Day 6- Another day in Townsville

Again, a pretty laid back day. I spent the day listening to talks, Rachel reading on the beach. Tough life for sure. Apparently today was a historic day in Australia. We woke up to find that the country had its first female prime minister. It was pretty amazing for several reasons, one of which being that the election is not for another few weeks! So, I got my first lesson in Australian government, which is similar to Canada and Britain where the people elect a party not an individual. So at any time the party can just appoint a new leader if the so wish. Which is what happened this morning! So the female prime minister might get ousted in a matter of months if her party cannot win the next election. Fascinating eh? There was a great story that I heard today that I have to pass on. I was talking to people about visiting the wildlife center down near Sydney. One of the students here said that she had a friend that worked at the one downtown. The story was that a mom had lost her down syndrome child momentarily in the place. After a few minutes, he just turned up. Well, mom was not at all happy about him running off, so she cut it short and they all went home. Next thing she knew, there was a little penguin in her bathtub! Apparently the boy had run and grabbed a penguin and stuffed it in his backpack! And mom didn't know about it until later in the day when he was trying to make the penguin feel at home!

I came home early from the conference today. Rach and I had a nice walk on the strand and picked up some shakes. Unfortunately, it was more like a flavored milk than a shake! I actually had my first official Australian burger tonight. It is much like our burgers but with two extra ingredients- a fried egg and a grilled beet! Actually it tasted quite lovely. The beet was nice and sweet. Tomorrow, we are heading to Maggie Island as they call it- Magnetic Island. We'll be doing an easy shore dive with the group and enjoying the island. Should be a nice day away from talks, and we are excited to be able to see some of the reef up close and personal!