Sand, Sand, Sand. And more sand.

February 3 1:20 pm

Our second full day on the island. I love it here. Right now I am in "school," but taking a break because every single integration problem I try doesn't work. Even my dad is having problems with the ones he's helping me with (which, at this point, is all of them.)

So, I decided to post. Nothing else to do with my time, except maybe other homework, but that would be silly. Why work when I have a perfectly good excuse not to?

Yesterday was very fun. We took a walk behind our house on an old sandy dune-buggy road through the bush, which was hot but interesting. We then came back home, and I got started on homework, which was not that bad. I like a lot of the work I've been doing if I'm productive and I can actually _do_ all the problems, unlike math right now. The books in Lit are fun, the Spanish is fun and relatively easy, and the math is normally satisfying.

Ooh, I think D just figured out one of the problems. Be right back.



February 5 8:15 am

Sorry, much bigger break than I though I would have. D figured out a problem and after he showed me how to do it I got on a roll. After I finished the section I rushed to get ready for the beach. Sorry to choose body surfing in warm Pacific waves over blogging, but I have to have priorities.

Our days have gotten into a schedule-- the one we planned, in fact--: morning, we have coffee/hot chocolate/breakfast. Mid-morning, we take a walk somewhere. Mid-day, I work, D helps, and M does various things (such as grocery shopping, talking to P and T, and working). Afternoon, we jump into swimsuits and run to the beach (well, not quite that dramatic, but that's what I want to do). We swim for a few hours, then come home, make dinner, and go to sleep.

So not too many notable things. We saw dolphins and a sea turtle on one of our walks around town. That walk was actually very interesting-- we saw a surfing competition on the Main Beach. M and I love to watch people surf, so that was fun to do, but something about the hundreds of surf bums standing around in swim trunks waxing their board waiting for their heat, while giant speakers on the beach announced everything that was happening seemed just a bit peculiar. The waves were huge-- they looked at least four meters high. The surfers were quite impressive.
That night we had bugs for dinner. Okay, I'll pause while you read that sentence again. They were delicious-- their full name is Morton Bay Bugs, and are a local delicacy tasting and looking like small, round, bug-like lobsters. Oooh they were so good. We got them at a local fish shop, and ate them with melted butter like lobster. Mm mmm mmm mmm mmm!

Yesterday we drove to Dunwich. We always felt like it was so far away-- the big town on the other side of the island. Really, it is only about a 15 minute drive, but it still felt like a long way away. We planned to take a walk around a lake-- which we did, mostly-- but D forgot the map on the front seat of the car. The whole time we were there, there was a big group of kids-- maybe 60 of them, high school or early college-- with painted bodies on the beach of the lake. They were chanting bizarre things in formation, which seemed like somewhere between a team-bonding exercise and some unique tribal dance. We could hear them most of the walk. About 3/4 of the way around, we figured we were almost back-- but then the trail (which was actually a sand road) seemed to end. There was another little road with a short fence in front of it clearly to keep out cars, and we figured this was how to get the rest of the way around the lake. There didn't seem to be a path any closer to the lake, as it was marshy on that side, so we decided to take it. For about 20 minutes we walked on this road, the whole time M insisting it was going the wrong direction, and dodging (well, trying to anyways) the biggest spiders/webs we have ever seen. These things were huge-- the spiders themselves were about the size of my hand, and the thick webs were taller than me attached to either side of the road. Walking through them didn't feel like a normal spiders web-- the strings were so thick it felt like walking though fishing net. Anyways, eventually, right when we were going to turn around and walk all the way back around the lake, M saw a metal gate-like thing. By this time we were far away from the lake, and as we got closer we realized it wasn't a gate but an old wind mill, not moving at all but with big cords leading away from it (I think it was for pumping water out of a well, but obviously not working right then). A couple meters down the road, we saw a tiny stop sign, and then a field. We went to check it out, and we found ourselves in what looked like a golf course, with big old signs that advertised various companies. They looked like they were from about 1961-- and the rusted metal barrels hidden in the trees didn't help. The grass, however, was mowed, with that short fuzz-like greenery around the holes seemingly perfectly manicured. It felt like we walked into something from Spirited Away-- there were no people in sight, and everything seemed old, yet the grass was green and mowed-- very bizarre. After that we turned around and walked all the way back the way we came.

We have seen many animals while we have been here. Kookaburras are often laughing around out house, although I got semi- used to that back in Brisbane. For a few days we had kangaroo (who we named Billy) jumping around our lawn, eating the grass, and staring at us with green strands hanging out of his mouth every time we walked by. There’s also a vaguely resident lace monitor, who, appropriately, we named Lacey. On our lake walk I pointed out a baby snake (it was about six inches long, hissing it’s tongue trying to seem scary) and two giant walking sticks (either fighting or mating, we couldn’t tell). Today there are two Wallabies (either that, or they’re Padamelons—or just small kangaroos. It’s hard to tell) in our yard munching on the grass. As I said before, we saw dolphins, sea turtles, and giant spiders. There are many little frogs or toads hoping around, but none of them seem big enough to be a cane toad except a couple dead on the ground. There were also some tiny jelly fish in the water yesterday, but we didn’t notice them until we were about to get out. The whole time I (and my parents) kept getting little stingy spots on our bodies, and though at first I thought they were just my imagination or maybe a marsh fly somehow biting me (have I talked about those yet? They are these humungous flies that land on people, wait a few seconds, then take a giant chomp of flesh from your skin. The good thing is, if you catch them before they chomp and swat them, they either die or are stunned enough to squash. A few times they landed on my right thigh, and I slapped so hard I had a red hand-shaped mark on my skin for days.), later my mother realized we were swimming with tiny jelly fish. A little unnerving.

Well, I should go because we are about to go on a walk. I'll try to post these this afternoon.