Work, work, work, work.... play!

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April 28-May 18
Hm. Well, truthfully, not much has been going on the past 3 weeks. I’ve been working on papers and assignments like a madwoman. And I’ve discovered that although the work isn’t harder than the stuff we get at home, the grading sure is harsher. My considerable academic ego has been brought down several pegs. I’ve gotten a few grades (or ‘marks’) back, and it’s not pretty. Comparatively speaking, though, I’m in about the same percentile I was in at home. So basically I’ve concluded the British/Aussie grading system is crap.
Other than school, I’ve gone to another AFL game, where the West Coast Eagles got creamed. It was an exciting game, though. I’ve also watched/played some sports- I was conned into playing soccer last week. Jon will never have to worry about me usurping that sport from him. Ew. And then just today I learned the rules of netball. It’s like a no-contact form of basketball for girls. Except there’s no such thing as a no-contact sport for girls, because athletic girls are competitive, catty, and clever enough to get away with it. And there was a bit of excitement at the end of our horrible first match- one of the girls broke her leg. At least I think that’s what happened. She just fell down and started screaming. She says she heard cracking. But it was her knee she was clutching, so I’m not sure what it was. I waited with most of the team for the ambulance (which took its sweet time) and hopefully she’s ok.
In happier news, I went to Caversham Wildlife Park yesterday. It was pretty fun. Most of it was like a zoo, with cages and stuff, but there was this giant enclosure where you could walk among, pet, and feed tons of kangaroos. And I got to pet a wombat and a koala. The birds were pretty, too. Of course my favorite was a fairy blue wren I spotted who was wild. And I have some funny video clips of flying fox boxing matches and a Tasmanian devil throwing a temper tantrum. Has anyone ever wondered why Taz from Looney Tunes doesn’t look anything like a real Tasmanian devil? I have.

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Photos

Mommy + joey = cute
You can see this joey wallaby is taking up a lot of room in mommy's pouch. And he's curious about the outside, so he's probably gonna get the boot sometime soon.

Spectacled Flying Foxes
Maybe one called the other a four-eyes? In any case, these fellas were having a little boxing match...

My baby's an al-bean-o!
Aussies pronounce albino weirdly. So I assume their kangaroos do too.

Like a teddy bear...
I think if it weren't so long, he'd be sucking on his toes like a pacifier

It should say Caversham
Guess I forgot to tell John to get the whole title in. Oh well. This is Bugsy. He's a wombat. He looks like Sweetie to me. He felt similar to the kangaroos, except for some guard hairs that were more porcine.

Genghis
He's a juvenile Gang-gang cockatoo.

Look, ma, a dingo!
Of course, he's captive bred. But still, the genetics are there. This little kid was fascinated by him.

A red wattlebird
This guy was really friendly. Either that or he just wanted to peck my eyes out. In any case, you can see his wattle quite clearly.

Heifer! Heifer!
Ok, so I know it's probably not a heifer. I know nothing about cows, calves, etc. It's a family road trip inside joke kind of thing.

Preggers
So Sarah and I agreed this goat is probably pregnant. With twins. I've never seen a goat that big.

That's as close as I got
I swear that llama was searching for an excuse to bite me. I'm not stupid. Jeffrey probably put it up to this.

Mini-baby!
So cute! A mini-colt! I want one!

Water buffalo
Not a cebu.

Evil emu
You couldn't trust those beady eyes.

Red-tailed black cockatoo
So upon seeing this, and comparing to some of my previous pictures, I think I was seeing white-tailed black cockatoos before. I has just assumed there were different morphs of a single species, but there are actually different species.

Bush thick-knee
It really does have thick knees. But for all that, I think they could have given it a more original name.

Echidna
The closest I'll ever get to one. And probably the most I'll ever see of one still alive.

Al-bean-o Dingos
There were also tons of albino western brushtail possums, but they were all asleep and not good for pictures. Freaks :-)