Well I guess I haven't been doing a very good job of keeping up with this have I? Things have been pretty crazy here, and when I haven't been on campus (which is a half hour walk away), I've been down in the city or on the beach. For the most part.

Last weekend was pretty fun. I honestly don't remember what happened on Friday, but Saturday was Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras down in Sydney so we went down to see the parade. The weather wasn't great but the parade was pretty interesting. And gay. But fun for the most part. The night ended up being a pretty decent adventure anyways so I was happy with it.

Sunday was an amazing day at the beach, but the waves were absolutely huge, and I made the mistake of venturing out onto some rocks to try and get splashed by waves, and long story short saw a giant wave coming, was sitting down and attempted to hang on to the rocks and ended up getting dragged about ten meters across the rocks. Not so fun. Got pretty cut up but I'll survive. Near death experience in a foreign country, check.

On Monday I signed up for skydiving! No word on the details yet but the plan is to go at the end of March with some friends from the states. Still haven't met too many Aussies but I'm working on it. I joined Bio club and they had a cookout and I was the least nerdy person there. Might have just caught the science crowd on a bad day but I definitely miss my Ithaca friends.

This weekend I'm going to Melbourne with some buddies. We rented a campervan and are driving down for the weekend and road tripping up the Great Ocean Road. Finally getting to do an all-bro road trip. I'm pretty pumped. Though we are gonna look like such tourists. Check out the video tour of the van if you don't believe me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmPDG7nX4rE&feature=player_embedded

If anyone is interested in sending me mail or anything my address is

Brian Hayes
1/32 Arcadia St.
Coogee, NSW 2034
Australia

I feel like I'm actually getting settled in now, which is nice. Though it feels impossible to try and do any work since I live in such an awesome area. Already talking to professors and looking into research opportunities here for grad school. The wildlife here is amazing. Too early to say I don't want to come home, but I'm really getting used to this.