Thursday, April 23rd, 2015 at 11:06am
Hey peoples! Are finals stressing you out yet Miami? I still have a ways to go yet. I found something out today that puts the difficulty level of the academics here as compared to home into perspective:
Australian high distinction (85%-100%) = U.S. A+
Australian distinction (75%-84%) = U.S. A
Australian credit (65%-74%) = U.S. B
Australian pass (50%-64%) = U.S. C
Australian fail (<50%) = U.S. F
Yeah... But I've been pretty on top of my game this week which feels good. I turned in my mid-term this past weekend (due Friday) and I turned in my lab report last night (also due Friday) and I've started working on my data analysis for two more lab reports (due on the 8th and 22nd). Yay productivity!
Also, I'm slightly ashamed to say that it's getting cold here. At night it's getting down to 65 degrees and it feels cold. You know you've been in north Queensland for quite some time when the Minnesota girl calls 65 degrees cold.
Anyways, on to the fun stuff:
This past Saturday I went to Paluma National Park with Dana, Jess and Peter. We drover up into the mountains to this clear water spring called Little Crystal Creek. I have never seen water that clear before. It was so pretty. We went swimming under waterfalls and climbing over rocks and just generally enjoyed life. When we got tired we had a picnic lunch and then headed farther up into the mountains to go hiking on the paths through the rain forest. It started raining while we were hiking but because the trees were so think we could barely feel it. Except of course when Peter or Dana grabbed a tree and shook is so whoever was behind them got soaked lol. It was so quiet there. I mean absolutely silent besides the rain if we stopped walking. The clouds created an eerie fog that was both slightly unnerving and strangely beautiful.
When we returned back to Townsville we dropped our stuff off in our rooms and then went and got pizza. Then we spent the rest of the night at Dana's apartment watching the Hunger Games movies and hanging out. We ended up crashing there for the night. Overall a really great day of just living, you know? No academics to worry about, or anything else to worry about, just going out and living in the present and enjoying life. I've said this at multiple points now but I really don't know what I would do without those three. I'm going to miss them life crazy when I have to head home.
I have so many things coming up. I'll try to keep up with the blogs as best I can. I think the easiest way to talk about all of them is to just make a list:
Tonight Dana, Jess and I are going to see the new Avengers movie!! AHHHH! :D
Saturday, April 25th to Monday, APril 27th I'll be at the Wambiana cattle station for my Australian vertebrate fauna class. We'll be live-trapping animals and learning how to identify them.
Tuesday, April 28th to Friday, May 1st I'll be back at the Orpheus Island Research Station for my reef fish class. We will be doing various field experience practices out on the reef.
Friday, May 8th to Sunday, May 10th I have my Arcadia free event weekend where my study abroad group and I will be going to Tully and Mission beach. We'll be kayaking, swimming, and hiking among other things.
The week of the 10th at some point Dana, Jess, Peter and I will probably go out to dinner somewhere, probably on The Strand, for my b-day.
Friday, May 29th to Sunday, May 31st Dana, Jess and I are renting a condo on Magnetic Island, making some home cooked meals, treating ourselves to a spa day and going shopping and snorkeling. We figured it would be a good idea for out mental stability if we treated ourselves before finals started.
Thursday, June 11th is out last free dinner with our study abroad leader and the rest of my study abroad group.
Friday, June 19th I'm hoping to head back to Magnetic Island and treat myself to some horseback riding on the beach and bareback riding in the ocean to celebrate being done with finals. This is something that had been on my bucket list for a while.
Saturday, June 20th Dana, Jess, Peter and I as dressing up and going out to a nice restaurant as a going away party because sadly I'll have to leave this awesome place at some point.
Monday, June 22nd I fly out of Townsville at 5:50am to head to Brisbane. My flight to LA from Brisbane leaves at 10:25am and arrives in LA at 6:25am west coat time the same day (magic time travel!). My flight from LA to MSP leaves at 1:00pm and gets in around 6:30pm on June 22nd central time zone.
Busy busy busy!
Again, I hope everyone is doing well state-side. For those of you in school right now you're on the final stretch. Hang in there!
Pictures from the park have been posted in the usual spot on my google photos thing (like on the side of the blog) and many of them have been posted to Facebook as well.
Later peoples!
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