So I have been a bit of a slacker lately on my blog.. so here's a nice long one for all those who waited :) The past couple weeks have been a bit hectic, do you have to forgive me for not keeping up as well as I did when I first arrived.

I moved into my residence (The Village--- I live in Wattle Court.. wohoo Wattle Wolves!) on the 4th of February. I was the first to arrive in my 5-bedroom flat, and it remained this way until the 7th. It was nice to have a place of my own, and gave me some much-needed time to sort out things and unpack my life out of suitcases. At the time it was only international students who were living in the village, so I had a chance to hang out with a lot of people from all over the world (mostly Americans though!) I was lucky to have Pauline (a friend from Scotland who moved to Perth last year) around. She was such a god-send! She took me to the mall to get some essentials like bedding (I was sleeping in my sleeping bag liner up until this point!), cooking stuff and a cell (aka mobile). On the 7th I had my backpack all packed (once again!) and ready to head about 30 minutes south of Perth to Peron Point for my Marine and Estuarine Bio Field Camp.

The field camp was full on! I was expecting it to be a bit more slack because it was a mandatory component of my course, but technically started before school did. Don't get me wrong, I had a blast being out in the field and learning a topic that I'm very interested in and can't study at Waterloo. I was a bit overwhelmed with the amount of lab work required. We were studying two species of seagrasses and the epiphytes on them. Most groups spent the majority of their time in the field completing their research project, but my group spent about 2 hours in the water and the 4 remaining days in the lab under microscopes. I learned tons considering I knew NOTHING about Marine Bio of Australia and here I was plopped in a third year marine bio course with Marine Science majors!!!! My group was awesome and really made it the most fun that 7am-5pm lab days could be! The one girl was actually from Alberta! Whoooo team Canada! After the hard work we congratulated ourselves with a typical Aussie party.

On the 12th I returned to my "home" to find all the rooms filled with my new roommates! I'm living with:

Rina, a 21yr girl from Japan who studies Enviro Management

Sara, a 25yr girl from Sweden who studies Media

Rune, a 20yr guy from Norway who studies Chiropractic

Matt, a 26yr typical Aussie from just around the corner (aka our tour guide!) who studies International business

I am very thankful that these guys are my flatmates. We are like a little family and all seem to have very similar views on things which always helps when you are living together.

On the Saturday I went to Caversham Wildlife Park with the international students at Murdoch. The university arranged transportation, entrance and a BBQ (aka Sausage Sizzle) all for FREE!!!! So I definitely took them up on the offer. At the wildlife park I hung out with some koalas, kangas, dingos, wombats and crocs. After the day in the sun a bunch of us decided to go out into town and explore the nightlife. A group of us went into Northbridge area and went to a couple bars/clubs. It is so strange here. The clubs are huge and play a lot of music that I've never heard. (No Run DMC! lol) I still had a pretty good time, it's just different not going out with "the girls".

Sunday was an AWESOME/BRUTALLY hot day.. I'm talking 37 degrees! So I did what ever other North American did.. hit the beach. I just past Fremantle to a popular beach called Cottesloe. Sara, Macy and I went and we met up with my Canadian friend Sam from my bio class. We spent a few hours on the beach (I didn't burn!) and then went into Fremantle to grab some produce from the weekend market. I absolutely love Fremantle. It is a cute little town littered with cafes and boutique stores. Every weekend the market opens and on Sundays produce drops drastically in price.. looks like I know where I'll be doing my groceries! Sara and I finished our day off with a coffee (hot chocolate for me of course!) and just relaxed on the patio before heading home.

At night we attended our Village BBQ (they LOVE BBQs here if you haven't caught on!). It was mostly just a social event for people to mingle before school started the next day.

School began 3 days ago. Mondays are full on days for me.. straight class from 9:30-4:30pm. This will lighten up though because my Marine Bio lab only runs for the first two weeks because I completed the field camp prior to the start of semester. Tuesdays I have no class!!!! I spent this Tuesday catching up on my "to do" list. I attended a "Murdoch University Sustainability Team" (MUST) meeting too. (yes.. I'm still a nerd, even though I switched continents!)

Thats brings us to today. Today I had my Photography class and Marine Bio. I think I'm going to love my photo class. My other course is Natured-Based tourism, which is a super interesting class and we get to go on FREE field trips!! Australians only take 3 classes each semester (nice eh?). I'm currently enrolled in 4, and still kinda playing with the idea of whether I should be over-loading or not. Each class I take here gets transfered back as 0.75 credits instead of 0.5 which is awesome, but means that if I take 3 classes I come back to Waterloo 0.25 short and if I take 4 classes I come back +0.5!

Anyways enough school talk. The rest of the day I spent crossing off the endless "to do" list. There was a pretty sweet fruit and veggie stand set up just outside my residence selling local produce so I stocked up on some food. I love how they are going to come to my residence weekly.. couldn't be more convenient!

Well I think I summed up my lack of blogging in this novel! Check out the photo album for a better idea of what I'm talking about!

Take care,

Leah