I've added some more photos from my camera as well as a bunch that I've taken from my friends... they are now slightly out of order, but i'll put little explanations saying where they were taken.
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk130/Jess_E_Rose/?albumview=slideshow
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Melbne Not Melbourne
Sorry for not updating the blog for quite some time. I had midterms last week so most of my free time was spent studying. I have nearly filled up the hard drive on my computer and therefore, have no more room for new photos to upload onto photo bucket. I'll sort it out soon so I can share my pictures with everyone.
Anyway... I had four days off from Uni the weekend before last and decided to head down to Melbourne (pronounced Melbne in Aussie) with some of the other EAP kids.
As is tradition, a journal of my explorations in Melbourne...
Day One
My friend Shannon and I left straight from Uni Wednesday the 15th for the airport to catch our flight at 5pm. We got there quite a bit early and ended up being able to switch to the flight at 4. After a little more than two hours, we landed in Melbourne and began the task of finding our hostel in St. Kilda. Luckily for us, a shuttle took us from the airport to the center of the city where we caught a tram that took us right to our hostel. Another stroke of luck; the hostel messed up on our booking and accidently put us in an all girls six bunk room for the first two nights instead of the coed eight bunk rooms we had expected.
After settling into the room, and putting warmer clothes on since it was about 20 degrees cooler in Melbourne than it had been in Brissy, Shannon and I worked on our papers. Yes, papers. We had a short essay on an Australian habitat of our choice due on Friday so we managed to set out a little bit of time each day to work on them. For dinner, we found a hole in the wall Indian restaurant called Lentil as Anything that lets you decide how much you want to pay for your meal. We shared a plate of the most amazing curry ever then went back to the lounge area of our hostel and played giant Jenga while listening to a guy playing guitar and singing until Christina arrived; she had taken a later flight. Once she showed up, the three of us sat and listened to the guy performing then went upstairs to our rooms for an early sleep.
Day Two
Woke up early to do some more work on my paper. I'm such a good student :) Christina, Shannon, and I got some delicious coffee and wandered around the main street of St. Kilda. Once we were done with coffee, we bought a few day passes for the tram and headed to Brunswick St. to do some shopping. Everything was too expensive for our wallets, but we had fun looking through all the clothes. After a eating an amazing panini for lunch, we decided to try and find the Tim Burton Exhibit. We weren't quite sure where it was, but we figured the museum was a good place to start. Turns out, the exhibit was on the other side of the city from the museum so we hopped on a tram and got off at the convention center, which is not where the exhibit was either. We asked one of the ladies who worked at the convention center how to get to the exhibit and her directions took us in the wrong direction. So we got off yet another tram and waited for the one that would take us in the right direction. Then it started raining on us! :P We took shelter in the play equipment at a park right next to us and waited. Fortunately, the rain only lasted about ten minutes. The next tram we got on took us to Federation Square; the heart of the city... and the location of the exhibit! yay! Our next few hours we occupied by Edward Scissorhands, Jack Skellington, and the Mad Hatter along with some lesser known characters spawned by the strange mind of Tim Burton. Our day had made us quite hungry so we headed "home" to the hostel and cooked ourselves some pasta; an inexpensive staple in the diet of anyone traveling on a budget in a foreign country.
I suppose I've made it sound like we spent most of the day helplessly lost in a city none of us had ever seen before, but we took every wrong turn as a new adventure. We even intentionally spent time wandering around the streets of Melbourne taking in all the sights. The graffiti in Melbourne was fun to look at. For the most part, instead of names of gangs or profanities, they are works of art. It became part of our weekend to be on the look out for interesting graffiti everywhere we went. Also a big part of my weekend... coffee; I'm addicted and Melbourne has the best cappuccinos ever!
Day Three
I finished writing my paper right after I woke up and sent it into my professor for grading. Shannon was not quite done yet, so Christina and I made our way to a cafe for a nice cup of coffee. And what did we do while we were at the cafe? We studied for our midterms!!! Shannon met up with us a short while later and the three of us stayed there until about one before deciding to head into the city for some more explorations.
My homestay had suggested that I visit the Queen Victoria Markets during my stay in Melbourne, so that's where we went. It was sort of late in the day, as far as market hours go, by the time we got there so a lot of the vendors were breaking down there stalls, but all of the food vendors were still going full force. Since we hadn't eaten for a few hours, we bought a huge loaf of bread and some fancy cheese and sat outside filling our very happy bellies. We were so full from our little "snack" that we didn't have to eat dinner that night. We did however, have room for some tasty cakes from a bakery near our hostel.
Day Four
Since we missed out on most of the shopping at the markets, we got an early start wanting to get the full experience. Basically, the markets are a massive swap meet and everything sold there is heaps cheeper than in regular stores. So... naturally... we did all of our souvenir shopping there. After far too much time shopping, we visited China town, which was a lot smaller and cleaner than any China town in America.
Our last stop of the day was the Victoria National Gallery, home of the largest suspended stained glass in the world. On our way there, we passed a street performer who looked extremely familiar. We stopped to watch him and later found out that he was the guy staying in the bunk below mine back at our hostel. We also passed Melbourne's version of the Eiffel tour (at least, that's what I'm calling it) and a really cool rainbow high rise; its windows were all different colors. There was a bit of confusion in finding the right streets, because Melbourne doesn't feel the need to use street signs at every corner and they can't decide on just one name for a few of their streets, but at last, we made it to the gallery. The glass was amazing. We entered a large empty hall, walked right to the middle, then lay down and gazed upward. The entire ceiling was covered in a mosaic of glass; it wasn't as breathtaking as the cave of glow worms, but it was pretty amazing to see.
Day Five (sort of...)
Shannon and I had to wake up at 6:30 in the morning so we could get to the airport in time for our 8 am flight; I really do love having to rely on public transportation :P . That's all there is to say about sunday.
Cheers, Jessie
As is tradition, a journal of my explorations in Melbourne...
Day One
My friend Shannon and I left straight from Uni Wednesday the 15th for the airport to catch our flight at 5pm. We got there quite a bit early and ended up being able to switch to the flight at 4. After a little more than two hours, we landed in Melbourne and began the task of finding our hostel in St. Kilda. Luckily for us, a shuttle took us from the airport to the center of the city where we caught a tram that took us right to our hostel. Another stroke of luck; the hostel messed up on our booking and accidently put us in an all girls six bunk room for the first two nights instead of the coed eight bunk rooms we had expected.
After settling into the room, and putting warmer clothes on since it was about 20 degrees cooler in Melbourne than it had been in Brissy, Shannon and I worked on our papers. Yes, papers. We had a short essay on an Australian habitat of our choice due on Friday so we managed to set out a little bit of time each day to work on them. For dinner, we found a hole in the wall Indian restaurant called Lentil as Anything that lets you decide how much you want to pay for your meal. We shared a plate of the most amazing curry ever then went back to the lounge area of our hostel and played giant Jenga while listening to a guy playing guitar and singing until Christina arrived; she had taken a later flight. Once she showed up, the three of us sat and listened to the guy performing then went upstairs to our rooms for an early sleep.
Day Two
Woke up early to do some more work on my paper. I'm such a good student :) Christina, Shannon, and I got some delicious coffee and wandered around the main street of St. Kilda. Once we were done with coffee, we bought a few day passes for the tram and headed to Brunswick St. to do some shopping. Everything was too expensive for our wallets, but we had fun looking through all the clothes. After a eating an amazing panini for lunch, we decided to try and find the Tim Burton Exhibit. We weren't quite sure where it was, but we figured the museum was a good place to start. Turns out, the exhibit was on the other side of the city from the museum so we hopped on a tram and got off at the convention center, which is not where the exhibit was either. We asked one of the ladies who worked at the convention center how to get to the exhibit and her directions took us in the wrong direction. So we got off yet another tram and waited for the one that would take us in the right direction. Then it started raining on us! :P We took shelter in the play equipment at a park right next to us and waited. Fortunately, the rain only lasted about ten minutes. The next tram we got on took us to Federation Square; the heart of the city... and the location of the exhibit! yay! Our next few hours we occupied by Edward Scissorhands, Jack Skellington, and the Mad Hatter along with some lesser known characters spawned by the strange mind of Tim Burton. Our day had made us quite hungry so we headed "home" to the hostel and cooked ourselves some pasta; an inexpensive staple in the diet of anyone traveling on a budget in a foreign country.
I suppose I've made it sound like we spent most of the day helplessly lost in a city none of us had ever seen before, but we took every wrong turn as a new adventure. We even intentionally spent time wandering around the streets of Melbourne taking in all the sights. The graffiti in Melbourne was fun to look at. For the most part, instead of names of gangs or profanities, they are works of art. It became part of our weekend to be on the look out for interesting graffiti everywhere we went. Also a big part of my weekend... coffee; I'm addicted and Melbourne has the best cappuccinos ever!
Day Three
I finished writing my paper right after I woke up and sent it into my professor for grading. Shannon was not quite done yet, so Christina and I made our way to a cafe for a nice cup of coffee. And what did we do while we were at the cafe? We studied for our midterms!!! Shannon met up with us a short while later and the three of us stayed there until about one before deciding to head into the city for some more explorations.
My homestay had suggested that I visit the Queen Victoria Markets during my stay in Melbourne, so that's where we went. It was sort of late in the day, as far as market hours go, by the time we got there so a lot of the vendors were breaking down there stalls, but all of the food vendors were still going full force. Since we hadn't eaten for a few hours, we bought a huge loaf of bread and some fancy cheese and sat outside filling our very happy bellies. We were so full from our little "snack" that we didn't have to eat dinner that night. We did however, have room for some tasty cakes from a bakery near our hostel.
Day Four
Since we missed out on most of the shopping at the markets, we got an early start wanting to get the full experience. Basically, the markets are a massive swap meet and everything sold there is heaps cheeper than in regular stores. So... naturally... we did all of our souvenir shopping there. After far too much time shopping, we visited China town, which was a lot smaller and cleaner than any China town in America.
Our last stop of the day was the Victoria National Gallery, home of the largest suspended stained glass in the world. On our way there, we passed a street performer who looked extremely familiar. We stopped to watch him and later found out that he was the guy staying in the bunk below mine back at our hostel. We also passed Melbourne's version of the Eiffel tour (at least, that's what I'm calling it) and a really cool rainbow high rise; its windows were all different colors. There was a bit of confusion in finding the right streets, because Melbourne doesn't feel the need to use street signs at every corner and they can't decide on just one name for a few of their streets, but at last, we made it to the gallery. The glass was amazing. We entered a large empty hall, walked right to the middle, then lay down and gazed upward. The entire ceiling was covered in a mosaic of glass; it wasn't as breathtaking as the cave of glow worms, but it was pretty amazing to see.
Day Five (sort of...)
Shannon and I had to wake up at 6:30 in the morning so we could get to the airport in time for our 8 am flight; I really do love having to rely on public transportation :P . That's all there is to say about sunday.
Cheers, Jessie
Monday, September 13, 2010
A Cave of Glow Worms
In keeping with the fashion of how I documented Girraween, here is a mini journal of my stay in Lamington National Park. ( and I apologize for taking so long to post my newest entry)
Day One
We arrived at Bina Burra, a camp in Lamington, around 11 Monday morning. After a brief lecture and inadequate lunch of soup we made our first venture into the rainforest. The rainforest is pretty much what you'd expect; wet, green, shady. There aren't many brightly colored plants or animals like what you might find in other parts of the world, but Lamington is no less breathtaking.
Day Two
After breakfast and a short lecture, we were separated into three groups. My group headed off with two of the teaching staff, Michelle and Ayesha, on a 17 K hike through the rain forest. We spent nearly 7 hours walking through the forest which was beautiful, but really made me feel trapped after a while; it was nice to finally emerge from the forest and see the open sky.
One of our assignments over the course of our ecology field trips is to find insects and draw them in our field books with brief descriptions of their behaviors and what we think the function of their physical features might be. Michelle is an entomologist so about every 10 of 15 minutes someone would find a bug and yell "Michelle!! What is this?" then take a picture so they could sketch it later.
Day Three
Again, after breakfast and a short lecture, my group headed off on a 12 K hike with our professor, John Hall. The path we followed took us through rain forest, cool temperate forest, wet sclerophyll forest, dry sclerophyll forest, and heath land. I was amazed at how rapid the vegetation would change; in a twenty minute span of time, we had walked through four different types of forest. I could give you a long explanation as to why this occurs which would be fascinating to me, but most likely boring to everyone else so I'll just say that the reason for all the variation is that nutrient richness varies in different parts of the forest and leave it at that. I am more than happy to give anyone who cares to know a more detailed explanation.
We stopped for a little break next to a creek and John surprised us with some Australian cakes called Lamingtons. We all had a giggle at the fact that we were eating Lamingtons in Lamington then continued on our way. John took us to a cliff in the middle of the heath land for lunch. We pushed through a narrow over grown path until we found ourselves in a little clearing over looking miles upon miles of forest to the right and the ocean in the distance to the left. It was a little cloudy that day so as I ate my lunch, I watched the clouds roll over the mountain tops.
At one point, we came across a massive Gum tree that had fallen to the forest floor. The whole deadwood center had been eaten out by termites so we crawled into the trunk via the roots and took a bunch of pictures. In wet sclerophyll forests, the gum trees are the tallest things around. I guess they're comparable to redwoods, so you can imagine the size of the trunk we were sitting in.
Day Four
Woke up at 4:45 in the morning... yes, MORNING! EW! to take a survey of bird calls during the dawn chorus of the rainforest. We followed John through a dark abyss of trees and vegetation, lit only by the narrow beams of our head lamps until we came to a look out. Again, we could see miles upon miles of mountains covered in forest as well as the ocean in the distance. I camped out on top of a rock as the sunlight started to grow brighter and listened for the distinct call of the Karrawong. There was a dense mass of mist looming over the river down below that slowly faded away as the the sun rose. With each passing moment, the birds grew louder and louder until the sun finally showed itself and blanketed the canopy with its warm beams. And as if a conductor had motioned for the end of a song, the birds became silent except for a few occasional cockatoo.
We had the rest of the day "off" which really means instead of going on a compulsory hike, my group spent the day doing our assessments in our field books. The work wasn't too difficult, though since we're all science nerds and find sciency work interesting.
After lunch, we went on a little walk with Michelle and saw a koala! I had seen koalas at the zoo earlier during my stay in Australia, but it was so much more exciting to see on in the wild. We were super lucky too, because the koala was actually moving around. To give you an idea of just how lucky, koalas spend 20 hours a day sleeping, so we really did walk by at just the right time.
That night, we headed up to the main lodge for a bush dance, which is much like a square dance. It was so much fun; everyone joined in. Afterward, we attempted to have a campfire, but our wood was wet so it never got going. We sat around the would-be campfire passing around a guitar and singing.
Day Five
After spending a week in the rain forest, with sunny skies and a gentle breeze, it finally rained. When we woke up, the whole forest was engulfed in cloud. Walking around was eery. We spent most of the day finishing up the remaining bits of our field books and left around six that night. Everyone was exhausted and very keen to head straight home, but we had one more stop; Natural Arch to see the glow worms. We got off our bus and hiked down a path through the forest in the nearly pitch dark, since light is detrimental to the glow worms. We eventually felt our way down a flight of stairs and ended up in a cave dotted with tiny faintly green lights. I felt like I was in the night sky, completely surrounded by stars. It was the most amazing thing I have ever experienced and it was hard to leave. I don't actually have any pictures to show you, because cameras are not allowed in the glow worm (actually, they're glow maggots) cave so you'll just have to take my word that it was amazing.
I'm currently doing research on Australian deserts in the UQ library. I have a paper due Friday, but a few of us are heading down to Melbourne tomorrow (Wed) night for our long weekend, so I would like to have my paper done today and not have to worry about it. If I actually get my paper done today, you should all be immensely proud of me; I don't think I've ever finished an assignment more than a few hours before it was due. :)
Cheers,
Jessie
ps the latest pictures will be up before monday.
Day One
We arrived at Bina Burra, a camp in Lamington, around 11 Monday morning. After a brief lecture and inadequate lunch of soup we made our first venture into the rainforest. The rainforest is pretty much what you'd expect; wet, green, shady. There aren't many brightly colored plants or animals like what you might find in other parts of the world, but Lamington is no less breathtaking.
Day Two
After breakfast and a short lecture, we were separated into three groups. My group headed off with two of the teaching staff, Michelle and Ayesha, on a 17 K hike through the rain forest. We spent nearly 7 hours walking through the forest which was beautiful, but really made me feel trapped after a while; it was nice to finally emerge from the forest and see the open sky.
One of our assignments over the course of our ecology field trips is to find insects and draw them in our field books with brief descriptions of their behaviors and what we think the function of their physical features might be. Michelle is an entomologist so about every 10 of 15 minutes someone would find a bug and yell "Michelle!! What is this?" then take a picture so they could sketch it later.
Day Three
Again, after breakfast and a short lecture, my group headed off on a 12 K hike with our professor, John Hall. The path we followed took us through rain forest, cool temperate forest, wet sclerophyll forest, dry sclerophyll forest, and heath land. I was amazed at how rapid the vegetation would change; in a twenty minute span of time, we had walked through four different types of forest. I could give you a long explanation as to why this occurs which would be fascinating to me, but most likely boring to everyone else so I'll just say that the reason for all the variation is that nutrient richness varies in different parts of the forest and leave it at that. I am more than happy to give anyone who cares to know a more detailed explanation.
We stopped for a little break next to a creek and John surprised us with some Australian cakes called Lamingtons. We all had a giggle at the fact that we were eating Lamingtons in Lamington then continued on our way. John took us to a cliff in the middle of the heath land for lunch. We pushed through a narrow over grown path until we found ourselves in a little clearing over looking miles upon miles of forest to the right and the ocean in the distance to the left. It was a little cloudy that day so as I ate my lunch, I watched the clouds roll over the mountain tops.
At one point, we came across a massive Gum tree that had fallen to the forest floor. The whole deadwood center had been eaten out by termites so we crawled into the trunk via the roots and took a bunch of pictures. In wet sclerophyll forests, the gum trees are the tallest things around. I guess they're comparable to redwoods, so you can imagine the size of the trunk we were sitting in.
Day Four
Woke up at 4:45 in the morning... yes, MORNING! EW! to take a survey of bird calls during the dawn chorus of the rainforest. We followed John through a dark abyss of trees and vegetation, lit only by the narrow beams of our head lamps until we came to a look out. Again, we could see miles upon miles of mountains covered in forest as well as the ocean in the distance. I camped out on top of a rock as the sunlight started to grow brighter and listened for the distinct call of the Karrawong. There was a dense mass of mist looming over the river down below that slowly faded away as the the sun rose. With each passing moment, the birds grew louder and louder until the sun finally showed itself and blanketed the canopy with its warm beams. And as if a conductor had motioned for the end of a song, the birds became silent except for a few occasional cockatoo.
We had the rest of the day "off" which really means instead of going on a compulsory hike, my group spent the day doing our assessments in our field books. The work wasn't too difficult, though since we're all science nerds and find sciency work interesting.
After lunch, we went on a little walk with Michelle and saw a koala! I had seen koalas at the zoo earlier during my stay in Australia, but it was so much more exciting to see on in the wild. We were super lucky too, because the koala was actually moving around. To give you an idea of just how lucky, koalas spend 20 hours a day sleeping, so we really did walk by at just the right time.
That night, we headed up to the main lodge for a bush dance, which is much like a square dance. It was so much fun; everyone joined in. Afterward, we attempted to have a campfire, but our wood was wet so it never got going. We sat around the would-be campfire passing around a guitar and singing.
Day Five
After spending a week in the rain forest, with sunny skies and a gentle breeze, it finally rained. When we woke up, the whole forest was engulfed in cloud. Walking around was eery. We spent most of the day finishing up the remaining bits of our field books and left around six that night. Everyone was exhausted and very keen to head straight home, but we had one more stop; Natural Arch to see the glow worms. We got off our bus and hiked down a path through the forest in the nearly pitch dark, since light is detrimental to the glow worms. We eventually felt our way down a flight of stairs and ended up in a cave dotted with tiny faintly green lights. I felt like I was in the night sky, completely surrounded by stars. It was the most amazing thing I have ever experienced and it was hard to leave. I don't actually have any pictures to show you, because cameras are not allowed in the glow worm (actually, they're glow maggots) cave so you'll just have to take my word that it was amazing.
I'm currently doing research on Australian deserts in the UQ library. I have a paper due Friday, but a few of us are heading down to Melbourne tomorrow (Wed) night for our long weekend, so I would like to have my paper done today and not have to worry about it. If I actually get my paper done today, you should all be immensely proud of me; I don't think I've ever finished an assignment more than a few hours before it was due. :)
Cheers,
Jessie
ps the latest pictures will be up before monday.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Rugby and Nurse Sharks and River Fire, Oh My!
I went to my first rugby game friday night. Lots of fun! It was the Broncos vs. the Raiders. Being raised in the states, I automatically associate Broncos with the colors orange and blue and Raiders with silver and black so it was funny to see the Broncos wearing maroon and gold and the Raiders wearing lime green and white. Also funny, rugby shorts; they're so short, and all the men are so giant. Aside from not knowing any of the rules of rugby, the game was entertaining. For the most part I just cheered when everyone else did, so I at least seemed like I knew what was going on. Every time the home team would score, they set off some small fire works, which is a great addition to any event. I'm still not sure who actually won the game, though. I never did find out where the score board was and I left a few minutes early so I didn't have to deal with the whole stadium of people trying to leave at once. Maybe at some point today I'll look up the scores online, maybe.
My friend Shannon and I decided to go diving this Saturday. Instead of going home after the rugby game, Shannon and I went and stayed with some of the other members of the University of Queensland Dive Club so that we could all be picked up at one place at 5:40 in the morning. Such an awful time to be awake! We drove for about an hour to the ferry that would take us across the bay to Stradbroke Island where were diving. Everyone, about ten people, crammed into one car so we could board the "Big Red Cat." You aren't allowed to just walk onto the Big Red Cat, you have to drive onto it and then you can get out of your vehicle and walk around the boat. The ferry ride took about 45 minutes, then we piled back into the car, picked up our boat and gear, then headed out to the beach. We launched the boat from the beach then drove out to a reef about an hour away. Oh, and I just need to mention the water in Australia... it's in the 70s nearly all the time, so getting in the ocean is like jumping in the bath tube; such a nice change from diving in the Monterey Bay.
The first thing I saw after descending into the ocean for the first dive was a grey nurse shark about three meters long just hanging out in a little underwater canyon. Then I saw a turtle! We dove to about 20 meters then surfaced about a half hour later, jumped back into the boat and headed over to another reef a little ways away. After switching out our empty tanks for full ones, we hoped back into the water for a shallower dive, about 12 meters, for about 43 minutes. Visibility wasn't as great as it could have been, but it was still amazing to be swimming around in an environment I had only ever seen on tv or in magazines. I saw a few wobbegong sharks, a huge puffer fish, corals, schools of fish, crab, urchins.
As a beginning diver, maintaining neutral buoyancy and breathing efficiently are two of the most difficult skills. I was very proud of my self for being able to maintain neutral buoyancy, which I could not do during my first four dives. I used up air fairly quickly during the first dive, but I ended the second dive with 100 bar more air pressure in my tank than I had at the end of the first dive. So on top of having an amazing time diving in Australia for the first time, I'm excited at improvement of my diving skills.
Diving took up most of the day, but under no circumstances was I going to miss River Fire. I got off the train for home and onto the train back to the city within ten minutes. I got home, dumped my dive gear on the bed, hopped in the shower, hopped out of the shower, dried off, got dressed, grabbed a sandwich, and ran back to the train station with time to spare. Yes, I know, I am amazing. haha Since I got back from diving so late, I didn't have time to find my friends before River Fire started, so I just stood by the river by myself. A nice couple kind of took me under their wing and showed me where to go, which was very nice. I got off the train in the city just in time to see a jet fighter fly low over head with its tail on fire; I'll take this time to point out that it was supposed to be on fire, it's part of the River Fire celebration. Shortly after, the fireworks started. There were fireworks everywhere. Everywhere. The Aussie's launched them off every bridge along the river and off nearly every building as well. I've never been surrounded by so much noise. The show went on for thirty minutes and it was constant explosions the whole time. Toward the end, another plane flew by. This time I was closer to the river, so I had a better view. The plane was sooo loud and it was just amazing to see it on fire. Honestly, there is no way for me to describe it. Afterward, I found my friends and my roommate then went to bed.
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