Here at UWA, school is definitely different than at back home. I've received a lot of grades back from my classes...most of them in the 70s. Unlike back at Willamette though, these grades are really good. Getting in the 70s or above is like getting an A at Willamette. One special week, I was glad to escape this college student world on the other side of the globe and go in and explore the Australian bush (countryside).

I was heading up North along the coast of Western Australia from Perth to Coral Bay (near Exmouth...if that really does anyone really any good) with some people from my Residential College, Trinity. I was traveling up there with 5 other people, three of which were from Willamette and another was from California. I know some of you may be wondering who I was traveling with from Willamette, so I think I might as well satisfy you by telling you now. They were Amanda Jamieson, Ben Apel, and Kelley Lindstrom. We planned on renting a camper van for our travels from April 19-26, but we were too busy trying to find out if that was okay with everyone and by the time we decided, they were booked out. That's okay though because we got a sweet van from Hertz instead....those camper vans are small!! Tent camping is more manly anyhow.

On Saturday, I was supposed to start off our trip with the driving, because everyone else went to a big party the night before and thought it would be best for me to drive. I was actually relieved when someone else wanted to drive. After getting our sweet van or sweet size, we hit up IGA for groceries. I got some bread, peanut butter, bananas, oranges, Ritz crackers, 5 Be Natural Honey Nut trail bars, a variety box of Uncle Toby's Apricot, Forest Fruit, and Choc Chip granola bars, and a yellow Energy Vitamin Water. (Just typing all that made me try my sweet looking chocolate that was actually a huge disappointment...at least I had some Doritos to satisfy my cravings instead.) I love having the power to type whatever I want. Hopefully, I didn't lose any readers with that decision. After shopping, James got really hungry, so the group had to stop at this place with Hungry Jack's (Australia's Burger King) and Subway. I felt like eating fresh so I went to subway and got a Pizza Sub. It was delicious! At stage of the journey, we already developed a code. HJ not only stood for Hungry Jack's, but also for Hungry James. So either I'd say I'm HJin when I'm hungry or people would ask me anyhow. If you know me, the answer was usually yes.

Anyways, getting on to the second most depressing part of the trip, but it needs a little set-up to get the whole effect. A buddy of mine and myself found this Experience Perth website while searching for images to analyze for our Australian Culture class. We were estatic when we found a maze that had a 2500 sq meter Timber Maze, with supa slide and lookout tower, 2 pine mazes, 9 holes of mini golf, garden chess, a no left hand turn maze, not to mention koalas, kangaroos, emus, and much more!!! So yeah, we passed this on the way out of town. Upon seeing the sign, I was so stoked and thought it was the perfect opportunity to go! I wanted to go down the supa slide and left turn all day! However, our driver at the time and a few others, didn't like the idea. It was my chance....but it was no longer. What a sad, sad 5 minutes or so until I got over it. Maybe what helped was driving by all these stray cows...wild cows. That's right, there are wild cows in Australia....better believe it! The next 4-5 hours of the trip are pretty boring...much more boring than me telling you everything I bought at IGAs, so I thought I'd spare you.

FAST FORWARD!!

Welcome to Kalbarri National Park. At this time, it was about 6 pm and being close to winter over here, it was starting to get dark. Unlike North America, where we have deer to stare into our headlights...Australia is a bit upgraded. That's right, kangaroos staring into our headlights, how cool is that! Though Amanda is very short, she was still a very good driver and stopped for 3 kangaroos that found our headlights as the most fascinating things. It's like they want to get hit, because they stop until you stop, and then they hop right along. In the end, we made it to Kalbarri safely. It didn't take us much time to realize that our 3 Canadian buds were stopping there as well. We chilled with them because they are cool and we were cool too. We got some sweet pizza. While we were waiting, I checked out these cool fliers of Australian reptiles and fish. Some of them had weird names. Others were just scary looking. Let's just say that I never want to run into an Estruarian Crocodile...please bare my bad spelling of that word....it could eat me whole. The pizza was delicious, and I am glad I won rock-paper-scissors for the last piece. My stomach thanked me later.

The Canadians scoped out a place on the beach, and it was sweet, so we camped there too. It was nice and free, but may not have been the smartest idea. It was cold and windy....I guess what do you expect being on the beach in late fall? We swapped those childish romance and scary stories and went to bed. Most people didn't like the sand, but I thought it fit to my body well. Waking up in the morning, I thought I had some poor sleep...boy was I wrong. I got like a cold and uncomfortable 7 hours, while some only reported getting 20 minutes. Let's just say that's the last night where we didn't get a campsite.

I wonder what the longest blog message is? At the rate I'm going, I just may shatter it. Sunday. We hit the road after watching some surfers ride some mad waves. One of us REALLY wanted to get all the way up to Coral Bay that day. So we agreed that we could see the rest coming back down if we really wanted. It was a long car ride, but we were very entertained with car games. Ever played that game where you picked a letter and a category seeing who could come up with the most things to start with that letter for that category....if not try it...it's sweet! I think I like the word sweet today....maybe just trying to get that aweful chocolate taste out of my mouth, who knows. My Mexicana Doritos are treating me well by the way...in case you're wondering. Before leaving Kilbarri National Park though, we paid the required dues to go see nature's window. It was a good hike, and I'm glad I could get it in. It was definitely something to put in my Health and Fitness journal for that day. Well worth it too! Nature's Window was phenomenal...well really more of what you could see out of it. The whole surroundings were amazing! In fact, Ben loved it so much that he ran all the way down to the water. Upon returning, I could see why he was scared of crocks. I could imagine having one of those scary crocs I mentioned earlier sharing that riverside with me...scary!! After that, we were done having ADD and actually drove all the way to Coral Bay only to stop for restrooms and gas. We went so fast that somehow we drove past the Tropic of Capricorn. I literally was like Kronk from Emperor's New Groove...looking at the map...I don't see how it happened. Once there, all the campsites were full, though we were happy get an overflow emergency campsite that actually went for the same rate but really had more room. We enjoyed it..but without the Canadians...they spend more time in Kalbarri surfing it up...Surf's Up style! We did have some mean fish and chips though at a nice cafe there. We decided we better eat the mean ones, because it would be rude to eat the nice ones. I mean, what did they ever do to us? It was good, though mine was like fish and chips and chips and chips...I ate so many chips that night. I mean, as the human garbage disposal for others' food that they don't eat...I guess it's kinda my responsibility. After that, nothing like some fun games. We played one where it was like name the actor/actress...then the movie the person was in.....and then another actor in that movie...you probably get the just of it. Anyways, I am the worst at that game. I know very little actors and movies. They'd try to make it easy for me, but it still didn't fare too well. Though I wasn't a very good player...I was good entertainment for everyone...so all was well. We played another game about naming famous people and then naming another that starts with the last letter of that person's name....I was much better at that, because I could use my sporty brain to come up with athletes. It's all genetic, I can thank my dad for that. Going to bed was fun. The first night someone left my tent to sleep in the car because it was warmer and more comfy. This night, another person left to join the car club because Ash was snoring loudly in our tent. I told her that I was fine and could fall asleep regardless. Apparently, she was having trouble. From that point on, it was just me and him in the tent.

Monday
Early start...7:30 am. Apparently when I woke up, it appeared as if the tent gave birth to me. Once we all got all prepped up and satisfied our hunger, we checked for tours of this place, because supposedly it is supposed to be sweet, tight, outrageous!! Carly and Ben dug deep into their pockets to be able to swim with Whale Sharks. The rest of us were cheapos and took the glass bottom boat tour. The catch was that it was for the next day. Coral Bay doesn't have much more than a beach, so we totally beached it! I had fun. I mean, what's funner than sunburns and hanging out with the Canadians again. That's right...they drove up in their car that they bought down here and joined the fun. Even supplied some beach cricket. I gave it a go, but had no idea what I was doing at first. When it was my turn to pitch, somehow my pitches went from awful to glorious. I struck Amanda out by putting the ball over the wicket. I thought it was my skill of hitting it and knocking it off. Apparently, she hit it with the bat...makes for a better story anyways. Either way, I still got her out. Later I come to find out that Kelley spotted a snake under her towel. She was freaked out, but at least she was lucky. I wanted to see a snake the whole time, but didn't see one the whole trip. I know most of them are poisonous, but how cool would it be to say I saw a Death Adder...only one of the deadliest snakes on the planet!! And before I forget, I borrowed some scuba gear to look at this cool forest-like thing underwater that has a lot of fish instead of birds...I think they call it a reef. It even had a name, Ningaloo. This is where I met my "pink fish friend". We were pals. After a crazy day on the beach, I was really craving a sub from this sweet pizza place that I saw the day before. I was kind though and sharing a pizza with Ash, my tent buddy. Granted, that was after I got all clean. I guess I kinda forgot that, probably because it's embarrassing. Kelley finished her shower before me. If you would know Kelley, that is just a tad bit embarrassing.

Being far different on the drinking aspect from those that I was with, I had to be clever with some of my evenings. I would use water for their drinking games. It's a great way to keep hydrated! Anyways, I had to run around saying that I'm Free Willy...over and over again. It was embarrassing doing that in front of a cafe. I guess that's a good finish to the days events.

Tuesday
Ben and Carly leave for Whale Sharks. We daddle around for another hour before we can get on our glass bottom boat to look at the reef and go for some fun snorkeling dives. The boat was a tad boring, but it was nice to see some of the coral without getting wet. Snorkeling though was sweet! I tried to do it by hopping from the side of the boat. I was having too much fun to realize that when I do hit the water, I go under the water for a bit. So yeah, I sucked up water. The dive site was alright, but cold, wavy, and the water was a little murky. Didn't see much. Not to mention that Ash almost made me drown by jumping on my back. I kinda like to forget that dive. The next one was SWEET! I got in...and remember to hold my breath...oh wait...we had to go off the back of the boat anyhow...it was way too shallow to dive. But shallow waters mean more stuff to see! There was a lot of coral...and sweet fish. They make sweet crunching noises when they eat the coral...and if they don't eat the coral...they burrow their heads into the sand for food. Fish totally rock! I did see two long ones that were each long 2 feet long. Some light went off in my head that those long silver-like fish may be eels. I would have liked to try to be friends with them like the pink fish before, but I didn't want to risk getting stung, so I booked it out of there. Saw more sweet fish...and didn't want to get back on the boat...pretty much the story of it all. Like things though, my time had to come to an end...back on the boat and to the shore... only to forget my sandals. When running back to retrieve them, apparently the cute assistant woman, Hayley, brought them back to the office. I had a nice barefoot trek to pick them up.

Upon return, I had a nicer channel at the campground. I noticed a sweet thing on that day. Apparently, the farther you go into the campground, the facilities only get nicer and nicer...so yeah, it was a better shower. And at this point, I sure was HJin. Made myself a nice sandwich. Imagine 3 slices of bread....peanut butter, honey, and banana....cuz that's what I had. Yummy! Again, being on Coral Bay, not much more other than the beach...so back to the beach for the afternnoon. I used my rented snorkel gear to swim out far on the reef. Let Ash come along too.

This is when the most depressing starts happening, but don't worry...it will pep back up quickly! Ash wanted to go back at one point, so I agreed. Before going back in though, I was adjusting my goggles. They were leaking water, but it didn't matter to me, because I saw sweet big fish and coral. I thought I'd adjust them though...really didn't help. They continued to let water in, and before I knew it, I was gasping for air for about 5 seconds. Ash said he thought I was going to die. I never experienced anything like that before, so I definitely wasn't too scared myself, though I was concerned. Upon returning to the beach, we made the goggles work, but I didn't want to take a chance. Being the economist that I am, I weighed the opportunity cost of making a sweet seashell tower instead, and that was totally what I did. Great decision huh? My tower though only about a centimeter or two tall was pretty sweet. Had some rad shells in it. One guy must have thought I was bored (and American). Wanted me to fill out a tourism survey concerning the region. Being a nice guy, I couldn't do anything but fill it out. Upon returning the survey to it's rightful owner, Survey Dude, I was going to turn my snorkel gear back in to it's rightful owner, Ningaloo Reef Experience Receptionist. I got my sweet $50 back too. It missed me and I missed it, so it was worth it.

Hmm...maybe I took my shower here. I don't know. It's in my notes twice, but I know for a certainty that I didn't take two showers. Anyways, it was a hot, hot shower, wherever it happened. And yeah, Kelley beat me AGAIN! After shower time, we actually signed up for a true campsite this time. No more overflow, though overflow was sweet! Went to happy hour with the gang, listened to some music, and met up with even more Canadians from my res college. It was a sweet table that night. I even showed off my mad dance moves, including my new "fry-hopper" move. I had fun that night, though I could do without all the drinking myself. Has anyone ever considered making a place like that but without the booze...I'd frequent there often. Maybe I'll start one up one day. I'm actually a bit serious. It would be good. I actually think I'm onto something.

Anyways, I was HJin, so took a walk to the beach and then to cafe. I was really hungry and what not happy that they were only serving from the Chippery. Basically, I had a choice of french fries..yay! They were still good though, but boy a juicy burger would have been amazing! I played the not being seen by my friends game that little kids do on the way back to the campsite. I had some refreshing water and then hit the hay. But not really hay...just a sleeping bag.

Wednesday
For some reason, I have in my notes that I woke up early on this day. That's right! Ben woke up, so it was only appropriate to wake everyone up! If we were going to Monkey Mia instead of Exmouth like he wanted, we better get going early. And what a morning it was! We had to go to the gas station for fuel. Then we get going...only to go back to the gas station. Me and Carly weren't too smart and got rid of water on the windshield with our hands...only to leave..that's right...oil...all over the windshield. For driving into the sun, it doesn't make a great view. Carly was a trooper though and drove through it. She dominated! Once we hit the main highway, we got to turn right, and the sun was to our left. It was a long car ride. The tropic of capricorn we past again. It was fun. This time stopped for pictures. There is one of me touching the sign. I didn't think I could reach it, but sure enough I could. Need proof? Get my facebook pictures. My hand meets contact with the sign that must be taller than Goliath was...I mean, it's the Goliath of signs. We drove again after that....decided to pass up visiting the world's largest rock for some reason. If it's called Mt. Augustus, it must be sweet. I guess we had our eyes set on getting to Denham, near Monkey Mia. We got there, we found camping, we ate, and we say a remarkable sunset. It was so sweet that I found a nice rock to lean on and watch it set. It was a special rock too...only commemorating the founding of Denham. I think I picked a good rock.

Not much that not after dinner, but dinner in and of itself was something. When to check out this one restaurant. It looked cozy, old-fashioned, and a nice place. Too bad it was like everything was $45 and up to about over a $100. Had to settle for a cafe, but that's okay. It was fun. Got to give my order to two sisters, daughters of the owners. The oldest must have only been like 12. They were good though. Even checked one of our cards for a signature. Shoot, when I worked at Micky D's, I couldn't do squat but clean lobby. Part of it was that I liked it, but still these girls were young. So I ate my hamburger with salad (tomato, lettuce, cheese) and put some bacon and egg in there too. I was so good! So good that I had to get more. I was serious HJin that night. I wanted to get Whiting fish and chips, but when the pro girl cashiers told me it was small, that was out of the question. Apparently the Snapper was big and the next cheapest, so I took that one. Got some fries too. I thought it was $7.50 for the whole fish and chips...thought I was making bank. They get crafty at these cafes though. That was only the fish...read down the menu a bit more and find out that the chips was $4 by it's lonesome. That's alright though, I don't have a problem spending over $20 for a sweet dinner...though I do like cheap stuff.

After dinner, went back to the bar to watch some rugby. The two other guys were glued to the TV set. I had enough attention to play pool for one of them and catch my eyes on some little kids with a mission. It was a sweet mission too. They wanted to be comfy while watching some other people play pool so they let nothing get in their way. They took one bar chair, then grabbed another from another guy there. He had a good laugh. There they were, sitting together and watching these people play pool. Upon my exit, they even were gifted the cues to play. Little kids are so cute. Definitely missed my job at the YMCA then and there. Back to the campsite, because bed, then Monkey Mia in the morning. Don't be caught off-guard though. It has nothing to do with monkeys! After going to bed that night....I'll explain the next morning...say Thursday.

Thursday
Thursday started rough...I was gasping for air again. This time I was a bit scared, because what happened before recurred. Everyone didn't make a big deal of it thinking I had an inhaler. Amanda even offered me hers. I told them that I never had anything like this before. After a while, I was alright. I do thank them very much though for being concerned and checking throughout the day...and on such an early morn especially. We booked it up and out at like 6 something to get to Monkey Mia before it got busy. We were so early that we even beat the person at the toll booth. So no toll for us.....for the time being.

When we got there, they were just getting ready for their first fish feeding of the day. And yes, I know, monkey's don't eat fish. That's right, dolphins are sweeter anyway, and dolphins it was. I was surprised how many of them there were, though none were cooler than Micky. Micky steals the other dolphins fish and makes noises that are awesome! They have to coordinate the last feed, because if Micky is out of fish, he'll someone else's. After that, I found out that if you want to lose everyone, just spend some quality time in the gift shop. The only problem is then, you look like an idiot trying to find them again. No worries though, I eventually found them. Glad I did it in time for camel rides to....though we signing up for them, we had to pay our tolls into the park. So no more free admittance. Wasn't cheap too! $6 and not per car, per person! The camel ride was tight! (say it with rising voice...it sounds sweeter). The guy that did them had one of those personalities that you couldn't forget. One of our friends was going to take a picture, and he was like "no ride, no pictures", only to rattle on how that would draw everyone over for pictures. He used me as an example. Saying that having one or two girls after me, I probably wouldn't mind, but if 100s were swarming all over me, I would be too happy. Kinda true...never had 100s...let alone 10 girls after me...so I don't know. Anyways, learned a lot about camels...there's a lot so I'm going to do one of these rad things called a list...here we go!

1. The three camels rode that day were Maddy (ridden by two young boys), Digger (ridden by Carly and Kelley), and the courageous Camilia, ridden by moi.
2. Camilia is the best because she's 1 in 150,000 pure white camels in Australia and is the mother of Digger.
3. It was good to hear that this dude was the only one that has had no accidents with camels in Western Australia. Would hate to find out otherwise.
4. Camels can drink 35 gallons of water in 10 minutes...pretty impressive...but I can do better.
5. Fat is in the hump NOT water...water is stored in the blood stream...acts as a natural coolant.
6. Camels can't grab with their teeth. Only have teeth on the top (except for molars WAY back!).
7. Despite popular belief, camels don't spit. Too good for it...only alpacas and llamas spit!
8. They swim like humans
9. Can use front teeth like fingers..pretty crafty on what food they can get into.
10. Camels even when slow, get your back aching. Try to imagine them running...pretty suicidal then if you ask me.
11. Camels train too. Carry bags of sand for weightlifting.

It was a nice walk down the beach. The dude even got his camels to splash water for us. Not to mention we saw the head of a sweet shark when we were walking the beach. It looked like a manta ray, but was just the leftovers of a poor shark that must have been eaten by something bigger. The ride was over, but all is good. I have a sweet coloring sheet to remember it by. I'll miss my Camilia.

Upon leaving, someone had some crazy idea that I drive. They might have been regretting it when I was trying to figure out what this ding, ding, ding noise was...only to find out the e-brake was on. So I cruised us down the road and to back towards the main freeway. On that drive is the 26th parallel. Trust me...we must have passed it at least 5 times the whole trip! We needed gas, so I filled 'er up in Nanga Bay. We had to ring some bell to have some guy give us gas. It was a bit expensive, but must have been top-notch gas. I felt bad for the guy because he was on crutches for his foot, when putting the gas thing back for him, I accidentally spilled some gas on his foot, and then I needed him to hand-write a receipt for me. He was a good guy though...you tend to know that when his name is James. Plus, his gas was phenomenal. A bit expensive, but it got us far. Thanks for the gas James! It worked wonders. Continuing our scary journey with me on the left side of the road, the right side of the car, keeping slipping the left tires in the dirt. It was all good. After all, you know all ends good, or else I wouldn't be typing right now. On the way, there was a sign that said Sharks!!! Looked promising, really wasn't. You think if you hit the 3 exclamation points, it's gotta be phenomenal. It was a dinky place. Didn't even bother with the entry fee. Plus, we saw are sharks already. Ben and Carly got their Whale Sharks. Didn't mention this but glad to hear. The day before, we drove by Eagle Bluff. Saw some shadows of some reef sharks in the water. AND found out that gauno...basically bird pool was a valuable fertilizer at one time...almost as valuable as gold. Back on track now, both in this outrageous world record setting blog post and in the story. That's right, we were in a car and it was going. Again, not too sure while I was driving. Though finally, they decided that it wasn't a good idea. Not that I was a bad driver, but there are just better people, more made for the left side of the road and right side of the car. WELCOME TO GERALDTON! We found a sweet caravan park and found an Anzac Service to attend. Visitor centers are almost better than travel agencies...they hooked us up! At the caravan park, I had a long shower, but no worries, I didn't mind taking longer than Kelley this time...it was such an awesome shower. It was an added bonus that some teenager told me the inside scoop to the best showers. If you are ever in Geraldton and at the caravan park (and a guy), just remember, showers 1 and 3 are the way to roll. Sorry girls...I don't have any inside scoop for your showers. Maybe Kelley and Amanda could help you out there. After my long shower, it was straight to town for food...everyone wanted to find food and bar. Ended up eating at Mic D's. They went to happy hour, and I explored Geraldton. They actually have a pretty sweet mall. Bought that chocolate that disappointed me and some soft chew licorice that is long gone....it was that good! Also got some Tissue Salts from the Health Foods store to chew...thought they would help with the problem I was having with my throat. That night, played more of their drinking games with water. Boy, I wish I was with a group that did more activities that I like, but tried to make the best of it. Played a pretty sweet card game that night though...President is in the title...that's all I know. That evening, I was smart, and caught up on my notes, so I could share this with y'all. I went to bed late. It was almost like a covert operation. Wanted to get everything done, but not wake anyone up. I think it was a success...and I think I had the best night that night too. I think having the extra sleeping bag to lay on was an added bonus.

Friday
WELCOME TO ANZAC DAY..only like one of the best holidays in Australia. First off, Anzac stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The day celebrates the first time they fought together when they landed on the shores up Gallipolli during some war...don't exactly remember which one. Anyways, that battle that day, they didn't win. However, they are not celebrating defeat...they are celebrating mateship, courage, and sacrifice. It's a day for the community and for the entire family. Some people deck themselves out in their country's colors...sometimes with their country's flag....remember their veterans. They lay wreaths in remembrance of everybody, from the vets all the way down to the grammar schools. People from school are even responsible for singing and giving speeches for the service. Though it was for my Australian Culture class, I think I would have went regardless. I mean, they even had bagpipes and were supposed to release doves too...to bad the doves couldn't make it. After the service, I was HJiin so Subway it was. This time I remembered to get a receipt. I need to keep track of what I spend so that I can get reimbursed up to $300 by Willamette. Then we hit the road again. Saw awesome pinnacles desert that night. Kinda a weak and very small desert, but it was fun. Say all these rocks sticking out of the ground...some pointed...some more rounded. At one point, I tried sprinting the trail...didn't make it far, though everyone was impressed with how far I made it before the cars passed me. Ben wouldn't pick me up, but the Canadians did. I really was hoping to see a snake there, but no luck. Got a sweet sunset though. Ben was probably too busy wishing people happy Anzac Day...which apparently isn't said too much...just something that people don't do. Like people in the States don't say happy Memorial Day. Some people, us included, got a good crack out of it though.

After my sprint, I was really hungry. We found another cafe. I got a medium pizza for myself. It was a supreme, and it was SO good. The Canadian boys weren't going to get anything, but they really wanted a pizza after they saw mine. They would have to wait quite a while to get one though. I shared with them...they seemed to enjoy it. One of them was in denial that I had to basically say, you eat it or your buddy Andrew, I'm sure will. Sure enough, cracks a big smile, and says thanks James! That was the last night sleeping. It was pretty comfy, but my bed sure beat it the next day!

Saturday
Not much happened...packed up and went home. There was talk of seeing Wave Rock, but the rock was farther than the Canadian boys thought. So we just woke up early and drove back to uni. Little did we know though that some police looking car with a funny pink stripe across it would stop us. He was letting these two trucks with huge concrete beams on them go through. It took them about 1 minute from that point just to get to the turn. We could have been in front of them by that point, just if the driver of the one car would wait another 30 seconds or so to block us off. And seriously, there trucks went about 2 k's an hour around that corner. Then hogged both lanes on the highway and went 70 k's max down the highway. Luckily we had different places in mind. And before all that, had to leave the road to let two super huge trucks through carrying pieces of truck that is going to be assembled to work the iron ore mines here in Australia. We made it back safe, emptied the car, mopped it clean (we're too old fashioned for car washes), vacuumed it, and got it back to the car dealership. It was a bummer though that we had to get rid of our bug/butterfly collection on the cars front. It was sweet. One thing that we could get rid of was the chip in the car's windowshield. We were hoping it was covered. Haven't heard back from Hertz, so it must have been. Spent some good time talking with the family about my experience, unpacking, eating, and finally resting.

END OF TRIP!!

Since then (about 5-6 days), I have resumed uni, where I received a good share of grades. Also, found out a group project was done poorly when it was e-mailed to me Sunday night. I made the corrections that I could before the deadline, found out one of my partners turned the initial copy in, and got permission from the instructor to turn the somewhat revised copy in. (I'm usually optimistic about group assignments, but not really sure why, since they never pan out how I'd like them to.) Hopefully, he doesn't mind any textual references, because it has none.

Last night, had fun dancing the night away after 80s Prom Dinner. My outfit wasn't very eighties...but I guess that's alright. As long as everyone, myself included, have a blast. Just wish they had more food at these dinners. I have a big appetite! Today, I had a power flex class for Health and Fitness... The instructors were definitely in their crazy outfits. One had some nerdy classes...another a headband on and some stylish attire. I usually wouldn't be up for soccer, but I was. It must have been that I was already dressed for it. It was alright, other than my team probably would have fared similar without me. Plus, I wouldn't have gone for a swim and got scraped up trying to get back out for kicking the ball into the bay without thinking. Some other little stuff went on, but now I'm talking to you at 2 am in the morning after starting at 9 pm....5 quality hours typing away. It must be a couple thousand or tens of thousands of words now. Well, better go to bed to wake up for my 9 am lecture tomorrow.

Oh, one more thing. Probably going to be a Geology TA next semester...how sweet is that....and that's already on top of being an OD leader. AWESOME STUFF. Night y'all!

Cheers!

James Suchy

12:52am Feb 24th

I tell this to everyone all the time, but I just can't help it. The best part of being down here has got to be having summer in February. I know, it's normal for them, but for me...it's AWESOME!! Nothing like getting scorched on the beach in what is commonly the coldest month of the year for me.

Anyways, let's start with the dolphins!! So, I have to eat breakfast early and have all my stuff ready to go on the bus. I get there, thinking that I may be holding everyone up, but I get there and all is good...everyone was there, but can't really go anywhere without the bus driver. Come to find out that our tour guide isn't even going with us. She's just giving us all we need for our WU excursion before going off to play tennis. It didn't matter though because we got this awesome bus driver that was almost like a cool friend as well. He's very knowledgable of the area and knows of some very sweet spots to stop for sightseeing/relaxing. He also had a wonderful sense of humor. There probably is a better bus...well van... driver for me out there, but I would have to look a while to find him!

When we got to the dolphins place, I was hooked up with some sweet gear for my ocean swim. Being the weirdo that I am though, I put my bodysuit on backwards. Shows you how much I've gone snorkeling before. I also got a sweet mask (w/snorkel) and some flippers. Before getting on the boat, we were advised by our guide that we may want a jacket or something because we'll get cold out there. Then we just pulled the whole "We're the NW part of the States" and he was tentative, but he was a bit more confident that we could handle it. There was a baby in our group too. Supposedly dolphins get really curious around crying babies, so we would be more prone to attract dolphins. Once out at sea right off the coast, we say quite a lot of dolphins: males, females, and juveniles. The juveniles are my favorite just due to how playful and cute they are! Now, when we get into the water, we need to get a spot where we (really the guide solely...and we just hope for his better judgment) think they will come over too. See, we can't jump in right in front of them, because we'll startle them and that's not good for their health. We didn't see any, but hearing the ecolocation (clicking noise) that they use through the water is amazing!!

Another fun thing that we did was the Bushtucker Tour....don't ask me why that name, because I haven't the slightest of clue. Anyways, it's a canoe tour up the beautiful Margaret River. Myself and the other students from WU took a 4 person canoe on the tour. It's a very gentle flowing river, but rowing up it sure "tuckers" me out....maybe that's the second half of the name...and the first is just to say that there are bushes that can be seen on the tour. lol. Anyways, we learned a lot of history on this tour...a lot about this family called the Bussles. I don't know too much of them, because I really forget the study. All I remember is than Mrs. Bussle had 13 pregnancies until she had her first son and that she housed a LOT of people from a sunken ship (The Georgette) for a while. During the tour, I got to eat all sorts of Bush berries. I also put myself together some amazing Kangaroo and Emu Sandwiches. They both were very good meats, but I couldn't really distinguish the flavors. I think they were smoked too long that they just tasted like lunchmeat. Later on, we were in a cave, and then Ben Apel wanted me to try this smaller cave out. I tried going through it and after a while I regretted it. I had the WU Prof's son right behind me in the cave, rubbing in how he was just crouching a good majority of the time...as I was right in front of him, slithering on my belly to find my way through. The journey hit enough on my old knees that I needed to take a break in this small opening. I was so excited when I saw the light. The only thing between me and the exit was a rock that just so cleverly was sitting itself up at the very end of the cave as if just to make my already difficult journey just that much harder. I was glad to get out of there, but glad that I did it as well. I had fun poking fun at everyone that didn't do it, telling them how hard and painful it is...even joking that the larger openings in the small cave wouldn't be that bad to stay in for a while. Once out I tried to wash all the dirt off of myself. Stupid me...alll I did was get my shirt wet...the dirt stayed. lol. On the way back, the boats raced for a bottle of wine. My canoe was stoked at the thought of getting it. We lined ourselves up on the inside of all the other boats to have that slight advantage. Sure enough though, we faded to the outside for some weird reason. Come to find out that it was good though, because 3 boats on the inside clashed with each other. Coming in then from the far outside we rowed hardcore to the beach...parallel parking that baby and all jumping out and the same time. Dragged the boat out of the water and raised our oars to the sky for the victory! I tried the wine, but didn't really like it, but hey, I just like being a winner. lol. It's what it's supposed to be right? The American team wins. lol.

For dinner that evening, we had a good old Australian BBQ. Let me tell ya, people down here sure know how to BBQ!! We had hamburgers, sausages, chicken kabobs, and steaks. I ate like a monster that night....1 hamburger, 1 steak, 3 kabobs, 3 sausages...and throw some Pasta salad on top of that! However, that trend would continue throughout the week. If someone couldn't eat anything, they would just throw it my way it would seem. One night I went through my heaping plate of pasta as well as the majority of someone else's Fish & Chips. Since we're talking of food, might as well bring up trying vegemite. All 4 of us tried it at hotel breakfast one morning. The other really despised it, but I thought it wasn't all that bad. I didn't really like the aftertaste (thought it tasted like wine or maybe rum) but I could handle it. I also ate some tasty grub....that was interesting. I could feel the texture, but could only taste the yogurty sauce around it. Sorry if that upsets your stomach a bit...but I have to share that as well if I"m talking about Vegemite.

We also looked at Mammoth Cave...what a wonderful, wonderful sight it was. First off, it was about 1000x more cozy than that little cave that I whined about for about 15 minutes on the canoe tour. I could stand in it comfortably, and it was just spectacular. A lot along the line of how the cave was formed, I already know from my Geology course, but it always felt great to revisit the wonderful subject. It just reinforced what I already know and made me feel good that I have retained that info for about 2 years. Rocks and rocky structures....aka caves and the such are just fascinating...wouldn't you agree??

1:01am Feb 24th
Let's see....we also took this walk up along the canopies of trees...a bit scary, but much more cool being up that high! It's called the Valley of the Giants...just in case your feet get itchy to the sound of it. lol. We also walked a long Jetti....I walked it quickly with my turbo speed. It's mostly wood, so some parts are chipped and unstable, but as long as you're concentating on not biffing it into the water, you should be good. For both ends, I beat my group by a good 1-2 minutes each way. I guess you have to wait a lot when you have long legs that like to Go Go Go!!! There was an underwater observatory at the end. The coolest thing was the oyster that decided to stick himself on the window...don't ask me why. Maybe the smooth cool window feels good to him. Or maybe he just wants attention.

We went on a tour of forest and dunes and finally a beach. It's amazing how everything changed just so quickly. There is a forest under the dunes...isn't that something! It was a windy day so the sand really hurt...especially at the coast, but our tour guide was excellent. The vehicle as a little packed, and I just happened to get the worst seat though...no leg room and no view at the back of the 4WD rig. On the way back though, I rode shotty....it was niced to talk to the guide. The only thing that wasn't nice was that I didn't find my snake. They are deadly over her, but I just wanted to see just one...but no luck. On the way back, we had a tea...or a coffee. Being not a coffee drinker, I chose the tea. I'm not a huge tea fan, but if I'm thirsty and it's free, I'll take it!

Most of the rest of the stuff is cool, but pretty self explanatory. One was a lighthouse. Nothing special there, and if so, I don't know of it, because it cost AUD $5 to just go inside. I mean, I know what a lighthouse looks like from aclose. We also visited a lot of beaches...being from Oregon, I imagine that you can kind of sense what that would be like in 90 degree weather....or what's about 35 Celsuis here....that's me guestimating...hopefully I'm near the mark. I'm trying to get all my conversions down. One beach though was cool....it was practically two beaches connected together...the mainland beach connected to the island beach. It's beautiful I'm telling ya! Also visited and frolicked on the rocks around a huge hole called the gap, and a natural bridge made out of rock. I just think there is something manly about watching waves pound into rocks time and time again...just waiting for the big spash to beat all other splashes. At the hotels, we watched a lot of Rugby, Aussie Rules Football, and even some Cricket. I think the bus driver has helped me get a grasp on the first two, but Cricket has turned me inside out time and time again! I just don't understand it...and probably never will. I also say some Kangaroos from a distance...that was fun.

Anyways, I think that's it. I'm just going to leave you with some Aussie slang that I picked up on the trip. I"m actually going to aim to have five new words or phrases each message.

Hungry Jack's=Burger King
Overtaking Lane=Passing Lane
Bombies=Cannonballs
Chuck a U-E (sp?)=Do a U-Turn
Are You Right?=something along of the lines of "Are You Alright?" or "Do You Need to Be Helped?"

One last thing, please let me know if you don't want to be receiving these types of messages from me. Also note that messages that I send may not answer all of your questions. I don't have time to write everyone individually, but I definitely have time to answer questions that you may come across. Please do feel free to ask them, as I don't want these messages to get in the way of any interpersonal connection.

I hope that everyone is doing well.

James