About school for real, March 26th - April 1st

So school has been going for a couple weeks now and i'm taking a full "Australian" load of coursework, which is 12 credits. One class and lab a day Monday through Thursday. Really not that bad. Although some other kids have classes only on Tuesday and Thursday. Ha I would have no idea what to do with myself with all that free time. My classes are coastal marine ecosystems, global environmental issues, painting, and natural resource policy. Coastal marine was definitely the most intensive, but also my favorite. I love biology and zoology and this class was a great mix both, also had some earth systems science in it too! For that class, each week we went to the coast to learn and do field work. The most recent lab was to a rocky shore where we measured species richness along shore gradients. Really cool stuff seeing little fishes, crabs, snails, barnacles, and much more in their natural habitat. I really enjoy this class because it is so different from what I've been studying in my forestry degree so far. My degree in forestry is in the high elevation ponderosa pine forests of northern Arizona where there is no water. And i'm here in Australia at the ocean learning about corals and dolphins, way to cool and kinda funny that this is transferring over as forest ecosystems. The class global environmental issues was something I've done before. I've taking several conservation biology classes as well as doom and gloom ethic courses. Global environmental issues was all of that all over again, but on an entry level. Most others in the class were freshman and I'm a super senior hahaha. Our assignments were on how to write a paper and work in a group.... I've been doing that for 5 years now having written countless research papers. oh well, means it should be easy for me right? I though i'd mix up all the science courses with the other end of the spectrum, painting! I like to think i'm a decent artist having the knack run in my family, so I'm giving painting a try! That shit is tough! I'm pretty good with a pencil, but paintbrush is a whole different ball game and i'm shit at it hahaha. but none the less the class is a nice break from the sciences as I said, and it was nice to diversify the type of people I was hanging out with. My last class for the week is natural resource policy. Which at first sounds pretty banal, but to my surprise was very interesting! Reading policy papers and research articles definitely takes an acquired taste, but in my line of study and what I want to do later on in life, is pretty dang important. We are also learning a lot on how to put policy in place to withhold the integrity of conservation practices, really cool stuff in my eyes. But ya that's the school load and it has been interesting to juggle it along with being in a long distance relationship and having a hectic social life here at Orion College (the name of the dormitory i'm staying at if I haven't mentioned it already), it is quite the party palace!