Australia is WEIRD

Squinted at the clock, 3 am. Still 2.5 hours until the alarm goes off. This will be fun....

5:30 finally rolled around and I still woke up sans alarm and proceeded to head out for a morning run around the Sydney Opera House. No big deal. Just running around a wonder of the world.

I did my normal, point in a direction, run, hope that things make sense, weave, find way back. It seemed pretty foolproof until after stepping outside I realized that it was still dark before 6:30am. Oops. Thank heavens for street lights and dumb bravery.

Apparently the Sydney half marathon is on Sunday, so naturally the streets were packed with avid runners and fellow crazies despite the chilly air and the darkness. I was in good company. I ran over to the Opera house, ran the stairs, took a ton of pictures, and headed back along the circular quay. I ran by a Hungry Jack's (here's to you, last year's group!) and reflected on the goodness of the cheap ice cream.. which somehow gets better as the night hours get later.

Once I returned to our room, the sunlight started to penetrate through the window which offered a lovely shot of the Opera house clothed in blinding morning light. It was spectacular to say the least. Photo evidence required.

As per norm for the beginning of the course, Bob started us out with his famous dice game. In short, this involved chucking about 5 dice in the middle of an gazebo and chuckling at the puzzled faces of the students as Bob calls out (non)random numbers. It makes sense once one understands the mathematical basis of the game, but watching people trying to figure it out is really quite entertaining. We had intros after that for all the students and I have to say I'm looking forward to learning more about this group- it's a pretty great dynamic we've got. Blessed.

From there we went to the pond where we gawked at a spotted eel underneath the water and watched the ibises while forming a behavior study. It'll be great practice before they watch people in the food courts! Tehehe.. I love that part of the course. 

Bob showed us a real treat today, authentic Australian candy.. cherry ripe. It's an interesting combination of mound candy and cherry jam. Not really my style, but when you're on a serious budget any free food is welcome.

After stalking the McDonald's wifi I headed back to YHA for lunch before our very unique leadership lecture. We talked about having goals (so to speak) for life which lead to all of us tramping by the quay and making our own bucket lists. Mine had one goal: graduate. I've never been one for life bucket lists... I prefer to take smaller chunks of life at a time. A big life list to too daunting, or at least that's my opinion.

We also had another lecture afterward about Australia's bio-geography from a local speaker, Dr. Mooney. It was absolutely riveting. Believe it or not, I'm completely serious. He was hilarious! Quirky is the best way to explain that one. The takeaway message? “Australia is WEIRD”. Truth, serious truth.