Another two weeks has gone by and life continues to be as exciting as ever. Even though there were some pretty down moments, I have almost forgotten completely about them. This place lets you forget those downers really quickly and makes you realize how lucky you are.

Work took a slightly different turn, as I packed up my things and moved to the field station in the town of Arrawarra, about a half hour drive north of Coffs. It's basically just a lab that is connected to a living area. It's the only building on top of the headland, which is an historically important Aboriginal site. I was the only one living there for the week but two of my work mates were just down the street and another researcher came to use the lab during the days. My work involved samples of algae collected on Australian sub-Antarctic islands. I separated the algae in the samples from the animals (mostly tiny zooplankton, worms, and bivalves). It was tedious and brainless work.

There were plenty of interruptions though. When the swell is right, you don't work. So almost every day, Adam and I went surfing down at the beach during our lunch break. He's really good and can ride a wave on his big Mal (Malibu) board for over 100m when the waves wrap around the headland just right before breaking on the beach. He gave me some lessons but I'm pretty much hopeless. I was able to stand up a few more times but not consistently. The beach there is a popular place for backpackers staying at the nearby caravan park to take surf lessons. Each morning a group of about 15 people looked as pathetic as me.

I also went fishing nearly every morning. Adam showed me how to use a pump to collect yabbies (like crayfish) in the estuary for bait. With them, I caught and cooked quite a few bream and whiting. The guy in charge of the field station also gave me one of his guitars and I realized how much I miss playing mine. He also gave me a surf-ski, which is like a sit-on-top kayak that you ride the waves in. I didn't get a chance to try it (next time) but balancing it just right is apparently really hard. Adam was the Tasmanian surf-ski runner-up years ago. He gave up the sport after the judge cheated him in the final. Also in my spare time, I explored the tide pools on the headland. They had some really cool corals and I practiced using my underwater camera housing (check out the pics). I'm looking forward to spending another week there sometime in November to finish sorting the samples. It's a good break from the hectic hostel but I wouldn't want to spent more than a week there at a time.

Just before I was driven up to Arrawarra, I played a game of underwater hockey at the local pool with a bunch of people I work with. It's a really cool game where you wear snorkel gear and use a short wooden stick to hit a puck on the bottom when you dive down. It takes a big lung capacity and it's pretty physical. It wasn't until the second half that I even touched the stupid puck. It sucks being so bad at all these new sports I'm learning. After the game, as I was changing, my wallet fell out of my pocket and it wasn't until the next morning that I realized I had lost it. I got driven back to Coffs that morning and found the wallet at the police station, stripped of $300 dollars. All my cards had been cancelled too. So I went back to the Science Center and took out a $100 loan so I could buy some groceries for the week on my way back up to Arrawarra. I've ordered new cards and was able to open up an account here so I can access some money. The other mishap was that I fried my cell phone in the saltwater in Arrawarra. s*** happens I guess.

I got back to Coffs last Thursday and checked back into the really busy hostel. Monday was our Labor Day so we had a 3-day weekend. I spent most of it with the really cool people in the hostel. I have a Dutch, Australian, Swedish, Irish, and Japanese roommate right now. Over the weekend we watched the big sporting events. Saturday was the AFL (Australia Football League) grand final. It was between Port Adelaide (from Adelaide) and Geelong (close to Melbourne). I think the game is really boring to watch. Sunday evening was the big NRL (National Rugby League) grand final. It's the Super Bowl of rugby league (not rugby union, which is a different game). It was between a Melbourne team and a Sydney team. It's a great game to watch and many people think it's the most entertaining game to watch on tv. I won't even try to explain the rules, but it's a bit like American football without all the pads. On top of all this, the Rugby World Cup (rugby union) is going on right now, which the director of the Science Center is obsessed about.

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging around the beaches and jetty with the hostel people. One evening we cooked a bunch of flathead fish together on the grill that a guy had caught on a charter boat. We all shared the fish and ate outside in the courtyard. Summer has definitely arrived (there is no spring here) and it's getting hot (though not really humid).

I still get up early every morning. A few days ago, a fisherman handed me a shovelnose shark right off the boat to take home and eat. It was really good and best of all there were no bones. Another morning I was handlining (fishing with just a spool of line) and hooked a sting ray. I fought it for 10 minutes before it broke loose (it gave me a nice scar on my arm from the line burning off the spool when the fish ran). Yesterday morning I caught up with Henry the fisherman again and he gave me his spare rod. I caught a really pretty 3 kilo Australian salmon, which I gave him to eat (he needs the protein and omega-3s for his body-building). This morning I woke up as usual but was surprised by several humpback whales that came really close in to the harbor. They put on a show by breaching and slapping their fins over and over. It was pretty awesome (check out the pics).

Well there's a lot to look forward to as usual and you'll hear all about it next time!