in australia, i found a site that works! now i can watch an episode a night before i go to sleep :)

lost is so intense, though, i doubt i'll be able to sleep...but i can't wait :)

uplifting song

whenever i'm upset (especially about the amount of math i have to do), watching this video puts me in the best mood ever. oh how i love justin vernon--honestly one of the most soulful, beautiful videos i have ever seen.

ugh.

honestly, i am getting sick of math.

in fact, i didn't realise enviromental biology had so much to do with math.

ew.

the learning journal, post 1

since my EDU260 class is officially over, i've dedicated my free time to working on it's final assignment (due 18 may). the final assignment is a 'learning journal'. The journal is "a record of reflection in and on learning through the arts during this unit including summaries and reflections on and intergrating lectures, readings and workshops". that description of the journal makes the project seem really lame and pretty boring. truthfully, it's been fun putting together a scrapbook of the class as a whole. i'm not going to say it's been easy, though.

the project is worth 30% of the grade and it's definately starting to get to me. i'm an artsy person and i like doing projects like this, but usually it's for fun--not for 30% of my grade.

and because time in australia is running short, i would much rather hang out with my friends then work on an assignment like this one.

no worries, though, i'm almost done with the workshops portion of this project. i've started the lecture portion, and the final portion (the readings) will be started on soon. this would be a whole lot easier if my reading journals weren't deleted mysteriously off my computer.

anyway, the pictures are of the learning journal so far. i'm not quite done with it, but the pictures are of the pages i take the most pride in. a lot of the pages are still lacking pictures of my class and my performance group, but i'm heading to the library today to print those out.

hope you enjoy :)

birthday weekend and mother's day!

the birthday weekend got off to a great start friday night, but waking up saturday morning and realising it was still my birthday back home called for a bit more celebrating. i hadn't been to the beach in awhile and everything was in favour of me going, it was as if scarborough beach was just calling my name; the weather was amazing, so april, chris and i headed out to scarbs for a mid afternoon chill session-and chill it was. i found it amusing--it's winter here, hello, winter! (and you can still be in a bikini and at the beach!) wow, i love this place.

birthday's are always great, but getting to celebrate mine in australia was pretty stellar, not going to lie. first of all, it's the only birthday where i will be legal before my 21st. also, my birthday came 12 hours before my sister's and my dad's birthday-when else will that ever happen?

we finished off tonight by watching movies and eating cookie dough.

a perfect end to a saturday beach day :)

and it's nearly 1am here, which means today is mother's day! so mom, happy mother's day!

hope it's fantastic!

a great birthday

i had a spectacular birthday!

what a great way to celebrate

surrounded by close friends in such a beautiful place...

here's to being 20!

a countdown to 20...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALEX!

it's official, i'm 20

i'm also minorly tipsy.

AND i got to talk to my mom, dad, and one of my sisters.

what a great start to my birthday :)

countdown to 20, day 7: one last tutorial.

'goldilocks' was a success :)

it was really fun and everyone did a great job!

that's my group: tegan, kaly, me, jamie, and carrie
it's definately weird, though--that was my last EDU260 tutorial ever.

onto other things...

tonight is the beginning of my birthday festivities :)

can't wait to celebrate in style!

a countdown to 20, day 6: a tattoo

today, patten april and i went to freemantle with chris so he could get another tattoo.

the tat? a nautical star on either end of his collar bone.

and yes, parents, i am still ink free

no worries.

xxxx

a countdown to 20, day 5: CINCO DE MAYO!

happy cinco de mayo!

& it's five dollar pizza night!

could today get any better?

a countdown to 20, day 4: happy birthday, mom!

happy birthday all the way from the southern hemisphere! it's not your birthday in the states yet but in australia it's been your birthday for a whole ten hours :)
i hope it's the best birthday ever!

& we'll have to celebrate when i come home!

happy birthday mom, i love you :)

a countdown to 20, day 3: banksia & eucalypts

banksia tree

show's how much i know about australian flora & fauna. i had no idea this is what a banksia tree looked like. does it even look like a tree to you?

i'm actually dying, i've been working on this bio lab for what seems like forever. i even went to the library twice. it took me approximately an hour to check out two books on australian trees. people must have thought i was nuts--i was looking at every single book on banksia and eucalypts and making photocopies.

that's right, i'm a freak.

but i totally got so much information, so hopefully i get an HD on this lab!

eucalypt tree

the only reason i know what these look like is because koala's eat eucalyptus leaves and get high off of them. that's right--koala's are stoned pretty much 24/7. that's why they don't move around a lot, they just get to sit there and look cute.

now, who wants to help me write this report?

a countdown to 20, day 2: a montage

a countdown to 20, day 1: kevin turns 21.

yay kevin, you're legal in the states!
lastnight, yet again, was filled with ridiculousness.
here's the order of events:

1. go out to eat at joe's seafood shack (and drink corona's with lemon).
2. kevin's flat.
3. sing disney songs on the bus.
4. newport.
5. see john butler hanging out on the streets of freo.
6. orient bar.
7. make cheesy eggs.

it was a spectacular day, can't believe it's already may 1st! you know what that means--i turn 20 in a week. crazy? oh, i think so.

hope your birthday was sweet, kevin!