I just realized I've been putting pictures up, but I only have a few journal entries. I've been out of the country for exactly a month now. It doesn't even feel like it. I've been hanging out with this group of girls, and in between the free BBQ's we've been cooking together almost every night, which I've learned to really enjoy. My mom wrote down all of her recipies in this book for me, which we use all the time. The last few weeks have been pretty low-key. The weather has been rain on and off, and nearly everyone I know is sick, getting sick, or just getting better. Luckily for me now I'm just getting better. I've still been having tons of fun, but I am here for school too, right? Classes have started and are going well. I am in Outdoor Education, Perspectives on Australia and Global Environmental Issues. For Outdoor Ed, we take 2 big field trips. The first is in a couple weeks, where we go backpacking and camping for 3 nights. It's more team work and leadership stuff than learning how to survive in the outback. I think we do ropes courses and jumping off from really high places and things like that. Then in September we go backpacking again and we go off in smaller groups and have to navigate ourselves. That's more what I'm looking forward to. The Perspectives on Australia class is pretty easy. We get to go on field trips for that too. Global Environmental Issues is going to be a lot of work. We have to read a whole lot each week, but it's manageable and interesting. So far I really like all of my professors too. I just booked a trip later this month to Cairns. It's up north on the east coast. It includes snorkeling, white-water rafting and spending a day in the rainforest. I'm also planning on a week in New Zealand in October. Feel free to e-mail me at my new e-mail here in Lismore [email protected] or post a message on the message board. I love hearing from people!!