Tasmania was SOOOOOOOO MUCH FUN! And exhausting. Very exhausting. On Friday afternoon we flew out to Launceston, which is technically a city but it really was as much of a city as like...Manchester is. There was literally a paddock full of sheep right next to the airport runway where we came in, and green grasses all around. The airport itself was wicked small too, only about 4 terminals in the entire place. It was so much fun travelling, though, since 5/7 of us from Melbourne were on the same flight. We got to the airport, and within maybe 5 minutes I hear a “Kara?” I turn around and it's Michelle, a friend from Wooster! I knew she was going on the Tasmania trip since she's part of the Arcadia Sydney people, but it was so crazy seeing her there. Two worlds collide. She travelled around with us until Lyndon picked us up since she was the only one from her Arcadia group going on the trip and she fit in perfectly with us!

We had about an hour before Lyndon was coming to get us, so we decided to take a shuttle into Launceston. It was only about 10 minutes in this kind of sketchy white van that just had a sign saying SHUTTLE on it, but the driver was really nice (and very Australian. He said g'day and mate and heaps every other sentence) and even gave us a discount on the price! We were only able to pretty much walk in a square around some blocks before it was time to get picked up, but we still saw the Boag's Brewery, which 2 of our other friends who arrived earlier actually went to and had a beer and cheese paired tasting. I was jealous.

We eventually got picked up and joined up with the other Arcadia students who were from Bond University, which is on the Gold Coast. They were nice enough, but we pretty much stayed segregated throughout the entire trip. We were each pretty close to our respective groups (ours adopted Michelle and another girl who also didn't have anyone to travel with) so it just worked out that way. We stopped at this tiny little town called Sheffield for dinner, where after learning everything in the town was crazy expensive, we all piled into this place called Moo Moo diner (or something of that nature) and got some pretty cheap, but not very good, fried food. Half of us couldn't even finish our food, which made two of my guy friends extremely happy that they were travelling with a bunch of girls. I don't understand how guys can eat so much.

When we arrived at our campsite about an hour later, we separated out into three cabins. Miss Lloyd and I ended up sleeping on this big queen sized bed in the middle of the living room while the boys slept in bunk beds in the “bedroom”. The cabin was so small it was hard to say it was more than just one small room, but there were curtains separating different sections. But it was definitely really fun!!

The first day we got up super early and drove to Cradle Mountain. It was SO incredibly gorgeous. We kept taking pictures of basically the same exact picture over and over again because we couldn't help but try and capture the crazy beauty of it all. It was an all-day kind of hike, which really got intense when we were actually rock climbing through the mountains. We all thought our legs were going to give out at any second, since it wasn't one of those, go up and then go down kinds of hikes. It was the biggest rollercoaster of hiking ever – when you get to the top of one mountain and think, that was awesome! Now it's all downhill from here! And then you go all the way down and realize you have to do the same thing all over again with the next mountain, and the next mountain, and the next mountain... it was exhausting, but so worth it. I always forget how much I love climbing rocks and hiking until I actually get out there and do it!


That night we had a good old Australian barbie and then went to a Tasmanian Devil Feeding Show! They were SO funny to look at and hear because they made the most crazy sounds ever! The actual information about them was really interesting too because our tour guide just kept talking about how they are unnecessarily given the name "devils" because they can actually be really sweet. And to show us this, she brought out one that they had raised since he was a baby and we got to pet him! He just sleepily curled up against her shoulder and it was soooo adorable. But I guess they can also be kind of vicious when it comes to food:

On Sunday we got up not quite so early, thankfully, and went for a much easier walk around Dove Lake. It was so beautiful, and I was really happy we went because the sky was a lot clearer, so we got to see all the mountains without clouds being in the way. The hike was only a couple hours, so afterwards we had time to drive to some other hikes where we saw a baby wombat!!!

Can we just talk about how cute these guys are? Adorable.

We then went to this little cabin...thing. I'm still not quite sure what it was -- we were all kind of bored by it -- but outside the cabin thing was a PADEMELON! What is a pademelon you ask? WELL it is only one of the cutest animals on this earth! It's kind of like if you squish a wallaby down into a one foot radius.

We had a long time before our flight flew out that Sunday night, so a few of us went to this beautiful gorge back in Launceston. There were all these walking and hiking paths all around it, which for a couple hours we enjoyed before we were so tired we all just sat in the grass and talked while the boys threw around a frisbee. We were all just exhausted from the past couple of days, and I had gone on a few rock climbing adventures with the guys earlier that day for some reason I still don't know, so lying down felt amazing. Even when we finally got to the airport, we still had a good 4 hours or so before our flight took off so we just spent the time looking up youtube videos on my ipod.

Now I'm back in Melbourne and it's officially swot vac week -- the week before finals begin where there are no classes but you still end up pulling your hair out from all the stress. I've somehow found a very nice balance between studying and going out with my friends. Monday night I stayed in and finished writing my entire philosophy final, so I was ahead of schedule and able to go guilt free to the Melbourne Cup yesterday! It is called "the race that stops a nation", which it totally did. It's this huge horse race where basically everyone (including a spice girl and Miss J from Americas Next Top Model!!, and possibly Sarah Jessica Parker, although I didn't see her) turns out in these crazy hats to drink champagne and watch the horses. I've never felt more prestigious in my life!

The winning jockey and horse!

The races ended by 4 or so, when a couple of us went back to my apartment to watch the Hangover before meeting up with the other Arcadia people to have pizza at Bimbos. Then we headed to the boys room downstairs to watch the first Woody Allen film I've ever seen! And it was hilarious! I didn't know what I was missing!

Finally, this morning I signed up for my classes for next spring! I was very excited to get the last spot in Microbiology, so I will be taking that along with junior independent study and analytical chemistry. I had an extra spot free which I initially was going to fill with linguistic anthropology, but this morning I found out it was only for majors, so now I am taking Intro to US national politics. It was a random course, but everyone I've talked to says it actually is pretty good so I'm excited!

Now I will blogging very minimally for the next week until I am done with finals, wish me luck!