Day 12- The longest thus far

So, Thursdays are not going to be particularly great. I started off with a 2 hour session in the darkroom for my photography class (which rocked the day out early) followed by a one hour lecture in my American Civil war class. Both teachers are exceptional- especially the civil war teacher. It may sound silly, but I have learned so much already in this class- the outside perspective is doing wonders for me already.
Those two classes were followed by an hour break, in which I ate lunch. After the break I went to another Biochemistry lecture- this is not an easy class. The professor is all over the place, and seems to jump around at random. I am lucky I took an Organic Chemistry class last semester- otherwise I would not understand half of the stuff that the was talking about (and the pre-requisite for this class is only basic chemistry). After my lecture, I had a 1 hour break, which I used to get more work done in the dark room on some Photograms. A photogram is similar to a photograph- it is the result of differential light exposure on a light susceptible surface. Instead of film, however, the image is made by the absence or presence of objects on top of the paper. Thus, if I were to put a clothespin on top of the photo paper, and expose it, when I developed it the clothespin would be solid white, while the rest would be black. I did 4 of these, then went to my biochem lab. By this point in the day I was totally dragging from exhaustion, despite the fact that I got more than enough sleep. This is the equivalent of a normal day back home- I don't know why it was so hard here. After a greuling 3 hour lab, I got back, picked up my photograms (just before the building closed for the night) and went to dinner, which I almost missed. After dinner, I had a good conversation with my neighbor from Minnesota, who is an evangelical christian (we have good philosophical, moral and religious discussions). After about an hour, we packed up and went out on the town for the night. I just got back about an hour ago, after about... 4 hours on the town. Our group of friends is tight knit indeed. After a ton of dancing and hours of strobe lights, I am ready to hit the sack. I will say something- I went out dancing with my RA today- never before has my RA been in the same club as me, and it was a really cool experience; there was no tension at one being seen by the other in a public place, which is much different from home.

Well, I'd better get some sleep. Tomorrow we are leaving bright and early for a town called Taronga, which is on the coast. Some people who live there are driving us int'l students for free. The next day we will be in the Waitomo glowing caves, doing a cave rafting trip. On Sunday (the day after that) we will be going to the other coast, to a town called Ragland, again for free. In 2 weeks we will be heading to Auckland for a cultural festival (with great food, i've heard) and the week after that we will be white water rafting, but I don't remember where. So much to do- I still can't believe I am here!
-P.S. Remind me to tell you about ISTO tomorrow.