Sunday, May 29, 2011
Finally some pics!
Living in a Zoo!!
Wow so my blog hasn't let me log on since I got to this island and for some reason it decided to corporate today so yay I'll try to fill everyone in as much as possible and as short as possible!
Last I blogged I was in Brisbane and had just done my shark dive! The next day we went kayaking on the Brisbane river and it was a blast! It was my first time and I loved it. We played games and had lunch next to the river, it was really cool.
Then we headed over to Stradbroke Island or Straddie as the locals call it. We have been here for 5 nights and tonight is our last night. We have been staying at the research center here which is actually pretty nice. We go to 3 different islands and this is where we do our school "work." It's not really work at all it's actually a lot of fun! The first day we were here we went out during low tide on the rocky headland then over to the mud flats. Our instructors, Doug and Glen who is from Australia (both are sooo awesome I must say) would just pick up creatures in the ocean and tell us what they were and give us facts then later in the lab we had to draw pics of them and right down a few facts from the wild guide. It was really interesting especially since marine biology is what I want to do. Then the last couple of days has been our time to do our own research projects. I was in a group with 5 girls and we decided to do our project on sea cucumber sediment processing rates. So we went out into the ocean and collect several cucumbers from 2 different species. We then put them in tanks and for 24 hrs every 2 hrs we had to collect and weigh their poo!! It's not a gross as it sounds, its just a worm looking line of sand. What they do is they feed on sand removing the organic material for food and then break the organic matter down into more simpler compounds. Then new cucumbers eat that and it keeps continuing until the sand is so fine that it degrades in the water and plankton and other organisms can eat it. So what they do is actually really important! So the whole time we just keept making jokes about sea cucumber poo! Everyone else just did projects on fish and crabs so ours was pretty unique :)
After everyone presented we all went down to the local ships club which is pretty much a bar. It was such a blast! We were playing drinking games with out instructors and it was hilarious! Doug is pretty quite and the only time he really talks is when it's something genius or absolutely hilarious and i'm guessing he is in his 70s so to play games with him was quite funny! Then Glen is very outgoing and he is probably in his late 30s or 40s and since he's an Aussie he likes to drink! It was a really great experience to just kick back with everyone and drink and play games! Then we also had this local old creeper join in and play games with us and he loved us! He said he likes our ways haha!
Another thing I got to do was take my first ocean boat ride and go searching for dugongs! Dugongs are just like manatees but with a dolphin shaped tail and they are much more shy. When we went out he told us we may see them or we may not and we ended up getting close to quite a few which is pretty rare! It was so great to get a chance to see them especially because they are endangered and only live around this area. While on this boat ride we also saw lots of sea turtles and a few of us got to jump on them from the boat and try and catch them! I was one and I didn't get close enough because he dove deep and they are pretty fast! But still it was awesome!
It's really like were living at a zoo though because in the last couple of days I have seen so much wild life! At tea time the other day (which is my favorite part of the day and were all bringing this back to the states) we were sitting on the patio eating our cookies and drinking our tea when in the bay right in front of us were dolphins! It was amazing! You couldn't see much other then their fin but then today when we went to point look out and we saw more and they were jumping out of the water. I have also seen koalas sitting in a tree in someone's back yard, flying foxes which are fruit bats that sit in several trees in this one area and there is soooo many of them, then there are beautiful parakeets but all the birds here squawk, they don't do a pretty chirp like our birds, then today I saw kangaroos!!!
Today we went to point look out where I saw the dolphins and it's this huge bluff that looks out over the ocean and it's absolutely breath taking! It started pooring down rain while we were there so we took cover at a cafe and had lunch until it quit. After a while the sun finally came out and we walked along the shore and took tons of pictures as we made our way to a swimming beach and tanned and played in the waves! (my first time swimming in the ocean since 7th grade, it's been way too long!!)
I think this is pretty much all the big stuff I've done but there is just so much more I can say!! Hopefully I'll be able to post more stuff now to keep updated so I don't have to do one long blog at a time! If you have any questions or want to know more just ask, I can talk about this place forever! I'm having the time of life and I never would have expected it would be this great and that I would get along as well with everyone as I do!! I may never want to come home! I'm thinking of researching grad schools here instead of in Florida if I can stand to be away from home for 2 years :( But tata for now and miss you all!!
Last I blogged I was in Brisbane and had just done my shark dive! The next day we went kayaking on the Brisbane river and it was a blast! It was my first time and I loved it. We played games and had lunch next to the river, it was really cool.
Then we headed over to Stradbroke Island or Straddie as the locals call it. We have been here for 5 nights and tonight is our last night. We have been staying at the research center here which is actually pretty nice. We go to 3 different islands and this is where we do our school "work." It's not really work at all it's actually a lot of fun! The first day we were here we went out during low tide on the rocky headland then over to the mud flats. Our instructors, Doug and Glen who is from Australia (both are sooo awesome I must say) would just pick up creatures in the ocean and tell us what they were and give us facts then later in the lab we had to draw pics of them and right down a few facts from the wild guide. It was really interesting especially since marine biology is what I want to do. Then the last couple of days has been our time to do our own research projects. I was in a group with 5 girls and we decided to do our project on sea cucumber sediment processing rates. So we went out into the ocean and collect several cucumbers from 2 different species. We then put them in tanks and for 24 hrs every 2 hrs we had to collect and weigh their poo!! It's not a gross as it sounds, its just a worm looking line of sand. What they do is they feed on sand removing the organic material for food and then break the organic matter down into more simpler compounds. Then new cucumbers eat that and it keeps continuing until the sand is so fine that it degrades in the water and plankton and other organisms can eat it. So what they do is actually really important! So the whole time we just keept making jokes about sea cucumber poo! Everyone else just did projects on fish and crabs so ours was pretty unique :)
After everyone presented we all went down to the local ships club which is pretty much a bar. It was such a blast! We were playing drinking games with out instructors and it was hilarious! Doug is pretty quite and the only time he really talks is when it's something genius or absolutely hilarious and i'm guessing he is in his 70s so to play games with him was quite funny! Then Glen is very outgoing and he is probably in his late 30s or 40s and since he's an Aussie he likes to drink! It was a really great experience to just kick back with everyone and drink and play games! Then we also had this local old creeper join in and play games with us and he loved us! He said he likes our ways haha!
Another thing I got to do was take my first ocean boat ride and go searching for dugongs! Dugongs are just like manatees but with a dolphin shaped tail and they are much more shy. When we went out he told us we may see them or we may not and we ended up getting close to quite a few which is pretty rare! It was so great to get a chance to see them especially because they are endangered and only live around this area. While on this boat ride we also saw lots of sea turtles and a few of us got to jump on them from the boat and try and catch them! I was one and I didn't get close enough because he dove deep and they are pretty fast! But still it was awesome!
It's really like were living at a zoo though because in the last couple of days I have seen so much wild life! At tea time the other day (which is my favorite part of the day and were all bringing this back to the states) we were sitting on the patio eating our cookies and drinking our tea when in the bay right in front of us were dolphins! It was amazing! You couldn't see much other then their fin but then today when we went to point look out and we saw more and they were jumping out of the water. I have also seen koalas sitting in a tree in someone's back yard, flying foxes which are fruit bats that sit in several trees in this one area and there is soooo many of them, then there are beautiful parakeets but all the birds here squawk, they don't do a pretty chirp like our birds, then today I saw kangaroos!!!
Today we went to point look out where I saw the dolphins and it's this huge bluff that looks out over the ocean and it's absolutely breath taking! It started pooring down rain while we were there so we took cover at a cafe and had lunch until it quit. After a while the sun finally came out and we walked along the shore and took tons of pictures as we made our way to a swimming beach and tanned and played in the waves! (my first time swimming in the ocean since 7th grade, it's been way too long!!)
I think this is pretty much all the big stuff I've done but there is just so much more I can say!! Hopefully I'll be able to post more stuff now to keep updated so I don't have to do one long blog at a time! If you have any questions or want to know more just ask, I can talk about this place forever! I'm having the time of life and I never would have expected it would be this great and that I would get along as well with everyone as I do!! I may never want to come home! I'm thinking of researching grad schools here instead of in Florida if I can stand to be away from home for 2 years :( But tata for now and miss you all!!
Monday, May 23, 2011
Sharkbait whohaha!
So much has happend in the last 3 days since I was last on here! And I don't have a whole lot of time now so I'm going to try to make this as short as possible!
Let me start by saying I love everyone in my group! It's really cool because we all have become instant best friends! As goofy as that sounds it's true because since most people didn't know anyone in the group and if they did they only knew one or two people out of 20 no one could really be shy. We all just started talking and after that it was like we have known each other for years! The second night everyone was here (so last night) all but 3 of us went to dinner for one of the girls 19th birthday. After the majority of us went to a local night club and went dancing and we all had a blast! The high light of the night was when one girl met a cute foreign guy and danced with him then later as she was playing with her hair found a huge wad of gum stuck in her hair!! I was dying! So we walked through downtown back to our hostel with her holding a plate of mayonaise and butter so that she could get it out! No worries she still has all of her hair and it's gone :)
So as lots of people know I got to go on a shark dive! We had a little scare at first that with my asthma history that I wouldn't be able to but I got approved and did it yesterday! We went to Under Water World in Mooloulaba (my new favorite town name) and got a whole tour of the aquarium which was really cool then we went scuba diving without cages in the shark tank! And believe me when I say they are much bigger when your not looking at them through a glass! It honestly was the best experience of my life! We weren't swimming around we just walked along the bottom and stood there as these giant sharks, including a bull shark which are known to be agressive, and giant rays swam past us! Not 1 min after being in the tank I had to duck my head because one of the sharks with hugh scary teeth was swimming right at my head! Not to attack me but they won't move out of the way for anything, they were just swimming us and didn't care if they hit us. We took lots and lots of pics which some are on facebook if you have an account otherwise tomorrow when we go to a new place and I hopefully have internet, I will be on my own computer to post pics on here! But I'm getting ready to go to dinner and out with everyone for our last night in Brisbane so take care and if you want more details e-mail me, call my mom haha or facebook me! Love you all and miss you but not ready to come back yet ;)
Let me start by saying I love everyone in my group! It's really cool because we all have become instant best friends! As goofy as that sounds it's true because since most people didn't know anyone in the group and if they did they only knew one or two people out of 20 no one could really be shy. We all just started talking and after that it was like we have known each other for years! The second night everyone was here (so last night) all but 3 of us went to dinner for one of the girls 19th birthday. After the majority of us went to a local night club and went dancing and we all had a blast! The high light of the night was when one girl met a cute foreign guy and danced with him then later as she was playing with her hair found a huge wad of gum stuck in her hair!! I was dying! So we walked through downtown back to our hostel with her holding a plate of mayonaise and butter so that she could get it out! No worries she still has all of her hair and it's gone :)
So as lots of people know I got to go on a shark dive! We had a little scare at first that with my asthma history that I wouldn't be able to but I got approved and did it yesterday! We went to Under Water World in Mooloulaba (my new favorite town name) and got a whole tour of the aquarium which was really cool then we went scuba diving without cages in the shark tank! And believe me when I say they are much bigger when your not looking at them through a glass! It honestly was the best experience of my life! We weren't swimming around we just walked along the bottom and stood there as these giant sharks, including a bull shark which are known to be agressive, and giant rays swam past us! Not 1 min after being in the tank I had to duck my head because one of the sharks with hugh scary teeth was swimming right at my head! Not to attack me but they won't move out of the way for anything, they were just swimming us and didn't care if they hit us. We took lots and lots of pics which some are on facebook if you have an account otherwise tomorrow when we go to a new place and I hopefully have internet, I will be on my own computer to post pics on here! But I'm getting ready to go to dinner and out with everyone for our last night in Brisbane so take care and if you want more details e-mail me, call my mom haha or facebook me! Love you all and miss you but not ready to come back yet ;)
Friday, May 20, 2011
4 flights and 1 glass of wine later
I MADE IT TO AUSTRALIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I made it with no major problems and all of my luggage so I consider that success!! We flew out of Kansas City around 3pm on the 18th then flew to Minneapolis then to L.A. then to Sydney. Well it was supposed to go to Sydney but due to the fog, about 1 hour from Sydney they switched us to Brisbane. Which we were flying to Sydney to get on another flight to get to Brisbane so we thought that this would save us a flight but no, we flew to Brisbane and weren't aloud off the plane!! So we flew to Sydney just to switch flights and fly back to Brisbane. This caused what should have been a 14 hour flight form L.A. to Sydney to be 16 hours. It was horrible!! But there were plenty of movies and we made it to Brisbane only and hour later then we were supposed to, and with switching planes 4 times and the delay there were so many times for them to loose our luggage but we made it with everything! Now were checked into our Hostel where we will be for the next 4 nights.
I almost forgot to mention the adventure getting to the hostel from the hotel! This really nice guy who sat next to me on the plane to Brisbane told us how to find the shuttle from the air port to the hostel. So we followed his instructions and took what we thought was going to be a quick ride. But no! It took over an hour and the driver was a crazy driver along with everyone else here not to mention the fact that they drive on the wrong side of the road so it really throws you off! But we ended up getting to see all of downtown Brisbane before making it to our hostel which was kind of cool!
Once we got checked in we were starving so we decided to walk around and try to find some place to eat. We walked and walked and walked until we found a place were we could sit down and order. It was 4 o'clock in the afternoon so a lot of places weren't open but we were beginning to wonder if Australian's ate! We ended up at a place where we paid $16 dollars for a burger that wasn't very good but it was worth it because we also got to order our first glass of wine legally! It was the highlight of my day so far!
But I can barely hold my eyes open now because I've only got about 4 hours of sleep in the last 40 hrs so I'm going to head off to bed at 7 pm! Everyone else is getting here tomorrow at 8 am so we have to get up to meet them and I'm really excited! I bought a phone in Sydney so I will be able to make a few phone calls so I'm sure my mom will keep everyone in touch, right mom?! :) But for the next 4 nights I'll be in this same hostel and they charge you $10 a day for internet!!! It's so ridiculous and kills me to do it so I bought it for today but then as of tomorrow at 7 pm (and I'm 15 hours ahead of you) I won't have it again for a while. Tomorrow is nothing exciting though other then introductions but then the next day is when we go to Under Water World and I do my shark dive (if they approve of my doctors signature signing me off to do so, keep your fingers crossed) Which I'm sure I will have a lot to say after that so I'll probably suck it up and pay another $10 to use the internet but if not I'll hopefully be back on in a few days!
Take care everyone back in the states and I'll try to keep you posted as much a possible!
P.S. the fun fact of the day is that Australians call trash Rubbish! So on the trash cans it says rubbish and please through rubbish away here and we were told that if someone over hears you calling it trash you have to be careful because they may take it the wrong way and that's one of the worst things you could call someone here!
I almost forgot to mention the adventure getting to the hostel from the hotel! This really nice guy who sat next to me on the plane to Brisbane told us how to find the shuttle from the air port to the hostel. So we followed his instructions and took what we thought was going to be a quick ride. But no! It took over an hour and the driver was a crazy driver along with everyone else here not to mention the fact that they drive on the wrong side of the road so it really throws you off! But we ended up getting to see all of downtown Brisbane before making it to our hostel which was kind of cool!
Once we got checked in we were starving so we decided to walk around and try to find some place to eat. We walked and walked and walked until we found a place were we could sit down and order. It was 4 o'clock in the afternoon so a lot of places weren't open but we were beginning to wonder if Australian's ate! We ended up at a place where we paid $16 dollars for a burger that wasn't very good but it was worth it because we also got to order our first glass of wine legally! It was the highlight of my day so far!
But I can barely hold my eyes open now because I've only got about 4 hours of sleep in the last 40 hrs so I'm going to head off to bed at 7 pm! Everyone else is getting here tomorrow at 8 am so we have to get up to meet them and I'm really excited! I bought a phone in Sydney so I will be able to make a few phone calls so I'm sure my mom will keep everyone in touch, right mom?! :) But for the next 4 nights I'll be in this same hostel and they charge you $10 a day for internet!!! It's so ridiculous and kills me to do it so I bought it for today but then as of tomorrow at 7 pm (and I'm 15 hours ahead of you) I won't have it again for a while. Tomorrow is nothing exciting though other then introductions but then the next day is when we go to Under Water World and I do my shark dive (if they approve of my doctors signature signing me off to do so, keep your fingers crossed) Which I'm sure I will have a lot to say after that so I'll probably suck it up and pay another $10 to use the internet but if not I'll hopefully be back on in a few days!
Take care everyone back in the states and I'll try to keep you posted as much a possible!
P.S. the fun fact of the day is that Australians call trash Rubbish! So on the trash cans it says rubbish and please through rubbish away here and we were told that if someone over hears you calling it trash you have to be careful because they may take it the wrong way and that's one of the worst things you could call someone here!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
46 Hours To Go
Hey Everybody,
As you probably know I will be spending 5 1/2 weeks in Australia this summer!! I leave in exactly 46 hours, it's so close! For 4 weeks I will be traveling along the Queensland coast (the eastern coast) studying tropical marine ecology on the GREAT BARRIER REEF! After the program I will be spending a week in Adelaide with my friend Kristin at her cousins house then her and I will go to Sydney for 5 days before returning home. So...instead of e-mailing everyone personally and filling up peoples news feeds on facebook I will be posting all of my pictures and experiences on here so check in every once in a while and see what I'm doing! :)
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