Newest Photos are up

http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk130/Jess_E_Rose/?albumview=slideshow

Byron Bay

    This weekend was my first actually traveling in Australia.  A bunch of us decided to head down to Byron Bay in New South Wales.  So after spending four days camping and freezing my butt of in Girraween, I headed to the beach to do some more camping.  Luckily, it was warm at the Bay.  It was so nice to sleep through the entire night without waking up from being cold even in my ultra warm sleeping bag.  Soo, Amanda and I left bright and early saturday morning to meet everyone else at the car rental place by 8 am.  We all packed ourselves and our camping gear into six tiny Hyundais; five people to a car, laps buried in back packs and bags and set out on our first adventure driving on the wrong side of the road.   It only took about 2 hours to drive to Byron so we had camp set up and were hanging out on the beach before 11 am.  Our campsite was right on the beach; we only had about a two minute walk to the shore.  The water was beautiful and clear and the sand was so fine that it squeaked underfoot as we walked across the beach.  We decided to do some snorkeling, which was fun.  Then walked down to the point where you can climb some stairs to a look out deck... and we looked out (go figure) on the ocean and across the bay.
    Vikram mentioned that Sean and Shane wanted to go down the coast a bit to do some spear fishing and that they had two more spots in the car so I decided to tag along and just go snorkeling while they were catching dinner.  The current was really strong though so I decided to just hang out in the tide pools and climb around on the rocks with Clark.   While standing on the rocks watching the guys jump into the water, I looked out to sea and saw some whale spouts!  I even got to see a hump back jumping out of the water!  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures, but it was still amazing and I wouldn't have seen them if I hadn't tagged along.  I spent quite a bit of time poking around in the tide pools looking at the sea stars, limpets, chitons, and anemones.  I even saw an octopus!  No it did not have blue rings.  Clark let me use his waterproof camera while I was exploring so I got a few good pictures and I'll post them when I get them from him.  I also spent a little bit of time poking through the rocky beach looking for pretty sea shells; I found quite a few... I probably wasn't supposed to take any so it'll be our little secret, shhhh.  :) The guys speared five fish, so we had a fresh fish dinner Saturday and Sunday night.  The fish were very tasty and free which made dinner even more delicious.  They were staying at a hostel, so a bunch of us hung out there for a while then went back to the campsite to sleep.
    Sunday some of us took a walk into town.  Instead of taking the streets, we walked along the beach soaking up the sunlight and watching the surfers.  There had been next to no one in the water on Saturday when the ocean had been as still as a lake, but Sunday the waves were crashing and surfers dotted the sea.  We stopped for a while to watch them and enjoy the perfect day.  In town, we walked along the main streets seeing what there was to see in all the shops.  I didn't buy anything, but it was fun just to look.  Everyone was still really worn out from Girraween, so once we got back to camp we took naps.  I pulled my sleeping bag out of the tent so I could nap in the sunlight.  We went back to the hostel that night for another fish dinner then called it a night.
     This morning,  my tent was slow to rise.  We woke up around 7, but didn't feel like getting up so the four of us just laid there falling in and out of sleep until 8 listening to all the strange birds and our friends shuffling about outside.  For breakfast, I treated myself to a cappuccino and some gelato.  Australia has the best cappuccino's I've ever had; they just taste so much better than any I've had in the states (except for the ones my Auntie makes, of course).  And my new favorite thing is sticky date!  We had some delicious sticky date pudding while in Girraween so I got sticky date gelato and it was amazing.  So, so good, I highly recommend it to anyone.
     Now, I'm just relaxing a bit before I do some studying and then head off to bed.  I've got Uni at 9 am tomorrow.  Normally, 9 am would be entirely too early for me, but my internal clock is all thrown off, along with all the other UC students, so I end up going to sleep between 10 and 10:30 every night and waking up between 6 and 7 without an alarm.

Good Night All

Jessie

Oh the Sclerophyll Forest; Girraween Nat'l Park

I just got back from an amazing camping trip at Girraween National Park in Queensland.  For a solid four days, the only time I wasn't moving was during sleep, which isn't entirely true since I spent most of the nights shivering to keep warm or else squirming to find a comfortable position to lay.  This was my first experience in the Australian Bush as well as my first taste of actual field work.  I can honestly say that this past week was one of the most amazing experiences of my life... and this was only the first field trip of the program.  With out further adieu, a mini journal of my stay in Girraween.

Day 1

      We had to meet at UQ around 7:15 Tuesday morning in order to hop on a bus and spend three hours driving until we made it to the bush.  For the most part, much of the land we drove through looks like the Central Valley; open space, cows, houses widely spaced apart, intermittent trees.  As we journeyed closer to Girraween, the scenery shifted to forest.  There were a few open spaces along the road and can you guess what we saw grazing?  Whole flocks or herds (I can't recall the proper term at the moment) of Kangaroo!  The sound of the bus was enough to send them bounding across the meadow into the shelter of the forest, which in turn caused shrieks and shrills of enjoyment from not only the girls, but the guys as well, on the bus.  Kangaroo would become such a common sight during the trip that even over the course of four days, we've all gone nearly numb to the excitement of seeing a Roo in the wild.  

      When we arrived, we promptly set up tents and had a quick lunch before going on a short hike to a nearby creek.  There, John Hall, our terrestrial ecology lecturer, started teaching us about the ecology of the environment that surrounded us.  We started our first assignment then went on a hike to the Granite Arch; the pictures will go up soon for you to see.  Afterward, John assigned small groups to specific areas of the forest where we had to measure a 30 by 5 meter plot and record tree heights, girths, density, and conditions as well as profile the other plants and ground coverings in our plot.  I guess we spent about five hours away from camp that first day before heading in for dinner.  Oh. My. God. Dinner.  We had some pretty amazing cooks and they fed us enough food for the entire Steelers football team to eat until they were stuffed and still have leftovers.  After dinner, John gave us a lecture and then we all scooted straight off to bed.  I think everyone went to sleep before 10:30.  But damn was that THE coldest night I've ever had to endure.  The weather forecast was entirely wrong so we were expecting chilly, but not just barely above freezing during the night.  

Day 2

     After breakfast, John separated us into two groups;  my group went off with John and the other spent the day with Billy and Aeysha, our PHD student assistants.  My group surveyed areas of forest gathering data on the types of plants that tend to grow shortly after a brush fire vs. long after a brush fire.  Our data will actually be used by the Park Rangers in helping them to better understand the importance of fires in a forest ecosystem.   Once our field work was done, John lead us on a massive hike visiting many of the park's magnificent natural structures of granite made during the triassic period.  Millions of years of weather have eroded the stones into what they are today.  We basically sprinted up a large amount of stairs until John realized that we didn't need to rush, because we would have plenty of time to see everything he wanted to show us.  The hike to castle rock took a little over an hour, maybe a bit longer since John likes to stop every so often to explain various plants to us.  Anyway, we arrived at Castle Rock, or so we thought, and John says "it's just a bit further."  So we made our way through a crack between two giant boulders across a perilously steep smooth granite sheet and up the sides of a few more boulders and ended up with a view rivaled by next to nothing.  I could see miles upon miles in every direction.  We ate our lunch perched atop Castle rock then headed back down to make our way to the Sphinx which was not too far away.  The Sphinx is a large almost oblong granite (everything that isn't forest at Girraween is granite) stone with a smaller, rounder one sitting on top of it.  Our last stop was turtle rock, which looks nothing like a turtle, but if you use your imagination, and I'm talking about the one you had at the peak of your childhood, you can maybe understand why someone thought it looked like a turtle.  Again we were away from camp until about five ate dinner went to lecture then straight to bed.  Temperature wise, the second night was not much better than the first, but we managed to cram four people on cots into one tent which made for added heat during the night.  Only one downfall, we ended up having to touch the sides of the tent.  Generally speaking, you don't want anything to touch the sides of the tent, because those things tend to be a bit damp when you wake up in the morning.  And that night... it poured.  We were fine when we went to sleep, but about halfway through the night until a bit after we woke up for breakfast there was a steady waterfall on the tent so my sleeping bag and pillow got a tad damp and by default lost some of their ability to keep me warm.  

Day 3

     Aside from waking up chilly and slightly damp, I was excited to start the day.  We split off into the same groups as the day before and did what the other group had done the day before.  We went to the creek with Aeysha and Billy to set yabby traps.  (Yappy's are a type of crustacean smaller than a lobster but bigger than a shrimp.)  Then we took samples of the sediments at the bottom of the creek to find out what sorts of creatures live there.  We found baby shrimp, dragon fly larvae, and nymphs, to name a few.  A while later, we set off for the Junction, a place where two creeks meet up.  Lunch time at the Junction was beautiful.  After lunch, we went back to the yabby traps to see if we caught anything.  We did!  One of the traps had a large red female yabby in it.  She had fairly large pinchers and spines along her sides.  Her tail was curled under protecting a batch of eggs from predators.  Of course, we let her go as soon as everyone took multiple pictures of and with her.  Then we took another hike to the Pyramid.  Pyramid is the "next to nothing" that rivals Castle Rock.  You have to walk up a ridiculous amount of stairs before you get to a path that takes you straight up the side of a massive granite boulder with nothing to hold onto but the solid rock beneath your feet.  We followed a dotted white line painted on the rock by the rangers some years ago that apparently shows you the best path to follow so as not to slip and fall all the way to the top.  We were so over come by sheer amazement at our accomplishment and the view that everyone started cheering.  I couldn't believe how windy the top of Pyramid was.  Again, we took heaps (the aussies love to use the word heaps) of pictures before heading back down the rock.  Heading down is, hands down, waaaaaayy more frightening than heading up.  Probably because you can see exactly where you'll go if you manage to fall.  As always, we went back to camp, ate dinner, went to lecture then went straight to sleep.  This night managing to stay decently warm and dry.  

Day 4

This morning we partially broke down camp then drove to another part of the park to do a bit more field work.  We did some more sampling of creek sediments and took some data on a type of plant called a banksia.  The creek we worked at is called Underground Creek, which made no sense when we first arrived, but after about an hour we found the "underground" portion.  A while ago, part of a granite boulder that hung over the creek collapsed on top of it, but did not obstruct the flow of water.  It was really awesome to stand on the rocks above the creek and hear it running beneath my feet.  Of course, having already conquered Castle Rock and Pyramid, the little boulders that lay on top of the creek seemed like mere play toys to us so we spent a good half hour climbing up and down and around until we were called to poke and larvae and count banksia pods.  (which is actually fun if you are a science nerd like me)  We went back to camp and finished packing up then drove back to Brisbane.  

I had a lovely dinner with my homestay tonight.  Needless to say, I am exhausted.  But, I am waking up early tomorrow (saturday) morning to meet up with a bunch of friends so we can caravan down to Byron Bay for some more camping during our three day week end.  Pictures will be online at the start of next week!  

~ Jessie

Brisbane Rain

I get to fall asleep to the sound of rain tonight.  I'm sitting in my room wearing jeans a sweatshirt (jumper in australian) and socks, because it's quite chilly this evening.  In my mind, it's still the end of summer, not the end of winter.  I have to keep reminding myself that I am in the Southern Hemisphere and the weather is supposed to be like this during August.  Actually, as I learned today in lecture with John Hall, my ecology professor, the weather is supposed to be like this in August only during the La Nina years.  That's another thing to get used to; I keep thinking "well, if it's la nina, why is it raining?"  The answer has something to do with the different hemispheres and anti-clockwise airflows along with high and low pressure systems... I basically learned how to be a meteorologist today in one short lecture!  See mom and dad, traveling to Australia wasn't all just for fun!  I'm learning things too! :D haha

Honestly, it feels like I've been here longer than a week.  I've hardly sat still since my plane landed.  I guess I just want to do as much as I can while I'm here so I don't miss out on anything.  Yesterday, I did end up finding the flea market.  I walked along the river for quite a ways in one direction taking pictures of buildings, bridges, and boats.  And when I got to the end, i turned around and found my way back down the river to the flea market.  There were a few interesting things there, but for the most part it was exactly what you'd see in the States... but more expensive.  As well as going going going, I have hardly had a moment to myself since landing in Brisbane.  There are seven of us living under one roof, five of which are all young women.  When we aren't in lecture, us EAP student tend to travel in large groups to various sights around town.  Even my trip to the zoo was with at least twenty other students with whom I study.  As I assume you can imagine, my time wandering alone amongst the high rises of Brisbane was much needed.  Even sharing a room in the dorms in Santa Cruz, I had more time just to myself than I've had this past week.  I'm not complaining about it, by any means, I only bring it up as something that's new for me.

Tuesday morning (tomorrow for me), I am headed off to our first field study at Girraween National Park.  I'll be back Friday afternoon, but I'm leaving again bright and early Saturday morning to go camping at Byron Bay with some other students.

Until friday,
Jessie

Photos from week one!

The first website I was using only let me load a small amount of photos per month so I've switched to this one.  Let me know if it doesnt work.

 http://s279.photobucket.com/home/Jess_E_Rose/recentuploads?view=slideshow

CRIKEY!

After a looong and laborious week ;) at uni the weekend is here!  I've spent much of my free time exploring Brisbane with the other EAP students and am starting to feel more settled in.  It rained friday, so we all came home after uni with the intention of going back out when the rain stopped.  Well, we ate dinner with the fam and headed into town, but Amanda and I only stayed for a short while before promptly catching a train back home and going to sleep before 1030.  Saturday, I went to the Steve Irwin Zoo!  It was sooo much fun! I got to feed and hang out with the kangaroos, hold a koala, and pet a wombat.  Feeding the roos was amazing; they're really soft and they have this one giant toe on their feet in between two small ones.  Holding the koala was awesome as well; they grab onto you as if you were a tree so you feel like youre getting a big snugly hug.  And they smell like eucalyptus; it permeates clothes and stays there forever.  Of course, I couldn't go to the Steve Irwin Zoo without seeing the croc show!  These creatures are massive.  They put alligators to shame.  I'll put some more pictures up either today or tomorrow so you can see just how frightening they can be.

For the first time in my life, I get to experience what it's like to be the one with an accent.  Generally speaking, Aussies and Americans dress the same so no one can really tell that I'm not from around here just by looking at me, but once I start talking people put surprised looks on their faces.  I've gotten a few double takes, too.  And I am slowly starting to pick up the Aussie accent.  It's substantially more difficult that a British accent which seems to just roll off the tongue, but the other night I said something about a chair and it sounded a bit Aussie.  Maybe by the end of my stay here I'll be able to impersonate the accent flawlessly.

Someone mentioned a flea market of some sort going on in the city at the moment so I think I'm going to try and find it.  There are tons of really cool buildings to see in the city so even if i don't find the market, I'll wander around a bit and see the sights.  Keep an eye out for my pictures!

Jessie

The first batch of pictures

I do believe i've figured out how to share my photos with you all.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53228776@N08/show/

enjoy!

<3

Welcome to the country, mate

Let me just start out by saying, there was the most enormous spider napping above my bed tonight.  Nasty thing!  The Australians (which is how we refer to Lou and Jo) said they think its the same one they tried to kill two years ago when the last group of Americans were staying with them.  Usually, I don't have a problem with spiders, or any bugs for that matter, but I was not going to bed with this one sitting above me waiting for the perfect opportunity to jump on me and attack the second I nodded off to sleep.  Luckily, Alina is quite fascinated by insects and caught the spider in a tupper ware so we could move it somewhere less near to my bed... and me.

I've started working on one of my first assignments, which is to observe a native animal and record & write about its behavior.  I went into uni a couple hours early the other day so I could wander around and sort of shop for an animal to observe.  I decided to watch a flock of cockatoos, called corrella by those aussies, for about an hour and a half.  I still have to go back for a bit more observation.  One of the ladies in the programs office, Steph, said that it's actually very unusual to see flocks of corrella in the city, but the recent drought has brought them here in search of water.

After lecture today, Alina, Amanda and I headed over to the Brisbane city botanical gardens.  On our way out, we saw some sort of mammal digging in the fallen leaves under some bushes near a man sitting on a park bench.  We walked over to investigate only to have the man look at us for a few moments before informing us that the mammal was his dog.  A second later, a little scruffy dog came jumping out of the leaves.  We had a good laugh about it.  We also signed up for the UQ dive club tonight, so now we can go on discounted dive trips through the uni.  We were planning on going out after dinner tonight to meet up with other EAP kids, but home was too comfy and the Australian tv shows were too entertaining... and then there was the whole spider incident, so we just decided to stay in.

There will be pictures to come; as soon as I can figure out how to load a bunch up at once on the blog.

Good night!
Jessie

First Day at Uni

Woke up before 7:30 am this morning.  Lou escorted us to Uni; we took the express train from Yeerongpilly to Park Street then hopped on the bus which took us right from Park Street to the Uni.  I am very excited to say that in the entrance to the building in which we have our lectures, there is a very very large crocodile hanging from the ceiling.  He reminds me of the crock in Peter Pan, minus the clock.  

We met all of our professors today as well as the people who run the program.  At 11 am, we had tea time! We all went outside and UQ had trays of pastries and sweets along with tea and coffee set up for us.  Two things that stood out more than anything... 1) they had real china out for our drinks, not the paper crap we always use at home and 2) the coffee was in tea bags!  This is perhaps the most handy thing I have ever encountered and it makes me wonder why we don't have coffee in little bags at home.  Perhaps I'll start a coffee in tea bags company when I get back to the states and make a fortune for my self. :)

After tea time, we were all given our very own Australian bush hats!  They have University of Queensland written on the front.  We were also given our "go cards" which can be charged with money to make public transit faster and a little less expensive; it cost A$3.90 for a one way bus/train ticket to UQ this morning.  I feel like the greatest expense I'll have while in Australia will be transportation to and from Uni every day.  

After the school day (well not school, you can't call it school over here or college either, 'cause everyone thinks you're referring to high school.  And if you ask someone who goes to Uni something about "school" or "college" they'll get offended.)  So anyway... after we were done with our business at Uni, a bunch of us hopped on the CityCat, a catamaran that shuttles people up and down a portion of the Brisbane River.  That was a fun experience in itself; it was a new way to check out the rest of the Brisbane area.  The regular commuters were taken aback by the sudden onslaught of about twenty American students.  After getting off the cat, we wandered around an outdoor mall area for a while checking out the differences and similarities between American and Australian stores.  Alina, Amanda and I had to find our way back from the city to our homestay without the help of Lou, but we managed perfectly well.  

First Day in Brissy

So here it is, 9:08 pm on sunday night.  I am exhausted and will probably call it a night as soon as I finish writing this.  I have school tomorrow morning at 9 am which means I'll have to be at the train station no later than 7:40 am to get to Uni with plenty of time to find my class room.  Lucky for me, the oldest of my two homestay "sisters" (Lou) will be waking up early along with me and the two other girls staying here (Alina and Amanda) to show us exactly how to get to Uni and where to find our classroom.

My 14 hour flight was bearable.  Other than the fact I had to spend nearly the entire time confined to a small area with little to no room for a change of position I rather enjoyed the trip.  I watched two movies, read my Kurt Vonnegut book, ate a surprisingly tasty salmon dinner, and slept a total of  between 4 and 6 hours.  I really don't know how I am still functioning at the moment; I've only had two cups of coffee today and the first was before 6 am.  One would think I'd be sound asleep by now, but I've managed to keep my energy level up all day.

I met four other UC students in the terminal before take off and we stuck together after landing as we made our way through immigration, baggage claims, and customs to find the driver who would drop us off at our homestays.  I was the last student of a group of eight UC students to be dropped off, which gave me the opportunity to explore the suburbs of Brisbane within the confines of a vehicle that knew exactly how to take me to my final destination without getting terribly lost.  This town reminds me of a cross between suburbs back east and the Santa Barbara Zoo.  I am reminded of the Zoo not because of any interesting animals i can see, but because of all the foliage which looks a great deal like what they've got going on in SB.

The family is great.  Cate, the mother, took us shopping today for breakfast and lunch supplies.  She also gave us a mini tour or the public transit stops so we would know ahead of time what to expect.  The two daughters, Jo and Lou, are hilarious together.  They bicker just like sisters, except for the fact that every last jest is done in fun and they seem to always retort with a response that makes them both laugh.  We had roast lamb and vegetables for dinner tonight; it was delicious.

I spent much of the day and evening with all the girls; I am amazed at Tim's, the father, ability to cope with having a wife and five young women in the house all at once.  That is a lot of women under one roof.  The family has a dog named Ben.  Alina and I decided to go for a short run and take ben with us in the late afternoon.  We saw an Australian Bush Turkey on our way back to the house.  It's fun to start seeing creatures that i've only ever seen at the zoo.  My room was the hang out room today.  It is the biggest and has a queen bed, so it is the most comfortable to have all five girls in at once.  We compared musical tastes as well as made fun of each other's slang terms.  I was sad to have to be without my guitar for three whole months, but Lou has a guitar that she rarely plays so I played it tonight.  Maybe I'll actually have a little time to play regularly.

It's best I be off, I can hardly keep my eyes open anymore.

Cheers,
Jessie

T minus four days until take off

So here it is, my last four days in the states before I embark on a journey that will take me over the equator as well as the international date line in one fell swoop; a big step for someone who's never traveled outside of the continental United States.  I've already packed, twice, in an effort to distribute the weight of all my junk between two suitcases so as not to go over the 50lb maximum weight limit and pay huge fees at the check-in counter.  The smaller suitcase is packed almost to explosion while the large one still has quite a bit of space.  The reason for this seemingly non-sensical way of packing?  The larger bag already weighs 47lbs! 

Words cannot even begin to describe how excited I am to spend three months in Australia!  As a child, I always said I was going to attend a four year university and spend some time studying abroad.  It feels soo amazing to actually be living my dreams!  

But now I must return to wracking my brain for any and every possible thing I may be forgetting to pack as well as those last minute items I'll need to buy soon.

Until I land in Brisbane,

Jessie