the "real" semester starts

So, classes have started! We've had some "typical" days here, but they are not like regular Trinity days at all. Pretty great. Yesterday, I got up pretty early & got in a van to go to a nearby lake for an early run. It was gorgeous. 5k running through the rainforest with occasional views of the lake. I chased a brush turkey for a while, & that was a good way to keep up the pace when the exhaustion started creeping in. (I must say- Australian brush turkeys are much slower than the guinnea fowl Dolores from Merrowvista '07.) A quick shower, & then we got breakfast here. The food is actually pretty good! There is excellent toast, cereal, a grill that we can make eggs on, etc. All of us (30 participants plus 8 staff) eat together, and it works well. We rotate who sets up/cleans up depending on the day of the week. After breakfast, we have 3 periods of class. Today, they were all done by the Rainforest Ecology prof. We had a couple lectures (rocks/soil/tectonics), & then did a bit of field stuff. We went up the road to study the soil around here, so we played with some mud. On the way back, we ran into one of the groups who had found one of the most poisonous snakes in Australia (top 5 I think? Red Bellied Black Snake, or so we think). It was asleep, & the prof put a mouse by it and poked it with a stick, but it didn't really do anything. Pretty exciting, though, knowing what's out there. We got some lunch here (after hearing a hilarious song about Australia- kind of "Proud to be an American"-esque), & then got in the vans. We drove around to a ton of places seeing real mountains/valleys/marshes/etc that show what the prof talked about this morning. I do really like actually doing things to learn it. The small lectures & amount of activity that happens with this program is great. We drove around to a lot of beautiful places- rainforest parks, sheep/farm hills, crop plains, volcanic lakes, etc. We ended up at a great park and had a bbq dinner! excellent hamburgers. We played on the playground there, ran around, frisbee, etc. Back to the center, write a (short) paper for the econ class (environmental policy & socio-economic values), & now time to relax. The paper was on a trip that we did a few days ago when we all split up and went to nearby towns. We learned about the history of the towns, how they deal with environmental stuff (forced to stop logging, etc), & basically just talked to random people on the street. good stuff. These classes are pretty interesting, the people are great, and today even turned out to be sunny! It has been pretty wet. Apparently it's supposed to get better soon, though... as in, it is the dry season now. Ok, time to reread the paper & off to bed soon!