1 month!

Hi everyone!

I can’t believe it, but I’ve been in Australia for a month now! The time has completely flown by. I am still having a great time and learning lots of things. The weather here is still pretty hot, but thankfully it hasn’t been as humid. I know that as I’m writing this there’s about 2 feet of new snow at home! That part is still kind of weird. I feel like it should be July and not march!

My classes started last week and they have all been good so far. I basically have Mondays off for the semester because my scheduled tutorial only meets three times out of the whole semester. My coral reef geomorphology class seems really cool and we have a 4 day field trip at the end of May to Orpheus Island to study the reefs there. My photography class is fun so far, it feels more like a club than a class. I haven’t really had my other marine science class because my professor wasn’t back from a trip to the Galapagos as of last week, but from the course outline it seems like it will be good. And then my Australian Society class seems to be interesting. That class is huge compared to what I am used to, there are about 150 or 200 people in it! I haven’t really had too much work yet, just some reading. I’m still getting used to all of my free time. Without yearbook, apo, cab, and the other activities I usually do at Gettysburg I have afternoons and evenings to do work and just relax.

Last weekend a few of my friends and I went down to the beach here. Its only about 20 minutes away and it was really nice. Because of the reef there aren’t any waves where we are, but the water is really warm and not dangerous as long as you swim in the netted areas. The dangerous things in the water now are the jellyfish or stingers as they call them here. Next time I go I’ll bring my camera so I can post some pictures of what it’s like.

Every day I’m more and more thankful that I’m living where I am. Everyone here at John Flynn College is really nice and very helpful. I’ve met a whole bunch of Australian students who are so much fun to be around. Apparently the food on this college is the best out of the whole Uni, but every day I do really miss servo! They’re big into recycling food here, so a lot of time what was for lunch will be presented in another form for dinner. I miss the many forms of chicken cutlets that servo offers.

I hope that you are all doing well back in the states and that you’re keeping warm with all of the snow! Keep me posted on how things are back home!

Lots of love,

Jennie