Well life continues to be as great as ever.The past weeks have brought some of the best memories of the trip so far.I met (and said goodbye to) some really nice people.

I'll start with work as usual.We are finally doing some science.I went diving for the first time in the marine park and it was totally awesome.I collected urchins for my project but there was so much more to see.There was a huge blue groper trying to make friends with me and seemed to enjoy me petting him.A sea turtle let me grab his shell.There were many wobbegong sharks (lame sharks that sit on the bottom) and lots of big cod.If the weather holds up I will get to go again on Thursday.I go snorkeling for work fairly often and have seen octopus, a school of hundreds of whiting, an abalone that my supervisor took home to eat, and many sting rays.

We were successful in spawning the urchins and we are now growing up urchin larvae in the hatchery.I have to look after the larvae every day, including feeding them algae, counting them, and making sure their water stays clean.It's really time consuming work to count the larvae and algae.My job is to find out which species of algae they grow fastest on.These urchins are important because the Japanese eat their roe (eggs) for $400/kilo.If we could figure out a way to make them develop quickly in culture then we could prevent people from depleting the wild stocks.The project is proving to be pretty hard because our larvae are dying for some unknown reason.

A couple of weekends ago we had on open day for the public at the center.We played host to many families and little kiddies as they came to see what goes on at the center.I was at the touch tank explaining a thousand times what all the animals were.

Outside of work life has been so much fun.For about two weeks in the hostel there was a group of about 7 people and we all got along really well.There were 2 Germans, 2 Israelis, a Briton, a Spaniard, and a Dutch guy.Most of them were here on a working holiday visa (for 1 year) and stayed here to pick blueberries (fruit picking is a backpacker's job) because they had run out of money.I took some of them fishing and we ate the fish together, we played soccer on the beach in the evenings, and spent all of our weekends on the beach and eating ice cream.

Last Saturday was the federal election.A bloke from the Labor Party (the minority party at the time) had come around the hostel asking for 20 people to hand out pamphlets for the party during the election for $100.We all signed up and campaigned for a party we knew nothing about and some of us could only speak broken English.It was interesting to learn about the political process.Not everybody votes for prime minister.You only vote for local congressional candidates.The PM candidate belonging to the majority party in Congress becomes PM.The National/Liberal coalition had been in power (with John Howard as PM) for the past 11 years but he was replaced by Kevin Rudd of the Labor Party this year.

After campaigning we all went to the afterparty for our local Labor Party candidate.It was in a really nice clubhouse on top of a hill overlooking the ocean.All the food and drinks were paid for.We were so spoiled and his wife got so drunk and rowdy around us.We all went in the ocean afterwards and somehow found our way back home.It was sad to see them go and I really wanted to go on to ByronBay with a few of them.That day was my best memory so far.

Otherwise, I've been getting involved in a tennis club here.We have social tennis on Saturdays and comp on Tuesday nights.I played singles and doubles with my partner in a weekend tournament.We got an unlucky draw in doubles and had to play two coaches in the first round.We played a pro-set (first to 9 games here) and lost in a tiebreak at 8 all.I lost my second round of singles and blame it entirely on the surface.Even worse than the turf and sand is what they call clay here.It is totally dried out dirt and they water it before every match (it usually dries out before we're done warming up).Trying to change directions on it is pretty much impossible and a drop shot is a guaranteed winner every time.The chalk they spray on for lines before every match also blows away before the end of warm-up.It was pretty ghetto.

As my tennis game goes downhill, I am getting a lot better at surfing.I can stand up consistently and ride an entire wave.I finally caught a wave before it broke and the acceleration was pretty sweet.The water is warm enough to just wear board shorts now, making it a lot less tiring to paddle.I go surfing with my supervisor after work about once a week.It's really cool how surfing is a common denominator for everybody here.Some are more hardcore than others but everybody loves it.I think Australians are such good mates with each other because they enjoy doing the same things.

I have been going to church fairly regularly.The bands, games, and discussion forums they have make it really fun to go but I still feel a bit awkward.Everybody is extremely nice and welcoming and super gung-ho about religion.It kind of freaks me out but I always meet cool people.

I also made it to another twilight sailing race.It was a really nice evening with 15 knots of wind and it would have been really fun if the skipper wasn't such baby.We made a couple mistakes during the race that put us back and he threw a fit, cursing and saying that we should retire.He sat in the cabin and drank beer without saying a word for the rest of the race.He and his wife are doing a really competitive offshore race from Sydney to Coffs in a few weeks so I guess that is why they were so anal.

Well that's it for now.I'll be more posting pictures soon but for now I put a few from my work up.I'll tell you what the next few weeks bring next time!