No Worries

I can see my hair turning a lighter shade of blonde with each passing day. We’ve been spending the past few days here in Townsville doing orientation things, to get ready for classes to start next week. We’ve also been running around town on buses and in maxi taxis (they fit 9 passangers), and really just exploring our new surroundings. There are things for us to attend everyday; about classes, the library, and student activites. I’m actually exhausted, and really ready for a day off. Thankfully, I have tomorrow, Thursday, practically completely free. I bought a ticket to go to the Reef HQ Aquarium, which leaves at 9am. It’s the largest living reef aquarium in all of Australia (and I think the world too, but don’t quote me). I don’t actually know what that means, but I figured it would be pretty cool anyway. And since it’s a special group thing that we have, we’re getting a “behind the scenes” tour too, which I think will most likely be cool. And then, since we’ll already be downtown at that point, we’re taking advantage of it and are planning on hitting the beach for a bit. It's called The Strand, and basically it’s a strip of beaches and shops that line the coast for about 3 or 4 miles downtown. They have a really nice path set up, and some beach volleyball courts, and of course swimming (even a special, jelly fish free salt water pool). I’ve been dying to actually go swimming here, and tomorrow will be the day. I’m really excited for that.

I also got to see Harry Potter tonight, for the second time. I still love it. I think it is definitely a good movie, despite the flaws that we all knew it would have. But whose to judge at this point? They can’t fit everything, and as long as they are not wasting tons of time with stupid scenes, I’m happy. I went with a bunch of people from the program, and of course, after the movie I couldn’t hold back my “I’m a huge harry potter fan/nerd” knowledge about the books. People are finding my lightning bolt tattoo to be pretty cool, which is always nice.
But apart from the beach tomorrow, I don’t have any immediate plans. I’m sure we’ll be coming up with things to do, places to visit and explore. Honestly, that’s fine with me. I’m so tired, and would love just to sleep in. Jet lag sucks, and all this running around has me beat. And I want to be fresh for class on Monday. Which, by the way, I think I have my classes figured out. It looks like I’ll be taking 1. Introduction to Marine Sciences, 2 Cognitive Neuroscience, 3 Human Development across the Lifespan and finially 4 Biodiversity of Tropical Australia. Not too shabby, eh?
In case you didn’t know, the Aussies love their slang. “How ya going”, “you’re alright”, and “no worries” are three of their favorites. Seriously, talk to any single Australian person and I can guarentee that they will use at least two of those sayings in the conversation. I love it.