I bought an Australian version of "Women's Health Magazine" in the airport because I was bored, and while I was reading it on the plane, there was a little blurb about something dumb like "women tend to have friends of similar attractiveness," but I continued reading, and it said that the study about this was done at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire!!!!!!!! It was kind of like when I heard Bon Iver on the plane radio on the way to Cairns. Seriously, this stuff is just blowing my mind. What are the odds of me buying a magazine I barely ever read, and there being something about Eau Claire in an Australian magazine!!? Crazy.
When I got to Tasmania that night I checked into my hostel called The Pickled Frog, which was really nice, and made friends with a French girl named Gabriella. We wandered around the town and had a beer at an Irish Pub on the harbor in Hobart. It was really fun getting to know her and talking about how wonderful France is. The next day I woke up and wandered around town until my friends Allie, Jin, and Jaci from school flew in. When they got there we went to the Cadbury Chocolate Factory! I ate a lot of delicious chocolate eggs (did you know that Australia is the country that eats the most chocolate eggs at Easter?).
On Saturday we woke up early and...rented a car! We drove to Cradle Mountain, which was about 4 hours away. Tasmania is a very small island, so we felt like we got to see a lot of the island by doing this, and there was really no other way to get anywhere. The roads were really easy to follow (they only have a couple of highways). Jaci drove most of the time, but we each took a turn driving on the left side of the deserted roads. It was awesome! We saw lots of wallabies, wombats, kangaroos, and probably Tasmanian Devils...on the side of the road as roadkill. It was sad that the first wild kangaroos I saw were dead. We made a joke that there was more roadkill than radio stations because we only found radio stations once every blue moon. When we got to Cradle Mountain we hiked for a few hours. It was beautiful, but much cooler than Wollongong (we could see our breath)! After we finished hiking we journeyed back to Hobart in our awesome car. I had to leave very early the next morning, which was a bummer, but I had to get back to Uni to work on a group presentation. I could have easily spent a few more days in Tasmania.
Other highlights:
-Tim Tam slam. I finally did one Jackie! I have an addiction to Tim Tams, which are these delicious little cookies here. I ate a whole package of 7 cookies one night, so now I make my friend Tom keep them in his room and I go get one from him everyday. It has turned into a nice little daily ritual. But anyways, yesterday I did a Tim Tam slam, which is when you bite off both ends of the rectangular cookie, then you use the cookie as a straw with tea or coffee. The insides get all warm and melty and you have to throw it in your mouth fast before it crumbles in your drink. I don't know if my description makes any sense, but it tastes so good!!!
-Word of the week. I decided that I should teach you all a new Australian word or saying each week, so that when I come back and use weird words, you'll understand me! :) So here we go:
ARVO: afternoon, sometimes used as "s'arvo," meaning "this afternoon"
Example of use: Boy-"What did you do s'arvo?"
Girl-"Not much, went to the beach for a while and then headed to Uni for a lecture. You?"
That's all for this week! I leave for New Zealand on Friday, and don't get back until Sunday the 19th, so it will be a while until I write on here again, but I'll have lots to share with you by then! I hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed Easter! Can you believe thy don't dye eggs here? They're really missing out! Love you all!
xoxoxoxoxoox
Cheers!
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