Since I'm not doing anything tonight I figured I'd finally update the blog. The past week or so has been pretty busy with traveling and school and...well, just being in Australia.

The weekend after the Northwest Trip three friends (Virginia, Jocelyn, and Kathryn) and I flew 4 hours north to Darwin to play with some giant crocodiles. We stayed at a hostel called "Chili's Backpackers" which was pretty much in the heart of Darwin (...which isn't very large). The first night we walked around, explored a little, and had dinner at Nando's (!!), and hung out at a bar called Monsoon's for a little bit. The next morning we woke up, got some breakfast, and headed to Crocosaurus Cove to play with some 15 foot long crocodiles. We signed up for this thing called "The Cage of Death" where they put you in a glass cage with one other person (I went with Kathryn) and lower you into the crocodile's enclosures. We got to go into three enclosures and swim with Chopper, Denzel, and Will & Kate (one of the croc couples...cute, right?). I'm terrified of crocodiles so I was (figuratively) peeing my pants before we were lowered down into the first enclosure. But once we realized that, while they didn't like us, they were too old/lazy to do anything about it, it wasn't so bad. The majority of the time they just stayed in their spot and attempted to ignore our yelling and all the banging on the cage. The only croc that moved was Denzel and he ended up just sitting under our cage. Even though he wasn't scary (although he did snap at Virginia and Jocelyn when they went) it was pretty cool to be close to something so large and powerful.

Kathryn and I in the cage before our first drop

 The giant croc in the background is Chopper. He's the thrid largest croc in captivity in the world!

In with Denzel! If you look at my legs, clearly I'm trying to run away...underwater...

Apparently Bert is the grumpiest of the crocodiles they have, but we weren't able to go in his enclosure (not really sure why). But he's the crocodile that was in Crocodile Dundee!

So after our playdate with the crocodiles, we went back to our hostel and hung out on the little terrace they have and met some other people staying there. That night we went back to Monsoon's. The next morning we woke up (early) and went a tour that took us to the Adelaide River to see jumping crocodiles! The people working on the boat put meat at the end of a stick and crocodiles would propel themselves out of the water to get the meat...pretty incredible, and shows just how strong they are in order to lift all that weight out of the water.

 We noticed that real crocodiles look fake...kinda strange.

Jumping!

Woo! 

Another one jumping!

After the jumping crocs we went to Litchfield National Park and saw some termite hills... 

....and waterfalls!

Pretty pretty pretty!

So when we got back from the tour (which was 8am - 6pm thing) we got dinner at a great Thai place and explored Darwin some more. It's a pretty small place but has some really nice areas. The next morning we went down to the waterfront and laid out for a little, did some shopping, got lunch, walked around, and then caught the airport  shuttle to the airport and caught our flight home. All in all, a pretty incredible weekend.

The Darwin waterfront!

When I got back from Darwin it meant getting my butt in gear and doing some work. I spent Monday writing my progress report for my internship, Tuesday at my internship, and the rest of the week writing a paper for my policy and law class that was due on Friday. Thursday night Paul took us to see "Red Dog" a movie based on a dog (called Red Dog) from Dampier. I'd explain the whole story, but I'm too lazy. It's a pretty sad story and I almost cried in it, so that says a lot. But it's really good and I definitely recommend either watching it or reading the book (which is pretty short).

Today (Saturday) Caroline, Kenny, Mike, Virginia, and I went into Subiaco to explore a little bit. I don't have any pictures but it's a really nice area. Kind of like Fremantle in the sense that it has streets with shops on it instead of giant shopping centre, but also a little bit like Georgetown (in D.C) because it's little classier and on the artsy side.

Since I'm being lazy tonight I'll probably go to bed soon, but I think I'll watch some trashy TV first...night :)
xxx