Easter holiday in the Northern Territory

I spent the last week in the Northern Territory (it's not a state because there aren't enough people living there)! I had a great time and saw lots of cool stuff. I spent time in Darwin, at the Litchfield and Kakadu National Parks and in Katherine before coming back home to Sydney. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves (although this is only a small fraction of all the pictures I took), so I'll just let you see for yourself! These pictures are kind of small to save space, but you can enlarge any picture by clicking on it.

Owl finches
Two beautiful sunsets! The black figure in the second picture (if you can see it) is a fruit bat!
There were tons of waterfalls (this is the tail end of the rainy season).
Big termite mound! Luckily, these aren't the kind that eat houses.
Fruit bats

Wallabies

Gecko

Ancient Aboriginal rock art

Katherine Gorge

Baby snake. I have no idea what type of snake, and I don't think I want to know!

Crocodile! This guy is about 2.5 meters long. That's a fish in its mouth!

Dive at Magic Point

Last week I went on a dive right here in Sydney. It is the site of a Nurse shark colony. I did see one pretty sizable Nurse shark, but It was gone before I could photograph it. =( Sorry. I did, however, see some other cool stuff. Below is a giant grouper. This one is about four feet long.

Cool starfish.

Here is a Cuttlefish. It's related to the squid and octopus. It can camouflage its skin color to match its surroundings and can also eject ink.
The visibility was pretty poor and the water was freezing, but overall it was a pretty cool dive. Also, the dive was on the afternoon of Easter Sunday, and helped keep me from getting homesick.

Some overdue pics of my apartment

Here is my apartment! It's pretty nice. There's plenty of room and my flatmates are great (three boys and one girl). I have my own bedroom and I share a bathroom with the girl and we all share the living and kitchen areas. Excuse the mess...




And HERE is the Huntsman spider (not poisonous, just HUGE and very scary!) that came into my room through my window! I found him lurking on the wall just above my head! Sorry the picture is blurry--my hands were still shaking! That's my brave flatmate Ben holding the spider!

Here is a clearer picture, but the effect of the size of the spider is somewhat lessened because he's crouched up, ready to attack! This hand belongs to my neighbor, who is also braver than me. Its a good thing these guys were home! That thing was big enough to eat me!

Easter in Australia

Easter is a bigger deal over here than it is the states. Everybody takes off Good Friday through Easter Monday and there's a lot of commercialism associated with the holiday. There's been Easter candy in the grocery stores since I got here in February. There was also an extra church service this morning since today is Good Friday.

This is the church I've been going to over here. It's called St. Stephen's and it's roughly Anglican (although from what I understand, the Sydney Anglican churches have sort of broken away from the mainstream Anglican Conference). It's very different from my church in Lubbock, which is a Church of Christ, but the people are great and make me feel right at home.



Another thing that is a big deal around here is an amazing phenomenon called a "hot cross bun." They're great! They are a sweet bun usually with fruit (although I had one with chocolate) that they make at Easter time. The cross on top is to symbolize the crucifixion. We definitely need to get these in America!

Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve Weekend

I just got back from a weekend of volunteering at the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve outside of Canberra (the Australian capitol). It was great! I met up with some other American study abroad students and we planted lots of marshland plants and had a lot of fun. We saw tons of wild kangaroo, emu, and platypus. We also went to a really cool museum in the city and also to the Australian National War Memorial.



I'm all set to go to the Northern Territory the week after Easter and possibly SCUBA diving and out to the Blue Mountains, so look for more pictures soon!

Well, I've survived my first couple of weeks of classes, and they're fantastic! I'm taking lessons, orchestra, flute class, woodwind masterclass, concert practice, and (my favorite) Romanticism and the Fantastic. The Conservatorium was built in 1916 and looks like a miniature castle.















The Conservatorium is right next to the Royal Botanical Gardens, and it's a great place to take a packed lunch (and also to play with the VERY friendly ducks!)















I'm getting to know Sydney quite a bit better. One of my flatmates is from Sydney and has a car and we drove across the Harbour Bridge (my first time!)














And here's a random sign that I found amusing and that accurately captures the Sydneysider lifestyle and environmental awareness!



















I'm off to the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve (near Canberra) for a volunteer weekend. Pictures to come soon!

Cheers!