March 22, 10:40pm
Today was a Monday here in Brisbane, which means I did not have class today. I relish these Monday’s because it is like an extended weekend with the worst day of the week being my extension day. Tomorrow, I have class at two and then a tut right after so it is not a long day, just a really boring one as my class is Aboriginal Anthropology. I came here thinking this class would be interesting, but, as it turns out, it is not. It is one of the biggest wastes of time I have here but as I need an anthropology class to graduate what better place to do it than in one where the grade I get will not affect my GPA?
As it so happens, we just got back from a movie tonight, Green Zone, which was an awesome movie even though it comes from the American liberal side of the spectrum (I had to specify which liberal side it was since the Australian liberal is comparable to our Republicans). Matt Damon was superb as always, playing a role much like that in his thriller Bourne series. The movie is based in Iraq in the year 2003, and Damon is the leader of a team out to find WMDs and bring them in to safety. As the movie progresses, Damon figures out that there is more behind the action than what meets the eye, and ends up going de-facto in a way in order to find the truth. Even with the liberal propaganda; however, it is a great movie and one I would not hesitate to see again.
On the way back on the City Kitty, I remembered some facts about the Brisbane River that I had not shared with people back home: 1) it is a tidal river so it actually has high water marks on the side of the river when the tide is in (I found this to be quite interesting seeing as how rivers are not normally tidal, but it is an interesting fact about this river); and 2) there are between 500 and 3,000 Bull Sharks in the river, depending on who you ask (Wikipedia says there are 500 but some UQ research team did a study and found there to be around 3,000 from the mouth back to where the city ends I guess, I’m not exactly sure where they ended their study). Just a few fun facts for the folks back home. Speaking of the river, the city is a miraculous sight to behold while on the front of a City Kitty at night. The water appears to be glass, and the lights from the skyscrapers and cars are reflected in it as the boats glide seamlessly along, almost naturally.
Going back to today, it was a fun day. At 1:00 I headed to campus for a Bible study that one of the members of the church we go to puts on during the day. It was nice to take a break from doing homework and get outside for a while and enjoy the weather. However, this morning, I tried going for a run and not even halfway through what I wanted to do, my iPod fell out of its case and went skidding along the sidewalk ahead of me. This was greatly discouraging as I try to take care of all my belongings and keep them in pristine condition, but things happen and there is nothing I can do about it now so why fret on the fact? Aside from the screen is slightly scratched, no other harm came to it that I can tell so far so it seems that all is not lost. I also had quite the surprise when I got back from campus today: my parents had sent me a package. I was expecting it since they asked me this morning if I had gotten it and when I said no they seemed to be in utter shock. As it turns out, whoever addressed it failed to put my unit on the outside so it got delivered to the wrong unit. Luckily, one of my friends lives there and found it and sent me a text saying that it was there and I could come pick it up whenever. When I opened it, I found a card from my mother and a picture, not of the family as I would have expected her to send, but one of my dog, Charlie. This was a nice surprise because I can Skype my parents and see them and talk to them, but I cannot talk to my dog. Mom hates my dog so part of me is still wondering why she took the time to get a special frame and print of his picture but I guess it is what mothers do when they miss their children.
It’s about time to head to bed down here. It’s going on 10:30 as I am writing this and I should get up early tomorrow and do some readings and work on the final I need to send back home to receive credit for a class from last quarter. My professor was nice enough to not fail me for missing the final, but thinking about doing it while in Australia is like putting water on a fire but oh well, it needs to be done (come to think of it this will probably be the only piece of schoolwork I actually put any of my typical effort into). This weekend we are thinking about going up to Noosa, which is supposed to be really awesome so hopefully that works out. I cannot believe New Zealand is only two weeks away now. I am really excited to get there. The only downside is the cheapest way to get to the airport is by taking a train and that is still $16AUD so it’s not very cheap at all but you have to do what you have to do I guess. I am not sure if I will be taking my laptop yet, but if I do I will do my best to write and then get things updated when I get back to civilization in Australia, and even calling this country civilised is going a bit far.
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