Kangaroo Assault

Well....today was interesting....We went to Phillip Island, which is pretty much a giant outdoor wildlife sanctuary.  Did the whole "oh look wild koalas" thing, and then we hit up this open-range zoo, where you can walk around with food and feed the wildlife, which was pretty cool/terrifying.  I fed a cassouary, which apparently can be the deadliest bird on earth (HUGE claws).  Those things scare the crap out of me.  They look like giant dinosaur birds (reminiscent of the velociraptors in Jurassic Park).  *shudder*  There was also the generic wallaby feeding, which is always cute, but THEN came the kangaroos.  

It was all fun and games for a while, fed a momma kangaroo and got to pet the joey in her pouch, which was ADORABLE.  But the kangaroos get really excited that you have a bag of food which you're carrying around, so they get really bold and start approaching you and grabbing at the food bag in your hand.  That was fine when the kangaroos were little, but then we found the BIG guy.

This roo was seriously as tall as I am when he would sit upright, and was REALLY strong.  Wanna know how I know that?  The damn thing attacked me for the food bag.  He grabbed onto my jacket and was pulling at me trying to get the food.  Remember how I said my friends from martial arts wanted me to box a roo?  Well today, that in essence happened, since I practically punched the stupid thing to get it to let go.  We all approached with caution after that point, especially when he ate the BAG that the food was in......hrm.....he also started barking and clawing at any smaller kangaroos that would come around us trying to get food.  What a fatass.....

After that, things were fine, and we headed to the beach to watch the penguins!  We got our seats as the sun was setting right on the sand, and waited and sure enough, got to watch loads of little penguins shuffling out of the water to get back to their nests on the shore!!  It was the CUTEST thing I have ever seen.  They would come in groups, and would all wait on the beach until everyone was together so they could run up the dunes in groups for safety.  Funniest thing I've seen in a LONG time. :D

Anyways, other than that, training is eating my life as usual.  Carmen made us do 5 rounds of 5 minutes of sparring back to back nonstop, which destroyed us.  Thank god this week is going to be about technique, not conditioning any more.  I need to get my game strategy up to par.  I spent the entire bus ride back from Phillip Island getting mentally prepared, running through scenarios, so I just hope I can pull things out....

Midterm this friday, 2 papers due monday.  *sigh*  The list grows longer every day...