Holy moly, it has been for-ev-er since the last time I blogged and I'm really sorry! A lot of cool stuff has happened since last time though, so let me fill you all in :)
I have been so bad about taking pictures since I've been here, but I have seen so much cool stuff that I have been saving up to tell you all about. First of all, the wildlife here is INCREDIBLE! The birds you see in the trees around school are those beautiful sulphur-crested cockatoos (yes, I did research that one!!) and rainbow lorikeets. Out here in Kapunda, we see tons of kangaroos also, which are hard to photograph even if I was good about keeping my camera on me at all times, because they move incredibly fast. The other day while driving on the dirt road to Andrew's house, he stopped suddenly and pointed out a snake on the road! Apparently it was a brown snake, and they're really poisonous and deadly. I'll make sure to wear my boots when I'm out on long walks through tall grass!
I can't believe the semester is already halfway over. That blows my mind that in eight weeks I'll be done with my "freshman year" (I cheater because I started halfway through) and heading back to the States soon after. So far everything is going really amazing with school; I'm enjoying it, making great friends, and the weather is starting to warm up nicely.
Speaking of school, I have been doing really well too. I'm dreading this term a little, just because I feel like I barely scraped through last quarter and the assignments are gonna be bigger and badder this time around and plus: we've got exams coming up :(
Fortunately, I've got some friends in my classes now who I can study with for exams and I only have 2: psych and English. I'll have to admit though that I haven't been keeping up with my psych reading so I'll have my work cut out for me this term.
SO MUCH has happened since the last time I blogged!!
Firstly, Andrew and I went on an amazing trip to Perisher in NSW at the beginning of September. It was absolutely amazing. We flew in on Friday and left Sunday, but those two days of snowboarding were some of the best I ever had. We didn't do much on the day we arrived; we checked out the resort and had a nice dinner then watched a movie and went to bed pretty early. The next morning we had to get up and go rent all my gear (since a, I don't own any and b, I wouldn't have brought it all the way down here if I did!!) We got out onto the mountain around 9am and went hard until noon, at which point we stopped to eat. The weather was absolutely beautiful, not a cloud in the sky and just a touch of wind to keep one from sweltering under waterproof clothing (nothing worse than snow in your pants). Then we went back out in the afternoon but called it quits when we both could barely stand up anymore. We had an early dinner at 6:00 and shared a bottle of wine... And due to that, we fell straight asleep at like 7:30 and slept through the whole night until around 8 the next morning. Talk about tired; that night was about the most physically exhausted I have ever been in my life. I was dreading the next day a little as I think Andrew was too, but once we got out there and started warming up, we weren't hurting much at all. We were feeling pretty proud of ourselves for toughing things out and around 10:00 we took... WAIT FOR IT... The "SKITUBE" to another mountain and boarded there for a while! The skitube was this super-cool mountain subway type of thing because (Andrew and I didn't realize how huge the resort was) but there are 3 mountains altogether and it's impossible to walk between them! We hung out there for about an hour. We didn't stay warm for long though; the second day it poured rain and by 2:00 when we had to pack up and leave, I was soaked all the way through to my socks and somewhat glad to be leaving the mountain for the day. I wish that trip had lasted longer because with snowboarding (and I'd imagine skiing as well), 2 days is just long enough to really get into the groove and having to leave just after that really bummed us both out. I think we want to plan on going again next year on a longer break because it was such a blast and it felt good to be relaxed and ready for another tough week at school. :)
A few other cool things that happened since last time I blogged are the toga party I attended and now a week of holidays to report on! I won't go into much detail about the toga party... Those who matter already know how that night went. :) All I can say is that the worst part of a toga party are the togas because they don't stay on very well and safety pins are SHARP as.
Now Andrew and I are up in Kapunda for mid-semester holidays and it has been really nice.
We kidnapped his little sister from school on Thursday because it was like 25 degrees (80 F) so we took Kimmy to the beach! It turns out that when it's stinking hot inland that means wind on the beach... Mind you all, it was still a gorgeous day off the sand so we just walked around and looked in shops after about an hour of getting blasted with sand. Kim and I agreed that alhough it was probably good exfoliation ;), it didn't feel so great to have sand blasted into every bit of your face, arms, and legs. We're all looking forward to the days where the water is beautiful and you can spend all day in the sun (as long as you wear good sunscreen and a hat!).
Then, Andrew's roommate, Evan (who is Canadian), came up north to see us for the past few days, which was really fun. Evan is a motorbike person, so he had fun riding with Andrew and I. I've never been so adventurous on the quad and I'm pretty sure I nearly died a few times, but all-in-all yesterday was a really fun day. At one point, I was driving the quad with Andrew holding onto me and we were going fast through what we thought was a nice smooth paddock, when the next thing we know we were like 4 feet in the air! We looked back and there was a massive bump camouflaged by nice smooth grass. Andrew was pissed at first ("WHY weren't you looking, stop driving recklessly") until we both started cracking up when we realized how unavoidable and FUN it actually was to go off of jumps like that. We did it like 6 more times on our way out. :) At another bit, Andrew and I were stopped and watching Evan come towards us on the bike. He was about 100 feet away when the bike just started revving. Andrew and I were both thinking "Oh, he'll stop just in time, he's justk idding around but he knows what he's doing..." Until he hit the kill switch about 20 feet away and gently ran right into the quad as he jumped/fell off the bike and over the quad. It was a bit scary after the fact when he told us that the exhaust got pinned and he couldn't stop, but luckily he DID know what he was doing and knew to hit the kill switch. If that had been me, I probably would have died... Whew.
Last night, Andrew had a few of his mates over for tea and a fire and we ended up getting a bit reckless with the branches... We discovered that we could take SWEET pictures, with the combination of branches lit on fire and the slow shutter setting on Evan's camera. We had fun spelling out funny words and making cool shapes in the night sky, and enjoying a delicious meal cooked by the fabulous Becker girls, Susan and Kim.
Today, Evan left just 10 minutes too soon! We got to see James, an old neighbor of the Beckers', herd his sheep. It was probably one of the most amazing things I have seen since I have been in Australia. James and his dog, Sid, could have done it alone I'm sure, but today there were about ten of us just driving behind this huge herd of sheep and forcing them down the road. The coolest part was getting the sheep out of the Beckers' paddock and onto the road though. This dog, Sid, is the most amazing dog I have ever seen. He is so well trained that it's almost as if he could talk to the sheep just like Babe did! This dog is the smartest dog ever. I mean James can tell him "from behind!" and this dog will go straight to the back of the pack and get those sheep to go exactly where James wants them. It was so... Synchronised and amazing and incredible and dirty and everything.
Next week we are going to watch James's sheep be shorn (that's when they shear off all the wool)!! I'm pretty excited because I like the farm life, minus how many bugs there are everywhere because it's starting to warm up.
All-in-all, I am really enjoying everything down here :) I miss everyone and everything back at home so much but I'll be seeing everyone sooner than it seems!
I've got a few exciting things on my horizon, including my eighteenth birthday. I'll be having Andrew drive me straight to the Bottle-O on October 5th so that I can LEGALLY BUY ALCOHOL. What. A. Novelty. ***DISCLAIMER: I am not an alcoholic, I just think it's so cool that I'll be able to order a glass of wine at dinner legally in less than 2 weeks (instead of in 3 years like I'd have to at home)!!
After that, I'm going with Andrew to see the Wombats (thanks Mom and Dad) on October 16. After that, it's the home stretch to the end of the year and I'll be back in California seven weeks later :)
My Aussie word of this post is... Powerpoint. The electrical outlets here are called powerpoints.
XOXO I love you all :)
Shannon
