Bus tour and plant pics

Last night my landlord/roommate asked me where Ohio was. Ohio is the only state that belongs to absolutely no region. It's not really in the north, it's not really in the south, it's not really on the east coast but it's not really the midwest. It's not really part of Appalachia (although, most people in AU don't know where or what Appalachia is anyway). It's just there. So I've got a map in the back of my planner that I showed him. I'm sure he didn't really care, but it's the only way I know to describe it.

This morning on my way to the next phase of O-week I stumbled across two stray dogs- a shiz tsu and some kind of mutt puppy. They followed me for a while, which was a bit worrisome as I was headed for a major highway and the puppy seemed exceptionally unafraid of cars. Fortunately they found a house with a dog in the backyard and left me to bark at it- so here's hoping the owners were home and called up the number on the tags. (I still don't have a phone- it's getting increasingly more annoying.)

Took a bus tour of Townsville today, courtesy of the student travel association. REALLY pretty downtown (sorry, no pictures- my camera doesn't like working in vehicles). The museums have free admission to students, so that's on my to do list. I need to make some friends so that we can hang out there some weekend. (Actually, what I need to do is import friends from home that I *know* would enjoy being here, but I suppose making friends is an acceptable solution.)

Missed signing up for a chocolate-eating contest at noon. Which is fine, but just know that I would have nailed it. The winner ate 4 chocolate bars in 3.5 minutes. Amateur.

Here are my Excited-American-Botany-Nerd pictures:

Weird mushrooms:

Trees with really cool bark: (these guys are everywhere.)







These were growing alongside the highway on my walk back to my motel. I think they're what my advisor would call "trashy".