Going

I'm leaving for the bus station (bus to train to airport) in 5 minutes! I'll arrive in Cairns in the early evening. I'm very excited even though tonight will probably be dull. I'll write all about it upon my return (June 7).

Caught by the river

I haven't been writing often enough lately so this is my effort to do so!
On monday I only had my 8am chem lecture so I spent the rest of the day going through all of my notes/readings/random papers from the whole semester and organizing them. I organized a lot of other stuff too. It actually took all day! In the evening I had my last extreme spin class :( but it was SO good. I could hardly walk home after it!
Today I got up, went to brekkie, wasted time, gymmed, went to lecture, and went to the mall with Will to get our hairs cut. I went to a place called "Price Cutters." Yea, I know, no description needed. Anyway, it was $19 and it's not crooked so whatever. I got back at 4:30 and just couldn't stop thinking "where did the day go?" I feel so tired. I think I've been fighting off some virus or multiple viruses for weeks now. I cannot get sick though because anything sinus related would not bode well with the whole scuba diving thing!
Anyway, tomorrow is quite the busy day as usual. I will also be getting back both my psychology paper and my anthropology ethnography paper. I have a practice final exam in my psyc tutorial and in my anth. lecture my professor said she was basically going to tell us exactly what we need to know for the final. My anth. tutorial, my last class of the day, is at pub that is on campus. I believe my prof. is buying us a round of beers. Not sure if I'm going though just because I usually go to the gym after that class. But yea Aussies are so amazing.
Okay off to dinner. I am being summoned outside my room!

Understood

I haven’t written since last Sunday! It’s just been busy here. Where to start?

Basically up until Thursday afternoon my field research report was my life. Monday was my last chem. practical. Before it I attended the study abroad going home seminar thing for information on transcripts and stuff. They had a raffle and I was one of 7 winner—I got a UQ hat which is pretty sweet. After prac. I had my second-to-last :( extreme spin class and it was the best one so far. Tuesday involved the gym, marine lecture, going to my tutors/professor for help/revision of my research report, and giving blood (yay second time in Australia!). Wednesday was the typical crazy day except for that it was even crazier because after my 7 hours of class it was the first round of State of Origin! State of Origin is the 3 rugby league matches between NSW and QLD. Long story short, we lost, but at least I finished the first draft of my report and was able to send it to my dad for some editing! Thursday I finished up my report, submitted it, gymmed, went to lecture, went to the mall to buy stuff for my costume for MiniBall. MiniBall is the biggest event of the semester at Union. It’s just a huge costume party where everyone goes all out. I was dressed as the ocean/the great barrier reef…there are pictures. The event was at a really amazing club in South Bank called Foxy’s. The top floor, where we were, is outdoors and there’s an amazing view. Overall, everyone looked so amazing and it was a really great night that, as any good night does, ended at the kebab shop! Friday involved lectures, gym, and I think about 2 or 3 naps. In the evening I finished my chem. prac. calculations (thrilling). I also finally booked my hostel in Cairns for the first 2 nights. The last night, which is 4 nights after those 2, is still up in the air because I don’t know if I want to stay in the same place or a different place.

Yesterday, Saturday, I worked on my third and final chem. computerized test thing, gymmed, lunched, worked, did a quick shopping, and submitted my test after dinner. I did not do well, and the worst part is I don’t understand why my calculations are wrong. Oh course, this is the one test that we only get one chance to do—just my luck. Anyway, I’m going to have to get help from my professor sometime this week because I know that there will be at least one question on the final like the ones I got wrong.

SO that brings me to today. I had seen that today was going to be beautiful weather and warmer than it has been (27!) so I knew I wanted to be outside, especially since I had officially finished all of my assignments for my classes (!). In the morning I went with my friend Will to the Sunday markets in the Valley. They were not really all that impressive and I later found out from a girl in my hall that Saturday is when the valley market is big. Oops. After seeing all that was there, we wandered to find food and, despite it being only 11am, ate at this place that serves “healthy burgers.” I got a child’s one--any place that lets me order the child's size is winner in my book--and Will got one with heaps of topping including pineapple and avocado. They were so good—all the veges were so fresh and the meat was so lean. Plus we sat outside in the sun which felt so good. After eating we walked from the Valley to the city by the river which took about a half-hour and then we took the city-cat home from the city. Even though the market wasn’t as good as I had hoped, we both agreed it was a very good morning. I got home a bit after 1:00 and changed to go to the pool where I sunbathed and started a new book. I probably would’ve stayed for several hours, but I got bitten by one of the ants that I am allergic to after an hour or so. It bit one of my toes and the pain was basically crippling. I tried to stay despite it but it was not possible. I was tearing up the whole time I was walking home! The pain has subsided since the afternoon and I still consider today a great day. I’m currently doing laundry (much needed, I have only one gymming outfit left!) and I’m going to try to organize some of my class notes and stuff.

On another note: Before dinner, one of the 3^rd-year guys was walking across the courtyard completely naked…just leisurely walking. Like that is completely normal behaviour. Funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time!

Last week of class? Bring it on. Finals? Not so much...

Listen up destiny

Just a quick post on the weekend. Saturday I worked hard on my report but still seemed to not get all that far somehow. At the gym I managed to multi-task and read 3 journal articles which helped the time issue out a bit. After a really fast dinner, Bridgette, Will, and I got the bus to Suncorps Stadium to see the Queensland Reds vs. New South Wales Warratahs--rugby union. NSW and QLD always have the biggest rivalries for every sport in Australia, so this was the biggest game of the season from my understanding. It was very fun but QLD lost by a few points...I actually forget the score...15-18 maybe? Well, whatever, I didn't really care that much that they lost, I was just happy to be in the atmosphere and watch some rugby! After the game we ended up walking about halfway back to Uni just because everytime we came to a bus stop we would've had to wait at least 15-20 minutes so we would just keep walking to the next stop just so we wouldn't have to sit around.
Today I woke up and started working immediately. Writing up my research is so dull and I cannot wait until I turn the stupid thing in and never have to look at it again haha. After getting distracted many times in the afternoon I headed to the gym so that I could be guaranteed to be productive for at least a short period of time! Anyway, I've gotten a lot done since dinner but now I can hardly keep my eyes open--probably from staring at word documents and excel spreadsheets all day! This is a really busy week in every aspect but after this week there's only one more week of class and I don't have all that much to get done that week. Must keep going!

Looking for something I've never seen

I was alerted by my dad when I spoke with him over the phone this morning that I had not posted recently enough, so I thought I’d give a little update.

This week has been good and very busy. Tuesday made me freak out a bit about my marine report because I’m so unprepared for it. I have a lot of research to do and heaps of statistical analysis to run on our data. They are very serious here about writing field work up as if you are sending it out to try and get it published. We have a 3000 word limit and it seems to me that if I get half that many words I’d be pushing it. The whole thing is such a daunting task for me right now.

Anyway, Wednesday was crazy Wednesday. I got my psychology paper back and at first I didn’t think the grade was that great, but I forgot how harshly they grade writing here. Basically, over a 50% is good work, and no one gets very close to 100 at all. Thursday I tried to get a lot done but had to spend all of my time finishing my chem. computer-managed test which was due today. I got a 10/12, and I think I understand why I got the 2 wrong that I did, so I’m pretty happy with that. Today I had my lectures and I did my last hour of research participation for psychology. I’ve been trying to work on marine for days and it’s not coming together at all because I’m all over the place. I’ve just been concentrating on making it to class and the gym every day and it’s been pushed aside.

This weekend, other than the serious working part, should be really fun. Tomorrow in the afternoon I’m teaching my hall beer pong. Will is going to the city in the morning to get the red solo cups—he really wants to be authentic--and balls. None of them have ever played and they are so excited. The pong session will be followed by going to the city to Suncorps stadium to see the Queensland vs. New South Wales rugby match. It’s the biggest rivalry in rugby union. I’m happy to see rugby union since I know it, but I’m also really excited for State of Origin which is next weekend—the huge rugby league match of Qld vs NSW. Apparently everyone paints their bodies maroon and packs into the pubs in the city. I’m SO excited for that!!! Also this Thursday night is union’s ball which is basically a big event for only union people where everyone gets dressed up as…whatever they want! My hall is most likely going to be smurfs…only because we really want to be blue for days afterward haha. Anyway, I have t go to dinner and then get to work!

Hold on tight

Back from another fun weekend. I’m still exhausted so I’m going to try to keep this short…but that’s always hard for me! Just like for last weekend’s trip, I had to leave at 5:20 to catch the ferry to the city etc. When I was sitting at the bus station gate Char’s 3 roommates arrived and I sat with them and I immediately began to wish that they weren’t there. (It’s hard to explain…it’s not that I dislike them, it’s just that the three of them have this impenetrable bond and they don’t want to let anyone else in on their little clique.) So when we were getting into the 2 4WD vehicles, I was getting in the one with them, but there ended up being 1 seat left in each vehicle and 2 girls who didn’t want to be separated so I volunteered to go to the other car. Little did I know, this was my best decision I could’ve ever made. The car that I left had 2 girls from Mexico, the 3 roommmates, and 2 girls also from UQ. I honestly don’t know if any of these 3 groups socialized outside of their group the entire trip…SO the vehicle I went into had 3 German/Swiss girls, a guy from London, an older Aussie woman, another guy from England, and an American doctor. It was a fun group!

Onto the actual trip.

We had to drive a long way because the southern tip of Fraser Island is just north of Rainbow Beach on the Sunny Coast. The driving was about 3 hours or so and we took a break halfway to Rainbow Beach. We spent a while at rainbow beach and had lunch which was nice but mostly we were all anxious to get over to the island. We drove about 15 more minutes north and took the ferry to the island—it was SO much smaller than the Moreton one and took 10 minutes (as opposed to the 2-hour Moreton ferry). As you can see, it’s a very short distance between the southern tip of the island and the mainland:

http://www.boxatrix.com/images/area-map.gif

The island is very large—the largest sand island on the plant—so it takes a while to get places. We went to the Maheno shipwreck which has a really cool story that I don’t feel like telling, Eli Creek, and Lake Wabby—all very interesting and fun. We got back to the campsite just before dark and took showers. Everyone fixed their dinners and ate and drank. The night in short involved 7 hours of competitive card playing with our 3 AMAZING guides, Wes Mic and John and the other cool people on the trip—meaning everyone who actually socialized with people other than the ones they came with! Everyone else just talked amongst themselves and eventually went to bed. So yea the 3 Swiss/German girls, Dave from London, Wes, Mic, John, and me stayed up until 3:30 or so playing 500 and some other game that I forget the name of that were basically spades and hearts with other complicated rules added. Despite being on a gorgeous sand island with rainforests and sparkling lakes, I say with confidence that that night was the best part of the trip. I won the first 10 games or something so Wes begged me to get a job as a tour guide with them just so they could use me to hustle people! Taking tourists around a beautiful island during the day, hustling by night? Not a bad life! I was incredibly tempted and still am! Haha. Anyway, I eventually lost my luck and had a bad losing streak for the rest of the night. (Oh and I should add that before going to bed I had brushed my teeth and was walking back to camp and witnessed Wes backing up the car into a huge sand dune. I was laughing so hard. I promised him it would be our little secret! In the morning he made up some excuse to everyone on the tour to explain why there was a huge pile of sand on the back bumper :D)

At night it POURED rain on and off so all of my stuff that I’d left out to dry was soaked in the morning! Not the most pleasant thing to wake up to at 6:30am! We cleaned up the site, had breakfast, and went to Lake McKenzie where we swam even though it was cold and raining, and then drove to and walked around the Central Station rainforest. Wes explained a lot of cool things about many of the plant species there, but it was rushed because everyone was wet and getting cold. Then we headed to one of the resorts on the island where we had lunch in a pavilion next to the beach. The weather was finally really nice and sunny. After lunch we got in the trucks and drove down the beach to the ferry to go back to rainbow beach. Once again we spent some time there and I mostly sat out/ walked on the beach with some others. The drive back to Brissie was long and tiring. Sunday late afternoon traffic into Brissie from the Sunny coast is normally bad enough, but being Mother’s Day made it even worse. We actually left earlier than normal for this trip because of that. Saying good-bye to everyone at the transit center was hard and I’m just no good at this good-bye thing as I’ve explained before. I was so sad to leave Wes especially—he is one of my favorite Aussies so far, which really does say a LOT because I’ve loved most Aussies that I’ve gotten to know! I really do wish I could just be a tour guide like that. Too bad I’m probably too weak to pack heavy coolers etc. on top of big 4WD vehicles :( and I’d be hopeless at driving the things! Anyway, I got home and unpacked my wet, dirty belongings, took a much needed shower, talked with my hallmates, called my mom to wish her a happy mother’s day, and went to bed.

Today (Monday) involved my 8am chem. lecture, participation in a psychology study (now only one more left!), and chemistry practical all afternoon. I’m still exhausted/my whole body hurts so I am not currently at my spin class. I’ll have to pay for that later in the week but right now it seems like the better option. I hate that laziness plays these tricks in convincing me that it's the better option!

Going the distance

Don't really have time for an entry right now as I have to leave in 5 minutes but...I must announce that I booked my scuba diving certification and 3 day trip on the GBR! And I booked my flights. I got amazing promo fares from virgin blue and the times are really good too! Now all that's left is booking my rainforest trek (which I looked into a lot today but there are SO many choices--different locations/style/tour group etc) and a hostel for the nights that I'm in Cairns...which I suppose is all but 2 of the 6 nights. Jo, a girl on my hall with whom I'm pretty close, is from Cairns so I talked to her earlier today about helping me choose a good rainforest tour. SHe has a close friend that works for one of the companies so she is going to get in touch and ask around for me based on what I told her I want.
Any, today was a good day. I didn't get that much done in the morning as far as work because I was distracted by all of the Cairns business. After marine lecture I went straight to the gym which was nice because Char was going to the gym from class as well so I had a workout buddy! We always talk about doing this but never seem to go at the same times. After the gym I went to the pharmacy to talk to a pharmacist about Omeprazole (prilosec) and, like I should've assumed when I couldn't find it anywhere, found out it is not OTC. SO I have to go to the docter and get a perscription. I'll try to get an appointment tomorrow I suppose, ugh. Anyway, I came home, showered, ate my lunch that I had packed at breakfast, and got some work done/looked at my parents australia pictures/mucked around on facebook. Everyone on my hall started getting ready at about 5:00 for this crazy decades party thing that I'm very sad to be missing. I really need to sleep since I don't get to sleep much on the weekends, especially because it seems like a flu-type thing is going around and I do not want it!!! Ok I have to go because I'm watching Rules of Attraction with James. It's along story, but we had a discussion about how we both liked this movie a few days after we met while in a pub and we vowed we'd watch it together. So he brought it back from canberra and we're going to watch it yay!
Oh and I found out from char that her roomies are going to be on my fraser trip this weekend. Cool I guess. I kind of like not knowing anyone. :)

Devastation

SO my camera decided it was a good time to just die on me. I went to load my pictures onto my computer last night before I went to bed and, surprise, it says "lens error, restart camera" on the screen. When I googled the problem--the only way I know how to get answers for anything-- I found all of these forums about how this is a really common problem with the otherwise great powershot sd1000. Essentially there is a piece or few pieces of sand or dust lodged somewhere between the gears that control the lens movement. Most people that fix it do it by banging their camera on a table or something until it magically works again. Yea, I tried it, MANY times, and it didn't work. I will begin a search for a can of condensed air to attempt to remedy the situation but I don't have time to be distracted this week. In the meantime, I have the most amazing parents in the world--my dad got my email and immediately packaged up my old camera and charger,which is now actually his camera, and mailed it to me global priority. It's possible it will get here friday and therefore in time for fraser island this weekend, but it will probably arrive saturday or monday. SO I guess I'll just tell everyone I camp with this weekend about what happened and ask that they share their pictures! Maybe I'll pick up a disposable camera on friday as well.
Anyway, today was pretty good. In the morning Mike called my room phone while I was still sleeping, and needless to say I did not answer, but he called back later so we were able to talk. Of course that contributed to me getting not nearly enough work done this morning! After lunch I had marine lecture and then marine practical for the first time in many weeks since we've just been working on our own with our field research. We had to present our study to the class and state our basic results. I basically had no idea what I was going to be saying until 5 minutes before, long story, but it turned out fine. I got to hear about Char's trip to Cairns over the weekend and she thinks she knows exactly how I should spend my time there so we're going to discuss it soon. When I got back from prac I went to the anthropology building and submitted my paper (25 hours early!) and then went to the tuesday spin class which I don't usually go to. The instructor was this random woman filling in because the regular was sick, and, let me tell you, she was insane. She kept screaming at us and it was just really bizarre because she was this tiny Asian woman and I guess you just wouldn't expect it haha. I came back and had dinner and a shower, and well now I'm here. Tomorrow will be a long day and I really should work on my next assignment that is due next week but I'm supposed to have a good portion of it done for my tutorial tomorrow. Alright, PEACE OUT.

This is the life.

What a great weekend! So I got up at 5am on Saturday morning, left at 5:25 to catch the 5:45 ferry to the city. I had to walk for about 15 minutes through the city to get to the transit centre from where, I found out, many of the tours to Brisbane’s surrounding area depart. I sat and waited for about 20 minutes before I got into the 4WD vehicle, along with 8 others, to go to the ferry that takes people to Moreton Island. The others on the trip were an interesting mix—a French couple in their mid-30’s, a 24 year-old German girl working as a nanny for an Aussie family, a Swedish nurse in her 30’s, a Malaysian woman who has lived in Brissie for 4 years now, a Californian in his 30’s doing his 2^nd post-doc in neuroscience at UQ, an Aussie couple who were about my age, and an Aussie my age who had been offered the job of being a tour guide for this company and was testing out if he liked it. Then there was our tour guide who was your stereotypical aussie surfer type, 22 (+/- a year… I forget), and who knew basically everything about Moreton Island, from the full history to every species of plant-life.

Anyway, the diverse blend of people on the trip proved to be really fun and we all got along great. Once again, I went on a trip and was so sad to leave the people I had only known for a few days—a very common trend for me! Okay, so when we got off the ferry, a 2-hour ride, despite how close the island is to Brissie, during which we all got to socialize a bit, we hopped back into the truck and drove to the sand mountains—Moreton is the 3^rd biggest sand island in the world only to North Stradbroke and the biggest Fraser (where I’m going this weekend). We got these boards that we waxed the bottoms of and rode down the dunes. It was so steep so the speed was quite a thrill…walking up was not so much, haha. I found a less steep incline where I was able to stand on the board and go down which made me very excited! After that we were all sweaty and hot and we loaded back into the truck to got to the campsite for lunch. Our guide had to fix our lunch once we got there, so we each picked our tents and threw some of our stuff in them that we wouldn’t need for the rest of the day. Then we all went over to Blue lagoon which is a freshwater lagoon that was beautiful and only about a 2 minute walk from our tents. We came back to camp and had a lunch of sandwiches and salad which was good but, little did we know, basically the same as every meal to come for the rest of the trip!

After lunch we went to Moreton Lighthouse and our guide pointed out the turtles that looked like big round masses, all along the rocky shore. It takes about 4 strong men just to lift up these turtles by the way! So yea, pretty cool, and we saw a few dolphin too. We walked down through the forest and down these incredibly steep sand dunes to a little beach. We just relaxed and laid out on the sand and I out over some of the big rocks—all very beautiful. By the time it was almost 5:00, the breeze off the water was pretty cold, so we headed back up; thankfully, we went a different route on the way back that was about twice as long but not as steep. When we got back to camp our guide started dinner and we all decided against any showering (haha) because whatever we were camping. So we took some wine and went to the lagoon to watch the sunset. It wasn’t all that amazing of a sunset, but still very enjoyable. When we got back to camp we started up the fire and ate our dinner in the dark around the fire. We couldn’t even see what we were eating! We spent the next several hours around the fire just talking, drinking, and admiring the stars. Apparently I have never been so far away from the city, because I didn’t realize that stars were so bright and plentiful! It was magnificent.

In the morning we were all up by 7am just because of the sunlight I suppose. We had some breakfast and then got in the truck to head to North Point where we went to honeymoon bay and the champagne pools. At north point there is an endless stretch of white sand beach in one direction and then large rocks at the point where many people were fishing. If you walk around the point, there is an inlet with a really nice, small beach. There were really good waves in the inlet, so I ended up bodysurfing for the entire 3 hours we were there! I was with the Aussie who was training to be a guide, and he was so impressed with my bodysurfing skills that he wanted me to give him tips! Anyway, we left there and walked back to the trunk to go back to camp to have lunch. After lunch we got all of our stuff together and made sure camp was clean before heading to Tangalooma Beach. This beach is famous because 15 ships were sunk just out from shore to make it a good spot for boats to dock. We snorkeled the wrecks for a bit which entailed being surrounded by fish and not having more than 2 meters of visibility. All of the fish ramming into me kind of freaked me out a bit honestly! After we dried off our guide pointed out the incredibly steep sand dune just up the beach where, from the top, you could get an amazing view. None of the men were up for the challenge, but the girls decided to embark on the journey! Looking up at it, none of us thought it could be that bad, but wow, it was really tough. It was so steep that with each steep you only make a few inches of progress, and this thing was tall! It took us a while, but eventually we made it to the top where we took some pictures before running down. It reminded me of the dunes in the outer banks, but much, much steeper! We were all sweaty and exhausted so we laid on the beach for a bit but pretty soon we had to hop in the truck to catch the 3:30 ferry back to the mainland. On the ferry ride home I got an iced tea and laid out on the top level with some of the others. I ended up falling asleep for most of the ride! We drove back to the Brisbane Transit center without a hitch and I said most of my goodbyes there, but I went with Vicki and Ti, the Swedish woman and the Malaysian woman to their bus stop because it was on my way to the ferry. I said my goodbyes to them and then picked up subway—my first (and probably last) American fast food in Australia!—and got to the ferry at 6:53, not even knowing that there is a 6:53 ferry back to uni! Rarely do I have good luck with public transport here, but it was very much appreciated because I was exhausted and in need of a shower—and would’ve had to wait 30 minutes until the next one had I missed it! I came home to most of my hall still a bit drunk from Sunday afternoon festivities, haha. Anyway, today I did a massive amount of laundry—I honestly had not one piece of warm clothing left—and finished my paper for anthro.

I should also mention that I finally know when my finals are! The last day of classes is the 30^th, and then my finals are on the 11, 13,14, and 16. Soooo HUGE gap that I want to use to travel. It looks like I’ll be able to go to Cairns after all! Filipo and James (from my hall) planned their trip to Cairns several weeks ago and are leaving on May 29. I’m going to try and join with them and maybe I’ll be on my own for a bit but whatever. Then after finals I have a little less than a week that I’ll spend seeing everything I never did in Brisbane. I have time to think about all of this so I won’t rush it for now. Alright I should get some more work and organizing done…and wow this was a really long entry!