Blue Mountains and Cuttlefish

It has been nearly two weeks since I have posted anything, simply because I forgot. I'll just focus on the highlights to prevent writing a novel.

After a nice easy week of classes I was able to start my long weekend with an early morning hike in the blue mountains. Dave Cruz and his roommate Paul picked me up at 6 am and then we drove up to the beautiful blue mountains (see Pictures page for more blue mountain pics). We got there around 7:30 am and combined two hikes together so we were there nearly 5 hours hiking. To my surprise in our first hour or so of walking Dave spotted a lyre bird on the trail! I've never seen one in real life and it was running along the trail in front of us! Everything just got better with the gorgeous views, spectacular waterfalls, and sun coming in through the trees.

Hiking also provided a great time to chat with Dave and Paul so it was a fun way to get to know each other better as well. We stopped at one of the waterfalls and decided to take a swim, but the water was definitely cold. After swimming in it for a little while it got better, but when I got out and continued to hike I was freezing for a bit. At the end of the hike is when we encountered all the other hikers, tourists, and crowds which made the narrow pathways and stairs difficult. Dave wanted to sprint up all the giant steps to the end, but my poor short legs were not up to that challenge. Afterwards we cooled off and had lunch where I introduced Dave and Paul to my favorite app to catalog movies called MyMovies. They were anxious to start cataloging all their movies so we went back to their apartment and watched A Lot Like Love while they sat scanning stacks of movies into their apps. When I got home I was exhausted, but it was so wonderful to do something active again!

The next few days I spent a lot of time wasting time. I started a new tv show for fun which ended up being a bigger commitment than I anticipated. Merlin is a fun, witty, fantasy tv show that I spent a lot of time watching all five seasons. It was a great way to pass the time at first, but I was quickly reminded why I typically don't watch tv - it's too easy to waste time. When classes started again the next Wednesday it was hard to find the motivation for homework. The issue with a holiday is that you remember how much fun it is to not do homework! Nevertheless, I did start on some assignments early and was able to be semi-productive by the end of the week. 

Friday I went to the city to visit my friend Damon to catch up. It's amazing how much you can cover over dinner. We went to a Malaysian place and talked about what we've been up to for the last 3-4 years. The food had so much flavor! I love asian food and the lamb was awesome, but we ordered cuttlefish which for some reason I thought fish equals something like halibut. Cuttlefish tastes like squid, so it has a very weird, hard, and chewy texture. Neither of us liked it much, but the lamb and roti we had was plenty filling. Afterwards we had some very rich hot chocolate which was too much for Damon so I had most of his as well. It was a nice night, especially because it's always great to catch up with good friends. 

It has been a wonderful and relaxing two weeks, but this week I have a LOT of work to do since I have two assignments due on April 15th. Additionally General Conference is this weekend for Australia (it's difficult to watch live since that's the middle of the night for us), and I am hoping to set up some fun things to do over the break from April 17th to the 29th. I'm determined to not get started on another long TV series that will eat up my time. I think I will stick with reading Jane Austen, The Chronicles of Narnia, and traveling to the city and beaches for fun.