Yesterday Aeren, Maria, and I took a trip with Monash Sport to Port Philip to see the penguin parade, but first we stopped at Maru Koala and animal park to get a little up close and personal with some cuddly creatures.

Although the park looked a bit ghetto from the outside, it was actually amazing! We got to hand feed wombats and kangaroos! They are so cute and friendly!! They let us walk right up to them and pet them…they acted just like family pets…it was great. So that's one thing I can cross off my "things to do in Australia" list.

I also go to get close to a koala bear….I couldn't hold him, which was kind of upsetting…apparently you can't hold koalas in the state of Victoria (I'll have to investigate this more…) but I did get a few great photos….

After the animal park we made our way to Woolamai Beach…the weather wasn't the greatest, it was a bit cold…but the beach was beautiful nonetheless.

Eventually we made our way to Cowes (yes, the town is actually named that!) for dinner. After having some cookies and cream icecream we traveled to the penguin parade location to settle in.

I didn't know what to expect here, but I found the whole experience to be kind of humorous. This park is making a profit of something in nature…they literally built stadium seating so people pay an admission fee to watch the penguins come up on shore after the sun goes down….mind you, it was a once and life time experience, but I feel bad for the little guys (they only weight 2 pounds!)….they just want to get out of the water and there's hundreds of people gathered around them….

Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures of them though…they are very light sensitive and the flash bothers their eyes…but I know I'll never forget experiencing this.

After a long day, we piled back onto the bus and made our back to Monash…

As soon as I came back to res, I crashed.

Today I'm off to the library to work on presentation and edit my essay. It's going to be a very busy week! And most importantly, my mom is arriving on Thursday!

Okay better get movin'!