Midsemester in Australia

So, it’s kind of frustrating that everyone back home’s almost done with school and I’m only midway through, but hey, I’m in Australia. 🙂 My real frustration is that Adelaide (the city I’m in) shuts down for an entire week for Easter/ANZAC holiday! I mean, yeah it’s important to celebrate Jesus and veterans and whatnot, but could someone have at least warned me that the entire city was going to be closed? I had just finished writing postcards this morning and excitedly skipped off to the post office, only to find out that I can’t send them until next Friday, a week from now. By the time they get to Williamsburg, all my friends will be home for summer vacation! Boo. Okay, done ranting. I’m sure I could have worse problems. 😛

I’m on mid-semester break, which means two weeks of fun in the Australian sun! I’d post pictures, but I’m almost out of internet (you have to buy bandwidth here, and I need to conserve mine until Easter holiday’s over and I can buy some more). My parents came to visit me for a couple of days, partially because we were all supposed to go to Australia together years ago (my dad promised), partially because it was my parents’ 30th anniversary, and partially because they missed me, duh! They stayed a day in Adelaide, and then we traveled to Sydney and Cairns. It. was. fantastic. Sydney had the best steamed dumplings I’ve ever tasted, and that’s saying a lot because I’m from China. (My dad agrees). I also got to hear the organ being played in the Sydney opera house concert hall, which was magical. Cairns…where do I start? I got to wear a (fabulous) lycra bodysuit and swim among corals and colorful schools of fish in the great barrier reef, the largest living organism on earth. I saw Nemo in his natural habitat. I got to walk around in the world’s oldest living rainforest, and then I got to swim in one of its creeks! I tried some crazy tropical fruits, like the mamey sapote and the amazon custard apple, which turned out to be incredibly juicy and delicious. Australia is a beautiful country.

I’m back in my room now. I’m liking school pretty well here. Classes are harder than I expected. Biochemistry is interesting, and I honestly enjoy the lectures and tutorials (hate the labs), but the midterm exam was a pain in the butt. Three hours of furious scribbling about obscure protein functions, ugh! Freshwater ecology is…pretty boring. But, we’re going on a field camp in a few days to the Murray River, which should be exciting! We’ll be housed at a learning institution designed for little kids who love science (awesome), eating boarding school food, showering with no curtains, oh and, “water level’s extremely dangerous because of the flood, let’s hope no one drowns!” Hmmmm. Can’t wait, should be fantastic. 🙂

My favourite class is called “re-orienting asia: towards a more sustainable future.” It’s just so interesting, and I guess it’s my cup of tea since I’ve had first hand experience and love sociology and whatnot. I recently gave a presentation to my class about the global food crisis as it relates to asia, and I was afraid I was going to be nervous, but I ended up really enjoying informing my class about this subject which I love and telling stories about farmers working together to fight big bad corporate monsters.

So, I’m enjoying my classes in general, enjoying my new friends, and loving the extra time that I have. It feels like my life is going to speed up and get crazy as soon as I get back home, but right now, it’s like it’s on pause, and as much as I am getting antsy and anxious to start doing all the crazy stuff I have mapped out, I’m kind of enjoying this respite! It gives me more time to introspect, which is really nice!

What I have mapped out after I go home is: see best friend, study for GRE, take GRE, do monroe project, fall semester / apply to grad school / spend lots of time with friends, graduate, get a job, go to grad school. Oh man. I can’t wait to do all this!! But I’m happy to kick back and relax for now.