If April showers bring May flowers, then what do Mayflowers bring?

April was a really busy month for me. I spent majority of the month traveling and must have only spent MAYBE a week on campus in the entire month. On April 5, I went on a day trip to Fitzroy Island. It's an incredible island off the coast of Cairns and the beach is made up entirely of coral. No lie. There is barely any sand and you have to be very careful walking because there is so much coral. It hurts your feet!! It was beautiful though. The water was so clear and the day was hot, but perfect. I mostly tried to find a comfortable spot on the hard beach to lay out in the sun and nurse my 3 hours of sleep and slight hangover. I couldn't have asked for a better day. Maureen and Courtney spent alot of the day hiking and I just wasn't feeling it, so I explored around the beach for a while and also found some nice shady parts as well and was able to take some really pretty pictures.

Later in the week, April 10th-13th, we had our Easter Recess. Brittney, Courtney, and I had a great trip planned for those few days. We left on the night of the 8th and flew to Melbourne. That night, we walked around and explored the city and scoped out where we would get breakfast early the next morning. On the 9th, we went to Philip's Island, off of Melbourne to go see the Penguin Parade. Before getting there, we stopped at the Maru Fauna Park and were able to see many different animals that are indigenous to Australia. I got to feed kangaroos and wallabies, which was one of my goals while being here in Australia! It was so cool! The wallabies and kangaroos were very used to people though and I felt kind of bad, but it was still so much fun! How often does one get to feed a kangaroo?! Well, not often unless you live in Australia! They were so cute and I really wanted to take the joey out of the pouch and hold it, but I didn't want to risk upsetting the mother and getting punched by her. But wouldn't that be quite a story to come home with???

After the fauna park, we went to Philip's Island and went to a few different sites before heading to the Penguin Parade, which wasn't set to start until sundown. We had plenty of time to explore different places around the island such as Woolami Beach, Pyramid Rock, and the Nobbies. Woolami Beach was GORGEOUS. Absolutely beautiful. And the weather was amazing too. It was just warm enough for jeans and a hoodie, but you'd be comfortable with or without the hoodie on. I loved it. It was the perfect beach weather, minus the fact that the water was FREEZING!!!! After all, we were in the southern coast of Australia and it WAS becoming their fall season, so of course the water would be much cooler than the water in Cairns. We were there in the late afternoon, so the sun was getting lower in the sky and it was just so nice. I didn't want to leave! After Woolami, we headed off to see Pyramid Rock, which is this island type thing in the ocean off of Philip's Island that is covered in basalts (volcanic rock) from thousands of years ago. It was pretty cool! We stayed there only for about 15 minutes and then head over to the Nobbies, which sounds alot worse than it actually is. Nobbies. Who would name something a "Nobby"? Anyways, the Nobbies were just some rock islands off of Philip's Island, but they were so pretty in the sunset! We weren't able to stay long, because we were going to the Penguin Parade very soon after. I should probably explain what the Penguin Parade is. Every morning at sunrise, the little tiny penguins leave Philip's Island to go into the ocean and spend the day fishing and eating. At sundown, they return and come back onto the island in huge groups and walk back to their little homes. The roads on the island close down around where the penguins live because they all cross roads and no one wants them to get hit! Anyways, they come in swarms and go up the beach. The island has it set up so there are bleachers of people under bright lights sitting and watching and you aren't allowed to use any sort of flash photography whatsoever. Literally, people were getting yelled at and having their cameras taken. Luckily, while at the Nobbies, I was able to McGyver my way into crawling through a fence on the boardwalk and hanging over it upside down and sticking my camera under the boardwalk AND turning my flash off to protect the little fat penguins and got a picture!! I was so happy! As soon as I was able to see the picture, my first thought was "No eating here tonight, no no, no eating here tonight! YOU ON A DIET!" from the movie Finding Nemo. Apparently, when these little penguins eat too much food, they rest under the boardwalk or in their little homes and sit for up to 17days so they lose the weight! HAHA. I wish I could sit for 17 days and lose weight. But, I mean it makes sense that they'd lose weight as all they do in 17 days is sit. They don't eat. Basically, they starve themselves and live off their excess fat. But it's okay, because they are so freaking cute!!!! The Penguin Parade at sundown wasn't exactly how I expected. It was pretty hard to see the little penguins because they stayed in the dark mostly. Also, the amount of people and the bright lights scared the penguins so they stayed in the water most of the time and refused to come out. I honestly think the whole program could be handled differently. There were AT LEAST 150-200 people there. I honestly think the parade should be opened to only a few people each night, maybe 50 people. And I don't think they should have the obnoxious sports stadium lights shining down on the beach and on the crowds. Seriously, if I was a tiny penguin and I had to come out of the ocean with seagulls attacking me and then look up to see hundreds of poeple staring at me plus bright lights everywhere, I'd be pretty pissed and scared as well and want to stay in the ocean too! We ended the night at a random park outside of Philip's Island in a small town near Woolami and our tour guide bought us pizza. It was delicious. Fun Fact: Australian pizzerias (like where the pizza is more home-made... not like Dominoes, more like Roma's for you Boonton folk) have a type of pizza called the "American Pizza". Seriously. It's cheese and pepperoni. When did a pepperoni pizza become the symbol of Americans and representive of American pizza? It made me laugh and I really couldn't help but wonder about that.

On the 10th, we checked out of our hostel in Melbourne and hopped on our tour bus at 7am and began our trip to the Great Ocean Road (G.O.R. from now on). The G.O.R. is this long road along the southern coast of Australia and it leads into the Grampians National Park and rainforests and ends in Adelaide. On our first day on this tour, we drove the road and stopped at sites such as North Lorne, Great Otway National Park (where we got to see koalas in their natural habitat and go on a bush walk), and the 12 Apostles. The 12 Apostles were probably the best place I've visited on this trip. They were AMAZING. Seriously, like I said in my last entry, words and pictures really cannot do these places justice. You have to see the beauty and the greatness of it all with your own eyes in person. I really cannot describe the feelings I got here other than utter amazement. Those "rocks" may look small, but they most definately weren't!! This was the last stop of the day, but in the morning we were able to pay $70 and get a helicopter ride over the 12 Apostles during the early morning hours and it was so cool to see them from above!!

On the 11th, we went to more sites along the G.O.R. including Loch Ard Gorge, The Gibson Steps, the helicopter ride, The London Bridge, Bay of Islands, and Brambuk National Park/Cultural Center for Aboringials. It was a long day of driving and picture taking, but everything was totally worth it. I wish I had my journal with me on my trips so I could record all of my feelings and everything, but I forgot it. Obviously. All of my pictures are on facebook for those of you who want to see more because I'm only posting tid-bits of the trip, my favorite pictures. On the 12th, our last day of the trip, we drove through Grampians National Park. We visited a bunch of waterfall sites including Reed's Lookout, MacKenzie Falls, and Hollow Mountain. MacKenzie Falls was very pretty and we totally disregarded the signs and hiked around the waterfall and jumped over rocks, etc. We were safe about it, don't worry, but it made for the best pictures! Hollow Mountain actually wasn't a waterfall. It was a huge mountain and we hiked up it... all the way to the top! It was a tough hike, but not too touch. We had to rock climb pretty much for some of it and didn't have harnesses or anything, granted it wasn't too steep to climb up so we did well without any support. I really really enjoyed the hike. I felt so proud when I made it to the top and could say that I hiked up a mountain. The view was AMAZING. You could see for MILES and MILES!!! It doesn't look very high in the picture, but trust me, it definately was!!! This was the last part of our trip and afterwards we headed to Adelaide and got dropped off at our hostels. The next morning, we caught our flight back to Cairns because we had classes on Tuesday and Wednesday and then were off on our next adventure come Thursday morning.... I'll save that trip for my next entry, as it is now 12:43am here and I have class tomorrow, so I should probably go to bed now.

I hope all is well and I miss everyone so much. I hope you're all having fun back in the states!!!! Xoxoxo

A Very Very Delayed Post.....

WOW! So it's been.... 2 months since I've updated. Slacker much? I suck, it's okay, don't tell me, I know. This entry will probably be dedicated to March activities, then I'll write (promise!) another one soon with my April activities, etc.

Where do I even begin? Last entry, I mentioned that I haven't gotten a chance to write in my real journal. Well, I still haven't. Terrible. But oh well....

March was filled with partying and mini-trips to different places. St. Patty's Day was filled with drunken amazingness at Shenanigan's and we also celebrated Brittney's birthday and Julie's birthday on the 31st by going on the Ultimate Party Bus (AGAIN). At the end of March, we had an adventure weekend with IFSA-Butler planned for us. We were taken to the Tablelands for the weekend and stayed in these cabins at Mungalli Falls Village. On our first day there (Saturday), we did a rain forest hike and then we did a landslide. Literally, it is a man-made slide built into the side of a huge hill that you go down on a foam pad, wearing a helmet and you land in a "pond". This "pond" was actually a hole of mud and water that is about waist deep. It was pretty fun though! Unfortunately, the bigger a person you are, the FASTER you go.... and I... well, I FLEW. Literally was the fastest slide I've probably ever gone down in my entire life. I was so scared. SO SCARED. We also went on a waterfall tour throughout the tablelands as well as stopping at a dairy farm. The view from the dairy farm of the rolling green hills was breathtaking, we HAD to have a picture with it. It was AMAZING. I couldn't wrap my head around how much green there was and how vast everything looked. Really, it was amazing. This picture doesn't even do it justice. That's how I've felt with most my amazing moments here in Australia. Pictures and words just DO NOT do these places justice. At all. After the dairy farm stop, we made our way around the tablelands visiting different waterfalls. We went to Ellinjaa Falls, Zillie Falls, and Milla Milla Falls. At Milla Milla, we actually got to go swimming! Many people brought their towels and bathing suits (like the smart people they are!) and were ready to swim. However, I forgot to pack my bathing suit and towel. At first, I wasn't planning on swimming with everyone and didn't mind because there were a good amount of the Butler group who were not participating in waterfall swimming. Plus, the water was COLD. I mean FREEZING. The kind of water you refuse to swim in when you're down at the Jersey shore in the way beginning of summer because the ocean hasn't quite warmed up yet. Cold. But after a bit a of persuasion, I decided I might as well swim, because I wasn't going to get this opportunity again! So I jumped in, waterproof case on my camera and fully clothed. I swam over to Brittney and the others and we played under the waterfall and climbed the rocks behind it and too lots of pictures. It was the coolest thing ever to be BEHIND the waterfall and to be able to see it raining down on top of you (it's also very painful in some parts... haha!). We ended our weekend that night

The 2nd day (Sunday) was okay, We started out the day with abseiling on the side of a cliff. It was pretty cool and not as scary as I thought it would be. Granted, it was only a 30ft drop, which is not as high as you would think it is. I got down with no problems and even got to do a few jumps as I was going down! After abseiling, we had lunch and headed back to Cairns so that we would be home in time for dinner at the lodge.


That's about all the activities I did in March. I could actually move on to April because I'm in a blogging mood... but I may make a new post for it because I'm sure this one is long enough!

Cape Tribulation and Birthday Celebrations (pictures won't work! :-[)

Well, it has been quite a while since I've updated. I'm into my third week of classes and they seem to be going pretty smoothly. I like them. I am taking Australian Society: Introduction to Sociology, Social Psychology, Earth and Environmental Science, and Sex, Drugs, & Human Nature(anthropology). Social psychology kind of intimidates me though. I'm not sure why, it just does. It's weird how they do classes here, also. In the states, we generally have our classes Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Tuesday, Thursday, which means whatever given class we have generally meets 2-3 times a week (once a day). Here, we have lectures once a week and a tutorial once a week. Tutorials can fall on the same day or on any given day of the week and they are different than the lecture. In tuts, we discuss what happened in the lecture. Imagine taking all the classes you have for a semester and giving each one a lab and that's what it is like here with lectures and tutorials. That's like taking 4 science classes, each with a lab. Tutorials are usually 2 hours long and lectures can run from 1-2 hours long as well. It's just weird to me, but it's a new experience and that's what I came here for! My Sex, Drugs, and Human Nature class is also different because it is a video session class with the JCU Townsville campus. In other words, our prof is at the Townsville campus (4 hours away) teaching the course to his class there and we're watching through a video. We're even hooked up in such a way that he can see us and we can ask questions. It's really cool! We actually get to meet him this week because he's coming here to work with us.

To update on my travels, I haven't really gone anywhere. On Friday the 20th, we had a Toga Party at our university's bar. It was pretty fun! We got discounted drinks and everyone came in a toga (duh). Except my friends and I, who didn't want to ruin the only sheets we have, so we improvised with dresses. Over the weekend of February 21-22, we went on a trip to Cape Tribulation with the school. We were picked up at 8:45am from the university and packed like sardines into vans by the drivers Geoff and George. Geoff's name actually may be spelled "Jeff" but he looked more like a "Geoff" to me and I think it looks better next to "George", haha! Anyways, we were on our journey to Cape Tribulation. On our way, we stopped at convenience stores to get money and food for the day. Next, we went to a place called Mossman's Gorge. It was cool. And by cool, I don't mean the temperature. Well, sort of. It was the weirdest sensation I've ever had. We were in the middle of the rain forest, and it wasn't even HOT out and we were DRIPPING in sweat. The temperature was low too! Low for where we were, especially! But the humidity was so high! All of us were so shocked that we were dripping so much and we weren't even hot or overheated. Seriously though, when I say dripping, I mean clothes soaked, pores opening and pouring water out everywhere. I'm sure we could combine ourselves and make a mini kiddie swimming pool with how much sweat was pouring off of us. Anyway, we stayed at Mossman's Gorge for just long enough for everyone to get pictures. We were soon off again to drive through the windy rain forest down to Cape Trib. However, we first stopped on the side of the road at a "park" to eat lunch. There was a little river next to the park with a crocodile warning sign, however, the Aborigines did not care for the sign and were swimming anyway. Some of our group (KC and Stacie) decided to join them and jump off the tree into the water.

After lunch, we still continued the trek to Cape Trib (this was supposed to take an hour to drive, but was taking much longer with all the stops we had!). We even got to see our first REAL LIFE, in the middle of nature, cassowary! A cassowary is a bird in Australia that is going extinct and there are only about 3000 left. They are pretty sweet looking! I didn't get to take a picture because we were driving and it ran away quickly, but it was so cool to finally see one! Our drive, Geoff, told us that it's rare to see one and that in his lifetime he's only seen 3. I felt pretty special that I was able to see one now in my lifetime.

Halfway through our drive through the rain forest, George's van got a flat tire, which essentially made us an hour late to getting to Cape Tribulation (ugh!). We basically all pulled over and had to hang around until the tire was fixed. It didn't help that Geoff and George weren't the greatest at changing tires. Thank god for the other guys though! After an hour, we FINALLY got back on the road, in the pouring rain (we were in a rain forest after all!), and made our way to Cape Trib. Finally, we made it there by almost 4pm (we were SUPPOSED to get there at 2:30). Unfortunately, because of the delay from the flat tire, we missed all of our chances to sign up for things, such as jungle surfing (zip-lining... which I wanted to do SO BADLY!) and canoe-ing on the ocean at sunset. But it was okay. We got our room assignments and dropped our stuff off and went to the beach before the rain came back and before it got dark. Cape Trib is really pretty, but because it was so cloudy, it didn't look as great. I was a bit disappointed, but still happy to be there none the less. We took a bunch of pictures, walked through the water, and went back to our rooms. And when I say rooms, I mean warehouses. And when I say warehouse, I mean that quite literally. When we were given a description of the accommodations that we would be living in, we were told "nicely air conditioned cabins with windows and beds". Let me tell you, these were not "nicely air conditioned cabins". Some of the other accommodations were (for the locals who came here and lived), but ours... not so much. It was 7 people to a room. The room I was in was literally a small warehouse (and when I say small, I mean SMALL) that was only big enough to hold the 3 sets of bunk beds and a single bed. There was no carpet. The floor was concrete, the windows had no screens and were closed off by a panel, and there were two fans, an air conditioner (that didn't work), and a light. That was the whole room. Definitely not what I had pictured in my mind. We were definitely roughing it in the rain forest. Again, I wasn't terribly upset, but was disappointed. So, we unpacked our backpacks, put our suits on, and went to the pool and played an intense game of Nuke 'Em with what the staff tried to tell us was a volleyball, but actually was a flat, waterlogged soccer ball. Right. Haha. Finally, it was dinner time. Geoff and George cooked an AMAZING dinner of small steaks, garlic bread, and salad. It was soooooo good. It was amazing to have some real food other than the "food" they serve us at the Student Lodge (that is an entirely different story for a different entry). After dinner, we all showered and changed and went to the bar to watch the karaoke contest, which was HILARIOUS. It was some drunk guy's 30th birthday and he was so funny. He even whipped out his one-eyed snake, which was nothing to look at and not something he should be proud of! His friend was funny though. He came to us and started talking to us and sat with us for a while and then complained that none of us were drinking. We explained that we just didn't feel like it and were fine just hanging out and having fun. He proceeded to buy the table of us girls shots. And THEN he decided to ask us how old we were. When we all responded with 20, he got really embarrassed and red in the face and said "WOW, you guys are babies! You make me feel so old!" He then told us that he was 32 and got up and left. The night went on with us talking and dancing and listening to music and finally running to our rooms through the pouring rain to go to bed.

The next morning, we woke up early and George and Geoff cooked us breakfast. It was AMAZING to finally have a hot breakfast of sausage, eggs, ham, and toast. What's more is that they had NUTELLA!! Nothing could make breakfast even more amazing that toast with nutella. Mmmmm. After breakfast, we got to choose between going to the swimming hole in the rain forest or going back to the beach. I decided to go to the swimming hole with some friends. When they said it was in the middle of the rain forest, I assumed there would at least be some trails made for us to follow, but they really meant it when they said "in the middle of the forest". We found a trail that led us in but as quickly as we found that trail it disappeared and all we were left with were pink ribbons on trees. No paths. Literally walking through mud and thick forest and over trees and under branches, making sure we don't get stuck on 'wait-a-whiles' (which I got stuck on anyway!). 'Wait-a-whiles' are these long vine looking things with SHARP thorns on them and once you're stuck on one, you've got to literally wait a while because it takes time to get them off of you. The swimming hole was cool and there was a rope tied to a tree for people to swing off of and into the water. I sat this one out due to bad past experiences with ropes and swinging into water, hahaha.

After the swimming hole, we left Cape Tribulation and headed for Port Douglas. We finally got there and had an hour to walk around the town and hang out. I wish we could have gotten more than an hour. Port Douglas is SO pretty!!! And it's such a cute town!

Since that trip, not too much has gone on other than classes. My birthday was this past weekend and we celebrated on Thursday night and Saturday night. On Thursday, we went to the Mad Cow, The Woolshed, and Gilligan's and just danced the night away. On Saturday, we went into the city at 7pm and went on a pub crawl with a company called the Ultimate Party. It's a party bus that takes people who are on a list (paid and signed up the week before) around to 5 different bars in one night and it ends, well, whenever you want. We stopped at 2:30 and caught the 2:40am bus back to the lodge. It was SO MUCH FUN!! We started at Gilligan's and proceeded to go to Shenanigan's, Mad Cow, Cadence, and Rhinobar. Everyone bought my drinks and everything! It was fun! I also had my first shot of absinthe. That stuff is brutal!

On Friday night, some of the IFSA kids we came with decided to host a BBQ and volleyball tournament, which was SO MUCH FUN. My team won the volleyball tournament (why wouldn't we? We're volleyball machines! haha kidding...). The BBQ was called "The Great American BBQ" and burgers and chicken were all provided by the boys (how nice of them!). Overall, it was a great night and a great way to take the night off from drinking and just play games and hang out with everyone.

This past week, we've done nothing too much. We WERE going to go to the beach on Monday night to have a bonfire and make smores, but the bus never came. So, we sparked up the grill by the volleyball court by the lodge, and made smores through there. They were delicious!!! Since it's cheaper to buy Tim-Tams (only the most amazing cookies in the entire world), we used those as our chocolate. We also had to use "nice" (pronounced "neese") crackers instead of graham crackers because they don't have those here. Despite the need for improvisation, the smores came out perfectly!!!

Tomorrow, I have to go make an appointment with the dreaded doctors at the medical center. As much as I don't want to go to a new doctor, especially here (not that there's anything wrong with Australian doctors... I just don't want to go to a doctor in general!), I have to. The scar/wound on my neck from my surgery in January has opened at the other end of the scar and started draining and bleeding and I'm preeeeeetttty sure that's not a good sign that it's healing properly. Thus, the need for my doctor's appointment. I hope I can get one and that it goes well. I already have medication here with me from home just in case my neck got infected (ugh that sounds so gross!), but I need an actual diagnosis from a real doctor to make sure I definitely need the meds. This may just be a part of the healing process (I don't see how), but I may be fine and not even need to take medication. Oh well, we'll see how it goes. I'll keep you guys updated. I hope I covered everything in this entry of what's happened lately. At least I'm updating here! I haven't even written in my journal yet! Shame on Taryn! Shame!!

Twilight Massecre.

So I just finished the third book in the Twilight series last night and then some of the girls and I went to the movies to see the actual movie. The movie... was the WORST rendition of a book that I have ever seen in my entire life. It was AWFUL. All the characters were cast wrong, the acting was TERRIBLE, and the writers left out SO MUCH INFORMATION and SO MANY IMPORTANT PARTS. The movie moved too fast and I never once got the feelings and emotions during the movie that I did while reading the book. The movie was so bad, I can't even wrap my head around it. After it ended, we all looked at eachother with puzzled faces and asked "did they really just butcher that?". Maybe we were imagining it? But no, we weren't. Stephanie Meyer, the author, even made a cameo appearance in the movie! How can she sit there and honestly think that this movie was going well and that it was what she was picturing for the movie? I mean, maybe this WAS what she was imagining... She should have double-checked.

I just had to rant about that. Time for lunch! I'll update later about this past weekend at Cape Tribulation..

A dunny is not a bathing suit!

Well, here is a correction to my last entry. I had used the Aussie slang word "dunny" incorrectly. I was told that it meant "bathing suit" but, alas, a dunny actually means "bathroom". Thank you, dear Aussie, for trying to get me to use the wrong slang. Haha!

The culture here is more or less the same as in America. Though there are some definite differences. For example, they have fun words for bathing suits (this time I researched the correct ones that I've been hearing to make sure they were right!) such as "cozzies" and "swimmers". It's so much more fun to hear those words spoken in a cute little accent. "Cozzy". It just flows so well with their accents. Their accents are also hard to figure out. I'm still having trouble picking out what exactly they are saying. For example, one Aussie guy asked today "So what are you doing for the rest of the avro?" Avro? We all stared at him and he stared back and repeated his question. "...What are you doing this avro?" Finally, someone asked what "avro" meant. He told us it meant "afternoon". Avro-afternoon. Coulda fooled me. How does one take the word afternoon and somehow get "avro"? Some people's accents are easier to decipher than others though. But I'm sure they feel the same way about us Americans. It's hilarious hearing some of the Aussies here mimic what they think are American accents. Apparently we all sound nasally and southern to them, like we're from Texas or something. Oh well.

The food is pretty much the same. There are American restaurants here, such as KFC, Domino's, and McDonald's. At McDonald's, our Big Macs are called "maccers" (pronounced mak-kers). And they call breakfast "brekky". Its cute. We eat a lot of fruit here and the coffee? It's terrible. I'm so sad that America only runs on Dunkin. Australia should pick that up! I would be in absolute heaven if Dunkin Donuts came here. Also, the Burger Kings here aren't actually Burger Kings. They are the OLD versions- HUNGRY JACK'S! Haha, same old logo as BK though.

I'd like to say that no one drives here in Australia, like they do in Denmark and London, but, it's not true. Public transportation is pretty big here, but so is using cars. You can't walk to the city of Cairns. However, in the smaller neighborhoods and to & from school, people ride bikes. I have a bike to ride to school as well. The set up of the city and the town though makes it very hard for everyone to walk everywhere like in London or Copenhagen. Plus, when it is 90 degrees farenheit with 80%-100% humidity, you can bet your ass that NO ONE will be walking around outside or riding a bike voluntarily. Shit, it's been 88 or so with 60% humidity and we still try to avoid it! Haha, it really is amazing how hot it gets here because of the humidity. Seriously, you'll be comfortable in your room with the AC on a bit, but the minute you step outside, WOOSH! You're drenched in sweat. Just like that.

Other than some obvious differences, like driving on the other side of the road, using Celsius for temperatures, and kilometers to measure everything else, things seem to be the same. OH! For calories on food labels, they write "Energy" instead and measure them in kilojoules. So I never know how terrible my food is for me!

Anyway, in a totally unrelated topic, I've just finished reading the first book in the Twilight series. I swore to myself up and down that I wouldn't read the books because they seemed so far fetched and what-not. But on Wednesday, one of the girls here told me I should read it and because everyone else was reading it, I figured, why not? It gave me something to do while laying at the beach and by the pool. Once I started, I couldn't put it down! Unfortunately, now I have these completely unrealistic expectations for men because of the main character of Edward Cullen. I fully expect my next boyfriend to save me when I'm in trouble, be able to pick up cars when they are about to crash into me, be able to read minds, and fall madly in love with me. It's really that simple. Those aren't too much to ask, are they?? Haha, kidding, kidding. But seriously, though. It's a good book. I started the second one last night (New Moon) and it's kind of boring so far, but I'm only on page 159 of 563 pages. I've got some time. Tomorrow, I am going on a 2-day get-away to Cape Tribulation, so I will have lots of time to read there as well! :-)

Hope all is well!