Brisbane last class and weeks in OZ

Sorry it's been so long since the last post if you are still keeping up with these!

WE started off with some free days so some of us headed over to the GOLD COAST which is the local beach holiday destination amongst the aussies. We had a blast in the waves which were supremely large and forboding since there was a storm on its way. A few people had to get saved by lifeguards towards the end it was so strong! But it was good fun all the same and we enjoyed the lengthy sandy beaches and the australian lifeguards! AFter  that we joined the fun in the city shopping in local stores getting some hot chocolate and buying unnecessary items for fun. WE warmed up in the hotel hot tub and met some brits americans and french people who we ended up partying with a little later. Being in the raging city on a Wednesday we joined the nightlife with endless bowling, karaoke and ping pong which was all the rage. It was then dreadfully rainy the next day so I headed home to go explore our new residence in Brisbane.

There is a large mall close by with Air Conditioning which is pretty important since it is blisteringly hot at the current moment. Perfect for all the UQ students finishing their finals but kind of bitter for us who still have a little bit of work to go. So we have spent some time there getting groceries and doing a wee bit of shipping as we quickly tire of the clothes we've worn repetitively in the past few months.  We even managed to watch Catching fire part 1 of the Hunger games series last night which was pretty cool!

Otherwise we have had a water management class the past few days where we discussed the ethics of water implementations and the importance of sanitation for everyone in the world and how many deaths are caused by something as simple as not having a toilet. This also involved going to a farm and learning about the construction of some toilets and how they are built structurally to last.  We also spent a day planting trees to give back to the community and help regrow the proper foliage after the destruction of the flood in Brisbane in 2011 which was pretty crazy if you want to go look up some photos!

In addition to that we go to the gym on UQ enjoy their "tressider" which has boba smoothies and a subway. We spent a night at the local school bar and plan on investigating the club scene this Saturday. WE had a group potluck which was cool and lots of fun and we ate WAY too much good food.

We are also keenly aware as the time runs out that we have a test tomorrow and our TRP presentations and papers due and that we only have 1 week left in this country I have come to call home for the past few months. Aussie accents are so familiar, coles is my food store, go cards and public transport are totally normal, drinks are ridiculously expensive, 18 is total adulthood, koalas and kangaroos are just the local wildlife and tim tams are the cookie of choice.  It'll be nice to be home but I sure will miss a lot about this place. Guess we gotta enjoy the next week before its all gone in a flash.

Stradbroke Island- more ocean, fun and quadrats

Straddie (as we call it) is an island near Brisbane which helps create a bay which allows for lots of cool life. There are mangroves, sea grass beds and high latitude coral reefs which are more specialised to their location. We are staying at the UQ research station on the island and have had a fun first week here! Here are some of the highlights:

LABS!
-coral lab - here we went snorkeling in pretty shallow water in order to look at the cool and different forms of coral. Since there is less sunlight availability there is a different variety mostly including brain corals and soft corals which is interesting to look at!
- dugongs and sea grass - we didnt see any dugongs, but we compared the sea grass composition and area cover of two location. One location had evidence of dugong grazing and the other did not. This lab was fun, but we ran into massive swarms of jellies which wasn't too nice as they stung =(. The boat captain did give us jelly dinosaurs which was cool though! And we have soem good scars to show in true australian fashion
- mangrove transects - we waded through some pretty muddy terrain in order to measure the salinity in the water and tree density as we walked from shore towards the inlands. It was pretty fun and we got really muddy! It was fun.
-seagrass transects - here we did something similar except on sea greass beds during low tide. It was fun and we got chased by pelicans and attacked by some mud crabs which was pretty funny.
- pandanas trees - this was less of a lab and more of a really nice hike through the headlands of the island and we walked across and saw beautiful beach coastlines. Then we got to go swimming in the massive stormy waves and it was a blast to be thrown around in the swells just like home (except bigger and scarier cuz you know its australia). We also got bitten by sea lice which wasnt as fun, but hey, can't leave Australia without some damage right?
- the lakes! We analysed the leaf shape of trees at two different lake sites and then got to go swimming in the lake. Brown lake has tannins like tea so has this brownish glow which is pretty cool. It made for some fun photos!

SCUBA!

So we went SCUBA diving and it was really cool! It was a double dive (so two dives with a break in the middle). Despite throwing up during the break, I had a wonderful time! We saw nemo (clown fish), Dory (blue spray), Crush(green turtle), so many nudibranchs, wobbegongs (really cool sharks) and swam in the EAC (also featured in finding nemo).  It was really cool, and there was great clarity as well! The dive masters were really fun and would jump off the boat and stuff, take off eachother's masks and turn the air off for fun!

FREE TIME!

In other free time we have gone back to the beach and the lake for some swim time. We had a halloween party the first day which was also alan's birthday so that was fun. We still play more cards (NERTZ is so much fun). At night we watch movies like the Dark Knight, and V for Vendetta (you know for the 5th of November. sadly no fireworks though =(). One time we made popcorn which was pretty awesome and delicious. During labs we spent most of our free time writing those up. We go on runs, sometimes play basketball and walk into the little shops to get brownies and ice cream (like the day after our test). So we have a few more days here to begin writing up our targeted research projects before we head back to Brizzy for one last class and our presentations.

Peace everyone!

REST of HERON

SO some more heron island stuff!

TESTS:
So we took two tests and it was fun.  We ended up studying quite a bit, and were relieved to be done. There was a lab test where we had to identify a variety of animals and answer questions about lab. The other test was just a regular test and whoo we finished!

Volleyball

My team fought hard and battled against the wild forces of the wind and the other teams and made it to the semifinals where we lost tragically in the 3rd game 14-16.WE had fun though, and for once my serve was actually useful! hahha. It was a good tournament and brought lots of us together.

SCUBA DIVE

We finally got to go scuba diving after ages of waiting and asking and not being sure of whether or not we could go (because the resort guests get priority =(). But we did, and it was awesome! There was a large current in the beginning (as this was a drift dive) which caused a lot of people to guzzle air, but after the bit of a rough start we were on our way! It was so cool to be so close to the amazing coral beds and looking at all the fish. WE saw trumpet fish, white tip sharks and two green turtles up close. When I was little I described the GBR as a rainforest of rainbows and it still maintains that same immense colour and variation. It was magical! I also was the last one to run out of air so that was pretty cool!

Sea cucumber TRP

My project is analysing the algal content of sea cucumber pellets via chlorophyll content of sand by the sample and the sample itself. I collected at least 5 samples of 5 different species in which to compare and so that was 60 samples total! It was a lot of work, but I managed to get through all of the lab stuff on the last day. I was forced to wait because we were waiting for dye that never came, which was lame, but I got it all done so that was exciting!

Brisbane

It was sad but we had to say goodbye to the island paradise that had become home. Now we are chilling in a hostel in Brisbane and we have a  few free days. So we have done everything from wander around and watch a movie to finding the man made beach along the river to escape the impenetrable heat! Now we are working on preparing for a simulation of a hearing discussing the creation of an oil port.  We have that tomorrow! I am representing a quiet irish scientist who is trying to protect the reef.

ISLAND PARADISE - Heron Island and so much more

LECTURES
- these are all about fishies and tides and oceanography
- we gave learned some cool facts like sea hares have sex in circles because they are hermaphrodites, I mean how cool! IT's been so much I can't tell you it all, but it has been interesting!

LABS
- So far I completed a coral physiology lab in which we analyse the chlorophyll and zooxanthallae content of coral pieces which we collected from the reef flat. This was pretty cool because we got to use all sorts of fun machines, like spectrogram, a centrifuge, nice microscopes, hot wax, and things like that!
-WE also did a invertebrate lab where we grabbed some hunks of dead coral, cracked them open and investigated what we found under the microscope I found tiny brittle stars, lots of weird worms, baby crabs and shrimps, spaghetti worms. Other cool things we looked at were sea hare eggs, a file clam (which are super cooolio) coral polyps.
- Next day we did transects which was coolish. We ventured out onto the reef flats took a tape measure and identiffied what was under the 20m of tape 9 times. Other groups used quadrats and then we compared the methodology in our analysis.
- Yesterday we did a FISH LAB which was essentially taking pictures of all of the cool fish and then choosing a select few awesome ones to do a quick presentation about. I got some cool pictures of a turtle and some anemone fish!

FOOD

- food is healthy and wonderful and we get muffins for snacks which is great!

SNORKELLING

- I have snorkelled everyday so far including a night dive! All bundled up in our wetsuits we jumped in with our glow sticks attached to our snorkels and had a blast scaring sleeping fish. It is oddly eerie to see fish lying on the sandy bottom, you would never think that fish stop moving would you? There were also so many turtles sleeping under the rocks and the shipwreck which was super cool. And of course a shark. My favourite moments were seeing the lemon shark, black tip reef sharks, seeing massive flying schools of eagle rays and unicorn fish!

Other free time

- I spend free time playing cards, going snorkeling if the tide is high, going on walks, and most importantly playing beach volleyball! WE have a grand tournament coming up so we often play into the sunset in preparation for dinner and the scrumptious desserts! 

- Life here is wonderful and amazing, even if it does mean getting up at the crack of dawn to enjoy the sealife. Everything is so incredibly large and friendly, to the extent that seeing a sea turtle is almost a daily occurrence, which is super cool! I feel so at home here and am loving the company whcther we are doing a random limbo competition, discussing labs, and just having a blast. 

Sorry you've been in the dark, I'm just have way too much fun! PEace and hoping everything is good wherever you are reading this from. 

Free days in the rainforest =D

Tuesday - BIG HIKE

So today was a day for awesome hiking and sight seeing. We went over to a mountain climbed up and up until going up seemed no longer possible. Rising through roots and stems, up through the rickety rainforest we finally mounted the top to look over the epic views of Cairns and the ocean beyond. It was definitely a tough climb, but was completely and utterly worth every step and cut and scrape, and was not a shabby place to have lunch! After hanging out and taking some awesome photos we hopped down the mountain (quite literally, since it was so steep and slippery) and jumped into a river slide! That was really cool and of course being stanford students some of the guys redirected the water with sticks and rocks in order to make the slide more forceful.

Then on the way home we snuck into a mango winery and tried some of the local brew, which was very tasty! I even split a bottle to share later that night (which was delicious =). The ride home was awesome and we belted out classics like bohemian rhapsody and american pie all the way.  All in all, an exhausting day, but also one of the best =D.

Wednesday - Riding, water holes and funsies

Woke up and had some breakfast and headed out to a horse riding facility out in the bush. We got there and were greeted by an array of dogs and the familiar smell of horses in dry heat. In no time I was back in the saddle (which feels good after so long without it) and we headed out into the jungle on our noble steeds. The trail was thick with vegetation and the moving slow, though, as an experience rider, I got to gallop up a few hills (which was fun =D). We stopped briefly by a view of a waterfall and ocean over Cairns, which was beautiful and crazy all the same. AS we headed back, I was able to run up the hill home to the most picturesque view of horses eating on a field with the rainforest as a background. To top off the wonderful morning we had the best fruit smoothie ever (it had all of the good stuff: mangoes, papaya, strawberries etc).

Sadly we said goodbye to the horses, and headed off home where I ended up at the water hole once again where we played a riveting game of monkey in the middle with a frisbee. Later I played nertz and did some laundry and somehow the time disappears as it does here so quickly.

Thursday - wallabies, beaching, and Cairns/ civilisation

We woke at 4:30 in order to get on the road and drive all the way down to Cairns in order to watch wild wallaby in a paddock near a lawn bowling centre. This was optional in order to help collect data for someones research project. Essentially we would document their behaviour over a 5 minute interval and essentially hang out with really cool australian wildlife. They would jump, and eat, and be vigilant if we stirred too much.

Then we had time whilst they were being lazy and sleeping during the heat of the day so we went to the beach. Here we cruised in the water and played with frisbees and all that fun stuff. Even though it is technically jellyfish territory we figured if the locals were doing it, we could do it! No worries, we got no stings.

After our bout at the beach we headed into the city proper and were greatly saddened by the fact that the fresh fruit market was closed, but went to the mall instead. This felt like an overwhelming sense of city and urban life. We ventured into the target and were jealous of the cool cadbury options not available in the states. Also, they were already ready for christmas (I guess they don't have thanksgiving and halloween to look forward to). Meandering around the clothes and shops was fun but soon it was time to go back to the wallabies. This was conducted much the same as the morning, and nothing particularly exiting happened.

Exhausted we headed home and were stoked to eat the tacos for dinner and sad that the next day would be our last at Wetherby.

Friday - cattle, packing and talent?

Woke up as late as I could (which is 8 because the tent gets too hot for you to sleep after that) and decided to learn about the cattle with the pre-vets. Since the climate in australia is so dry the cross indian breeds of cattle with european ones to make the ultimate cow, which is cool. They also discussed how they control and castrate them ( which is all incredibly humane). I was struck by the quality of care and love the cows had for John ( the ranch owner) and how easily he would control them. We then watched the Temple Grandin movie, which was incredible both from a cattle ranching perspective, but also a disabilities perspective. I knew aspects of her story but the movie truly captured the brutality of the time and her incredible resilience to stand up in a world to make it her own. All for her greatest passion: cows.

Soon enough lunch rolled around and we spent time wandering, playing more cards and enjoying the environment on our last day. I forced myself to pack as best as I could and then went to help with the platypus research. We had to stay super silent, but surely enough we got to see the little guys swimming around the river bend! Since most Australians haven't seen platypus in the wild, this was a super cool experience (plus who doesn't love a good monotreme?). I said my last goodbye to the wallabies at our professors property and had one last boxing match and headed home.

Here we gathered around the camp fire and shared food, marshmellows, songs, jokes and an overall good time in order to end out wonderful adventure at wetherby. Though Heron Island is coming up, we are all sad to see such an awesome place go.

Saturday - bus, bus and more bus

We spent the entire day on the bus driving down from Cairns to where we leave for Heron Island.

The rest of the adventure you will discover in the next post ;)

Chillagoe, tests and more outbacky goodness!

Thursday

We woke up to some more lectures about wildlife and the incredibly dangerous snakes, cool frogs with pouches, birds that can repeat gunshots and all of the adorable marsupials! We also discussed how fire is important to the maintenance of rainforest regimes and lots of good stuff like that!

Then in the afternoon we did some ant investigating. We went out into a cow paddock and set out trays of canned tuna and honey and waited to see what ants would come. Since our area was pretty disturbed due to the presence of cows, we only got one species of ants =( but we had fun doing yoga out in the cow fields! We also had fun petting the horses and bouncing the volleyball around some more.

Next day we were heading on a day trip and hte other group was studying so we went to bed early! 

Friday

We headed to Chillagoe, which is about 2.5 hours inland from where we currently are. That means more dry and red dirt, but also cool rock and cave formations. There is a huge presence of limestone in that area which has created intricate cave systems with automatic "air conditioning" like the place we saw in Turkey (family you know what I mean). But it was really nice as the day was super hot. There are these amazing trees that extend their roots all the way through to the soil at the bottom of the caves, which is crazy! We also did some crawling in small places and looked for the funny formations in the rock. It was cool to see some fossils in the rock too (as limestone comes from old coral systems).

As it was still blisteringly hot in the mid australia life, we went to a water billabong and swam around, jumping off rocks and taking underwater selfies! We then got down to more work by investigating a new ecosystem called dry vine thicket and the strategies it takes to conserve water. This happened to be in a beautiful park where we looked at some old aboriginal paintings and also got to watch a spectacular sunset, (after counting and measuring 100 leaves for part of an experiment)!

At the end of the day we headed to a local pub for fun! WE played pool and darts and drank the local beer and cider ( which I am still a big fan of ) and ejnoyed our time!

Saturday and Sunday

These two days were dedicated to studying and taking exams and doing runs and ab workouts.

We did have an interesting talk from the aboriginal people who live near this area, and how they have been and are still mistreated by their goverment. It seems so odd still to me that this issue is not brought to the forefront of discrimination movements.  

So we have a huge hike tomorrow and I just finished my field book, so I am going ot watch the end of the movie the Red Dog, which is pretty iconic australian, and maybe play some cards and head to bed because two tests in two days and a whole work book is exhausting.

Excited for free days! See ya soon. 

life in the boonies (aka north queensland)

Monday- travel

So it was a terribly early morning but we hopped on a plane and flew for 2 hours and ended up in an entirely new landscape. The dry jungly forest and rolling ocean was a nice view on our way to the new home in what the our professor calls the troopie! It was a long windy drive, but we soon found ourselves at a cattle ranch in the middle of the rainforest, which I know is kind of hard to picture, but it is essentially rolling fields with rainforest on the edges. We then quickly got to know our 2 person tents and find the bathrooms and showers and explore the landscape. After a few lectures about all the dangerous animals we may encounter and how we can die (including getting a leech in your eye! lol. this doesnt kill you so dont worry!). We then snuggled into our tents ready for a new day. ALSO: important note, the food here is AMAZING, and there is a constant supply of food, which makes us very happy =).

Tuesday

So we started out the day with some lectures about geology and how the land and weather works in Australia. Then we had some down time, where some people went running, and others played volleyball over the cattle fence, which was fun and innovative!

Then we went into the rainforest to learn about some of the local flora and fauna in person. There are these birds that build huge nests of detritus and use the warmth from the decomposition reactions to keep their eggs at the correct temperature. There are also crazy vines that have nasty prickers which attach to the other plants and use them to grow. We also learned that because there were no monkeys that grew and evolved with the flora in Australia, none of the fruit tastes good, as birds have different palates.

When we came back we had another delicious dinner with some chocolate pudding! Then we headed out to a campfire and told scary ghost stories and long jokes which was a blast! We really get to bond on this part of the trip since we are forced to be together and get dirty! hehe.

Wednesday

Again that morning we had some fun times in lecture learning about the local plant evolution and species in the local area. After a good breakfast of nutella and some chamomile tea it was a good time. Often, I say hello to the horses who hang out by our dorm.

In the afternoon we ventured into the forest once again to do some tree logging and examine the difference between the dry forest and the rain forest. Without natural or man created bush fires, the rainforest will encroach into the dry forest ecosystem, which causes some more issues with regards to whether or not there should be regulated fires or not, and which species or ecosystem to save. That took a long part of the day, but of course we had to go swimming when we got back.

So what we thought would be a short walk to a creek ended up being a hike in bathers and thongs (flip flops) through the jungle, across logs and in the squelching mud. It was a ton of fun and we exfoliated in the thick almost quicksand mud, fell off broken branches and joked about leeches. yay australia! WE then returned and showered! AFter some more SCRUMPTIOUS spag bol (spaghetti Bolognese, we had a quiz night on australia slang and pop culture. We scored a 16/22 which was not too shabby!  Then we went on a night hike and found a lot of spiders (which is a bit disconcerting) a bright green frog and some sleeping birds.

FrEEE dayzzz

Wednesday and thursday

Basically I just studied and took an exam, so nothing exciting there! Also the wifi is struggling with photos so this one will just be words, sorry!

Friday

First free day in Sydney! Whoop! So on that day many people went off into the wilderness of the blue mountains, but we were planning on doing that on Saturday, so I had a few more things I wanted to tick off my list in Sydney. Off to the opera house we went, but this time we went INSIDE! Which was super cool! So they have a variety of spaces including three smaller theatre venues of which we got to see one. We also learned about the history of the building and how sadly the original designer faced some skirmishes during the end of the building project and never saw his biggest life time creation in person. Now, they are working on rebuilding some of the inside to reflect his original interior design. Then, we proceeded to the big concert hall, where they were preparing for a showing of the matrix accompanied by a live orchestra, which was supposed to be incredible. The inner space was intriguing with ribbed varieties of wood and an expansive ceiling. Funnily enough, though, the builders built a poor acoustic space with up to 2.4 seconds of lag, which seemed a bit of a waste in this modern day and age but you know, it was still pretty!

Then we headed across the harbour bridge which was a nice view and an iconic sydney going activity! The View from the tip would have been cool, but it was a wee bit too expensive AND you don't get to take your own pictures (the blasphemy).

Saturday - blue mountains

We woke in the wee hours of the morning to board the train to kotoomba, which is the closest town to the blue mountains. After a walk down the towns mainstreet and getting a little lost, we found the starting point of the great staircase that walks you past the three sisters. The long was steep as we traversed into the depths of the rainforest at the bottom. The undergrowth was covered in leaves and ferns and wild looking plants. White birds fluttered in the threes and water trickled down the rock faces. It was a nice hour long walk or so before we began to ascend once again. That was when we had the remarkable views of the three sisters and took lots of picturesque shots. Glad to be back at the top, we devoured some delicious pasta and headed home. Submitted our essays so we could enjoy our day trip on Sunday!


Sunday - wine, cheese, vodka, and chocolate, what more could you want?!

So we rolled out of bed bright and early to get on a bus to hunter valley, where many of the australian wines are brewed! It was ridiculously picturesque with rolling hills and vines and of course kangaroos chilling out (which of course we were freaking out about, but the aussies just feel like they are deer). We tried a variety of whites and reds, which were pretty young, and learned about the differences between the grapes and growing and fermentation and all that jazz. we then journeyed to a cheese place, where we had some cheese on a stick, which was quite tasty! We had some brie, goat cheese soaked in chives, and several others which were really yummy! Then we snagged some lunch before hitting up the vodka tasting, which was super cool. WE had everything from chocolate to mango to chili (which was REALLY spicy lol).  then we had a bit of chocolate before heading back to one last wine tasting place. Feeling tired and a little alcohol happy, we headed home and hung out on the roof of the hostel and packed up getting ready for out journey to the wilderness!

So here I am in the middle of no where! I will let you know more about that in my next blog post, coming soon to computers near you ;)

Sept 22nd and 23rd - Art, theatre, and aboriginal face art =)

Hello again dear people who read this blog! Hope you have been enjoying it! Just as a warning I have a test on Thursday and an essay to work on for Friday, so the next few days don't really require a post! But here's the past few....

22nd

Today we wandered all the way to the New South Wales art gallery where we had class in the morning and a tour in the afternoon. The tour was focused on Aboriginal art once again as we learned about the different areas and commissioning projects the museums have made for the representation of native artwork. In addition to the traditional artwork there was some modern artwork as well. One was a poem from an african american talking about the bitterness of the fruit of his land but how it also is his heart. I found it interesting that such a quote could be used for multiple cultures and multiple issues speaking of a same bitterness and longing for what the white man took away. The dualities between US and Australian regimes grow the more we learn about Australian history, and the subtle differences in why they are different. In the same exhibit was a clothes line ( the square kind, with hanging bats of aboriginal design) which could poetically claim the right of the aboriginals to say to the land as well as their Australian counterparts.

We later hurried home to see Macbeth played in the sydney theatre. It was an intriguing performance with a simple set and the seats were on the stage looking out at the audience which was used in their production. Memories of the important lines from those many years ago in 10th grade sprung back as we watched the intense performance. One thing they did was to pour a cup of liquid blood on all those killed in the show, giving a very visceral effect of the bloodiness of the deaths often not captured in theatre to quite that drama. Any one person holds the power to pour and spill the blood in a body and the red liquid never left the stage and was in sight, never to be forgotten as for macbeth.  It was fun to watch theatre as I miss my normal sport backstage at home. =p

23rd

Today we went to a national park to listen to a native aboriginal guide talk about the land that he knows so well. He taught us about leaves that will cure basic illness, berries that will cause sterility, leaves you can wash your hands with, and fuzzy leaves that just tasted like rocket (arugula). Additionally we learned about the culture of that tribal land where they get face painted and their front tooth knocked out as a young adult and scarred with your own tooth. We also were lucky to see the ceremonial grounds and the drawings of the creatures important to that tribe which are killer whales (who used to be in the area until the british colonised) and jelly fish. I was lucky enough to be chosen as a volunteer for the face makeup which was cool! It was incredible to remark upon the knowledge that he and his people had collected over the past 50,000 years and to learn just a little of their vast knowledge of the land.

The rest of the day was devoted to doing research and doing our cultural diaries and getting a head start on our essays.  I will be writing about the differences between Australian and US governments and how their evolution from Britain shaped the styles they have today.

whoo so much to dooo so little timmme (and wifi)

So here's a blast through version of the past 4 days, sorry I have been slacking we have just been awfully busy!

18th Sept

We had class in the morning about sports and white history with regards to the wars and immigration and such australian matters. We also learned about compulsory voting laws and how that creates and increased democratic involvement from the people. For lunch we snuck in some quick noms at a dim sum restaurant and panicked a bit because we were heading to parliament really soon after.

So we arrived at parliament in due time reading to go into the local state's (New South Wales) question time (which is the most fun part of governments of all time. I also think that america should adopt this policy as more stuff would happen if we actually bothered to question our actions in government).  For those who don't know what it is it is a time for the opposition and the party in power to ask the premier and his cabinets any questions which they find important (though this usually ends up being a dissing of the each other). The opposition that day seemed to find great issue with several alleged helicopter rides taken by the minister of health who happily avoided the question whilst promoting her own work and dissing the opposition for asking stupid questions. Of course they were angry and yelled in protests and most people were given strikes for being too loud and obnoxious (which was absolutely hilarious to the rest of us). The party in power even used props at one point to diss the opposition with a credit card with one of their faces on it which was forcibly removed as that is apparently against the rules. To say the least it was fun! I didn't take any pictures so sorry about that.

Then we went on a run and the view was pretty!

19th Sept

Today we had class once more and learned about australian modern culture and perception with sports and figures and music. They seem to adapt and want to be accepting of everything that could possibly come up. Then we found ourselves at the barracks museum again ( I was right in predicting that we would be back. But I already posted about that so no need to bore you again.

We then trekked across the city (we walk SO much) to the rocks which is a cool little sailors town. There were some cool stories about how they shipped someone in liquor (to preserve him) and then drank that liquor in celebration (ew). But it was quaint to walk around the newly decorated yet old style buildings with hte constant mixture of old a new in a cool urban centre. It was then time to walk home and do gelato once again (which has become a favourite activity of ours!)

20th
Today was beach day! So we boarded a bus and headed to bondi, the famous surfing beach! At first, we were given some information on the history of surfing and life guarding and patrolling. Teh beach has lots of riptides (including one call the backpackers one because a lot get stuck in it), which reuqire a lot of safety patrolling. So there are lifeguards and volunteer patrollers who work at the beach for their love of the place and the safety of those of want to join.

Then we went lawn bowling (which is very similar to bocce ball) on the grassy lawns. We were instructed to not dent the grass and to ensure proper bowling technique. The trick with lawn bowling is the fact that the balls are weighted on one side so they curve towards the end of the roll, which requires more strategy and skill than just tossing around the bocce ball.

After that we had free time at the beach, so of course we went into the rough tide! It was exciting waves as we caught and were rumbled by a few. Seeing as spring has only just begun the water was a little on the chilly side, but that's okay! I caught some waves, watched the surfers, inhaled some sea water, and drank some hot chocolate. It was quite the day!

We then headed to a rugby match when we got home. It was the Sea Eagles versus the Bulldogs and as the bulldogs colours were blue (my fav) and they scored the first try, I decided to root for them. After buying my scarf at half time, the Sea Eagles had a major come back and I was beginning to worry that my scarg might be the wrong colour. But after overtime (which is sudden death) the bulldogs scored a drop kick and we were victorious!

21st

Today we had a free day so we went to the zoo! We saw all the cool australian animals including, wombats, wallabies, echidnas, platypuses, koalas, kangaroos, and many other marsupials that are cute and nocturnal! Luckily, we saw a joey in a pouch of a wallaby which was pretty cool. We also got to see elephants doing tricks for a trainer which was cool and he discussed how the elephant understood both thai and english words for the same command, which means he is basically smarter than me! haha. It was a fun day and I thoroughly enjoyed watching and seeing all the unique animals we hardly ever get to see elsewhere in the world! Also, the platypuses were just adorable in the way that they swam around in the dark ( and was nice to see as they are a childhood favourite of mine). Also there was this pretty iconic view of the giraffe against sydney harbour which was pretty stunning!

This is a photo from our run which was pretty gorgeous!

Sept 17- we actually start learning things =)

Sept 17th

So today we began class in a local convention centre place where we could all fit. We began with subjects of Aboriginal culture learning about their dream culture and the way they respect the land to be untouched. I had no conception of how much earlier humans had arrived in Australia versus the Americas. As we progressed through history we learned about the not so talked about violence and skirmishes between the colonists and aboriginals as they landed to form their penal colony. We also just discussed the colonisation of white australians and the tough class system that the penal colony caused class issues later on. The theme seems to be that Australians hung very deeply to their British roots wanting to enforce similar systems and just recreate the country they came from.

We quickly grabbed some yummy noodles in Chinatown and rushed to the Sydney Museum of Natural History. There we found an amazing collection of stuffed mammals unique to australia including some stuffed kangaroos, koalas, and platypi! There was also a vast collection of incredible minerals which can all be found in Australian land and were really pretty. For the second part we had an amazing tour guide who told us all about aboriginal culture explaining everything from dreaming, and stories told to pass on important survival information and learning what the variety of tools they use. More touching was his account of all of the hardships that the native people have faced. They were classified under flora and fauna so essentially animals until 1975, which seems absolutely ridiculous. There was a law in place that allowed for a parent to ask for all aboriginal kids to be removed from a school and then were denied any further education. Looking at apartheid and racial movements in america, this issue seems right up there but gets no attention whatsoever. Luckily, things have improved for native australians, but they still face some problems at times.

After the museum I went on a run with 2 friends through the botanical garden and almost died over the 4 miles run, but the views were indeed gorgeous. We then had some leftover pasta and then went on a mission to find gelato and after going the wrong direction for a while found it and enjoyed the scrumptious delight that was this gelato. Robert Brownie jr was definitely the best flavour ever.

Sept 15th and 16th - Orientation

15th sept

So today we started out going to the botanical gardens in order to do the typical ice breakers as there are 46 students on the trip and it is a lot of new names to learn! So we learned names and interesting facts ranging from a hatred of buttons to having a snail as your high school mascot.  By the end I had a pretty good feeling of most people's names so that was great and (more importantly) we got some more tim tams and lemingtons (which are yummy sponge cake things covered in chocolate and coconut shavings) for tea.

After that we were sent off on a scavenger hunt across some of sydney important landmarks. Starting with the opera house and going to the national are museum, barracks, parliament house, fountain and masonic building we were rather exhausted! Along the way we had some laughs and figured out that we had managed to walk some 7 miles during the day. We came home and wrote a rap to the tune of "fresh prince of bell air" which was fun! And we learned how the city functioned and made some new friends =).

This is my scavenger hunt team (above)! We had chinese food for dinner and shared all our crazy performances ranging from a dramatic reading of a haiku to a song to the tune of raindrops on roses! It was a good first day.

16th Sept

Today we had a bus ride to a beautiful location for some introductory lectures. We covered the basics of each of the classes we will be teaching along with some normal paperwork etc. The pictures of what is coming up look absolutely fabulous and I'm so excited for the rest of the trip and also for the upcoming lectures on australia studies as well. We had lunch on the balcony and spotted a kookaburra in a gum tree! So we all started singing that childhood song and it is still stuck in my head lol. 

Then we went on a boat ride through the Sydney Harbour in order to see thing from a different perspective. We had an old opinionated and funny tour guide who discussed the local housing prices and told stories about funny phrases like "madder than a meat cleaver" and "busier than a one-legged man in an ass kicking contest." There were indeed some gorgeous views of the city and surrounding area and well it's always a good time to be on a boat!

We then headed home and decided to save food money by cooking in the hostel, so 3 friend made some spaghetti with chicken in an olive oil sauce and we have enough for tomorrow too. After that we were frustrated with the wifi in the hostel as too many people were trying to get on in so we headed to the bar next door to have some better access. So I'm currently sitting sipping a sydney sider (cider) with like 8 friends all on our laptops scrambling to do tomorrow's reading. And with that I will see you another day!

Sept 14th - I'm no longer alone! YAY!

So today I ended my stint of loneliness today as all the other Stanford people arrived today! I woke up early (probably due to that jetlag) and found one of the programme coordinators eating breakfast as she was attempting to learn all our names. We quickly began chatting about exciting things in the upcoming activities like a senate simulation and a scavenger hunt (which will happen tomorrow! =)  Soon enough, students arrived from their early red eye flights awfully tired and disoriented. Its was so exciting to see familiar faces of my freshman and sophomore dorm mates and to have people to chat with after a few days of solitude.

As we couldn't check into our room until 2 everyone wanted to walk to keep themselves awake. So my group headed to the botanical gardens, where one member avidly looked up the many birds spotted. Australia wildlife even in the city is strange as there are egrets that wander around like pigeons and eels that live in bonds.  We had some more pretty views of the harbour again and got close up to the opera house for some better views.

We wandered back for lunch, but found that nearly all shops were closed on sundays so stopped in at a local chain called pie face and sat in the quad watching a wedding couple take their photos. On our way back we managed to loose Steph briefly but found her again somehow in the mayhem of Westfield mall.

At the end of the day we had a barbecue on the roof where everything was served from burgers and chicken to some kangaroo loin. A few of us ended the day with some card games and enjoyed the comfort of the hostel lounge before they head off in their travel exhaustion to bed. It is fun to be with friends and ti begin to get to know some of my unfamiliar fellow classmates on our exiting journey tomorrow!

Sept 13th - rain, fishies and some nice views

Hello again, and I would like to note that this is two blogs in one day, which for anyone who knows me, is quite impressive! So as I packed for this trip, my vision of Australian weather was a tad more hot than it currently was when I woke up to pouring rain. Instead I stayed inside and interwebbed and grabbed some breakfast and waited for the rain to stop. I always pack a rain jacket for rain when I travel, but it hardly ever gets worn. But, due to the fact that I live in San Diego (where it NEVER rains) and grew up in London (where it always rains) it was quite nice to sip tea and stare out the window.

Once the rain let up I began my wander stopping first at St Mary's Cathedral, which was quite beautiful with typical gothic architectural styles. They did quite well to capture an old look for a church that was only finished some 19 years ago as it took 130 years to complete. Apparently only something as grand as the olympics could serve as motivation.

After that I found myself in the old Barracks museum, a place where many of the original penal colonists passed through or resided in order to serve their time.  It was just a regular brick building with three floors that would have contained so many men who were essentially slaves to the state for the beginning period of the growing colony. While I have learned about indentured servitude and slavery with regards to United States history, I never realised the extent of the cruelty that many of the people faced who were shipped off to Australia for relatively small crimes such as burglary or fraud. In fact, according to the guide yesterday one of the most used architects was brought to Australia for forgery charges.  There were rather gruesome accounts of whippings that I thought would be unique to places with slavery (not that those were any less immoral) and not the treatment of criminal of ones own nation. Being hit so many times that it requires a 12 day recovery is something that no living creature deserves, let alone a fellow citizen. Thankfully, after a while in 1840 the people protested this form of treatment and Britain was forced to stop sending criminals to Australia. Unsurprisingly, the stigma lasted in that people removed criminals from their family trees and denied their existence. Recently, though, they said that movements were made to stop this and they had a search for your ancestors option in one of the exhibits. If only I had some cool aussie relatives to look up!

Next I took a wander through the shopping areas to look for some lunch and ended up near the sydney opera house once again. But first I stopped into a building with a cool model of sydney and had a cool exhibit on the Australian effort to fight apartheid in South Africa. Having studied the history of apartheid in school, it was cool to see the Australian perspective on the situation and what power they had to stop it.  So many things such as sports and embassy power and being a part of the commonwealth are unique to the Australian story and served as an interesting contrast to just learning the internal struggle in the country. Additionally, I just thought it was cool that the exhibit existed at all, since I've never seen something like that anywhere else that I have travelled.  

So then I found myself near the harbour going into the aquarium where the first exhibit had one of my all time favourites: the platypus! Surprisingly small (and awesome) it swam around in its odd little way and brought a smile to my face for the one time I did a presentation as a platypus in a platypus costume (hehe). There were some other cool turtles, fish, shark eggs, real sharks, a touch tank, saw nose fish, and jellies.  All of these made me happy! I was also mightily impressed with the amount that the aquarium really integrated learning about conservation and protection of many of the unique animals that reside there. The appreciation of animal before profit was moving and I felt more appreciative of the efforts after discussions of animal captivity in my recent dolphin internship.  Also random FUN FACT: sharks have to upheave their entire stomach to get rid of bones, which is why they prefer less bony things (HOW COOL)!

Then I had a nice dinner with a harbour view and headed home after a busy day. Everyone was walking in the other direction, clearly out to enjoy the nice saturday evening!

And that's a wrap. Stanford peeps come tomorrow! Whoo. Catch you all later! Peace

Travel and day 1 (10th sept - 12sept)

So after some 15 hours on wonderful Air New Zealand crafts and pacing myself through several movies and endless reruns of the Big Bang Theory, I found myself cruising over Sydney (which was a wonderful alternative to 15 hours of ocean. The pacific ocean is HUGE). As we landed I took note of the increased amount of rugby pitches (whoo) and the British driving style =) (which makes my british side very happy). Soon enough we were on the ground and I whizzed through customs with zero problems using the fancy epassport lane and was set free into the world down under.

The day was dismally grey, reminding me of what London should be and not this Australian wonder, but they are just finishing winter so it is not wholly unreasonable (just a little unexpected!) As I began to ride through the city the further british street names both made me happy but also confused  as many of those names already hold geographical locations in my brain. But the city had a much newer and tropical vibe and other than the names hold no resemblance to the ancient city.

Next I found my hostel where the Stanford group will be staying! I am 2 days early so had the whole day to myself to keep myself awake because it was only noon( If you think normal redeyes are bad try 15 hour ones that where you miss an entire day along the way). I figured if I kept walking I would be forced to stay awake so I grabbed a quick lunch of a chicken sandwich (for my hunger), Ribena (for my childhood), and tim tams (for the aussie and because they are delicious) and sat in Hyde Park which is only a few blocks away. I watched multiple groups of school children as they puttered along enjoying the outdoors and old couples taking a refreshing walk. It seemed to be a major crossing point as many people hummed across in suit and tie, yet also a place for fun as I watched some people play pickup rugby.

To keep up the walking idea, I decided to go on a walking tour of the city. We started near town hall and wandered past building such as the Victoria building (a forum for shops), and through the parks where we learned about the history of sydney (as a penal colony) and the significance of some older building such as the old hospital and barracks.  Most of these are now museums or converted for some other governmental use but still use the same foundations.  It seemed from the tour that Australia's current state depended greatly on timing as it very nearly could have been a french speaking colony! It also occurred to me how new the civilization is as it seemed to coincide roughly with american timelines leaving not a lot of western history there. However, not much was discussed of aboriginal people aside from the fact that they were sadly pushed out of the city boundaries and a very small population remains. We ended up around the rock, which is an area by the harbour with a lovely view of the opera house and the famous bridge which is also known as the coat hanger!

I grabbed a meat pie on the way home and pretty much hopped into bed as I was absolutely exhausted and woke up 12 hours later! Now I get to decide what to do today with the pouring rain outside.

Until next time, Peace!

G'day everyone! So as probably know I will be heading off to the land down under for study abroad this coming fall. We will be going to 5 different locations to study some of the amazing ecosystems that Australia has to offer, including the Great Barrier Reef (where I will most definitely be SCUBA diving and studying sea cucumbers)! Though my internet access may be sporadic, I hope to keep you all up to date with what will be going on during my trip. For now, I must pack so thus the countdown begins to Sept 10 where my journey begins at the wonderful LAX airport. Woohooo! Aussie Aussie Ausssie! Oi Oi Oi!