It's almost October and getting hotter... I'm not going to get used to the flipped seasons!

After I woke up today I showered and went to get $1 coins from the office building so that I could do laundry. I had no more socks left today, so I was lucky that I had today off from the field study. I put my laundry in the wash and flipped it to the dryer. Then I texted Carrie and we went to the store. I was completely out of apple juice, so I really needed to go. When we had just finished checking out, we saw Brendan, my flatmate, and he gave us a ride back. When we got back, I got my laundry out of the dryer. It was the first time that everything was actually dry! I then ate my tomatoes that I decided to buy at the store and I watched Survivor and Modern Family.

I then took a nap. When I woke up, I went online for a while and didn't really do much else. I kept having philosophical thoughts about life. Where you step back and think about what has happened in your life that led you to where you are. Hence my other post today. I felt the need to write it all out. I then wrote that, which took quite a while. As I'm sure you can imagine by just the sheer size of it! It allowed me to clear my head, so I started reading my book that I have to write a book review for that is due next Friday. I've been procrastinating and exhausted (nothing like a field study to remind you of how out of shape you are!) too much and now I have a lot to read before writing this review. To top it off, I'm not doing very well in this class, so hopefully it will all work out. Anyway, that's what I'll be doing until I go to bed. I have another 1/2 day of field study tomorrow.

The real story of my life...

I need to read my book for my book report, but I can't because I keep having philosophical thoughts running through my head. (I'll post what I did today later) Those that know me well, probably know that I constantly have these thoughts about the meaning of life and analysing people. Today has been a day where I stepped back and thought about the things that have happened in my life that have made me the person that I am today. This is probably a really boring post for anyone else, but I feel the need to write this down. I am always analysing myself (not sure how it took me so long to realize I should major in a social science!), but have never shared some of these things before. Don't feel obligated to read this, as it is mostly just for myself to get these things off my chest.

The first big game-changing moment is probably when my dad and I moved to the other side of the state to live with my mom, who had been going to graduate school there for 3 years. My life changed when my mom went back to college when I was 8 and even more so when she went to graduate school when I was 12. None of that compared to how it changed when we finally moved to be with her. I was born in Holland and have lived there all growing up until that point. Holland is a small conservative city where I felt at home. I remember my friends talking during freshman year of high school if they could live anywhere in the world, where would it be. I answered Holland and they all thought that I was weird. It has always been my home there and moving was my worst nightmare. I will never forget when I first heard that my dad's interview at the company that would allow us to live in Ann Arbor went well. I didn't know that he even had an interview. I will also never forget when I found out that he got the job and we would be moving. I was in driver's ed at the time when all of this was happening. I was not ready to start driver's ed and I think that a combination of that and my whole life turning upside down resulted in my still having a fear of driving and not having my licence.

Upon finding out that we were moving, I decided to make a present for my friends. I made a pillow that had 5 pieces that fit like a puzzle. We were the Crazy Sisters and each had a nickname, so I made the pieces different colors with everyone's piece being their favorite and put their nicknames on them. I did not want to lose my friends when I moved, but that seems to have been inevitable. I stayed in contact with some of them, and I am friends with all of them on facebook, but we drifted apart. The time that I spent at my new high school was like prison. I even just ate bread and water at lunch. (because I'm picky, but it adds to the effect) I never told anyone, but I honestly didn't think that it would be as bad as I portrayed it. It was. I went into a very deep depression. I didn't ever have thoughts of suicide, but rather thoughts of wishing that I was never born. That's not how I was before at all. I couldn't understand how kids my age could be depressed, but now I was experiencing it. I had no close friends that first year, just acquaintances. I had some more "friends" junior year but never as close as my friends in Holland were.

Senior year rolled around and I was extremely happy to just have one year left! I was taking a health sciences class that was extremely fun and we would get to work in the hospital and other health care places during the second semester. I wanted more than anything to be a vet since I got my dog, and I was really excited. We learned about different body systems and how things all fit together. We also learned some practical skills such as taking temperatures and blood pressures. In December, we started learning about the different parts of the brain. During junior year, I had taken psychology and I thought the brain was really boring. This time something caught my eye, though. I had been having problems with headaches and even walking straight. I went to the doctor multiple times, but she played it off as teenage stress headaches and a poor diet. I read about how the cerebellum was the part of the brain that was used for balance. Offhandedly, I said to my mom one night while doing my health sciences homework, "What if something is wrong with my cerebellum, like I have a tumor or something?" I never actually thought I did. Fast forward toward the end of January. My dad and I were up north to go skiing because we hadn't been up there in years. I skied the the first night that we got there, but the next morning I had an extreme headache. I could barely get out of bed, let alone try to ski. My dad went a few times, but then came back and we went home. At that point, I had been taking aspirin at least every day and I'm one that never takes medicine unless I need it. I didn't know what was going on, but my headaches were getting worse.

A few weeks later, February 5, 2008, I woke up screaming in pain from a headache. They were always worse when I woke up or hadn't eaten in a while. My dad came in and I asked him to get my aspirin, but apparently I was speaking in gibberish. He immediately drove me to the hospital where I just remember flashes of what happened that morning. Apparently they performed a CT scan to see if they could see what was wrong. I just remember waking up and my parents telling me that there was a golf ball sized tumor in my cerebellum. I guess deep down I knew it was true because it didn't come as a huge shock. That could have also been all of the medicine they gave me. They had also run some blood tests, and my mom asked them what my blood type was because she knew that I wanted to know. It was B positive, which I took to mean that God was telling me to Be Positive. The next day I went into surgery. My sisters and brothers-in-law had both come up before I went into surgery and having my family all there helped. At no time did I ever think that I wasn't going to make it out of surgery. I spent a week in the hospital and a few months afterwards in physical therapy to work on my balance. I had struggles, but I had to 'B positive.'

In the next few months, I worked hard to catch up. I ended up dropping three classes and taking one class pass/fail. Luckily I only needed one more class to graduate. I graduated on time and as a member of NHS. I was extremely happy to be done with high school. Over the summer, I went with my church youth group and young adults to Australia. It was World Youth Day/Days in the Diocese. I was extremely lucky to be able to still go after this ordeal with my brain tumor just 5 1/2 months before going. I recovered quickly and over the two weeks that we were on the trip, I started to become even closer to God. I never had a time that God wasn't a part of my life, but through the sorrow of my depression I got closer with God to help me get out of the situation and through World Youth Day I started to become more grateful.

About 2 months later, I started school at Hope College back in my hometown of Holland. I did question God about why I was here thinking that maybe I thought it would be the exact same and I'd just get another chance at my life before. It was different, but for the better. I made amazing friends that are closer than any other friends that I have had before. Hope is a place where my Christianity grew even more just by being surrounded by other Christian that also wanted to grow it their faith. Going to chapel every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday also helped. At the one year anniversary of my brain surgery being successful, I almost cried in chapel from the overwhelming appreciation of all God has done for me.

My friends helped me to realize my true calling in life during freshman year. Ever since I got my dog at age 12, I knew that I wanted to be a vet. I loved animals so much and wanted to help them. We were all biology majors at that point of college. (It seems like everyone goes in pre-something, whether it is pre-med or pre-vet) I knew through taking biology and chemistry that with my grades there was no way that I was going to get into vet school. My friends helped me realize through that first year at college that I was supposed to work in Public Health. I decided to continue on the path of a biology major because I talked to Dr. Mungall, the pre-professional advisor at Hope, and he told me that with a biology major you can pretty much work in any area of public health, and I didn't know what area I wanted to go into.

The summer came and I worked in the lab with my mom. We went on walks at lunch time and walked around the school of public health at U of M a few times. I was trying to figure out what area of public health I wanted to go into, so I went and took some brochures to see what the different types were. I was battling in my mind between epidemiology and behavior science/ health education. I thought about the pros and cons of the two and realized what God wanted me to do. I chose health education because I believe that it is God's plan to have my one day work for a non-profit company raising awareness for brain tumors. I talked to Dr. Mungall about what I should do as far as majors/minors go when I got back the next fall. We talked about a double major in biology and either sociology or psychology. He also gave me contact information for the guy at U of M school of public health. It was already halfway through the semester when I decided that I wanted to get a major in Sociology. I also changed my biology degree from a BS to a BA. Second semester, I took a few classes in Sociology to try and get on track for the missed time. During that semester, I realized how much I loved Sociology and didn't really like biology after all. I only needed one more biology class to get a minor, however. I decided to take that biology class this semester abroad, and change my major to a minor when I get back.

The path that I have been on in life has had it ups and downs. I think everybody's does. I know that God has given me these challenges to grow as a person and it all leads me to be the person that I know he wants me to be. I'm given these challenges, but he also gives me the strength to push through the obstacles. I can't imagine how different my life would have been if any one of these things had been different. I feel that my depression and brain tumor are proof for the saying 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.' After my surgery, people kept telling me how brave I was, but when that's your only choice it's what you do. It wasn't bravery, it was faith that God will help me through anything and He will not give you an obstacle without giving you the strength to push on.

(The title is because I often say 'story of my life' when something happens, but I can't think of an example now.)

Also, it makes me feel so much better to just write all of that down!

Me to my dad in facebook chat: I don't know a title for my blog post Dad: How about I miss my dad!!

I had my field study again today, so I woke up and went down to the Biological sciences plaza for our prelab information. Today wasn't as much walking as Monday because we were keeping track of information at plots along a transect line. It was extremely hot, though. The weather was above 80 F and it seemed even hotter out in the sun with pants and my coat on. Our lecturer told us to wear long pants and long sleeves because we walk through the bush and would get all scraped up and stuff. I ended up taking off my coat because I had short sleeves underneath and my pants were my zip off ones, so I unzipped them partially to cool off. Our lecturer, Hugh, greatly underestimated how long it would take us to do the lab, and so Monday we finished most of the work for Monday and Tuesday, so on Tuesday they started the work that we should have started today and he saved part of it for them to do tomorrow. We ended up getting done really early and so he let us leave by 1:15. That's almost 4 hours before we were supposed to get done!

I came back to my flat and wanted to take a nap, but I was in that horrible state where you are too tired to do anything but not tired enough to sleep. I laid down for a while before deciding to watch Glee online. I was happy to see Mark from So You Think You Can Dance as one of the background dancers. :) I also ate some lunch. Tomorrow I really need to go to the store, I'm almost out of apple juice! I then took a nap and I feel like I did something else, but I don't know what so probably not.

Sleep is a good thing!

I planned on sleeping in this morning because yesterday was so exhausting, but my mum called me at 9. She said that my dad was freaking out because he called orbitz and was trying to change my plane ticket and needed to talk to me but I wasn't online. At first I thought someone had died or something until she said it was about a plane ticket! I turned my computer on and talked to my dad. We didn't end up booking anything because as we were going to, the flight from Perth to Sydney got full and then it'd end up costing more. We aren't sure yet which airport I'll leave from or what day. I need to talk to Steve about what day we'll be done in Sydney because if I end up leaving from there I don't want to miss anything or be on my own.

I then took a nap, which was much longer that I thought it would be! I didn't end up waking up until after 1. I ate some shapes and showered. Then at 5, I heated up some chicken for dinner. I was too tired/lazy to do my laundry or go to the store, so I guess I'll have to do that on Thursday. I was also too tired to read my book. Other than that I just watched some tv/movies online. I also went through old family pictures on flickr because I got one of those random homesick moments. Tomorrow is another day of field work, but hopefully we won't have to walk as much and it won't drain me.

"They're lost" "so are we" "and we have a GPS!"

I woke up today at 8 to go to my field study at 9. We are doing conservation research to help save the black cockatoos that are endangered, but are seen around campus. Today we worked on feed trees. We were given a set of GPS points around campus and each group had to find the points and note different information about a random tree at that point, such as its diameter and the presence of food remnants. Some of the GPS coordinates took us to places that did not seem right, hence the title. There was a car that asked for directions somewhere, and we happened to be lost too. (Although my group members could help them find their way) We did get a tree in that area, though. As I said, some of the coordinates were wrong and one we had was in a construction site, one in the road, and one inside of a building. We walked all over campus and our GPS had an odometer on it which said 10.6km, but we aren't sure if that was just us or if it was set before our trip. Either way it was a lot of walking and a lot of it was bush land. I came home exhausted.

When I got back, I heated up some chicken and ate it with Frank's. I also watched a movie online and took a really long nap. I just woke up about 45 minutes ago. I know it's bad to take naps that late, but I couldn't help it and I'm exhausted! I have a feeling that I'll be really sore tomorrow!

I hate when I forget to write this until after midnight and it's listed as the next day!

I slept in today because I didn't have to worry about going to class or doing homework and it was wonderful! I don't really remember doing much except for cooking a bunch of chicken and watching tv online. Corin is on the Northwest trip over this break and Carrie went away somewhere for a few days, so basically I have nothing to do. I was bored, so I decided to see what other shows casttv.com has, and I started to watch Modern Family. I remember seeing commercials for it before it first aired and it looked funny, but I never got around to watching it. I watched all of the episodes today and it is really funny!

I skyped with my parents at 8:30 to talk about the Christian conference in Canberra and the mission trip in Sydney at the end of the semester. It looks like I'm going to be going! My dad is going to look into changing flights and calling orbitz. I'm super excited to get together with all of the Christian Unions from around Australia. Everything that I've heard about this trip sounds so much fun! My parents also told me to make it sound like I was having more fun here instead of just taking naps and listening to lectopia, but I can't really help it. I have to write everyday or I'll go into my not-writing-blog mode and that's what I've been doing. I'm definitely getting a lot better and barely ever cough, so maybe I'll have more interesting stuff to say. It's our study break, though, so I have my field study for wildlife biology and I need to read a book for one of my other classes. We have a book report due on the Friday that we get back and I haven't even started the book! Now I'm reading the prelab information for our field exercise and getting ready to go to bed. I get to spend the whole day looking for birds! *not the sarcasm in the excitement*... I'm so sick of birds after that report and that's rest of our lab this semester!

I've been here for two months (yesterday)

Carrie and I decided to go shopping this morning, so at 9:30 we met to go to Harbour Town. It is a shopping centre in Perth. We had to get on the bus to Murdoch station and then take a train to Perth and then get on a CAT (central area transit) bus to another part of town. We ended up getting on the wrong bus, but luckily we got off and onto another one before it left. Then we got to another place and got off, but we weren't sure where it was, so we went into a salon to ask. A lady that works there told us how to get there, so we went.

Carrie wanted to get some dresses, but she didn't end up finding any. I got a jean skirt, which was only $5 and a present for my niece, Adrianna. It was good to go somewhere new, but there wasn't much that either of us liked. I wanted to buy shorts, but didn't really see any that were reasonably priced or I liked. When we were going back we had another 'adventure.' Neither of us are good at directions and we kind of somehow got to a bus stop. We had to wait there a while until a bus finally came and we took it to Wellington Station, which is the train station in Perth. We got on the Mandurah line to go to Murdoch station. They said the names of all of the stops and I was paying close attention, but for some reason they didn't stop at Murdoch station or something. They said that Cockburn Central, the next stop, was Murdoch station, though, so we got off. We ended up having to get back on the train that was heading the other way back towards Perth to get back to Murdoch. In the meantime, Carrie got a text saying that the AFL grand final had already started. Eventually we got to Murdoch station and took a bus back to uni. We took a bus that we hadn't taken before, though, so that was an adventure too. We were the only ones on the bus, though, and he told us that there was a stop by the classes part of campus and the next stop was at the village, so we got off there.

When we got back, Carrie wanted to eat lunch before going to watch the game. I ended up going to my flat and taking a nap, so I didn't get her text about going to the pool until after. I missed the game, but I missed most of it because of our adventure anyway. I heard that it ended up as a draw, anyway. When I woke up from my nap I went on facebook and listened to music until I wrote this.

Also, at Hope today is the Pull, so I have to say Go Even Year!!!!

Birds!

I woke up about 2 1/2 hours before class today so that I could work on my report that was due at 5. On LMS, our lecturer said that he put our grades up for the midterm, but there wasn't actually a link there. He said that the range was 13-28 out of 30, so of course I was trying to prepare myself for getting the lowest grade. I also got an email back from Steve about the Christian conference and mission trip in Sydney and it looks like I'm probably going. :) I just have to work out the details with my parents. I worked on my report until I went to my biology lecture, then after that I went to the CIEE office to work until I finished it. I logged onto LMS and the grade link was now up. I got 21, which is above the mean grade and is 70%. That doesn't sound good until you realise that it's the Australian grading system and that is a Distinction, which is the equivalent to an A- is America! I was incredibly happy because I was not expecting that. The midterm is worth 10% of my grade and another 10% is the labs, which I have gotten all the points for so far! I was having a hard time being motivated to work on my report after working on it for two full days, so at 3 I decided that it was as good as I could make it and keep my sanity. I'm so sick of birds because of this report, but my field study this week is another bird lab and we'll be analysing the data in the labs until the end of the semester! I know it's bad and I'll probably get a horrible grade, but it is only 5% and I was at my wits end! I decided to just print it and turn it in.

When I got back, I decided to watch The Big Bang Theory! It is easily my favourite show and I could not contain my laughter! I'm so happy the new season started. :) At the end it had an ad for what was 'coming up next' from when it was on tv, so I decided to watch S*** My Dad Says. It was the pilot and it was funny at parts, but I didn't like the plot. I then remembered to respond to the student in the study abroad FYS, so I answered her questions. Next I watched the two episodes of Law & Order: SVU from the new season that I hadn't seen yet. I was then about to take a nap when my parents go on facebook chat, so I talked to them. We set up a time to skype on Sunday to talk about the Christian conference and mission trip.

I then laid down because I was tired and ended up taking a 2 1/2 hour nap. It was much needed after the hectic week I've had. Carrie also texted me during that time and we decided to go shopping tomorrow morning. The Aussie Rules Football League Grand Final is also tomorrow, which should be exciting.

Vending Machine Jesus

I woke up pretty reluctantly today, but I had to write my lab report that is due tomorrow, so I did get up. I started analysing data and downloading the papers online. I then had a question about if I was doing the equation in excel right because the number seemed low, so I posted on LMS. Then I went to MCU common time. It started off with one student talking about the bible and pop songs and then Steve talked about Luke 14. He said that some of the people that followed Jesus were people wondering what he'd do next and some just wanted things out of him. He referred to this as the vending machine Jesus, hence my title.

I got back at 1:30 and texted Corin and Carrie about when they wanted to go to the store. We decided to go at 2, so I worked on my report and the calculations some more in the meantime. I also emailed Steve, because there is a Christian conference and mission trip in Canberra and Sydney at the end of the semester and I wanted more information. It sounds like a great experience, but my parents and I would have to work out the details before I know if I can go or not. He still hasn't emailed me back, though.

We then went to the store at 2 and I got a lot of stuff because I was totally out of apple juice and shapes. Also, next week is our study break, which means that I have my field study. I have to take my lunch to the days that I'll be in the field since we don't have a lunch break and so I had to get more food for that. I also got Splits, which are a cheaper version of the Splice popsicle things that I got everywhere on the Northwest trip.

I came back from the store and took a little nap/rest to get my mind together before working some more on my report. I've basically been writing it all day/night and am still not even close to finishing it! There was a ton of calculations and I couldn't figure out how to make the graph I wanted in excel. I'm just going to present the data as a table instead. I think it'll be a long night and I'll probably be working on this report for most of tomorrow, too, since it isn't due until 5. I do have to go to class, though, and find out where I'm supposed to turn this in. I also got an email today from a student in an FYS (first year seminar) class that I said I'd share my experiences with because it's a class on studying abroad. I'm excited to help and hopefully I'll be able to write back to her tomorrow. She actually said that she has a sister that is studying at Curtin Uni, which is in Perth! I guess it really is small world. :P

Now, back to writing my report :(

I try to think of something clever for a title throughout the day, but I epically fail!

I had every intention to get up early today and listen to some more lectures, but I was just too tired and hit the snooze too much. :P I did get up at a reasonable time, though, because I had to go to the CIEE office to print my paper and go turn it in. I then came back and heated up some chicken with orange sauce (I love my parents for sending me that!) and listened to another lecture. I then took a quick nap before going to face my doom in the form of a biology midterm.

The lab starts at 1:30 and we were given the test at the beginning. It was 32 multiple choice questions, but he messed up the answers on one of the questions and he's throwing that out. I was kind of sad because he said the answer and I had that one right! I finished the test in about an hour and then had another half hour until the computer simulation part of our lab. We had an excel workshop thing for learning about mark-recapture. That was pretty easy and I got out of lab at 5, which is a half hour early. Before the lab, I logged in to LMS, it is the website for the classes to post announcements etc similar to Moodle at Hope, and found that my paper I turned in is now due on Friday! I'm glad that I got it done anyway, though.

I came back and of course took a nap. I think it was deserved, though, because of the amount of anxiety I always have before tests. After that, I was not in a homework mood, which means that I have a lot to do tomorrow to finish my lab report that is due on Friday. I ended up watching Glee and going on facebook before showering and now I'm writing this. Hopefully I'll get up early tomorrow to start writing my lab report. Although, I guess that depends on if I can fall asleep tonight!

"Who needs science fiction, anyway?"

Tuesdays suck! I had class starting at 8:30 and it was a guest lecturer, which meant that it wasn't going to be on lectopia so I forced myself to get up even though I was extremely tired. (I still can't sleep at night and I hit the snooze 3 times this morning.) It was a talk about Woylie's which are so cute! He also talked about Toxoplasma, which changes your fears, and when it accumulates in mice they will go right up to cats. (Hence the title, it's something the lecturer said) He also told us that humans can get it and you are 2.5x more likely to get in a car crash if you do. Then I went to my other class that has the two hour lecture followed by the tute. I almost fell asleep so much which would have been really awkward since there were only 6 of us there today. We ended up watching a doco in the tute and then our lecturer talked about it and he went way over, so I was late to Paul's ongoing orientation class. Luckily Paul doesn't care and another student is in my class, so he was late too. After class we went to the CIEE office to eat lunch and talk.

After that, I came back to my room and had to take a nap in order to be able to function. 5 hours of class on less than 5 hours of sleep is not a good idea. I figured that since I'm not able to sleep at night I can just take a nap and stay up later tonight to study. After my nap, I started studying because I have my biology midterm tomorrow. It's worth 10% of my grade and is multiple choice. In the grand scheme of things, it isn't as big of a part of my grade as other things, but that didn't stop me from having a panic attack. I also have a paper due tomorrow (which is 15% for that class) and a lab report that is another 5% due on Friday. It has all just built up that I freaked out a little. I facebook chatted with my mom and listened to some music, which helped calm me a lot. I reheated my fajitas from Zapata's for dinner, which was good, but I liked Mexican Kitchen better. I then wrote my paper/answered the questions for my assignment due tomorrow and saved that to print tomorrow morning and turn in. I really don't know what to expect for my test tomorrow or how to study, so I read through the labs again and am listening to some of the lectures. I'm also praying to God that he'll help me to study the right things, since I don't have time to do it all. haha

Now I'm starting to feel tired, but I know that if I try to go to bed, I will just lay there completely awake. I might as well be doing something productive and try to study. I'll definitely not deprive myself of sleep, though. I know the importance of getting a good night's sleep before a test.

"Those are my school supplies!"

I could not sleep at all last night. I was wide awake and kept trying different ways on my bed and even sleeping on the floor, but I could not fall asleep. I'm convinced I'm becoming nocturnal because I would try to play a game on my zune which usually makes me tired, and it would make me tired until I tired off the zune's light. I eventually did fall asleep, but not until at leave 3:30-4:00. Since I slept so little, I decided to sleep in and to just listen to lectopia. They watched a doco in lecture, so I watched that online. It was very interesting because it focused on the white Australian's views on Aboriginal reconciliation. I then worked on my assignment for my other class until the tute. We had a really interesting conversation in the tute about the documentary.

After the tute, I came back to the flat and checked my email, etc before Corin texted me about going out to dinner for Carrie's birthday. She turned 21 today! We went to Zapata's in Freo. When we went to Freo, the restaurant wasn't open yet so we walked around. I bought Carrie some starburst babies since she always talks about getting them but hasn't bought them yet. For dinner, I got steak fajitas and have left overs. :) When we came back we had to get ready for Carrie's party. It was an ABC party, which means anything but clothes. That means that you make an outfit out of anything from a sheet or towel to duct tape. I made a dress out of a garbage bag, hair ties, and duct tape. I was quite proud and got a few compliments. One of Carrie's flatmates actually thought that I was wearing a real dress at first! haha Carrie's outfit was a bunch of birthday wrapping paper and Corin's was made out of maps. One person actually came as Goon Man. He had a bunch of goon boxes and had one bag of goon that you could get wine out of. (You can probably guess where the spout was!) It was quite entertaining to see everyone's costumes. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoy seeing people make a fool out of themselves when they are drunk and you are completely sober and will remember all of it! Security came at 11 because it's a Monday and we weren't supposed to have a party after that, but because it was less that 20 people they said it was ok. Most people left soon after that anyway.

I got back at 11:30ish and hopefully the excitement and not taking a nap a few hours ago will let me fall asleep and go to class tomorrow. Especially since this biology lecture won't be on lectopia! G'night!

(oh and the title is from Corin at the party when one of her flatmates was trying to through her pen across the room)

I'm too easily distracted...

I didn't set my alarm last night because I thought maybe I could just sleep in and then not need a nap. That wasn't the case, but anyway... I initially woke up a little before 10, then realized it wasn't too late so I slept some more until ~11:30. When I woke up, I check my facebook, email, etc and started to do homework again. I have a document exercise thing, where we are given an article to read and questions to answer, due on Wednesday for my Aboriginal History class. I read through that today and also answered most of the questions as I went. One of the questions is about the piece in general, so I'm going to reread the article and then figure out that answer. I still need to type out the answers, but I have the general ideas written out.

I also ate chicken for lunch. I finished my b-dub's Spicy Garlic sauce :( but I opened my Frank's. :) I also had to take a nap today because I was just too tired. I keep falling deeper into this horrible trap where I just can't sleep at night! I also filled out the forms to apply for the mentor program thing. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do it or not because we have to get this Working With Children Check thing and I tried to look it up online and it can take up to three weeks to get a card. I'm not sure if we can do it right away or what. I'm also not sure if the program will start right away or not, but we only have two more months of the semester. Corin and I are going to turn in our forms tomorrow, though, and we'll ask him them. I didn't do much else except get distracted, mainly on facebook, and that's about it of my awesomely exciting life. :P

When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling bad; I simply remember...when the dog bites, when the bee stings...

I woke up today, although very reluctantly, and knew that I had to do homework all day. I got all of the powerpoints from the lectures that I missed on my computer. Then I started to cook some more chicken because I ran out. I read some of the powerpoints while my chicken cooked, but I took a break to eat. After lunch, I finished reading the powerpoints and lecture notes. I then took a bit of a nap because my sleeping schedule is still not right and homework tires me out. I then started listening to one of the lectures on lectopia, but I knew that I was going to skype my parents, niece, and nephew, so I was too excited to concentrate.

At about 6:45, my dad came online, so we decided to try and get skype to work. My niece (Adrianna) and nephew (Austin) are visiting this weekend because my sister and brother-in-law are going to a wedding or something and my dad wanted to take Austin to a Michigan football game. I was really excited to get to see them and talk to them. Then skype decided to act stupid, like it usually does, and not work. My parents had to restart their computers, the router, and try it on all three of their computers before it could work. Then my microphone wouldn't work, but I got that fixed and about 2 hours later it worked! I was so happy to see my parents, Austin, Adri, and my dog (Buddy). Adri didn't seem to know what was going on, but I got to talk to Austin. He told me about going out to dinner with my parents last night for my mom's birthday and sang the Happy Birthday song. While I was talking to my parents and he was in the corner playing, my parents heard him start to sing, so they were quiet so that I could hear. He was singing 'My Favourite Things' for the Song of Music! (Yes, I added the u) I didn't know that he knew it, but he said that he learned it in preschool. I guess he forgot the end because he just kept singing the same part over and over again (which is the title of this post) but it was really cute! My parents had him come over to the camera to sing it for me. :) Then my dad left to shower and the kids were playing, so I just talked to my mom for a while.

After skyping everyone, I finished listening to the first lecture and started on the second one. I only have about 10 more minutes on the second one, so I'll probably listen to that and then go to bed. Another day of homework tomorrow. Yay! *rolls eyes*

arrr...

I woke up today and my cough was much better. I'm not sure if it's from washing my sheets or the fact that I've been sick for two weeks, but either way I was really happy. I also tried to drink some vinegar, and that is not the best idea to do when you just wake up! Just saying... I actually went to my biology lecture today, but I still need to get caught up on the ones that I missed online. Hopefully I will get caught up tomorrow, since all I am planning on doing is homework. The lecture was really boring and he talked about ways to count animals. I feel that we don't learn anything in that class, which really makes me worried for our midterm next week.

After I got back from class, I was really tired because my sleeping schedule has been off from being sick and napping. I decided to take another nap. :) I then ate lunch when I woke up at about 3. I basically just went on facebook for the rest of the afternoon because I just didn't want to start homework.

Tonight was the pirate party in the village. I went over to someone's flat because Carrie, Corin, and Corin's flatmates were all over there. We hung out for a while and then went down to the pool deck for the party once the food was out. The food was some type of curry, but it was disgusting! It tasted like just a bunch of cinnamon and Carrie even pulled out two sticks of cinnamon from hers! We were at the party for a few hours and then Carrie and I decided to go up to Portia's flat because some people were supposed to be watching movies. When we got there, it was just Paige, Cait, and Steve and they weren't doing much. I guess there was a movie on tv they were watching. Right as they were getting up to leave, Portia came back and they went to bed. Carrie and I talked to her for a while and then we all went back to the party for a few minutes. After that, Carrie and I went back to our flats.

Now I'm just sitting here because I'm bored and have nothing to do, but I can't do homework because I'm not in a homework mood. Also, my flatmates are back and making a lot of noise. I may just try to listen to my zune and go to bed, though. I have a long day of trying to do homework tomorrow. I have to catch up on my biology lectures, study for a biology midterm, write my bird lab report, and write document review for my indigenous studies class all due next week. Hopefully I'll be able to cross some of that off tomorrow.

What if Jesus met Lady Gaga?

I woke up today to shower and eat a bit before I went over to Common time for MCU (Murdoch Christians United.) One my way to MCU, I saw Fr. Joe and he tried to talk to me. He asked if I was going to class and I said that I was going to MCU. He then said, "Well, you know, we have talks now too." I said yeah, but just kept going to MCU. I feel that he always tries to guilt-trip me or something into doing things. That's why I don't think I'm going to mass any more. It sounds dumb when I try to explain it, but something about him just creeps me out and he's very pushy and tries to get people to do things they don't want to do. (ie drink this juice that he gives us when we have pizza after mass, but he mixes the old juice with the new juice and it tastes weird so people don't want it.)

The talk today at MCU was meant to encourage people that aren't necessarily Christian to come and listen. The slogan that they used on the fliers was 'What would Jesus say to Lady Gaga?' Steve, the guy in charge, talked about the passage in Luke 7. After MCU, I walked the other way back to the flat. I put my laundry in and heated up some lunch. I decided to wash my sheets, too, because I noticed that my cough was always worse when I was on my bed, be it studying, going to bed, or waking up. Hopefully if something on there was triggering it, it was washed away. A few days ago my sqush pillow got a hole in it and some of the beads got on my bed. That may have been the reason, and I didn't bring a sewing kit, so I threw it out today. It's sad because I really like that pillow and it was great for the plane ride! My laundry seemed to take forever and when I got it out of the dryer it was still really wet!

I also found that the exam timetable is now available for our finals. I only have two exams and one is 16 November and the other is 18 November. Not sure if it's a good thing to have them so close, but at least I'll be done over a week early and this means that I'll be done with my exams before my parents come!

I don't think I really did anything else. I took a nap, since my sleep schedule is all off and I couldn't sleep well last night. I guess I'm just going to try and catch up with some of my lecture notes/lectopia from the biology classes that I missed before going to bed. Hopefully washing my sheets helped with my cough tonight!

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree

I was going to get up early and go through the powerpoints and lectopia from the biology lectures that I missed, but I was just too tired to try and wake up with my alarm. I hit snooze multiple times and reset the alarm a few times. :P Eventually, I did get up, but I didn't do much of anything before I ate lunch and had to go to lab. Of course during the 5 minutes that I was out of my room to make lunch is when the manager person for the village came to reinspect our flat to see if we had cleaned it or not. After he came back from checking the bathroom, he asked if it was the boys bathroom. I told him no, that it was dirty when I moved in and the other girl doesn't clean. He just laughed and said that we passed. I'm so glad for whoever cleaned our flat for inspection.

At 1:30, I had my wildlife biology lab. We met at the lab and he talked about what we were doing and some of the report that we actually have to write for this one. We did a bird survey around campus and used 3 different techniques to count them. We were in groups of 4, and I felt kind of useless because I'm not good at spotting or IDing birds. The two other girls weren't that good either, though, and so the guy in our group did most of the work. He bird-watches for fun, so he was really good at it. I did enter all of our data into the spreadsheet when we got back to lab, so I guess that was my contribution. While we were out there, my ear kept making a funny noise. At first I thought that I could just hear my heartbeat, but then I realized that it was probably popping a bit because I'm getting better. (Although I still have the cough, which is mostly when I go to bed or wake up. I'm washing my sheets tomorrow to see if that helps at all.) After I got back from lab, I went online for a little bit and then decided that it was just too much for one day, so I took a nap. It was a great nap and I had a hard time getting back up. Then I pretty much just came online and have been here since I woke up. I think I'm gonna go back to bed soon, though. I haven't been sleeping well and I'm just exhausted!

*Sigh* gosh I hate making titles

I decided to wake up early today to finish reading my articles for my in class indigenous studies class. This didn't work because I had a hard time falling asleep last night, so I decided that I'd just listen to lectopia again for biology and stay back and read my article then. I was able to finish the article on time and went to the lecture for that class. We watched another part of the documentary 'First Australians.' He also gave us our questions so that we could start thinking about our answers. After the documentary, we had an hour to find the answers to what we were going to write and then another hour to write it. During the tute time when we were writing our answers, he had gotten us all chocolate bars. I got a carmallo koala, but I didn't eat it until I got back to the flat. When I went to turn in my answers, he asked me if I was sick, and so I told him my story and he suggested that I get apple cider vinegar to drink. I guess it's supposed to help with your immune system, but I just like it so I don't care.

About 1/2 hour after I got back, Carrie knocked on my window and asked if I wanted to go to Kardinya with her to go to the store. She needed to get stamps and some other stuff, and I did as well, so I went. I finally got stamps (yay!) but I still need to get one more postcard before I send them out. I don't want everyone to get theirs except for one person! I also went to Kmart to buy some more Shapes (since they are much cheaper there) and I went to Coles to get some apple juice and apple cider vinegar. I also ended up getting apples (I realised at the register how funny that must be!) and some chicken because it was still on sale! When we came back, I went online for a while and then I needed to take a nap or I was going to go insane. My nap was much needed and I woke up feeling like I had slept all day and it was great!

I then decided to finally upload my pictures onto facebook in addition to flickr for other people to go to and easier access for my facebook friends. It actually wasn't as slow as I thought it was going to be. (I also finally got my drag queen competition video up last night) Now I've just got to read my prelab for tomorrow and that's pretty much it. Hopefully my apple cider vinegar will do the trick!

Title

I woke up today with the intent to go to class again, but a few factors contributed to me not going to my lecture. First off, I woke up to a text from Corin saying that she wasn't going to go. Then I saw that Caitlin (and Tiffany) had posted on my facebook wall to tell me to go on skype because they wanted to talk. I told them that I didn't have time before class, but my cough came back and I decided that it was just be a nuisance to the rest of the class. I decided to just stay and listen to lectopia. I started talking to Caitlin for a while, but skype wouldn't work, so we had to use AIM and then the voice on the video chat wasn't working for my microphone. I could hear her, but she could not hear me. We ended up talking through chat and having the video on, which was funny. We then got off for an hour to work on homework and then she came back with Tiffany (and Jenny came too). Again, they talked and I typed. It was really weird, but I was glad to see them and talk to them. :)

We failed our inspection today, which isn't a surprise, but we did do alright. The fridge and the girl's bathroom were the things that failed. We have 48 hours to fix them and if they aren't cleaned to their standards, we have to pay the cleaning service $30/half hour (split 5 ways it's $6). Hopefully someone will clean it, since it was like that when I moved in and I'm not cleaning it!

I went to the CIEE office to print out an article for my class tomorrow, and Paul said he was just going to call me today to see if I was alright. When he asked how I was doing, I answered with 'I'm alive.' haha I am getting better, though. I then went to my tute and she had us watch the movie Rabbit-Proof Fence, which is a movie about Aboriginal girls that were part of the stolen generation, but escaped to go home. It was a very good movie and helped with the reality of the stolen generation for those of us that didn't grow up hearing about it. One of the main characters is actually played by the actor who plays Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets! He plays the bad guy, A.O. Neville, who the kids call Mr. Devil. At the end of the tute, I got my paper back. (Horrible, but at least I passed) We (Corin and I) also asked her about a mentoring program that someone talked to our class about last week. She told us to go to someone's office to get sheets for it, and so we did. We are both interested in it. It is a program that partners up uni students with local Aboriginal high school students and aims to encourage them to do well in school and provide positive role models.

During the times that I've been at the flat, I've just been reading and I took a nap. I know, really exciting! I am feeling better, but I felt kinda nauseated, which is why I took the nap. (And my head just needed a break because it kept wandering!)

At 7:30, I went to Murdoch Village Christians. We are finally in the Seminar room! (It's been taken every time before even though we had it reserved) Katie came along this time since she hadn't been to church since she's been here and wanted to come. She liked it, so I think she'll be coming back. We sang some songs and then went into our bible discussion. They have switched it up so that now it is a student that leads the discussion instead of Steve. This week Joel lead us through the next part of Colossians. We then had prayers and just hung out for a while. I got back about an hour ago, read some more, wrote this, and now I have to finish reading before I go to bed. In my AIS class tomorrow, we have that in class writing assignment, so hopefully that will go better than the paper that I just got back today. (Hopefully my other assignment that I turned in will too!)

On a side note, I've been looking at the Stats of views for my blog, and the countries viewer-ship fascinate me!

I hate making titles, but it looks weird without one!

I woke up today and stupidly went online to check my mail and started facebook chatting with my dad and before I knew it, I had lost the whole morning when I wanted to get up to do homework! I did do some reading, though. I read some of the articles for my class on Tuesday and started to read the book for my other indigenous studies class. The book is about the stolen generation, which is a topic that I find very interesting, especially since it happened so recently! I'm finding this easier to read than my articles for the other class, but I still am sick of reading. I realized today how much more the American school system suits me with the constant homework and worksheets that provide a reason for me to stay reading. I know it'll be hard to go back to that, though.

While I was reading, I noticed that my flatmates were vacuuming and when I went out to make noodles for dinner, I found they had cleaned! The kitchen and living area look great, but the bathrooms still aren't perfect. They have cleaned the crap off of the toilet area in the girl's bathroom too! I guess we'll find out tomorrow if it is clean enough to pass inspection. There are still some parts that aren't the cleanest, but I'm sure we'll pass at least part of it, and hopefully all of it by the second time.

Other than just reading, I haven't done much today. I feel like that's what I'm going to say about everyday for a while. I've got a lot of homework due in the next two weeks, but then it's study break number two! (and I actually will be studying this time, and doing a biology field study)

Homework

I woke up at 9:30ish and I really don't remember what I've done today. I cooked chicken for dinner and I've done some homework today. I have a lot of reading and studying to get caught up on! I'm in the process of reading articles for my Aboriginal Studies class on Tuesday because we have a writing exercise with 5 short essay questions (~2 paragraphs each) and each come from a different article. Luckily, he gave us the five articles and it is open book, but I have to read the articles this weekend. I also have to read a bunch of stuff for my other class and study for my biology midterm test sometime next week, as in the week after this one.

On the plus side, I'm starting to get better! My nose has been sniffly off and on and my cough is the same. I'll be fine for a few hours then I'll have a coughing fit for a few minutes then be fine again! My ear has also been getting better, but I think it's still plugged. The medicine is designed to ease the pain, not fix it, so I think that is what it is doing.

That's pretty much it, so now I'm just going to try and read some more before I go to bed. Also, I've had my head crooked the entire time while typing this because I just put ear medicine in, and it's hard to think with you head sideways. haha!

Now I know how Buddy feels!

I set my alarm with ever intention of actually going to class today, but I woke up coughing and realized that I would probably be more of a distraction than anything else. I then proceeded to go back to bed and didn't wake up until 12 ish. After some internal debating about what to do, I decided to eat some noodles for lunch, then go to get my graded paper, and to go to the store. When I got to the place where my lecturer said our papers would be, there were no papers there. I just decided to leave and wait to get it until class on Monday. I am pretty nervous since it's my first grade in Australia and they actually want to get just a pass and barely anyone gets what we would consider an A.

I then walked to Kardinya to go to the Chemist, Kmart, and Coles. At the chemist, I finally got the medicine that the doctor wanted me to get. There was a nasal spray, which has definitely help, unless it was just getting out of the flat, and some ear drops. The ear drops are supposed to numb the area so that it doesn't hurt. They seem to be working, but they are messy to try and put it. They also feel weird, so I know why Buddy always tries to leave whenever he has an ear infection and ear drops as medicine. My cough has also been getting better, but of course as I write this my nose is sniffly and I keep coughing! (also, my ear feels weird, but that's probably because I just put medicine in) I then went to Kmart to buy more fruitfuls and Kleenex. I also bought Shapes (a brand of crackers made by the makers of Tim Tams!) and some flip flops since I took mine to the outback and they are really dirty and gross now. My flip flops only cost $6, which is $5.40 in USD! I then went to Coles to go grocery shopping. I was going to get chicken only if it was on sale because I had some, and when I got there I found out that it was, but it was completely sold out! The juice boxes that I get were also on sale, but there was only one apple left, and I don't like the orange much, so I just got one apple and one orange. I also wanted to get some hard candies for my throat, but they don't have jolly ranchers or other hard candies like that here! I had to get a few suckers instead. Hopefully my cough will be ok soon.

As I was walking back, I saw Carrie and Corin, and they said that they were going to the store to buy costumes for the party at the Tav, the bar on campus, so I dropped off my stuff in my room and took my medicine. The theme was conquerers/conquered or something. I don't know, but I didn't go because I'm sick and that's not really my thing anyway. I came back and tonight I bought some old 90s boy band songs (I keep hearing them on the radio/stores, so I needed them on my zune), cleaned up some crap in my room, and ate chicken for dinner. Like usual, it hasn't been an interesting day, but at least I left my room!

*cough cough*

Once again, I'm not sure what I did today. I tried to sleep in and get a little rest, but I got up at 9:40ish. I'm not really sure what I did today except for watch some tv online, go on facebook, download all of the readings that I need to do for my biology class, make chicken for lunch, and shower. The girls bathroom still is gross, so I have to use the boys bathroom which is gross in its own way. I hope they get it cleaned up soon; especially since we have flat inspections on Monday! Hopefully someone will fess up to what happened or pay for the cleaning service because I do not want to clean or pay for that! The shower/steam felt good for my sickness, but after I got out I felt sick again. My cough has been really bad too and my stomach muscles are killing me! I should probably go to the chemist and the store tomorrow because of the pain. I also need to get some more food and other stuff. The only productive thing that I did today was to read about 2 pages of what I need to read in one of my aboriginal studies classes. Then I took a nap and when I got up I watched a bunch of Jay Walking segments on youtube. Someone had one posted on facebook and they were just too funny to not keep watching. I love losing faith in the American school system, lol. It's been a boring day, but tomorrow I actually have a class to go to, so I'll see if I feel well enough to go to that lecture. All of our lectures are on lectopia (on-line) so if I miss them it isn't a big deal. The only time they aren't is if it is a guest lecturer. I will probably try to read some more for my aboriginal class before going to bed and that's basically it. I know, really exciting, right? (Also, I hear my flatmates coughing, so hopefully I didn't get them sick!)

Where did the day go?

I am not really sure where today has gone because I feel that I did nothing. I'm still sick, which is my excuse for not doing anything today, even though I should have at least done some homework. This week, I am in the lab group that is working on a self paced excel exercise for biology lab, which meant that I did not have to go in. I started to look at it, but wasn't sure if I had to turn it in or what I had to answer, so I posted on the unit message board and didn't work on it. I tried to sleep to a reasonable time today because I've been getting up too early because we had to get up during the Northwest trip and my body needs rest to heal. I ate some Maggi noodles for lunch and had an orange juice juice box. I took a nap this afternoon. For dinner, I ate some shapes (a cracker brand) and drank another juice box. My cough is still going crazy and my stomach hurts as a result. About the only semi-productive things that I did today were making a list for when I go to the store, making a list of my homework/readings, and writing when my assignments are due on my calendar.

I also watched some tv online, played bejeweled on facebook, rested, and went through old pictures tagged of me on facebook. I hate being sick because it makes me so much more homesick! I'm listening to the Hope College Worship Band, which probably isn't the best thing to not be Hope-sick either! I also came to the conclusion that other than my hair changing length, I have looked the exact same for at least four years! No wonder everyone thinks that I look 12, I looked young at 16 and I still look the same! That's pretty much all I've done and I'm going to try to go to bed early again tonight so that maybe my body can heal with sleep. I have tomorrow off from uni, so hopefully I'll be a little more productive. :P

I'm still sick...

This morning I woke up and decided that I was too sick to go to class and in case I had something contagious, I didn't want to spread it more. Instead I looked up when the health and counselling centre on campus was open, and I gave them a call. She said that there was no way to get me in with the doctor, but after 9:30 I could just come in and see the nurse. I went in and we went through my symptoms and she gave me a pill thing of this medicine to help with some of my symptoms. She then told me to come back in the afternoon and see the doctor. Somehow she could get me an appointment, lol.

I came back to the flat and made some Maggi noodles, watched The Last Big Attraction, and took a nap before I had to go back to see the doctor. Being sick has caused me to be more homesick and all of my friends from school being back has made me Hope-sick, so that's why I watched The Last Big Attraction. (It's a funny movie by Hopwood DePree about Holland, MI and Windmill Island) I had my doctor's appointment at 2:15 and she checked my ear, throat, and eyes. She said that I have a viral infection and that at this point of my illness, antibiotics will not help. She also went on to explain about the negative pressure system that has been created in my ear. The Eustachian tube has some kind of crap blocked up in it, which leads to a negative pressure system that pulls in my eardrum causing the pain and making it harder to hear. She told me of some ear spray and nose spray that I can get at the chemists to help and to just take asprin. I guess at this point all I can do is pray that my immune system can work extra hard to fight off the virus!

I came back and haven't done too much. I listened to the lecture that I missed today on lectopia. It actually was a pretty interesting one. I also got caught up on TV shows and I am currently watching Eclipse online because I was bored and we have a poster for it in our flat for some reason so I decided to finally watch it. I just wasn't going to pay money to see it and was going to wait, but I just don't care any more. I also had more noodles for dinner and some orange juice. My eyes are starting to hurt, so when I finish watching Eclipse I will probably go to bed. Plus, I keep getting up early because I had to during the Northwest/Outback trip!

I have an immune system of steel! or is it fly paper?

No idea if that title is funny to anyone else, but I was trying to think of something that would make things stick to it, in this case germs and viruses. :( So, as you can tell I am still sick. I woke up this morning and still did not have a voice. I have also been having a problem with eye goo almost keeping my whole eyes closed in the morning. It isn't fun and someone told me about the health centre on campus, so I may go there tomorrow after class. I forced myself to go to lecture this morning, and it was quite interesting. We had a guest lecturer and she was talking about the Indigenous people in the Pilbara and some places that I was just at on the trip!

After lecture, I went to the CIEE office to print off my paper and go to turn it in. It was a puzzle trying to find where to turn it in. Our unit guide told us to go to the History box in the Social Sciences building. I had never been in that building and didn't know my way around, so I ended up walking in a giant circle until I finally found it. I then realized that if I had just gone the other way it was right there! When I got there, there was a sign telling my class to not turn our papers in there, but instead to go to the education and humanities building. I had no idea where the box in there was, so I walked to were our class was and could not find it. One lecturer asked if I was lost, so I tried to explain in my almost-nothing voice my situation. She told me to go downstairs to an office and ask. I walked past it because I saw a sign that said something that seemed familiar from the sign, which was something about Media Communications. I then went there and didn't see anything that said to put it there, so I went to ask at the office. There was two women there and one said that I did want to put it in that communications box. Then when I got there, the pen to fill out my cover sheet didn't work, so I had to ask a lady in another office nearby to borrow one. Finally, I did get it turned in, though, so hopefully he'll get it.

I then went back to my flat and ate Maggi noodles for lunch and worked on uploading my pictures. I just got them all uploaded about 20 minutes ago, yes it took well over a day to get them up! I also took a nap before my tute. I went to my tute, and she said that we can pick up our papers tomorrow, so I'm nervous. Especially because during the tute she talked about all of the problems with the papers. After the tute, I came back and did laundry. I also made some more Maggi for dinner and uploaded pictures to flickr.

I'm now going to pack my bag for tomorrow and go to bed because I still can't breathe through my nose, my eyes keep getting that weird goop so it's hard to see, my throat still hurts, and I have a really annoying cough. Other than that, I great! lol. Hopefully I'll get a good night's sleep to help me heal.

Well, at least we know it's not scurvy!

The northwest/outback excursion was definitely amazing, but I was very ready to get back. Especially because I got sick a few days ago with just a sore throat, then extreme fatigue and soreness, and finally today I lost my voice. I ate lots of oranges, and that was about all I had for lunch (or breakfast if I ate it) everyday because I don't like sandwiches; hence the name of this post. Russ, our Murdoch chaperone, said that he'd tell me to eat oranges, except I've been eating plenty of those! haha

We had about 35 students that went on this trip, and we were divided into two buses. Katie and Carrie were also on this trip, and I was glad that we chose the bus that we did. The two drivers were Al, who was kind of the dad of the group that kept all of the details together, and Libby, who was kind of like a cool big sister or aunt or something. She was really funny. Al was our bus' driver, and Libby drove the other bus, which was very loud. They would have sing-a-longs and nicknamed themselves the platybus, which I still don't understand. They kept calling us the snorebus because we just slept the whole time, but then we came up with the koala bus because all we do is sleep and eat. :) I've always wanted to be a koala! The koala bus consisted of Al, Sean, Portia, Paige, Sam, Cait, Steve, Le Ni (at least that's her facebook name and she's German so I'm not sure...), Connie, myself, Carrie, Katie, Ignatius, Viktor, Sascha, and Flo. (I went by where we sat, which is why I'm in the middle.) Everyone on the trip was either from Germany or America except for one person from Finland and one from Denmark.

Overall I had a lot of fun, despite some hiccups that I would rather have done without, ie: getting sick! Here's the breakdown of what happened each day, and I'm uploading the pictures to flickr, which may be a while... (and a fun fact, my battery went 10 days without being charged and still had 1 of 5 bars of battery left!)

Day 1- Friday, 27 August:

I woke up at 6:15, got ready, finished packing, and met up at carpark 6 at 7:15. We weren't supposed to leave until 8, but they wanted to get everything packed and everyone was there, so they told us 7:15. When I got there Katie and Carrie were already there along with a few other people that I didn't know yet. We mostly rode in the buses and stopped at roadhouses for petrol, bathroom stops, and if you wanted snacks. We stopped at one that said that it was open 25 hours a day! We then went to a park on the beach for lunch. It was sandwiches, along with every day for lunch after that, so I just ate some peanut butter and celery. It was crunchy peanut butter, which I don't really like, so I mostly just ate the celery. We drove some more and stopped at a place with a lot of stores. They had goon on sale, so almost everyone stocked up!

We finally drove into a sheep farm where we were staying for the night. Carrie and I stayed in a tent together and Katie had her own. There were no more 3-person tents when we got there. Carrie and I decided to do some 'splorin' (aka exploring) around the farm and just walked around. They also had 2 cute dogs, but I can't remember their names any more and forgot to write them down. We then stayed by the fire until dinner was ready. They like to eat really late here or something because dinner was almost always after 8. We had sheep curry since we were on a sheep farm. I had never actually had sheep before, but it was good. It tasted like beef, only chewier. We all sat at a long table that they had in a shed type area and it was funny to see that many tables put into one long group. After dinner, everyone just hung out around the fire until we went to bed.

Day 2- Saturday, August 28:

I forgot to write this down until the next day, so I forgot some things. We woke up at 7 and it was freezing cold since we were still so far south! We went to see Nature's Window in Kalbarri national park. It is a bunch of really pretty gorges and cliffs. There is one part that is called Nature's Window where the rocks make a window frame.

We also saw some kangaroos, wallabies, and a dingo that crossed the road at different times throughout our trip. We went to a beach/park area in the morning. I swung when I first got there, but then Carrie and I went out to sit on the dock. It was beautiful out there. We then made a stop at the store and came back to the park for lunch. I don't really remember much else except we went to the next place where we were staying the night and set up our tents. This was actually a camp site where there were other people.

Day 3- Sunday, August 29:

We woke up at 5:30ish to go to Monkey Mia and Shark Bay because we had to leave the camp at 6 to get there and see the dolphins. The feeding was at 7:30 and we just saw the tail end of it because it was raining and we tried to stop everywhere to get people ponchos. They should have just been prepared with rain coats! But we did get to see the second feeding after we ate some breakfast. I just ate some plain white bread. The feeding was really cool because a lot of dolphins came in and one woman who was working was sharing information about them. One of the dolphins was even pregnant! They have a weird ritual from mating, but this post is long enough. Some people got to feed them, but I wasn't picked.

After the dolphins, Katie, Carrie, and I walked around the beach, went to the shop, relaxed, and went in the Jacuzzi. I'm still not sure if we were allowed too, but no one yelled at us! I got a new waterbottle at the gift shop because my sucked and now I have one that doesn't taste like soap! We then had a sausage sizzle for lunch and Russ had us all count off into 4 groups to make cooking groups that we also played games with. After lunch, Katie, Carrie, and I, along with some others, got ice cream at the store before our boat ride. Our boat ride had a net thing at the back that you could ride in, which of course I didn't, and we went to a black pearl farm. The guy that worked there showed us the process of getting the pearl and how the make them. He also showed us a natural pearl and said that if you find one, you will generally find some small ones with it. He gave the 4 small ones to me and bet me $100 dollars that I'd lose them all before I got back the to beach, but I still have them all. :) They also showed us their jewellery that they make and they are currently doing the centre for the Miss Universe Crown! Our boat, the Aristocat 2, also went out to the turtle area and we saw some dolphins and a sea turtle.

When everyone got back from their various activities that day, we went to shell beach. It is a beach made entirely of little white shells no matter how deep you dig! They also told us that it is extremely salty water and it will start to burn you if you don't wash it off within an hour! We then went back to camp and they made chicken stir fry. It was my favourite meal of the entire trip! I then stayed up late with Katie and the Germans (the German guys on our bus, who will henceforth be known as the Germans: Sascha, Flo, Viktor, and Ignatius). They were playing cards and drinking while I was mostly watching. Katie had a bit too much to drink, so Flo and I helped her back to her tent.

Day 4- Monday, August 30:

Katie was still drunk this morning, which was very entertaining to me, since none of my friends at home drink and I've never dealt with that before. Al, Libby, and Russ yelled at all of us because apparently we were being too loud and it woke up the other campers. I really don't think we were any louder than the first night, though. We then walked to see the stromatolites, which were cool because they have been living for 3.5 billion years! It was kind of anti-climactic for me, though because I thought the picture in my biology book was these cool huge things, but they were just these little things in shallow water. They are still interesting, though. After that, we drove and saw some emus walking along the side of the road. Then we stopped at a natural ice cream place. Katie bought me a strawberry popsicle because she kept saying she wanted to make up for being drunk and buy me ice cream. :) We drove passed the Tropic of Capricorn, went to a store, and had lunch at a park. As we were driving more, Libby's bus stopped to see a thorny devil, a weird looking lizard, so we went back to have a look too. It was so weird, but cool. They said that they are really rare and most Aussies have never seen one!

We eventually got to Coral Bay. We set up our camp ground, and then walked out to the beach to see the sunset. It was gorgeous and the water was cool because it is only up to your mid-thighs about 20 feet out, but big fish swam right up near the shore because they know that it's a preserve and you can't fish! After sunset we came back to camp for dinner and Russ got a bunch of expensive fish for free from some old guys in the camp ground. They just randomly offered him fish, and Al said that it was probably $150 value! We saved the fish for the next day, though.

Day 5- Tuesday, August 31

Today was my parents anniversary, and even though I couldn't call them, I still thought about them. :) We woke up at 7 and could do a bunch of different activities at Coral Bay. We decided to go on the 3 hour glass bottom boat tour. Everyone went to the beach and got our tickets for the different boat trips during that day. We shopped around a bit and then went to the beach. I had to stop back at camp before our boat to get some stuff. It started down pouring when Katie and I got back to the tents and we walked back and met everyone at the stores. Carrie, Katie, and I decided to eat at Finn's Cafe and then Sascha got some stuff and sat with us. We stayed there until it stopped raining and it was time to go on our boat. Luckily, when it rains here, it isn't for long. There was also 2 opportunities to snorkel on the boat, but I didn't. They said that the water was freezing anyway, so in a way, I was glad. It was awesome to see the Ningaloo Reef through the bottom of the boat and Katie actually went under the boat for a bit so I could take a picture! We got to see a bunch of turtles and a lot of different reefs and fishes. We just missed getting to see a tiger shark, too.

In the early evening, we played the first of our group games. There were butt quarters, dizzy bat, orange pass without hands/arms, and picking up a box with your mouth. I didn't play, but took lots of pictures. I think I was the only one that did! My team was then in charge of dinner and I helped cook the burgers with Connie. We then ate and hung out with Katie, Carrie, and the Germans. Later we all went to Backpackers, which was a lounge area at a hostel. You needed to have a person who is staying there sign you in to get drinks, but most people couldn't find someone who was actually staying there, so it was quite funny.

Day 6- Wednesday, September 1:

Driving day... We mostly just drove, but some exciting things were one of the most isolated public bathrooms in the world and the world's most isolated, and expensive, gas station. We stopped for lunch at a park and I just ate an orange. One girl from our group accidently stepped on hot coals from a fire that used to be there, and she burned her feet. She consequently had to be carried every where for the remainder of the trip. We then stopped at the small town of Tom Price to go to the store. Finally, after dark, we got to our camp ground a Karijini national park. It apparently is a place where dingoes come out at night, but I didn't get to take a picture of that beware sign because it was too far from our camp. We were also told to watch out for red back spiders on the toilets. For dinner we had steak. After dinner, I watched Katie, Carrie, Steve, and the Germans play Mau-Mau, a type of German Uno using a real deck of cards.

Day 7- Thursday, September 2:

This morning, I woke up with a sore throat, but didn't think much of it. We drove to the Gorges and then hiked down them. It was a very scary hike for me and we had to get wet at parts. We also had to climb barefoot at parts and I cut my big toe pretty badly and it still hurts. I didn't know that it was cut until after I put my shoes on and was taking them off again, though! It was quite cut up, though. Libby helped my bandage it up. I didn't want to go to the harder part to climb or to the pool or water, so I just waited there, took pictures, and laid in the sun until they came back. I wasn't sure how I was going to get back over the water part where I cut my foot without hurting it more or getting it wet, but Libby took me a special way that they used to go, but have since put up no hiking signs. It was quite scary, especially for somewhere as scared of heights as me, but I'm still alive and my foot didn't get more messed up! We then went over to a lookout to see all three gorges before heading back to camp.

When we got back to camp for lunch, I decided to just lay down because I was feeling tired. I skipped lunch and woke up very sore and my throat hurt more. I decided that I didn't want to go to the afternoon gorges and I had Carrie get Russ so I could talk to him about it. I then slept all day, but I would wake up on and off and just fall back asleep. I was too sick to get out of bed, but Carrie said I had to eat, so she brought me some noodles and chips from what they had from dinner to the tent. After forcing food down, I went back to sleep.

Day 8- Friday, September 3

Another driving day, at least I didn't miss too much from being sick! I helped a little bit with packing up our tent, but I mostly let Katie and Carrie do it while I slept on the bus. I was still really sick. We stopped in Newman, which is a mining town and we went to a grocery store. They had this crazy public toilet! It was all automated with buttons and it also talked to you and played music while in the bathroom. The toilet also flushed once you started washing your hands and there was a 10 minute limit before the doors would just open. That'd be kinda awkward if you were in there for more than 10 minutes, haha. It also self cleaned. It was quite fascinating to me. We then stopped at a park for lunch and went to a visitor centre after. I got some stuff, including a metal iron ore necklace. It's supposed to increase energy levels, reduce pain, and reduce stress, so I'm definitely wearing it the whole time I'm sick. Normally I don't believe in that stuff, but my muscle pains definitely started decreasing when I got it. It's also nice because it is magnetic, I can also wear it as a bracelet, just wrap it around my wrist more.

We then got to camp and we finally had showers again, since we didn't in Karijini. Everyone kept getting in line, but I knew that I wanted to take a long shower since I was sick, so I waited. I slept in the tent for the rest of the day after we set up, and the others were playing group games, but I was too sick to move. Carrie brought me an apple for dinner again in the tent. When everyone decided to go to the bar, I decided to get up and shower. I was still very sick, and had to wait for the showers, which was not fun. I felt like collapsing, but I had to shower, so I leaned on the tree until one finally opened up. The shower felt so good, but I had no way to dry my hair and my scalp hurts when I'm sick, so I went to bed with unbrushed wet hair. I was happy just to be somewhat clean again, though.

Day 9- Saturday, September 4:

It was again a driving day. We stopped at some roadhouses and a park for lunch. We also went to the store in Meekatharra, which is definitely my new favourite town name. It has a population of about 300, it consists mostly of aboriginal people, 98% of which are unemployed. Despite being run down, it still has an awesome name! The other bus saw some feral camels at the side of the road and Al told us about Australia's feral camels. They actually provide the racing camels for United Arab Emirates. The other bus also stopped to look at a dead eagle and pick feathers off of it, which I just thought was disgusting! We then got to another farm that we stayed at. Sam, Katie, Carrie, and I walked around at took pictures of the weird scrap metal statues around. It kind of reminded me of Padnos, but the statues weren't nearly as cool. We then ate dinner and had a drag queen contest between the cooking groups. Dan was the drag queen for our group and I think we should have won, but we got second place. Overall for every competion, our team got last place, but I can't complain because I was sick for half of them and just took pictures during the rest. The platybus then had an annoying sing-a-long thing that the whole koala bus hated and the Katie and I went to bed because we were tired and I left my flashlight in the tent so I had to go back with someone. It was only 9 when we went to bed.

Day 10- Sunday, September 5:

Today we got to come back! I had a horrible night's sleep last night. I was starting to get better, but I could not breathe through my nose at all, but I kept trying to and I think I just stopped breathing for a while and it would wake me up. Eventually I had to show tissues up my nose to stop trying to breathe that way, and just through my mouth. I also had to flip over to use my bag to prop my head up. I also kept getting really hot, but I eventually did sleep. I woke up to having no voice, though. That never happened to me until about 1 month after my brain surgery and I think I've lost it about 6 times in the 2.5 years since! I helped Carrie put away our tent and got everything put away and went on the bus to lay down. Everyone made their lunch at breakfast and put it in a bag to eat on the bus so that we wouldn't have to stop. We only stopped for gas and got back at 2:45 instead of the 5 that we were supposed to get back.

When I got back, I checked my email and tried to nap for a while, but I just couldn't, so I got up and made some Maggi noodles (like Ramen noodles) for lunch/dinner. I then went on to try and upload pictures to flickr and write this post which took forever. I also won't be surprised if my pictures take all night to upload and still aren't done when I wake up in the morning. Hopefully they will be, though. Oh, I forgot that I also came back to the girl's bathroom being disgusting and I don't know what happened to it, but for now I have to use the boy's bathroom, which is surprisingly grosser than the girl's was when I left! Well, I'm going to try and shower and try to edit my paper that I have to turn in tomorrow and hopefully I can wake up for class tomorrow. I hate reality and sickness :(