Update! (Kinda detailed, beware!)

As I have been informed, it has been a full 10 days or so since I last updated! How silly of me. Anyway, it's been pretty quiet around here - just the usual life. It's been a bit chillier down here, but it's usually still gorgeous and sunny. The other day at uni I was a little sleepy in between my classes so I took a nap on one of the lawns around a pond that we have. It must have been hilarious for anyone walking by (luckily I picked a lawn that does not have a lot of people traffic) to see a girl curled up sleeping for a good 45 minutes or so. Better than sleeping in class though, eh?

Like I said, last week I went to see Ratatat with my friend Rachel (Jeez dad, not that kind of friend!). They have hardly any vocals in their songs - it's pretty much all music. They had a screen up and they were putting up strange, distorted images. It was just as fascinating as the music. There were three cover bands and two of them were really cool too. The first was decent singing but you could tell they were more of an amateur band. The second felt to me to be more like a jam session - very little vocals and just the band standing up their playing the drums/guitars. The third band was not to my liking - the lead singer was this small asian girl who was SCREAMING and it was absolutely ridiculous lyrics about killing people and just generally not happy enough for me. But it was fun nonetheless and I'm glad I've gone to see at least one concert while I'm here, even if the main act was American.

The Casino Royale Ball was a lot of fun as well and was generally just a great night to hang out with my friends. Me and my friend Steph didn't have anything to wear so we went to the mall about an hour and a half before we had to be on a bus to go to the ball. Luckily, we find something Bond-ish at the first store we go to (she's dressed in this sleek short dress as a Bond girl, while I go for the Money Penny look (is that her name???) in a secretary-esque dress) and manage to get ready and make it to uni, although we had to catch a later bus. Even though I was the first one to get ready, you try having three girls get ready in the span of 35 minutes! Not going to happen. Anyway, the food they served us there was soooo good! I had a really good steak (although the portion ended up being too small) and I realized that (this is going to come as a surprise to a lot) that I eat my steak rarer than most people do!!! Everyone else at my table said they preferred it cooked all the way through, while I've moved more towards a medium rare deliciousness. My roommate was eating salmon (half the table got steak, the other half salmon) and because she knows that I'm determined to try fish while I'm here, she told me it tasted pretty good and that I should try it. Another unbelievable moment, I liked it! Another time recently she had me try some fish and I liked that too...I don't know what is happening to me! Anyway, dessert was creme brulee, of which I ate two of and then it was time to do some gambling! Not real gambling of course, but we got a $1000 voucher. Caitlin and I played the entire night at Carribean Stud Poker, which was a lot of fun but you basically have a 50/50 shot of winning - no real skill involved. Luckily, we got to be good friends with the dealer (he was GORGEOUS!) and he would slip us more chips whenever we would get low. When the ball was over, Steph and I got a ride back to our dorm with the head RA's of our dorm - we went to McDonald's and then had a fun time just chatting with them and watching the West Wing. Even though it was the West Wing and probably not filmed anywhere near DC, it made me miss it! And all the politics and just being in the know - this makes me confident that I've definitely chosen the right major and it is for sure something that I love.

Steph's birthday was that Saturday, so we went on a trip to the Jenolan Caves. In retrospect, even though we decided the caves were really cool, it ended up being an 8 hour round trip bus ride!! We did sleep for most of it, but it still sucked being cooped up for most of the day. Ok, so the caves are considered to be the oldest known caves in the world and even though we only got to go on one cave tour, I think there are something like 4 or 5 different caverns that you can visit. I've been to caves like this before, but I don't have any memory of it (besides pictures) so I'm glad that I can say I've been to one that I actually remember. I was continually amazed during the tour - it makes you feel very young and insignificant. The stalagtites and stalagmites grow very slowly - I think it's about 1 cm per 100 years and some of those formations were huge! There are pictures up so make sure you go check! In one cave, the tour guide turned off all the lights and although you could tell there was a little bit of light coming from way up, it was pretty much pitch black. The tour guide told us that if you ever get stuck in this situation, where you can't see anything, it's important to occupy your other senses to prevent yourself from going crazy. I thought of one thing you could do to occupy them all, but I don't know how appropriate it is to say here :D It was a little unnerving for me, just because I was the one closest to a stairwell and who knows what could have jumped out, grabbed me and taken me away into the deep bowels of the earth?! Regardless, it was intriguing to think about these caves and how many of them must exist around the world that we don't know about and the intricacies within the earth. I mean, can you just imagine discovering one of these places? You crawl into this tiny hole and then it opens up into a huge area with gorgeous formations glittering in what little light there is? Beautiful. One day maybe I'll gather the courage to go spleunking and feel for myself what it is like.

After our 4 hour bus ride back, we order some pizza (dinner at i-House was already over) and figure out what to do with our night. We decide to go to our usual haunt, Glasshouse, so Steph can dance her pants off (not literally!!!). We had a fun night out and then returned around 3 am so we could celebrate the exact moment of Steph's birth (what it would have been in the US). Overall, we all had a great time and Steph joined the league of old people - that is anyone who is 21.

Nothing too exciting has happened since then. Like I started the post out saying, it's just life as usual. Uni two days a week and hanging out with my friends. I still have those three papers to write, but after I finish those, it's pretty much going to be smooth sailing for the rest of the semester. I just planned a trip to Canberra and Caitlin and I are going to be going to Sydney next weekend we think, to do all the touristy things. Unfortunately, the trip to the outback might not be to see Uluru seeing as flights to anywhere close to there are about AUD700 round trip. Instead, we think that we might just go on a camping trip in the wilderness. I think that during the reading week that we have (it's a week off before exams start) I might try to get down to Tasmania, but we'll see if that actually happens or not. It's supposed to be very very cold down there in the winter and we know how I feel about the cold.

Coming up in the next week is a Wine tour and an AFL game, then writing two of my papers and doing research for the third (I say that now though...). I think I might try to go to the beach on Monday, just to sit by it and read. I think I've decided that I'm probably going to miss the Pacific Ocean the most about Australia, especially when I go home to the Atlantic. That and how relaxed I am over here - we were talking about it earlier, about how different in a sense we are. My personality hasn't changed, I'm still the wonderful Lisa you all know and love, but I have so few things to worry about here that I'm hardly ever stressed out. It's a great feeling. Hopefully I'll bring the 'no worries' attitude back to the States so that I can feel better about life. But with graduating in a year, we'll see how that actually goes...