Les Examens et Le Ballet

The State Public Library - Right Across from the GOMA
How they celebrate the holidays in Australia...it's a wombat, BTW
Our Ballet Group!

I finally have something worthwhile to write about on my blog. It has been a good three weeks without a particularly noteworthy event. Whirlwind update for everything up to yesterday:

• I came to Brisbane, I saw Brisbane, and I have almost conquered Brisbane


• We had a week of Australian Studies lectures


• We had three days of Coastal Resource Management diagram making


• I wrote two papers for Australian Studies; One about Australian identity and the other about Americanization of TV.


• I took finals on Saturday and Sunday!!!


• I finished my Targeted Research Project paper on Tuesday


• I finished my TRP presentation on Wednesday - WOAH! I just finished the quarter!

Then yesterday I had a nice free day. I went to the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), which was fun but not terribly interesting. They did have a whole exhibit on the long march in China. I spent two hours on Queen Street unsuccessfully getting people presents :(. Then I met up with my ballet group to catch a quick dinner (mediocre Indian takeaway) and then go see Romeo and Juliet! It was really good; the costumes were beautiful, the sets were amazing, and the dancing was great! It was a lovely evening.

Now, I'm just hanging out. I'll go to the markets tomorrow, but I have to pack everything up today and get ready for New Zealand!

-Au Revoir

Sydney Opera House

I felt that this experience deserved a post of its own. Before 3:30pm was boring. Then we went over to the opera house for a tour of this cool building. The Sydney Opera House opened in 1973, but was started in 1959! It was projected to cost $7 million, but ended up coming in at $102 million! After an exciting tour of the opera hall, theaters, and symphony hall, we went to dinner. This took place at Guillaume, a five-star restaurant at the opera house. We had a three-course meal (see pre-theater menu) starting with a roast beat and asparagus salad (or seafood platter), vegetable risotto (or steak), and nougat glace (although I conviced them to give me the sorbet trio) - all for a reasonable $70 - 90! We also had a free drink during intermission of the play, which I will now turn to. We saw Woman in Mind, which was an interesting play about a woman going crazy. It was pretty trippy and we all felt a little crazy afterwards! It was that instead of going to hear a Rachmaninov symphony, but it was still good. I'm off to the Taronga Zoo...

-Toodles!

The Olympic City - Sydney

Cheers! Glutonia

St. Mary's Cathedral from Hyde Park in Sydney
The War Memorial Entrance

I know Sydney should be a long and exciting entry, but I haven’t really had internet access and cities are not really my thing. We did do some really cool things, though.

Saturday - we went to the Police and Justice Museum. We then had the afternoon free, during which I went to see “Sculptures by the Sea” at Bondi Beach. There were some pretty cool pieces of artwork. Dinner was spent in China Town, where I got a good meal for quite cheap…yay, more money to spend on gelati (chocolate hazelnut was today’s flavor).

Sunday – we embark on a journey to Canberra. Today all we saw was the old parliament house. Had Italian for dinner…yum!

Monday – New parliament house and the War Memorial. The War Memorial was really amazing and made me want to take a class on WWI or WWII or both! For lunch we went to Chinese food, where my table ate every other table’s leftovers. We deemed ourselves Glutonia! Trip back to Sydney!

Tuesday – The morning wasn’t too exciting; we went to La Perouse, the first landing of Europeans and therefore first contact with Aborigines. There is a large population there and we learned about some of the struggles for rights, etc. in that area. We spent the afternoon at Bondi again, where I just wandered around the stores, got ice cream, and read. Dinner was Indian!!! Mmmmm.

Wednesday – Museum of Contemporary Art, Australian Museum of Art, and the Hyde Barracks Museum. All amazing! I really enjoyed the regular art museum, especially the 19th century paintings. There was an Indian art exhibit, but you had to pay extra! I ended up wandering with a couple people to get food and found an Indian take-out place for pretty cheap. The rest of the evening was nice and quiet.

Thursday – This is my final entry for this post: Thanksgiving! We started the day late, at 10:30am and went to the Australian National Museum, which had some really cool exhibits on indigenous people and culture. After that we went to the Powerhouse Museum. Now this was way cool. There were exhibits on the Great Wall of China, Design from the 18th – 21st centuries, and my favorite: Ecologic! They had some examples of green architecture and the like. Very cool. I spent Thanksgiving grabbing Indian take-out (again, but at a different place – much better) and eating it while watching the big Christmas tree being lit. Then a few of us went to the Marble Bar to listen to live R&B/Funk/Jazz music. It was wonderful, but it was also a late night for me (12:30… :))

- Au Revoir

Devil's Thumb - On top of the World

Devil's Thumb - View from the Top of the Countryside

After the hike: Charlie, Peter, Alex, Adam, and Me

I know I've posted a bunch in the past couple of days, but it's my last rainforest time and therefore I have exciting things to tell. Today we finally got our act together and found an acceptable hike. We went up to Devil's Thumb - Alex, Peter, Charlie, Adam, and I (the token female - although I must say I led the way and kept a pretty good pace). This is a seven hour hike, with about 1000m elevation. It was very steep, little walked on, kind of slippery, and very narrow. We were all sweating by the first 15minutes and the boys were struggling to keep up (w
ell maybe not really). It was a pretty treacherous two hours...the lady at Parks and Wildlife services said starting at 10am was probably not a good idea, but we did it, stopped for a well-deserved lunch at the prickly fern forest. We decided, with a good 4.5 hours left until pickup, that we would go fo the full hike. The second half was not nearly as bad as the first, and we made it up to the top in an hour. It was incredible, a great view of the Daintree, from the top of a very large boulder. Going back was hard, just because it was mostly downhill and the leaflitter made it very slippery. We reached the bottom about seven hours after beginning. It was well worth it! I conked out after we got back (I had been up since 5:45) and woke up to a very pleasant dinner! Acorn squash and cauliflower...mmm!

- Signing Out

Low Isles: Yeah Baby!

A whole new meaning to the Blue Man Group!

The awesomeness of today still astounds me. We spent a lovely day at the Low Isles, one of the reefs (1/2900) in the Great Barrier Reef system. We boarded the ship at Port Douglas at the marina (where I bought a lovely black sundress!!!). There were also other tourists on the boat, but we definitely dominated. We got off on this tiny little island at around 11:30am, where we promptly began snorkeling. The water was 27 degrees celsius and we had to wear the totally amazing lycra suits to protect us from the jellies (I REALLY want a full-body lycra suit now)! The water was great and I got to swim with some green turtles. We reboarded the vessel at 1:30 for lunch and sunbathing while we boated around the island for some more snorkeling. This was also awesome, because I saw lots of humongous tridacnae (clams) and a blue-spotted sting ray! Plus, the water was WARM!!! 3:30pm we head back, sunbathing and listening to one of the crew play songs on the guitar. Oh, what a wonderful day it was!

-Over and Out, mes amis!

The Past Few Days

River at Mossman Gorge

I am completely done with Coastal Forest Ecosystems! On Saturday I have my final for the rainforest portion and Sunday were the presentation and my final for wetland systems. Monday was a free day, but I didn't do a whole lot. We had our "celebration" on Sunday night, so everyone was pretty tired from the night before. It was crazy...skinny dipping in the pool, flame twirling, and other drunken craziness (so I have heard...I fell asleep at 11pm). Tuesday was a little more exciting. We had a hike planned, pretty much an all-day one. We got a late start...8:45, because we had lost the brochure for the trail we were taking and didn't know where to go. An hour of the morning was spent trying to find the Parks and Wildlife Services office to get the info on this said hike. Unfortunately, everywhere we went had no clue about this trail. Finally, we decide to go to the Dreamtime Centre at Mossman Gorge and see what they knew. They told us that this trail was really overgrown, lots of bugs and stinging trees, and basically you needed a guide to go up it. Scratch. We ended up spending the day at Mossman Gorge, did a mini hike, and played in the river a bit. I finished reading Kite Runner (great book) and had a lovely day. Hopefully, tomorrow we can actually pull together a real hike! Today we are going to the low isles to snorkel and be tourists...Friday we leave my beloved rainforest!!!

Bus Rides, Bug Bites, and Buttresses

Never smile at a crocodile...

A Big (Strangler) Fig in Lil' Ole Yungaburra

I haven’t had internet access for a while, so this blog entry should be pretty extensive. I think I last left off when we were about to leave Heron Island. Since then, our travels have been mainly bus-based. We spend a bit of time listening to guest lecturers and learning about mangroves, and then we travel for four hours to our next destination. We’ve been staying in motels, which is kind of fun, but the drives are killer. We did get singles at Central Queensland College the first night. Woohoo.

Thursday – Ragin’ Rockhampton
The first day after coming back ashore, we went to the Dreamtime Centre for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in Rockhampton. That was a really frustrating experience, because I was hoping to interview an Aborigine on their decision-making processes, however, our three hours there were booked solid. I got a bunch of names and organizations to contact, but I still have yet to do that (also due to lack of internet). We then rode along to the crocodile farm (LINK) where we had lunch. I, of course, did not eat crocodile; I had an unappetizing vegetable, noodle curry. I did get to hold a baby crocodile! So cute. Then four more hours to Mackay. Great hotel though, the Wind Mill Motel.

Friday – Management in Mackay
After a later start the next morning, we went to the botanical gardens in Mackay. Here we heard about community involvement in conservation as well the role of the EPA, DPI & F (Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries), and the MWNRMP (Mackay-Whitsunday Natural Resources Management Program). It was interesting, because one woman from the community was the perfect stereotypical older activist. We had a great lunch and a discussion. I also got some info and another person to contact for my TRP from the guy from MWNRMP. Four more hours and arrival and a kind of sketchy inn (termed a “nice inn in Townsville” on our schedule) called the Spanish Lace Motel. Mike Pole (our rainforest prof) joined us and I’m ready to jump into the tropical rainforest!

Saturday – Ye Olde Yungaburra
We spent the morning traipsing through a dry rainforest. Then we had an hour to shop and eat lunch. I almost bought a dress, but I figured a $50 purchase is not something to be taken lightly and the impossibility of returning the item convinced me not to go ahead. I chose to spend my free time wandering instead of eating lunch, because then we got back on the bus for four hours. Plenty of time to eat my froyo and corn cakes with hummus! We spent the night at a cute hotel in historic Yungaburra called the Lake Eachum Hotel. I was so pleased by the pumpkin for dinner and apple cobbler, that lecture wasn’t even that painful! I also spent some of the evening playing the slot machine…also known as the Pokie! I won four dollars, but then two of those were frittered away.

Sunday – CooCoo for the Kuku Yalanji
The morning was kind of disappointing, because I woke up at 5:15am to see a platypus, but only saw a cool lizard, a turtle, a mouse, and a bat in addition to acquiring six more mossy bites. Sadness. I then proceeded to go running around a little trail. So pretty. Then we drove 2.5 hours (the last long stint) to Mossman’s Gorge for lunch, where there was a really cool river, lots of rocks, people swimming (I forgot my bathing suit). After lunch we had an awesome tour of the rainforest led by an Aboriginal from the Kuku Yalanjil tribe. He talked about all of the different things that rainforest flora is used for, like wild nutmeg to induce a trance for a young man’s initiation. I LOVE RAINFORESTS!!!! Now, we have arrived at our home for the next nine days, the Daintree Palms Beach Resort. OMG, it is so cool. There is a pool (that I have already tested) with a waterfall, large rooms, and a beach nearby. Plus, we’re in the rainforest! Yippee! Ok, enough of that. I am going to go to dinner and see how the food holds up. And then it’s time for lecture, but we can’t have all fun and no work, can we?

Monday – A Dose of Daintree
Overwhelmed yet? Well today we had an action packed morning and afternoon. We took a ferry over to the Daintree National Park. First off was a mangrove walk on a boardwalk. Then we went traipsing through the rainforest, very rugged terrain, and ended up at a water hole. I didn’t get in, but I scrambled along the rocks for a bit. That was quite a difficult task. After an unfulfilling lunch, we saw a revegetation site that was really cool. Apparently, tons of land was clear-cut in a week in the 1980s for pasture land, never used for that purpose, so now it’s being replanted. We finished the day off with a tropical ice cream scoop. I had mango, but also tried a piece of a Chocolate Pudding fruit (yuck) and a Jackfruit (pretty good). I LOVE RAINFORESTS!!!

Tuesday – Trippy TRP Time
This day was supposed to be extraordinarily helpful for my TRP, however, as always, things fell through. In the morning I went on a wonderful hike with only six people. We traipsed through the rainforest as Mossman Gorge and then went for a quick swim in the stream. There were massive boulders in the stream that I used to bask on. After lunch I went back to Mossman to talk to the Aborigines, however, the man I was supposed to talk to never returned my call! Oh well, I got some interesting insight nonetheless. That evening was terribly interesting. It was Melbourne Cup day, so basically the whole of Australia shuts down for the afternoon for a horse race. This also means that people start hanging out in pubs starting at noon. By the time we had dinner (which was right next to the bar), there were some pretty drunk Aussies. One lady was telling me how I looked like her twelve-year-old daughter and wanted to see whether my eyes were as black as hers. Another woman did a chicken dance for us. It was quite amusing.

Wednesday – Motoring Mangrove Meander
The day was surprisingly exhausting for not doing a whole lot. We went on a river cruise to see mangroves along the Daintree River. Really not too exciting, so I won’t bore you with the gory details. Let’s just say I saw a couple baby crocs, read forty pages of my book, and got a little sunburnt! We’re having the mayor over for dinner, so hopefully the evening will pep up a bit!

- Au Revoir