Things I will miss about Australia
Kookaburra's laugh
the thin ozone layer
the sun always shining
wallabies
wombats!
cool road sign
aussie slang
people knowing what I mean when I say things like "oi" and "stuff you"
rangas
at the end of a word A=er and ER=a
balcony
flynn's
easygoing people
sepoland
crazy aborignals in the downtown mall
the sunday market
constant warmth
easy job
being a tourist
colorful money
Toohey's and XXXX
the kitchen lady that says "hello there doll/love, how ya going?"
making friends at hostels from all around the world
scuba diving
aussie mates
and I suppose I could keep going but that might be more than you want to read above. I'll miss it, but nothing is going to keep me from going back someday. I'll be down under again someday.
This is probably going to be my written post, I may update occasionally with pictures though. Hope everyone enjoyed reading about my crazy times south of the equator.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Bondi beach/Coogee Beach (not sure which one) at night
underneath (one of the side posts?) the Sydney Harbour Bridge
the Australian city that rarely sleeps
A lite-brite tree in the main harbour across from the Opera House
My camera can do amazing things. I think this is Sydney at dusk. Either way isn't it purty
big arse anchor from the Maritime museum in the port city of Sydney
Fruit bats dangling from trees in Sydney Botanical Gardens
Hero of Waterloo: the oldest bar in Oz, supposedly.
Light show on the Sydney Opera House (I have 51+ pictures of this structure and half of them are in lights). So pretty
what would a port city be without a seagull?
Saturday, June 13, 2009
last days under the southern cross
I'm about a week away from coming back to America. As excited as I am to return, I know leaving is going to be a surreal experience and I'll probably weep for days on end when I return. Still, I'm making the most of what I can given my final exam schedule and financial situation. As my last update states, I was indeed in Sydney and it was an incredible place aka I plan on making my way back to it ASAP. I returned to JCU for a few days and did some studying. Then I made a visit to my mate, Trent, who lives in Cairns.
I met Trent through a couple of friends who have come to James Cook University under the same circumstance as me. I haven't hung out with him a lot this semester, mainly because he lives off campus, but being at his house and experiencing his town was a nice change from Townsville. He told me that Cairns is backpackers central. Obviously, there has been a lot built around the fact that its a big tourist location, but Cairns is surrounded by mountains, rain forests, and beaches galore. Plus its a great access point to the great barrier reef.
I avoided the rain forest hikes and the beach outings mainly because I've been doing a lot of beaching and hiking lately. The best thing I did there was take the hour long boat ride out to the GBR, which certainly deserves a better word than great for its title, but I digress. I remember seeing a lot of similar things at when I went snorkeling and sailing around Whitsundays. Fortunately, unlike that experience, it was bright and sunny all day long, which was perfect for seeing pretty deep underwater for when I took my first underwater journey of one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
It was an incredible experience. I saw the craziest, most colorful fish I've ever laid my eyes on. I spotted two sharks, I got to touch the inside of a giant clam, and I got bitten by a turtle attempting to feed it. Ah! I wanna go back and play with nemo and crush again. It wouldn't be hard to persuade me to live in Cairns, just so I could go diving all the time. Incredible, amazing, great are all just words that don't even come close to describing my diving experience there, but I've got pictures.
The rest of my time in Cairns I spent walking around the Boardwalk/Esplanade area, enjoying the sun and hanging out. My return was rather rough. I went straight to work and after I finished I came directly to uni to finish studying for a final I had today. Only two more finals to go and then I'll be done with another semester. Despite my bittersweet feelings about leaving, its always nice to be finished with another semester of college. I know all is well in America, what could go wrong with the Pens winning a Stanley cup?
I met Trent through a couple of friends who have come to James Cook University under the same circumstance as me. I haven't hung out with him a lot this semester, mainly because he lives off campus, but being at his house and experiencing his town was a nice change from Townsville. He told me that Cairns is backpackers central. Obviously, there has been a lot built around the fact that its a big tourist location, but Cairns is surrounded by mountains, rain forests, and beaches galore. Plus its a great access point to the great barrier reef.
I avoided the rain forest hikes and the beach outings mainly because I've been doing a lot of beaching and hiking lately. The best thing I did there was take the hour long boat ride out to the GBR, which certainly deserves a better word than great for its title, but I digress. I remember seeing a lot of similar things at when I went snorkeling and sailing around Whitsundays. Fortunately, unlike that experience, it was bright and sunny all day long, which was perfect for seeing pretty deep underwater for when I took my first underwater journey of one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
It was an incredible experience. I saw the craziest, most colorful fish I've ever laid my eyes on. I spotted two sharks, I got to touch the inside of a giant clam, and I got bitten by a turtle attempting to feed it. Ah! I wanna go back and play with nemo and crush again. It wouldn't be hard to persuade me to live in Cairns, just so I could go diving all the time. Incredible, amazing, great are all just words that don't even come close to describing my diving experience there, but I've got pictures.
The rest of my time in Cairns I spent walking around the Boardwalk/Esplanade area, enjoying the sun and hanging out. My return was rather rough. I went straight to work and after I finished I came directly to uni to finish studying for a final I had today. Only two more finals to go and then I'll be done with another semester. Despite my bittersweet feelings about leaving, its always nice to be finished with another semester of college. I know all is well in America, what could go wrong with the Pens winning a Stanley cup?
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Sydney!
It turns out I unintentionally lied about my travel plans for the 2 weeks I previously spoke of. I did go to Sydney for a few days and it was an incredible trip. However, my intention was to go straight to Uluru from Sydney, which as it turns out, would have cost me an arm and a leg. Which basically means that I have to come back to Australia to do everything that I did not get to do this time around.
So Sydney. It very much reminded me of a city from America, New York or Chicago, one of the large ones with millions of people. I did however enjoy how most of the time we spent there was on the shore. Basically I left Townsville thinking I wouldn't spend anytime on the beach in Sydney because it is getting to be rather cold there. But that couldn't be further from the truth. Me and my two mates spent at least 1 full day on the harbour taking heaps of photos of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.
Why so many pictures of the Opera house? Well turns out there was a light show on the Opera house. Yes I did say ON. just across the harbour was a projector on top of a building that was shining abstract art onto the domes of the Opera House. Between my friends and me, we have a collection of at least 120 pictures just of that structure. Other than that we walked around Sydney and enjoyed the views and the city itself. One highlight of the trip was Kangaroo, Crocodile and Emu pizzas for dinner on our second night there. I also tried my first Thai food the first night there for supper. All of us visiting sort of wish that we would have studied abroad in Sydney. There was just so much to do in such a concentrated area. But I suppose Townsville has its perks.
We also made it over to Manly Beach, where there were some brave souls catching some cold surf. I wanted to try surfing while I was there, but there was gloomy weather while we were there and it was cold, so I didn't go through with it. Had I made previous arrangements to do so, I definitely would have come back an Aussie surfer! Our last day/night in Sydney we spent walking from Coogee to Bondi beach. Dinner with some of my mates' friends and then staying with them in their awesome 8 person house near Coogee beach. It was a waterfilled weekend to say the least and worth every penny I spent (slash didn't spend) there.
I don't know if they'll ever read this blog, but a special thanks to Laurent and Jenny for allowing your unplanned guest stay with you. And to Doug Farquhar for breaking the ice and getting the in for me.
I suppose my last trip in Australia involves going to the Great Barrier Reef. I intend to go diving this weekend on Maggie Island this weekend and then up to Cairns to visit a friend and dive the reefs up in that area. We will see though. I don't want to lead anyone on (including myself) and then have plans fall through.
So Sydney. It very much reminded me of a city from America, New York or Chicago, one of the large ones with millions of people. I did however enjoy how most of the time we spent there was on the shore. Basically I left Townsville thinking I wouldn't spend anytime on the beach in Sydney because it is getting to be rather cold there. But that couldn't be further from the truth. Me and my two mates spent at least 1 full day on the harbour taking heaps of photos of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.
Why so many pictures of the Opera house? Well turns out there was a light show on the Opera house. Yes I did say ON. just across the harbour was a projector on top of a building that was shining abstract art onto the domes of the Opera House. Between my friends and me, we have a collection of at least 120 pictures just of that structure. Other than that we walked around Sydney and enjoyed the views and the city itself. One highlight of the trip was Kangaroo, Crocodile and Emu pizzas for dinner on our second night there. I also tried my first Thai food the first night there for supper. All of us visiting sort of wish that we would have studied abroad in Sydney. There was just so much to do in such a concentrated area. But I suppose Townsville has its perks.
We also made it over to Manly Beach, where there were some brave souls catching some cold surf. I wanted to try surfing while I was there, but there was gloomy weather while we were there and it was cold, so I didn't go through with it. Had I made previous arrangements to do so, I definitely would have come back an Aussie surfer! Our last day/night in Sydney we spent walking from Coogee to Bondi beach. Dinner with some of my mates' friends and then staying with them in their awesome 8 person house near Coogee beach. It was a waterfilled weekend to say the least and worth every penny I spent (slash didn't spend) there.
I don't know if they'll ever read this blog, but a special thanks to Laurent and Jenny for allowing your unplanned guest stay with you. And to Doug Farquhar for breaking the ice and getting the in for me.
I suppose my last trip in Australia involves going to the Great Barrier Reef. I intend to go diving this weekend on Maggie Island this weekend and then up to Cairns to visit a friend and dive the reefs up in that area. We will see though. I don't want to lead anyone on (including myself) and then have plans fall through.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Coming from America
I am officially down to my last month in Australia. Lots of stuff has happened since my last post and even more after this one.
To start I had two visitors come from America and stay with me for about 2 weeks. We met up in Brisbane and had as much of a good time as we could with the two days we had there. We stayed in a really nice bed and breakfast, where we stayed in an attic for three and of course got served complementary breakfast each morning. The room even came with a free bottle of champagne upon arrival. That night my friends and I hit the sack somewhat early and got up early to get the most out of our day.
That morning we walked along the boardwalk of the Yarra River and ended up at a market. We spent some of the morning there and then headed for the beach, more specifically the Gold Coast. We caught the train and spent the day at Surfer's paradise. Unfortunately, I still have yet to try surfing, but it was a nice relaxing day. And I finally got to body surf some waves in Australia. The reef breaks up all the waves near Townsville so if I go to the beach I pretty much just sit there and bake. Surfer's Paradise reminded me a lot of Myrtle Beach, SC though. Someone later informed me if I wanted the real surfer's beach experience, I should try Byron Bay.
That night my friends and I had dinner and we were planning on seeing some of the night life in Brisbane. Being that my friends were still jet lagged that night they fell asleep for an hour and pushing them to get up and go out was rather difficult. Fortunately, they saw the light and made it to a club. We ended up at a place with four levels, two of which we never made it to. Unbeknownst to us, until a minute after we walked in, we were at a gay club. Well we paid $7 to get in and we weren't planning on going anywhere else but back to sleep, so we stayed and danced there for some time. Funny story is the only one who got hit on by someone was one of my girl friends by a guy no less!
After that interesting night we took it easy the next morning as we were leaving for Townsville that day. We went to the botanical gardens once again via the boardwalk along the river. It was a nice morning walk. We then checked out of our room and took a taxi (even though i said never again) to the airport.
So back in Townsville, I did my best to entertain my guests while attending class. I did spend some time with them visiting Maggie island again, but I did not do any diving. Instead I layed on the beach. It seems I've been doing a lot of that lately. However, I fail to foresee the next time I go to the beach, so I'm living it up while I can.
Well all things must come to an end I suppose. My friends left on Thursday at the crack of dawn. On the bright side, I have my room back to myself and I'm finishing up with my final week of classes! Then I'm off to sydney and uluru for swot vac (study vacation) and back to North Queensland for diving trip at the GBR!
To start I had two visitors come from America and stay with me for about 2 weeks. We met up in Brisbane and had as much of a good time as we could with the two days we had there. We stayed in a really nice bed and breakfast, where we stayed in an attic for three and of course got served complementary breakfast each morning. The room even came with a free bottle of champagne upon arrival. That night my friends and I hit the sack somewhat early and got up early to get the most out of our day.
That morning we walked along the boardwalk of the Yarra River and ended up at a market. We spent some of the morning there and then headed for the beach, more specifically the Gold Coast. We caught the train and spent the day at Surfer's paradise. Unfortunately, I still have yet to try surfing, but it was a nice relaxing day. And I finally got to body surf some waves in Australia. The reef breaks up all the waves near Townsville so if I go to the beach I pretty much just sit there and bake. Surfer's Paradise reminded me a lot of Myrtle Beach, SC though. Someone later informed me if I wanted the real surfer's beach experience, I should try Byron Bay.
That night my friends and I had dinner and we were planning on seeing some of the night life in Brisbane. Being that my friends were still jet lagged that night they fell asleep for an hour and pushing them to get up and go out was rather difficult. Fortunately, they saw the light and made it to a club. We ended up at a place with four levels, two of which we never made it to. Unbeknownst to us, until a minute after we walked in, we were at a gay club. Well we paid $7 to get in and we weren't planning on going anywhere else but back to sleep, so we stayed and danced there for some time. Funny story is the only one who got hit on by someone was one of my girl friends by a guy no less!
After that interesting night we took it easy the next morning as we were leaving for Townsville that day. We went to the botanical gardens once again via the boardwalk along the river. It was a nice morning walk. We then checked out of our room and took a taxi (even though i said never again) to the airport.
So back in Townsville, I did my best to entertain my guests while attending class. I did spend some time with them visiting Maggie island again, but I did not do any diving. Instead I layed on the beach. It seems I've been doing a lot of that lately. However, I fail to foresee the next time I go to the beach, so I'm living it up while I can.
Well all things must come to an end I suppose. My friends left on Thursday at the crack of dawn. On the bright side, I have my room back to myself and I'm finishing up with my final week of classes! Then I'm off to sydney and uluru for swot vac (study vacation) and back to North Queensland for diving trip at the GBR!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
REAL FEELINGS IN 4D
I AM GOING TO MISS KATE AND CRAIRE SO MUCH. WHAT WILL I DO WITHOUT THEM SLEEPING ON MY FLOOR? WHAT WILL I DO WITHOUT THE LULL OF KATE'S SNORES EACH NIGHT? WHAT WILL I DO WITHOUT SLAPS TO THE FACE? I WISH I WAS COOL ENOUGH FOR THEM TO STAY. WHAT WILL MY LIFE BECOME...
I AM LOST WITHOUT
KATE AND CRAIRE...IN THEIR ABSENCE
MY HEART BREAKS TIMES TEN.
I AM LOST WITHOUT
KATE AND CRAIRE...IN THEIR ABSENCE
MY HEART BREAKS TIMES TEN.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Post Vacation
Here is a little update on what I have been doing since lecture recess. Midterms were technically before lecture recess but I had them all due after my break. I turned in my rabbit paper, handed in a lab paper, and took a psych stats test. This week I'm busting my butt to finish another lab paper and study for a final! So this is a sort of awakening that I have to do everything that I want in the next 7 weeks.
I celebrated by weekend by attending Groovin' the Moo, which is essentially this giant festival of music. It seemed like everyone and their mother from Northern Queensland showed up to this event. There were heaps of bands playing, various DJ's throwing down their best, and loads of people dressed in ridiculous outfits. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures. Now I wish I had brought my camera instead of my flask :).
So I partied all day during this concert by dancing and throwing up my hands whenever the bands told us too. It was a lot of fun, but I was surprised how difficult it was to keep track of the group. I gave up sometimes, but I always just floated around for too long and ended up calling my friends to find out where they were, only for them to move/me take forever to spot them. If I ever go to an event like this again, I won't try to keep with the group; its too much hassle.
After Groovin' I took a special bus back to uni and went out to town. I figured it'd be a mess because people from the concert would be there. Instead it ended up being dead. The friend that I came down with just talked to a bartender for awhile, got a cocktail, and talked on the back deck of a bar/restaurant. To end our night we got McDonald's and headed home for bed.
Today was nothing really too impressive. Still attempting to get work done, I took a not needed break and threw my boomerang in a field across the road. I don't know if Uncle Rusty has magic or if just taught me so well how to throw the thing, but I was lousy. Going from almost catching my boomerang on my first throw with uncle rusty, to not having it return to me once on my own, was pretty discouraging. I quit after awhile and now its back to homework. Wish me luck!
I celebrated by weekend by attending Groovin' the Moo, which is essentially this giant festival of music. It seemed like everyone and their mother from Northern Queensland showed up to this event. There were heaps of bands playing, various DJ's throwing down their best, and loads of people dressed in ridiculous outfits. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures. Now I wish I had brought my camera instead of my flask :).
So I partied all day during this concert by dancing and throwing up my hands whenever the bands told us too. It was a lot of fun, but I was surprised how difficult it was to keep track of the group. I gave up sometimes, but I always just floated around for too long and ended up calling my friends to find out where they were, only for them to move/me take forever to spot them. If I ever go to an event like this again, I won't try to keep with the group; its too much hassle.
After Groovin' I took a special bus back to uni and went out to town. I figured it'd be a mess because people from the concert would be there. Instead it ended up being dead. The friend that I came down with just talked to a bartender for awhile, got a cocktail, and talked on the back deck of a bar/restaurant. To end our night we got McDonald's and headed home for bed.
Today was nothing really too impressive. Still attempting to get work done, I took a not needed break and threw my boomerang in a field across the road. I don't know if Uncle Rusty has magic or if just taught me so well how to throw the thing, but I was lousy. Going from almost catching my boomerang on my first throw with uncle rusty, to not having it return to me once on my own, was pretty discouraging. I quit after awhile and now its back to homework. Wish me luck!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
4 out of 7 states
3 days ago I got back from a 2 destination trip that ran about a week. The first stop was to the second most populated city and the old capital of Australia: Melbourne, Victoria. The flight in was not a good one. My friend Kristin and I were supposed to leave Townsville at about 8 but instead we left around 10, putting us at Melbourne airport around 1:30 am. We also caught a cab, which was ridiculously expensive and after that I vow NEVER to take a cab again.
After paying the outlandish fee to get to our hostel, we checked in. The 2 men behind that counter seemed to take forever and I'm pretty positive both of them were inebriated as it was around 3 am on a Sunday night. We settled in bed just after 3 and 5 hours later we awoke to meet up with another friend of ours for breaky and checked out. We then took the tram to town where our other hostel was. Now the interesting thing about the Melbourne tram is that no one checks if you purchased a ticket/got it stamped in the machine. Essentially my friends and I got around the city for free either by walking or slipping on the tram on one of the middle/back doors unbeknown to the driver.
Our next place of accommodation was in the city at a place called Elizabeth hostel. Now for the city it was a pretty nice place. We got a three person room with a single bed and a bunked bed (which squeaked uncontrollably with any shift or movement made on it) on the top floor. On this floor, people often hung out in the lounge and were loud until all hours of the morning and smoked cigarettes out the windows in the hallway and bathroom. But really, this place was not that bad I swear.
Our first real day in Melbourne was spent walking around various parts of the city and just enjoying the scenery. There was a comedy festival during our time there and we ended up seeing two shows. One was a Wilson Dixon, who played the guitar and sang little ditties between stories. The other stand up we saw was Jim Jeffries, who was rather raunchy and a slight bigot, but hilarious (especially when you've had a few).
There were also stops to an art gallery (where I was able to sneak a few photos), the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Crown Casino (I lost A$3), The State Library (which had its own art gallery!), St. Paul's Cathedral, and an ice bar. The ice bar was super cool (no pun intended). We paid A$30 for 30 minutes into this little room where everything was made of ice. Now that sounds like a lot when its something you can sometimes get for free, but it was worth it. We got a free shot and a free cocktail, that were not only original but the best one's I've ever tasted. We got served in glasses made out of pure ice and hopped around taking pictures next to ice sculptures and ice sculpted chairs.
While in Melbourne we also decided to do the great ocean road, so we rented a car. Now my three friends and I are all 21, and you can rent a car in Australia when you are 21 (for an fee for being under 25), but we had never driven on the right said of the car/left side of the road before. We've seen it done, but actually doing it was amazingly rather easy. After a few wrong turns, we ended up heading west toward Geelong, where there is an information center. After stopping and listening to a number of suggestions, we decided to drive until we saw the 12 Apostles and then call it great adventure on the great ocean road.
Along the way we stopped at a number of small towns and off road niches and took various pictures. Some were of a famous light house, some of the beautiful scenery, people surfing in the chilly waters, etc. We stopped in a place named Wye River and ate a delicious lunch and talked to an Australian couple who had been to America about traveling. They made me think that maybe some of my Aussie friends will come and visit American someday, and then I could show them around my country! We also went a little ways up the road and turned onto a path where we saw heaps of koalas. Okay not tonnes but 4 or 5. One even had a baby on its back!
On one of our last day in Melbourne did a few relaxing things. The first was the city museum, which was the strangest museum I have ever been to. The have some bizarre exhibits of some of the history of Melbourne and old gold vaults in the basement. These vaults had been converted into mini informative cinemas. One went dark as soon as we entered and a surround sound speaker system blasted the word "GOLD" in creepy voices. After that odd experience we walked toward federation square, but on our way we discovered an ally way with heaps of terrific artwork all outside walls of various buildings. There was even a man there with a professional camera, who I guessed was from a magazine, taking pictures.
Then we walked to Lygon street near our hostel, which is supposed to be historically Italian part of the city. Oddly enough we past by loads of tai and asian cuisine, when we were finally stopped in our tracks by a little Italian man. He offered us free glasses of champagne if we ate there and along with his ludacrisly stereotypical italian antics we gave in and sat down to eat some of the best italian food i've ever tasted. My friend I was with told me it was a lot like NYC that restaurant owners grab you off of the street and tell you to eat at their establishment because "its the best!"
The day before we flew to Tasmania, we did what was by far the highlight of my excursion to Melbourne. My friend and I heard about this wine tour, so we signed up for it and we had a great time. The tour guide was a guy in his late 30s who made the bus ride out to 4 wineries we went to interesting and fun. He taught us how that wine can be made out of just about anything and how to taste it. The hosts of each winery spouted off various facts about their wine and some provided us with lunch or stuff to snack on while we tasted our beverage. Our guide also informed of us that the Victoria bush fires put a damper on the wine industry in that area, so I felt lucky to have gone.
Everyone seemed to be having a great time after we got going and soon we were all talking and sharing stories, which sounds incredibly cheesy but it was actually a fine display of what wine really does to certain people. One guy even gave us his number, invited my friend and I to hang out at the pub later that night, and told us to come visit him in Perth. We never did make it to the pub though. Instead we took a much needed nap as we had had been going non-stop since arriving in Melbourne and not getting much sleep at night. Then we ate our last dinner in melbourne and went to bed early.
Early to bed early to rise though. We had to get up at 3AM just to get ourselves to the airport for a 6AM flight. That is one thing that I really dislike about flying is that it really does seem to take all day (especially when you fly from the East coast of America to Australia) That aside we made the most of our day after landing in Hobart. We rented another car and drove into the city and stayed at a hostel called The Pickled Frog. Sounds like a strange name, but it was the best hostel I have ever stayed at. Slightly on the hippy side, but everyone there seemed to be young travelers from around the world, which made it the perfect place for us.
The start of our time in Tasmania was at the information center, where we spent a half hour or so planning places to go that day as well as the next. From the tourist information building, we drove up the road to the oldest brewery in Australia, Cascade Brewery. Our tour guide through the brewery was a short Australian guy with a speech that he had obviously rehearst so many times he could probably say it in his sleep. The interesting part about him was that anytime something went not according to plan, there was an awkward air swarming around when the guide hesitated to, for lack of a better example, answer a question. After the tour we were guided into the bar/reception area where we tried samples of beer and Australias stongest cyder.
We then drove to the top of Mt. Wellington where there was a neat view of the city. However, when we got about 30 meters below the pinacle the fog was so thick that we had to turn around and headed back to the hostel. We strolled around Hobart for the rest of the day, went shopping, planned the next day and went to bed early yet again. We got up somewhat early and enjoyed a leiusurely drive toward Port Arthur on Tasman Island, a historical site where there is a juvunial prison and other relatively famous things to see. Our drive there was spectacular, but when we arrived in port Arthur neither my friend or I wanted to pay the money to go on a historical tour so we got in our car and drove off toward Richmond. Following lunch we went to an animal farm called Zoodoo that holds a lot of native as well as exotic animals from around the world, including the famous TASMANIAN devil and one of the only monomers in the world, the echidna.
That night at the hostel we did the friendly thing, and talked with some of the other guests, starting with an American who had come over to Melbourne to work at a winery (go figure). Surprisingly I actually met an Australian from Brisbane at this hostel so we also befriended her and a Chilian, who I ended up playing a game of pool with (surprisingly we won!) I met other people who were staying there from Melbourne who ended up trying to discuss the Aborignal problem in Australia vs. the Native American problem in the US. It was an interesting 15 minute discussion and as much as I love a good discussion I wasn't having much of it and more into having a good time.
The next day was a quiet one. Somewhat relaxing in our own sort of way. We woke up in the morning, made breakfast and set off toward the Salamanca market, supposedly Australia's largest market. Kristin said she has been to bigger/better markets, but being that I've never been before, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed shopping. Perhaps its just because I was interested in buying all the touristy stuff though. After the market Kristin and I went back to the hostel for a break and then split up. She stayed in Hobart and I took the car to a Mt. Field National Park.
I'm not sure I like the concept of paying to get into a national park because after all nature is all around and I didn't need to pay money to see it. But it was in my guidebook so I did it anyway and I'm not sure it was really worth the money, but hey I got some good pictures of some waterfalls and some gigantic trees large enough to make a little hut inside the trunk of the base. Plus on the drive there I stopped on the side of the road looked out at some scenery that I swear I've seen in dozens of movies. Or at least it should be; it was that majestic. So I hiked a few trails around Mt. Field and headed back to Hobart that night where Kristin and I had a delicious steak dinner at The Ball and Chain that specialize in steak and steak sauces. Once again, some of the best food I've ever had. We ended our night with a few glasses of cyder with dinner and hit the hay early for another early flight back to Townsville, where we had a layover in Sydney, making it my 4th state visited in Australia out of 7!
All in all my lecture recess was pretty amazing. Good food, sweet drinks, and the awesome scenery. Pictures to come soon hopefully.
After paying the outlandish fee to get to our hostel, we checked in. The 2 men behind that counter seemed to take forever and I'm pretty positive both of them were inebriated as it was around 3 am on a Sunday night. We settled in bed just after 3 and 5 hours later we awoke to meet up with another friend of ours for breaky and checked out. We then took the tram to town where our other hostel was. Now the interesting thing about the Melbourne tram is that no one checks if you purchased a ticket/got it stamped in the machine. Essentially my friends and I got around the city for free either by walking or slipping on the tram on one of the middle/back doors unbeknown to the driver.
Our next place of accommodation was in the city at a place called Elizabeth hostel. Now for the city it was a pretty nice place. We got a three person room with a single bed and a bunked bed (which squeaked uncontrollably with any shift or movement made on it) on the top floor. On this floor, people often hung out in the lounge and were loud until all hours of the morning and smoked cigarettes out the windows in the hallway and bathroom. But really, this place was not that bad I swear.
Our first real day in Melbourne was spent walking around various parts of the city and just enjoying the scenery. There was a comedy festival during our time there and we ended up seeing two shows. One was a Wilson Dixon, who played the guitar and sang little ditties between stories. The other stand up we saw was Jim Jeffries, who was rather raunchy and a slight bigot, but hilarious (especially when you've had a few).
There were also stops to an art gallery (where I was able to sneak a few photos), the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Crown Casino (I lost A$3), The State Library (which had its own art gallery!), St. Paul's Cathedral, and an ice bar. The ice bar was super cool (no pun intended). We paid A$30 for 30 minutes into this little room where everything was made of ice. Now that sounds like a lot when its something you can sometimes get for free, but it was worth it. We got a free shot and a free cocktail, that were not only original but the best one's I've ever tasted. We got served in glasses made out of pure ice and hopped around taking pictures next to ice sculptures and ice sculpted chairs.
While in Melbourne we also decided to do the great ocean road, so we rented a car. Now my three friends and I are all 21, and you can rent a car in Australia when you are 21 (for an fee for being under 25), but we had never driven on the right said of the car/left side of the road before. We've seen it done, but actually doing it was amazingly rather easy. After a few wrong turns, we ended up heading west toward Geelong, where there is an information center. After stopping and listening to a number of suggestions, we decided to drive until we saw the 12 Apostles and then call it great adventure on the great ocean road.
Along the way we stopped at a number of small towns and off road niches and took various pictures. Some were of a famous light house, some of the beautiful scenery, people surfing in the chilly waters, etc. We stopped in a place named Wye River and ate a delicious lunch and talked to an Australian couple who had been to America about traveling. They made me think that maybe some of my Aussie friends will come and visit American someday, and then I could show them around my country! We also went a little ways up the road and turned onto a path where we saw heaps of koalas. Okay not tonnes but 4 or 5. One even had a baby on its back!
On one of our last day in Melbourne did a few relaxing things. The first was the city museum, which was the strangest museum I have ever been to. The have some bizarre exhibits of some of the history of Melbourne and old gold vaults in the basement. These vaults had been converted into mini informative cinemas. One went dark as soon as we entered and a surround sound speaker system blasted the word "GOLD" in creepy voices. After that odd experience we walked toward federation square, but on our way we discovered an ally way with heaps of terrific artwork all outside walls of various buildings. There was even a man there with a professional camera, who I guessed was from a magazine, taking pictures.
Then we walked to Lygon street near our hostel, which is supposed to be historically Italian part of the city. Oddly enough we past by loads of tai and asian cuisine, when we were finally stopped in our tracks by a little Italian man. He offered us free glasses of champagne if we ate there and along with his ludacrisly stereotypical italian antics we gave in and sat down to eat some of the best italian food i've ever tasted. My friend I was with told me it was a lot like NYC that restaurant owners grab you off of the street and tell you to eat at their establishment because "its the best!"
The day before we flew to Tasmania, we did what was by far the highlight of my excursion to Melbourne. My friend and I heard about this wine tour, so we signed up for it and we had a great time. The tour guide was a guy in his late 30s who made the bus ride out to 4 wineries we went to interesting and fun. He taught us how that wine can be made out of just about anything and how to taste it. The hosts of each winery spouted off various facts about their wine and some provided us with lunch or stuff to snack on while we tasted our beverage. Our guide also informed of us that the Victoria bush fires put a damper on the wine industry in that area, so I felt lucky to have gone.
Everyone seemed to be having a great time after we got going and soon we were all talking and sharing stories, which sounds incredibly cheesy but it was actually a fine display of what wine really does to certain people. One guy even gave us his number, invited my friend and I to hang out at the pub later that night, and told us to come visit him in Perth. We never did make it to the pub though. Instead we took a much needed nap as we had had been going non-stop since arriving in Melbourne and not getting much sleep at night. Then we ate our last dinner in melbourne and went to bed early.
Early to bed early to rise though. We had to get up at 3AM just to get ourselves to the airport for a 6AM flight. That is one thing that I really dislike about flying is that it really does seem to take all day (especially when you fly from the East coast of America to Australia) That aside we made the most of our day after landing in Hobart. We rented another car and drove into the city and stayed at a hostel called The Pickled Frog. Sounds like a strange name, but it was the best hostel I have ever stayed at. Slightly on the hippy side, but everyone there seemed to be young travelers from around the world, which made it the perfect place for us.
The start of our time in Tasmania was at the information center, where we spent a half hour or so planning places to go that day as well as the next. From the tourist information building, we drove up the road to the oldest brewery in Australia, Cascade Brewery. Our tour guide through the brewery was a short Australian guy with a speech that he had obviously rehearst so many times he could probably say it in his sleep. The interesting part about him was that anytime something went not according to plan, there was an awkward air swarming around when the guide hesitated to, for lack of a better example, answer a question. After the tour we were guided into the bar/reception area where we tried samples of beer and Australias stongest cyder.
We then drove to the top of Mt. Wellington where there was a neat view of the city. However, when we got about 30 meters below the pinacle the fog was so thick that we had to turn around and headed back to the hostel. We strolled around Hobart for the rest of the day, went shopping, planned the next day and went to bed early yet again. We got up somewhat early and enjoyed a leiusurely drive toward Port Arthur on Tasman Island, a historical site where there is a juvunial prison and other relatively famous things to see. Our drive there was spectacular, but when we arrived in port Arthur neither my friend or I wanted to pay the money to go on a historical tour so we got in our car and drove off toward Richmond. Following lunch we went to an animal farm called Zoodoo that holds a lot of native as well as exotic animals from around the world, including the famous TASMANIAN devil and one of the only monomers in the world, the echidna.
That night at the hostel we did the friendly thing, and talked with some of the other guests, starting with an American who had come over to Melbourne to work at a winery (go figure). Surprisingly I actually met an Australian from Brisbane at this hostel so we also befriended her and a Chilian, who I ended up playing a game of pool with (surprisingly we won!) I met other people who were staying there from Melbourne who ended up trying to discuss the Aborignal problem in Australia vs. the Native American problem in the US. It was an interesting 15 minute discussion and as much as I love a good discussion I wasn't having much of it and more into having a good time.
The next day was a quiet one. Somewhat relaxing in our own sort of way. We woke up in the morning, made breakfast and set off toward the Salamanca market, supposedly Australia's largest market. Kristin said she has been to bigger/better markets, but being that I've never been before, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed shopping. Perhaps its just because I was interested in buying all the touristy stuff though. After the market Kristin and I went back to the hostel for a break and then split up. She stayed in Hobart and I took the car to a Mt. Field National Park.
I'm not sure I like the concept of paying to get into a national park because after all nature is all around and I didn't need to pay money to see it. But it was in my guidebook so I did it anyway and I'm not sure it was really worth the money, but hey I got some good pictures of some waterfalls and some gigantic trees large enough to make a little hut inside the trunk of the base. Plus on the drive there I stopped on the side of the road looked out at some scenery that I swear I've seen in dozens of movies. Or at least it should be; it was that majestic. So I hiked a few trails around Mt. Field and headed back to Hobart that night where Kristin and I had a delicious steak dinner at The Ball and Chain that specialize in steak and steak sauces. Once again, some of the best food I've ever had. We ended our night with a few glasses of cyder with dinner and hit the hay early for another early flight back to Townsville, where we had a layover in Sydney, making it my 4th state visited in Australia out of 7!
All in all my lecture recess was pretty amazing. Good food, sweet drinks, and the awesome scenery. Pictures to come soon hopefully.
Monday, April 27, 2009
swimming on an Easter birthday
It appears that over half of April has flashed right by and I haven’t made an entry in a few weeks. I would have put something up sooner, but my school gives an internet quota each month and I guess I’ve been online a lot without knowing it. So I can either buy more or wait until May 1st when I get recharged. Out of principle but mostly cheapness, I was going to wait, but no one is willing to let me use their internet so I was forced to buy some.
This month has been something though. I finally finished my first major assignment of the semester yesterday (a riveting paper about the rabbit in Australia) and I celebrated my 21st birthday! It was a good time. I had a party night to bring in my birthday and free drinks galore to complement it. Don’t worry though, I didn’t even try make it to 21 drinks. My actual birthday was fairly relaxing. Unfortunately, I had to attend class, but afterward I went out to dinner with my two friends. Still I think I might have to celebrate my Australian date (august 4th) birthday, when I get back to the states just for kicks.
On my birthday weekend, which also happened to be Easter weekend, I went sailing on a maxi boat. Me and 28 other people went cruising around Whitsundays for 3 days and it was…not as good as it could have been. Call me spoiled, but there was only a half a day of sunshine during our entire trip. Typically, the views around the islands are gorgeous and many of them are featured in calendars and on postcards. However, majority of our trip was spent either under the rain cover or in raincoats.
Still, the one day that we did have sunshine, I got slightly sunburned, seasick, and some of those postcard worthy pictures. We went to a place called Whitehaven beach where the sand is just about as white as paper and the water is as blue as the sky. The water surrounding the ocean was chalk full of wild life too. I saw a half a dozen sting rays swimming almost directly past my feet and when I got back on the boat we spotted a massive sea turtle, who looked as ancient as the sea itself!
I also took the opportunity to go snorkeling each day that we were out on the boat. The first day we went out was during low tide. I ended up going too close to the coast and practically started hyperventilating because I thought I was going to crash into a huge mound of coral. I did end up smashing into some other part of the reef, only to find out later, that what I “destroyed” was actually all ready dead coral. I swam back to where most of the group was swimming and swallowed a huge gulp of seawater because I thought one of the people snorkeling was an eel!
My freak out snorkeling experience aside, I saw some amazing stuff. I caught some spectacular “aerial” views of angelfish, schools of a zebra looking fish, fish that looked flatter than pancakes, fish bigger than my face, and rainbow fish (that the best I can do with description). I also spotted a giant clam the last day we went snorkeling. I only wish I had purchased an underwater camera, but I’m going to save that for the full blown Great Barrier Reef.
The crew on the boat was also a good time. One of the deck hands made fun of all the safety precautions she had to go through and the captain made funnies wherever he could about things that we could and couldn’t do on their boat. The skipper showed us a few games that tested out sea legs and our personal boundaries with strangers all for the sake of fun. So all in all, despite the mostly dreary weather, I had a blast sailing and I can’t wait to go again.
When I wrote the majority of this entry I was at a hostel in Melbourne, where I will be spending a four days and nights exploring the 2nd largest city in Australia. Then I flew off to Australia’s smallest state of Tasmania. Awesome aye? Lastly I'd like to give my cousin Katie a shout on her birthday. Happy Birthday cousin!
This month has been something though. I finally finished my first major assignment of the semester yesterday (a riveting paper about the rabbit in Australia) and I celebrated my 21st birthday! It was a good time. I had a party night to bring in my birthday and free drinks galore to complement it. Don’t worry though, I didn’t even try make it to 21 drinks. My actual birthday was fairly relaxing. Unfortunately, I had to attend class, but afterward I went out to dinner with my two friends. Still I think I might have to celebrate my Australian date (august 4th) birthday, when I get back to the states just for kicks.
On my birthday weekend, which also happened to be Easter weekend, I went sailing on a maxi boat. Me and 28 other people went cruising around Whitsundays for 3 days and it was…not as good as it could have been. Call me spoiled, but there was only a half a day of sunshine during our entire trip. Typically, the views around the islands are gorgeous and many of them are featured in calendars and on postcards. However, majority of our trip was spent either under the rain cover or in raincoats.
Still, the one day that we did have sunshine, I got slightly sunburned, seasick, and some of those postcard worthy pictures. We went to a place called Whitehaven beach where the sand is just about as white as paper and the water is as blue as the sky. The water surrounding the ocean was chalk full of wild life too. I saw a half a dozen sting rays swimming almost directly past my feet and when I got back on the boat we spotted a massive sea turtle, who looked as ancient as the sea itself!
I also took the opportunity to go snorkeling each day that we were out on the boat. The first day we went out was during low tide. I ended up going too close to the coast and practically started hyperventilating because I thought I was going to crash into a huge mound of coral. I did end up smashing into some other part of the reef, only to find out later, that what I “destroyed” was actually all ready dead coral. I swam back to where most of the group was swimming and swallowed a huge gulp of seawater because I thought one of the people snorkeling was an eel!
My freak out snorkeling experience aside, I saw some amazing stuff. I caught some spectacular “aerial” views of angelfish, schools of a zebra looking fish, fish that looked flatter than pancakes, fish bigger than my face, and rainbow fish (that the best I can do with description). I also spotted a giant clam the last day we went snorkeling. I only wish I had purchased an underwater camera, but I’m going to save that for the full blown Great Barrier Reef.
The crew on the boat was also a good time. One of the deck hands made fun of all the safety precautions she had to go through and the captain made funnies wherever he could about things that we could and couldn’t do on their boat. The skipper showed us a few games that tested out sea legs and our personal boundaries with strangers all for the sake of fun. So all in all, despite the mostly dreary weather, I had a blast sailing and I can’t wait to go again.
When I wrote the majority of this entry I was at a hostel in Melbourne, where I will be spending a four days and nights exploring the 2nd largest city in Australia. Then I flew off to Australia’s smallest state of Tasmania. Awesome aye? Lastly I'd like to give my cousin Katie a shout on her birthday. Happy Birthday cousin!
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Maggie Island Diving
This past weekend I took 4 days to complete my open water diving certification of Magnetic Island, just a ferry ride away from Townsville. I can now scuba dive up to 18 meters below the surface of any body of water. During my certification instructors only took us down to a depth of about 6 meters, but it was still amazing. The feeling of being able to breath underwater is unlike any other. You have about 50 pounds of equipment on and as soon as you put on your flippers and deflate your BC its like you passed through the threshold into another world.
We started off our certification by watching several somewhat dull but essential videos and completing a written exam (which was the first test I have aced in years). Some of the information was drilled into my head so I think I’ll remember it FOREVER! Then, we put on our wet suits and air tank and practiced various skills in the pool, which we eventually duplicated in the ocean on one of our four dives. Other than the skills that every basic diver has to know we got a tour of the reef that is just off the coast of Maggie Island. Granted it wasn’t the Great Barrier Reef, but feeding the fishies and seeing stingray and coral was incredible. There is so much to see right below the water’s surface. Needless to say, scuba diving is one of my new favorite activities and I hope that I’ll do a lot more of it here and throughout my lifetime. (Marsh family, when is your next trip to the Virgin Islands?)
Other than my beautiful adventure under the sea (hah) I stayed in my first hostel type accommodation. I do not think I met one person from Australia that was staying in the entire site. I don’t even think I met a fellow American citizen. I did however meet plenty of Europeans from the UK, Germany, Denmark, and Estonia. I was amazed to see how many people were not working or going to school and simply traveling around Australia for a few months! In fact, even the diving instructors (who were the only people working, but loved what they did so much it wasn’t really work) were not born and raised in Australia.
My friend Allison, who completed the course with me, and I were placed in the same hostel as a group of English boys of around the age of 19. They were extremely friendly; they chatted us up as soon as we walked in, and a couple hours later we were sharing drinks at the pub/club attached to the hostel. Unfortunately, I never got their information so I’m not sure I’ll ever see them again.
The next night we went back to the pub/club and talked with a ton of locals who come to the hostel just to have a “night on the town.” I had some interesting conversations and developed a sense of interest in the Australian version of racism. There is a lot of stereotyping and a somewhat skewed view of the place of aborigines in Australian society. Locals seem to think that there is only a proper aborigine and a bum on the street who collects government money because of his heritage. I find this interesting because I had such an awesome time learning all that I did from a somewhat integrated aborigine, Uncle Rusty. Regardless, I just listened to what they had to say about it and retired to bed early for an early day of diving.
Luckily, Allison and I befriended a couple in our scuba diving certification class that actually liked to do the touristy stuff. After our first two real dives in the ocean we went out on a hike through the rain forest. But don’t get caught up in your typical thoughts of what a typical rainforest is. This doesn’t look like the rain forests you find in Africa or South America. No monkeys or gorillas just little animals like lizards and snakes and the occasional koala! Unfortunately, we weren’t lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a wild koala on our excursion. Despite our lack of wild koalas, I did get to know Leanne and Gary (our UK friends), and although they were slightly older (24) I felt like I was on a somewhat even playing field with them in the world. It was a strange feeling because although I thought I should feel as though they were more mature, I did not feel as though they were. Anyways, I didn't forget to get their information so maybe I'll be able to meet up with them sometime in the future.
Aside from my weekend in the water, I am just trying to get ahead on my studies before I travel around for lecture recess (aka spring break). I’ll be going to Whitsundays during Easter weekend and then to Melbourne and Tasmania less than a week later. From the looks of it, April is going to be an exciting month!
We started off our certification by watching several somewhat dull but essential videos and completing a written exam (which was the first test I have aced in years). Some of the information was drilled into my head so I think I’ll remember it FOREVER! Then, we put on our wet suits and air tank and practiced various skills in the pool, which we eventually duplicated in the ocean on one of our four dives. Other than the skills that every basic diver has to know we got a tour of the reef that is just off the coast of Maggie Island. Granted it wasn’t the Great Barrier Reef, but feeding the fishies and seeing stingray and coral was incredible. There is so much to see right below the water’s surface. Needless to say, scuba diving is one of my new favorite activities and I hope that I’ll do a lot more of it here and throughout my lifetime. (Marsh family, when is your next trip to the Virgin Islands?)
Other than my beautiful adventure under the sea (hah) I stayed in my first hostel type accommodation. I do not think I met one person from Australia that was staying in the entire site. I don’t even think I met a fellow American citizen. I did however meet plenty of Europeans from the UK, Germany, Denmark, and Estonia. I was amazed to see how many people were not working or going to school and simply traveling around Australia for a few months! In fact, even the diving instructors (who were the only people working, but loved what they did so much it wasn’t really work) were not born and raised in Australia.
My friend Allison, who completed the course with me, and I were placed in the same hostel as a group of English boys of around the age of 19. They were extremely friendly; they chatted us up as soon as we walked in, and a couple hours later we were sharing drinks at the pub/club attached to the hostel. Unfortunately, I never got their information so I’m not sure I’ll ever see them again.
The next night we went back to the pub/club and talked with a ton of locals who come to the hostel just to have a “night on the town.” I had some interesting conversations and developed a sense of interest in the Australian version of racism. There is a lot of stereotyping and a somewhat skewed view of the place of aborigines in Australian society. Locals seem to think that there is only a proper aborigine and a bum on the street who collects government money because of his heritage. I find this interesting because I had such an awesome time learning all that I did from a somewhat integrated aborigine, Uncle Rusty. Regardless, I just listened to what they had to say about it and retired to bed early for an early day of diving.
Luckily, Allison and I befriended a couple in our scuba diving certification class that actually liked to do the touristy stuff. After our first two real dives in the ocean we went out on a hike through the rain forest. But don’t get caught up in your typical thoughts of what a typical rainforest is. This doesn’t look like the rain forests you find in Africa or South America. No monkeys or gorillas just little animals like lizards and snakes and the occasional koala! Unfortunately, we weren’t lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a wild koala on our excursion. Despite our lack of wild koalas, I did get to know Leanne and Gary (our UK friends), and although they were slightly older (24) I felt like I was on a somewhat even playing field with them in the world. It was a strange feeling because although I thought I should feel as though they were more mature, I did not feel as though they were. Anyways, I didn't forget to get their information so maybe I'll be able to meet up with them sometime in the future.
Aside from my weekend in the water, I am just trying to get ahead on my studies before I travel around for lecture recess (aka spring break). I’ll be going to Whitsundays during Easter weekend and then to Melbourne and Tasmania less than a week later. From the looks of it, April is going to be an exciting month!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Pictures from Ingham area
Crystal Creek
through the swamp and thick brush is the secret swimming hole
my friend, the bouncer
I jumped off this rock, plunged 10 meters into the cool waters of crystal creek
Sunday, March 15, 2009
More from a sunburnt weekend
I know I posted this morning, but I wanted to post again because I did leave out a few things.
One last thing that Uncle Rusty taught our Linking Indigenous class was how to make fire! You twirl a stick between the palms of your hands on a plank of wood (certain types of wood have to be used). Small spurts of smoke come out and eventually you get a coal where you've been applying friction and you dump it onto some dry grass. Blow on the coal or just let the wind supply the oxygen and there you go, FIRE! Unfortunately, I have no pictures to prove that I did it, but I did. My proof was having callouses and slight pain in my knuckles from twisting the stick for a few days.
Also included in my weekend in Ingham was Big Creek located near Crystal Creek, I believe. We got to climb up some rocks and jump off of them. There was a little water slide that water had made from pouring over the rocks. Then on our way back we had a bit of a breakdown. Luckily, Jason's brother had come with us and his parents had to pick him up anyways, so they brought enough gas to get us to a fuel station so we could fill up. We ended our trip with a meal at MACCAS (McDonald's)! Even though there are plenty of places to visit in Australia, I'm not sure I'll have a weekend quite like this one in the next three months.
One last thing that Uncle Rusty taught our Linking Indigenous class was how to make fire! You twirl a stick between the palms of your hands on a plank of wood (certain types of wood have to be used). Small spurts of smoke come out and eventually you get a coal where you've been applying friction and you dump it onto some dry grass. Blow on the coal or just let the wind supply the oxygen and there you go, FIRE! Unfortunately, I have no pictures to prove that I did it, but I did. My proof was having callouses and slight pain in my knuckles from twisting the stick for a few days.
Also included in my weekend in Ingham was Big Creek located near Crystal Creek, I believe. We got to climb up some rocks and jump off of them. There was a little water slide that water had made from pouring over the rocks. Then on our way back we had a bit of a breakdown. Luckily, Jason's brother had come with us and his parents had to pick him up anyways, so they brought enough gas to get us to a fuel station so we could fill up. We ended our trip with a meal at MACCAS (McDonald's)! Even though there are plenty of places to visit in Australia, I'm not sure I'll have a weekend quite like this one in the next three months.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Sunburn in a Sunburned Country
Bill Bryson knew exactly what he was talking about when he titled his book about Australia. Thursday and Friday of this week I went out into THE BUSH with a local indigenous man, Uncle Rusty, who had us out in the sun almost all day. I'm taking a class called Linking Indigenous, which is basically an introductory course about how the indigenous people of Australia lived and evolved into what they are in today's Australia. Of course, the one thing I did not do was put on sunscreen, so I got fried. I did expect it at some point, but it's the first time in a month (yeah I've been here a month, crazy huh?) I've been sunburned.
Despite my lobster looking arms, neck, and face I learned a lot about nature from Uncle Rusty. We stopped at the most random places on the side of the road, and he starts pulling the bark and leaves off of trees. He was saying how his people use these materials to make the roofs on their homes. Various leaves are also remedies for stomach pain or can be used for dye. He even showed us one leaf, which can be found around uni, that makes soap! If I end up finding it I'll be sure never to buy soap here again.
While out ol' Rusty I heard a lot about the skin group (tribe) he was from and the traditions that they practice. Some of them I find very strange because they are just so different. One thing he said is that if girls and boys don't start acting responsible by the time they reach 14 they are speared by a member of their community! I'm pretty sure I'd have been speared. Luckily I'll make it to see 21, which happens to be in less than a month! Uncle Rusty also came back to Campus the next day and brought a few things with him. He talked about rocks that the aborigines use to attach to weaponry and engrave in things like boomerangs. Then he whipped out spears and boomerangs and taught the class how to throw them. I wasn't great at throwing the spears, but I was pretty good with a boomerang. I was the closest one in my class to almost catch it when it circled around. One thing I remember Uncle Rusty saying was the boomerang is really more distracting to the wild the aborigines hunt, but they can still do some damage if need be.
So after missing two days of class to learn about indigenous culture a little, it was Friday. I made my way to another town in Queensland named Ingham with my Australian friend Jason (who lives in there) and two of my American friends Julie and Kristen. We all stayed at Jason's house for the weekend, and it was a great experience. First, we were greeted by his family and a delicious meal. One dish with rice, ham, onion, corn, and capsicum (bell peppers) and the other dish with chicken, cooked onion, capsicim and some REALLY good tasting sauce. So far these two dishes were the best thing I have eaten in the southern hemisphere. The next night for dinner was a full scale Australian BBQ: sausages, steak, macaroni salad, coleslaw, grilled mushroom and even SHRIMP. Unfortunately, "shrimp on the barby" is not a common thing to say here despite what you may hear. Jason said it anyway though just so we could have a laugh.
Friday night after dinner we got ready and went out on the town. But when I say going out on the town, I mean walking a small distance down the main street of Ingham. We stopped at a local tavern first and had a few pints of beer. While there, Jason and I played pool with a particularly large woman who kept squinting and closing one eye to see through her beer googles and a short man with a thick black mo (mustache). We won our game of pool and then moved on to a bar next door, where ther was loud music blaring and plenty of interesting people to meet. One guy was doing some ridiculous dance moves for us and later moved on to a girl on the dance floor.
I, for one, met some interesting people while with my friends. One of the bouncers grabbed me and put me in a full head lock! I was shocked as I was being completely normal, just standing around talking or dancing a every so often. He let me go though and when I turned around he was laughing at my reaction. Later, Kristen and I got him to pull it off again so we could get pictures of it. I also met a man from Melbourne who I got a ridiculous picture with, but I'm not sure what he was doing in a small town like Ingham after coming from a bustling metropolis.
Toward the end of the night, the bouncers had to actually assert their authority because a fight broke out toward the enterance outside on the sidewalk. We managed to sneak out before anything got serious and walked the 10 minutes back to Jason's house. While walking down the main street, we came upon a german shepard wondering around and gave it some love. We figured it belonged to someone at the one of the bars along the road, but it ended up following us all the way back to Jason's! I sent it off with a firm "go away" and it ended up leaving. Oddly enough, the next morning during breakfast Jason's dad pointed out there was a lost german shepard put in the paper! Jason's mum called the owner and hopefully everything turned out okay.
Saturday, Jason's dad took us out on his boat! He took us to a "secret spot" but the hike was rough. Mainly the rough part about the hike was the fact that one of my sandles busted 2 minutes after the hike so I went barefoot. Luckily, Uncle Rusty taught me a trick to prevent getting cuts on my foot by stepping on the side of my foot first. The bottom of my left foot is a little scraped up, but I think Rusty's advise helped me.
On an unrelated topic, one thing I've been doing with my American friends and mostly Jason, but a few other Aussies as well, is talk about differences in speech. The basis of speech is of course the alphabet. Well, 2 out my 3 initials are not the same here in Australia. The letter "z" is pronounced "zed" and "h" is said "haiche" (as opposed to aiche). Other words such as oregano, Adidas, and herb are said differently and Jason and I poke fun at each other all the time about the way each other speaks. We've undergone countless hours rambling on about which one makes more sense, and of course in the end nothing is resolved. Still its something I am finding very intriguing here.
It's been a great week! I feel as though I'm truly being cultured. Now alls I have to do is catch up on school work and let my sunburn turn tan and I'll be golden.
Despite my lobster looking arms, neck, and face I learned a lot about nature from Uncle Rusty. We stopped at the most random places on the side of the road, and he starts pulling the bark and leaves off of trees. He was saying how his people use these materials to make the roofs on their homes. Various leaves are also remedies for stomach pain or can be used for dye. He even showed us one leaf, which can be found around uni, that makes soap! If I end up finding it I'll be sure never to buy soap here again.
While out ol' Rusty I heard a lot about the skin group (tribe) he was from and the traditions that they practice. Some of them I find very strange because they are just so different. One thing he said is that if girls and boys don't start acting responsible by the time they reach 14 they are speared by a member of their community! I'm pretty sure I'd have been speared. Luckily I'll make it to see 21, which happens to be in less than a month! Uncle Rusty also came back to Campus the next day and brought a few things with him. He talked about rocks that the aborigines use to attach to weaponry and engrave in things like boomerangs. Then he whipped out spears and boomerangs and taught the class how to throw them. I wasn't great at throwing the spears, but I was pretty good with a boomerang. I was the closest one in my class to almost catch it when it circled around. One thing I remember Uncle Rusty saying was the boomerang is really more distracting to the wild the aborigines hunt, but they can still do some damage if need be.
So after missing two days of class to learn about indigenous culture a little, it was Friday. I made my way to another town in Queensland named Ingham with my Australian friend Jason (who lives in there) and two of my American friends Julie and Kristen. We all stayed at Jason's house for the weekend, and it was a great experience. First, we were greeted by his family and a delicious meal. One dish with rice, ham, onion, corn, and capsicum (bell peppers) and the other dish with chicken, cooked onion, capsicim and some REALLY good tasting sauce. So far these two dishes were the best thing I have eaten in the southern hemisphere. The next night for dinner was a full scale Australian BBQ: sausages, steak, macaroni salad, coleslaw, grilled mushroom and even SHRIMP. Unfortunately, "shrimp on the barby" is not a common thing to say here despite what you may hear. Jason said it anyway though just so we could have a laugh.
Friday night after dinner we got ready and went out on the town. But when I say going out on the town, I mean walking a small distance down the main street of Ingham. We stopped at a local tavern first and had a few pints of beer. While there, Jason and I played pool with a particularly large woman who kept squinting and closing one eye to see through her beer googles and a short man with a thick black mo (mustache). We won our game of pool and then moved on to a bar next door, where ther was loud music blaring and plenty of interesting people to meet. One guy was doing some ridiculous dance moves for us and later moved on to a girl on the dance floor.
I, for one, met some interesting people while with my friends. One of the bouncers grabbed me and put me in a full head lock! I was shocked as I was being completely normal, just standing around talking or dancing a every so often. He let me go though and when I turned around he was laughing at my reaction. Later, Kristen and I got him to pull it off again so we could get pictures of it. I also met a man from Melbourne who I got a ridiculous picture with, but I'm not sure what he was doing in a small town like Ingham after coming from a bustling metropolis.
Toward the end of the night, the bouncers had to actually assert their authority because a fight broke out toward the enterance outside on the sidewalk. We managed to sneak out before anything got serious and walked the 10 minutes back to Jason's house. While walking down the main street, we came upon a german shepard wondering around and gave it some love. We figured it belonged to someone at the one of the bars along the road, but it ended up following us all the way back to Jason's! I sent it off with a firm "go away" and it ended up leaving. Oddly enough, the next morning during breakfast Jason's dad pointed out there was a lost german shepard put in the paper! Jason's mum called the owner and hopefully everything turned out okay.
Saturday, Jason's dad took us out on his boat! He took us to a "secret spot" but the hike was rough. Mainly the rough part about the hike was the fact that one of my sandles busted 2 minutes after the hike so I went barefoot. Luckily, Uncle Rusty taught me a trick to prevent getting cuts on my foot by stepping on the side of my foot first. The bottom of my left foot is a little scraped up, but I think Rusty's advise helped me.
On an unrelated topic, one thing I've been doing with my American friends and mostly Jason, but a few other Aussies as well, is talk about differences in speech. The basis of speech is of course the alphabet. Well, 2 out my 3 initials are not the same here in Australia. The letter "z" is pronounced "zed" and "h" is said "haiche" (as opposed to aiche). Other words such as oregano, Adidas, and herb are said differently and Jason and I poke fun at each other all the time about the way each other speaks. We've undergone countless hours rambling on about which one makes more sense, and of course in the end nothing is resolved. Still its something I am finding very intriguing here.
It's been a great week! I feel as though I'm truly being cultured. Now alls I have to do is catch up on school work and let my sunburn turn tan and I'll be golden.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Australia and her CYCLONE (think Baby Bash)
That's right, tropical Australia is experiencing cyclone Hamish right now. Luckily my first cyclone/hurricane experience never happened! Hamish, which by word of mouth I heard is a category 4 cyclone, went south of Townsville. I've been learning about cyclones in my environmental science class coincidentally. They sound an awful lot like tornadoes on the water. I've been learning a lot of interesting things in that class actually. I think its my favorite.
I say I think because I'm taking a class called Linking Indigenous, which only meets two time the entire semester, but all day from 9-5. One of the classes is this weekend and then we have a field trip to go on this weekend, which sounds really fun. The description says we get to throw spears and boomerangs so I'm really excited about it!
I've been making a list of places to go and so far I've signed up to go on a sailing excursion at Whitsunday on Easter weekend break. Apparently its a tourist island with gorgeous beaches, but I'm really excited to sail. I haven't been sailing since I was a camper at Calvary Camp. I also am planning to go get certified in open water diving at Magnetic Island and go skydiving over the great barrier reef with some of my American friends. I am really interested in going to Sydney and taking the Indian Pacific Train across the country to Perth as well as see Ayer's Rock/Uluru. Luckily our campus has an organization that sponsors a ton of trips, which makes the planning process a lot easier.
Yesterday was a crazy night in town. It was a triple birthday! I had an Aussie friend with a birthday and two American girls had a birthday too. Needless to say a good time was had by all. Well exept for me. I wasn't allowed into one of the bars that my friends went into because they said I was too drunk! Fortunately, I was not drunk and avoided a confrontation that I would most likely have lost. Slightly angry and annoyed and not knowing where else to go, I walked back. Two hours later and many wrong turns later I arrived back at my dorm. Now I know the way back, but I will taking the bus from now on.
Nothing else all that exciting. I'm getting around fine on the bus and I made a few friends with cars. I've been eating delicious food, when I don't eat in my dorm cafeteria. One thing I would like to do more of is get into shape. I joined the netball team my dorm has and we play other dorm buildings. Hopefully, I will start going to the gym since I paid $60 for a little over a month! More updates to come as always.
I say I think because I'm taking a class called Linking Indigenous, which only meets two time the entire semester, but all day from 9-5. One of the classes is this weekend and then we have a field trip to go on this weekend, which sounds really fun. The description says we get to throw spears and boomerangs so I'm really excited about it!
I've been making a list of places to go and so far I've signed up to go on a sailing excursion at Whitsunday on Easter weekend break. Apparently its a tourist island with gorgeous beaches, but I'm really excited to sail. I haven't been sailing since I was a camper at Calvary Camp. I also am planning to go get certified in open water diving at Magnetic Island and go skydiving over the great barrier reef with some of my American friends. I am really interested in going to Sydney and taking the Indian Pacific Train across the country to Perth as well as see Ayer's Rock/Uluru. Luckily our campus has an organization that sponsors a ton of trips, which makes the planning process a lot easier.
Yesterday was a crazy night in town. It was a triple birthday! I had an Aussie friend with a birthday and two American girls had a birthday too. Needless to say a good time was had by all. Well exept for me. I wasn't allowed into one of the bars that my friends went into because they said I was too drunk! Fortunately, I was not drunk and avoided a confrontation that I would most likely have lost. Slightly angry and annoyed and not knowing where else to go, I walked back. Two hours later and many wrong turns later I arrived back at my dorm. Now I know the way back, but I will taking the bus from now on.
Nothing else all that exciting. I'm getting around fine on the bus and I made a few friends with cars. I've been eating delicious food, when I don't eat in my dorm cafeteria. One thing I would like to do more of is get into shape. I joined the netball team my dorm has and we play other dorm buildings. Hopefully, I will start going to the gym since I paid $60 for a little over a month! More updates to come as always.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Getting Underway
It's been one heck of a week here in Townsville. I've just sorted out my schedule for school and it is looking pretty good. I think I'll have lots of time for adventuring! Honestly, I think it's about time ventured outside of Townsville and took advantage of that adventuring time. There are a number of trips coming up that I have the opportunity to go on. There is one for getting a diving certification, another to Whitsunday, and Magnetic Island. They all are somewhat expensive (really there is little here that is inexpensive), but I got a job two weeks ago as a volleyball umpire (ref) at a place named Citibeach volleyball. I'm hoping that will help me not break the bank too badly.
Things are getting off to a slow start, though. I've been somewhat inactive in planning trips past going to the beach. Classes are on the start of their second week so nothing difficult yet, and Citibeach hasn't given me many hours yet. I am however enjoying the nightlife here perhaps a little more than I should be.
There is a certain street downtown named Flinders Street where there are a lot of bars, restaurants and an outdoor mall. I've been hitting that road a lot so I've been eating and trying my fair share of food and drink. I figure its good practice for when I return to the states.
Not much else to say. I'm still meeting plenty of people, making friends, loving the whether. Pictures may be a tad scarce. My camera and computer aren't getting along, but as soon as I get some good pictures and amend the technology war, you'll see more of Australia.
Things are getting off to a slow start, though. I've been somewhat inactive in planning trips past going to the beach. Classes are on the start of their second week so nothing difficult yet, and Citibeach hasn't given me many hours yet. I am however enjoying the nightlife here perhaps a little more than I should be.
There is a certain street downtown named Flinders Street where there are a lot of bars, restaurants and an outdoor mall. I've been hitting that road a lot so I've been eating and trying my fair share of food and drink. I figure its good practice for when I return to the states.
Not much else to say. I'm still meeting plenty of people, making friends, loving the whether. Pictures may be a tad scarce. My camera and computer aren't getting along, but as soon as I get some good pictures and amend the technology war, you'll see more of Australia.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
more pictures
Xena Bird
The dingo ate my baby!
the lazy kangaroo that ate from my hand
BIRD (say it like Bambi says it)
look how pretty!
Dan allowing a baby kanga to make his hand its lunch.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Another sunny day in the sunshine state of Australia
There has been so much that that happened in these past several days. To start I would like to point out how Australians are much more loose with their language than Americans are. Informality is a big thing here. Everyone says "how ya going" to people they just meet. It's not above anyone to hear cussing from someone like a bus driver or a faculty member at a university.
The upperclassman (fossils) have some pretty interesting traditions. For example, as a new student (fresher) I have been wearing a pair of purple little girl jocks my head with my name on them. I have seen people from other halls wearing helmets, bandannas, bibs, etc. Our hall chant follows the rules of Australian language to the extreme (its straight up vulgar). Last night around 4 am we were woken up by all the fossils banging on our doors blasting techno music. They marched us all around campus having us scream our chant. Finally an hour later we were allowed to go back to bed.
It is still orientation week here and we have had plenty of hall gatherings and interuni events. Everything seems to be not very time based here. There have been times posted for various events and activities on campus, but the aussies seem to not have a strict timetable. They seem to do things at somewhat their own pace. Another thing I've noticed, is that everyone seems to be willing to have a light conversation with you. I've talked to tons of people, but only for a few minutes and then they disappear off to do something else. I don't mind it so much, but I do wish I had more of the consistant interaction where I can be mates with the many people I have met.
Yesterday was my most relaxing day here. I went down to the Strand with three of my American friends and we sat on the beach, read, swam, got dinner, ate ice cream. The scenery of the area surrounding the Pacific Ocean is beautiful aka I took lots of pictures. I equated it to lazing about on the beach for the day but I can go there whenever I want so I'll be in vacation mode for the next four months.
More to come of course. I'll get pictures up this weekend!
The upperclassman (fossils) have some pretty interesting traditions. For example, as a new student (fresher) I have been wearing a pair of purple little girl jocks my head with my name on them. I have seen people from other halls wearing helmets, bandannas, bibs, etc. Our hall chant follows the rules of Australian language to the extreme (its straight up vulgar). Last night around 4 am we were woken up by all the fossils banging on our doors blasting techno music. They marched us all around campus having us scream our chant. Finally an hour later we were allowed to go back to bed.
It is still orientation week here and we have had plenty of hall gatherings and interuni events. Everything seems to be not very time based here. There have been times posted for various events and activities on campus, but the aussies seem to not have a strict timetable. They seem to do things at somewhat their own pace. Another thing I've noticed, is that everyone seems to be willing to have a light conversation with you. I've talked to tons of people, but only for a few minutes and then they disappear off to do something else. I don't mind it so much, but I do wish I had more of the consistant interaction where I can be mates with the many people I have met.
Yesterday was my most relaxing day here. I went down to the Strand with three of my American friends and we sat on the beach, read, swam, got dinner, ate ice cream. The scenery of the area surrounding the Pacific Ocean is beautiful aka I took lots of pictures. I equated it to lazing about on the beach for the day but I can go there whenever I want so I'll be in vacation mode for the next four months.
More to come of course. I'll get pictures up this weekend!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Update #1
Hey all. I'm finally in Australia and living the good life. I love it so far. Getting here was a bit rough. Traveling on Friday the 13th turned out to be not so lucky, go figure. My entire trip from Pittsburgh to Townsville took around 37 hours total. The ride from the States to Australia was great. QANTAS airline treats you like royalty so the 16 hour plane ride was not terrible. It was more after that where things turned sour.
I flew into Melbourne and had to go through customs and recheck my baggage, which caused me to be late for my flight to Brisbane. When I got to Brisbane I waited for awhile for my plane to Townsville. The flight was supposed to leave at 4:25 and we boarded around 5:30. Finally, when I arrived in Townsville, I found out that my luggage had been put on 2 separate flights. I got picked up from the airport from an interesting character and he took me to my residence, where I promptly fell asleep from a LONG day of travel.
The next day my bags arrived and were driven to my dorm building (University "Uni" Hall). I showered off 2 days of filth, but I felt I needed another shower no less than 10 minutes later. Here it is the wet season and it has rained more this month than it usually does all year. Therefore, the humidity level is sky high and add that to 90 degree heat and you have Townsville in February!
My room here is amazing. I have a small balcony outside my room and double doors leading to it. I've kept them open as much as I can, which causes a number of unexpected visitors. For example, I came back from the bathroom (which is co-ed) and found a tiny lizard on my ceiling, two moths under my desk light and a number of misquitos flying about my bed. I'm enjoying the openness though. The view outside my window is beautiful. There are tons of palm trees, a flowering tree, and a mountain in the not so far away distance.
The accent here is unbelievable too. I'm surprised I can understand half of what these aussies say. Its terrible. In fact I'm pretty sure I got jipped at the tavern last night when I bought a mixed drink. The tavern was an interesting experience. I met a number of colorful Australians. One guy was a pool repairman, I believe around 45 years old. I also met two guys that had been in the Australian armed forces that, I'm pretty sure kept buying me drinks just to keep me around to listen to their shinanigans. I had a great time!
Here at my University, it is Orientation (O') Week. Each hall seems to have its own events and then a number of school wide events. For example, I have the opportunity to go to the Great Barrier Reef on Thursday. Unfortunately, unlike American colleges nothing is provided. You have to pay for EVERYTHING. I'm actually worried about my bank account so I'm trying to get a job sometime this week.
Classes don't start for another week. I'll be updating again around then on everything that happens during O' week and the start of actual school! G'day mates!
I flew into Melbourne and had to go through customs and recheck my baggage, which caused me to be late for my flight to Brisbane. When I got to Brisbane I waited for awhile for my plane to Townsville. The flight was supposed to leave at 4:25 and we boarded around 5:30. Finally, when I arrived in Townsville, I found out that my luggage had been put on 2 separate flights. I got picked up from the airport from an interesting character and he took me to my residence, where I promptly fell asleep from a LONG day of travel.
The next day my bags arrived and were driven to my dorm building (University "Uni" Hall). I showered off 2 days of filth, but I felt I needed another shower no less than 10 minutes later. Here it is the wet season and it has rained more this month than it usually does all year. Therefore, the humidity level is sky high and add that to 90 degree heat and you have Townsville in February!
My room here is amazing. I have a small balcony outside my room and double doors leading to it. I've kept them open as much as I can, which causes a number of unexpected visitors. For example, I came back from the bathroom (which is co-ed) and found a tiny lizard on my ceiling, two moths under my desk light and a number of misquitos flying about my bed. I'm enjoying the openness though. The view outside my window is beautiful. There are tons of palm trees, a flowering tree, and a mountain in the not so far away distance.
The accent here is unbelievable too. I'm surprised I can understand half of what these aussies say. Its terrible. In fact I'm pretty sure I got jipped at the tavern last night when I bought a mixed drink. The tavern was an interesting experience. I met a number of colorful Australians. One guy was a pool repairman, I believe around 45 years old. I also met two guys that had been in the Australian armed forces that, I'm pretty sure kept buying me drinks just to keep me around to listen to their shinanigans. I had a great time!
Here at my University, it is Orientation (O') Week. Each hall seems to have its own events and then a number of school wide events. For example, I have the opportunity to go to the Great Barrier Reef on Thursday. Unfortunately, unlike American colleges nothing is provided. You have to pay for EVERYTHING. I'm actually worried about my bank account so I'm trying to get a job sometime this week.
Classes don't start for another week. I'll be updating again around then on everything that happens during O' week and the start of actual school! G'day mates!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
One week to go!
Exactly one week from today I'll be packing up and leaving Pittsburgh for my ultimate destination in Townsville, Queensland. I'm not exactly sure how long my flight will be. I have all the times written down, but I haven't taken the time to figure out all the time changes. A rough estimate, I'd say I'll be waiting in airports and riding on planes for something like 28 hours total.
Just recently, I started seeing the word Australia EVERYWHERE. Majority of the time I'm looking at my passport that says United States of Australia for a split second. I'm basically too excited to even be part of reality.
I'll be visiting good ol' Allegheny for my last weekend in the U.S. I might even go to Canada before I leave. I'm not sure I could handle 3 countries in one weeks time, though! Other than that I have nothing to do but pack and work a couple days and I'm outta here!
Just recently, I started seeing the word Australia EVERYWHERE. Majority of the time I'm looking at my passport that says United States of Australia for a split second. I'm basically too excited to even be part of reality.
I'll be visiting good ol' Allegheny for my last weekend in the U.S. I might even go to Canada before I leave. I'm not sure I could handle 3 countries in one weeks time, though! Other than that I have nothing to do but pack and work a couple days and I'm outta here!
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