The title of this post is also the title of a song that the Northern Territory's governor sang for us last night at Government house... He's recorded 28 albums, and also gave us Waltzing Matilda later on (after significant alcohol and learning some of us had never heard it). 

Our first day of classes was interesting, if uneventful until the reception later on.  That was interesting, talked to a lot of folks and had some good food. It was all outside, on a veranda with a good view of Darwin Harbour, so the atmosphere was very nice.  

Today,  I got up early to turn in my signup sheet for Sydney activities... it's a good thing I did, cause there were 10 people in line ahead of me, and I got there at 6 AM.  This means that I'm definitely going to do all of the following in Sydney:
1) Aussie rules football game (free, won tickets)
2) Rugby league game (League differs from Union in some way even native Aussies can't explain to me)
3) Horse riding on Malabar beach (woohoo)
4) An actual Opera at the Opera House (sung in English, should be nice)
5) An overnight stay at Taronga Zoo, with behind the scenes tours and feeding the animals in the morning

I can't wait... Sydney's gonna be great.

Hi, y'all! I've arrived all safe and what not, though short one sleeping bag (Qantas doesn't know where it is)... Beyond that, there's nothing to report about the flights except that there were too many planes and too long in the air. That, and at arriving in LAX, I was surrounded by people from DUKE. Lousy Blue Devils and their "biogeography" program :p

We got to Darwin from Cairns (pronounced like "cans" with a strong Boston accent) around 9 PM last night. Some folks immediately went out drinking. I took a shower, read, and passed out.  This morning I got up around 11, much refreshed, and went with my roommate and a couple other guys to breakfast a place called the Ducks Nuts (no joke, I have a pic of the sign too).  After that, we headed down to the Esplanade, a walkway/park along a beach. We saw several cool birds, and at one point went down a boardwalk through a wooded area. We heard a lot of chattering going on in the trees.. When we finally looked up, there were a few dozen flying foxes right on top of us. (for those non-animal folks, we're talkin bats with a three foot wingspan). That was really cool, as were the plants and sites. 

Around 1:30, we all walked from the hotel to the MGM Grand Casino in town (by "all" I mean the 100 or so folks in the 6 programs) and had an orientation talk. As a part of a game of Heads or Tails (hands on head is true, on your bum is false when they read a statement) I won free tickets to an Aussie Rules Football game in Sydney, so that was excellent.  I also got the paper to sign up for the Malabar horse riding, Opera at the opera house, Rugby league game and Snore and Roar (an overnight stay at Taronga Zoo with behind the scenes fun and feeding the animals ourselves).... Now, I have to wake up really early tomorrow to get to the front of the line to hand in that sign up sheet :-p

After the MGM, we walked to the Mindil Beach Market. It was an open air festival, kinda... All y'all Baltimore folks, think Towson Festival except cheaper and with better goods and didgeridoo bands. The music was great, the food was great, and it was right on a beautiful beach. I got some souvenirs for one or two folks, and a kangaroo leather coin purse for me (10 dollars Aussie.. bout 6-7 US, good deal).  I walked on the beach and found some great shells, and took some pictures of a crab that kept trying to get back to the water, and getting tossed higher on the beach by the waves. 

After Mindil Beach, I wandered back to the hotel and hit the (ice cold) pool for a whole.. It's pretty hot here, so that was a nice interlude.  I got dressed, and walked to Downtown Darwin, where I'm now writing to y'all from a netcafe...

So, in summary... all the flights and everything were definitely worth it, and this is just the first day! I've met some cool people (even among the Dukies... apparently they're NOT all demon-horned Satan spawn) and seen some great sights. They also told us about all the waterfalls and Aboriginal rock-art we'll see in Kakadu, and the BBQing that will include Kangaroo and crocodile... that's gonna be an AWESOME three days (Thursday-Saturday, I'll definitely try to update Sunday). Anyway... Darwin's great, the people are cool and the program is fun so far. The beaches are really nice too... shame about all the crocs, really.

It's still a month before I leave, but I figured I'd set this up before everyone goes home from school for the summer (so I can put it in my IM profile and have people find/bookmark it).  I'll be updating as I can during my trip. Likely most updates will come from Sydney, since the University of New South Wales will certainly have an internet connection I can use.  It's possible there will be some from other location depending on whether the places we stay have hookups for guests or net cafes.  Anyway... nothing more to say now. Next post will be from down under, hopefully!