This Weekend a bunch of girls and i went and saw valentines day in town, it was a great movie! The movies are very similar to back in the states, they do however have different candy....unfourtunatley no sour patch watermelons :( We went shopping pretty much all day saturday because it was rainy and we felt the need to spend a lot of money, which i did..... we were suposed to go into town today to go to the markets, but didnt get the chance due to the tsunami warning!, yeah they get those here! I later learned that their largest 'tsunam'i wave was 30 centimeters high, meaning that we could have gone, but i didnt want to take any chances i dont want any huge rouge wave taking me only a month into my trip! So we stayed in and relaxed and i did a bit of homework :)
cheers
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
First week of classes!
The first week of classes is already over and I cannot believe how fast it has gone by and that I have already been in this beautiful country very close to a month!
We went to the pool yesterday and made friends with a little Australia possum (they have furry black tails here!), and are much cuter than the ones at home! the little guy really wanted to get into the pool area and was running back and forth along the fence. Here in Australia they have no rabies so that's one potential deadly thing crossed off the list, however these little buggers have claws so they can treat you like a tree apparently and tear you up..... cute factor just went down a little but what is Australian fauna if its not deadly?
Next week practicals for most of my classes start and i get to begin to raise my little barramundi, he doesn't have a name yet but i will find a suitable one :) our first field trip to Orpheus Island is coming up and my 4 qualifying dives are approaching as well, next weekend. Going to get my advanced certification here, where we dive the U.S Yongala which is 99 feet down! and a wreck dive! It also was ranked the number one dive site in the world a couple years back! It also is home to quite a few species of shark!!! We are also planning to do a cage dive! for anyone who doesn't know or hasn't seen what that is, its when brave soul gets in a steel submerged "jail cell" and swims with sharks while they are being fed.!!! coolest thing ever!
We are going to book our spring break trip to New Zealand this weekend so the airfare is somewhat cheaper! So excited!
cheers
We went to the pool yesterday and made friends with a little Australia possum (they have furry black tails here!), and are much cuter than the ones at home! the little guy really wanted to get into the pool area and was running back and forth along the fence. Here in Australia they have no rabies so that's one potential deadly thing crossed off the list, however these little buggers have claws so they can treat you like a tree apparently and tear you up..... cute factor just went down a little but what is Australian fauna if its not deadly?
Next week practicals for most of my classes start and i get to begin to raise my little barramundi, he doesn't have a name yet but i will find a suitable one :) our first field trip to Orpheus Island is coming up and my 4 qualifying dives are approaching as well, next weekend. Going to get my advanced certification here, where we dive the U.S Yongala which is 99 feet down! and a wreck dive! It also was ranked the number one dive site in the world a couple years back! It also is home to quite a few species of shark!!! We are also planning to do a cage dive! for anyone who doesn't know or hasn't seen what that is, its when brave soul gets in a steel submerged "jail cell" and swims with sharks while they are being fed.!!! coolest thing ever!
We are going to book our spring break trip to New Zealand this weekend so the airfare is somewhat cheaper! So excited!
cheers
Monday, February 22, 2010
Australian student!
Today was the first day of classes for me and i didn't get lost!!! YAY! all my classes are amazing! my Conserving marine wildlife professor as his side job and research collects and tags sea turtles! I'm going to talk to him and see if he needs a set of extra hands :).
In my intro. to aquaculture class we get to raise a baby barramundi and select a food we think will work to get the highest protein to food ratio!! My aquaculture class is also a video lecture where we are in a class room and our teacher is presenting to us and another class in cairns, that we can see them in our class via video and they can see us! its pretty cool!
Then in my life history and evolution of coral reefs we take a 3 day field trip to Orpheus Island and dive and snorkel and do research on a certain coral species! Then do a project on our selected coral! So pretty much I have died and gone to coral heaven here! so far the classes seem all about the same toughness but it is only the first week.
My Coral Reef geomorphology class seems really cool as well, we also get to go on a weekend trip to Orpheus Island and get to these cool measurements of the beaches and different types of beach. the teacher seems really cool, he's from New Zealand!
It is still surreal to be in classes after not being in school for soo long, but I'm now worried its going to fly by! so we are now starting to book all out adventures to varies islands and under water wrecks :)
In my intro. to aquaculture class we get to raise a baby barramundi and select a food we think will work to get the highest protein to food ratio!! My aquaculture class is also a video lecture where we are in a class room and our teacher is presenting to us and another class in cairns, that we can see them in our class via video and they can see us! its pretty cool!
Then in my life history and evolution of coral reefs we take a 3 day field trip to Orpheus Island and dive and snorkel and do research on a certain coral species! Then do a project on our selected coral! So pretty much I have died and gone to coral heaven here! so far the classes seem all about the same toughness but it is only the first week.
My Coral Reef geomorphology class seems really cool as well, we also get to go on a weekend trip to Orpheus Island and get to these cool measurements of the beaches and different types of beach. the teacher seems really cool, he's from New Zealand!
It is still surreal to be in classes after not being in school for soo long, but I'm now worried its going to fly by! so we are now starting to book all out adventures to varies islands and under water wrecks :)
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Magnetic Island
Yesterday we took the ferry over to Magnetic island, which is a half hour city bus ride to the ferry dock, from there a ten minute ferry ride to the actual island. we got off and hopped on a bus and headed to Arcadia Bay, were we ate lunch at a really nice hostel, that only cost 18 bucks a night! so needless to say we are coming back! after lunch we crossed the street to Geoffrey Bay and relaxed on the beach tanning and popping in and out of the water, until we walked over to the waterfalls and went swimming in beautiful freshwater pools, and climbed all over the waterfalls! Then we caught a bus to Horseshoe Bay, which has drop dead gorgeous views, I couldn't believe this little island was just across the water from school! We went swimming for the rest of the afternoon until it was time to catch the ferry back! Perfect day again in paradise!
Reef HQ Aquarium
Went to the Reef HQ aquarium, which is in downtown Townsville, this morning with Steph and Jackie. It is the worlds largest indoor coral reef system! I was SO excited to go! we got a private tour of the turtle hospital because we told the people working there that we work at MARC back in the states, which also does marine animal rehabilitation, and got to see the hospital. Where they care for the turtles that come in sick. it was an amazing experience! We also were there for the daily feed and watched as the caretakers feed the fire fish, stone fish and a deadly sea snake, nautilus, clown fish, and hippo tangs! they even have a predator tank with huge reef sharks and groupers! It was amazing and I want to work there!!! After we walked all around down town Townsville.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
GR
Settling into the dorm and making a bunch of new friends. Everyone whose Australian thinks peanut butter and jelly is weird, they much rather eat Vegemite... which I have yet to be brave enough to try... yuck! the food here is umm food i guess... not that great but I'll make it!
Today I got my schedule all figured out (way more complicated than back home) and now I just have to make sure i don't get too lost, in the jungle that is campus, trying to find my buildings! The campus here looks like something out of LOST and is HUGE. It takes me about 20 minutes walking to get to the library! and you have to pay to print anything here! and they have internet quotas, meaning you are allotted a certain amount of internet hours a month, if you go over to have to buy more, how weird it that!
Today I got my schedule all figured out (way more complicated than back home) and now I just have to make sure i don't get too lost, in the jungle that is campus, trying to find my buildings! The campus here looks like something out of LOST and is HUGE. It takes me about 20 minutes walking to get to the library! and you have to pay to print anything here! and they have internet quotas, meaning you are allotted a certain amount of internet hours a month, if you go over to have to buy more, how weird it that!
Monday, February 15, 2010
O Week
As "O" week (aka orientation week) continues we have more events planned for us. We have free trips to the largest Coral reef not found in the ocean... the Reef HQ aquarium, where I may never leave, they will have to restrain me from jumping into the tank. We also have the chance to go to the Billabong Sanctuary, where you can hold a koala, so you can never hold too many of those so I will probably be there! We stopped into this place called 'sharkies' on campus, which sets up trips and diving adventures all over Australia! so I picked up like a million flyers for Frasier Island, Whitsunday Islands, Cape Tribulation, and the wreck dive off the coast where we can dive the S.S yuganda! I decided I'm joining the JCU dive club where they have a bunch of trips including weekend dive adventures, where all you do is dive for 3 days straight and camp out on Orpheus Island! We are also signing up for a weekend surf training in Brisbane on March 19th and are looking up flights to New Zealand for spring break and possibly Bali!
Classes start on Monday and I can not wait! I am enrolled in Introduction to Aquaculture, Life History and Evolution of Coral Reefs, Conserving marine wildlife, reptiles, and birds, and Coral Reef Geomorphology! So excited to learn all about the reefs! From being here I have decided I'm extremely passionate about corals and coral species and as a future career I would love to pursue coral diversity studies and participate in projects such as, coral farming and coral cultivation!
So far I have traveled the campus and am trying the get somewhat familiar with the way University life works over here, its a lot different from the states and their systems are much more complicated, but I think its all under control! :)
Classes start on Monday and I can not wait! I am enrolled in Introduction to Aquaculture, Life History and Evolution of Coral Reefs, Conserving marine wildlife, reptiles, and birds, and Coral Reef Geomorphology! So excited to learn all about the reefs! From being here I have decided I'm extremely passionate about corals and coral species and as a future career I would love to pursue coral diversity studies and participate in projects such as, coral farming and coral cultivation!
So far I have traveled the campus and am trying the get somewhat familiar with the way University life works over here, its a lot different from the states and their systems are much more complicated, but I think its all under control! :)
Saturday, February 13, 2010
TOWNSVILLE
Woooo what a week in Cairns, now off to Townsville to the James Cook campus! we had the four hour drive to Townsville a couple of days ago and arrived around 3:00 and were amazed at how beautiful the campus was and um HUGE! we got off the bus and of course our luggage was on the second bus, so we got our keys and walked to our rooms which are so nice! everyone here has their own personal room even freshers (aka freshman) and they don't ever share rooms, that was different. Nothing like freshman year in the states.
They have some crazy competition between dorms here like in Harry potter! I live in George Roberts Hall and our huge rivals are Uni hall, where Steph lives. They also don't call their dorms 'dorms' they are called 'colleges' and the college is a 'university', which they shorten and call 'Uni'.... weird and confusing yes. They also call anyone whose not a freshman ("Fresher") a "fossil", I guess meaning old and been here awhile ha ha. Monday starts the beginning of "O" week, where there are crazy competitions and toga parties and all sorts of things. We even have to learn a war cry!? so different from the states...hazing is legal here I'm pretty sure I have to walk around campus in a bandana or something, for the whole week that has my name written on it and if I don't and a fossil catches me they write my name on my forehead in permanent marker, YIKES. (which did end up happening one night...)
A couple of days ago we took the bus into town to the mall called Stalkland, which was huge and I think I saw every inch of it as we were wandering around trying to remember where exactly we came in from. It wasn't much different from the malls in the states except it was all one floor and there were grocery stores and stores like walmart attached to it, not called walmart, but called the Big W. We got some needed school stuff and snacks as well as, and I had to buy a blanket cause leaving the AC on all night I almost woke us as an ice cube, and if it is not on you are just a puddle on the sheets, no happy medium in the tropics.
Yesterday, a group of us took the city bus into town to the beach, called the Strand, and spent the entire day sun bathing and swimming in the ocean, well in the blocked off swim area in nets called 'stinger nets' so the extremely deadly and painful marine stingers the size of a large button don't kill you....safe....or eaten by a shark, no need to worry mom totally safe! well i was in the water and made it out alive :) in one day I feel confident enough to say i am tan!
Today is a day i just get relax and get all the million school things that need to be done, done. The food here is umm, I never thought I would say i missed school food but, its much more plain and not what's the word, tasty ha ha.
more pictures to come!
They have some crazy competition between dorms here like in Harry potter! I live in George Roberts Hall and our huge rivals are Uni hall, where Steph lives. They also don't call their dorms 'dorms' they are called 'colleges' and the college is a 'university', which they shorten and call 'Uni'.... weird and confusing yes. They also call anyone whose not a freshman ("Fresher") a "fossil", I guess meaning old and been here awhile ha ha. Monday starts the beginning of "O" week, where there are crazy competitions and toga parties and all sorts of things. We even have to learn a war cry!? so different from the states...hazing is legal here I'm pretty sure I have to walk around campus in a bandana or something, for the whole week that has my name written on it and if I don't and a fossil catches me they write my name on my forehead in permanent marker, YIKES. (which did end up happening one night...)
A couple of days ago we took the bus into town to the mall called Stalkland, which was huge and I think I saw every inch of it as we were wandering around trying to remember where exactly we came in from. It wasn't much different from the malls in the states except it was all one floor and there were grocery stores and stores like walmart attached to it, not called walmart, but called the Big W. We got some needed school stuff and snacks as well as, and I had to buy a blanket cause leaving the AC on all night I almost woke us as an ice cube, and if it is not on you are just a puddle on the sheets, no happy medium in the tropics.
Yesterday, a group of us took the city bus into town to the beach, called the Strand, and spent the entire day sun bathing and swimming in the ocean, well in the blocked off swim area in nets called 'stinger nets' so the extremely deadly and painful marine stingers the size of a large button don't kill you....safe....or eaten by a shark, no need to worry mom totally safe! well i was in the water and made it out alive :) in one day I feel confident enough to say i am tan!
Today is a day i just get relax and get all the million school things that need to be done, done. The food here is umm, I never thought I would say i missed school food but, its much more plain and not what's the word, tasty ha ha.
more pictures to come!
Monday, February 8, 2010
Landed Down Under!!!
Well! finally made it to Aussie!!! safe and sound on Saturday. We landed in the Brisbane airport and the views from the plane were amazing! it was SO hot when we landed, 92 degrees! We landed in Brisbane and then flew two hours to cairns (which is really pronounced 'cans'). We got to get of the plane from a ladder onto the tarmac, it was so cool, I had always wanted to do that! We then had to haul our collectively 130 pound luggage like 100 meters (metric system) to the van that waited for us. Thought my arms were not going to be joining me on the bus, and i probably lost the equivalent to a few liters in sweat.
We rode to the hostel, the Bohemian Resort, and lugged our luggage to our dorm style rooms, which was a flash back to freshman year but cooler, cause I mean its Australia! We all went out as a group to dinner at a restaurant where we got our first Australia sense of food, we all got the hamburger of course, you should have seen the other items on the menu... However, what came out of the kitchen was more like a burnt meatball between two pieces of bread covered with plants from the garden outside. It wasn't too awful, because I think I was beyond starving at that point, I would have eaten anything.
The next day the blue group (me!) got to go on the day trip to the Great Barrier reef, which turned out to be the most picture perfect day ever, not a single cloud in the sky and a steady temperature of 85 (haha yup it was February!) We got to scuba dive the reef which was the most amazing thing i have EVER done! The variety of coral species was outstanding! things I have never ever seen before and so many colors and coral everywhere! We were able to touch giant clams and coax huge groupers in for a pet! and I even got to see a Morey Eel!!! (kept my distance because I think he might of been hungry). I also saw a yellow spotted ray and a box jelly (yeah they are deadly). After diving we were able to snorkel around for a couple hours, which meant I was the last one back in the boat. We had to rent "stinger suits" which are these really attractive bright blue hooded and gloved skin tight suits to prevent jellyfish stings.
The next day we had a jungle tour, where we got the chance to see the island that Steve Erwin died off the coast of. We got to lick green ant butts, yeah.... They taste green applely, not bad. We drove around crazy windy roads with rock jungle tree vines everywhere on one side then cliffs on the other side. We got to see AMAZING views and walk through Gossamer Gorge and swim in a river! We then went to a sort of zoo slash wild bird area, that had a couple of koalas and a snake which I had my picture taken with. It also had a huge area to walk around feeding and petting kangaroos, I even got my picture with one giving me a little kiss. We traveled to the Daintree river where we took an hour long cruise and got to see a baby salt water crocodile, along with a few species of king fishers (type of bird related to kookaburras) and a bunch of mangrove species. We then made our trek back to Cairns while stopping to get homemade ice cream and snap pictures of crocodile island. we also stopped at Cape Tribulation where I had my first encounter with a lovely species of spider called the 'golden orb'....which can get to the be the size of a hand! yea I'm just glad I saw it as I was leaving the bathroom!! This beach was the most amazing place I had ever seen, if you could jump into any beach themed post card you would end up there! It was truly breath taking!
Today we traveled up the coast a little to a nursery that helps plant fruit trees for the endangered bird, the cassowary, which is a close a relative of the dinosaur. and is super funny looking, has black hair reassembling an emu and a horn! we then went out to eat at a pub and got to eat kangaroo and crocodile burgers, which both were delicious!
We went to rainforest station and got the chance to hold a kola and throw a boomerang:) the kola, though cute, smell horrible and even pooped on someone! Thank goodness i was after them so they could clean his bum off. While there we also got to watch native aboriginal dances and listen to the didjeridu.
this almost concludes our week long orientation in Cairns, but we have had a blast exploring the night life and finding our favorite bar, called the wool shed where you can dance on tables and even have a rack to hold your drinks while doing so, we have definitely planned to come back.
No worries, until next time :)
We rode to the hostel, the Bohemian Resort, and lugged our luggage to our dorm style rooms, which was a flash back to freshman year but cooler, cause I mean its Australia! We all went out as a group to dinner at a restaurant where we got our first Australia sense of food, we all got the hamburger of course, you should have seen the other items on the menu... However, what came out of the kitchen was more like a burnt meatball between two pieces of bread covered with plants from the garden outside. It wasn't too awful, because I think I was beyond starving at that point, I would have eaten anything.
The next day the blue group (me!) got to go on the day trip to the Great Barrier reef, which turned out to be the most picture perfect day ever, not a single cloud in the sky and a steady temperature of 85 (haha yup it was February!) We got to scuba dive the reef which was the most amazing thing i have EVER done! The variety of coral species was outstanding! things I have never ever seen before and so many colors and coral everywhere! We were able to touch giant clams and coax huge groupers in for a pet! and I even got to see a Morey Eel!!! (kept my distance because I think he might of been hungry). I also saw a yellow spotted ray and a box jelly (yeah they are deadly). After diving we were able to snorkel around for a couple hours, which meant I was the last one back in the boat. We had to rent "stinger suits" which are these really attractive bright blue hooded and gloved skin tight suits to prevent jellyfish stings.
The next day we had a jungle tour, where we got the chance to see the island that Steve Erwin died off the coast of. We got to lick green ant butts, yeah.... They taste green applely, not bad. We drove around crazy windy roads with rock jungle tree vines everywhere on one side then cliffs on the other side. We got to see AMAZING views and walk through Gossamer Gorge and swim in a river! We then went to a sort of zoo slash wild bird area, that had a couple of koalas and a snake which I had my picture taken with. It also had a huge area to walk around feeding and petting kangaroos, I even got my picture with one giving me a little kiss. We traveled to the Daintree river where we took an hour long cruise and got to see a baby salt water crocodile, along with a few species of king fishers (type of bird related to kookaburras) and a bunch of mangrove species. We then made our trek back to Cairns while stopping to get homemade ice cream and snap pictures of crocodile island. we also stopped at Cape Tribulation where I had my first encounter with a lovely species of spider called the 'golden orb'....which can get to the be the size of a hand! yea I'm just glad I saw it as I was leaving the bathroom!! This beach was the most amazing place I had ever seen, if you could jump into any beach themed post card you would end up there! It was truly breath taking!
Today we traveled up the coast a little to a nursery that helps plant fruit trees for the endangered bird, the cassowary, which is a close a relative of the dinosaur. and is super funny looking, has black hair reassembling an emu and a horn! we then went out to eat at a pub and got to eat kangaroo and crocodile burgers, which both were delicious!
We went to rainforest station and got the chance to hold a kola and throw a boomerang:) the kola, though cute, smell horrible and even pooped on someone! Thank goodness i was after them so they could clean his bum off. While there we also got to watch native aboriginal dances and listen to the didjeridu.
this almost concludes our week long orientation in Cairns, but we have had a blast exploring the night life and finding our favorite bar, called the wool shed where you can dance on tables and even have a rack to hold your drinks while doing so, we have definitely planned to come back.
No worries, until next time :)
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
I hopped off the plane at LAX with a dream...
Spent the day heading all around LA's wonderful sites :) went to Newport Beach and down the Pacific Coast Highway (they drove on this during on the Bachelor!) and to Balboa Island where we had lunch, well I got breakfast naturally... :) We stopped at a nature preserve and took some beautiful pictures of birds and the water, I should probably let you know this was all happening while I was wearing flip flops, sunglasses and no coat! in the beginning of February where it was roughly 70 degrees and not a single cloud in the sky! :) We then traveled to Huntington Beach where we watched some surfers and got a little sun. Drove into Newport and along picture perfect roads all while passing AMAZING enormous homes, I can only hope to one day view the interior of :P It was an great day, but of course there had to be adventure it is the Greenwood's after all :)
As we were window shopping in Laguna Beach and people watching (saw quite a few characters, a women clearly wearing a shirt as a dress with heels, and another women looking like she escaped from some sort of hippie carnival) we went back to the car to find that it was leaking radiator fluid all over the side walk. We got in and prayed it would not over heat on the way to the gas station. We then realized when we got the the gas station that as Uncle Ray was pouring water into the radiator we were watching it free flow down the little hill out of the car....realized then we need a mechanic! took the car to a shop and walked around the beach, and watched the waves until we got the call that the car needed to stay over night and we were stranded in Laguna. We had to call and get a ride back home. :)
Had an amazing day and I hope this doesn't make everyone who just got snow on the East Coast too jealous :P
Tomorrow around midnight California time I will be flying to Australia!!! :) Pictures to come!
As we were window shopping in Laguna Beach and people watching (saw quite a few characters, a women clearly wearing a shirt as a dress with heels, and another women looking like she escaped from some sort of hippie carnival) we went back to the car to find that it was leaking radiator fluid all over the side walk. We got in and prayed it would not over heat on the way to the gas station. We then realized when we got the the gas station that as Uncle Ray was pouring water into the radiator we were watching it free flow down the little hill out of the car....realized then we need a mechanic! took the car to a shop and walked around the beach, and watched the waves until we got the call that the car needed to stay over night and we were stranded in Laguna. We had to call and get a ride back home. :)
Had an amazing day and I hope this doesn't make everyone who just got snow on the East Coast too jealous :P
Tomorrow around midnight California time I will be flying to Australia!!! :) Pictures to come!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
LAX
Here i am in LA :) the weather is really nice, a beautiful temperature of 60 degrees! WAY better then the snow and freezing snow of home :)The flight was really easy, nothing eventful I slept and read pretty much the whole time. I am hoping that my cold goes away before Thursdays' flight to Australia! :) Goodbyes in the airport to my family were pretty rough, but it's only a see you later, not a goodbye :) I am SUPER excited to be getting to Aussie soon! I can't wait! It still has yet to hit me that I'm on my way to the trip of a lifetime to a place i have dreamed about my whole entire life, and the fact I'm finally fulfilling a dream! :)
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