Easter.

As this wonderful time of the year approaches ever so quickly, I find myself sad that I will not be getting a visit from the Easter bunny this year. Although many may find this tradition a pastime and long ago retired practice, I have always looked forward to receiving the peeps to blow up in the microwave, the assortment of chocolate eggs, and most importantly the egg shaped Reese's. I love Easter surprises. Although I am now too old for Easter egg hunts, I cherish those memories when we ran around stealing each others eggs and trading candy. In addition to the hunts, I always enjoyed dying hard boiled eggs and then doing the crack contest. All Easters were spent with my grandma and I miss them, she always had a hunt even though we were too old and insisted on making eggs for everyone even if they weren't going to be there. These memories are irreplaceable and these traditions will live on. This weekend at the college there are many services and different rules to honor the holy triduum (since it is a catholic college). A lot of students have already headed home for break and we leave for our trip north on Monday morning. We are heading up to ningaloo reef in hopes of swimming with some manta rays and diving with whale sharks (don't worry steve, even thought I will be glad to be reunited I WONT swim away with my whale family).

In the past couple of weeks since my last update I have taken a trip to Margaret river. We went to a couple wineries and breweries where we did tastings and took a lot of pictures, the trip was a blast! We went to a surf competition on Saturday that weekend and an American won and then a concert that night to celebrate the end of the competition. It was awesome! We hope to take another trip down to Margaret river in May and go camping.

In other trip news, I booked a flight to Thailand for our study break in June, I can't wait. So many life experiences! I can not thank my parents enough for giving me this opportunity!

School is going really well, I am soo happy that we have break now though. I was getting pretty tired of it. I handed in a huge marine bio report today worth 16% of my grade and had my first exam Monday. Hopefully it went ok. I have one the day we return from break also. I got back a health assessment report and got 10/10 and its worth 10% of my grade so that's a nice start. I am enjoying my classes overall, but can't wait to get back to U of I. I have met a couple Aussies coming to U of I next semester and have promised to show them a good time once there even though Dad plans on retiring and coming to live with me and relive his college years! Cant wait for that either.

I think that is all for now. I will leave you with some pictures and will update after my trip!
Also when I gave out my address here I gave the wrong number so here is the updated one but everything makes it here eventually so its alright :)

St. Thomas More College
Mounts Bay Road
Crawley, WA 6009
Australia



at Voyager winery



This is my neighbor, Trent...

In Busselton on Margaret River Weekend

Surf Lessons

Caving at Margaret River

Julie and I as grapes for River cruise

RAIN.

It finally rained in Australia. I can't believe I saw rain for the first time in ages. I have missed it terribly.

Sorry I haven't updated in ages either! School has been picking up along with other commitments. I would have updated last week but I found myself pretty useless after getting sick. Last Wednesday I started feeling really terrible like feverish and had a bad sore throat. I went to the 'medical centre' here and when the doctor looked at my throat she said 'ew, gross.' Bad Sign. She put me on antibiotics and sent me on my way. I started to feel a bit better so decided to play rugby that night. It was really awesome, I had never played before, but it probably wasn't best for my illness. I took the rest of the week and and weekend to recover and finally started feeling better on Sunday just in time for ultimate frisbee. I think we placed second in rugby and frisbee (we lost one game each time).

School is going fine, I have two midterms next next Monday so I am starting to stress about those a little bit. My grades do transfer back to U of I so I need to do well. I register for my classes next semester tonight at midnight due to the time difference. I will be glad to have that done, I'm so nervous for my senior year!! Wah! I don't know what to do with my life! In other news for U of I, I think I convinced a student from here to study abroad there. That will be fun!

I think we might be traveling to Margaret River this weekend with a friend. Her mom is going to give us a tour on Saturday of all the wineries and such and then Sunday we are going to watch a huge surfing competition. I also can't wait to travel for break. We are heading up north the exmouth and nigaloo reef, it sounds awesome. Lastly some girls are talking about traveling to Thailand for our week study break so we might do that as well. I love all these adventures because I might never be over here again, sadly.

I can't wait for the family to come visit once I finish the semester. I miss them lots :)

Well, I should head off the class. I have a lab today to talk about the data we collected from our beach field trip. We had to snorkel around the reef and count species. I could have never done that at home!