Twirl Away!

Today has been....semi-productive?  I actually found out WHERE they moved my microbiology lecture to, which I suppose is a start, though I was pretty disappointed by the lecture itself....it was pretty surface and vague, which I was hoping it wouldn't be :(

I then had a moment of epic fail.  I dashed home, got changed for kickboxing, ate some food, even got my hands completely wrapped (which, by the way, makes typing VERY difficult).  I then proceeded to make it out the door and ON the tram, at which point I discovered I had grabbed the wrong tram ticket....*DOH*....I wouldn't have had time to run home and get the correct one, so I instead decided I'd go run to compensate, only to realize that my ipod was dead, and given my hatred of cardio, I really didn't need more motivation to skip it.

On a good note, my BJJ uniform arrived!  It is beauteous and fresh and white and clean and wonderful and I can wait to get it all sweaty and gross :D :D :D  But I ended up opting to skip practice to try to get caught up on work :(  It made me sad, and I'm still behind.  Screw you Australia, for having more exciting things to do than work :(

Anyways, I ended up heading to Turf with a few people tonight, which involved mainly trading spring break stories, but I ran into my roommate from Sydney, and we chatted for a while which was entertaining.  Then a random dance party ensued as usual at Turf, and I patented a new move for escaping guys I don't want to dance with, involving a clever twirl in a general direction in which they are....not....

All in all, a good day, but tomorrow is the start of April, and April is tournament training month......let the death BEGIN!

JUDGEFEST

Prepare for the longest spring break update post EVER.

Friday:

Camille, Christine and I trekked downtown to attempt to find bugspray before camping, and somehow ended up getting sushi and hitting up a chocolate cafe and entering a food coma?  Oops.  We got all packed up at home, and took the tram to the bus terminal, at which point we discovered we had no idea how to get to the bus to Avalon Airport (ghetto airport in the boonies of Melbourne).  After milling around and finally finding the bus, we realized we totally would have had enough time to get food, but failed b/c we didn't know what time the bus left *aw*.

We rode the bus for about an hour to get to Avalon, got prepped for our flight, and then....arrived in Brisbane.  Our flight landed around 11 p.m., and we were scheduled to get picked up from the Brisbane transit center at 6:00 a.m., meaning we needed to leave at 5:00 a.m.....hmmmm......that wouldn't have been a problem except...we had nowhere to stay....so we decided to sleep at the airport!  This would have been a good plan except we had no sleeping bags, and all the good sleeping chairs were taken.  We ended up finding an alcove near one of the baggage carousels, and putting down our jackets and whatnot in an attempt to make a cave-nest?  Somehow in our tired delirium, we decided that we were going to form a band, and that our name was going to be the Ghetto Cave Kittens.  Don't ask....we have all the song titles for our album entitled Judgefest.  Pick it up, it's gonna go platinum.

During the night, we realized our cave was not prime sleeping territory, as apparently the floor-waxing zamboni things were kept right near our cave, so they were constantly driving in and out of our territory.  That combined with the fact that they plunged the temperature to approximately 2 degrees led to us each getting about 15 minutes of sleep each.

Getting up the next morning to go hiking/camping was....NOT fun.

Saturday:

We arrive at the Brisbane transit center after a very grumpy cab ride, get grumpier that we have to eat McDonald's for breakfast since it's the only thing open, and get picked up for our Moreton Island adventure.  Moreton Island is this gorgeous place just off the coast where we stayed for 2 days.  We took a ferry to get out there (while dodging rain >.<) and saw wild dolphins and sea turtles in the water!!  That was pretty awesome, I gotta say.

Upon arriving at Moreton, we met up with some other girls who were going to be in our tour group (SUPER-annoying) and got dragged out in the sun for some sand tobogganing.  It's probably the most entertaining activity I've done in a LONG time.  They took us out to what is called a sand-blow, which is a MASSIVE sand dune that was formed by beach sand getting pushed across the island by the wind.  We were handed what were essentially planks of wood by the staff and told to lie face down and...GO.  This hill was so steep that from a foot back from the edge, you couldn't see over the side, so it was kind of freaky, but once you got moving, it was SUCH good fun.  I can definitely see why the Aussies do it, but it is definitely an activity that was thought up in the midst of being super-bored and in the desert.  The only thing that sucked was climbing back up the hill afterwards *quad pain*

We then headed over to this lighthouse on the island, where the view was amazing, then hiked down to this completely deserted beach where we played in the water and saw some sea turtles and whatnot :D  After dinner, it was a full moon out, so we trekked out to the beach and watched the moon rise, which was so beautiful.  I HIGHLY recommend checking out Moreton Island.  It's quite possibly one of the most amazing places on earth.

Sunday:

We woke up and had breakfast and whatnot, and then headed out to the beach for some snorkeling.  There are 5-6 barges off the coast that sunk a while back, so it makes for some great diving.  Camille, Christine, and I suited up and swam out to the wrecks.  We saw some really cool schools of fish and stuff, and then I heard this screaming coming from in front of me, and see Christine frantically swimming towards me and hear people yelling "SHARK!"  I definitely thought a Great White was about to come and eat me, but it was just a carpet shark, about 5 feet long, just cruising through the water.  It was super-cool to swim with :D

We finally came back in after snorkeling for lunch, and to get back in the 4WD to head back to the ferry.  On the way to the ferry though, we saw a young dolphin literally about 30 feet off the shore just cruising around, so we slowed down to watch it for a bit, which was amazing.

After making our way back into Brisbane, we met up with this girl named Nancy who was also on EAP from UCSD.  She graciously agreed to house us during our adventures and took us around downtown Brisbane that night, where we chilled at a pub and discovered that Queensland is pretty much a ZOO in terms of wildlife.  It is packed with possums (they're way cuter than the American ones), lorikeets, cockatoos, HUUUUGE spiders, and other creatures....

Monday:

We were going to try to head out to Fraser Island, but realized we had no camping supplies, and no idea how to get there (great start, right?)  We set out to get groceries, and figure out how to get to Fraser, but somehow ended up going to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary?  It was SO cute.  I got to hold a baby koala!  Then I ended up taking an inappropriate picture where I'm about to chomp on it's head....the keepers were like "erm...we'll be taking that back now..."  I also discovered that emus are the scariest animals ALIVE, and kangaroos are just as adorable in person as they seem in pictures :D  After Lone Pine, we hit up an internet cafe to figure out Fraser details, only to discover that Fraser was....really far away, and pretty much inaccessible to us...so we instead decided to...RENT A CAR!

Mmmmmm.....Koala.....

LOOK!  A ROO!

Tuesday:

The morning consisted of Camille freaking out to discover an Australian possum on the table eating her pastry....gotta love Brisbane...we then gorged on chocolate chip pancakes, and headed out to pick up our ride, which we sadly discovered 

was.....a red Ford Festiva (soon to be called a Fiesta).  

We decided to just....not plan where we were going, and just drive off, so we just vaguely headed north without really knowing where we were going, which turned out to be REALLY fun.  It took us a bit to figure out the whole.....steering wheel on the wrong side, paired with driving on the wrong side, but we didn't wreck!

We discovered this town called Mooloolaba which we thought was HILARIOUS so we opted to camp there for the night.  We first were really ghetto and wandered into Starbucks to get some hot water to cook our instant noodles, which we got some very strange looks for....but finally found a campground where we proceeded attempt to camp, which went well....until we took out the tent....

We found as we were unpacking the tent that we had the tent, and the cover....but no pegs or poles....so in essence we had a giant....sheet.  Crap.  We first attempted to tie the tent to a tree, which involved me stepping in my friend's hands and balancing while tying up said tent....which led to us creating a sort of fabric...shack.  EPIC fail

Eventually these guys took pity on us and let us use some rope to create a more functional tent, which helped, and we were successfully able to sleep, except for the whole.....random wild turkeys moving around in the morning.....weird.

"where....ARE....we?"

"um.....do you girls need some help?"

Wednesday:

We awoke in Mooloolaba and continued our trek north, and managed to pass through Noosa (nice beaches), which was kind of like a version of Newport Beach (nice, but super-rich), but didn't see anything worth stopping for.

When we arrived in this place called Tin Can Bay, we were super-bored at first, UNTIL we saw a random soldier with an assault rifle walking across the street....we immediately did a u-turn in the middle of the street to take pictures of the random camouflaged soldiers with rifles set up around the street.  Apparently Tin Can Bay is the most likely site for Australian invasion?....

We later hit up Rainbow Beach and chilled in the sand for a while before heading out to Hervey Bay for the night.  We were once again stuck without a place to stay, so when we couldn't find a campground, we decided to get a motel room, except we didn't want to pay for 4 people.  Being the ghetto cave kittens that we were, we opted to park on the street, drop Nancy and Christine at the corner, and send Camille in to pay for the room for "two" people.  We then had to have Nancy and Christine wait at the beach until the coast was clear of the manager for them to come into the room.  Yay for motel smuggling!

Thursday:

We kept moving north, and were DETERMINED to see a wild kangaroo, since we kept passing so many roo-crossing signs on the highway, and our patience was rewarded as we rounded a bend and saw the fleeting shape of a HUGE grey kangaroo dashing across the road!

Hoooooray!  After that, we arrived at the odd town of 1770.  Yes, the town is a number.  But we got out and walked down to the beach which was SO beautiful.  The current from the ocean was pulling a steady stream of waves into the bay, and there were all these awesome tidepools and stuff that we went exploring.  I felt like such a little kid digging for crabs and looking for fish in the pools.

Afterwards we kept heading north and randomly arrived in Bundaberg, and somehow stumlbed across this place where you can watch baby sea turtles hatch?  We braved the rain, and for 8$, got to march out onto the beach around a bunch of turtle nests.  It was the end of the season, so they said we probably wouldn't see anything, but that they'd dig up a nest anyway.  Our guide found EIGHT baby loggerhead turtles that hadn't managed to dig their way out of the nest that were still alive!!  We then got to stand on the beach with our flashlights and watch these newly born baby turtles walk down to the ocean!  I had 8 turtles walk through my legs towards the water, got to hold one and feel it swimming in my hand, and felt one get washed onto my foot as it attempted to get into the water.  It was probably one of the coolest moments of my life!

That night we decided to just drive straight through back to Brisbane, so we took shifts driving throughout the night.  The bad part came when monsoon-style rain started coming down.  There is a really high flood risk in Queensland, so we were genuinely concerned that our little Fiesta was going to get washed away :/  However, we passed the Star Wars rain (it was coming horizontally, so it looked like we were flying in hyperspace) and arrived in Brisbane around 4:30 a.m.

Friday:

Christine, Camille and I dropped Nancy off in Brisbane, and headed off back south to check out the Gold Coast.  We drove around Surfer's Paradise for a while which, had it not been overcast, would have been awesome.  The rain from the north had followed us down south, so that part kind of sucked.  We discovered on our way out, however, this club called Dracula's, which apparently hosts a vampire-rock-opera?!  We slammed on the breaks and turned in, hoping to get a ticket, but they were sold out.  We were vampire rock rejects :(

We then made our way south to Byron Bay, which also would have been cool if the sun was out, but it was raining :(  We again had to smuggle Camille into a tourist motel cabin thing, which was actually pretty creepy and I was convinced some horror movie was about to begin there....

Saturday: 

We made our way back to Brisbane, met back up with Nancy, and then sulked about having to return the Fiesta.  We had bonded with our chariot so much :(  After that we just explored more of Brisbane with Nancy, and I am now seriously debating moving out of the states and settling in Brisbane.  It was such a beautiful city.  The river is amazing and taking the ferry every day would make me so happy.  The only downside is I'd have skin cancer by....tomorrow.  Stupid Aussie sun....We then just wandered down to a movie theater to watch that Dr. Seuss movie that is out (don't judge me, it was funny), and passed out.

Other than that, I returned to Melbourne this afternoon, and am now needing to pull my life together (laundry, hmwk, DIET).  I ate such crap for 10 days that I now feel the need to do a detox fast.  Bleh.  Thank god for kickboxing tomorrow.

Spring break was awesome, Australia is awesome. 

END

What Should the Losing Team Do....

I woke up today for class, only to arrive at BMB discussion, heard that we were going to be COUNTING OUR TASTE BUDS, and left.  SO LAME.  Anyways, I got back home to the feeling of my eyes burning from the insane amount of soap still left in them from last night.  Arg.  I pretty much spent the whole day doing nothing, but got a good amount of Family Guy watched :D

I did run some errands which was good, but then it kind of dawned on me that my friends and I have...no hostel booked for when we leave for spring break...tomorrow.  Oops?  So our tentative plan is to sleep at the airport since we have to be at the transit station for our Moreton Island tour at 6:45 a.m.?  Hrm....hobos anybody??

Anyways, after that awkward bit of planning, I dashed to BJJ which was quite possibly the best practice ever.  We pretty much played for a full 2 hours.  It was amazing.  We started off with straight up tag, which got more and more intense as the playing area was condensed by Carmen.  We then ended up playing tag in a 5x5 square in which if you tagged someone, you were then out of the game, and the last 2 people standing had to sumo each other out of the ring (no throws, :( much to my dismay)  

When I finally got my turn, I was so close to uchi-mata-ing my opponent, that I got too distracted by the throw which I wasn't allowed to do that I got tossed out :(  But afterwards, we moved on to what apparently is known around the gym as the "Zombie Booty Shuffle" game.......????  One person starts out on the ground and can roll/crawl, but can't come up higher than their knees, and must try to bring people down from standing.  It was a great game until you realized where the zombie title came from.  As more people got brought down, they joined the zombie team, which resulted in them slowly swarming the standing people, reminiscent of Dawn of the Dead?  So me being the last one standing got to enjoy the creepy image of 25 BJJ fighters slowly turning and staring me down, and crawling at me slowly and menacingly until they peeled me to the floor.....

Carmen then decided to punish us with drills, including jumping into guard and holding yourself upright and resting your hands against your lower back for a full minute.  It burned.  A lot....*ow* but all in all, I was glad to get such a good workout.  Carmen then decided for her own amusement to have relay races.  The punishment for the losing team was decided by our newly promoted purple belt, Rich, who contemplated with the other winner teams (including me :D) about how to most embarrass said losing team.  

We settled on them doing the gay panda walk (one partner gets down on hands and feet, the other partner climbs on their back and spoons them as they walk across the room), then when they got to the other side of the room, the most inappropriate drill in all of BJJ:  One partner stands and straddles the other person, grabs them by the uniform lapels, and pulls them upwards towards their crotch?  It was not cute, especially when the stipulation by Richard was that "OHHHH YEAH" had to be yelled upon each rep.  Needless to say, the girls were CRACKING up by the end of it, given that the losing team was all guys.....awkward....

Anyways, post-practice I headed home to shower/gorge, as usual.  I then met up with Melissa and headed over to Puggs, which turned out to be pretty fun.  We met up with Camille, Christine, Stathi, and some of his friends, and just had a good night.  It's been a ton of fun, but now it's almost 2:30 in the morning and the funny sounds coming from upstairs are concerning me, so I think it's time for bed.....

I'll be on spring break as of tomorrow, so updates will be at the mercy of my internet access.....  

FOAM PARTY

BEST NIGHT EVER.  So today was spent mainly in class, though upon getting out of class I had to work out hostel stuff for spring break and whatnot.  All in all, my lectures were pretty good, though again BMB is just killing me.  I can't stay awake in that class to save my life.  And it's not the earliness of the class, b/c I do fine in my Islam class.  blarg.

Anyways, I think I've gotten the hostel information for spring break planned which is good, and have almost all the other details locked out, so that's progress.  Though I think I might have to bring some homework along :/  Too much reading!  EEEK!

When the p.m. hours rolled around, it was time to get ready for the foam party.  I was SO excited for this thing.  The theme was "Summer of '69", so everybody went in bathing suits and other beach gear.  Me, Stathi, Melissa, Lauren, and Pete all drove down to this HUGE venue at a hotel, and once we got inside, we knew it was going to be a good night.  There were two huge foam cannons pointing at either side of the dance floor, along with a giant vent hanging overhead that would dump foam onto the people below at random intervals.  We ran down to check out bags, and headed into the fray.  

It was the most insane thing I've ever been in.  There were literally 2500 college students crammed in this venue, most of whom were covered in soap suds, and dancing.  We got drenched so fast!  The overhead foam dump poured out so much foam that you literally had to double over if you wanted to be able to see/breathe.  If you were underneath it, there is a good chance you'd either have to hold your breath, or inhale bubbles, which, speaking from experience, is not pleasant.  

Pete and Stathi played defense for the girls as the crowd got insane!  People were shoving and falling over everywhere.  My feet are so bruised from getting stomped on!  Pete and Stathi kept picked us girls up and putting us on their shoulders, which was great fun, until I felt some random guy trying to undo my bathing suit top?  Yeah.....that was sketchy, and unluckily for him, I saw him, and BITCH-SLAPPED him in the face as hard as I could.  Needless to say, he did not touch me again.  But for the record, screaming Bon Jovi while covered in foam?  A great experience, truly.

We kept having to take breaks to let our feet recover and to try to scrape some of the foam off us, but before we were ready to leave, we hit the dance floor one last time and stood directly under the overhead foam dump.  I don't know if I would exactly call it "good" timing, but they proceeded to dump about 7 massive bunches of foam on us IN A ROW.  The doubling over technique didn't work b/c the foam on the floor was piling up so high!  If we wouldn't have evacuated, I'm pretty sure we would have drowned.....in foam....if that's possible...hrm

So when we went outside to walk back to Stathi's car, we took the greatest pictures ever and got the strangest looks from people driving by, seeing these teenagers completely covered in foam walking the streets....classic

That was the MASSIVE foam waterfall that was dumping onto the dance floor.  Imagine being UNDER that.  It was nuts.

That was the dance floor BEFORE it got crowded.  It only got better from there :D

This was us immediately after walking onto the dance floor.  We got that drenched that fast.  WHAT?!

Yeah....this is us out on the street after the party.  Ridiculous.  Purely ridiculous.

I think we should.....ATTACK CARMEN

Today was uneventful in terms of class and whatnot.  I mainly dashed around campus, and experienced critical fail at every errand I attempted.  First I tried to print stuff from the library, but it wouldn't let me add money to my card (fail).  Then I tried to buy my other book for my Islam class, which STILL isn't at the bookstore yet (fail).  I THEN tried to sign up for my neuroscience labs for after spring break, but didn't have a pen (STUPID fail).  Arg.  I spent the rest of the day re-assembling my fan (it's so hot I can't sleep....100 degrees daily is too much).  

I tried to crank some work out, which worked moderately well, but for some reason I feel like I still don't know what's going on in most of my classes b/c I'm so socially side-tracked.  Hopefully on Friday before I leave for spring break, I can spend the day getting myself oriented.  

Tonight's BJJ practice was awesome.  I got there, and Carmen likes to warm us up using circuit drills, so we were throwing punches on pads, during which I kind of tore my knuckles up :/  I grabbed my gloves for the next round though, which consisted of constant uppercuts, until Jo told us to throw them at double-speed.  The impact of the punches was kind of causing my gloves to slide, so I kind of chaffed my index knuckles a bit, but they're all good :D

We then worked some breakfalls, which I was pretty bored during, but it's good practice to keep doing them I suppose.  Then we worked shoots for a bit, and a nice takedown from the shoot, which was interesting.  Somewhat randomly, Carmen decided to work the knee-ride position with us, and I learned a nice little armbar from there, which I'm pretty smooth at slipping into, so I'm definitely adding that to my book of tricks to try for during the competition.  

Near the end of practice, I had been rolling with Jo, and as we were about to go for one more round, we decided that it would be way more interesting to....attack Carmen!  I shot for her legs, and Jo grabbed her arms, and we took her to the floor.  Normally, back in Yongmudo when I would do this against Chuck, he would win by sheer strength and overpowering us.  Carmen won by ridiculous skill.  I was on her back going for the choke, which she managed to not only defend, but also defended an ankle lock AND caught ME in an ankle lock.  *DOH*  When we finally stopped, she sat up, laughed at us, and said it was good fun and we should try again later.  Ouch....

Tonight is a resting night, trying to get some hmwk done, frantic planning as I realize my weekends here are running out, and I still have so much of Melbourne to see!  Spring break is rapidly approaching....yesssss

Oh, and pictures from the past weekend that I like:

  

Best sign of warnings ever:  You will first fall into a ditch, be picked up by wind, flung under a falling tree, and then will transform into a serpent?

Our trusty ride.  There were sooo many times we thought this thing was just going to break down on us and we'd be stranded in the middle of the woods...

We pulled off at this spot along the Great Ocean Road to take a picture.  The entire drive, we were staring out the window at that water.  It was so gorgeous I couldn't even believe it :D

The 12 Apostles are these rock pillars that have formed when parts of the headlands are eroded away by the ocean, making these bridges, and when the bridges collapse, just the pillars are left.  The sea was kind of choppy, so it made this really cool mist that gave awesome pictures as the sun was setting.

Lastly, me and Camille in front of the Apostles.  She's my partner in crime here.  And I mean that only semi-literally.....

  

St. Patrick's Day!

Today has been great!  I went to class and whatnot, and stopped by a convenience store to get general life supplies again (soap, shampoo, etc) and headed back to RMIT, and attempted to get work done throughout the day so I'm not stressed over spring break, but I'm kind of behind, so I need to crank some stuff out.

I am still figuring out spring break details with Camille, as all we currently have is our flights booked, but no idea how we're getting camping supplies, getting to/from Fraser Island, etc....hrm...we should probably get on that....oops

I headed over to Turf tonight after trying to find somewhere to go.  Given that it was St. Patty's day, I didn't think it would be so hard to find somewhere to go, but apparently Pugg's (the Irish bar near campus) was a bust, so we just went next door to Turf.  It actually turned out to be really fun.  We joined some random dance circle, danced the night away, I led some odd sort of conga line which ended up joining up with the tail end, so we formed a.....conga circle?  Meh...all in all, it was a very entertaining night, but now it's almost 1 and I have class at 9, so it's bed time, but more updates to come!

Rollin on the River

Wow, this weekend was AWESOME!  Stathi picked up me and 2 other friends around 5 yesterday, and we hit the road to his holiday house.  The radio in the car was sort of broken, which actually turned out to be pretty nice since we just chit-chatted the entire way to his house.  We stopped off at the beach in Geelong to grab a bite to eat, where I encountered "flake"....

When ordering flake & chips, I was thinking it was, in essence, fish & chips, which was correct, until I found out that flake is....shark.  I'm accumulating the worst karma on earth right now by eating so many different animals.  

So we kept driving and finally made it to Stathi's holiday house in St. Leonard's.  Now, keep in mind, Stathi is Greek, and his family is VERY Greek, so much to our amusement, his house was the only one on the block that had been painting blue and white.  *giggle*  It was actually an incredibly nice house with about 4 bedrooms, pool table, upstairs kitchen area w/a tv.  For us it was incredible to have more room than a 3x5 foot cube....

We headed over to the beach after it got dark to just sit by the bay, where we ended up chatting for a while, and then Stathi decided he wanted to go in the water.  He said it was warm, and somehow convinced us all that we should go in the water too.....clothed....oops.  So we marched into the bay, nearly broke our necks trying to climb over the rocky part to get out to the sandbar, and finally regained sensation in our feet.  It was probably one of the coolest moments of my life, standing in the water outside Melbourne, staring up at the moon.

Later that night, Stathi crashed, but Camille and Tyler and I stayed up talking until about 4:30 in the morning, despite having a massive day planned out for the next day.  Needless to say.....nobody woke up until 11, so our day started a bit late....

We ran a few errands before we got rolling, grabbed a pizza, and hit the road.  We had originally planned to head over to this waterfall nearby and go hiking....that was before we checked our gas level.  We were literally in the middle of the woods, with our gas light on.  Oh crap.  We decided we didn't have enough gas to turn back and get more, so we may as well keep going.  Keep in mind, we're driving a massive gas-guzzling 4WD....

So once we arrived at the turnoff for the waterfall, we decided to just leave the car at the top, and climb down to where it was ourselves.  As we started walking down there, however, me and Stathi got seized by a fit of energy, and decided we should all JOG!  So we took off running down the hill, prompting everybody else to unwillingly follow us....tee hee

When we got to the bottom, we started hiking down the trail to the waterfall, only to discover at the bottom that due to the droughts recently, the waterfall was more of a.....trickle.....*aw*  We opted to hike a little further downstream to check out another one, which turned out to be even worse, and was just a slightly damp rock face....

As it started getting later, we realized we needed to get back to the car if we wanted to make it to the Great Ocean Road to see the 12 Apostles (huge rock pillars out in the ocean), but realized that we had about a 1.5 mile walk UP the mountain.....so we opted to hitch a ride back to the top with this other couple that was leaving, which was AWESOME.

We piled back into the car, and, after filling up the car, headed out to see the 12 apostles.  Our timing was actually amazing when we got there, as the sun was starting to set directly behind them, so it was a gorgeous view.  Apparently they form when the ocean eats away at the headlands, and narrows out sections of rock away from the mainland, which results in these giant limestone pillars.  It was super-cool, though Camille and I were desperate to see wild kangaroos/echidnas, but they were hiding :(

After we left the 12 Apostles to head back home, we realized that we had kind of a long drive ahead of us, but didn't really have any other option, and hit the road for the next 4 hours >.<  It was not pleasant, but we did finally manage to get the radio semi-working?....it helped.

We spent the next 4 hours rocking out to some surprisingly good music, then met Stathi's very Greek mother, who said at least 10 times that she wants to have us over so she can cook for us.....um....SURE :D

Now I'm home, feel completely disgusting due to lack of shower, tired from extensive sun/driving, and not prepared for class tomorrow and the approach of spring break....

Happiness is driving on the Great Ocean Road, listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival :D

That's....not ok

I was super-lazy thus far today, but figured I should update before I go on my roadtrip.  I'm all packed up and ready to go, but once again, it is HOT.  It is currently 104 degrees outside!!  What is the deal?!  Bleh, I feel myself melting into a puddle of goo.

Why is it hotter in Melbourne right now than it is in Central Australia?!  In the OUTBACK?!  I just need to get to the beach so I can get some ocean wind to cool me down.  I think we're making the grand drive tonight, and tomorrow we're spending all day at the beach, and coming back tomorrow night :D

Other than that, life has been pretty uneventful today, but just as a side note, everybody needs to watch this video, and tell me what is wrong with Japan as a nation.  This is not ok....

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/69233

*sigh*

Big photo update to come after the great ocean road!

TKD and Care Packages

Hrm....I officially got schooled today....and no I'm not making a pun about having class...You know that feeling we all had, where we went from being the top of our classes in high school, to getting to college and being less than middle of the road?  Yeah, that was me in TKD today.  We warmed up as usual, and then did some basic kicking drills to loosen up a little more.  Then Toon said "ok, I want all the experienced people, mainly the upper ranks in these two lines, everybody else in the other three".  So, I tried to quietly sneak over to the lower-rank lines, at which point, Ron called me out, and sent me away, literally like he was scolding a puppy. "aaaaaah NO!  Evan!  Get over in the other line!"......*sulk*

It was such a bad feeling of FAIL.  We started off doing back kicks on paddles, which.....is not easy.  First off, it's been so long since I've done a back kick, that I had to think really hard just to remember the mechanics of it.  Secondly, we do back kicks on SHIELDS in Yongmudo, which means having a very large target area to be aiming for.  Suddenly shrinking down to aiming at paddles that are 1/8 the size of said kicking shields is.....disorienting.  After a good series of whiffs and glancing blows, I finally just slowed it down dramatically and went for accuracy, and slowly starting getting a few connections.  

Then....bad things happened.  Toon comes over, and says what I am dreading hearing: "Ok everybody, spin hooks to the paddles".......crap.  My hips were so confused by the prospect of chambering, spinning, extending, hooking and various other activities, that....it was not pretty, I'll say that much.  I definitely cannot throw spin hooks to the head, as the other TKDers painfully reminded me of, but I could....clip someone's neck?  Is that effective at all? No?....*aw*

Then things got even worse.  "360 roundhouses followed by a spin hook".......I can do neither of the above, with any sense of clarity or coordination.  It turned really ugly really fast.... *sigh*  I guess it's motivation to work harder?  Though I'm kind of bummed that I can't compete in April, as I've got a rock climbing trip that weekend :(

After practice, I just got showered, and headed over to Camille's place to watch a movie with her and Christine.  It was really cool to see where she lived, and to play with her roommate's dog (huge german shepherd puppy named Yuri, SO cute, but a little psycho).  We had a good time just joking through the movie and hanging out, and it was nice for a night of normalcy?

I'm heading out for the Great Ocean Road tomorrow after kickboxing!  I'm really excited, though I will be less excited if it stays as hot as it's been.  It got up to 101 degrees today.  That was NOT ok.  The high temperatures for the next three days are over 95 degrees.  What is going on?!

On a good note, I got the best care package ever from Michelle, though it's a sign that she knows me too well.....I opened it up to find a phrasebook for SE Asian languages, so I don't die on phase 1 of my travels, and 2 giant rolls of athletic tape :D  The sign of a true martial artist, being excited about getting more tape......hrm....

It's a sign to all of you that you should send care packages!  I get excited by getting mail.....and....let's be honest, I'll judge our relationship by whether or not you send me stuff....

We.....should go to the river....

Today has been relatively uneventful.....though interesting, to say the least.  I got up for BMB discussion, but ended up waiting in line to get tickets for this foam party the science students society is hosting for over an hour, therefore I was an hour late for discussion, but it turned out to be ok, since it was so mind-numbingly pointless.  When I attempted to join in the group talk, my T.A. essentially told me I was thinking too hard.....

We were discussing whether or not using invasive brain research techniques would be appropriate if the patient had a degenerative disease, such as multiple sclerosis.  I TRIED to say that if the patient is willing to give consent for that kind of research, then ethically it is alright, as long as the patient is informed of the risks.  My T.A. said that mentality was too "clinical" and that I needed to look at it more ethically.......I'm.....confused......

So after class I bummed around at RMIT for a few hours, and got really sucked in to the new season of Lost, which, if you're not watching, is SO good.  Afterwards, I decided to be a bad martial artist and skip both boxing AND BJJ to semi-work on classes/paperwork.  Gross.....I wish I had been on the mat...

Anyways, the evening time rolled around, so I headed out for the exchange students cocktail party downtown, which was actually pretty nice, but I felt waaaay too immature to be standing around networking with people.  I was waiting for someone to scream "FOOD FIGHT!" or some other inappropriate childish thing.....wow I'm mature....

Melissa and I got bored, and went to chill by the river for a bit, then headed back to Charlie's to meet everyone.  Then a group of us decided to go to Rooftop, which.....is on a rooftop...clever....and just hung out while checking out the skyline....

I'm now back at RMIT, and need to go to bed before class tomorrow, and I'm planning on dying pretty intensely at TKD practice with the upper ranks, so I need my rest.....hrm....

Workin' for the Weekend

Had my general morning routine, except was slightly grumpier than usual due to a severe bout of insomnia.  I'm convinced it's because of the heat.  It's supposed to be above 90 degrees every day this week. Seriously, Melbourne?  What happened to heading into WINTER?  Bleh.

I am DEFINITELY going to be taking my Islam class pass/fail.  The people in it have SO much historical background on Middle Eastern history and Islamic culture, while I'm sitting there like....um.....hi.... It does make me think, at least?  Hrm....

BMB (brain, mind, behavior) was mind-numbing as usual, to the point that I fell asleep a few times.  I just couldn't help it.  Learning about the central vs. peripheral nervous system again and again is boring.  Gimme something fresh....

Then I headed out to immunology, which was actually pretty slow today.  Going through the biology of prokaryotic organisms again was once again a little boring, but my professor is entertaining at least.  She decided to use herself as an example of how bacteria can aggregate and move.....and ended up just aimlessly roaming around the bottom of the lecture hall for a good five minutes.  Keep in mind, this was AFTER she broke the computer.....hrm.

Finally got out of class, and headed to the outdoors program office to change the date of my Great Ocean Road trip, which occurred successfully, though I now realize that I have no excuse not to compete in the Victorian State BJJ tournament, and I am afraid.  I'm sure Carmen will prepare me decently well, but there are a whole lot of competitors in Victoria, and unless my game dramatically improves, I'm gonna get worked >.<

I headed back to campus for neuroscience lecture which was hard, but good today, and then had to dash out the door to TKD practice.  My hip flexors were a little overly tired today, so I was lower energy than usual, but my left-side roundhouses are finally starting to obey, so now it's time to work on the spinning kicks, doubles, and kicks for height.  Jeremy and Ron (two of the upper-ranking black belt instructors) in essence banned me from staying in the beginners group at practice from now on (the club splits into 2 groups after warmup) and are now going to force me to work drills with the upper ranks :/  I'm afraid.  They were throwing tornado kicks and crazy spinning combos and stuff....I can't even through ONE spinning kick....hrm.  I guess there is no way to improve otherwise besides just working it over and over.  I'll give it a go, and see what happens....

Tonight is a quiet night, just relaxing in my room.  I'm gonna go to bed early since I've got a lab tomorrow morning, and also have to try to get tickets to this foam party tomorrow morning :D  I have my first official boxing class tomorrow afternoon, and then possibly BJJ from 6-8.  Wheeee my body is responding surprisingly well to twice daily practices, so hopefully if I do end up competing in TKD, I'll be in good enough shape to go all out for my round.  Tomorrow is also the cocktail party for exchange students which I'll hopefully be going to....

I'm really excited for this weekend too.  Me and a few friends are hopping in our friend's car and driving out to the Great Ocean Road for some beach play time, and are going to crash at his vacation house.  I love having Aussie friends :)   

Hmmmm....that didn't really work...

I woke up this morning for my favorite class (brain, mind & behavior....gross)  I really should enjoy it, but there are only so many times you can talk about neuron structure and action potentials before you wanna die.  My threshold has been passed.  Bleh.  After class I came back and got ready for kickboxing, which turned out to be pretty good.

Showed up to yet again, a new instructor.  We have primarily been focusing more on handwork recently, which is still kind of new to me in terms of rhythm and combos and stuff, but it takes time.  We started just throwing basic hand combos and stuff, and then they decided it'd be a good idea to work kicks.  So after throwing 10 roundhouses for power, it was time for 5 fast kicks followed shortly thereafter by another 10, then repeated on the opposite leg.  That was....tiring, to say the least, but a good workout.  I headed back, only to realize that I didn't have enough time to shower off before heading to my next class, so I grossly sat my way through my neuroscience lab. 

Lab itself was pretty enjoyable.  It's pretty much a supplement to lecture, except they get to use us as guinea pigs for their experiments, which sounds creepier than it is.  We talked about handedness today, and did some tests for multi-tasking interference in the brain, though for some reason I did better in my task while doing 2 things at once than focusing on just one?  The task was to push the button down on one of those metal counter-clicker things, as fast as you could for 30 seconds.  The interference task was to read a passage from Hamlet as quickly as possible while still doing the clicking.  And I somehow got about 60 more clicks while reading Hamlet than just clicking?  I'm a scientific oddity....

Then it was back home to get ready for BJJ.  There were really only 2 other girls there besides myself and Carmen, but I still ran some basic fall drills and tried to get them over the fear of falling without having your hands to protect you.  After that we just worked open rolling for a while, where Carmen tapped me out multiple times, as usual.  It was terrible too, since I knew exactly what she was doing as I felt her setting up for the armbar, but she had such a good position I couldn't stop it.  That's a bad feeling....though I did get a double armbar on one of the other girls, and MAN is that satisfying :D

After practice I came back and got ready for Eurotrash, which surprisingly turned out to be a major bust :(  There was really no one there, but had a satisfying jedi council with the girls about life as a whole, so it wasn't a total waste.  Now we just gotta find something to do on wednesday....

*Tap Tap*

Today was relatively uneventful, though it wasn't one of my better days here.  Little things just kept going wrong to bug me, apparently.  I first woke up, only to realize I had no milk for my cereal, which meant no breakfast, but when I tried to go back to sleep I couldn't.  Then I got a massive papercut while sliding my notebook into my backpack >.<>

I went to campus a little early before neuro to try to talk to the outdoors program to reschedule a trip, and then to go to the bookstore.  However, I ran into Melissa who informed me that the outdoors program was not open on Mondays.  Great.....and once I got to the bookstore, I found out they didn't have the book I needed in stock yet either.  *grumble grumble grumble*

So Melissa and I just hung out at the student union and strategized about fun activities before class, and after class I headed back to get ready for BJJ.  For some reason, I'm never in the mood to go to practice until I'm actually there.  I think I just don't enjoy the effort it takes to get there, because I always have fun once I go.    

I talked to Carmen a lot about drills to work with some of the new people in terms of falls and rolls and stuff, because they apparently don't usually do that in BJJ, and so most people don't know how to fall properly, which becomes a big issue when learning takedowns and stuff.  So apparently tomorrow I'm giving a long seminar on falls and rolls?  Yay YMD teaching!  I have lots of evil drills planned :D

Then we just did some open rolling, where I got rocked by Carmen, as usual.  I then got paired with a higher ranking white belt, who I did alright against, but I need to find a way to avoid getting in the bottom position :/  I was rolling with this purple belt later who I felt like I did pretty well against, given the circumstances.  I was relatively creative in the stuff I was pulling out, and actually had control over him for a short bit :)  Carmen says I should fare pretty well in the tournament, so I'm starting to get excited for it, though I still have to buy a uniform....

The rest of my evening has consisted of homework, notes for my Islam class, trying to get some EAP paperwork done, bleh.  But, tomorrow is Tuesday, and Tuesday means Eurotrash!  Wooooohoooo! 

Ok guys....BE a penguin....

Today was actually incredibly tiring. I got up to meet people at 10 for the zoo.  Though, I'm questioning the ability of the coordinators to navigate public transit.  The Melbourne Zoo is located approximately behind Melbourne Uni.  So I was thinking we were going to walk to the zoo....but no...we took a tram down to Flinders St. Station, then a train to the zoo....so we went AWAY from the zoo, to go back to the zoo?  I'm confused...

Anyways, when we got there, they told us there was going to be a competition for a prize later, and of course Camille and I were ALL over it.  The rules were to take as many pictures as possible with your group with various zoo animals in them, with you imitating said animals, with your entire group in the photo.  We went on a RAMPAGE and took so many ridiculous photos.  The people walking around were like....um....wow...

But then things turned ugly when the heat skyrocketed to about 95....It was miserable, and we walked AT LEAST 5 miles around the zoo in said heat.  It was exhausting.  But, I saw a sleeping wombat snuggling with another sleeping wombat, so my life is complete.  We also saw an ostrich that got out of it's pen and was just wandering around the paths.....hrm.

We then went for Korean food at this place downtown, which....gave some lovely flashbacks....oh hospitals....But my stomach managed to handle it, and I toughed it out.  We then headed to this building called Eureka Tower by the river.  It's the tallest building in Melbourne, and has the highest spectator lookout in Austraia.  So when we got there, we took the elevator to the 88th floor, which had an INCREDIBLE view of Melbourne as the sun was setting.  They then announced the winners of the contest, which, obviously, included me and Camille, b/c we're awesome like that.

The prize was to go out in this glass room that gets pushed out from the tower to watch the sunset.  It was amazing, and incredibly freaky at the same time.  We walked into this big frosted-glass room that looked like a panic-room, and then felt the room getting pushed out over the edge, at which point, they suddenly defrosted the glass.....and we all panicked....Our primal instincts kicked in and we all screamed and latched onto the railed in the box, and were doing awkward shuffle-y steps around the room while giggling wildly.  It really was an incredible view though :D

I then returned home, finally rinsed off after getting super-gross at the zoo, watched Wedding Crashers with Christine, and am now getting ready for my second week of class....weird.  This trip is flying by already :(

FOLLOW THE COPS!

Today has been a pretty good day.  Camille and I headed over to campus to meet up with this group for international students that was hosting a laser tag day.  I truthfully could have cared less who was going, I just can't turn down laser tag.  So we did a bit of tram hopping to get down to the Crown where the place was, and prepared for BATTLE.

Apparently Australian laser tag is way more intense than American laser tag?  Each team apparently has their own base, which if you run in and shoot the base a couple of times, it's destroyed, and if you do that, you can get special powers?  Apparently you could become invincible, invisible, deactivate another team entirely.....it's nuts.  

So after two intense games (in which I was the top player for my team, I'll have you know...*ahem*) we headed off with some kids we met to get cake.  Random, I know, but it turned out to be pretty nice to just sit down by the river and hang out and talk.

Afterwards, I headed home to shower off, and get ready for the evening, at which point I headed back down to the river to meet up with Camille and some other people.  They are having this festival right now called the Moomba Waterfest?  I don't get it either, but they've set up this massive carnival on the Yarra River, so we went to check that out, and then watched the fireworks display they had, which lasted a good 15 minutes and was really pretty!

Though after the fireworks, we were checking out the booths and whatnot, and suddenly see this herd of police sprinting past us towards this footbridge, with about 10 random people following them.  Unable to contain our curiosity, Camille and I sprinted off after the cops to see what was happening (logically).  Apparently there had been a fight on one of the bridges and this guy was thrown off?  Intense.  We got our drama fix for the evening.

Afterwards we just listened to some of the bands and stuff, and wandered around for a bit, and now I'm home, about to sleep before my big day at the zoo!

Oh, and I live here:

....and it is good

Would you get points for a booty bump...?

Today was relatively uneventful thus far.  I putzed around in my room for a while, but I did finally get my laundry done, so it was amazing to actually have clothing again, especially clothing that wasn't either damp from sweat or smelled like sweat.  Gross....and I washed my uniform, which is a big deal.  

I knocked on Timmy's door in the afternoon and we went up to the roof of the parking deck to the watch the Red Bull cart races or something like that.  It was kind of odd, but I rolled with it.  Random college kids pushing other random college kids around in carts?  Hrm....

So I left to get ready for TKD practice, and met up with Christine there.  My hips were unusually tired/stiff, but didn't bug me too much during practice.  The only issue is that it takes me so long to get my hips loose and stretched out, that when there are tons of people at practice like there were, I tighten back up in between drills, so having them randomly tell us to throw headkicks gets a little tricky....but at least my technique is getting better.  I had a few pretty solid kicks, which felt good.  I LOVE the sound kicking paddles make when you get a good impact :)  Christine and I then debated the point-scoring of throwing a booty bump in TKD sparring....hrm...1 point or 2?

After TKD, just got showered, made some chow, and am getting ready to head over to Redback to celebrate my first weekend as a college student again :D

Tomorrow is Laser Wars with other international students.  Not gonna lie, I love me some laser tag, and am kind of good at it.  I'm just sayin....Then tomorrow night is the Moomba Festival down by the Yarra River....not sure what that involves, but I'll find out!

And Sunday is the ZOO!!!  I am totally going to handfeed kangaroos, just to make all of you jealous.  

"EVAN! KEEP YOUR PANTS ON!"

Today was relatively unproductive in terms of actual work done.  I skipped class because I'm a bad student like that, but I did finally get to the grocery to get normal people food supplies, which was an interesting adventure in itself.  Melbourne Central Station is quite a bustling place, and reminds me a lot of NYC.

I then went to BJJ at 6, which was quite fun.  There weren't many people there, so it was definitely good 1-on-1 experience.  We worked a sweep from butterfly guard, a counter to said sweep, stabilizing side-control, key-lock from side control, avoiding the keylock, reversal etc.  All in all, I really learned a lot, and BJJ guys are really funny.  I was rolling with this blue belt after practice, and during the course of it, my belt came off, as did his, at which point another blue belt from across the room decided it would be brilliant to yell "EVAN KEEP YOUR PANTS ON!"....that wasn't awkward at ALL....>.<

I did learn quite a bit at that practice though, and will probably compete at the tourney in May, since I feel I could potentially do decently at least.  I've been told by 2 blue belts now that I'm pretty good, so I feel relatively confident that I could at least not get totally rocked by someone.  I'm learning a lot better about how to be more dominant and to escape certain positions that I couldn't before :D

After practice I got back and caught up with Gina and Camille, where we decided we were gonna head out to Eurotrash for the evening, only to discover that when we got there, it was DEAD.  Clubs here confuse me.  They will be dead on a Thursday night, which is the universal start of the weekend for 90% of college kids, and yet on a TUESDAY, will be insane.  How does that work?

Whatever....we moved on to this place called Billboard, where while we were waiting in line, these awkward teenagers came up and tried to hit on some of us, which didn't work so well for them, and once we got up to the front, the security guard was like...."you're lucky I like American girls", and told us to tell the desk we were on the guest list for "Danny?" and we'd get half off.  So we told the girls at the desk accordingly, and they stared at us like we were on drugs, and proceed to go ask the security guard wtf he was doing....*sigh*.  It did work out in the end though, we got in for half off, and had a pretty good time dancing, but came back early due to class tomorrow and a need to be productive tomorrow and rest up for birthday night....more details to come....stay tuned....

Oh, and just for you Aimmee....

Class = Fried Brain

Wow, this week has been flying by.  Today was definitely the longest day I've had.  I woke up at 8 to get ready for class at 9 and dashed out the door.  I had my first day of my Islam class, which was actually really good, though I definitely felt stupid, as half the class is either Arabic of Islamic Studies majors....and then there's me, the dumb scientist...*doh*  It's definitely going to be a really interesting class, because it provides so much insight into how Muslim culture is organized, and sort of a better idea of what is instilled in the culture by the religion, and what has nothing to do with Islam.

I then headed on the Brain, Mind, and Behavior, and had my brain numbed for an hour.  I need a way to entertain myself in that class, it's painful.  Everything we discussed had either been covered in AP Psych FOUR YEARS AGO or we covered in 15 minutes in my neuroscience class.  Bleh.  But then it was time for microbiology which was good.  We are slowly but surely starting to get into the good part of the material, so I'm excited.

After class, I had a break until neuroscience lecture, so I just kind of bummed around in my room, and stretched out a little bit.  Then I realized I was gonna have to take my gear with me to neuroscience so I could dash to TKD immediately after lecture.  Wednesdays are gonna be interesting from now on, given that class is supposed to get out at 5:15, and TKD starts at.....5....oops.  Whatever, it's a 2 hour class, I'm still going.  But when I got there today, it was insane!  There were SO many people there.  I kind of didn't like it actually.  Less time physically spent doing the drills :(  But all in all, it was a decent workout, and my technique is slowly but surely getting a little better.  Time for those doubles.....

Somehow in the past 2 days, I've inadvertently gotten roped into competing in tournaments?  My BJJ coach just kind of....informed me that I was going to compete in the Victorian State BJJ tournament...."oh...um....ok?....*crap*"   Then at TKD, one of the red belts was like...."hey Evan, you wanna do some sparring...aka compete in the tournament in April?"....oh no.  I'm gonna die :(  At least it'll give me some sort of training goal? *sigh*

Anyways, I only have my one stupid mind-numbing class tomorrow, and it's at 10, and I'm actually thinking of just....not going.  It's stupid!  *grumble grumble*  I know I'll end up going anyway, but it's nice to think about not.....Tomorrow will also definitely involve a trip to either the QV or some sort of grocery store, as I am completely out of food, and have resorted to scavenging at the 7/11....

On a different note, birthday night is Friday night, and ooooh I will update you all on what that is when it arrives.....

Medical Maladies

Today was alright.  I got up (still a little groggy from this whole....waking up before 11 thing) and headed out to Brain, Mind and Behavior, which was kind of boring as far as lectures go.  It's a little annoying to essentially be re-taking Psych 1, but given that this and Neuroscience are the only 2 psych classes I qualify for/need here....I'll take what I can get.

After lecture I decided to pick up my textbooks, which was super-exciting, and head back to RMIT, where I just chilled until I THOUGHT I had neuroscience lab, but realized upon arriving at campus that the labs start next week....whoops.  I went and picked up my books for my Islam class, and realize that it feels incredibly wrong to be buying a copy of the Qur'an that I'm probably going to be....hi-lighting in?  Hrm....Something about that just seems like sacrilegious....

So now it's almost time for BJJ, and I can tell today is just gonna be a slow practice for me.  My body has just kind of been freaking out recently, and I think I need to drastically change my diet.  My hypoglycemia has been way worse than usual lately, I think because of the amount of caffeine/sugar intake I have during my general rushing around.  It's hit a point where food doesn't really help the crashes very much/very quickly.... It is time for a switch to a health-freak diet....yay...*grumble grumble*  I also am getting angry with my stupid feet.  My surgery is looking more and more necessary as they've started freaking out on a more regular basis than they used to.  I really don't want to have to do my big ugly taping job before every single practice, but I might have to....yay for burning through 2-3 rolls of athletic tape per week!

After BJJ I think I might actually have to do some work *GASP*....My brain doesn't know how to handle this.  I think that's why I've been so randomly sleepy during the day.  My brain is suddenly having to function like a normal human being and think about things more complex than tram schedules for a change.  Hooray for microbiology reading! Bigger hooray for having taekwondo practice tomorrow...must....work...doubles!

Anybody Else Completely Lost?

Today was my first day of school!  I feel like a big kid again!  I woke up this morning full of that nervous excitement that always accompanies the first day of class, but also realized that I was in no way mentally prepared to have classes start again.  I've been on a 2.5 month vacation, and suddenly was sitting in microbiology lecture?  Ouch.  Before class I had to go to the faculty of arts and add a new class AGAIN to fix my schedule, but I finally have a set class roster:

Brain, Mind & Behavior (TuWTh)

Behavioral Neuroscience (MW, 2 hr lab Tu)

Microbiology & Immunology (MWF)

Texts of Islam (discussion W, lectures online?)

So I found out after signing up for my class on the texts of Islam (Qu'ran and Hadith) that the class is apparently being taught through the internet to students at various Australian universities, and that it was on us to listen to the lectures before our respective tutorials?  I'm confused, and I know the fact that I don't have a set lecture to go to is gonna screw me up :/

I had my first microbiology lecture today, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Apparently there are 6 professors who are teaching the class, each teaching about a different topic, so that will be really good.  The first professor is this crazy old lady who told us that Listerine lies to us in their tv ads and that bacteria are everywhere and have a bad rep in the press and if someone ever tells us that bacteria are bad we should "tell them it's bullshit"........This is gonna be a good semester, I can tell already.  

Immediately after getting out of class, I dashed back home to wolf down a bar and get on the tram to kickboxing.  Why I went to kickboxing, I have no idea.  There is an amazing disconnect between what my brain wants to do, and what my body wants to do.  I had a great deal of post-Parkour soreness, which I apparently thought kickboxing could ameliorate?  So I got to class, and since George is out of town, we had another crazy instructor who worked us until the floor.  Thirty fast-paced roundhouse kicks on each leg is quite a tiring endeavor, and intermixing that with a minute of continuous punches on pads is also tiring.  We did work a nice combo, but given that my shoulders felt like they were going to pop off, I don't think I appreciated it very much at the time.  We then ended class by punishing my already sore quads by doing 50 squats and then holding a deep lunge for 1 minute on each leg *OW*.  Then it was time for leg-lifts, so my abs are already sore, which is a very bad sign for what they're going to feel like tomorrow.  At least I'm taking the night off from BJJ until my body gets used to the twice daily training ritual.  

I came back from kickboxing and showered off, and headed out to neuroscience, feeling slightly scared, given my traumatic experience freshman year....I got there and discovered that my friend Melissa is actually in the class with me, which made me feel a little better....and then lecture started....and I realized that although I have knowledge of brain anatomy buried somewhere in the depths of my mind, pulling it out is going to be a difficult process....and we covered so much ground on the first day of class, that I can already tell this is gonna be a tough class, and I'm gonna have to stay on top of my work.  There is also apparently a 2 hour lab every week for the class, and we're supposed to be performing experiments?....I'm not really sure how I feel about that since we're not being told what they entail.....I don't like electrodes in my brain, thanks though...

So I have since been attempting to recover and coating my aching muscles with Tiger Balm.  I think I'm gonna head to Turf a little later tonight to meet up with my friends and discuss our interesting first days of class.....

More updates to come after class tomorrow.....First all-women's BJJ class tomorrow :D

"Just a small town girl...."

Wow, so karaoke night was surprisingly entertaining, not gonna lie.  We got kind of lost trying to find the place, but once we found it, things turned out pretty well.  Though it did take us a good 30 minutes just to figure out how to play songs since the WHOLE menu was in Japanese....and they had no way to convert it into English, which made us wonder who their major client base is, since...they're in Australia....hrm.

Everybody was really into it, and Stathi and Tyler proceeded to show all of us up by actually being decent singers, as opposed to me....who just kind of...yelled things....We did have a touching duet of Snow Patrol though.  It brought tears to peoples' eyes.  We were THAT good.  And then I proceeded to have no part in the singing of SexyBack except for yelling YEAH at random times.  I'm a champ.

So I slept in as much as possible today, and realized that I still don't have a finalized class schedule, which is unfortunate seeing as how class starts tomorrow....hrm.  As excited as I am for class to start, I'm also kind of not ready to have to learn about intense things like microbiology and neuroscience.  Neuroscience gives me a bad flashback to my freshman year class where my final consisted of multiple choice questions, each one counting for 5% of my total grade....ouch.  I'm gonna run by the faculty of arts tomorrow morning before microbiology to try to finalize my schedule, and then try to actually pick up some school supplies, since I'm a terrible student and completely unprepared for the beginning of school right now...

I'm gonna try to dash to kickboxing between micro and neuroscience, which I should have time for, and then go to beginning BJJ after neuroscience gets out.  I had my first Parkour class today!  It was super-fun, though definitely a first-timers class.  The style of running in Parkour is really different than normal running, as they frown upon the heel-toe motion that most people do, since it increases the impacts on your knees, so instead they do the much more strenuous running with the balls of your feet impacting first, it's quite odd. 

We moved on to some animal-walking on all fours, just to get more warmed up, and then came the bad part.  They were trying to teach people how to roll.  My inner martial artist jumped for joy since it was something I knew how to do, and then I saw the people next to me....*sigh*.  There was this group of 3 testosterone charged guys, who were MAYBE 15.  I heard one of them say that he KNEW how to roll, and so I decided to watch, just to see what would happen.  I have never seen a human body do something like that....It was like a forward handspringfliptuckairfall....and sounded really painful.  Concerned that he was going to injure himself with his aerial maneuvering, I tried to show him the proper way to roll, to which he gave me a look of "you have no idea what you're talking about" and explained to me that he'd been doing it that way for "years".....*DOH*  His friends even said "dude that looks really dangerous and not...correct at all" but he apparently has it all figured out.

I did do my first roll on concrete ever today, which actually went pretty smoothly, though there is something funky happening with my rolls that is ended with my tucked leg coming down too hard, so that merits further investigation...hrm...

We moved on to learning how to land properly from jumps, and then ended up jogging over to the river to do some wall-climbs, which are SO tiring!  A large part of it is that I didn't have the mechanics down to avoid using all my upper-body strength to pull me up, but yeah, that was exhausting.  It was a great workout though, and I'll definitely be returning :D

Now I'm gonna grab dinner and try to figure my life out for the next few weeks....stupid classes and not knowing what's going on.....*grumble grumble grumble*