"Sometimes in the morning, when it's a good surf, I go out there, and I don't feel like it's a bad world." -Kary Mullis

I am taking a break from my never ending homework. ew.

Anyways, this past weekend was a very busy one. On Friday, I had a field trip to Brisbane Forest Park with my terrestrial environment class. We learned about the different rock formation and geology behind the continent of Australia and then went on a nature hike through the rain forest. It was actually really fun and interesting to see all the trees and flowering plants I had been learning about in class. We also got to see a platypus and wombat at the nature reserve located in the park (You can see pictures on my picasa site...the link is at the end of the post). Everyone should start to do school the Australian way...sooo much better than the US. I love field trips.
We got back to campus at about 5:45 and right from there my friend Ashley and I high tailed it to the city via bus to get picked up for our surf trip weekend! We actually made with time to spare :) I was very nervous we would miss the bus obvvvvvvv. Anyways so I really enjoyed the five and a half hour bus ride. LOVED IT...JUST LOVED IT! So we got there at 1am and immediately went to bed. There were only 2 other Americans in our weekend group, so I got to meet people from Canada, Holland, Japan and Germany, which was really cool. I feel like I have met more people from all around the world than I have Australians, still cool though. Annnyways, the next morning we woke up bright and early and started our very first surf lesson. We first went over wave structure and safety, then proceeded to do all the technical stuff on land like how to pop up on the board. It wasn't long before we headed into the water and I caught my first wave :) :) :) I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE SURFING! Of course I did fall...a lot (more in the afternoon when the waves were bigger than in the morning), but I was so much better this time than I was five years ago in Hawaii.

After two hours of non-stop surfing, we came in for lunch and then had a three hour break before our next lesson. I spent those three hours walking along the beach and laying in a hammock...yeah I know...my life is just awesome. Our next surf lesson was very different from the first. The waves were so much bigger at high tide and I only got up on my board about three times. It was really frustrating and I ended up stopping after an hour because I was so tired and sore. I ended up getting pretty beat up too...cuts on my feet, hands and knees from falling onto the sand. No worries though...I like battle wounds. That night we had dinner, chilled around the camp for a little and then Ashley and I headed down to the beach to take pictures of the sunset. To our surprise right at dusk a HUGE group of bats started flying for like ten minutes non-stop...NO JOKE! It was the coolest/creepiest thing I have ever seen in my life! It was also amazing to see the stars...you just don't get that in the city...I missed it.

The next day we had our last surf lesson, where I got my Mojo back (that's the name of the surf company, Mojo Surf). I stood up a bunch of times and I had so much fun. I surfed the entire two hours...I'm like the energizer bunny. After lunch we packed up our things and headed back on the bus and headed up to Byron Bay, a surf town with beautiful beaches and cool shops! I got another string bracelet to go with my one from Cairns. I also had a really good cheeseburger. yum.

So that was my weekend. On Sunday I leave for a 5 day field trip to Fraser Island...the biggest sand island in the world.

Oh and to keep a running tally, I have been to the oldest rainforest/jungle in the world, the largest stretch of reef and now I will be traveling to the largest sand island...Cool? I think so :)

So I get back from that on April 1st and then April 4th I leave for FIJI!!!!! I love my life right now. LOVE LOVE LOVE :)

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Here are the pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/fishymishi

Later dudes,
Melissa