When I woke up this morning, I think it was pretty clear I wasn’t feeling my best; however after a few hours of recuperation, I can confidently say that I survived my 21st. Last night a group of us ventured out to Brunswick Street to a place called Bimbo to help me stereotypically celebrate turning 21. This place was really neat – various couches and chairs to lounge around on, moderately priced drinks, a DJ playing funky music – and since it was on Brunswick Street, it was full of hipsters. Even though I’ve been going out to bars since I’ve gotten here, last night was different because I kept excitedly thinking, “I can do this back home now!” and that, combined with the friends we were with, made the night pretty special. Once again I have been reminded of how silly I was in thinking I wouldn’t be able to find a group of amazing friends while I was here. Over the past few months I’ve been shown multiple times how special and lovely the people I’ve met here really are, and my birthday was no exception.
After I was allowed my recuperation time this morning, I took my mom and aunt into the city to the Melbourne Aquarium. Devin and I had been there once before, but I’m all about marveling at cute animals so I didn’t mind going again; they had also redone and added a few more exhibits since we had went so that was an added bonus. One of the new exhibits included a huge, six-meter long saltwater crocodile, and let me tell you he was not cute – terrifying is the more accurate adjective I believe. This guy was extra terrifying because he had to be relocated from his crocodile rescue farm because he “was a danger to the other crocodiles”. At first I felt a little bad for him because any exhibit is incomparable to the wild, but then when I read his history and if he can’t play nice with other crocodiles, maybe a little solitary confinement is what he needs.
My favorite part from the aquarium was the rock hopper penguin exhibit. We learned that in order to woo a female penguin into becoming their lover, a male penguin attempts to build the best nest of rocks – sexy, right? Anyway, the penguins had already paired up and mate, so the ladies were sitting on their eggs atop their beautiful rock nests. However, after watching them for a few minutes, I realized that the males were still attempting to steal rocks from each other’s nests. It was so entertaining to watch because as one penguin would try to steal a rock from someone else’s nest, the female would start to squawk in panic. This would prompt her partner to rush to the scene of the crime and chase the stealer away, restoring the peace. As I read over this, it kind of seems like it was one of those things you just had to be there for to really enjoy, but whatever, this is my electronic journal that everyone else just happens to read.
After I was allowed my recuperation time this morning, I took my mom and aunt into the city to the Melbourne Aquarium. Devin and I had been there once before, but I’m all about marveling at cute animals so I didn’t mind going again; they had also redone and added a few more exhibits since we had went so that was an added bonus. One of the new exhibits included a huge, six-meter long saltwater crocodile, and let me tell you he was not cute – terrifying is the more accurate adjective I believe. This guy was extra terrifying because he had to be relocated from his crocodile rescue farm because he “was a danger to the other crocodiles”. At first I felt a little bad for him because any exhibit is incomparable to the wild, but then when I read his history and if he can’t play nice with other crocodiles, maybe a little solitary confinement is what he needs.
My favorite part from the aquarium was the rock hopper penguin exhibit. We learned that in order to woo a female penguin into becoming their lover, a male penguin attempts to build the best nest of rocks – sexy, right? Anyway, the penguins had already paired up and mate, so the ladies were sitting on their eggs atop their beautiful rock nests. However, after watching them for a few minutes, I realized that the males were still attempting to steal rocks from each other’s nests. It was so entertaining to watch because as one penguin would try to steal a rock from someone else’s nest, the female would start to squawk in panic. This would prompt her partner to rush to the scene of the crime and chase the stealer away, restoring the peace. As I read over this, it kind of seems like it was one of those things you just had to be there for to really enjoy, but whatever, this is my electronic journal that everyone else just happens to read.
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