Alright.. I'm keeping up my end of the bargain and trying to keep my blog updated for everyone! (Devan's letter may have given me a little nudge as well!-- I don't want you to miss me that much!)

I've been back in school for a couple weeks now since my second study break. The last couple days of the break I decided to stay local and check out my surroundings which I unfortunately haven't had time to visit other than driving through with my flat mate. On the Saturday I took the train into the city with Jenn where we met up with her friend and checked out the sights of the city. To be honest downtown Perth doesn't have too much to visit. We went to the esplanade and looked at the famous and controversial Swan Bell Tower, saw the wheel of Perth (huge ferris wheel which I will eventually go on one of these evenings!) and walked through the supreme court gardens. The rest of the time we spent relaxing on a patio (seems to be one of my new favourite hobbies.. the weather is just too nice to be sitting indoors) and browsing shops. After taking some infamous jumping shots I said goodbye to my Canadian roots and headed back to the multicultural melting pot (aka the village).

Sunday I headed to the beach (Scarborough to be exact)... one of the many that are close by! My beach days are becoming limited as the weather cools off and we enter autumn. I can't believe my Canadian body is failing me.. it's actually not cold here at all-- think end of June beach weather in Canada. When you compare this to the 40 degree weather I was "enjoying" when I arrived, it makes the weather now seem like winter! Anyways, I braved the water in my surf "rashie" and board shorts to give surfing a second shot. I tried to remember the techniques taught to me in Surfers Paradise three years ago, but the swell was pretty terrible that day so I didn't get up. I don't feel too bad though, even the Aussie surfers weren't having any luck.

Fast forward through my first week back at school. Nothing too eventful happened... I went to classes, my basketball team OWNED, I slightly jammed my finger (it can bend now so it's got to be ok.. that's what I get for being the mandatory female player on a "mixed" team). I spent a day in Freo taking some beach macro photography shots for my one course and managed to avoid getting stuck in a rain storm by pretty much 60 seconds.. epic timing!

Friday I had a bit of a gathering at Little Creatures to celebrate my birthday (again..) since lots of people were off traveling on the actual day.

Saturday I celebrated an Aussie's birthday by playing some traditional lawn bowling. What a sport! He rented out the green at a lawn bowling club and we had some jugs and rolled some balls (jugs=pitchers, balls=lawn balls... that's how I typed it and it's staying that way!) Lawn bowling is actually quite hard because the ball is weighted on one side so you have to roll it towards the left or right for it to go straight. The overall objective is basically the same as bocce, but it is very easy to roll it too hard straight into the gutter which seemed to be my specialty!

Sunday I went into the city centre to watch the Red Bull Air Race over the Swan River. It was SO hot. Absolutely no wind and the sun beaming down on us as we stood watching pilots navigate through a pretty challenging course. I got there just in time to see the Canadian pilot lose the qualifying run for the championship. The finals were very competitive with final times being pretty close together. Austria took 1st, Australia 2nd and Great Britain 3rd. Overall great performance, check out the pictures!

Now you're pretty much updated, more to come soon :)