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!!
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