Student mode.

The above title is my excuse for the lack of updates- back to the lectures, quizzes and papers. Since my last update, we've had:

- Bird call quiz- so glad to have this done. Imagine 30 students cramming the 24 hours before the quiz, playing the same thirty bird calls over and over. If the bird calls weren't actually being played, the students imitated them at all other times using their own wacky memory tricks. Close your eyes and think of someone singing "I'm a little bronze cuckoo" in a high pitched voice. Over and over.

- Field Excercise Paper for Tim (natural resources management)- mine was about using wood density of trees to predict level of cyclone damage. It was interesting, although the ratio of field time to paper writing was lower than other FEX's. On the plus side, my contribution to the lab portion was sitting at a computer and tracing 30 leaves with my cursor to calculate area.

- Botanical Identification Quiz- Using a computer program that we had been shown previously, three samples were given to students and we had to identify them based on leaves, fruit and seeds. We were required to turn in a list of eight of the characteristics that we used for ID. This was a little bit of a give-away since we could use "NE Queensland", "Tree", and "Leaves present" as three. Fine with me though, 30/30!

-Exam 1 (NRM)- Encouraged to cram by the schedule- review session scheduled two days before the exam with study time built in the afternoon and evening before. I think it went okay!

-Exam 1 (Ecology) and Exam 1 (Socio-Econ & Env. Policy)- Tomorrow! That's why the pictures for the post will come later!

Three friends and I have also taken to playing cards at every possible break, the favorites are Euchre and Hearts. Bus stops, picnic tables, beaches, rainforest, we've played cards everywhere. I've also been burning through the Centre's library in free time, reading some great Australian novels.

In big exciting news- I have climbed my first mountain! The Pyramid was 900 meters (3000 feet!) straight up, climbed two days ago. There were no switchbacks (the reasonable way to go up a mountain) so it was like climbing stairs made of irregular boulders for three hours (up). The view from the top was amazing, and we were in the clouds. I could see the ocean and houses were only a millimeter large. On the way down my legs felt like jelly, and the last half of the way down the weather turned sunny = sunburn. Needless to say, totally exhausted Sunday evening. Pictures will be included in the next post, hopefully. In two days I take off for mid-semester break with two friends for the Whitsundays for five days.