A Little Bit of Everything

This was a pretty eventful week. Apart from writing essays, there were a few things that I was able to get out and do around Canberra too. Wednesday I was invited to the Canadian High Commission (which is the embassy, but apparently in Commonwealth countries when another commonwealth nation has its diplomatic mission, it's called a High Commission instead). Simon was invited too but opted out. I met a few really cool people, both people who worked there and people who were in Canberra studying. There was a surprising number of Vancouverites. I'm so used to meeting people from Ontario, that it kind of caught me off guard. It was fun. The staff spent most of the time explaining how to register to vote from abroad, so I left thinking I was in the know about something and it turns out it was pretty much bound to happen. I've registered, now I just need to send off the paperwork. Other than that it was a chance to meet other Canadians studying in Canberra, which was cool.

Thought I'd also document the other High Commission that I could go to :-)

Outside the High Commission

The scary gate to get in. Apparently they don't get many visitors. Wonder why :-)

Friday night a bunch of people from my program met in civic (downtown, the whole 5 blocks of it!) for dinner and drinks and some karaoke. I'm not comfortable posting pictures of them here, but there was about 20 of us for dinner and a few less for karaoke. It was my first ever experience in a karaoke room, this place had about 5 different rooms that you could rent with your friends on an hourly basis. We had a pretty big room since there were so many of us. It was a really good time. I even got over my fear of singing after the Fleetwood Mac disaster a few years ago (let's just say I will not try 'go your own way' ever again!), and a friend and I sang Thriller. A lot of the classic karaoke songs were sung, and we all participated in an epic rendition of 'my heart will go on' to end off the night. It was a perfect way to go out and relax without it totally affecting my day the next day.

This doesn't do too much to show the room, but there were two screens, one in front of the dance floor (!!) and one over the couches along the wall.

Simon and a possum we saw on the way home. Definitely not as scary as raccoons or skunks!

And finally, last night we went down to the field on campus to celebrate Earth Hour. We got there just before the hour begun. They were running late so it actually begun before the Vice Chancellor started the countdown, which was a little awkward, but it was neat and again nice to get out and take a break from essay stress. For the hour the lights were off there was a fire show and a drum group. The fire show was pretty cool.

This was a giant fire whip, which was crazy. When the guy whipped it, all of the fire would erupt then go out. Don't worry, we were well away from where it could hit us.

I tried taking a few photos with flash but these ones are much better. Apart from the whip there were long sticks with fire on both ends, shorter sticks in sets of 2 with fire at one end, and the ball and chain fire things too. Reminded me of LOVE, since 3 people from the crew are able to do that stuff!

I *think* this was the ball and chain combo.

Oh and this made me laugh. I guess the event on campus was the main one for Canberra, so there were lots of families with kids. There was a giant earth hanging on a string, and the kids were basically using it as a punching bag. The symbolism of that killed me! At one point they hit it so hard that it fell off, rolled down the hill and knocked over one of the light stands.

So there you have it. Now it's a beautiful Sunday and because I slacked all day yesterday I'm going to have to spend most of it at the library. Urgh! I will get out for a run later on. I'm at week 5 in my training so I've got to run 3 minutes and walk 1 for 9 repetitions. Longest toughest run yet! I just hope my shins/knees can handle it. At some point, probably when I get home, I'm going to have to invest some time and $$ into fixing my legs before they quit on me!

Til soon!