Beaches, Chocolate, Cheese and Wine...What Could Be Better?

Last weekend, I had the privilege of experiencing one of the rare treasures of Western Australia; that treasure being Margaret River. While I had been told by people that have studied here in the past to visit Margaret River, I really had no idea what to expect. Therefore, Jillian and I planned a trip for twelve of us to rent cars and drive Down South to explore Margaret River. After spending two hours at the car rental place dealing with miscommunication, and nearly loosing a surfboard on the freeway, we finally made it to Margaret River. Once we arrived, we checked-in, and immediately hit the town; mainly because we were hungry and everything in Australia closes around 6pm, but we couldn't wait to see the quaint town of Margs either. We had a nice dinner and relaxing night on Thursday, so we would be raring to go Friday morning. Friday we spent the day at two different beaches. We boogie-boarded and surfed at the first beach, and snorkeled/hung out at the second beach. I have been to a lot of beaches in my day, but I have never seen anything like the Margaret River beaches- they we SO unique. We were exhausted from being at the beach all day, so we went into town again for dinner, and then called it an early night. Then, Saturday, we had a nice breakfast in town at a cute local place, and then spent the rest of the day on a wine tour with our awesome bus driver Kim. Kim picked us up from our hotel and took us to four different wineries, in addition to the cheese and chocolate factories. Thus, I had many free chocolate samples, brie and wine; I was a happy camper :). I was really excited for the wine tour because since I am not legally allowed to drink in the States, I had not had much of an opportunity to try different wines. From the wine tours, I discovered that I absolutely love Chardonnay and most Sauvignon Blancs, but I detest red wines. After our amazing wine tour, we went to the beach to watch the sunset, and that was the end of our wonderful weekend in Margs. It was a great way to end our "holiday" before starting classes this week.
Yes, I actually go to school here. I was very scared at first when I walked into my first lecture of 300+ students. From this week alone, I can tell that I definitely made the right choice to go to a small school. While I think I am going to enjoy the content of my courses here a lot, I am not a fan of no interaction between professors and students--it's boring! School here is very different than Elon. We don't have a bunch of assignments throughout the semester, but our few major assignments are worth much more with much stricter grading. I do enjoy not having Friday classes, so I can go to the beach for the day :). Other than that, I'm just living a dream and will post again soon.
Cheers :)
I posted heaps more pictures (I've taken so many since I've gotten here). Here's the link:
http://s611.photobucket.com/albums/tt200/jpurcell5/Aussie%20Part%202/?albumview=slideshow