So I know I've been pretty quiet for the last month or two. I've been waiting until I could officially announce that I've been accepted into Hillsong International Leadership College!
After going to some of Steve's classes and seeing what life is like here at Hillsong, I decided that I wanted to be a part of it. So I'll be studying Church Ministry, which is general church ministry. Hillsong is a vocational school, which means that it teaches practical skills and assesses us on our competency or not yet competency to do a job, rather then giving a grade. Also, practical experience is a big part of the studies, so its a lot like an intership program in that way.
Classes start tomorrow, with two weeks of "intensives", during which our teamwork class will occur, as well as introductions to our other classes. Steve and I will have some of the same classes once they begin.
Since the last time I blogged, I've been working a lot. I quite like my job, and its been great to have so many hours and be able to save up some money before classes start. I've also been moving around a lot, staying with lots of different, wonderful girls, as it took a while for the paperwork to go through so I could move into college accomodation. After living out of my suitcase for almost two months, it is so amazing to have my own room and my own bed and to be able to spread out. Having my own space is something I won't take for granted for a long time after this. My flat is a two bedroom, two bath, that I am sharing with 3 other girls. Its in a really nice area, and close to my job and the church.
So thats whats been going on with me! Working, living life, meeting new people, spending time with Steve.
7.25.2011
6.04.2011
In which I'm not in Kansas anymore
Well hey Australia, I'm back!
This time around I'm in Sydney (circled in orange in the map below. Townsville, circled in purple, is where I was before). To fill you all in, I'm on a work and holiday visa, which is a visa you can get once in your life when you are between the ages of 18-30. So with that I can be in Australia for up to a year (although I'll only be here until December), and I can work full time but can only be with one employer for up to 6 months. Its meant so young people can have an extended holiday by working here for a bit to support themselves. So while Steven is studying here, I'm hanging out in Sydney, enjoying being in a different country :)
I landed in Sydney on Tuesday morning. The flight wasn't too bad at all, I slept a lot, read a lot, and watched some movies. Tuesday I relaxed, hung out with Steven :) I wasn't too jetlagged, just passed out on the couch around 8pm every night this week, but I think I'm about over that. Wednesday I wrote some cover letters and updated my resume and started my job hunt, and thats what I've been doing since. So no interesting pictures, sorry! However, the job hunt was successful, I now have a job at a German bakery really close to where Steve is living! Now I can buy juice.
The job hunt was interesting. Basically I walked around and handed out cover letters and resumes, then called a couple places a few days later, and this bakery had me come in today for a 2 hour trial, where they just taught me a few basics. I guess that's what they do here in lieu of applications and interviews.
So I'm so thankful for the job! Please keep praying for roommates for me, otherwise rent is really ridiculously expensive!
p.s. sorry for the title, a weird mix of winnie ther pooh and wizard of Oz going on there
This time around I'm in Sydney (circled in orange in the map below. Townsville, circled in purple, is where I was before). To fill you all in, I'm on a work and holiday visa, which is a visa you can get once in your life when you are between the ages of 18-30. So with that I can be in Australia for up to a year (although I'll only be here until December), and I can work full time but can only be with one employer for up to 6 months. Its meant so young people can have an extended holiday by working here for a bit to support themselves. So while Steven is studying here, I'm hanging out in Sydney, enjoying being in a different country :)
I landed in Sydney on Tuesday morning. The flight wasn't too bad at all, I slept a lot, read a lot, and watched some movies. Tuesday I relaxed, hung out with Steven :) I wasn't too jetlagged, just passed out on the couch around 8pm every night this week, but I think I'm about over that. Wednesday I wrote some cover letters and updated my resume and started my job hunt, and thats what I've been doing since. So no interesting pictures, sorry! However, the job hunt was successful, I now have a job at a German bakery really close to where Steve is living! Now I can buy juice.
The job hunt was interesting. Basically I walked around and handed out cover letters and resumes, then called a couple places a few days later, and this bakery had me come in today for a 2 hour trial, where they just taught me a few basics. I guess that's what they do here in lieu of applications and interviews.
So I'm so thankful for the job! Please keep praying for roommates for me, otherwise rent is really ridiculously expensive!
p.s. sorry for the title, a weird mix of winnie ther pooh and wizard of Oz going on there
10.20.2010
In which I hug a wombat!! (and a possum and a koala and a baby croc and some skinks)
So my last trip of September was a field trip. That week was lecture recess, so no classes. However, my Animal adaptation class decided to have a field trip from Monday to Friday.
Alicia, Kathy and I left Monday morning so we could have some time at the beach before meeting the rest of the class at 5. After dropping our stuff off at the camp, we walked the block or two to Picnic Bay beach. Picnic Bay has a great view of Castle Hill, as well as this jetty that use to be where the ferry came in. The water was warm and clear, the sun was shining, and it was absolutely gorgeous. The rest of the week we escaped to the beach as often as we could. When we got back to the camp, we found out that we were all in separate groups, but that was ok, because we were able to branch out and meet new people. We all slept in the same cabin though. My group was the Bush Turkeys (Kathy was in Happy Possums, Alicia in Death Adders).
My group got started soon after dinner with a nocturnal walk up the Forts trail. I was able to hear some koalas make noise, and it was described to me as a mix between a pig and donkey. I’d never thought about koalas vocalizing, but I don’t think I would’ve guessed they sounded like that! Our professor caught an old female off a tree close to the path. He hooked a rope over her and tugged gently and then placed her in a sack. He demonstrated giving it valium, weighing and measuring things like head length, checking for microchip, getting a blood sample, etc. Afterwards we got to touch her. She wasn’t doing well though, so we tried to disturb her as little as possible. We saw a lot of spiders, when you shine your flashlight there are all these blue sparkles which are their eyes reflecting back. We saw some other koalas, including a mama and a joey, and some possums, and some microbats. The most exciting for me was seeing an echidna in the wild! He was burrowing for ants when they found him, so they pulled him up and he was curled up on his side. He was covered in dirt and ants, so cute. We tried to be quiet to get him to uncurl, but there were just too many people.
The next day my group woke up at 5 and was on our way at 5:30. Not a lot of sleep that night. We had mammal day! We started out with possum traps. The traps had been set the afternoon before. My half of the group went up a hill while the other half were in the mangroves. My half caught 6 or 7 possums if I remember correctly. We would place a bag at one end of the trap, open it up, and chase the possum into the bag by tapping or blowing at it. The first possum that we caught that the leaders demonstrated on walked right into the bag. They’ve been trapping in that area for 15 some odd years, so the possums are pretty use to it and are practically tame, they just want to get it over with. After the possum is in the bag, someone would hold the possum (still covered by the bag) belly-up with the shoulders securely pinned in their knees. Another person would measure the head length, testes if it was a male (fun fact, possums have really big testes relative to their body size), and look for a microchip. If there wasn’t a microchip then Damien, our grad student would put a microchip in and take a DNA sample. The possum would be weighed in the bag and then let go. After watching it be done a couple of times, I gave it a go. First I measured a possum, and then the next one we caught I held him. The possum I held definitely peed on me. Also, that spot was where the march flies (absolutely GINORMOUS biting flies) got really bad. I still bear the scars from those bites haha.
In addition to adult possums, we caught one wallaby. They freak out in the cage and have a tendency to lose control of their muscles. Bad for their health, and if they have a joey in the pouch the joey tends to fall out. So Damien crept up and after looking to see if there was a joey, he opened the cage door and let it out. If there was a joey that had fallen out, he would’ve put it in the pouch and taped the pouch shut. The tape would stay long enough for the wallaby to get control of its pouch again. We also had one cage with a mother and a joey possum. We opened the cage door and the mom ran out without the joey, but we could see her keeping an eye on it from a distant. We went away but where we could still watch. Eventually the joey left the cage and went up a tree but mom was still hiding. We left two people to watch while we checked some other cages (don’t want to leave the possums in the cages too long, because if it gets too hot they get dehydrated), and eventually they got to see the mom grab the joey.
We got back at around 9:30-10 am, grabbed some breakfast, had a bit of break, then a discussion about different kinds of tracking and trapping and ethics, like what to do if you find an injured animal in your cage. Then we had lunch, and then a skull lab where we learned how to look at a skull and determine if its marsipual or placental, carnivorous, omnivorous or herbivorous. We were given 10 skulls and had to identify what species they were. Then Kathy and I went to the beach, we had dinner, and by 9:30 I was asleep!
I had bird day next, which meant another 5 oclock wake up. We went on a walk in the neighborhood, up a steep hill (way too steep for before breakfast!!) to a lookout, and then down to the beach. I’m sure we saw some really cool birds, but I was not awake yet and was pretty much just walking, trying to keep my mind off of the walking.
After brekkie we spilt up into small groups to bird watch. I went with some new friends I'd made before. They made the field trip a lot of fun. We saw a nesting pair of figbirds, a greenwing parrot, some bee-eaters, and some adorable sunbirds, and some kingfishers. The bee-eaters were so gorgeous. The sunbirds were hovering over flowers, and we saw a mating par of them too. One kingfisher was on a power line, and he was grooming himself because he was all wet, muddy, and bedraggled. After birdwatching for a while we got ice cream and went for a swim. After lunch we had a lab of measuring preserved bird wings, and then beach for the rest of the day!
The next day, Thursday, was reptile day so we got to sleep in (7:30) until breakfast. After breakfast we learned how to identify lizards using pickled specimens. A little before lunch we headed out to a creek. There we caught skinks until lunchtime. I hunted about 6 skinks in one little area for a good hour or two. I caught one eventually. They were driving me CRAZY, I’d see them sunning themselves, and then I’d chase after them and keep almost catching them and sometimes have them in my hand only for them to escape and disappear for a bit. There were plenty of march flies around, so we used those to fish for the skinks. We kill/stun a fly and tie it to a stick with a piece of our hair and dangle it in front of the skinks. I had a couple grab onto it and hold onto it while air borne, but most of escaped with the fly. I actually got one to get into my plastic bag (that’s where we held the ones we caught), only to escape!! I did eventually nab one though, so I was happy. We identified the skinks and then had a picnic lunch.
After lunch we measured the skinks and then raced them. We measured their temperature with a temperature gun, placed them on a track, and timed how long it took them to run a meter. Then we placed the same skinks in an esky for a bit, repeated the racing, then placed them in the sun and repeated the racing.
After that, we had time to (you guessed it!) go to the beach before dinner. I think that was the day I suffered my big barnacle injury. No, actually, it was bird day. Anyway, I know everyone says that Australia has all these deadly animals that can kill you. While that may be true, let me tell you, you don’t need to be looking out for all those venomous creatures. It’s the barnacles that are out to get you! I was just swimming along when all of a sudden I bumped into a boat ramp, and a barnacle took a big CHUNK out of my leg. Barnacle wounds tend to infect too. Barnacles 2 (if you remember my infected hand, that was #1), Lara 0.
After dinner was a meeting where the profs and grad students all gave a seminar about their current jobs and how they got there. We all went to the pub afterwards. We left the next morning.
October has mostly been writing assignments. But I’ve also been hanging out with the people here a lot. I have a close knit group of friends that I absolutely love to death. They have made this trip so much fun ☺ I’ve also been continuing to learn to cook, a goal that coincides so well with spending time with friends. Yay food!
Of course the big news is that I finally got to hug a wombat!! Saturday a group of my friends and I went to Billabong wildlife sanctuary and I FINALLY got to hug a wombat!!! And it was as wonderful as I thought it would be :) The whole day was great. It was perfect weather, sunny but cool, and the grounds were quite pretty, quiet and relaxing. I also held a koala. In one of the exhibits there was also a wombat that was right up against the fence and I was playing with him. I had a kookaburra almost take off my ear. I had some fun with the kangaroos like usual. There were these adorable rufus bettongs hanging out in a log. After wandering around looking at the exhibits there was a series of shows. Wombats were first. We got our pictures taken with Tonka. Chloe, a northern hairy-nosed wombat was fed with a bottle and then wandered around saying hi to everyone. She was so cute and so soft. Then the reptiles. I held a baby croc, and put a bearded dragon on my head. We fed the turtles and had a turtle race, and then watched the crocs get fed.
Alicia, Kathy and I left Monday morning so we could have some time at the beach before meeting the rest of the class at 5. After dropping our stuff off at the camp, we walked the block or two to Picnic Bay beach. Picnic Bay has a great view of Castle Hill, as well as this jetty that use to be where the ferry came in. The water was warm and clear, the sun was shining, and it was absolutely gorgeous. The rest of the week we escaped to the beach as often as we could. When we got back to the camp, we found out that we were all in separate groups, but that was ok, because we were able to branch out and meet new people. We all slept in the same cabin though. My group was the Bush Turkeys (Kathy was in Happy Possums, Alicia in Death Adders).
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| Castle Hill from Picnic Bay |
My group got started soon after dinner with a nocturnal walk up the Forts trail. I was able to hear some koalas make noise, and it was described to me as a mix between a pig and donkey. I’d never thought about koalas vocalizing, but I don’t think I would’ve guessed they sounded like that! Our professor caught an old female off a tree close to the path. He hooked a rope over her and tugged gently and then placed her in a sack. He demonstrated giving it valium, weighing and measuring things like head length, checking for microchip, getting a blood sample, etc. Afterwards we got to touch her. She wasn’t doing well though, so we tried to disturb her as little as possible. We saw a lot of spiders, when you shine your flashlight there are all these blue sparkles which are their eyes reflecting back. We saw some other koalas, including a mama and a joey, and some possums, and some microbats. The most exciting for me was seeing an echidna in the wild! He was burrowing for ants when they found him, so they pulled him up and he was curled up on his side. He was covered in dirt and ants, so cute. We tried to be quiet to get him to uncurl, but there were just too many people.
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| Echidna!!! |
The next day my group woke up at 5 and was on our way at 5:30. Not a lot of sleep that night. We had mammal day! We started out with possum traps. The traps had been set the afternoon before. My half of the group went up a hill while the other half were in the mangroves. My half caught 6 or 7 possums if I remember correctly. We would place a bag at one end of the trap, open it up, and chase the possum into the bag by tapping or blowing at it. The first possum that we caught that the leaders demonstrated on walked right into the bag. They’ve been trapping in that area for 15 some odd years, so the possums are pretty use to it and are practically tame, they just want to get it over with. After the possum is in the bag, someone would hold the possum (still covered by the bag) belly-up with the shoulders securely pinned in their knees. Another person would measure the head length, testes if it was a male (fun fact, possums have really big testes relative to their body size), and look for a microchip. If there wasn’t a microchip then Damien, our grad student would put a microchip in and take a DNA sample. The possum would be weighed in the bag and then let go. After watching it be done a couple of times, I gave it a go. First I measured a possum, and then the next one we caught I held him. The possum I held definitely peed on me. Also, that spot was where the march flies (absolutely GINORMOUS biting flies) got really bad. I still bear the scars from those bites haha.
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| How NOT to handle a possum, they'll run away |
In addition to adult possums, we caught one wallaby. They freak out in the cage and have a tendency to lose control of their muscles. Bad for their health, and if they have a joey in the pouch the joey tends to fall out. So Damien crept up and after looking to see if there was a joey, he opened the cage door and let it out. If there was a joey that had fallen out, he would’ve put it in the pouch and taped the pouch shut. The tape would stay long enough for the wallaby to get control of its pouch again. We also had one cage with a mother and a joey possum. We opened the cage door and the mom ran out without the joey, but we could see her keeping an eye on it from a distant. We went away but where we could still watch. Eventually the joey left the cage and went up a tree but mom was still hiding. We left two people to watch while we checked some other cages (don’t want to leave the possums in the cages too long, because if it gets too hot they get dehydrated), and eventually they got to see the mom grab the joey.
We got back at around 9:30-10 am, grabbed some breakfast, had a bit of break, then a discussion about different kinds of tracking and trapping and ethics, like what to do if you find an injured animal in your cage. Then we had lunch, and then a skull lab where we learned how to look at a skull and determine if its marsipual or placental, carnivorous, omnivorous or herbivorous. We were given 10 skulls and had to identify what species they were. Then Kathy and I went to the beach, we had dinner, and by 9:30 I was asleep!
I had bird day next, which meant another 5 oclock wake up. We went on a walk in the neighborhood, up a steep hill (way too steep for before breakfast!!) to a lookout, and then down to the beach. I’m sure we saw some really cool birds, but I was not awake yet and was pretty much just walking, trying to keep my mind off of the walking.
After brekkie we spilt up into small groups to bird watch. I went with some new friends I'd made before. They made the field trip a lot of fun. We saw a nesting pair of figbirds, a greenwing parrot, some bee-eaters, and some adorable sunbirds, and some kingfishers. The bee-eaters were so gorgeous. The sunbirds were hovering over flowers, and we saw a mating par of them too. One kingfisher was on a power line, and he was grooming himself because he was all wet, muddy, and bedraggled. After birdwatching for a while we got ice cream and went for a swim. After lunch we had a lab of measuring preserved bird wings, and then beach for the rest of the day!
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| Female Sunbird |
The next day, Thursday, was reptile day so we got to sleep in (7:30) until breakfast. After breakfast we learned how to identify lizards using pickled specimens. A little before lunch we headed out to a creek. There we caught skinks until lunchtime. I hunted about 6 skinks in one little area for a good hour or two. I caught one eventually. They were driving me CRAZY, I’d see them sunning themselves, and then I’d chase after them and keep almost catching them and sometimes have them in my hand only for them to escape and disappear for a bit. There were plenty of march flies around, so we used those to fish for the skinks. We kill/stun a fly and tie it to a stick with a piece of our hair and dangle it in front of the skinks. I had a couple grab onto it and hold onto it while air borne, but most of escaped with the fly. I actually got one to get into my plastic bag (that’s where we held the ones we caught), only to escape!! I did eventually nab one though, so I was happy. We identified the skinks and then had a picnic lunch.
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| Skink |
After lunch we measured the skinks and then raced them. We measured their temperature with a temperature gun, placed them on a track, and timed how long it took them to run a meter. Then we placed the same skinks in an esky for a bit, repeated the racing, then placed them in the sun and repeated the racing.
After that, we had time to (you guessed it!) go to the beach before dinner. I think that was the day I suffered my big barnacle injury. No, actually, it was bird day. Anyway, I know everyone says that Australia has all these deadly animals that can kill you. While that may be true, let me tell you, you don’t need to be looking out for all those venomous creatures. It’s the barnacles that are out to get you! I was just swimming along when all of a sudden I bumped into a boat ramp, and a barnacle took a big CHUNK out of my leg. Barnacle wounds tend to infect too. Barnacles 2 (if you remember my infected hand, that was #1), Lara 0.
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| Barnacle injury |
After dinner was a meeting where the profs and grad students all gave a seminar about their current jobs and how they got there. We all went to the pub afterwards. We left the next morning.
October has mostly been writing assignments. But I’ve also been hanging out with the people here a lot. I have a close knit group of friends that I absolutely love to death. They have made this trip so much fun ☺ I’ve also been continuing to learn to cook, a goal that coincides so well with spending time with friends. Yay food!
Of course the big news is that I finally got to hug a wombat!! Saturday a group of my friends and I went to Billabong wildlife sanctuary and I FINALLY got to hug a wombat!!! And it was as wonderful as I thought it would be :) The whole day was great. It was perfect weather, sunny but cool, and the grounds were quite pretty, quiet and relaxing. I also held a koala. In one of the exhibits there was also a wombat that was right up against the fence and I was playing with him. I had a kookaburra almost take off my ear. I had some fun with the kangaroos like usual. There were these adorable rufus bettongs hanging out in a log. After wandering around looking at the exhibits there was a series of shows. Wombats were first. We got our pictures taken with Tonka. Chloe, a northern hairy-nosed wombat was fed with a bottle and then wandered around saying hi to everyone. She was so cute and so soft. Then the reptiles. I held a baby croc, and put a bearded dragon on my head. We fed the turtles and had a turtle race, and then watched the crocs get fed.
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| HUG A WOMBAT!!!!! |
10.18.2010
In which I sandboard down dunes and play with Echidnas!
Oh yeah. Hello blog of mine! Don’t worry dear readers, I have not forgotten about you, I have just been super busy enjoying my semester. I’m finally taking the time to talk about my amazing Brisbane trip.
Brisbane was… AMAZING. I did so many unique things and had so much fun. My gorgeous and snarky travel partner, Savannah (also known as Sav, Savvy, or Savage), flew the hour and a half flight to Brisbane on Thursday the 16th. We arrived around 1, got settled in the hostel, and then caught the shuttle to Roma Transit center and from there walked over to Southbank. Southbank is on the other side of the Brisbane River, so we went over one of several pretty bridges. We went to the museum of modern art, and enjoyed laughing at all the horrible exhibits. We did like the Douglas Kirkland gallery—I especially liked his Marilyn Monroe pictures. We went up the ferris wheel right as the sun was setting, and got a great view of the city. Brisbane is a great city, picturesque, clean, modern, and fun.
We hadn’t eaten all day (common theme on this trip, we were too busy packing in the experiences to do mundane things like feed ourselves!), so we treated ourselves to dinner at a Greek restaurant. Yummy yummy kebobs! We sat outside and had a good view of the lagoon, which is a man-made salt-water pool. There were some lights under the water, and children playing nearby. Before leaving we walked around the lagoon. Savvy spotted a fruit bat in a tree, and while she was pointing it out to me, a bat nearly flew into our faces from a nearby branch! It turns out the tree was full of fruit bats. I thought of Narea and tried really hard to get a picture with limited success. We walked all the way back to the hostel, through Queenstreet Mall, basically a pedestrian-only shopping center.
The next day we went to Moreton Island, which is the 3rd biggest island made entirely out of sand. Only 4-wheeled drives are allowed on it because the roads are all made out of sand. We saw one car get stuck at a sharp turn that was particularly soft. Our tour was in a 4-wheeled van, and it was awesome! The tour consisted of me, Savannah, and a girl from Holland, and 7 stereotypical Asian tourists, 6 girls and one guy. They took pictures of EVERYTHING and had the funniest, happiest reactions. After arriving on the island from the ferry, we went snorkeling at a shipwreck. There were 15 retired ships that had been sunk to make a harbor for small boats. We fed the fish, that was quite fun. They were very tame and got close and followed us around. The highlight of that was catching a glimpse of a boxfish, my favorite ever since one nibbled on my ear in the aqurium.
After a delicious picnic lunch we went sandboarding down a big dune! We went to a place called “the desert,” one of the places on Moreton Island where natural erosion has left sand dunes. I loved it, what a rush! I went the furthest on the flat part at the bottom then anyone else. While sitting on the ferry before leaving, I looked out at the beautiful bluegreen water, and I could see schools of fish the water is so clear. Savannah pointed out a sea star. And then we realized this large blob was a stingray! We could see this 6 or 7 foot ray swimming up close to the beach. On our way back we saw dolphins!
We met up with the other three girls, Alicia (Hi Alicia!) and Zel, and Alicia’s friend Alysha. We walked down towards Southbank, getting dinner and doing some shopping at Queenstreet Mall. There was a lot of performers out, a guy doing that spray paint art, and a group of people salsa dancing. Eventually we made our way to Southbank and caught the tail end of a market. That part of Brisbane felt like it had a fun active community.
The next day, Saturday, we went to Starbucks for breakfast. There are no Starbucks in Townsville so we were thrilled to find one. Then we caught a tour bus to the Australia Zoo, home of Steve Irwin! First was the show at the Crocoseum. There was Bindi and her jungle girls, some reptiles, a bird show (one of the birds landed on a guy a row back from me and Sav.. oops!), little Bob Irwin came out and sang the Australian national anthem, and there was an impressive croc feeding. After that Sav and I went into the echidna enclosure and were able to play with the echidnas and feed them! Echidnas are monotremes like platypus, which means they are mammals that lay eggs. Unlike the platypus, they have spines and eat ants. They were so ridiculously cute. Really tubby and such adorable waddling! A lot were hiding out in their box, but one of them, Fatty, was really curious and came out to say hi immediately. A couple more wandered out to get fed too. Fatty almost climbed all the way into my lap while I was feeding her.
Then we wandered around the zoo, trying to see as many of the animals and feedings as possible. Bob Irwin ran right past us at one point, clad in manpris (capris for men. I was obsessed with them as Savvy will tell you), security guard chasing after. We saw a really awesome tiger show. They convinced the females to jump into the water and swim around a bit. The whole zoo was really amazing, I felt like I was really close to all of the animals, and the tiger enclosure was no exception, with floor to ceiling windows. One of the tigers leaned right next to the window. We also fed an elephant, it wrapped its wrinkly trunk around my hand. We saw a baby koala. And one of the dingos was right up next to the cage and totally licked Savannah. We also hung out with the kangaroos for a bit. I was trying to get one to take a picture with me, but they kept hopping away or moving their heads. Finally I walked up to one and said “Excuse me, I am an American tourist, can I please take a picture with you?” And immediately one posed perfectly for me and I got this great shot. We didn’t eat lunch that day, Sav and I were too busy packing everything in. We had ice cream. Later that day, we went to a pancake manor for dinner and I had waffles with ice cream, so not a nutritious day hahaha.
Sunday was whale watch day. Unfreakingbelievable! We saw a lot of pacific humpbacks and their calves. They were very calm, just floating there for long periods of time at the surface. I really got a sense of what huge creatures they were. One of them went under the boat and surfaced right next to it! The captain (the only female whale watch captain of the southern hemisphere) played Elvis for them, which really cracked me up. That boat is only one of two that is able to go into that park, so it was just a really special whale watch. Defintely the best I've ever been on.
That afternoon Sav and I went to starbucks and did some schoolwork and had dinner at subway. Monday morning we flew back to Townsville, and I had just enough time to shower before class.
After that week of classes, it was lecture recess, but Kathy, Alicia, and I had a field trip for our animal adaptation class on Maggie Island.
I have a blog about that written up, so I'll post that in a day or two, I PROMISE. Its just too much to throw at y'all at once, you'd get bored haha.
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| View from Southbank side of the Brisbane River |
Brisbane was… AMAZING. I did so many unique things and had so much fun. My gorgeous and snarky travel partner, Savannah (also known as Sav, Savvy, or Savage), flew the hour and a half flight to Brisbane on Thursday the 16th. We arrived around 1, got settled in the hostel, and then caught the shuttle to Roma Transit center and from there walked over to Southbank. Southbank is on the other side of the Brisbane River, so we went over one of several pretty bridges. We went to the museum of modern art, and enjoyed laughing at all the horrible exhibits. We did like the Douglas Kirkland gallery—I especially liked his Marilyn Monroe pictures. We went up the ferris wheel right as the sun was setting, and got a great view of the city. Brisbane is a great city, picturesque, clean, modern, and fun.
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| View from Ferris Wheel |
We hadn’t eaten all day (common theme on this trip, we were too busy packing in the experiences to do mundane things like feed ourselves!), so we treated ourselves to dinner at a Greek restaurant. Yummy yummy kebobs! We sat outside and had a good view of the lagoon, which is a man-made salt-water pool. There were some lights under the water, and children playing nearby. Before leaving we walked around the lagoon. Savvy spotted a fruit bat in a tree, and while she was pointing it out to me, a bat nearly flew into our faces from a nearby branch! It turns out the tree was full of fruit bats. I thought of Narea and tried really hard to get a picture with limited success. We walked all the way back to the hostel, through Queenstreet Mall, basically a pedestrian-only shopping center.
The next day we went to Moreton Island, which is the 3rd biggest island made entirely out of sand. Only 4-wheeled drives are allowed on it because the roads are all made out of sand. We saw one car get stuck at a sharp turn that was particularly soft. Our tour was in a 4-wheeled van, and it was awesome! The tour consisted of me, Savannah, and a girl from Holland, and 7 stereotypical Asian tourists, 6 girls and one guy. They took pictures of EVERYTHING and had the funniest, happiest reactions. After arriving on the island from the ferry, we went snorkeling at a shipwreck. There were 15 retired ships that had been sunk to make a harbor for small boats. We fed the fish, that was quite fun. They were very tame and got close and followed us around. The highlight of that was catching a glimpse of a boxfish, my favorite ever since one nibbled on my ear in the aqurium.
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| Shipwreck on Moreton Bay Island Beach |
After a delicious picnic lunch we went sandboarding down a big dune! We went to a place called “the desert,” one of the places on Moreton Island where natural erosion has left sand dunes. I loved it, what a rush! I went the furthest on the flat part at the bottom then anyone else. While sitting on the ferry before leaving, I looked out at the beautiful bluegreen water, and I could see schools of fish the water is so clear. Savannah pointed out a sea star. And then we realized this large blob was a stingray! We could see this 6 or 7 foot ray swimming up close to the beach. On our way back we saw dolphins!
We met up with the other three girls, Alicia (Hi Alicia!) and Zel, and Alicia’s friend Alysha. We walked down towards Southbank, getting dinner and doing some shopping at Queenstreet Mall. There was a lot of performers out, a guy doing that spray paint art, and a group of people salsa dancing. Eventually we made our way to Southbank and caught the tail end of a market. That part of Brisbane felt like it had a fun active community.
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| Brisbane at night |
The next day, Saturday, we went to Starbucks for breakfast. There are no Starbucks in Townsville so we were thrilled to find one. Then we caught a tour bus to the Australia Zoo, home of Steve Irwin! First was the show at the Crocoseum. There was Bindi and her jungle girls, some reptiles, a bird show (one of the birds landed on a guy a row back from me and Sav.. oops!), little Bob Irwin came out and sang the Australian national anthem, and there was an impressive croc feeding. After that Sav and I went into the echidna enclosure and were able to play with the echidnas and feed them! Echidnas are monotremes like platypus, which means they are mammals that lay eggs. Unlike the platypus, they have spines and eat ants. They were so ridiculously cute. Really tubby and such adorable waddling! A lot were hiding out in their box, but one of them, Fatty, was really curious and came out to say hi immediately. A couple more wandered out to get fed too. Fatty almost climbed all the way into my lap while I was feeding her.
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| Echidna!!! |
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| Gorgeous tiger |
Then we wandered around the zoo, trying to see as many of the animals and feedings as possible. Bob Irwin ran right past us at one point, clad in manpris (capris for men. I was obsessed with them as Savvy will tell you), security guard chasing after. We saw a really awesome tiger show. They convinced the females to jump into the water and swim around a bit. The whole zoo was really amazing, I felt like I was really close to all of the animals, and the tiger enclosure was no exception, with floor to ceiling windows. One of the tigers leaned right next to the window. We also fed an elephant, it wrapped its wrinkly trunk around my hand. We saw a baby koala. And one of the dingos was right up next to the cage and totally licked Savannah. We also hung out with the kangaroos for a bit. I was trying to get one to take a picture with me, but they kept hopping away or moving their heads. Finally I walked up to one and said “Excuse me, I am an American tourist, can I please take a picture with you?” And immediately one posed perfectly for me and I got this great shot. We didn’t eat lunch that day, Sav and I were too busy packing everything in. We had ice cream. Later that day, we went to a pancake manor for dinner and I had waffles with ice cream, so not a nutritious day hahaha.
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| "meh, tourists" |
Sunday was whale watch day. Unfreakingbelievable! We saw a lot of pacific humpbacks and their calves. They were very calm, just floating there for long periods of time at the surface. I really got a sense of what huge creatures they were. One of them went under the boat and surfaced right next to it! The captain (the only female whale watch captain of the southern hemisphere) played Elvis for them, which really cracked me up. That boat is only one of two that is able to go into that park, so it was just a really special whale watch. Defintely the best I've ever been on.
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| Mother and Calf |
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| Humpback in front of Moreton Bay Island |
That afternoon Sav and I went to starbucks and did some schoolwork and had dinner at subway. Monday morning we flew back to Townsville, and I had just enough time to shower before class.
After that week of classes, it was lecture recess, but Kathy, Alicia, and I had a field trip for our animal adaptation class on Maggie Island.
I have a blog about that written up, so I'll post that in a day or two, I PROMISE. Its just too much to throw at y'all at once, you'd get bored haha.
9.25.2010
In which I have spectacular adventures!
September has been a very exciting month for me! Every weekend has brought an even more amazing trip. The first weekend I went to Maggie Island again with some friends. It was rainy on Saturday so we hung out at the hostel and read. And then on Sunday we went to the beach, Alma Bay, the same as last time. We napped on the beach, went swimming, explored the nearby rocks. It was very relaxing. Magnetic Island is just so beautiful, and it was really nice to get off of campus and be reminded that we’re in Australia.
The next weekend, on the 11th, Kathy and I, as well as Trish, and 5 other girls from JCU went on a tour to Paluma. Paluma is north of Townsville, inland, and up a mountain. Unlike the more arid Townsville, Paluma has a lot of wet tropical rainforest, like Cairns. Our first stop was Crystal Creek, just inside of Paluma. It was such a pretty spot, with falls, and rather deep pools. We went swimming in it, and the water was refreshing, but not too cold. There was a pretty brick arch bridge, and a natural rockslide that emptied into one of the deeper pools.
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| Kathy and Trish get used to the cold Crystal Creek |
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| Trish going down the rockslide |
Our next stop was a hike to Birthday Creek to see the bowerbirds! We saw a toothbilled bowerbird and a golden bowerbird, both of which are endemic (only found) in mountain rainforests of Northern Queensland so it was quite special to see them. Male bowerbirds make structures to attract mates. Tooth-billed bowerbirds are lazy and their bower is just laying leaves on the ground with the underside facing up. Golden bowerbirds, however, make more complex bowers out of sticks. They look like huts, or like Eeyore’s house in Pooh’s corner. We were able to see both the birds and their bowers. When we made it to the falls we spotted a water dragon.
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| Golden Bowerbird |
On our way out of Paluma we stopped at a Rose Gum (if I remember correctly) by the side of the road. That stretch of road was surrounded by Rose Gums, which are rather tall eucalypts. It was an open forest, very sunny and happy. We stopped at that particular tree because it had been hollowed out by fire and when we stepped into it and looked up we could see a circle of sunlight.
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| Me inside a tree! |
After dinner was my favorite part of the weekend. The tour guide’s dad, Ian, took us on a nocturnal walk! The stars were so gorgeous; we could see the milky way. That of course made me think of the stars at camp! Anyway, Ian shone a spotlight up into the trees so we could see some of the nocturnal animals. We saw bats, both micro and fruit. Microbats use echolocation to catch bugs mainly, while fruit bats don’t have echolocation as they use smell and visual to locate fruit. We saw several greater gliders, and some brush-tail possums, including a mama and a joey! We also had a really great sighting of a Rufous bettong, also known as a rat-kangaroo, a very small macropod (macropods are kangaroos and wallabies).
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| A brushtail possum |
We woke up early the next morning to try to spot another platypus, but no look. After breakfast we started the three-hour drive to Wallaman falls. Most of the drive was on a dirt road, there were hardly any cars, and not much but a couple of farms. It was cool to see some of the emptiness and space of Australia. On our way out we spotted a pair of Wallaroos, which are (size wise) inbetween kangaroos and wallabies. We stopped at a great view of Mount Fox, a long ago extinct volcano. We also stopped when we spotted a Frill-neck lizard. They have a large frill around their head that they flare when they are frightened to appear intimidating, and they can run super fast on their hind legs. We saw this one sitting on the road and then when we got out he scampered up a tree. It was really amazing to see one!
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| Mount Fox |
Wallaman falls is the longest unbroken fall in Australia, with a 305 m drop. It was absolutely gorgeous! We hiked from the top of it all the way down to the bottom where we had lunch before heading back up. It was a little rainy, but while we were at the top the sun peeked out just long enough to give us a rainbow :) After that, we headed home through Ingham, a sugar cane town, and had a quick stop at the Frosty Mango for ice cream.
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| Wallaman Falls |
I was only on campus for a couple of days before leaving that Thursday for Brisbane. But that’s a post for another day, I need to go to bed! G’night!
8.29.2010
Week 7 (I think? I can't actually remember how long I've been here). In which the adventures just keep happening!
Hi everyone! I’ve been pretty busy lately, started having some assignments to write, have had field trips and other excursions with the girls, continuing to learn to cook (so much fun!), and other such things.
Lets see, all the way back on the 8th, a Sunday, Kathy and I had a field trip to Rowe’s Bay. Basically we got to explore the rocky intertidal in Australia. So cool comparing it to the rocky intertidal in the Gulf of Maine! I was in heaven, poking around, harassing the wildlife (as Steve always says I do). Definitely the coolest things I found were the conches (see the video below, its of a conch turning itself rightside up).
Unfortunately, in the process of sticking my nose under every huge rock I could still roll over, I scraped my hands up a bit. Didn’t think anything of it, until about a week later my hand was unbelievably itchy and then got this huge blotchy rash. Lo and behold, its not all the poisonous animals I needed to be watching out for, it was the bacteria. If anyone would like to send me Neosporin, that’d be wonderful, because you need to get a prescription to get it here, and I’m always getting minor scrapes and bumps :) The good news is, it’s about 97% gone, after a couple of days of awful itchiness and swollen fingers.
We’ve also had two field trips to Reef HQ. I love aquariums, but going to this one 3 times in one month is a bit much.. The lab I had last Friday was much more interesting, involved sawing a fish into sections so we could compare the distribution of red and white muscle. Alicia, Kathy and I were pretty fabulous at sawing fish, if I may say so!
On Sunday, the 15th, we walked up Castle Hill. Some great views of Townsville, an invigorating walk.
This past week mostly involved writing some papers, and not sleeping. So this weekend mostly involved sleeping, however on Friday we also went to Cape Pallarenda Conservation Park. The international office put on this free trip for all the international students. It was really great to have the chance to get to a part of Townsville that we wouldn’t otherwise have easy access too. I loved it there, the beach was gorgeous, a nice mix of sandy and rocky. We went on a walk that went up a hill, past a gun emplacement and a quarantine station (now a little museum) and then back down the hill to this gorgeous beach. I was quite proud of myself, I got myself onto the roof of the gun emplacement and then back down, all by myself, without getting stuck like I normally do, haha! My favorite part of going to Pallarenda was seeing familiar sights in a slightly different perspective. For example, we saw Castle Hill from a slightly different angle, and Magnetic Island was so much closer then we’re use to seeing. Anyway, keep an eye on my facebook for pictures from that day coming up soon.
I’ve been involved in the Christian Union group here on campus. I was vaguely aware of its existence before coming here, but I didn’t know anything about it, and I didn’t know how I was going to go to church, but my philosophy was that God will supply what Christian support I’ll need. And how He has! The people in CU have just been so warm and friendly and have really made me feel apart of the bible study, and right away found my lifts to church. So thanks guys, I really appreciate how welcoming you’ve all been!
Everyone back home.. I love and miss you, keep in touch!
Lets see, all the way back on the 8th, a Sunday, Kathy and I had a field trip to Rowe’s Bay. Basically we got to explore the rocky intertidal in Australia. So cool comparing it to the rocky intertidal in the Gulf of Maine! I was in heaven, poking around, harassing the wildlife (as Steve always says I do). Definitely the coolest things I found were the conches (see the video below, its of a conch turning itself rightside up).
Unfortunately, in the process of sticking my nose under every huge rock I could still roll over, I scraped my hands up a bit. Didn’t think anything of it, until about a week later my hand was unbelievably itchy and then got this huge blotchy rash. Lo and behold, its not all the poisonous animals I needed to be watching out for, it was the bacteria. If anyone would like to send me Neosporin, that’d be wonderful, because you need to get a prescription to get it here, and I’m always getting minor scrapes and bumps :) The good news is, it’s about 97% gone, after a couple of days of awful itchiness and swollen fingers.
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| Ewgross. The bump on my index finger got bigger, and my fingers were way more swollen before this got better |
We’ve also had two field trips to Reef HQ. I love aquariums, but going to this one 3 times in one month is a bit much.. The lab I had last Friday was much more interesting, involved sawing a fish into sections so we could compare the distribution of red and white muscle. Alicia, Kathy and I were pretty fabulous at sawing fish, if I may say so!
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| Alicia, Kathy, and the Fish. Or his head at least. |
On Sunday, the 15th, we walked up Castle Hill. Some great views of Townsville, an invigorating walk.
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| Kathy and Savannah are up in the front, followed by Trish and Rachel. Castle Hill is on the right |
This past week mostly involved writing some papers, and not sleeping. So this weekend mostly involved sleeping, however on Friday we also went to Cape Pallarenda Conservation Park. The international office put on this free trip for all the international students. It was really great to have the chance to get to a part of Townsville that we wouldn’t otherwise have easy access too. I loved it there, the beach was gorgeous, a nice mix of sandy and rocky. We went on a walk that went up a hill, past a gun emplacement and a quarantine station (now a little museum) and then back down the hill to this gorgeous beach. I was quite proud of myself, I got myself onto the roof of the gun emplacement and then back down, all by myself, without getting stuck like I normally do, haha! My favorite part of going to Pallarenda was seeing familiar sights in a slightly different perspective. For example, we saw Castle Hill from a slightly different angle, and Magnetic Island was so much closer then we’re use to seeing. Anyway, keep an eye on my facebook for pictures from that day coming up soon.
I’ve been involved in the Christian Union group here on campus. I was vaguely aware of its existence before coming here, but I didn’t know anything about it, and I didn’t know how I was going to go to church, but my philosophy was that God will supply what Christian support I’ll need. And how He has! The people in CU have just been so warm and friendly and have really made me feel apart of the bible study, and right away found my lifts to church. So thanks guys, I really appreciate how welcoming you’ve all been!
Everyone back home.. I love and miss you, keep in touch!
8.28.2010
Frog Sneak Peek
More blog and pictures on facebook coming really soon, but until then, I wanted to share a couple of the many pictures I took of this really bitty, super adorable frog we found at Pallarenda Park on Friday. Enjoy!
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