Randomness..

Hey Everyone!
Just wanted to post some random pictures and say Hi! Not a whole lot going on here. Just been hanging out with friends and working on school. I bought a rugby ball the other day! I have been thrown it around with friends for a while --- its weird to get used to after you have thrown a football. Even stranger when you actually play because you always have to pass the ball behind you -- you cant pass it forward. Also, I have learned that tea can be another term for dinner. I have also noticed that in the grocery stores (or at least the one that I went to) the eggs are out on the shelves and not in the fridge. What I like about living here is that you see other residents often. When I eat in the dining hall I usually see my friends there and when you are in the residence hall you can walk over to your friends room and just walk right into their livingroom and knock on their bedroom door. There is always people coming and going into my common room -- my roommates and their friends.
Pictures:
1. Possum (no 'o' in front of it) We were walking from a club one night and saw this guy hanging out by a tree. There was one up in the tree as well. Cute little guys.
2. Here is the picture that I got from my first few days in Australia when I was in Cairns and went to the Rainforest Station. We went on a duck boat there and got to feed kangaroos and wallabies and looked at other aussie critters.
3. Going to the Lagoon there was an interesting statue of a dog peeing. I had to take a picture of it!

Billabong Sanctuary!

I woke up at 6 o'clock this morning so I could get picked up to go to the Billabong Sanctuary -- which is a small zoo in Townsville. One of the rangers came to pick me and another volunteer up at Uni and I sat in the front seat with a young wallaby. The ranger that I was with is looking over the baby and brought it with her to work. His name is Arnie. Very cute little guy.
When I got to the zoo I helped clean the cages and feed the animals that were considered to be nocturnal. This mainly consisted of birds. I also helped with food prep -- which was pretty interesting. It started off as cutting up some fruit and getting seed and went to chopping up meat. The meat part was interesting but gross.
I learned how to hold a koala and how to pass it to another person to hold the way people do in pictures. Koalas have sharp claws and my left arm is all scratched up! I also learned how to hold a small croc. I was able to pass him to visitors at the zoo and let them hold him. I also watched some of their shows and information sessions about the animals. The croc show was very cool --- they are massive and waaaayyy cool!
I had a really good day at the sanctuary -- I am looking to do it every other sunday.
Hope you guys are doing well! Take much care.
Pictures:

1. Arnie running around while we were eating.
2. Hanging out with one of the koalas.
3. Arnie in his cloth pouch! He just chills in there --- very cute!
~*~ Random note about koalas. Koalas can only be held for 30 mintues throughout the day. (I think that they made take a few days off or something in between handlings) We had a stop watch so we knew how long they were out for! Also, they sleep about 20 hours a day! What a life.

Aussie Land!

So, I got this image in an email from one of my Aussie friends and had to post it here! Even though this is more of a joke, Australia does have its fair share of dangerous animals. However, some of them are made up ---- like the 'drop bear'. According to Aussies at my Uni, there is a vicious koala bear that drops out of trees onto people and attacks them. Good times. :) I guess the picture describes this animal well -- 'maneating koalas'. (If you do a google picture search for drop bear you can get some interesting images...)
Here are some George Roberts Hall 'war cries'. Each residence hall, or 'college', is considered to be a team and we play in Fisher Shield sports, which consists of sports like rugby, netball and waterpolo. People sign up for sports and play against other colleges. It is pretty cool --- anyway, here are some of our chants.

We Are the Reapers
We Are the Team
We Can't Be Beaten
That’s Easy Seen
At the end of the season
You'll know the reason
Why we are
the number one team
Yip Yah!

Whose Reapers?
George Roberts Reapers!
Did We Win?
We Shit’d It In!
How Did we do it?
Easy!
What Comes After G?
Rrrrrrrrr!!!!

Here We Are
Here we are
We’re At It Again
We’re at it again
We’re moving up
We’re moving up
We’re moving in
We’re moving in
We Are the Best
We are the best
The very Best
The very best
We Are GR
We are GR
We'll Beat The Rest
(it is repeated because one person, or a few people, say the first line while the rest of the team says the next)

'ello!

So, I spelled Mackers wrong, it is Maccas. (Aussie slang for McDonalds!) I actually went their tonight and got a McFlurry. They are relatively similar to the Maccas in the US. This weekend I am volunteering at the Billabong Sanctuary! I am going to be volunteering there every other Sunday. The sanctuary is a wildlife park located about a twenty minutes from campus. My friends who have already volunteered there said they cleaned koala and wombat cages, learned to hold koalas, and prepared food. I just think that it will be fun to be able to work with Aussie wildlife and to be apart of the organization! :) Here are some links about cane toads if any of you are interested (Thanks Simon!) They are a big pest here in Australia.
http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/features/frogs/canetoad.asp
http://www.austmus.gov.au/factsheets/canetoad.htm
I am going to a Cowboys Rugby game in the next few weeks! They are playing against the Melbourne Storm, a huge arch rival for us! St. Patrick's Day is coming up and I plan on going out to one of their Irish pubs for the evening! :) First time being able to got out for St. Patrick's Day! Even though the drinking age here is 18.
More Aussie things!:
~Lectures for classes are only offered at one time (they do have repeats of tutorials and
practicals throughout the week so times dont clash too much)
~ Aussies dont take really take electives like we have in the states. They come into Uni knowing
what they would like to major in.
~ 'Sausage Sizzles' are popular to have here. During my orientation week I was eating a lot of
them!
~ Aussie coins come in 5, 10, 20, and 50 cents along with 1 and 2 dollar coins. Their bills are 5,
10, 20, 50, and 100 Australian Dollars.
~ Mango is a popular fruit here. You seem this in a lot of options such as smoothies and ice
creams.
~ Australia is going through some extremes - bush fires in the south and flooding in the north!
Here is a link to some information about the bush fires.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/bushfires/

Info in the pictures:
1. A painting on the street as we were walking to The Strand. Thought that i would get a picture
with it!
2. I went to the ReefHQ a while ago, the largest coral reef aquarium!
3. We were able to get a behind the scenes tour - we got to see the turtles! This is a picture of one
of their endangered turtles - dont remember what species it was.
4. Logo for the Cowboys!

Im going to get ready for bed! Take care everyone and thanks for visiting!! :)

Castle Hill!

Here are some pictures from Castle Hill! I went with a group of 8 other people. It was a hot day to be climbing but we made it and it was worth it! :) You could see the whole town and Magnetic Island. It took about 45 minutes to climb up - we stopped and took pictures and water breaks.
Other Aussie Info!:
~ I have heard a lot of Aussies say 'yous' when referring to more than one person.
~ You don't tip when you go out to eat and taking a taxi is expensive! They have 'maxi taxis',
which are pretty much vans, best way to go!
~ Meat pies! I had a lamb one the other day... yummm.
~ For a fruit flavored drink we have 'cordial', i believe it is mixed with water.
~ We have lamb dishes a lot for dinner.
~