Etc.

Last week was a rough one for sleep. I had to finish my economics essay, which took me a long time. It seems like sometimes in this blog there is this impression that it is all fun and games down here, and we certainly do have a good time, but we are still in school and have work accordingly.

I have never written a paper as long as the one that took over my life last week. It was 26 pages, 6,402 words and had 72 different sources. I am not sure what the longest paper I have ever written up that point was, but I believe it was at least a third shorter. It was an analysis of how the Austrian School of Economics Business Cycle Theory was the underpinnings of the macroeconomic theory of the Skyscraper Index. It probably took me about 40 hours over the course of last week-- which was accounted for with many hours up until 4 or 5 am. I am glad to get that out of the way. I have one big essay left for this week that will be cranked out over the next two days on the evironmental sustainability policies of the Vatican City state and their whole systems outlook towards climate change. Later in the week I will finish my final asignment, which is a short paper.

Friday night we went to a bar in Perth called Mustangs. It is an American themed bar, and serves a handful of American beers (sam adams, bud, and a couple others). It brought a tear to my eye when we went in though, because they have ESPN on the tvs, and I watched Sportscenter for awhile as the band was playing. Later in the evening, a baseball game was starting and I got to watch that as well. It is the first time that I have seen ESPN or baseball action since I have been here -- the longest such stretch in my life most likely.

Saturday a friend from O'Neill Hall back at ND came to visit. He just graduated, so he was able to tell me more about the conflict revolving around NDs recent graduation preceedings. He is spending a year in Australia to play minor league Aussie Rules Football for a team down south (by Albany where we visited a month ago). It was good to hang out with him and catch up on all things ND over the last semester.

It is also Peppy's 21st b-day today, so we went out to celebrate last night, and will do something cool today for the holiday.

My morning ritual is always to wake up and lay in bed while pulling up the internet and checking on any new news from ESPN. Lately this has been nice because the Tigers are winning and it is always a good way to start my day by watching their highlights. Rick Porcello, Detroits rookie pitcher, is 20 years old and the guy who lives next to me went to high school with him and knows him from there. It is weird for him when I start talking about how pumped I am for Porcello to grab another win, and he was a year older than him and saw him in the halls at school.

It started to get colder here for the first time this week. It rained three of the days, and coming off the ocean, the rain was rather intense. Lets hope that it gets a little warmer this week and stays dry, before we head out east for our next trip.