From Iowa to Oz: What the hell are netball and footy?

(View of the Hopkins River from the jetty)

So the last week has been relatively hectic and most of my downtime was spent either sleeping, studying, or hanging out with my friends. I hadn't realised how long it had been since I had written until I read back through my blog, something that I often enjoy doing to remind myself that I am actually here in this magnificent place. Recently it has been raining quite a bit, and after every rain a rainbow always shines. (This statement can be taken metaphorically or literally, your choice). My housemate, Sarah, and I have also taken up yoga. Just wanting to clear our chakras, namaste. ✌

I recently purchased a set of Tarot cards because I have always found them quite interesting but never was able to find them anywhere. If you think that witchcraft is easy, you have another thing coming. I also may have gotten immensely bored in Marine Biodiversity class and decided to draw instead...oopsies.

Nights like these are definitely something that I will miss when I return home. Being able to just walk over to NRAS and hang out with my friends is so nice and I wouldn't trade it for anything. They're absolutely the type of people that you just want to surround yourself with all the time.

On Friday, we took a field trip for Marine Biodiversity to where the river empties into the ocean at the Merri Marine Sanctuary. We collected nekton and benthic samples from the river and recorded the organisms that we found after sifting through the sediment. It was a great example of the kinds of hands-on experiences that I can get here that I would never be able to get back in Iowa.

This Saturday, my housemate and a lot of my friends played netball and footy against East Warrnambool. Our team, the Deakin Sharks, definitely kicked major ass in most of the games.

Because they ended up winning, the netball team got to do the "Shark Shuffle." Just a "Remember the Titans"-esque ritual.

The Footy boys did extremely well in the first game, stomping them 100-something to 30-something. They were able to do the "Shark Shuffle" as well.

Today I had grand privilege of taking my first test here at Uni. I mean, I would have used another word to describe it, but this is a positive blog... It wasn't as difficult as I was expecting it to be and my worrying was all for not. Afterwards, we got to show off our swag during the prac.

Sarah and I then went into town for a "girls" day of sorts, although I think that term is extremely pretentious. I found a Diet Coke in a glass bottle, which, of course, I kept. I also kept getting followed by this extremely handsome guy in a only a towel, creepy or no?