Hey Strangers!

Sorry it's been so long since my last post, but you'll be happy know that I survived the crazy last few weeks!  A couple pretty big things have happened since my last post (not including the insane amount of homework), so I think it would be fun to fill you all in on the details.  We went to Rottnest Island as a group a couple weekends ago and had a really great time there.  It's a cool place to hang out, because there are no vehicles allowed other than the occasional island tour bus, so it has a pretty natural feel about it.  You take a ferry out of Fremantle to get there, and if I remember correctly it takes about half an hour or so.  In the morning we were sent on a photo scavenger hunt around the island on rental bikes, which was an excellent way to not only get some good exercise, but see a good portion of the island as well.  During lunch, a few of us got interviewed by a news crew about whether or not we would come out to Rottnest during the winter months (because who better to comment on that than the Americans who just got there for the first time a few hours before?).  At any rate, we're now pretty much famous in Western Australia.  After lunch, we split off and did our own thing for the most part.  A number of us ended up going snorkeling for awhile as practice for when we go to Ningaloo Reef over spring break.  Other than the part where I got stung by a jellyfish (which wasn't really that bad), it was a pretty great day overall.

The other major thing that's happened since my last post was our week-long excursion up north for our Australian History course.  We just got back from this a couple days ago, and it was an absolutely incredible experience.  We basically just hopped on a coach bus Thursday afternoon, and headed up north to see as much of Western Australia as we could until Tuesday.  On Thursday we stayed at New Norcia monastery, which is about two hours north of Fremantle.  The first thing we did after we arrived was go on a bush walk to try to get to know the area that we were staying in.  Then we found a basketball hoop, and a bunch of us got a pick-up game going, which was a really nice way to let off some steam after the stressful few weeks we had all just been through.  We followed basketball with a dinner of roast beef and cheesy cauliflower, and then listened to a monk named Chris give a talk about life at New Norcia.  Chris was really interesting to hear from, because he has actually spent a year studying with the monks at St. John's, so he was able to draw comparisons between the two that we would be able to understand.  After the talk, we joined the monks for evening prayer, and rounded out the day with evening tea.  Friday was the first of many consecutive early mornings for us on the trip.  We were woken up around 6:00 for a tour of the widely renowned New Norcia bakery, and we were able to see them making the hot-crossed buns that were scheduled to be a part of our afternoon tea that day.  Breakfast was next, and after that we joined the former abbot of New Norcia, Father Bernard, for a bush walk.  Bernard showed us all of the different things that an Aboriginal person would be able to survive off of in the wild, and gave us the opportunity to taste-test all of them (some were much better than others).  After the walk it was time for morning tea (in case you haven't figured it out by now, they fed us more than we could handle at New Norcia).  Then Father showed us the Aboriginal exhibition that he had been working on setting up for the past seventeen years.  It was a really cool mixture of Aboriginal history and culture in Australia that I found extremely informative.  After the exhibition, guess what it was time for?  MORE FOOD!!! We had burgers and fruit for lunch, and followed it up with some more basketball.  Then began a string of intense Aboriginal education in the afternoon.  The first thing we did was learn about Aboriginal language from Father Bernard, followed by an Aboriginal art lesson from a guy named Lester and another monk named Greg.  This should come as no surprise, but my artwork left something to be desired.  After the art lesson, we all headed across the street to an open field, where we each had the opportunity to learn how to throw an Aboriginal spear and a boomerang.  As far as I remember, I was the first person in our group to get the boomerang to come all the way back to me, so I felt like a true Aboriginal person (even though I couldn't kill something with it if my life depended on it, and that's what they're supposed to be used for).  After the boomerangs and spears, it was basketball and then dinner time.  For dinner we had cheesy potatoes, cauliflower, fish, and ice cream and jello for dessert.  After dinner Lester, who was an Aboriginal man who had been stolen from his family at the age of seven, talked to us about his past and how he came to be at New Norcia.  This was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip, because no matter how much you are taught in school about Aboriginal history, there is no substitute for hearing it from someone who was directly affected by it.  We rounded Friday out with some more evening tea (imagine that).  Saturday we grabbed some early breakfast and got on the road early to head farther north.  After a few hours, we stopped at a roadhouse to take a bathroom break.  There was a cage outside the building with some really cool talking birds that we were feeding, one of which tried to bite my face off when I attempted to take a picture of it.  We stopped in Geralton at the HMAS Sydney Memorial to eat lunch.  The HMAS Sydney was an Australian military ship that was sunk during World War II by a German ship that had disguised itself as a friendly Dutch trading ship.  The memorial includes a granite wall with the names of everyone on the ship who passed away, as well as a dome of metal seagulls, each of which represents the life of a lost sailor.  The shipwreck was finally found in 2008 after years of searching.  Prior to finding the ship, however, the city of Geralton had put up a statue of a military wife looking out to sea for her long lost husband.  Eerily enough, the shipwreck was found directly in the line of sight of the statue that had been erected numerous years before.  After lunch we hopped back on the bus, and eventually stopped at an Aboriginal rock art site.  We then headed to an old hiring depot, where convicts back in the day would have gone to attempt to earn employment, in hopes of ultimately being granted the ability to return to their home countries.  There was a big hill next to the hiring depot that we all climbed to the top of so we could watch the sun set over the ocean.  It was a great last stop of the day.  That night we stayed at a place called "The Old Convent" in New Hampton.  It absolutely fit its name.  It was a convent, and man was it ever old.  That being said, we were only there for one night, and it served its purpose just fine.  Sunday we were on the road bright and early again, and our first stop was at another roadhouse, where we saw a wild emu.  Our first REAL stop was at this place where they gave tours of an old Western Australia telegraph station, as well as of the stromatolites that cover the beach in that area.  Being a biology major, I definitely found the stromatolites more interesting than the telegraph station.  After this, we went to a place called shell beach for lunch, and did a little swimming as well.  This was a cool place, because it's a beach that's made up of nothing but small, white shells and it was like nothing I had ever seen before.  The next stop was at a place called Eagle Bluff.  Along with some incredibly scenic pictures, we also had the opportunity to see some sharks, dolphins, and manta rays in the water (albeit hundreds of feet away).  Sunday night we stayed at a really nice hostel with a pool that was located right on the beach.  The only problem with the pool was that I had been wearing my board shorts all day, which resulted in my going swimming without remembering to take my camera out of my pocket.  I tried putting it in rice for a couple days, but it is unfortunately no longer with us (which is too bad since it was new just before this trip, but at least it got to take pictures of some of the coolest things I've ever seen before it went).  Never fear, though, because the memory card survived and I'm going to borrow Brenna's second camera for the rest of the trip, so no pictures or picture taking opportunities were lost.  Monday was by far my favorite day of the trip, and I think pretty much everyone on the trip would agree.  On Monday we spent the day with a company that did Aboriginal culture tours, and got to participate in a number of authentic Aboriginal activities.  First of all, we kayaked out about 1000 yards into the ocean over a bed of shallow sea grass and dove for oyster shells that we could cook over a fire for dinner later that evening.  On the way back into shore, we had a number of fairly large sharks and manta rays swim directly right around/underneath our kayaks, which was an amazing experience in its own right.  When we got back to shore we ate lunch, and then went on a bush walk through a small part of the Australian outback.  This was a really authentic Australian experience, as we were surrounded by nothing but bright red dirt, bushes, and ocean as far as the eye could see.  After our walk, we ended up doing some net fishing along the shore.  Being one of the taller members of the group, I ended up holding the far end of the net and walking through the deeper water, which wasn't exactly comforting once people started freaking out about the manta rays that were swimming past them, but no one ended up getting hurt so it was fine.  One of the tour guide's wives had a baby kangaroo that we all had the opportunity to pet/hold while we were waiting for dinner to be prepared.  I ended up driving with the main tour guide (whose name was Capes) to return the extra kayaks he had rented for the day, and this was an amazing opportunity to speak one-on-one with an Aboriginal person.  Needless to say I was extremely happy when he chose me to come along.  For dinner we had kangaroo stew, fish, oyster shells, fruit, and bread that the guides' wives had been working on all day.  It was delicious.  We ate around the fire and listened to Capes play the didgeridoo.  It was an unbelievable way to end our last full day on the trip.  Tuesday was nothing but a driving day with occasional stops for food and bathroom breaks.  We left by 8:00 in the morning, and were back to Fremantle by about 8:00 that night.  Talk about a long time on a bus.  All in all, I think we were all extremely pleased with how the trip went, but at the same time are glad to be back to our own beds here in Freo.

I also have an update on the Ningaloo Reef trip over spring break.  IT'S ON!  Seventeen of us are leaving bright and early Saturday morning to head up north to Ningaloo Reef and the Pilbara for a week, with a number of stops along the way.  We've got four rental cars, seven tents, and sleeping bags and mats for everyone...it's gonna be one heck of a time.

I think that's about all for now, I'm sure I'll have lots to talk about once we get back from this next trip, but until then I leave you with a traveling quote from Lao-tzu:

"The further one goes the less one knows."

Take care everybody!