Moon party and mud wrestling

It's been another amazing week in Australia. Not much happened during the beginning of the week, apart from winning at trivia night. It was mostly going to class and trying to get my work done early in the week so I could enjoy the weekend. I will say that Wednesday night was awesome though. It was the first night of ultimate Frisbee, and it was the first time in about 10 months that I got to step onto a field and play for a bit. The practice was mostly just learning to throw and then attempting a really messy scrimmage at the end. But it felt amazing to play. My knee feels really good and strong, and it's just going to be getting back into shape and learning to actually play the game. I'm not ready for any marathons yet, but it felt like a big accomplishment for me.


My only class on Thursday was rescheduled, which left me an entire off to do whatever I wanted. Kiara, Francesca and myself decided to hit the beach for the day. It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm. The water was a tad chilly for what you might expect for Australia, but it was still really nice and refreshing.

For Friday night, all my Arcadia friends (And tons of other JCU people too) had bought tickets to get into the Full Moon Party that was being held on Magnetic Island (just off the coast of Townsville). It sounded like it would be really cool and that it would be a lot of fun, but sadly, I didn't think so. Instead of the cool beachy party that I was expecting (tiki torches, island jams and fruity cocktails), it was just this techno rave type party at a bar that had 10 drink choices and they were all overpriced and bad. It was a big disappointment, since it took us two buses and a ferry to get there, plus a 15$ cover charge. Oh well. The island was really cool though, and I definitely plan on going back there. Beautiful beaches, and some pretty cool hiking trails.

Saturday definitely made up for Friday night. After only 3 hours of sleep, our entire dorm building was woken up at 6:00am to get up and go run a 5K. The incentive was that if you went, you'd get into the all-day keg party that we were throwing for 10$. So, we all got up and ran (walked) the 5K. It was actually a really nice walk, and I didn't mind it at all, once I was out of bed of course. After a nap, we went to the lawn party, and it was a blast. They even had little kiddie swimming pools set up, and a home made slip-n-slide. All the water on the ground ended up leaving a giant mud puddle, into which about 50 people (myself included) decided it would be fun to play in. It was such a great time, and it was definitely worth getting covered in mud. Only downfall was getting pushed into a swimming pool with my Australian cell phone :( but there isn't much I can do about it now. After the mud puddle, everyone ran back inside to get showers so that we could be ready for the concert they were having on campus. I really enjoyed the Australian- accented rock band. It was a really nice change from all the techno- dance music, and it was also a ton of fun.

And today. No plans for the rest of the night (relaxinggg), but this morning was really nice. We went downtown to go to the farmer's market/ arts and craft market, and then got some gelato and sat on the beach. And I bought some crazy feathery headbands and stuff at the mall on the way back. Pretty cool! I'm excited for next weekend though; they are throwing a really big Cultural Fest all weekend. I bet it will be really awesome. The market today was even really cool.

Really, there isn't anything too too exciting to write about, but I still feel like I'm doing so much and having so much fun. Everyday we find out about something cool to do in the future. Like, there are rope swings that go into the nearby river, and I still really want to hike up Castle Hill. There really is so much to do, and I love that I get to stay here to keep experiencing it. It's the little things that we've been doing that I enjoy the most!