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...

Australia v. America

Australia wins at:

• Shopping carriages (all four wheels move)
• Tim tams - Most delicious cookies ever. Seriously.
• Instant noodle cups come with forks and the veggies are separate
• Minimum wage is $15/hr
• Metric system makes more sense and is more widely used than the stupid way we measure things
• Animals - Koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, cassowaries, dingoes, Tasmanian devils, kookaburras, and all those other crazy awesome animals
• Accents (duh)
• Attractiveness - There are no ugly people (well, no ugly young people anyway...)
• Chip/snack flavors: Moroccan spiced chicken and lemon, sweet chili and sour cream, lime and black pepper, prawn....
• Electrical outlets have switches so you can keep things plugged in without wasting electricity
• Pretty money (refer to previous post)
• Slang: "I'm going to my rellies for Crissie to open some prezzies before brekkie."
• Intensity of road signs (Give way, keep left unless overtaking)
• Friendliness - Everyone is nice

America wins at:

• Internet is unlimited and uncensored
• Orange soda (in Chris' opinion) because it doesn't actually taste like oranges
• Prices, surprisingly are much more reasonable, especially for sweets and drinks
• Non-poisonous/safe animals (obviously)
• Liberal arts - you are allowed to take classes outside your major
• Phone numbers are less confusing
• School food/dining halls have more variety and they actually tell you what you are eating
• Store hours - In Australia the mall closes at 5 on Saturdays and as a general rule everything is closed by 7 
• Candy tastes better, has more variety, and is cheaper
• Money ($1 bills are much more convenient than coins)
• Not having Vegemite
• Shaving cream for women... we have it
• Old Spice... we also have this
• O-zone... and this
• Eating - America is the world champion

We're doing things we actually came here to do!

Today marks the end of the first week of classes. Well the first week of lectures really, there's still other classes we haven't started, because of how the Australian Universities teach subjects. Here each subject you take has usually a lecture and either a practical, tutorial or a workshop; sometimes more than one, and each meet only once a week. The whole thing is kind of confusing to explain. But basically the lectures meet once a week and usually have a huge numer of students in them, and then you'll go to a practical and/or tutorial later on in the week (or next week if the lecture is later in the week). There's like 2-4 practicals that you can take and you sign up for the one you want/need so you don't end up with 2 classes at the same time. The whole process seems very confusing and not very efficient, but whatever works for them.

My classes are basically awesome, not going to lie. I'm taking illustration, and it's exactly what you'd think it is, drawing and painting stuff; intro to digital media, which is basically learning how to use photoshop, illustrator and other adobe software; a deviance, crime and society class, which is a sociology class trying to explain why we have crime and deviance in society and whatnot; and science fiction, fantasy and popular culture, which is a film class, and probably my awesomest class, where we just watch sci-fi and fantasy movies and talk about them. So all you people still in school, be jealous of how awesome my classes are.

So far the lectures have been just introductions to the class and going over the syllabus, so I haven't done much yet, expect for my art classes. In my digital media class we photoshoped a "Mr. Potato Head" of various fruits and vegetable. It was basically just cutting and pasting, and I knew all the techniques for that already. My illustration class so far more interesting; we had to paint with egg tempura, and yes it has actually egg in it. The professor asked for volunteers who had to crack open eggs and just pull out the yolk and mix it with coloring for us to paint with. the subject we had to paint was schadenfreude. For those who don't speak German, scadenfreude is happiness derived from the misfortune of other, I know right, how awesome is that? And we had to pick something significant to us and our culture. So what better to paint than the greasy pole? Who doesn't love watching people try and fail to walk across a grease covered pole only to fall and ruin any chance of fathering children? I know I do.

So that's about my classes in a nut shell. Other than that the only really exciting thing is that I'm going the Ultimate Frisbee team here so I can do something active and actually meet people, since I basically know no one here. So I'm looking forward to what JCU has for me to dominate.

Getting Down to Business

First of all, I'll give you a quick update on the past week.

About a week ago we started actually getting into school mode, after all that is why we are here. During "O Week" we met student mentors and other new students who are studying in the same fields. They gave us tours of buildings we need to know like the library, the student mall, and a few classroom buildings as well. The student mall is pretty cool. It has the bookshop, a corner store, a few places to eat, a hairdresser, and the Uni Club, which is basically a bar. After our tours there was a big lunch where they gave us (once again) a pizza each.

We got our JCU student ID's a few days ago and last night we got buckets. Yep, buckets. At dinner there was a big meeting for the whole residence hall and the new students got buckets. They also made up nicknames for us and wrote them on these yellow headbands. My nickname is Koala and Chris' is Griffin.

Also, we now have roommates. Last week my roommate Scott moved in and yesterday Jess moved in as well. I haven't really gotten to know them yet, but so far they seem cool (although it was kinda nice having this place all to myself).

And now for today's news: Classes have begun.

I had my first class in Australia today and we learned about, guess what, Australia. The class is called "Australia Through Time and Place" and its Archaeology/Anthropology. School works a bit differently here than back home. First of all, the professors prefer to be called by their first name. Also lectures are once a week. Most classes also have tutorials once a week, but you pick which one you want to go to. Somehow my schedule worked out so I only have classes on Mondays and Thursdays (and occasionally Fridays). One of my classes is external, which means I do it online and another one only meets four times the entire semester (two of those times being field trips). Yeah, it's a pretty awesome schedule, but I'll have to find something to take up some of that extra time.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'll let you know when more interesting stuff happens.

Bathroom Scare

So last night around 10 or so I felt nature calling, and appropriately went to the bathroom to answer said call. So I get in there, start doing what needed to be done, look up at the wall above the toilet and there was a lizard on the wall. Absolutely scared the crap out of me, and I freaked out and did the whole pin my back against  the corner of the room and look at the lizard with terror. You've probably seen that look in a variety of horror films of lore. So after my dramatic pose I ran out of the bathroom as fast as I could back into my room, probably covered in a cold sweat; I'm not sure as the overwhelming waves of terror that were washing over me.

And I'm not joking either, I was freaking out. Like a fly landed on my desk next to me when I ran back in my room, I jumped backwards out of my chair and fell to the floor.  You're probably thinking I'm a baby and that the lizard is "sooo cute" but I didn't. For all I know it could have been one of the most poisonous lizards in the world. Animals are douchebags like that in Australia. You think they're all cute and stuff and you want to touch them, and then the next thing you know you've been in a coma for the last 2 weeks. I wasn't messing around with it but I know I wanted it out of my bathroom.

The first thing I discovered was that this thing was fast. So first attempts at trying to catch it in my trash can were unsuccessful; it was very fast and hard to catch, and when I did catch it, I couldn't see it I couldn't get the lizard to fall into it. After much frustration and knee-buckling fear, I ended up catching the demon reptile in my wire mesh hamper, and after it's hilariously futile attempts to climb out of it, I got it outside to let it terrorize  someone else, or poison someone's dog if it decided to roll that way. Either way it was out of my bathroom and I could finish what that hell spawn rudely interrupted.

What we've learned so far

• Australians like weird flavored snacks (especially chicken flavor)
• Green ants' butts are for licking
• Tons of rotaries, but they're smaller than the ones in Gloucester
• Vegemite should not be a FDA approved food
• Sugar cane: everywhere
• Flocks of wild cockatoos
• Kangaroos hop down the street
• Don't say fanny pack, it's called a bum bag here
• Dude = Mate
• Australian are like the chillest people ever
• Things are more expensive (especially candy and shampoo/soap)
• Look right first, cars drive on the other side of the road
• She'll be right mate
• Good on ya
• New Zealanders = Kiwis
• They like Italian words, but disregard the meaning of said word
• To Australians, Italian and Spanish are interchangeable 
• Chips = French Fries
• Chips = Chips
• Everything is called chips
• When in doubt call it chips
• Their money is weird*
• Phone numbers are confusing
• Women aren't allowed to have shaving cream
• Orange soda tastes like orange fruit juice
• They use the Rice Krispies from the 70's
• They call it Rice Bubbles instead
• The Duracell Bunny looks different
• The Nesquik rabbit looks like a punk

* Australian money is very colorful. A $100 note is green, a $50 note is yellow, $20 note is red, $10 is blue, and a $5 note is purple. Also the size of the note gets bigger as the value increases. instead of having a $1 note, they have a $1 coin, and a $2 coin too. The coin denominations are $2 coin, $1 coin, 50 cent coin, 20 cent coin, 10 cent coin, and a 5 cent coin. from 5 cent to 50 cent they get bigger, but the $2 coin is smaller than the $1 coin. Also they've completely done away with the penny, so they round the prices to the nearest 5 cents. However they don't round the price until it's time to pay, so you'll see prices for $2.47 for example.

Here's some pictures: Notes and coins.

Moving to Townsville

On Wednesday morning we had breakfast, checked out, loaded up the buses and headed for Townsville. At breakfast I managed to spill boiling hot water on my hand then proceeded to spill my entire cup of tea all over myself. This is why I should not be awake at 7am.

Anyway, the bus ride was pretty boring. For two hours we saw nothing but sugarcane, bananas, and mountains. Around noon we stopped at this place that charged an arm and a leg for food. I spent $8 on a small bag of chips and vitamin water and a bag of Skittles cost $6. It was pretty ridiculous. I had these Moroccan spiced chicken and lemon flavored chips. They have some crazy flavors here, but they were actually really good.  

After lunch we got back on the bus for another two hours, but at least this time we got to watch the Princess Bride (best movie ever). Finally we saw the James Cook University sign. We got dropped off at George Roberts Hall, where we will be living for the next 5 months. They gave us our room assignments and we moved in and unpacked.  Our roommates are not here yet, so we have the dorms to ourselves. We went to dinner around 6 and were surprised at how tiny the dining hall is. It's approximately McDonald's, but with different food. The selection is very small, but not too bad and there is this green drink that is pretty good (btw, there are only two drink options: water or green juice).  

That's pretty much it for our first day here in Townsville, nothing too exciting, and we didn't even have internet access to keep us entertained. Now for our shopping adventure as told by Chris.

Before I divulge into this tail, I must add some of my thoughts to some things Emily talked about. Firstly the bus stop place was ridiculous, I've noticed that things are a bit more expensive here, but that does NOT justify charging $6 for skittles, it was so upsetting. For food they had this restaurant style grill serving food with this huge list of food, but no prices anywhere, which was really frustrating. Secondly: Left Cairns, this beautiful tropical city with all these amazing views, and we arrive in Townsville, which looked like we just entered the African savanna. So I was doubting our choice of schools. But I guess its not so bad, except for the internet part, we were just kinda sitting around for two days, until today (Friday). Also when we got into our dorms we didn't pay attention to where the other one was staying, so we just sat around until we found each other at dinner about 4 hours later.

So yesterday we had absolutely nothing to do, and the campus is practically empty, and we couldn't use the internet for another day, so we decided to take a chance and venture into the city to get some things we need. So we get to the bus stop which is right next to our dorms and wait for the bus. Now we were just sitting there, waiting for the bus and a kangaroo hopped by. Yes it actually happens, kangaroos just wander around campus, I didn't believe it when they told us I thought they were joking, but they're for serious. 

As we watched the kangaroo hop away, the bus arrived. This bus was very different from the CATA bus back home. So instead of just paying a straight fare for where ever you're going, you pay depending on where you're going. We were going to Stockland, which was only a couple minutes away, so we had to pay $2.80 per trip, which was kinda dumb but whatever. Unfortunately we had no idea were we were, and we ended up missing our stop altogether and instead we rode the bus all the way into downtown Townsville to the last stop.  Luckily there was a Woolworth's right where we got off, so we weren't wandering around trying to find a store. For those of you that don't know, Woolworth's is kinda like a little Walmart; it's mostly for food, but they also have non food stuff too.

However we didn't end up buying everything we needed. We got shower stuff, like shaving cream and and soap and stuff, but we didn't get converter plugs, although Emily thought she did but it ended up being an expansion plug so you can plug two things into one Australian outlet. I bought some awful headphones and a bottle of air freshener that smells like a used car. But on the bright side we got some delicious cookies and chip, so our trip wasn't too bad. I just wish we didn't have to take a bus into town, and just walk into town like we could in Cairns, but if we were at the Cairns campus we'd have to take a bus anyway. Whatever. 

Saving Cassowaries and Exploring the Reef

Monday morning began at 6:30. So early. We ate breakfast then took a bus up to Kuranda to save some cassowaries. In case you don't know about cassowaries, I will give you a little info. A cassowary is a large Australian bird that has the ability to kill people with its talons. But aside from being extremely dangerous, cassowaries are very important to the Australian environment. They are the only animal that redistributes certain seeds. Today there are only about 1-2 thousand left in all of Australia and if these birds go extinct, then the seeds they carry will not be redistributed and the RAIN FORESTS WILL DIE!!!

So anyway, we went up to Kuranda to help save the cassowaries. We went to a school and planted trees that grow fruits that cassowaries eat (I don't know why we want such dangerous animals so close to our children's playgrounds, but whatevs). This awesome eco-warrior (hippie) old lady showed us how to dig with pickaxes, call for the "poo boy", plant a tree, and call for the water boy and ribbon girl. It was dirty work, but she offered us "five-digit condoms" to keep our hands clean.

After planting trees for about an hour, we went back for morning tea/snacks (they give us so much tea... like I have at least 3 cups a day here). After snack time we walked around and learned about some of the plants and whatnot. Then they showed us how to make koala/worm poop fertilizer soil stuff. We split up into groups to pot some plants for the nursery. Someone found a little lizard and it ended up crawling into one girls hair, it was pretty hilarious.

Next was lunch at Bellavista, which was this awesome pizza place. They gave us a pizza each. Yep, a whole pizza. Then we had to go over to another place to have a reflection/info session which was pretty boring. Afterwards we didn't feel like waiting for our bus so we walked around town. We looked at souvenirs, ate gelato, and walked along the shore (type thing even though there was no water). Then we went back and hung around the hostel.

The next day was Great Barrier Reef day. After breakfast we took a bus to the marina where we got aboard the Silverswift for an hour and a half ride out to the reef.

Awwwright, time to get going.

The ride up was kinda boring, except for that one girl who got seasick and puked that was interesting. Oh and that guy who broke his foot. Actually those kinda suck, but they made the ride up stand out. Anyway, once we got on the boat they separated the certified divers from the newbies and snorkelers so they could give us talks about how the reef is delicate so don't try to stand on it or you'll break it and it'll cut you big time. Remember that scene in Forgetting Sarah Marshall when Aldous Snow got coral in his leg? It happens, coral will rape your leg and any other part of your body that's unfortunate enough to touch it. Definitely not good rape.

I was a little nervous about scuba diving so I decided to snorkel instead, which is now a decision I definitely regret, cause the reef was amazing.  Another decision I regret is not buying an underwater camera, cause there were a lot of cool fish and coral and stuff, so most of the pictures and links here will be from Google, but I actually saw them in real life, so just pretend I took the pictures, it'll be a lot more impressive that way. So, The boat stopped at three different locations along the reef that we could explore within a reasonable distance from the boat. Getting ready for snorkeling was kinda difficult cause people were running around everywhere, and I had no idea where anything was, so it took awhile to get stuff, even longer than normal since I'm practically a giant and had to wait longer, as they tried to find super sized fins, and I tried on like 3 wet suits until I got one that fit me.

This was my first step into the Pacific Ocean, and let me tell you, it was so much warmer than the Atlantic. It was legit like bath water, I think the guides said the water was around 80 and it's only winter down here! So the first site was kinda shallow maybe around 15ft deep at the most....I think, I could touch the bottom, so it wasn't too deep, the other two got progressively deeper as we went. The reef looked kinda like this, but like I said, I wish I had taken pictures, cause it's way too much to describe. And there were all sorts of crazy colored fish; green fish, yellow fish, one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish, crazy awesome fish, all sorts of fish.

I also found Nemo....kinda. It was a clown fish but it was mostly black instead of orange. I also found Gill from Finding Nemo too, you know that angel fish from the fish tank that wanted to escape? That guy, I saw him, at the Great Barrier reef. Also some of these guys, and this dude over here, and even this scary guy. That last one they called a buffalo headed parrot fish, and it was pretty big and kinda scary, it had this teeth beak thing and it bit off chunks of coral. And speaking of big and scary fish I saw a reef shark and some barracudas. The Australearn girl that was with us chased after the shark and was able to touch it's back fin. It was only a small shark too, only about as long as me. And I tried to touch the barracudas, but they were too deep for me to reach.

The reef was awesome, way too awesome to describe, and I wish I bought an underwater camera, so I could show you the pictures and brag better, buuuutt I guess I'll just have to make do with Google images and taunting. Once we got back they gave us dinner, and guess what it was? Pizza! Again! For the third time! It was good though, again we got a full small pizza for ourselves, so they had like half a bajillion boxes of pizza there, it was Pizza Hut pizza too, pretty good too. And that was it basically, I was pretty exhausted from the day's activities, so I ended up going to sleep like at eight, also every time I closed my eyes it felt like I was falling. It was really weird. So that concludes day 4 of Australia.

Emily's Jungle Tour & Chris' White Water Rafting

The jungle tour kind of got off to a rough start. When we met up at 7:30 Sunday morning I was not on the reservation list. So we ended up calling the reservations people and getting that all sorted out, so I was able to go on the tour. It was a very long day. First we went to this wildlife sanctuary place and looked around at all the animals. It was very similar to the Rainforestation from Saturday so it wasn't too exciting, but I did get to see my first cassowary. We were told to meet back at the bus at exactly 10:20 and anyone who was late had to eat vegemite. I am so glad I made it back in time because when I tried vegemite before I practically threw up.

After punishing the latecomers we drove over to Mossman Gorge where we walked through the rainforest and learned about some of the plants and animals. Before we left the gorge we went for a swim in the river which was pretty awesome (except for the part where we had to sit in wet bathing suits all day). Next was lunch followed by a cruise on the Daintree River where we saw a couple of crocodiles on the banks.

 After the cruise we took a ferry across the river to go to Cape Tribulation where we chilled on a beautiful tropical beach and I took my first steps into the Pacific Ocean. Along the way I actually got to see a cassowary in the wild, which is pretty rare since they are endangered. We had about a two hour drive back to Cairns and were late to dinner with the rest of the Australearn people, but we managed to make it before everyone ordered. By the time we got back to the resort I was so ready for bed.

Chris' turn:

First thing I want to say is that vegemite really is the worst thing I've ever had, like seriously I've heard people
say how terrible it is, but they didn't do it justice. It was kinda like a skunk ate a day's worth of soy sauce then crapped in a bucket of molasses. Yea, that disgusting. Anyways.....

My "day of adventure" didn't actually start until 2 so I kinda had an afternoon of adventure. So until then I was just going to hang around the resort for awhile and draw or something (kinda wish I bought a book to read), but then a bunch of people were  going to go to the beach around 10 so I went with them. The Australearn guys said that there really wasn't much of a beach and that it was just crap, but there was this lagoon thing at the end of the coast. So we walked there, which only took like 10 minutes or so. And when they said it was crap they weren't kidding. By the time we got to the beach it was low tide, and as far as you could see was just mud, mud as far as the eye can see it was kinda awful.

The boulevard was really nice though: green grass crazy looking trees, a skate park, a weird shell statue, a playground, and a weird fish and cake shop. Yea, you heard me, a fish and cake shop; they sold fish....and cake. Also some burgers and other things, but mostly fish and cake. So we got some lunch there and continued along the boulevard. Eventually we got to the lagoon, and what was there was amazing. When I first heard of it, I was expecting like an actually lagoon, with the ocean and all that, but it was this giant pool. Like you could walk right into it just like a beach; it even had white sand. It was pretty awesome.

But we didn't go to the lagoon right away, first we went into town cause some people needed to go to global Gossip (the place that we get our phones here from). So they go there, and some of us walked around town a little. We ended up in an aborigine store that sold authentic (so they say) boomerangs, didgeridoos and other stuff. I bought a boomerang and we met this girl who was being followed around by a camera guy. Apparently she was filming an episode of MTV's Made. For those who don't know, it's a show where they track and help this person become a different person...like they'll have some cowgirl who wants to be an iceskater so they follow her journey to achieve that. I don't remeber what her episode was called but i might be in a passing shot in that episode.

Ok Emily's yelling at me for not getting on to the raft part, so here it is:
After the boomerang getting, I ended up skipping the lagoon since I had to be back to the resort by 2. There ended up only being five of us going (me being the only guy), but we were joined by these brother and sister from Canada, since there had to be 7 people per raft. The river was pretty tame, some pretty strong rapids, but nothing too serious, but there were TONS of rocks, like we had to dodge them left and right. after the rapids we end up in a calm spot for a while and we got to jump out of the raft and swim around before the next wave of rapids.

We were joined on the river by a British rugby team that afternoon so we had like 5 rafts of jacked guys with british accents yelling at us to race or splashing us with their paddles. Our rafting guide thought it would be fun to try to hook up the girls on our raft with the rugby guys in the manner she seemed best, asking them: "Who wants to get my friends here pregnant?" really classy.

But overall rafting was awesome and we went to this brewery for some snacks and to see the pictures they took during the trip. All the pictures I had my head down, as they took to the pictures during the crazy rapids, so I didn't get any....sorry mom no pictures for you. But they gave us the most delicious potato wedges I have ever had, like I don't think even vegemite could ruin them....ok that was a lie, vegemite can probably ruin any food you put it on. But that was my day and stuff.....Emily doesn't like my ending but who cares what she thinks.

Adventures in Time Travel and Adventure Day 1

We left Boston at 10:15am on Wednesday. Four planes and 24 hours later we arrived in Cairns, Australia at 4:45pm on Friday. Yep, two days went by in a 24 hour period. That's time travel. The first two flights (Boston to Dallas, Dallas to San Francisco) were on American Airlines and they didn't even give us snacks. In San Francisco we met a lot of other Australearners, and there were about 60 or 70 of us on the flight to Sydney. The flight to Sydney was 14 hours long and very boring, but the plane was nice and they kept giving us food. Our final flight from Sydney to Cairns was only about 3 hours and they gave us these ice cream cone things with a kit kat inside. At the Cairns airport we met up with the group leaders and all the other Australearn students, got our luggage, and took a bus to the Bohemia Resort where we are living for the next week in 6-person bunk rooms. 


Today, Saturday, was our first adventure. At this morning's buffet breakfast we tried Vegemite and it was probably the most disgusting food ever invented.  After breakfast we took a bus to Rainforestation where we took a duck tour through the rainforest, watched an Aboriginal dance show, threw boomerangs, and saw some Australian animals. We held koalas and snakes and fed some kangaroos and wallabies. We met Jack the Ripper (a gigantic crocodile). Today was excellent, and photos will be posted as soon as I don't have to pay $10 an hour for internet.

Welcome to the blog

Two months from today, on July 7, we will be leaving Gloucester to begin our adventures abroad. That means we have two months to finish preparing and organizing ourselves, and only two months until we have to start school again. So, I'm writing this partially to get this blog started and let everyone know TWO MONTHS! and partially because I'm procrastinating writing my final essay (don't worry, I still have three days). There probably won't be many updates between now and July 7, but once we are on our way we will be writing on here as often as we have something interesting to say.