Poisonous Snakes and Bird Watching

We started the day by getting on busses for a volunteer trip. I joined others who gave their time to a local area government ecology group working to save the wetlands around a few local lakes. Wetlands here are not what they are in the states- they are merely areas of "bush" around lakes. They are delicate ecosystems that have been invaded by incoming weeds. Our job was to find the plants not native to the area and pull them out. Right before they sent us out into the bush, they gave us this speech: "As you know 9 of the 10 deadliest snakes in the world live in Australia. Luckily the area you will be working on today is the home to only two of those nine. So you should be fine. Oh, by the way - watch out for the spiders that have red and yellow on them- you won't like them."

Besides those, they forgot to mention the wasp nests that we found as well.

After this they took us to another lake which is a bird sanctuary. These birds fly all the way to this location from Alaska. There were areas for us to watch the birds in "hides".

When we got back from this trip, we had some housekeeping items to do. They included getting our student IDs, going into Perth to get Australia Proof of Age Cards (so we do not have to carry our passports around), and switch some classes. We also had a lecture about the academic differences here than in the US.

Finally, we get a professional chef to cook meals for us two days a week (the only two meals provided to us a week). Tuesday is one of those days. We enjoyed a sausage dish with cous-cous, and a really good chicken dish. I am going to enjoy this perk when he is here.

We stayed in tonight and watched a movie and played pool. We had a good time catching up. A different kind of day here. Tomorrow is supposed to be around 95 degrees-- Ill be sure to put some sunscreen on.