5 Days in Cairns

Actually it was more like 3 days in Cairns and 2 days on the Greyhound. Chris and I took a trip to Cairns last week for a little break before finals. Chris may not care about the blog anymore, but I feel like I should write something, so here you go.

Monday:
We got up early for breakfast then went back to our rooms to pack. After that we had to go turn in our Illustration finals at the School of Creative Arts (SoCA for short). Then it was time to begin our adventure. We got our bags and hopped on a bus into town where we had to walk to the Greyhound bus stop (which for some reason is at the ferry terminal).

Eventually the bus came and then we were off on a 5+ hour ride. We watched The Day After Tomorrow for the first half of the ride then stopped in Cardwell for a meal/toilet break. After eating some delicious potato wedges, we got back on the bus for another couple of hours. This time we watch V for Vendetta (too bad it was the 1st of November and not the 5th). After the movie ended we arrived at the Greyhound bus stop in Cairns, which was conveniently located across the street from our hostel. We checked in and climbed all the way up to the top floor to our room which was literally a cube. The window faced the inside of the building which was kinda weird, but it's a hostel, what do you expect?

With our room we were given vouchers for a free meal each night at P.J. O'Brien's Irish Pub, so that is where we went for dinner. We figured it's a free meal, so we might as well. They gave us only four options, and when we got our food it was seriously a single spoonful. We ate our "meals" and left, still kind of hungry. So we stopped at Baskin Robbins for some ice cream. Now that's a real dinner. We sat on the Esplanade and enjoyed our ice cream then went to bed, exhausted from such a long day.

Tuesday:
We spent Tuesday exploring the area. We walked all around downtown, went in some stores, bought some stuff. Chris was on the hunt for a new watch but couldn't find one that wasn't ridiculously expensive. Somewhere in the middle of all this walking around we stopped for lunch. We didn't feel like putting the effort into finding some awesome place to eat so we went to the McDonald's (aka Mackers) right by our hostel. After lunch we walked around a bit more until we were too hot and tired to continue.

We brought our stuff back to the hostel and changed into bathing suits so we could spend the afternoon at the Lagoon, which is a public salt water pool that is way cooler than any other public pool I've seen. We swam for a while then sat in the sun. It was quite nice.

Eventually we went back to the hostel to put on real clothes to go to dinner. We weren't going back to the free meal place, so we walked around for a while looking for a place to eat. We got a table at this Italian restaurant called Michelangelo's. After looking at the menu and realizing there was nothing I would eat (It was a small menu with lots of seafood and tomatoes) we left to find someplace else. Yeah, I know I'm too picky, but don't worry the restaurant we ended up at was way better. We went to a place called Outback Jack's. The menu was similar to the Texas Roadhouse, so obviously it was awesome. There was also a gigantic (fake) crocodile on the wall and really cool paintings of Australian animals. This meal was infinitely better than the one at P.J. O'Brien's. After dinner we took a little walk along the Esplanade before going back to the room.

Wednesday:
This was our big adventure day. I booked us a tour with Northern Experience to go to a bunch of awesome places in the area. The bus picked us up at the hostel before 8am and we were on our way to Lake Babine. On the way it started raining and continued to rain off and on throughout the day. Lucky us. Lake Babine is actually a volcanic crater filled with rain water. When we got there we went inside the cafe and I ordered a cup of tea (which I didn't realize meant that I would get my own little teapot, strainer thing, water, and milk) and as I was about to pour a cup of tea our tour guide told us to come outside. I kind of angrily left my tray at the table and walked out before even taking a sip. We went down to the dock  to see some eels in the water then went on a walk through the rain forest. We saw these huge pine trees that don't look anything like the pine trees I'm used to. Apparently they were around with the dinosaurs. Then the tour guide let us finish the walk ourselves. Along the way it started raining pretty hard and I was already frustrated that I didn't get to drink my tea so Chris and I and this other girl from England walked through pretty fast. When we got back to the cafe place my tea was sitting right where I left it so I finally got to enjoy what I paid for.

After that we got back on the bus and headed for our next stop: the Curtain Fig Tree. This was a pretty quick stop, it was literally just a huge tree and no one really wanted to stand out in the rain. This tree has been growing for over 600 years and was gigantic. While we were there we saw I think four golden orb spiders which is a gigantic spider similar to a black widow.

Then we moved on to our next location, Millaa Millaa Falls. This was a lovely waterfall that has been used in lots of commercials and stuff. We were told we could swim if we want but that the water is full of runoff from the cow fields so be careful not to drink it. No one swam. The water looked pretty sketchy up close too.

We didn't stay there very long and we were back on the bus for a drive through the tablelands, a plateau covered in beautiful green hills and farmlands. It almost seemed more like Ireland than Australia. After stopping for some pictures we continued on to Paronella Park which is the remains of Spanish castles built by Juan Paronella in the early 20th century. This is the main reason I booked this tour and it was beautiful, even in the rain. We had lunch there which was actually quite good, then went on a guided tour. There was so much to see and I took loads of pictures that you can see on facebook. After the tour we got to explore by ourselves for a bit. There is a waterfall and over it is a suspension bridge, so we walked out on that. It was pretty cool to be standing on top of a waterfall.

Eventually it was time to move on to our final stop of the day: Babinda Boulders. It is basically huge boulders with a river flowing through them. There is an Aboriginal story about a girl who died there waiting for her love so now when young men swim there she takes them thinking they are the one she waited for. We walked the path along the river, took some pictures, saw more huge spiders, and ended up at the picnic grounds where we had afternoon tea (my fifth cup of tea for the day). For some reason there was a rooster there. After a while we left for an hour long ride back to Cairns.

By then it was after six and time to eat some food. As we were about to go find a place to eat, Christopher realized that he left his hat at Outback Jack's the night before so we went back to get it. Then we walked around looking for someplace to eat and ended up at Grill'd, a nice burger/sandwich place. I had a delicious chicken/bacon/avocado sandwich. After eating we walked around a bit and found this Night Market place which was a bunch of little like kiosks selling all kinds of stuff, and Chris finally found a watch. There was one row of just a bunch of massage places that we made the mistake of walking down. We were bombarded by Asian people trying to convince us to get massages. After a while we left there to go get some gelato because there were gelato places everywhere. After enjoying some delicious gelato we went back to the room to find wireless internet so I could register for classes.

Thursday:
Thursday was a lot like Tuesday. We walked around and went in shops. We had lunch at a pizza place called Avenue A, then walked a bit more before going to the Lagoon. Again we swam for a bit then sat in the sun. It got kind of chilly at some points. As we were sitting there we started to smell smoke and then we noticed a haze everywhere and bits of ash falling from the sky. There was smoking rolling in off the water. We didn't figure out exactly what was going on but it was weird, the whole area was smoky.

After being there for a few hours we decided it was gelato time and went to get some and it was delicious. We walked around the Esplanade for a while then ended up back at the hostel. When dinner time rolled around we went out searching for another place to eat and ended up at Rattle N' Hum Bar & Grill which was under our hostel. It was a pretty cool place with good food and I drank a Toblerone. Yes, there is a drink that tastes like a Toblerone, it was pretty much a milkshake and it was delicious. We spent one last evening walking around the area.

Friday:
We had to get up early to shower, pack, and check out before 10am. Once we checked out we had to wait around until 1pm for our bus. So we sat under a tree for a while and watched some seagulls. Then we had an early lunch at the Coffee Club. They gave me a mountain of nachos and it was delicious. We still had more than an hour to kill so we changed and went to the Lagoon. Chris swam and I just sat on the edge getting a tan. Finally it was time to go to the bus stop so we changed again and went and waited.

For the first half of the bus ride we watched The A-Team. Then we stopped in Cardwell like before and got some food and drink. For the rest of the drive we watched The Day After Tomorrow. Again. We got back to Townsville a bit later than expected and missed the 7:30 bus back to JCU. So we had to wait until 8:30. While we were sitting there this crazy drunk man came and sat next to us and talked at us. I couldn't really understand much of what he was saying. Eventually some cops with a scary dog came over and took his drink away and told him to leave, which he unwillingly did. Eventually we made it back to JCU safe and sound.

Now we are in finals mode. Chris has already had one exam and we each have one left. I have a paper to write but I am procrastinating by writing this instead. Also, it has been raining every single day since we got back. Kind of a lousy way to end the semester, but at least I don't feel so bad about being stuck inside writing all day.

We will be leaving Australia next Friday and heading for Fiji for a few days. We will be back home on Wednesday the 24th, just in time for Thanksgiving. See you all in two weeks!

We've Been Slacking

So we totally forgot to finish the story about our trip to Maggie... if anyone even noticed... so, I figured I should at least summarize it for you so the blog doesn't feel neglected.

So, Tuesday on Magnetic Island. We woke up around 8 and went to breakfast at the hotel's restaurant. It was your basic continental breakfast, nothing special. After breakfast we went back to the room and ended up falling asleep for a few hours. Eventually we woke up and began that day's adventure. We walked down to the Nelly Bay beach, which was basically empty except for a few kids jumping off the bridge into the water.  We walked along the beach for a while and found some massive pieces of coral. The beach went on forever and eventually we turned around and walked back.  We started heading back toward the hotel and stopped at a few gift shops along the way. When we got back to the hotel we went for a swim in the pool then relaxed for a while before food time.  That night we walked down to this little pizza place where we had some delicious garlic bread and a very meaty pizza. This restaurant, like pretty much every restaurant on the island, was outdoors and we had a kookaburra watching us eat.

Now for Wednesday. We set an alarm so we could get up for breakfast, but ended up ignoring it and sleeping in. Wednesday was beach hopping day. We started out at the same beach we went to on Tuesday for a while. Then we caught a bus to Arcadia and went to the next beach.  This beach was smaller and my favorite of the day. The water was really warm and shallow and there were lots of little fishies. Also there were hardly any people on this beach. After a while we decided to move on to the next beach which was literally just around the corner. We finally found where everyone in the world was. There was a little park area between the road and the beach. This was basically the half moon beach of Australia. It was the same shape, but bigger, and there were big rocks on either side and it was right by a park. We didn't spend long at this beach and decided we would walk to Horseshoe Bay... until we saw the hill. Then we decided to just take the bus. Horseshoe Bay is where the rest of everyone in the world was beaching it. This was the biggest of the beaches and there were shops and restaurants all along the street by the beach. There were lots of boats in the water and there was a roped off section for swimming. We stayed there for a while, swimming, relaxing, chilling with some parrots... Eventually we went back to the hotel. That night we went to this awesome restaurant called Man Friday. Once again it was outdoor dining and there were these possums just hanging around on the signs and stuff. It was supposed to be 'international cuisine', but it was mostly Mexican. I had fajitas and Chris had a burrito and we got these potato wedges and it was all delicious. I had Mexican ice cream for dessert which was just vanilla ice cream with this kahlua chocolate sauce and it was so good.

Thursday was our last day. We got up early for breakfast and some parrots decided to join us. It was cute at first, but then they tried to steal my toast, so we moved to a table that wasn't right next to the trees. A few of the birds followed us and continued trying to eat my food. After breakfast we packed up, checked out, and headed down to the ferry terminal. And thus ended our trip to Magnetic Island.

Oh also, I don't remember which day it was, but we went to this second hand store which was actually just a storage unit with all kinds of books and other junk you could buy. It was kinda sketchy but there was some interesting stuff.

Monday on Maggie

Right now is our mid-semester break, which is basically spring break, since it's spring right now. So our destination of choice was Magnetic Island, which the brochures say is "the only island on the North Queensland Coast with a delightful blend of untouched National Park, a resident population of about 2,500 and a variety of holiday resorts." Magnetic Island, or Maggie as it is lovingly called by the locals, is a island about 20 minutes off the coast of Townsville, and is roughly half the size of Gloucester, although most of it is all junglely and such, people only live around the shores for the most part.

We booked a hotel on the island from Monday to Thursday/today. On Monday we packed our bags with all the essentials for holiday travel, namely clothes and a bathing suit, yea we're ballsy. We got to the ferry around 2 or something and off we went. Twenty minutes later we were on Maggie, and it was awesome, palm trees everywhere, stupid annoying birds flying left and right, topless cars, little scooters buzzing all over the place, and not a single person on the beaches. That was one of the first things I noticed. I felt that there should be a lot of people at the beach since we were on the Australian version of Hawaii. But we shrugged it off, and headed off to check in at our hotel.

Like all tropical and islandy vacation spots hotels lined the shore, tall and modern, inviting and chic, (also really expensive) ours however, was hidden in the woods (bush) and down a pretty sketchy looking road too. However our hotel was anything but sketchy it was really nice actually, especially the restaurant and pool, and the lobby was pretty awesome too; all open air. We got our room key and headed off to find our room. Instead of a really tall building our hotel was like a huge labyrinth of ground level rooms, kinda like 30 motels all spread out across an acre of land, with tropical plants and tree in between. Apparently the hotel people thought we were important since our room was part of the executive suites, although it still looks like your average hotel room, except this one had soap/shampoo/lotion/conditioner/shaving cream/hand soap dispensers on the bathroom walls. Once we unpacked and got settled in (threw our bags to the ground and collapsed on the bed for 5 minutes) we decided to find a grocery store to get some snackage for our stay.

We walked about a mile to the nearest grocery store, called Foodworks and grabbed some apples, a big bottle of Coke, Shapes (seasoned crackers), and a bag of Snickers. Everything was kind of expensive, but were on a island so what are you going to do? On our way back we stopped at some little souvenir shops and looked around a bit. Did we get anything for you? Who knows? Maybe we did, maybe we didn't, you're just going to have to wait and see. So by the time we got back to our room it was about dinner time, and not knowing where any of the restaurants were, we decided to go to the one that was at our hotel. Remember how I said the hotel was anything but sketchy? Well the restaurant looked like a five star French bistro, and needless to say we felt a tad under dressed and awkward being there, especially since there were no other people there. So there we were at this super fancy, crystal glass, white marble floor, giant chandelier having restaurant, all by ourselves in the middle of the place dressed like beach bums. thankfully the restaurant wasn't as expensive as it looked and we got a beer/meal/dessert combo for only $25, which was awesome, and the food was even better. I had the most delicious fish I've ever had in my life (hyperbole warning), it was basically like if Godzilla and Captain Planet joined forces and performed a rock ballad in my mouth. Emily got this Greek chicken and salad which she described as the best meal she's had since she's been here. And if we thought that our taste buds just had the night of their lives, dessert was about to rock their world. And beyond. Unfortunately the English language does not contain the words needed to describe our desserts. The only thing I can say is that we had tiramisu with vanilla ice cream and a chocolate and orange cake, and it was legendary.

After a mindblowingly good dinner, we headed back to our room for the night, to plan the rest of our trip. We ended up watching Marley and Me on TV, but Emily didn't want to watch Owen Wilson cry, so we turned it off and went to bed. Emily thinks I'm too verbose, so I'm going to finish the rest of it later, I think I'll do one post everyday for each day we were away. So tomorrow I'll post the events of Tuesday.

Don't worry we're still alive

So I kinda forgot about this thing for the last two weeks...sorry. So here's a summary of what's been going on, don't worry it's not that exciting.

First thing, I'm part of an intermural ultimate frisbee team here at school. My team is called the Tye-Dye-Hards, and so far we've been undefeated for 5 games, Woo! Games are every Wednesday at night so we don't die, from dehydration/sun poisoning.

Both of us have also joined this musical concert thing that goes on once a year here. It pits all the colleges(dorms) on campus against each other to see who's the best in 5 different cattegories: musical theater, band, instrumental, dance, and chorus. We are doing Wicked for the musical theater part, I'm the Wizard of Oz, and Emily is in the chorus, It's not really that impressive, I think Emily sings more in it than I do. For dance we are both part of the hip-hop team...yea that's right, we're going to dance hip-hop, and don't worry we'll make sure the video never leaves this hemisphere. And finally for chorus, we're singing Under Pressure and Sweet Disposition a capella. The whole thing is next week, and we're not really ready yet, so we've been practicing all week and even more this week.

Aside from that, we haven't done anything interesting. There's not much to do in Townsville, especially on the weekends since everything is closed.

Field Trip #2

So luckily I was able to go on my second field trip with another class this weekend. I even managed to wake up on time. We left JCU at 9am and headed for the salt flats. Uncle Rusty was our tour guide (btw, if you've ever seen Nim's Island he's in it) and he told us some history of the area and explained how Aboriginal people lived. While we were standing there a kangaroo hopped across the flat.

After a while we got back on the bus and drove down the road a bit. We stopped on the side of the road to learn about some of the plants. Uncle Rusty showed us paper bark and these sandpaper leaves and soap trees and he explained how they used them. He also showed us a fig tree and we ate some fresh figs, they were pretty good.

We moved on to the next stop which was an old Aboriginal camp with a little cave. We had to walk through four foot high grass to get to the cave. When we got up there we saw some of the rock art that is thousands of years old and Uncle Rusty explained what some of it meant and talked about other stuff too. Apparently Robert Towns, who Townsville is named after, was actually a terrible person and he murdered Aborigines and did awful things. Yep.

Our next stop was lunch. At a gas station restaurant. They gave us sandwiches which were actually pretty good and some fries and these tiny little juice boxes. I enjoyed the sandwich, but really that's all I get to drink? I payed $65 for this trip and I don't even get a full size drink? Oh well, at least I had a water bottle with me.

After lunch we went to our last stop. It was kind of a long drive and a lot of people fell asleep, myself included. Once we got up into the mountains we had to get out and walk a little ways. We were on farmland and there huge cow pies everywhere. At the end of the path there was a round area where no trees grew. This was where the Aboriginal people used to do their dances and rituals. Up ahead was a gigantic rock formation called Turtle Rock. We went up and inside the little cave area where we saw more rock art. There were also burials in this cave and some bone pieces were scattered about the area.

Uncle Rusty told us about his own life and about bringing groups of young people camping in the area and about working with Jodie Foster on Nim's Island. He also told us some of the Dreamtime stories about why the crow is black and why the owl only comes out at night. He says it is bad luck to see an owl in the daytime and if you do it means a death in the family.

It was a really interesting day, but very exhausting and by the time we got back to JCU (3:30) I just wanted to go to bed.

A Day at the Beach

Today the International Student Center organized a beach trip for all the international students. Since it was a free trip to the beach with free food we were all over it.  Unfortunately, the weather today was less than perfect for the beach, it was cloudy and cold. But it was still a fun day and we learned a lesson in coconut-ing.

When we got to the beach they made us play games to get to know people that we will likely never talk to again. We played this tag game that involved spinning around in circles and running through a crowd. It had the potential to end very badly but luckily everyone survived. Then they had us just talk to random people and introduce ourselves and stuff. After that they finally set us free to enjoy the beach.

The first thing everyone decided to do was eat the food that was set out on tables. They have so many flavors of Doritos, I didn't see any cooler ranch ones though. Also there were these little cakey cookie things covered in chocolate and coconut and they were so delicious.

After eating we walked along the beach for a while. It was kinda chilly for swimming and it wasn't sunny enough to tan so we just walked and found awesome shells and coral and some other unidentifiable objects. Then we went and climbed one and a half awesome trees.

There was a conservation park next to the beach so we went for a walk through there. We followed the path up and around the park and down to the other, more rocky side of the beach. It was eerily quiet for some reason. As we were walking along we found a coconut. It was still in its husk and we have no idea where it came from (perhaps it was carried by a swallow?) so we grabbed it. Chris freed it from its fibrous casing as we headed back to base camp. When we finally got to the actual coconut it was leaking this nasty, grey, oily, horrid smelling slime so we tossed it. But not before getting the smell all over our hands. It was disgusting and we couldn't get it off.

We walked back to where everyone else was and Chris played frisbee with some people while we waited for the buses to bring us back to JCU. As soon as we got back we washed our hands in an attempt to unstinkify ourselves. It wasn't entirely effective but it helped. And for future reference, if you want a coconut, get it while it's green.

Also, I have put up a new album on facebook, so you should check it out.

Field Trip #1

Yesterday I had my first field trip for my Linking Indigenousness class. We met at 9am in the JCU Main Oval, which is a field. An Aboriginal man called Uncle Rusty came and talked to us about Aboriginal culture and demonstrated some weaponry and showed us how to make a fire with sticks (which took him less than a minute). Afterwards we got to try everything for ourselves. I got to throw some boomerangs and even a spear. It was pretty awesome. A couple of guys from my class spent a long time trying to start a fire and eventually they got it going.

In the afternoon we had to find our own way into the city to go to the Townsville Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Centre. My tour was to start at 2:30, so I caught the bus around 1:50. By the time I got to the city it was almost 2:30 and I still had a 5-10 minute walk ahead of me. I hurried over to the cultural centre and made it there just in time. We spent about an hour hearing about Aboriginal history and looking at weapons and art and stuff like that. I put some pictures up on facebook.

After that I decided to hang around the city for a while and go in a few stores since they are actually open on Fridays. I bought myself a didgeridoo. It's just a little one though, I couldn't afford a full size one, but it's pretty awesome. I haven't tried playing it yet, but I will probably fail cause they are not easy to play. My last stop for the day was Woolworths (because I can't not go there). I just bought some snacks, including a Mars Bar (which is a Milky Way if you don't know). Why do other places still call them Mars Bars? Are we the only ones who call them Milky Ways? Whatever you call it, it was delicious.

Today I was supposed to have my second field trip. Unfortunately I am an idiot. I set my alarm for 7pm instead of 7am and I woke up at 9:00, just in time to miss the bus. They are doing this field trip again next weekend so hopefully I will be able get on that trip (and wake up in time), but it could be full. If it is full then I am out $65 and not doing too well in the class. I am so mad at myself for being so dumb, but hopefully it will workout.

More Stuff

Since Christopher thinks I'm not going to write anything, I have decided to prove him wrong. So here's some writing.

My classes have been good so far, nothing too exciting though. This week I painted a picture of a coffee mug in Illustration. In Australia Through Time and Place I've been learning about archaeology in Australia. Last week I had my first workshop for my Linking Indigenousness class. It was all day (9am-4:30pm) and we did some group activities and stuff and learned about Aboriginal people and the colonization of Australia and all that good stuff. Next Friday and Saturday I have field trips for that class so I will let you all know how those go next week. Also I have my online class (Medical Anthropology) where I listen to podcasts and contribute to a discussion board. Its pretty interesting, and the lecturer seems to be obsessed with cyborgs.

So, like Chris said, we went into the city yesterday. It was really weird how dead it was. There were hardly any people and nothing to do. The only places that seemed to be open were restaurants and Woolworths.

This past Tuesday I worked. Yep, like a job. It was just a one day thing and it was the easiest job ever. I had to walk around these two parking lots once every hour (12-5) and write down the license plate numbers of all the cars. Once I finished each round (which only took about 15 minutes) I could just relax until the next hour. It was pretty boring, but at least I'm getting paid. Of course this had to be the day that it rains. It didn't rain at all for the first few weeks we were here and then as soon as I'm stuck outside all day it decides to pour.

Well, I think that's about it for now.

Stuff

Sorry for not writing anything since forever (Wednesday), we'll try to write more, but there probably won't be too many interesting things to write about. It'll mostly be updates on classes and stuff, random thoughts on australia, or weird things that happened to us. So, onto words.

Classes have been like normal classes nothing too interesting yet. In Digital Imaging we're still just playing around with photoshop, in Illustration we're just playing around with water color, in Criminology we're talking about the criminal justice system, and in my film class, we've watched the Matrix and Metropolis.

Aside from classes I've been playing ultimate frisbee on Wednesday nights. It's intramural, with about eight teams playing against each other every week. I'm on Team 8 (our name is still pending) and we won our first game last Wednesday in a landslide victory, 13-3. We're good, and we'll be even better once I get my cleats.

Saturday Emily and me decided to go into the city to what there was. We left after lunch around 12:30 and got into the city a little after 1:00. The city is pretty big, we walked around for about 2 hours and still didn't see everything. One thing we found out is that almost everything was closed. And the shops that were open were either starting to close or closed within an hour. Apparently on the weekends most things close at noon. It was really weird since we were used to stores being open very late on Saturdays. So we either have to go into the city in the middle of the week, or wake up really early on the weekend. Speaking of waking up early, it seems like Australians like waking up as early as possible. Every morning our roommates are already up before 7, even on the weekends, which is weird.

Today is the University's "Open Day" which is when you go to visit the school. Instead of getting tours all throughout the year, they have it on one day only. So there's been a steady stream of tours going through our courtyard for the last 3 hours. It seems to be over know, but every time I thought that another tour went by, so we'll see. And that about wraps up what's been going on for the last half-week, at least for me, Emily might write something else. I doubt it though, I bet she won't. If she doesn't I'm going to call her funny names.

Random Thought

My bathroom smells strangely of tuna fish...