The last day in Darwin was a pretty full one.  I went to my elective class in the morning, then walked around a lot and finally ended up at the local aquarium.  It wasn't all that impressive (I guess I'm spoiled by Baltimore's) but there were some nifty things to be seen anyway... Stone fish, a barramundi, and one of those crabs that decorates it's shell to disguise itself.  After a bit of sitting around/reading, I headed out to the Mindil Beach Markets, which were about twice as big Thursday as the two I'd been to before on Sundays. There wasn't much different though, since it was basically twice as much of the same old stuff.  There were a ton more people too, and that's a definite negative in my book... The fireworks display was also pretty lame, so I wandered home fairly early.  Spent the evening taking blackmail pictures of drunk people at the pub before falling asleep around 1.

Friday, we had to be out of our rooms by 10 despite not leaving for the airport till 12.  We solved this by sitting around the pool playing Hearts and reading for a good while.  The flight was nice and short (only 1.5 hours) so that was good.  We got into Alice and settled pretty fast.  However, except for food service, just about everything was closed cause of the equivalent of a state fair happening just outside of town (close enough for townsfolk, not for us with no cars).  I got the distinct impression, though, that Alice isn't that happening of a place even when it's all open.  Nice enough little town, but only for a visit I think... so today we're going to the Alice Springs Desert Park, there to see some cool critters and write some stuff in our field notebooks for an assignment.  Should be pretty interesting anyway.  Hopefully Mike and Jen have actually checked their email and such and might try to come by tonight, but it's looking doubtful... we really should have organized better before I left home, but that's my fault... No worries.  Anyhow, I have to leave for the park now, so I'll see y'all later.