September 16

**Picture #1 is us at lunch with our seafood platter. Picture #2 is the view at Caves Beach**
This weekend was the best ever!!! On Saturday afternoon, Monique and Mark took me to 'the caves', a beach that has all kinds of caves along it. We couldn't go in because the tide was high, so they promised to take me back on Sunday. We also went to this random park-type place that had Kangaroos and Emu's all over the place!! They were in fences of course, but it was great to see my first Kangaroo. Those things are SO big! Then, for lunch, we went to a restaurant called 'Twist' with a few of Monique's co-workers. We ordered two seafood platters to share among the six of us. The food was fantastic!!! There were Prawns in the shell (eyeballs & everything. I accidentally cracked it and saw some brain, haha), Calamari, Battered fish, lots of oysters (I had my first one.. not too bad with cheese on it!), and finally crab (in the shells still, I had to crack it open and dig out the crab meat). I'm pretty sure it was the most fantastic lunch on the planet! I already really like seafood, but I've never had it fresh, yum! After lunch, we went back to Monique and Mark's and packed our bags to get ready to stay at their friends place for the night. The house actually belongs to their friends' parents, who rent it out to people for $500 a night. It happened to be empty this weekend so they had about 10 of their friends stay over. The place was gorgeous! Right on the lake, with a pool & everything! We went for Thai food that night (Monique and I shared after our big lunch) and went back to the house for drinks. Everyone was so nice, they all were interested in what I was doing and where I was headed next. They had some great insight into where I should go and the things I should see. It was a fantastic night.
...
This morning everyone woke up early for a bbq breakfast. (apparently here they bbq everything, even fried eggs!) After, we all went to the pool and suntanned for most of the day. We also played a bit of volleyball (my wrist is actually bruised.. but doesn't hurt) and Mark took me out for a ride on the Tinny (tin boat). The water was great, we saw so many gorgeous fishing boats and pelicans. I think that pelicans look like they're made of plastic. They're huge! We left the place at about 3 and headed back to 'the caves'. The beach there is really nice. We took a walk through one of the caves, which scared me a bit.. haha, but I was fine. A lot of the rocks are covered with a bright green slimish stuff that looks kinda like shag carpet. It was really pretty there. I got some great pics. We headed back to their place & I got to have a bath (so relaxing) and then I tried to make dinner for them. Well, Monique did most of it and I merely helped. We had Thai red curry & rice. It was SO hot that none of us could even finnish our meals, haha, too much red curry. After dinner they gave me a ride to the train station where I'm heading to the hostel so that I can go and pick Lindsay up tomorrow morning. I am SO grateful to Monique and Mark for all they've done for me this weekend! IT really means the world, especially because I was really starting to get homesick and couldn't handle any more strange faces! It's funny because every time I thanked them for having me they just shrugged it off like 'of course we would have you, no big deal, you don't have to say thank-you'. What great people!
I'm so excited to see Lindsay! Her plane was supposed to arrive at 6:00am, but she called (I missed it cuz I can NEVER hear my phone!!!) and let me know that the plane is delayed and it won't arrive until about 8:00. So I guess I've got another 2 hours to sleep in, but I am SO EXCITED to see her! I can hardly contain myself! She's going to be pretty tired when she gets here too, but hopefully she'll be up for some of the things that I have planned for us for the next couple of days. I;m pumped, I sure am ready for this adventure to begin!