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Hey there,
It's not Friday, but I had some downtime so I thought I would update since I had a pretty exciting Sunday at Phillip Island. I didn't have high expectations for the outing since my roommate had gone the previous weekend and didn't have the best time since it was cold and raining, but we really lucked out and had amazing weather.
Sooo, Sunday. We (8 other IES students and then about 10 other study abroad students from Uni) left the Uni around 9 and first stopped for coffee at the town right before we crossed the bridge to the Island. We bought some baked goods and such and went down by the pier to watch the pelicans. I think that pelicans are really intimidating...then when we were walking on the pier we saw this gigantic sting ray in the shallows. It was really cool and unexpected.
After breakfast we crossed over to the island and went on an hour long walk down the beach and through some bush to this amazing overlook. It was so nice to finally get to the beach, even though it was a little cold. And apparently the region we were at has the best surfing on Phillip Island, which must have been true since there were quite a few surfers out in the 50 degree weather.
Next, we went to a koala wildlife refuge, where all of the animals were survivors of car accidents. I don't know why, but I am just not impressed with koalas. They literally sleep for 20 hours a day and just crap everywhere. We only stayed at the conservatory for about 30 minutes, which was enough since once you see one koala you kinda have seen them all.
So, after the koalas we went and had lunch in this really cute town on the beach. We found some picnic tables right near the beach and had lunch, and walked around the town. The most interesting thing was the fully automated public bathrooms. I had never seen one before and it was both confusing and intriguing.
The best part of the trip was going to the wildlife refuge where there were free range animals everywhere. Such a blast! When we walked in we got a a large bag of food for the animals, so when we stepped through the gates we were swarmed by greedy kangaroos. But it was okay, since these kangaroos were particularly cute because a lot of them had joeys in their pouch. I was kinda surprised with how large some of the joeys were...some of their feet were as big as my forearm. It was crazy. Feeding the emus was fun and scary at the same time. The emus had a habit of sneaking up behind people who had food in their hand and putting thier massive beaks next to your ear. It was a little creepy. There were also wombats, which are so ugly they are cute. They look like hairy pigs, and I kinda wanted to give em a hug.
After seeing the animals we went to this gorgeous lookout (it has a name, but I forgot what it was...something to do with sea lions I think). The sun was setting just as we got there, and it was so beautiful. What I wasn't expecting...was the number of estrous sea gulls. There were sea gulls everywhere, and everywhere you looked there were at least 3 pairs consummating thier relationship...oh biology.
To finish off the night, we went and saw the penguin parade. I lied earlier...this was probably the best part of the trip. Every night about 200 penguins go from the ocean into their burrows off the beach, and we got to watch it. The penguins were pretty small, and soooooo cute (I would have hundreds of pics posted, but you aren't allowed to take pics of the penguins since you can blind them...). It took most of the penguins a long time to get from the ocean to the burrows since the sea gulls would pester them as soon as they got clear of the water.
I think I could have spent another week at Phillip Island...there was so much to do. I would suggest that anyone who comes to Australia needs to go there.
In other news....went to the doctor since the medicine wasn't working, so now I am going to see a specialist. Hopefully everything will get figured out...I am sure it will. No parade of naked people this week...yet.
Take care!
--Leah
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