Waitin' on a sunny day.

I need to get better at Skyping. Also, I can't believe that's a commonly-used verb. I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry. Regardless, I keep missing my family by twenty minutes or so...by the time I reach them now they'd better have a four-hour block available to catch up properly. HEY FAMILY - I MISS YOU GUYS.

A few adventures since I last wrote...Sunday morning was another tree planting escapade, this time we got rained on a bit, but still a lot of fun - I was with a much chattier bunch, mostly familiar faces, so even more enjoyable than our first go at it. Other than a trip to the grocery store (or to the IGA store, which is a kind of lukewarm grocery store, but they're open way longer than Coles so who can complain?) Sunday was dubbed "Catch up on all the reading you should have done this week" day. And oh the reading I did.

Monday, Monday...ecology lecture in the morning, we learned about soils...really interesting stuff, and I wish I was being sarcastic here. I always find it so unrelatable and almost offensive when I hear that people DON'T think nature is interesting. I know that's dumb, because there are millions of people in the world who would say they don't have the time or energy or willpower to appreciate the earth...but it's also very sad to me. Australians DO. They love it. They try really, really hard to make their country sustainable, and they have to work a lot harder than we do in the US because their climate is so damn unforgiving. Also, the middle of the continent may as well be considered "unexplored," so who knows what's really going on. I've had a handfull of conversations the last few days with people about climate change, whether it really exists, what can be done about it, what is "clean coal" anyway, is it too late...and some of these conversations have been really frustrating to be a part of, but the point is, we're talking about it. Murdoch has a whole major devoted to sustainable development, plus all your typical natural science options. I'm a bit starstruck I guess.

Lauren and I did a bit of op shopping (thrifting) on Monday in between classes - there's a Salvos (Salvation Army - don't you love this slang?) down the street from Murdoch, so I found another book, two dresses...I'm definitely selling/donating a bunch of my clothes when I leave here. Ain't no way I'm going to fit them all back into my suitcase and backpack. Maybe we can have a garage sale in Freo! Heck yes.

My other class on Monday was Shakespeare, which meant...dun dun dun...CAST LIST TIME. And I did not get the part I wanted, but I did get a part pretty well suited for me, and one that will be a lot of fun to create, so I'm not disappointed. Our director is writing a script for another play, called Master of the Revels, which will fit into and on top of Twelfth Night; there are seven of us cast in that play (I'm playing the Stage Manager, how's that for appropriate) and we don't exactly know what we're doing yet, BUT I do know that my character (a sarcastic, overintelligent SOB) has a tiff with the character Ingenue, because the SM thinks she could play the role better, blah blah blah...well the girl cast as the Ingenue happens to be the girl in the class that I'm pretty sure can't stand me. I'm not sure she can stand anyone, or that anyone can stand her. Oops. Hope she doesn't read this! Maybe we'll become best friends and she'll want to know everything about my life, in which case I'll do some editting to this entry...

Monday night Lauren and I went to a rehearsal for Perth Undergrad Choral Society - way way out in a town called Stirling, on the UWA campus. I'm bummed about this because I was really hoping it would be a great musical experience that we would want to return to every Monday night...but it was not to be. The music was fine, although tricky because this was rehearsal #5 or 6 and we had to dive into it...it's all classical pieces from the Baroque era, not the most exciting songs, but still music and definitely worth singing. But it just wasn't very much fun. The choir itself is mostly adults, very few students and nobody else from Murdoch, it was a hike to get out there, there's a membership fee...just not really feeling it. We'll have to get our musical kicks somewhere else.

Yesterday was rainy, but Lauren and I went for a run anyway - not a great decision but a fun one, then I worked at the barbecue stall for the fundraiser I'm doing this weekend called Forty Hour Famine. I worked out last night that it's actually fifty-two hours, so I'm not sure where the title comes from, but regardless, this weekend I will not be eating from 8am Friday to 12pm Sunday. Hopefully I'll get some people to sponsor me so I can give some money to World Vision, a group that raises awareness for and tries to offers solutions to the global hunger crisis, among other causes. I'm looking forward to that actually.

I also went to a meeting for the Murdoch Uni Sustainability Team yesterday, that was good fun - all my Australian friends are in the group. Murdoch has a whole week devoted to sustainability ("Sus Week") coming up soon, so we've got a bunch of events to get ready for. AND we have a volleyball team that plays every Wednesday at 6pm. Peeeeerfection.

Lauren and I made tacos last night! The making and eating of tacos dirties many a' dish, but it was worth it. We managed to avoid having to evacuate for the fire drill too, I'm not sure how, but nobody banged on our door and told us to get the hell out, so we were able to enjoy our dinner. A welcome quiet night last night. Keith made ceviche - not sure if I spelled that correctly but it's fish that you cook using lime juice (because no bacteria can withstand the POWER OF CITRUS!!!!) and add cilantro, garlic, peppers, onions, etc...then you can eat it on chips. And it's delish. So I got that going for me.

That's all I've got. I'm gonna go eat breakfast and stare at my computer screen some more in hopes that someone with the last name Alexander will return. For all you 80s cats - I got several emails this week telling me that I missed a top-notch show. So congratulations (: especially you Montvillains - though I expect nothing less from you guys. Tell me someone has a DVD of it that I can watch in December?

Hug each other for me.