Transported Into Applesauce

Yay for Spring Break!!
Today, Monday, is technically the first day day of my two week mid-semester break. Unfortunately, I do not really get a semester break because I am in two online courses, which means I have to study and go to class and have tests over the next two weeks. This does not, however, deter me from having fun where I can.
Enter one Jessica Kobbe. I met Jessica (Jesse) in my bioethics course. We have the same sounding last name, and that was a great conversation starter. She is from Germany. Recently, we had an assignment due for bioethics, and she was discussing with the professor the possibility of an extension because she was having difficulty with the language in the technical papers. Me, being the kind-hearted soul that I am, stuck around after class and offered to help her with her paper and the articles she had to read for it. We set up to meet the following day, Saturday, at her flat in North Strathfield. Saturday morning found me ventruting forth into the unknown... this was my first train ride in Australia. Got a little lost trying to find the place, but with the help of our trusty mobile phones, we got me there with minimal difficulty. Saturday afternoon we spent working on her paper and bonding. You know how sometimes you meet people and the personalities click? You just bond instantaneously and suddenly find yourself richer in good friends? That is Jesse and me. So besides finishing the content of her essay, we spent a fair amount of the afternoon and evening discussing girlie things, and generally getting to know each other better. Siblings, food, plans, hot boys... you know. Girlie things. It eventually got very late, and Jesse and her flatmate, Shirley, invited me to stay the evening. So I happily threw myself onto the ground and slept with great contentment until about 5 in the morning.

It had come to our attention during the previous evening that we had an opportunity to go to Canberra, the nation's capital. So, at 5 in the morning on Sunday, Jesse and I got ourselves out of bed and began the long drive south. Enter now a new member of our journey, Andy. Andy is a friend of Jesse's that she lived with for a brief period of time. Things did not work out for her to live there, so she moved to a new place with Shirley. Anyway, Andy is driving, Jesse's in the passenger seat, I am in the back. We drive for approximately 4 hours, and arrive in Canberra.

Our first stop in Canberra is at the Floriade. The Floriade is a a festival of flowers, only found in Canberra, and only on for about a month in the spring when the tulips are blooming. It took us several hours to walk around this park, and there were flowers everyewhere. Mostly tulips, but also poppies, iris, and some other pretty, nice smelling, colorful flowers. (Anyone interested, there are pictures on fb.)

After the Floriade, we were hungry, so we drove around until we found Canberra's main shopping center and stopped for a bite to eat (fish and chips!!). We went past the parliment building, but it was not even worthy of a picture. Good to see, but just to be able to say 'I've been there'. Not really very exciting at all. The national museum was kinda crowded, so we skipped that, but we saw a very nice fountain in central park.

Our next main stop was at a place called Black Mountain. The area was designed as a scenic tourist-y spot, so it's not really a proper mountain, but the area affords a nice view of Canberra and the surrounding country. At the top of the 'mountain', there is a tower steeple thing that you can pay to go inside and have even better views, but we decided that was kind of silly and decided to take a hike around the 'mountain' instead. (Again, see associated pictures of Black Mountain hike on fb.) There were lots of trees, lots of lizards, and lots of very pretty parrots. Most of them were red/purple or red/green. And they came in pairs. The parrots down here either mate for the season or mate for life, I'm not sure which, but the point is whenever we saw a single parrot, there was always a second one to be found in the bush.

At the end of the hike we were sweaty and grubby and very tired, so we opted to go home. Andy dropped us off at Jesse's flat around 6, and she and I ate some more and finished her paper, which I just needed to proof read for spelling and those annoying English-isms that I don't know how English-as-a-second-language people ever learn. We finished with that at a reasonable hour, but Shirley and Jesse again invited me to stay the night, so I did. We slept for like 9 hours last night, and it was wonderful.

This was a bit more narrative than I originally intended; mostly I just wanted you guys to know that I am branching out! I have a wonderful new friend, and have visited Canberra. Yay!