Cinco de Mayo and Lamington National Park!

Hey everybody, this week has been pretty exciting. In biology we've started learning about Australian wildlife. We had a lecture on Australian lizards and the lecturer brought in actual geckoes in a jar for us to see and even passed around a skink that we got to hold! I was excited to see if there were any live snakes in our snake lecture but there weren't. We also had a lecture on Australian birds and got to learn about this crazy bird called a lyrebird. It can imitate other birds and even other miscellaneous sounds it hears! Click here to check it out. Cinco de Mayo was a lot of fun, I had some tacos for dinner and ate some chips with salsa and guacamole too! Our friends Mike and Julian had people over at their house so we went over there for the night. They had put up all these decorations and we even played pin the tail on the donkey! Lots of people came throughout the night so it was a good chance to catch up with everyone. At the end of the week, our biology class went on a field trip to Lamington National Park for the day. It was a couple hours drive towards Sydney, so it was a little bit cooler than up north. The trees in the park were really cool to look at, they had lots of roots going everywhere and vines and ferns were all over the forest. It was pretty rough walking, lots of tree roots and rocks and I kept tripping over them as we were walking. Someone said we walked around 12 kilometers which would be just over seven miles! So I was pretty tired out by the end of the day but it was a fun trip. A few of us stayed behind to take pictures and before we knew it we had lost the group! We were lost for around half an hour while we tried to figure out which forks in the trail they took and looking at the map to see where we guessed they were going. But eventually we were able to catch up and other than that the rest of the trip was smooth and easy. When we were heading out of the park we even got to see some paddymelons, little brown wallabies that live in the forest. Here's a picture. Overall it was a really fun week!

Happy Birthday Buddha!

All week long South Bank has been decorated with lanterns to celebrate Buddha's birthday, so yesterday two of my roommates and I decided to head down and check it out. The plaza was decorated with tables full of flowers and fruit and decorations. There were booths and tents down the block selling souvenirs and food, promoting Buddhism, and even fountains and cards where you could make a wish! There was a ceremony in the plaza, and speakers from Islam, Judaism, and of course Buddhism gave speeches. Candles were lit and the plaza was really pretty with the lanterns and candles and decorated tables. The ferris wheel was red for the occasion, and there was a lot of people there to celebrate. The best part was the fireworks at the end of the night. They were right on the river and the city skyline was behind the fireworks. The first thing to light up was a sign that said "Happy Buddha Birthday" and fireworks were even lit right on top of the water so they looked like floating flowers from far away. The show was really exciting and they had a lot of fireworks. After the show we headed back home in the warm spring weather after a fun night. Buddha sure does know how to party!

ANZAC Day!

Today was ANZAC Day! (If you didn't read the last post, it's basically Veteran's Day). There was a dawn service at 4:28 am (yikes!) that me and my other two roommates decided to check out. We had to take a taxi to get to the city since it was so early! The service was in a shrine in the middle of the city dedicated to the veterans. The service was a lot like a religious service, there was a few speeches and songs, and an eternal flame was lit to remember the veterans by. There was so many people and we were so far away that we actually just watched the service from a big screen TV out up outside! All in all it was very humbling to see how many people gathered to support the veterans and the appreciation Australians have for their comrades in the armed services. It only lasted for around forty five minutes, so we decided to head back home and get some sleep. I went back to the city in the late afternoon to check out the Anzac day parade. No candy or water guns but mostly just veterans marching by with bands and military vehicles. The onlookers clapped in appreciation at all the veterans walking by. The city was packed! People were everywhere. I walked around the city after the parade, there was a band playing in the city square and that was nice to watch for a while. Then I headed to South Bank with some of my roommates and we wandered around the markets. It was a really hot day out, but having the sun out was nice. All in all it was a fun day in the city! If you want to learn more about the Anzac Day and its traditions you can go to http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/anzac/. Wikipedia also has some good information is you just google "Anzac Day". This is the Shrine of Remembrance and what it looks like inside. Here is what the crowd looked like outside the shrine at four thirty! Hope you enjoy!

Feeling Homesick

Hey everybody,

The last few days have been pretty uneventful. It was pouring rain the other day, just awful weather and my clothes got completely soaked walking to class. So I stayed inside the rest of the day, put on my sweatpants and watched a movie, the perfect rainy day activity. I had a test a couple days ago but I don't know how good I did on it, I was pretty rushed since I didn't study enough. Next time I'll do better. I can't believe how long I've been here! Yet it seems like I still have quite a long time to go. I keep thinking about how nice it's going to be to be home and see all my family and friends again and be able to work and go back to Madison. So I've been a bit homesick recently but I'm still getting along great. I put some pictures up on Facebook but I'm going to try and put more up tonight, they wouldn't all upload before. I don't know what I'm going to do all weekend, it's a three day weekend because there's a public holiday on Sunday so we get Monday off school. It's going to be ANZAC day, pretty much the equivalent of Veteran's Day in the US. (ANZAC stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corp). There's a service in the city so I'll most likely go to that, although it's at four thirty in the morning! So we'll see how this weekend goes. I miss you guys!

Finally a New Post!

Hey everybody, sorry its been so long since I've written. Mom cam and visited! That was so much fun, it was great to see a friendly face and be able to show her all the places and things I've come to know and love here. Before I knew it she was back home again! Then I only had a week or two of class before it was spring break. The first half was spent on a class field trip to Fraser Island for my biology class. It was so much fun, sleeping in tents and getting to know my classmates. We had to do some work during the mornings, lots of measuring vegetation and counting plants and looking at soil and stuff like that. But in the afternoon we would always go somewhere fun, a lake or a creek where we could swim. They wouldn't let us swim in the ocean because of sharks and jellyfish and dangerous currents. But we got to swim in lakes on the island, jump off sand dunes, and play touch footy in the sand. We drove all over the island in 4x4s, man our tutors were crazy drivers! Driving on the sand and on the beach was like riding a rollercoaster, bumpy but still fun. I had a great group of people to work with from my class, most of them were girls from Canada so not too far from MN! And the wildlife was great; we saw dingoes, kookaburras, and big lizards. The dingoes were really fun to see, they wandered around the beach and came really close to the cars; one even sat in front of our car and wouldn't let us drive for a few minutes! And the last night, they were right outside the fence surrounding the camp, sitting just a few feet away from us! That was definitely a highlight. The food there was great, we got delicious meals and even snacks throughout the day, they definitely spoiled us. But we did do a lot of hiking, it reminded me a lot of camping at home and made me miss it. Soon enough we had to pack up our stuff and head home. After that, me and my roommate Jen decided to go up to Airlie Beach. Just off the coast of Airlie Beach are the Whitsunday islands: 74 islands total! We decided to go on a sailing trip to sail around the islands and see the sights. We stayed for a day in Airlie and walked around the town, wandering into the little shops and checking out the souvenirs. Turns out Airlie Beach isn't actually a beach at all, since jellyfish are in the water and there are a few marinas that take up most of the coastline. But they did have a nice lagoon, a free public pool, so we decided to tan and enjoy the sun for most of the day there. Then it was time to sail! First we went around to some snorkeling sights, sailing around the islands. It was so gorgeous, the water is a beautiful light clear blue and the islands were big green and forested patches of land between the unending ocean. Snorkeling was amazing: there were tons of different types of coral and fishes swimming around everywhere. There were even big clams that shut a little bit when you swam over them. It was so amazing to see this whole different world under the water, we even got to see the really huge fish, like half the size of me! I decided to scuba dive once too instead of snorkeling again, and it was really cool to be able to go deeper and truly feel like you were a part of the underwater world. Our next stop was Whithaven Beach: a spectacular breath-taking beach on the largest island, Whitsunday Island. The sand is pure white and stays cool, it is so refined and clear that it reflects the ocean water, making the water clear and see through. The beach stretched on and on and the clear water faded into the deep blue of the water farther off shore. I could sit there for hours and never get over it. We hiked into the island to a lookout where we could see the beach from farther up. Here you could see where the wind blows the sand into sand banks across the beach, creating a beautiful view of white sandy beach swirling around the water. A lot of time was spent on the boat, sailing her and there. The sun was so hot, you couldn't escape it because there was no shade on the boat. Sunscreen was applied basically on the hour just to make sure we didn't burn. We slept on the ship overnight and the next morning we spent on Whitehaven beach, relaxing and playing volleyball, soccer, and footy in the sand. The water felt so refreshing after being out in the hot sun. By late afternoon it was time to pack up and go home, but everyone on board met at the bar later that night to catch up. There were a lot of international travellers from all around the world, and everybody had fun meeting people and talking with them. Overall, it was a spring break trip very well spent!

Gold Coast Take Two, St. Patrick's Day

Sorry I haven't written in a while! I'll do my best to catch everyone up. We headed to the gold coast again to soak up some more sun and surf. We went down on thursday afternoon and stayed the night. There was a group of six of us, so we all rented out an apartment for the night in a building right by the beach! It was a very nice apartment and there was the most beautiful view of the ocean right from our room and you could see the rest of the city too. We had a lot of fun just hanging out as a big group and checking out the city. The only downfall was that it rained quite a bit at night. We stayed out pretty late and Mike and Brittney even decided to stay up to see the sun rise over the ocean! I managed to get up in time to see the sunrise but it wasn't very good, there was a lot of clouds which blocked the sun. But it was still a great night, and in the morning we headed to the beach. It was sunny and nice out but it was really windy and so the sand on the beach blew everywhere and stung when it hit you. Still, we enjoyed the ocean water for a little while before deciding to call it a day and head home. There was a party in our apartment that night so my roommates and I decided to check it out so we could meet people in our apartment building. Turns out, it was an "ABC Party", which means you wear "Anything But Clothes". There were some interesting outfits, mostly people wrapped in newspaper or trash bags or towels. But we got to meet a few people from the building so that was nice. Saturday morning was a St Patrick's Day parade downtown, so we got really excited for it and went to watch. Unfortunately the parade didn't last very long at all and wasn't that exciting. There was only a few people wearing green and it basically looked like a normal day downtown. We decided to go to a local irish restaurant/pub for a while, which was really relaxing and fun. There was a band playing authentic Irish music, so that was really entertaining and cool to watch. We walked around the city for the rest of the afternoon. Today was another rugby game at the stadium. It was still fun to watch but it wasn't as exciting as our first game because our team crushed the other team and so it wasn't a very close and intense game. However, we still had fun and enjoyed the night out. Now it's back to classes for the week again!

First Week of School

Just got done with my first week of school! It wasn't terribly exciting, just introductory lectures and a little bit of learning. So far I really like my biology class, we're starting to learn about how Australia was formed and some early kinds of Australian plants and dinosaurs and such. I think I'm really going to like the class, we get to go on field trips to an island and the Australia Zoo and some national parks. I got horribly sick on Wednesday, a had a sore throat so bad I didn't even want to drink water it hurt so much. I went to the health clinic on campus and the nurse said she thought I might have tonsilitis but the doctor said it was just a swollen sore throat and to go home and rest. I feel perfectly fine now, but the doctor gave me these gigantic pills to take for the next week, which is really irritating because I have to take them twice a day and I can't eat for half an hour afterwards. Let's see, what else? I went to a movie the other day, a group of us got together and saw Shutter Island. It was pretty good, definitely unexpected and very thought provoking. On the way to the movie I ran into somebody who went to my high school and now is studying abroad too! Definitely makes the world feel a lot smaller. Other than that I haven't had much to do to take up my extra free time, I've been sleeping and reading a lot since I've been sick all week. Hopefully I'll find some fun things to do this weekend!