Hello everyone! My apologies for waiting so long to write, school has been a little hectic since all of my "first assignments" were due around the same time. I have been getting good grades though which I am proud of. I am learning a ton about Australian culture, particularly the Indigenous people of Australia. The professor for my Intro to Indigenous People of Australia is very passionate about the subject and knows so much so I am learning a lot from her. For her class I have read a book called "Is That You Ruthie?". It is an amazing story of a young girl who is raised in a dormitory after being separated from her family into separate camps. Her story details the life of a dormitory girl and how hard it was for them to grow up under constant surveillance. What makes it even more fascinating are the pictures and letters she includes from the actual girls she writes about and grew up with. She now is married to her childhood sweetheart and has children of her own but her road to adulthood is quite tragic. It made for a quick and interesting read. I really encourage people to read it! I was able to skype for the first time with my entire family, it was kind of weird seeing my house and family :) I have started trying to plan trips which is proving to be kind of stressful but it is making me excited to start traveling more!

Yesterday I had my first "surf lesson" which essentially was Danielle attempting to teach me what she learned at surf camp. We were using her roommate's surf board which to say the least was not meant for beginners so I wasn't able to stand up but I did ride a few in on my stomach :) my roommate Michael has a longer and bigger board and he said he could teach me! I made it out alive with only a few sore ribs. I put up a picture of a HUGE wild kangaroo that was outside my apartment, it was the biggest one I've seen yet. There is also a picture of a beautiful pink sunset we had, it was kind of funny I ran inside to get my camera and when I went out onto my balcony there were about eight other people all taking pictures of it. It came and went within ten minutes so I'm glad I got to capture it. When we went to the beach we saw a convenience store which sold American drinks! A big deal when you haven't had "real soda" for a month, I bought a root beer and it was worth every penny :)

I almost forgot to mention they had a place call "roo haven" where there was about 50 kangaroos just hopping/laying around waiting to be fed/pet. They were adorable and so fuzzy! They were so tame too, some of them growled at me...just me...but they were still so fun to play with!

The other day we had a really exciting...terribly expensive...yet still really exciting trip to Steve Irwin's zoo! It was an amazing zoo with a lot of animals we had never been close to before like wallabies, dingos, koala bears, and huge crocodiles. We went to see a free wildlife show where they brought out three elephants, lots of amazing birds, and even fed crocodiles. It was all very suspenseful with the scary crocodile music. Their main focus is educating people on wildlife and ways we can protect the animals. I was also able to do one of the things I had hoped to in Australia, hold a koala bear! He was about two years old and not too heavy but boy did he smell bad. Their diet consists mainly of gum leaves which contain very little water. My clothes wreaked after holding him but it was still an amazing experience! We also got extremely close to three elephants who at the time were taking a bath. I couldn't believe the tiger exhibit they had, the trainers were just casually sitting in the cage with them playing with them as if they were house cats. Overall if was a successful trip, hope you enjoy the pictures!