So it’s time that I finally wrote a blog from Darwin, Australia. I’ll give you all a little info about what I’m up to now. We are staying at a local apartment complex, all 120 of us, and will be here for the next two weeks. I have three other roommates, two of which are from Penn State and the third from the University of Arizona. They tried to pair up students from the same school. Penn State, Pitt, Michigan, and Georgetown are the ones with the most students here, yet I think Penn State only has 4 or 5 overall. It has been neat hanging out with everyone and finding out where they are from. It had been quite the change to go from hanging out with the locals of Africa to a bunch of college students from America. I thought it would at least take a few days before people wanted to go to the bars, but on the first day they were all at it. I have to admit that I kind of miss the African people but Aussie are pretty cool too. Today I got to meet the other 20-25 people in my Energy program. I’m beginning to realize that I like Engineers, when we went to the bar afterwards with the staff, all of the engineering students randomly started hanging out together. We then went for dinner and then for ice cream. Afterwards we went back to the bar where the majority of the group was hanging out. We stopped to chat with some other people from the program and ending up blocking most of the sidewalk as we did. As one of the Aussies walked by she mumbled under her breath yet loud enough for us to hear, “bloody Americans”. I guess we kind of stick out, especially since there are 120 of us. I hate traveling in such large groups; luckily we will be hanging with just our individual programs for the times we do the actual touristy things. On Monday my group is going to Kakudu National Park. It’s basically the Australian version of a safari but instead of elephants and lions, we’ll be seeing crocs and snakes. I’ll get a picture of the croc for you Hoss. I found another guy here with a scuba certification so we are going to plan that later in the trip. I also found a bunch of guys interested in going to a rugby match and I think there might be interest in sky diving. So it should be a fun few weeks ahead of me. But wow, after having a hot fudge sundae tonight, I forgot how much I miss food from back home; it’s good to finally have some normal stuff. I’ve already had crocodile and camel so far, we are going to have kangaroo on the barbie for the ‘safari’ (that’s a little Australian for you in case you missed that) I had a girl who had to be four years old say ‘good day mate’ to me on the sidewalk, it was awesome! I just responded hi back to her because I was so taken off guard. I’m also really excited for the actual class part of the program too. For the first few days we are studying the economics behind environmental issues. The teachers here are so passionate about what they are doing and have so much experience. One lady, which I’m not sure if she is one of my profs, has found a way to convert waste materials to steels, yeah, pretty cool. The other thing I found out is that it’s very hard for me to go more than a few minutes without telling someone about what I want to do after school or about my time in Africa. Somehow it seems that every conversation gets brought back to that, so I tell them. I’m finding a few other people with similar passions and already making a few connections. One girl’s mom works with disaster management so I think has lots of connections, it didn’t take me long to make more connections. That will be one nice plus coming out of this summer, I hope that will help me in the future. Well I have class tomorrow morning and it’s nearing midnight, so I should probably get to sleep here soon. In case you’re wondering, internet access is still quite poor (although a little better than Africa but now more expensive) so I will probably not be online very often. In Sydney we will have 24 hour access; it’s about time, so I will be able to talk more there. We fly into Sydney in two weeks. Until then, it’s gonna feel like Africa. But I like Africa so I think I can live with that, I’m gonna have to get back there soon! So long from the land downunder!