Wineglass Bay
Also, we visited a Tassie wilderness part and got to see some feeding of Tasmanian devils. They're carnivores and will literally eat EVERYTHING...including fur and feathers, and they'll crunch through bones as if they're rock candy. At one point there were three in a pen and they seriously had a three-way tug-of-war on a wallaby head. It looked like the eyeball was going to burst out of the head!...It was intense.
Tasmanian devil three-way tug-of-war
We also went to the Honey "Farm" where I tried maybe 30 different flavors of honey. Yup, betcha didn't know there were so many flavors huh? I didn't even try all of them. Some were a bit weird, but some were delicious. There were flavors like strawberry, apricot, gum tree, tea tree, hazelnut, almond, cinnamon, lavender, chocolate, the list goes on... I also had chocolate honey flavored ice cream that was excellent. Yummm... While in Tassie I went on two tours -- a Ghost Tour at Port Arthur and a Cascade Brewery tour in Hobart. The Ghost Tour was pretty cool. We went around Port Arthur at night and our guide told us about ghost encounters and other unexplainable occurrences at Port Arthur. At the Cascade Brewery tour I had some delicious beer. Initially their stout tastes kinda like coffee...very tasty. =P Ooo and their cider's good too. The harder one's like 8% alcohol!
Port Arthur at night
Tassie was slightly stressful in that the night before I had to fly there I pulled an all-nighter finishing my Transport Systems assignment. Then while I was in Tasmania I also had to start and finish an essay for my Sport & Education in Australian Society class. But since we were doing a lot of hiking and driving around to places, we'd have to be up and ready to go by, no joke, 6:30am on most of the days. So I was lacking a lot of sleep while I was there. I survived though, and was able to get my stuff turned in thanks to my awesome friends Emily, Hiran, and Sarah. Though, Hiran called me really early in the morning to lie and pretend that he didn't receive my assignment so that wasn't very cool at all.
After Tasmania all I had left to do was basically final exams. I couldn't really afford to do much else except for stay in Melbourne, and even that became pretty pricey. I literally depleted my bank account to the point where I was afraid to withdraw money because of possible insufficient funds. =/ But it was worth it. I mean, when's the next time I'm going to be in Australia right? So since I was on a tight budget, there were points where it was just me in Melbourne. Epack, Whitney, and Emily went on a drive along the Great Ocean Road one weekend, and this other weekend/weekish the three of them and Sarah went to Byron Bay and Nimbin, a.k.a. pot central. It's okay though, I was able to occupy myself. =P I watched a lot of Friends while I should've been studying haha and also got to know a new friend hehe.
So 2 weeks before I had to head back to the States, a footy friend of mine, Richo, was having a going away party at the Glasshouse. It was the first gay bar I had gone to in Australia, so I was super excited. I had SOOO much fun! There was a hilarious drag show along with dancing afterward. How can you go wrong? =P I also ended up meeting this girl, a friend of Richo's, and let's just say we took a bit of a liking to each other hehe. Anyway, I had a blast with her, and we ended up hanging out a few times during the next week. =D It was great getting to know her. I just wish that I had met her earlier...I mean there were definitely opportunities where we were in the same area because I had gone to a couple of her footy games. It kind of sucks cuz after a week she decided that she "couldn't do this" anymore since I was leaving soon. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted, and I'm glad that it happened. It kind of made my study abroad experience feel "complete" lol. Also, when you have a rough break up, everyone tells you how "there's plenty of fish in the sea," that you'll find someone better... It's nice to be optimisitc and all, but it truly is so hard to actually believe it. Meeting her helped give me hope that I will get over my ex and that there are still amazing people out there to meet. =)
The remainder of my Aussie Adventures include going to this really good cocktail place called 1806 and to Eve, a club where you have to dress all nice and pay a cover. Oh, and I suppose there were also exams. I'm kind of all over the board with those. I feel pretty good about my Transport Systems and Language and Literacy Development ones, but I'm super worried about my Strucutral Engineering 2 one. I'm really afraid that I completely BOMBED it, and it's worth 80% of my grade! I've got to get a translated grade of a B or higher in order to get credit for the subject. I'm keeping my fingers crossed...=/
1806 was a nice, small, chill place. I really liked the atmosphere of it. They got an award for best cocktail list, and I want to say best servers too? Not entirely sure. Eve was also fun. Got to do a whole lot of dancing, one of my favs. =) But omg, I encountered some very annoying people who kept like placing their palm on my head from behind in order to get my attention and try to get me to dance with their friend. I danced with him once to humor them...but then they kept doing it, and I ended up leaving the dance floor to avoid them haha. My feet were in so much pain the next day.
Oh yeah, I also went on a winery tour of the Macedon Ranges with Hiran, Tim, and Karen and camping as well. I know Hiran and Tim because I have classes with them and Karen is Hiran's partner. The wine there was a nice change from goon, which is cask wine/wine in a box, that's really cheap and perfect for the broke study abroad student. =P I also always get excited when I don't get asked for an ID when I drink. =P While camping you would not BELIEVE what happened to me... I was cooking oatmeal in this aluminum pot that has this clip-on handle thingy that you could attach/detach quickly to the other pot/pan in this set. Anyway, as I was cooking my oatmeal a freakin' drop bear drops down OUT OF NOWHERE and Tim BARELY gets away. We all freak out and me, being the genius I am decide to try to defend myself with my pot of scalding hot oatmeal. The drop bear swats the pot as if it were merely a fly, and the pot comes of the handle and spills onto the back of my hand! Since it's oatmeal, it's viscous so it just sits there on my hand burning it for at least 5 seconds! End result: a legit second degree burn with blisters and all.
We somehow managed to make the drop bear lose interest in pursuing us, and now I've got a hand that has flakes of dead skin hanging off.
13 days after the incident. As Epack would say..."tasty..."
Anyway, that's basically the rest of the exciting stuff that happened while in Australia. I'm actually back home now, and it's a bit weird because I almost feel lik Australia never happened. Going back home felt exactly the same as coming home from Mudd...except now I just happened to have 2 more siblings. =P
