Things I have learned today:
-I can make killer pizzas from scratch (thanks Momma!)
-my peanut butter pie with homemade cookie crumb crust is probably better than yours.
-I can frenchbraid? (and it says "frenchbraid" is spelled wrong, probably because I put the two words together, but it's funny because when I right click on it to get the right spelling it says "brainchildren" for one of the suggestions. ha)
-my bus will probably always be 11 minutes late when I'm going to school, but it will be on time for the ride home (which is at the 42 of every hour just in case you wanted to know)
(p.s. Thursday nights are my nights to cook at the house)
oh yea!! look at those!
I don't have classes on Friday. weird. I'm not really sure what to do with myself, maybe I should clean my room. I should probably go on a bike ride too and explore my "district" some more. I live in Annandale if you wanted to know. I may also see if Deanna wants to go to the strand...that's the beach in Townsville. We can swim in the stinger nets, because that's where we (probably) won't get stung by the box jellies or the Irukandji jellies (those are the tiny ones who may be able to sneak through the stinger nets yikes!)
We learned last weekend, though, that the jellies really don't wait to sting big animals like us so if you splash around before getting in the water they will probably swim away. Julie (my host mom) taught us this nice fact while we were at Maggie Island (Magnetic Island). It was beautiful there. Deanna and I found our way there finally after 3 buses and a ferry (for me) and a 30 minute walk that was the wrong way (which I'm sure seemed like a million hours because of the heat) a taxi ride, 2 buses and a ferry (for Deanna). We met Mark there too because we knew his dorm was going to be there. *side note: Deanna and Mark are both from UNCG and they are study at James Cook with me* My host parents met us in Horseshoe Bay, which is at the top of the island, and took us tubing on their boat! We got to wear some adorable stinger suits for that event that I'll try to put pictures up if I can figure it out. Then they took Deanna and me to the edge of the Great Barrier Reef and we got to go snorkeling! It was pretty weedy at the bottom because of all the rain (which is a TON!) but we still got to see some of the coral which was amazing! My favorite pieces of coral were a giant white circular one and a smaller one beside it that looked like a brain. I saw a puffer fish that just hung out on the giant white one! It was so exciting!!! It wasn't puffed though, which is good I suppose because it wasn't scared or mad. When we were snorkeling, we were a little nervous about the jellies so in addition to our stinger suits, we wore stinger socks and gloves as well. ha! I'm sure we looked ridiculous, but it was a success because no one got stung!
I should probably go to sleep soon...I bet I'll wake up around 5:30 or 6 am though, I've been doing that pretty much every day since I've been here...I think that AC turns off around 4 or so and then I just pretty much die from being baked in my room, but I have a ceiling fan! Which is VERY exciting! I'm pretty sure that every person in Australia who has a room has a ceiling fan. I love it! Sweet dreams to Kristen when she makes it home tonight, and I hope everyone at home has an amazing day!
oh yea!! my address here is:
17 Masuda Street
Annandale
Townsville, Australia 4814
pleeeeaaaaase send me mail!
and send me your address if you want mail :)
