I really am slack at this.....

wan·der·lust/: Noun: A strong desire to travel: "a man consumed by wanderlust".

Quirk. Fun. Travel. Experience. Laughter. Redwoods. Friends. Wilderness. Culture. Wildlife. Passion. Insanity. Health. Stress. Life. Wonder. Once-In-A-Lifetime.

A Months Worth of Happenings...

Sorry guys, I know I really should actually update this more often, but I forget or decide it's nap time before I write a post. I will try to be better for the next two months!

So where am I up to! It's been a month since I last updated, and not a whole scary lot has gone down. Classes are getting that little bit more hectic. I passed really well on the 3 mid semester exams I have done so far, not so well on one lab exam...but I did expect that. I'll just have to make up some extra credit points!! Haven't really been partying...the under 21 thing here actually does kinda suck.

It was Claire's birthday on the 28th of September, so we all decided to be a tad sneaky and organize her a birthday pressie from all of us in out lil' international group. We ended up buying her Photopoly, which is this sweet version of Monopoly and a mug that looks like a SLR lens. We also all went out for dinner and drinks at a Mexican joint down in Arcata...all in Opp Shop clothing. Great night full of mucho, mucho margaritas!! Claire's best friend Mercedes came up from San Fran for the weekend as well, which was a treat for Claire. She's a really nice gal, and has an even more bogan accent than I do!! But it was a good weekend.

I've also seriously gotten into my weight loss attempts. I try to go to the gym every day and do an hour of cardio, and then some strength exercises, because I am *ahem* rather weak! Of course, my current exception to this lil health kick are the TimTams mum sent me with a little card with a water-colour of Loch Sport on it! It was an amazing touch of home, and I will be glad to see Aussie soil again (get ready Australia Day 2013!!)

I have also planned out my holidays. Canada is completely organized (Kaity and Hayden , start the count down!!); flights are booked, accommodation paid for and scheduled all laid out! So, considering we have planned to spend two days at Whistler, I decided I wanted some snow goggles and mittens. And they are adorable if I do say so myself!

I have also now officially booked some other getaways as well! I am heading down to San Diego to go to the American Cetacean Society Conference, which will be amazing. While I'm there, I am also going to the San Diego Zoo and to SeaWorld, the later I will decide whether I like or not after seeing it in person. The hostel I am staying at is really sweet; free breakfast and dinner every night...and they have a Ron Burgundy Lounge...keep it classy San Diego! The week after I get back from San Diego is Thanksgiving, and so we get a week off of classes, and I wasn't originally going to do anything, but I decided (with a fair bit of prodding from the o' wise miss Claire) that I really shouldn't let money stop me, because I'm only going to be here and 19 once in my life, so why the hell not! So i am travelling via bus down to San Fran, then catching a flight down to Las Vegas where I will check out Sin City that night then crash at a hostel. The next day, I am booked on to a day tour of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and we get to go through the National Park and visit the Hoover Dam along with a whole bunch of other places. We will get back to Vegas that night, so I get to explore a bit more, then the next day, I'm on a bus up to Los Angeles! That night and the next day I plan on wandering through Hollywood, seeing the Walk of Fame, the sign of course, Venice Beach and hopefully get me some LA Ink!! Day after that I'm meeting up with Claire and Fei and driving back up to San Fran with them, were we're staying the night. The last day we drive back up to Humboldt.

It's going to be beautifully and amazingly hectic!

Speaking of tattoos, I have booked to get another one done, up here in Arcata. The artist is absolutely amazing and an awesome bloke in general. And that's all I'm going to say about that for now. You'll have to wait to see what it's going to be!

Halloween is next week over here! I have my costume all sorted and apparently this Plaza in town goes absolutely mad. It is going to be so sweet! And I carved my first pumpkin the other day! It looks like Jack from the Nightmare Before Christmas! But it is a lot harder than it looks!! But it's still fun...and messy!

We be pumpkin heads!!

Another messy activity is henna! We had a henna afternoon for the internationals, which was a bit of fun. The rest of the last few weekends I have been shopping around for some winter clothing to take to Canada...and to wear around here in the next few weeks, it's starting to get cold and it's raining a lot more often. I have my eye on a really nice ski jacket, and some good normal jackets and layer-able tops and pants!

I also went to my first football game. ... it's not for me. AFL, soccer and rugby kick American Football's arse! Haha, but I guess I'm in American, I had to go to one game. HSU Jacks slaughtered by the way!

And back to classes! The work load has gone up, but so have the experiences. We went on a beach walk for Marine Mammals and were poking around a carcass of a Steller Sea Lion. I know that will sound waayy more appealing to me than you guys! We also went out to do field observations of Gray Whales, which was lovely. In Mammal Management, we went observing elk, and I saw my first! We also found a whole heap of carcasses and feet...and a head in the river...but apparently it was a hunting area. We also chemically restrained a deer (darted one) and had teams go in an weigh it and all that wonderful stuff  It was really interesting, even though it was 8 am in the morning and raining! In Marine Biology we have been going on beach walks, tide-pooling! My group got really lost so we didn't find the class before they left sooo we did our own beach walk, and had the best time doing it! We have also been out on the Coral Sea, which is the uni's 90 ft long research boat. We did a trawl and benthic grab, and sorted through all the animals we found! We even caught a shark...a small-ish one though! We are going out again tomorrow morning...at 6:30am. And apparently there is supposed to be decent swells...so, definitely chowing down on sea sickness tablets!

The Coral Sea

Dang, Georgia can make rain-gear sexy!

Elk!

Tide-pooling

Moonstone Beach in Trinidad

And I believe, that is the interesting things that have happened in the last month that I can think of right now! But I can't believe I'm almost done the term here! Just November left, then off I fly to Canada! And then home! It's gone super fast! And I know that now I've done it, I'm going to get home and want to go somewhere new asap! Of well, gotta finish here first!

'Till next time!

Love xx