August 25

Today was a cooler, rainier day. It rained almost constantly until late in the afternoon today, which is good since everyone always says theres a drought in Australia right now. I stayed inside most of the day and worked on getting some school work done, and planning my spring break. I was disappointed when I went to the STA travel agency on campus and found that the cheapest I could get to Perth was for $740 round trip and that the cheaper option's website was down. Today I went online and found out that it was significantly cheaper to book a ticket through Virgin Blue on the STA website. I called up the agency on campus and they quoted me the same price as online.... but they also said that there would be a $30 booking fee! I found out if I just booked my flight online I saved about $20 over going through an actual representative. So that's what I did. I used my handy dandy credit card and purchased a round trip plane ticket to Perth, Western Australia. Woohoo! So my plan now is to spend five days in Perth, then fly back here for a few hours before taking off again on another plane for an eight day trip to the Cairns area up north, where I plan to explore tropical rain forests and the Great Barrier Reef! I can't wait!

This afternoon I went for a breif (~10 minute) run when the rain let up for a bit. It felt pretty good, but I didn't trust my left foot as being completely better and back to normal. I'll have to try running for a longer distance tomorrow and see how it holds up. Tomorrow's plan is to try to get enough work done so that I can completely abandon academics for my two week spring break vacation. :)