"I'm in Beauty Land!"

Keith gets credit for the title of this entry - but man did he hit the echidna on the snout with that one.  The international kids got to spend the day at Forest Hills today (fo' free!), which is a national park, comprised mostly of jarrah forest and 'roos.  We had several sessions organized for us, so we were split into groups and moved swiftly through our afternoon.  Session one was "Meet the Marsupials" - OH WOW.  Two joeys, a very, very endangered creature called a woilie (forgive the butchered spelling, if anyone out there actually knows what I'm talking about) that looks like a kangaroo rat but is actually the smallest member of the kangaroo family, a python (not a marsupial, but super cool), and an echidna, which is something I've been dying to see since we got to Australia.  Still haven't met a platypus, but I have officially seen one half of the monotreme family.  YES.  Fun fact - echidnas are the oldest species of mammal on the planet.  And I met one today named Snorkle.

Session two was "Raptors" - birds of prey.  Forest Hills is an animal rehab center, so all of the birds we saw were in the process of being fixed up enough to return to the wild.  The unfortunate side of the coin is that the birds that cannot be rehabilitated have to be euthanized, because it is illegal to sell or trade animals in Australia.  Only about 10% of the creatures they find are able to be rereleased.  So that's the Debbie Downer part...today was much cheerier than that - we met a Peregrine falcon, which is probably my favorite flying creature, and is the fastest bird in the world, a goshawk with one eye, a barn owl, and a red-tailed hawk (in Australia it's some kind of eagle).  We'd only been at the park for an hour and I was already pretty positive that this is what I want to do with my life.  Maybe not birds specifically, but work at a rehab center, give tours or presentations, teach people about the animals...that'd be the life.

Session three was a bush walk - a walk through the jarrah forest with a guide pointing out interesting trees and wildlife.  Felt just like camp.  I picked up two books in the shop, one about trees in WA and one about plants...if I have to be away from the trees in America for this long I might as well learn the ones down here.

Session four was "Indigenous People."  I don't know how much the rest of the group enjoyed this one, but I loved it.  A man of Aborigine descent spoke to us about the Aboriginal culture...he was a little spacey, and a bit hard to follow at times, but my overall impression of the Aborigine people is definitely more informed.  He spoke about how every child is given a totem by their mother, some animal or plant growing on the earth, and that creature lives in their eyes, and needs to be taken care of.  The part I most related to was when he talked about how the Aborigines teach their children that eagles, frogs, humans, jarrah trees, grass...they're all on the same level.  They all need the same amount of care, the same amount of respect.  No one creature is higher than any other.  Then he taught us how to throw boomerangs, and THAT was fun (:

I think tonight will turn into another night of board games with some other international students...Lauren and I played Pictionary against Jared (crazy man from South Africa), Alex (from Australia) and Mark (from Georgia), and I think they want a rematch.  We destroyed them.  I try not to let people know how competitive I am, it's not something I'm proud of, but I think that came out a little last night.  Oh well.  Last night we also had the tour of the Fremantle prison - definitely worth the $20.  Uncle Mike, you HAVE to do this when you get here.  It was a night tour, so it was extra spooky, and of course they do a few "jump out and scare you" stunts, but our guide was so captivating that I actually enjoyed getting creeped out.  I really enjoyed the whole tour, a lot of the prison is in the condition it was when it was opened in 1855 (it closed in 1991); it's been extremely well preserved...the only part I really couldn't handle was the visit to the gallows.  I don't know why I didn't think it would be that bad, but my stomach just went to my feet as soon as we walked in.  I won't give you guys the details, but the stats and stories we heard about that place were just loathsome.

Sorry to end on a bit of a sad note...here's something happy - Lauren and I ate at a sushi bar in Fremantle the other day; you sit down on a vinyl stool and there's a circular conveyor belt rotating around the joint displaying plates of deliciousness, you take off whatever plates you want and pay for them according to the color of the plate (pink is the cheapest, green is the most expensive, etc).  SO GOOD, and so un-Australian.  Ah well, there'll be time for vegemite in days to come.

Peace to CT, and wherever else my readers hail from.  Miss you guys.