WILD day.

ElloJ.  It was another great day in Australia!!  Holli and I started at Macquarie (her school).  We met up and walked over to the international students office and she signed up for a day trip today to Manly Beach.  Then we walked around campus for a little bit.  It’s a really pretty campus… LOTS of trees, green, artwork, etc.  The buildings reminded me a lot of CWU campus – lots of concrete buildings and block styles, with a few artistic exceptions.  On every building was a kind of brightly colored something – a purple wall, a teal door frame, a bright red door, etc.  It was really cool.  While we were in the international students office, my Australian phone rang.  I don’t really know the ring tone yet, because, well, no one calls me, so I didn’t realize it was my phone until too late.  I missed the call.  I realized though that it must have been my parents, so I went back to my room and got my American phone to call them back.  We were able to talk for about 10 minutes and set up a time to skype.  After that, Holli and I took the train downtown to the ferry docks and rode the ferry to the zoo.  It was awesome!  They had all the normal animals as well as TONS of cool, Australian animals.  For those of you who didn’t know, platypus are found only in Australia.  That’s cool.  Other cool animals there… kangaroos, Tasmanian devils, bearcats, etc.  It was funny seeing the Kodiak bear exhibit and the rattlesnake exhibit… they tried to depict America in the displaysJ.  The only downside (and this was a HUGE one) was the overabundance of the biggest spiders I’ve ever seen in my entire life.  I felt like I was in the forbidden forest with Ron... and I was ron!  It was AWFUL.  SO scary.  The only peace I found with it was that they were everywhere and no one else seemed to be freaking out, so they must not be poisonous.  I was really brave, but kind of hated that part of it.  The animals were cool, though.  After the zoo, we rode the ferry back to the docks and got on a different ferry to go to the aquarium.  When we first arrived, we were starving since we hadn’t eaten since breakfast and it was now after four.  We went into the aquarium’s food court and both ordered fish and chips.  For those of you who don’t realize, this was a HUGE deal for me.  It was the first time I’ve had fish and chips since I had food poinsoning when I was probably seven.  It was DELICIOUS.  The fish was super fresh and yummy and just good.  After we were adequately re-energized, we went through the aquarium.  It was so cool!!  There were these super cute manatee looking things that are called Dungongs.  They are vegetarian mammals and Holli goes, “those vegetarians just look so happy.”  It was funny, but SO trueJ.  We also got to walk through a shark tunnel where the sharks swim over you… I wasn’t scared.  I’m really braveJ.  And there were tons of cool great barrier reef fish and wildlife.  Also, throughout the whole aquarium were lego sculptures and murals by lego master builders.  Holli decided that’s her new life’s ambitionJ.  They were SUPER impressive!!  After the aquarium and playing a few hands of rummy at the pier to rest our feet, we walked back to the subway and went back to the Rocks to look for some live music.  We then realized it was Monday night and there probably wouldn’t be anyL.  But, what we also didn’t realize was that it was Valentine’s Day and there would be tons of cute couples to watch.  We just sat on a bench for awhile – partly since we’d been walking ALL day for four days in a row, and partly because the couples were SO cute.  It was really fun.  We came back to Macquarie and hung out for awhile in my room, catching up on internet time, blogging, downloading pictures and then played a few hands of rummy before calling it a night.  I went to sleep for about an hour and then woke up and skyped my parents.  It was AWESOME to see them!  A great end to another great dayJ.  I’m hoping everyone at home is well.  I’m off for another adventure today.  I don’t know where yet, but ill figure it out as I goJ.