Day 107, Joondalup Australia

Yeah today ROCKED!!!! But first let me tell you about my week. Monday I had a super boring lecture and worked on my Prac portfolio all weekend so I didn't do my other assignment that was due Tuesday which includes a poster for a presentation and a 1000 word essay. Yeah so Monday I got back from class around 3 and met Rene at 4 who has the same class as me on Tuesday so we worked on our posters and papers until 1 in the morn. Yeah good times. Tuesday was the last day of Marketing tute!!!! I am soooo glad for this because I extremely dislike my tutor but she turned out to not be to bad. Anyway, In the class we had to present in I felt pretty confident so I presented first and it was really good I felt really informed about my topic which was human impacts on the earth and I used several examples of how we impact animals like the island effect, changing ecosystems, warmer climates, and petting, holding, feeding and riding animals. It was really cool. When I was done someone said "How am I suppose to follow that up!?" It was cool. Everyone's was really interesting and I learned a bit. I know surprising huh?! haha. I received a cold after the stress, lack of sleep, and eating unhealthy trying to finish off all my food before I leave which is TUESDAY!!!! Anyway, Wed was great, last class which was pretty fun, we just listened to presentations on bike trips. They were really entertaining. I pretty much studied and laid in the sun for Wed, Thurs, and Fri. OH on Wednesday Nichole, Christen and I had to teach an institute class and we rocked it!!! I talked about patience and believe me I learned my lessons in that this week. Friday night which was awesome because Christen, who I'm traveling with, from Washington as well, planned a night of fun!! We went bowling at this sweet place!! They had a bunch of neon lights and black lights and awesome music. It was really fun. I sucked the first few bowls then I got like 2 strikes in a row, a few spares and then I gave time for the others to catch up and ended up coming in second! After this we headed to the beach down at literville and ran away from the waves and talked. Oh sorry, who else was there, a girl from church that I drive to institute with. One of her friends, and these 2 other guys who are brothers and they are awesome!!! After the beach Christen came over and we watched Dirty Dancing!!! Then she said, "I look sooo good" which reminded me of www.homestarrunner.com or strongbad or teen girl squad. It was awesome, we both freaked out that the other knew about it and then we quoted it and laughed for awhile then she headed home, it was about 2:15 am by this time and I decided to visit Adam because his light was on. Adam is unique, I have never met anyone like him, he is super HYPER like ADD but he doesn't have ADD. He always laughs and has the WORST jokes and pick up lines, its so funny though cuz he is laughing. He has such high energy its really contagious. So him and his friend Daniel were just hanging out listening to music and Adam said they were going to go surfing on Saturday and asked if I wanted to come so I put it on the hand scale, (put hands out to sides and think) so I thought hmmm, on one hand, study, on the other, surfing. Of course you know what I picked. I told him to come wake me up when they go. Attempted to sleep but watched teen girl squad until 3.

Saturday, of course up early haha, 10 ish. Went running, did my laundry and studied for 2 hours like a good girl then saw Adam and he said they were going at 1:30 which was perfect cuz I was going climbing with Rene and Jasmin at 3:30 ish. The beach was B-E-A-U-TIFUL!!!!! I cannot stop smiling every time I see it!!!! I took heaps of pics and vids so no worries! I decided to go swimming and then Daniel let me try his body board, Yeah I caught a sweet wave and whipped out a couple times. It rocked!!! We were there for 2 hours, the only bad thing - my shorts rubbed against my leg so much it is raw. I mean anything that touches it BURNS like crazy. Oh the bathroom was so cool by the beach!!! You push a button to get in and out and it’s a sliding door and when you are in it elevator music plays!!! And it has an automatic sink and when u use it the toilet flushes, how cool is that. Anyway we headed back, took a shower and left to get Jasmin at the train station. We climbed for a good 2 hours. It was awesome. I am up to 15-16's and I used to only be able to do 12's!!!! Rene is really good at it and he want to take it up as a sport. (You can imagine I am necked(really tired) by now. We went to the bomb Indian restaurant and I had potatoes wrapped in a pancake! It was super. We caught the train home and were going to watch Lord of the Rings 3 because it was suppose to be on TV but no such luck, so we settled for the mummy. Anyway it was the best day, really. I just feel so tired now and its already 1:15. I can't believe I only have 2 days left here. It's crazy, holy crap I have to pack!!! I saw Ted Stevens a senator from Alaska on TV!!! He was talking about the issue of opening the gas pipeline. I watched the debate between a lady who lives in Anchorage but is in charge of the welfare of a bunch of villages or something like that, and a man who is the president of a small village in ANWR. It was really interesting and I have been thinking about it a lot. We need to find an alternate form of energy and not the let the petrol companies control when we implement it. I know it would be a big blow to our economy by losing all the petrol station jobs and companies but really, which comes first, the world, or jobs. People can have jobs working on renewable energy anyway. Well hopefully Bush can make ONE smart decision. We will see though. Anyway, Lots to do so little time!!! I am missing snow!!!

Yellow Jelly beans and Rod Stewart

I didn't think I had much to write about last week and its pretty much the same this week but we will try it anyway. I will just give you the highlights except fo the next sentence. I have been studying quite a bit, missing out on Rottnest Island and the beach. I went to Fremantle on my own which was a blast and stalked some missionaries, haha not really. I loved the markets, that atmosphere is so relaxing and fun to be in. There was a sweet kite shop which made me think of my mom. I will put the picture in here oh and there was a lady outside singing "lets go fly a kite!!" My group that went on the Bike trip and I gave a presentation on Wednesday and we rocked it!!! It was so fun and we made it really funny. I also met another American (Christen) from guess where?? Washington!!! She is from the east siiiiddeeee though. She is still cool. Her mom married an Australian so they moved here. She is preparing to go on a mission and isn't able to work so we have been hanging out lately. Christen, Nichole and I are making a Christmas box for children that are less fortunate. I went to a welfare expo today which was cool and we got free ginger bread cookies. On Thursday Christen and I went to buy my bus ticket to travel up north to Exmouth on November 10th and we got to talking and I invited her to travel with me. She said she would have to think about it and ask her rents. We then went climbing which was a blast than met Nichole for late night shopping. I was dead tired. I am really missing ultimate. I love my nalgene. Anyway so she talked to her parents and they decided to give her an early Christmas present so she is going to travel with me!!! I feel good about this and think it will be a good time. I have a Prac portfolio due on Monday which is 30+ pages long and my supervisor from the actual prac hasn't gotten the info I need to me!!! So basically I"m freakin out. I also have a 1,000 word paper to write and present by Tuesday, haven't started. Thursday I am planning on taking my final marketing exam to be done with the class, started studying today. So yeah, I have quite a bit to do.
It's weird thinking of saying goodbye to everyone over here. I am really going to miss my roommates, Frank, Rene, Sarah, Richard and the lot. Sofia and I went to the lake to study today, it was so beautiful and hott!!! We ended up talking for like 2.5 hours about everything it was so cool.
So they don't celebrate Halloween over here, how sad is that. Ok they celebrate it but its like only parties, no trick-or-treating! Sad I know. I am going to do something, I don’t know what but its going to be good. I will scare people all day or something.
I hope everyone is doing well. Oh yeah there was a 70's or movie star's party I went to, I dressed in all of Sofia's clothes, it was alright. I wish I had gone climbing which was my original plan. Oh well. I am missing wwu a lot and I need to get it into my head that it isn't going to be the same when I get back, it will have changed and so have I and I have to Adjust to it.
I am ready to travel and to try something new I am tired of waiting for it and preparing to say bye to everyone!!! I also exchanged quarters for a bunch of Indian, Malaysian, Thai., Chinese, Hong Kong, and some other money, they are super cool!!! I am going to get some pence, and euros as well. I started packing and as many people know I LOVE packing for some reason. I hate unpacking though. There are a lot of things I am going to give to Good Sammy’s it’s weird not having them. My wardrobe has really changed since I have been here. I like it though. Well it’s a total eclipse of the heart. Missing and loving everyone! P.S. I might have gone Absailing (repelling) and I also might have gone kayaking and met this famous guy that has done a trip all the way around australia and the mississippi and got third in a race down the yukon. Yeah he is the man. He also gave a book away for free and guess who got it? yeah me!!!

Do Do's and Whoa Ohs

This week was full of stress, sickness of two sorts, real sickness and homesickness, and laughs THE END.

Really I just told you everything you need to know. On Sunday I woke up sick, and so did Rene, weird. I laid in my bed mostly all day watching General Conference, reading and writing. It was nice to take a break and relax. Monday was no better, the whole village is sick right now, some people with what they call Gastro, Hay fever, bronchitis, or whatever I had which was basically a head cold with drowsiness. Monday I woke up early like I have been doing because of camp and I went shopping, It was really hard to walk that far, and its only 15 minutes away!! Class started at 12 because some guys had to implement their event that they have been planning for the last 5 weeks and wow surprise, they didn't have anything, it was suppose to be a basketball shoot out and no one had a basketball or a ring or anything, the lecturer showed up and was really UNIMPRESSED. They ended up doing it at the beginning of class in the gym where we were suppose to do potted sports, this is basically circuits like you do in elementary school or primary school as they call it here. I had no idea what this was so I had thought of some games but nothing like the lecturer wanted so we made some stuff up and were lucky that our group was last and we didn't have enough time to do ours. Then we headed in to our usual room for a lecture about theory which is basically the lecturer reading off of the PowerPoint. I hate that, I feel it insults my intelligence. I think I went home and took a nap, or watched a movie, or laid around like I did all week this week cuz I felt like crap.
Tuesday, went to class, then for the afternoon class we headed off to go dingy sailing. It was a beautiful day so I was in shorts and a t-shirt but when we got on the water I was freakin freezing! We went back and forth tacking which is turning, it was really cool, we rotated being the skipper, Rene and Vanessa and I were in a boat together. Then we headed out to go across the Swan river. Basically for Dingy sailing you have to hold the rudder strait and move it side to side to go which ever side you want. The sails are pulled in or let out depending on where the wind is coming from and how much they are flapping. Well Rene was holding the sail really tight so every time we hit a wave the boat would rock more than my liking and I was holding on to the main mast pretty tight and getting soaked by the waves coming over the front. Yeah it was good fun. We came back and I was freezing for about 2 hours afterwards. I think I was feverish the whole week as well so that didn't help.
On Wednesday I had a 9 o’clock class that had Mike Wood come as a guest speaker, this guy is super cool!!! He is owner of the company Mountain Designs, which is like REI or Patagonia in America, yeah he is the man. He climbed Everest in 1993 where there was a disaster and 3 guys died out of 8. He showed us slides of this event, he also talked about his history, what he has accomplished and he gave great references for adventure tours or people to work for. He is the man. I had to leave an hour early!!!! I was soooo bummed!! Ok so I left because my group had to run our event on campus which was a Capoeira Martial Arts demonstration!! It was awesome!!! The people in my group are great and worked really hard to make this happen, it is a 30 minute demonstration. Anyway, We handed out fliers, and got a speaker and microphone from the library, Steve was suppose to do the announcing but when it came down to it he was a bit shy so he handed the microphone over to me and I made a fool out of myself as always. I really have gained confidence in public speaking from being an RA and taking the comm 101 class. It was a blast, I was laughing and people were laughing at me and we had quite a crowed show up. The Capoeira guys were awesome, they had students play instruments, I got to play the bells, well all I did was hit two cow bells with a drum stick. It was really fun though. I came home and took a nap for 3 hours, it was a good day. A lot of people are having their birthday this week so I went to a few birthday parties, this was alright. I don’t' really like just standing around small talking to people, but it was cool I talked to Mac about foreign policy, the end of the world, and global warming. Aww yeah. Rene and I were walking from somewhere and ran into Brian from Canada, I don't know if it was his accent, my sickness or homesickness or a combination of all three but I just started crying. I didn't realize how much I missed hearing the "American" accent. Brian offered to let me use his camera to talk to my friends and family so if anyone has a video camera or speakers I can talk to ya! Well I will have to figure it out but let me know! Later Rene and I were watching a movie and I just felt like crap and was really homesick and tears were just coming out of nowhere so I had to leave the room and have a little cry. I made myself go back out to hang out or else I would wallow in my own self pity. But later I made a video because I wanted to document this tragic event haha. Then I made a video for my family but it is to big to send to them. =( Wow ok Thursday I worked on assignments and then Thursday night we watched a soccer game on a lap top Germany against China and Germany won. It was pretty funny though because Frank from China and Rene from Germany were beting on who would win and Frank claimed Germany before Rene so Rene had to cheer for China. It was a kind of boreing game and the loser was supose to make everyone dinner so Rene went up to make it cuz someone slipped and told us the result! After this we had a push up contest, it was pretty funny because we did 10 than 20 but only 2 people did 20 and Rene was gone so we decided to pretend we had all done 20 and were on 30 and it was my turn and when Rene walked in I was on 25 but it started from 18 and I made it to 27 because I was laughing so hard. Then it was his turn and we made him do 27 as well. Jasmin told him later what we did and he called me a mean gurl. It was really funny though. Oh and the picture of the dude standing as if he was a statue is Adam or Adsie. Sofia cut his hair and it looked really nice so I took a picture. this guy is the craziest guy ever. He is so hyper all the time and can never be serious, and he loves to surf.
Friday I felt A LOT better and actually went running instead of the pathetic jog/walk I attempted while I was sick. Then I met my friends from Fairbridge camp and we looked at portfolio, this gave me some good ideas and I was actually excited about doing it. I came home and got sooo much work done!!! I have 4 assignments due next week and I got 1 done and ½ of the other two done. On Saturday Rene and I went shopping, ok Saturday was the hottest day it has been yet, it was like a end of summer day in Washington, I guessed about 75-80 degrees. It was hot to say the least. Oh we got a beach volleyball from a sports shop and came back and played for 2 hours outside just in a circle with a bunch of people then only 3 of us and this was a blast!!! I worked on more assignments and then Jasmin came to visit and we went to watch Dukes of Hazzard. This is quite a funny movie, I didn't think it would be but it really is. Then we came back and played volleyball in the dark for an hour then watched road trip. Wow we watch to many movies. That will change now that summer is on our doorstep. That’s about all that happened this week. THE END.

Aww yeah, big booty big booty big booty

Wow finally time to sit down and think. Alright let me give ya the run down of my crazy life. Friday September 30th left early in the morning to bik MONSOON POURING. We got all our gear together and spent about 30 minutes trying to figure out where the trail really started, went the wrong way, turned aroune the Mundi Biddi, when we got to the trail head it was POURING DOWN RAIN, now I don’t mean Valdez pouring, or Bellingham Pouring, liked, rode on a road, stared at a map, and got SOAKED. Finally we started, we only had 13 Kilometers to go but it took FOREVER, one of our girls had to check her blood sugar every 15 minutes or so and we stopped A LOT. We finally got to our shelter around 3:30 pm and got settled hanging out all our wet clothes and such. Around 5 these 4 guys rolled up, they rode like 70 Ks that day!!!! Well 50 then they forgot their cards in Jaradelle so they rode back to get them then realized they were in their backpack the whole time. Wow these guys were cool, they were all in there 30-40s and this one guy and I had the best conversation, he is living exactly what I want to do, work for awhile, when you want doing whatever you want but making money then spending the rest of the time doing sweet trips. he semi-retired at the age of 28 and has been doing awesome trips, he went to school at U of O or University of Oregon and guess what else? HE PLAYS ULTIMATE FRISBEE!!! He even brought his frisbee and we threw until it was to dark to see. It was amazing!!! So he hooked me up with the website to check out Western Australia Ultimate, he said there is a team in Perth and such, one of the other guys who plays lives like 2 houses away from one of the girls I was with so that was random and he said we could get a ride from him!! Super cool. Ok so we went to bed, they were exhausted and we stayed up playing cards and writing in our journals or reading. Finally laid down for sleep around 9:30, at midnight I wake up to loud yelling and a car pulling up to the shelter, it totally freaked me out, there were these 4 drunk guys and Vanessa, one of the girls I was with was really mad and started cussing at them which just made the mad so one of the guys that was asleep got up and was trying to talk them down. Vanessa wanted to go to the toilet and Michelle wouldn't let her go by herself and she wasn’t feeling well so I said I would go with her, I have never been so scared for my life, I was soooo glad those other biker guys came. Anyway Vanessa got their licence plane number and we are going to report them. They said they were staying the night but the biker guy convinced them to leave. They spun of when they left and threw rocks at the tin of the shelter which freaked me out even more. All of us didn’t' sleep the rest of the night, every time I dosed off I had dreams of them coming back and killing us, or other things. It was really scary. Anyway it finally got light and we got up with bags under our eyes and took off around 8. We rode around 37 K's and were DEAD TIRED. We had to ride on this road for awhile and came to a family with like 10 kids who were heading to the same place we were so we were glad we wouldn't be alone. This was at about 30 k's so we had only 7 to go and it was ALL UP HILL!!! SO wearing, I don't know if it was from biking around AK or what but I beat everyone up every hill even if it was super long. I just got in this mind set to go. Anyway we got to the shelter finally and it was up a kind of steep hill and there was a gate so we weren't to bothered about someone coming in the middle of the night and the family that came was 2 adults and 5 kids, it was so fun. I played cards and Cricket with the kids. They were a lot of fun and they LOVED my accent. they were so cute trying to copy it. Then we took off in the morning about 7 am to bike the last 17 K's making it 67 kilometers all together. We got to the meeting place around 9:20 when we were suppose to meet at 10 so we waited around and Vanessa's bro was suppose to pick us up but she was worried about him sitting and waiting at the end of the road so we biked an extra 8 k's making it 75 ks total and he finally came, we were dead tired.
I made it home in time to grab a hot shower, something to eat, and pack a few extra things before I headed to the train station to meet Chris to drive me to Fairbridge for Prac by Pinjarra. Ok if that didn't make sense, sorry. Chris was 45 minutes late due to car trouble and we were late to Fairbridge but it didn’t' really matter. I really missed Amanda and Di from training and was really excited to see them, we just click. We had a bit of training and set up before then off to bed for an early start. I collapsed.
Monday threw Friday was HELL. There was a totally of 40 kids, 22 girls and 18 guys. I had a guy group of nine guys, there was also a older volunteer who was the assistant head leader's dad and another return volunteer with autism to help me out. The older volunteer decided to take a step back to deal with the difficult kids and help me out less and the other volunteer who was helping me was like another kid, It was THE WORST. Monday was alright, Tuesday was awful, another volunteer had to come help me for this awful scavenger hunt. My team would NOT work together, they would not listen, take responsibility, or be even kind of nice to one another. It was really discouraging seeing them yell at each other and not take responsibility or even try to work together, I was so glad I had sunglasses on cuz I definently had some tears roll down my cheeks. Wednesday was much better, I would say out of all the boys I had one I would love to take home, he was nice to everyone and worked together, never talked back and listened!!!! Wow from this camp I realized I do not have the patience to work with children that have problems, I had what they call DCD kids that come from foster parents, group homes, or have major problems at home. Kids had parents in jail or dead, I just didn’t' know how to deal with that or what to say. I did have more experience than many of the other volunteers like Amanda and Di, there were lots of tears at debriefs and during the day. At the end of camp I only had 7 campers cuz 2 were so bad they got sent home. The cussing was incredible!!! 10 year older were calling others the N-word. I couldn't believe it. Anyway soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo glad that is over. I got back Friday night and was super tired, did laundry, took a shower, went shopping and then got a ton of energy, danced, then watched Lord of the Rings # 2 until I couldn't keep my eyes open, this was about 11. Yeah sad huh. Every day during the week we would get up at 6 or 6:30 and wake the kids up at 7 then go to bed around Midnight. I realized I really want to do Adventure Recreation leadership for teenagers who want to be there. Take them on sweet trips and show them what I know and let them figure stuff out about themselves and who they want to be.
Saturday was a different day, I woke up at 7 and couldn’t' get back to sleep, at 10 Rene and I got picked up by a guy from class who is one of the most annoying people I have ever met. Anyway gotta love him, we went up to Guilderton and went for a walk on the beach to a light house, then met this other guy from class at a Yanchep national park and went for a 3 hour walk. I am tired and my feet hurt, and I found this GINORMOUS blister on my foot. So now of course I am tired again and I have the worst bags under my eyes, no sleeping in tomorrow either (not that I could) its general conference tomorrow, I am really excited about that though. I have a lot of projects coming up, I got to miss school for 2 weeks and now it is biting me in the butt!! I can't believe its almost done though, 4 more weeks. Gotta love it.

I LIKE RANCH

I like ranch, lets ponder this, one could say it as a statement, I like ranch, or one could say it as a passive sigh, ahh I like ranch. On the other hand my friend Rene says it when asking for something, for example, we were at subway and they asked what sort of sause he would like on his sandwhich and he simply stated, "I like ranch". I regret busting up laughing, and later let him know its "I'd like ranch" or I would like ranch. but I still sms him fun messages like "I like ranch" to tease him about his "poor english" as he would put it. Its brilliant.

Anyway today I'm here to tell you about this past week. well its been fun as always and full of many adventures. The biggest one was traveling with friends from church to Yanchep National Park about 30 minutes north and camping for 3 nights and 4 days. The best thing EVER!!! The things we did included, swimming in the Indian ocean, body boarding at 6 am, attemptingn to sand surf, have wrestling matches on the beach at midnight under the crystal clear sky, play volleyball(my team won), play ultimate frisbee(no comment haha), relax and just have a blast! I saw a giant lizzard!!! It was like 1.5 feet long and I almost stepped on it coming out of the bathroom or as they call it over here the toilet. I also went running a few days earlier and saw a baby turtle and helped it on its way a bit cuz it looked so dry, it was the cutest thing!! It was about the size of a 1/2 dollar or the dial thing on an Ipod. We saw kookaburras, parrots, and all sorts of stuff!!! I had some great conversations, lessons, and realizations over this weekend. It was amazing. Oh if you get the chance try bread with french fries called chips over here and sauce or ketchup and chicken, its pretty much brilliant! I gained some good friends and will never forget this weekend. I love camping. This week I embark on another adventure. well first, tonight Jazmin and I were hanging out just for fun and Rene walked into my room!! OK this normally wouldn't be that big of a deal but he had been gone for a week!!!! So it was pretty exciting. Ok back to my adventure, tomorrow I leave for 3 days on a bike trip on the Mundi biddi trail with 3 awesome adventurous girls. And thats not all folks, we end our journy on Sunday around 12 and get back around 1, and then at 2 I will be picked up and transported to Fairbridge camp for a week long camp. good times are comin. I will then finish on Friday and be transported back where I will collapse and not move until monday. Just kidding. I will probably do laundry and write all my fun adventures in here. so stay tuned. I am trying to think of a funny story from this weekend but I like the ranch one to much. Oh Rene and Jazmin were trying to teach me German and I was trying to sound out the words on Jazmin's phone and they were just laughing at me and my bad pronunciation. Speaking of Pronunciation Australians emphasise weird parts of words, like in Massage we say MassAse where they say MAssage, ok just ask me to say it, same with Weekend they emphasise end instead of Week, and of course there is the famous nooie or I knowee with saying e on the end, its so weird. Well good luck with that I look forward to hearing your interpretation of these funny sounding words. Until then...

Boo Ya Asparagus

Adventures all over the place this week. Monday Sofia and I biked to the beach and talked about a whole heap of stuff, America, Hurricane Katrina, France, their president and nucs., and Africa. I feel like I don't know what has been going on in the world until now when I can step outside the selfish U.S. bubble and see.
Anyway, Tuesday was pretty uneventful until it POURED down rain, Rene, Jasmin and I decided to play frisbee in the rain and we just got soaked!!! It was awesome, really reminded me of Western. Speaking of WWU, I hear school is about to start and people are moving back in, I really do miss being an RA, but I definently enjoy having more time to myself and being able to pursue the my dreams. I miss the people so much though, stopping in my room, yelling my name, those random conversations on rounds, having interesting dinner conversations, and not to mention random FRISBEE!! In Leisure Leadership and programming we were talking about approaching a challenging situation, and she asked for some examples, I couldn't think of just one to say and no one else was saying anything. After class on Tuesday I also went to this drumming, uhh circle I guess you could call it, we did a bunch of clapping and then I got to play the sambarine, (I dont know if that is right). It was a blast, it really made me think and it was challenging.
Wednesday I had early morning class then got a sim card for my cell phone that Fraser let me borrow, I also called my parents cuz it was their anniversary, but they celebrated it early so my dad could go hunting. I was telling my friends here about hunting and first of all, they couldn't believe my dad has a plane, then they couldn't believe he has a gun. Whatever.
Thursday I worked on projects and finished a whole paper not due till next Wed I was so proud of myself! Friday was great, laid out in the sun, went to the library, told stories about hells hole, canoeing the Gulkana, and some rafting adventures. Most people are pretty keen on visiting me in AK, bring it on!
Friday night I went climbing with Kim, Fraser, Dave, and a couple other people I can't remember their names, but they were cool, Kim and I raced up this wall and she beat me by a second! I was so tired afterwards and we went out for Indian food, I have never had this before, it was super good!!! I didn’t like their yogurt, it tasted like it was rotten, but their sweet rice was amazing.
Saturday I met my ride for training at Fairbridge at 10 am at Stirling train station, let me tell you this was the biggest nerve racking hassle ever!!! Plus I was really sore from climbing, But I finally met Chris and we drove to Fairbridge, the camp I am doing Practical work for and had to go for a training weekend. I met some awesome people and the training was like 1/10 of what I had for RA training so it was really easy. There were two girls that I just got along with great, Di and Amanda, they are so sweet, a bunch of us went for a walk around Fairbride at night just to check it out and Amanda and I got separated from the group and we ended up sitting outside this beautiful church talking about religion. Sooo awesome. Anyway, I didn't get the memo to bring bedding for the weekend, and it was freakin freezing!!! Luckily there was extra blankets so I had like 4 over me and 1 under me and I was toasty warm, I didn't even want to get up on Sunday, and when I got home I took a 2 hour nap.
Then received a text message from Kim asking if I wanted to go camping this weekend, of course I said yes, ok check this out:
Mon-Fri - school, chill, assignments
Friday night-Sun morn - camping
Sun afternoon-Friday afternoon- volunteering for Prac at Fairbridge
Friday afternoon-Sunday afternoon - bike ride for adven. rec. management on Mundi biddi trail.
Yeah its full on!!!! I am excited though. I can't believe I am already in week 8!! It is weird having to think of food that is going to go bad in those 10 days or library books that need to be returned. Speaking of that, I am reading this book called, Kijana by Jesse Martin who sailed around the world, but the book is about another sailing trip he took with friends over 3 years. It is really good so far. I am also reading a book about Sea Kayaking for a future trip from Alaska to South America. Well, my friends, until next time, boo ya Asparagus.

John Forest National Park

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!
FOR ALL THE SEPTEMBER 11TH VICTIMS, YOUR MEMORY WILL LIVE ON FOREVER IN EACH OF US.

This week has been really relaxing, untillllll I realized I have a TON of projects due next week!!!!
So I have been juggling....

Project 1: With group create and run a program on campus, ours is martial arts exhibition
Project 2: With group plan and initiate a 2 day 1 night hike.
Project 3: With group plan and initiate a 3 day 2 night bike trip.
Project 4: With group plan a marketing strategy for a certain product.
Project 5: Attend a Prac training session and Prepare for Prac. (practical work)
Project 6: Submit a 1500 word essay on a leader. (Lance Armstrong)
Project 7: Write 2 1,000 word essays about an outdoor disaster and leadership in the outdoors

I have heaps of projects to work on as you can see, quite a few are due this week but a few next week as well.

I did a couple of exciting things though, Watched Harry Potter Thursday night!!! SOOOOO fun, except that I had to get up early on Friday to do our Micro Theme Tour this was 40.8 km's for all you Americans that’s freakin 25.35 miles. Now this may seem like not to much, but after 20 km uphill let me tell you, it's hard, but it was 20.8 km downhill as well so that wasn't to bad. In 4.5 hours I was dead tired. I was dirty, tired, and hungry. After a shower, food, and nap I was bouncing off the walls! I had so much energy! I went to hang out in unit 14 and the English bloke Richard to tried to swallow the gold fish awhile back and I started playing little games like thumb war, flip the coin, the slap the hands game, and we leg wrestled, then we ninja fought. I won almost everything, except for leg wrestling. It was fun, then I decided to get to work and worked on projects forever!!! Then hung out with Rene and his friend from Germany, Jasmin who is here for 9 months traveling and working!
Saturday Rene, Jasmin and I went to Fremantle or Freo to shop and it was a good time. I had MEXICAN FOOD!!! It was super good for being in Australia! My knees hurt from the day before but we got around alright. It is like the Seattle Market, super cute with a bunch of Australian stuff. We were really tired when we got back and a little ornery so we all took a nap, then I watched, Jack and the beanstalk: the real movie, it is quite interesting. Then Worked on more projects, then watched "The Time Machine" dude, that is a sweet movie, I really liked it. It really makes you think about time and how small we really are but how the choices we make effect the future. I really had a hard think about it all.
Sunday I went to Stake Conference, the couple that bring me to church have 4 children 2 sons and 2 daughters and I have met 1 son and 1 daughter, well today I met their other son, Fraser, he is the man!!! We got on great from the start and he invited me to go over to his friends house for lunch, I met a bunch of people and hung out for a long time!! Then Fraser and his best friend Kim came over to my place and we were just talking. They are so hardcore, they run and bike and climb and just have a ball!! I'm so glad to finally meet people that like to do things I like to do. They invited me to go climbing with them on Friday as well!
Sofia and I are going biking tomorrow morning to Burns beach if it is nice. It better be. Well I haven't been sleeping well so I am going to try to get a good nights rest and work on all my projects tomorrow. I hope all is well wherever you are.