Updates from Aussie Land

As of tonight, I have had at least one session of all of my classes so here is the update on each of them:

Learning and Physiological Psychology: In two words: really boring. I yawned just writing out the title. The teacher reads straight from the slides at a speed that I did not know was possible for a snail, let alone a human. The guy's name is Reginald...so I should have known he would be a little off, but this is going to be a seriously rough class. I have already skipped once, but luckily he posts the lecture slides AND there are recordings of the lectures (that I will be listening to on 8x speed). Unfortunately, this is the only class that counts for my major back home, so I actually have to put in a bit of effort.

Anatomy & Lab: Contrary to the last class, this is probably going to be one of the coolest things I've studied.  I was nervous for lab, but instantly kicked into science-nerd mode when our tutor uncovered the legs and torsos and bones. SOOOO COOL! The human body is such a marvelous thing and I'm really excited to learn more about how all of it works together.  In lab, the cadavers are prosected which means that we don't actually do any cutting (which is kind of a shame for a geek like me) but it saves more time for learning and exploring.  All the other students in my lab section are shy and quiet and I felt weird asking so many questions, but I was too fascinated by the material to notice, and I think everyone else was just interested in my accent.  The lecture is long, but really interesting. Our teacher is great, and also pretty young which makes him more approachable. I actually look forward to this class every week now, which is a good sign that I'm headed in the right direction career-wise :)

Life Through Time: 4 hours of the same class in one day is always going to be a little rough, but the material is really intriguing because I've never studied fossils this in-depth before.  This one is going to be pass/fail so I can relax and enjoy the new experience.  We will be going caving later in April as well as visiting other fossil sites as we learn more about Australian history through paleontology.  One of our professors for the course doesn't really like the US very much...something about us always trying to steal credit for the best dinos?  Other than that, the only thing I'm worried about is the evolution/creationism debate...it was mentioned more than a few times in today's sessions alone, in a really backhanded way, but it's nothing I haven't dealt with before. Overall, I'm excited for the class and the new material!

The Marine Environment: Let me start by saying that there are no Australians in this class...we are ALL exchange students.  This will, undoubtedly, be the easiest class of my college career.  You can probably imagine what today's lecture was like when I tell you that it is for non-science majors and that we are given 30 minutes for our exams.  It will still be interesting though, and what better place to study this kind of biology?  Plus we'll be going to the aquarium and out to some beaches/bays/tidepools for studies, so that will be cool enough.  Throw in the fact that there is no final exam and you've got a lot more free time for the beach!

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Kangaroo for dinner!

Also, tonight I had kangaroo meat for the first time! It's really gamey, sort of like venison, and has to be cooked between rare and medium rare.  I bought a pre-marinated kangaroo steak and cooked it in some olive oil in a pan.  With corn on the cob and some pear slices it was such a yummy meal! Kangaroo is a leaner meat than beef and the animals themselves have a much smaller eco footprint than cattle so there are many discussions that the world should be switching to kangaroo from cattle for their meat in order to benefit our earth and our waistlines.

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In even more exciting news, my mom booked her ticket for Sydney and will be landing here on June 24th, spending 5 days touring the city, the national parks, the mountains, the zoos and as much else as we can get to!  We will be flying home together on June 29th; she even got the seat right next to me on the plane :) I think the countdown until her arrival is just over 100 days and I'm so excited to get the chance to show her around this city that I'm slowly coming to call my own.