Busy Busy!

So I have been so busy since the last time I posted!

First, thank you Lash for leaving me a comment to come find :) I will def. let you know how all of the research goes and we better hang out a bunch when I get back (and I mean it!)

Saturday I took a "me" day and it was very relaxing. I slept in, woke up and caught up with some people from home which was WONDERFUL! Got the opportunity to talk to mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, as well as some of my amazing friends, all of who I miss so much! Then I went on a run up to the school and checked out the gym there... boy do I miss the RPAC at OSU! Holy cow this gym was TINY! Which I found surprising based on the fact that there are 44,000 students here. Clearly it's not a popular place to be. I mean it has everything you NEED but not nearly everything I wanted. I'm still debating on a membership but it's $150 for 3 months causing me to lean towards no. So then I ran back home and sat outside on the balcony and read for a bit before hopping in the shower. That night plans ended up falling through with friends so I just kind of hung out and did some work, while chatting with some people.

Sunday I planned on meeting with my research group for one of my classes but those plans also changed so I ended up not going to do that. I decided to go over to Bondi Junction Shopping Centre and went shopping for a bit with my friend Danielle. I didn't buy much but I needed a pair of shoes for my marine and aquatic ecology class that could get wet (but couldn't be flip flops). I searched around the mall for literally 3 hours for a pair that could handle salt water and couldn't come up with any sandle like things (like teva sandals) and ended up getting a pair of crocish shoes. I think crocs are absolutely ridiculous looking but I literally had no choices if I wanted to be able to participate in lab on Tuesday. Well I decided that if I was going to wear a pair of crocs I was going to get a bright fun pair and decided on a bright blue pair. That night I went over to a friends house after doing a bit of reading and we started on the first season of Lost. It is quite an intense show! We shall see... I'm not sure how I feel about it yet but I'll let you know once I decide.

Monday was a wonderful day. I went to classes like normal in the morning and then got the opportunity to hang out with some people I haven't gotten to in awhile. We had a chat and caught up for awhile and then decided to walk down to the Asian supermarket. I had never been in one before so it was quite the experience. They have a lot of things that I had never seen before, that is if I even knew what I was looking at! We ended up buying a few interesting items... banana chips, aloe vera drink, and seaweed chips. The banana chips were WONDERFUL, different than the ones I had in the states, these tasted almost carmalized. The seaweed chips were alright... very different, but I wouldn't buy them again. Tasted too much like seaweed for my liking, but hey, it was expected! The aloe vera drink wasn't very good in my opinion. And it had chunks floating in it too which was odd, and yes they were supposed to be there. I had a wonderful time getting the opportunity to hang out with the people that live on campus as I don't get to see them much these days :)

Tuesday (today) was quite the adventure. My marine and acquatic ecology class was held at the beach (can't beat that!) so my friend Moganne and I decided to walk there and hang out there for a bit. We didn't know exactly how far of a walk it was but thought we would take it on anyway. It ended up being 2.5 miles (thanks to my pedometer lol) and it was actually a really neat walk. A lot of the walk was done by boardwalk, some through neighborhoods, and at one point it was a coastal walk (through sand but mostly big rocks that you had to climb over). It took us a lot longer than it should have also because being 2 scientists we of course had to check out all of the little tide pools! We finally got to the beach and got to enjoy that for about an hour before getting to class. We were setting up experiments on the rocky shores to research the rest of the semester. So of course I wore the crocs and felt ridiculous looking in them. People had all sorts of shoes on but most people had sneakers. I kept thinking how maybe we wouldn't really get our feet that much so I shoud have worn sneakers. Well throughout the course of lab the waves just keep getting bigger and bigger (tide was coming in) and I was SO glad that I had the crocs on because at points the waves were up to our knees. And just imagine how uncomfortable it would have been to be in SOAKING sneakers. So even though I looked ridiculous I was glad that I bought them because my experience was very enjoyable. But don't think for a second that you will catch me in public in them! HAHA! Good for those of you who can pull them off, but I just can't (although they are fairly comfortable) It was really neat having class on the beach today, wish I could do that every day! Tonight had some friends over and we played cards and watched another episode of Lost. And Tuesdays are cheap pizza night at Dominos (5.90 for a large pizza, although their large is like a medium in the states) so we had that and it was cheap and quite delicous! All in all I had a pretty good day (despite tripping on a rock, falling and scraping my knee and tearing a hole in my nice looking jeans... sad day) but it was a nice fun day with a bit of adventure involved so it was fun!

Feeling like the luckiest girl in the world :D,

Val :)