This is a woobigone in the sydney harbor aquarium. it has sharp teeth and a strong jaw that once it bites down on you, it doesnt let go until you saw its jaw apart. we swam with these guys at heron island. this is also what steve looked like at the end of the trip when he got tired of us and didnt get his coffee!!
Amanda taught us how to make banana boats in the fire while we camped at the bottom of cradle mountain. mcardle and i froze that night!! meet jacqube (jacob), he's czech and he followed us around on cradle mountain.
Look mom, Im in Sydney.

We climbed that mountain (Cradle Mountain) in tassie. I dont know how we made it considering how out of shape we all are, but we did it!!!!

see ya later bris-o

We just got back from tassie last night and early this morning I stroll into the library at the uni to use the internet one last time before New Zealand. I decide I should post on the blog, secretly hoping that I would be able to tell everyone about our trip before Steve. I dont know how he does it, Steve is always posting everything before me, leaving me with nothing to tell other than when we are playing soccer (which my mom seems to not appreciate). Tasmaina was awesome. We hiked a lot, went on a wine loop, got scared (at least Amanda and I were) at the old convict site of Port Arthur, and ended at the Cadbury factory where we ate too much chocolate. They didn't make the cadbury cream eggs here or the Australian bilbys. Australia is trying to move away from the easter bunny rabbit and make it the easter bilby because rabbits are an introduced species and are destroying the fragile Australian environment. --- im trying to figure out how to add pictures...doesn't look promising.

Sunset on Australia

Australia is a beautiful continent with more World Heritage locations within driving distance than I have been to in the United States (0). The people are extremely friendly - someone picked me up last night and saved me a forty minute walk to my homestay with all my bags from Tasmania. People (except the mean ferry driver) are always willing to chat and are pretty flexible with any requests you might have.

Loved my time in Australia - the beaches are pristine, the rainforests were something I've never seen, the mountains we hiked were memorable, the Great Barrier Reef was interesting and a once in a lifetime opportunity, ...

With that said, this is my final Australian blog. I've saved a couple comments critical and fake critical. We're off to New Zealand tomorrow. Despite reading The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot by Naomi Wolf, I look forward to coming home and seeing you all. New Zealand will be incredible, but I look forward to the frantic lifestyle I lead in Hamburg and Schenectady. Internet will be intermittent, probably - so I will probably check it again on December 2. At some point, not today, I will write about Tasmania. Or maybe Amanda and Liz will and I will just add some pictures.

Where I've Been:

North Stradbroke Island
Heron Island
Fraser Island
Saddler Springs (outback)
New South Wales
Lamington National Park
Hobart, Cradle Mountain, and Lanceston Tasmania
Sydney
Yamba, New South Wales

Coffee

I guess the first criticism of Australia that comes to mind first is the politics that surround coffee. Australia, popularly, is a country of Steve Irwins, bush rangers, and people who drink Foster's. Basically, the Texans of the southern hemisphere. At the same time, I cannot, believe me I have tried tirelessly for the last three months, get a normal cup of coffee. Tim Hortons or Dunkin' Donuts would be fine. Decaf or regular is okay. They only offer cappuccino, late, mocha, expresso, etc. The closest they come is a flat white or an all black, which can best be compared to a weaker version of the cappuccino. The product is amazing; frothy, delicious, a perfect hazelnut color every time, a dash of cinnamon lays above the leaf meticulously drawn in the froth... it is good, weak, coffee, but sometimes we just need a double-double. I asked my host sister about this issue and I was trying to explain to her what coffee is and where I might get it - "You mean that shitty tar scraped off the bottom of the pot that Americans drink?"

"Yes. Exactly, I love that tar."

"We don't have that here. We do have a flat white, though."

The closets they have is the long black, which unfortunately tastes like sin. I don't know what it is, but it generally has coffee bean floaties ornating the surface, rather than something like a tree etched in the top of the foam.



What worries me is not that I can't get a good cup of coffee, but the cultural implications of not being able to get a "cup of joe." What did Steve Irwin order? How about the Crocodile Hunter? "Yes, please, I'll have a cafe late expresso with an irish creme booster shot, kay, thanks?" Right. Australian's are supposed to be tough - as George Bush puts it metaphorically, the U.S. is the sheriff and Australia is the deputy. Deputy's don't drink cappuccinos.

The other problem, exacerbated by our shitty American dollar lately, is the price. The cheapest "coffee" in recent memory was $3.00. I could supersize that twice in the United States. At the very least, their beer is competitive.

Lastly, this is not a grab and go type of deal. Take a number, grab a seat, and miss your train. Your coffee will be served fresh in five to fifteen minutes.

Racism

This isn't my biggest, headlining concern, because it is such an ugly subject to lead off a blog. I think the best way to describe Australia is the United States 35 years ago (1972). Bill Bryson in Down Under (In a Sunburnt Country in the United States) likens Australia outside metropolitan areas to the midwest of his childhood. There are three lenses that I have seen Australian's view the blacks through. 1. Disdain 2. Sympathetic disdain (poor helpless drunks) 3. Genuine concern for their situation, how they got there, and why. The third viewpoint is limited to the boundaries of University of Queensland faculty and Aboriginal people, so we might as well toss that one out.

The first and most common way of looking at them is a disdain for their "endless unused privileges." Aboriginal people have free education, free healthcare (all Australians have healthcare), and the ability to reclaim land lost in the European invasion. The problem is that schools and healthcare in the middle of the continent has been poor. In some cases students (black and white) have "radio schools" where they learn over the radio. Aboriginal health statistics are appalling. There rates of infant mortality, heart disease, blindness, diabetes, and their life expectancy (~55 years) seem to be a small step above a third world country. I've been told that this is a "genetic" problem, which explains away the disease and life expectancy. The truth is many of the Aboriginals that survived the cultural genocide of Australians don't always have good access to healthcare and their culture has been significantly disrupted. It's pretty common to see Aborigines parading around in the street in costume, playing the didgeridoo for tourist's coins. This was a culture that often obtained all of their resources in less than four hours per day - not the 7.5 hour workdays customary to white Australians. Australian's think that free secondary education is the answer to Aboriginal strife and they should be able to pull themselves up. I can't imagine trying to compete in college with a "radio education."

The other view of Aborigines is that they are alcoholics, which seems to be the case in some places. Alcoholism is a problem, but obviously was not a problem pre-settlement. This viewpoint usually finds Aborigines helpless and useless and puts it on them to solve their problems. "They need to take care of their alcoholism and take advantage of their intrinsic advantages." Looking at the way the average white Australian lives, they don't seem to be very put off by the poorly executed Aboriginal education and healthcare programs.

It isn't just Aboriginal people, though. The "Chinese are everywhere." At a restaurant the other day, we reserved a table and it was taken by a group of Asian students. We asked for another table and the waiter replied, "They do this all the time. They probably threw the reserved signs on the floor." He then proceeded to make them all move, despite our protests. It turned out that they had reserved a table, too.

Racism is more prevalent here than modern day Texas. I wouldn't be surprised to find terms like towel head, dirty Aboriginal, alcoholics, or blacks used in casual conversation about foreigners. This is a country that had an official "white Australia" immigration policy until 1970 or so. It still lasts. A couple weeks ago, the immigration minister cancelled the visas of a group of Africans who were from a country that was "not fitting in."

The one exception to this air of racism is in advertising Australia. Aborigines were featured in the Sydney Olympics and their practices often pointed out in National Parks. Australia loves to celebrate their 60,000 year heritage to tourists, but I think that is about it.

Debunking Environmentalism and Sports

Australian's pride themselves on their environmental prowess, but I'm not sure why. It seems like recycling is disregarded, even when convenient, and water use doesn't meet the state imposed restrictions. Maybe these people don't realize that they don't have an abundance of water. Or that global warming could have a large impact on their almost exclusive coastal inhabitants. Environmentalism is more glamourous than anything else - they'll buy the toilet paper with the tree frogs (made from recycled paper, I'm told) or buy a reuseable bag, but they don't use the bag, don't recycle, many have SUVs, despite living a suburban life, avoid convenient public transportation, have large water intensive gardens or lawns, and still leave the lights on! It's like a United States, but lacking water - they do have a lot of energy reserves, as well.

Sports is the other thing Australian's pride themselves on. Admittedly, they don't play sports (second highest obesity only to United States), they only watch and gamble. Australians could take the Melbourne Cup (horse race) day off without punishment. The race was like five minutes long. Some Australians are really into various rugby leagues, horse racing, but I haven't noticed the obsession that South America and Europe has with soccer, or US college and professional sports. I don't see hooligans or shirtless, painted fat men. Women's most popular sport is netball. I don't know what this is. As much as Australian's pride themselves as a sporting nation, this seems like a bit of a stretch. Australians have low participation rates and watching sports doesn't seem like a striking priority.

Food

Unfortunately for Australia they are a commonwealth of England and have decided to import English food. Meat pies are a fan favorite. They don't have catch up and salt and pepper go on everything. Lettuce and tomato (salad) on sandwiches is not automatic.

Chocolate is an obsession. I have never seen so many candy store (lolly shops) in my entire life. Australians are number fourteen for chocolate consumption according to the Cadbury Factory tour guide, eating about 5 kg per hear. The US is far behind this (we eat other garbage food). Snacks such as crackers, chips, fruit, seem to be replaced by chocolate in my homestay. My homestay brother eats chocolate for breakfast. Eek.

Australians also are constantly in a period of time called tea time, which has been rewarding. Every 20 minutes or so, class ends so that we can enjoy tea, coffee, and a light snack (toast, fruit, etc). Well, not really, but there is definitely morning and afternoon tea, which is common in just about every profession from what I am told. Our classrooms are stocked with all the tea time essentials: coffee, tea, and a mint for later. God bless Australia.


Time Warp

I left on the United States August 21 at 10:30 PM and arrived in Brisbane at 11:00AM in Brisbane on August 23. I will leave New Zealand on December 1 at 1:30 PM and arrive in Los Angeles at 10:25 AM on the same day. Finally, that lost Wednesday will be returned to me. I will be back in Buffalo at 10:57 on Saturday December 1.

While we're gone for the next couple weeks here is a riddle for everyone:

I have 12 coins. One weighs more or less than all the others (it is counterfeit). You have a balance scale. You can use the scale three times to find which coin is counterfeit and whether it weighs more or less than the other coins. How do you do it? Post in the comments section.

To Van Diemen's Land

So we're off to see the people with two heads, supposedly. Tasmanians are reputedly the Alabamians of the great land down under. It's the last night. Done with exams. Feels good. Grades? We'll see.

I posted a few blogs in October - Heron Island, Fraser, and Lamington - just click on the October tab. I wanted to keep it in some kind of order. My Heron Island blog is below Amanda's and much more boring.

We go to Sydney tomorrow (Thursday), then head to Tasmania until next Wednesday. Then it is off to New Zealand. We should be checking e-mail when we get back, but I'm not sure how easily we will be able to contact everyone after that...

okay okay ill post something

hellooooo
ive been hassled lately about not posting....maybe its because of my lack of internet in my 2 bedroom (with 3 people) apartment. we finally finished finals, maybe not successfully, but theyre done!! i went to melbourne with some people it was awesome. we visited a gaol (jail) where ned kelly was executed. we rented a kia minivan a took a drive down the great ocean road to the 12 apostles. it was beautiful!!! we also went tot the shrine of remembrance in memorial for the war veterans. we also went to a bar to watch the red sox WIN THE WORLD SERIES!!! now were off to sydney and tasmania (where everyone tells us the people have 2 heads).

Why Hello

The so-called Marmots - Liz and Amanda atop a sand dune in their dashing (and matching) green jackets.

Just so that everyone at home can see proof that we do attend class. All the moms and dads can rest assured that their money being spent on an education, not a vacation.

Seductive? Charming? You pick the word that best describes this shot of Amanda...
Steve checking out Amanda, though you can hardly blame him

Liz off in the deeps snorkeling

Steve insisted that Amanda take this picture of him. It turned out so cool thanks to her incredible photography skills

Amanda in search of where the giant sea turtles hide

Strolling down the beach after a swim in Lake McKenzie, Fraser Island



There is a person inside that hole for scale.






The Brisbane night life is, er, interesting.



Goodness sakes, we all have been so terribly busy these last few...days? weeks? Who knows, it all seems to run together, especially considering the lack of sleep due to studying for finals and writing final papers. Glad to have it all over in done with in just one days time. Tomorrow we all sit through our final exam, geology, and then off on more adventures. Haven't really updated on our past trips yet, and I am not going to start now. Instead, I am going to post a mess of pictures. It will give you a general idea of what is happening here. Steve hit most of the highlights in his blog below. Just thought it needed some pictures to further explain the words. Really, it is a photo gallery of the three of us and lacks any real picturesque views or anything like that. Just letting you all at home know that we are alive and kickin.

Quick Update on Liz and Amanda

I'm waiting for Union to send me my password so that I can see what classes I'm in before I leave campus. It's taking awhile, so I thought I'd put up an update about Liz and Amanda. Luckily, they don't read my long boring posts so I have free range. No one is commenting on the blogs anymore. People, Liz doesn't know how to access e-mail - comments and blog posts are her only communication with the outside world. She misses your comments about our plans to play soccer. I guess I should put up a disclaimer that a lot of this post is sarcastic or completely untrue.

We have three tests down, one to go. After missing the question on the Australian Studies examination, I can now tell you that the most popular women's sport in Australia is a sport called netball. It's like basketball, but without the fun. We just finished a paper on Australian culture, which has been a miserable experience for us all. Australia doesn't have culture (don't tell them, it is a sensitive subject). No - I'm kidding, kind of - but one of the themes in class was the importation of culture from other places and Australia's cultural cringe. My research was on Mark Oliphant - an Australian nuclear physicist who helped enrich uranium for the atomic bomb; later, he became a prominent non-proliferation advocate. Interestingly, Australia is deciding whether to export uranium in this election cycle. Liz rocked the Terrestrial Mid-Term, receiving the highest grade. Who would have thought randomly answering multiple choice questions could be such an effective strategy? Amanda has been doing really well, too. She is probably copying off Liz.

Matt Smith (Ozone Alumni 2007) is sending absolutely hilarious e-mails, which I have been reading and replying to instead of studying. He has this tendency to leave riddles, too, which keep me procrastinating. After the geology final tomorrow, I'm going to try to put up a couple blog posts about Heron and Fraser. I've also decided that I will sit down tomorrow and figure out what to do with my life come June. Probably won't figure it out, but I'll see what options I have.

Over the last week Amanda and Liz have developed weird habits. Amanda runs around lying about her dingo attack (Mrs. Kern - Amanda is safe, no matter what she might tell you) and about how well she drives manual transmissions. She even offered to teach Brandon McArdle how to drive stick. I can't think of a less qualified teacher or a less mechanically inclined student. "Put in the clutch" would likely be followed by the passenger window rolling down. As for the dingo attack, my attempts to dispel this myth are usually met with violence or fabricated evidence. "Look at the dingo tracks." "Those are people footprints, Amanda..." Liz, on the other hand, is a completely different story. Because of the lack of comments from her friends and family she has slowly slipped into a state of disrepair, walking around with her head down and uttering gibberish. She tells us she speaks the Aboriginal language Koori, but unfortunately the language became largely extinct decades ago. We will have to pray that Liz learns to access e-mail or that her family sends messages to this blog before she goes completely nuts.

In all, we are stressing, but slowly been getting plans together for Tasmania. Despite the quick pace of exams, we're all having a good time. One exam left...

Fraser Island

Fraser Island was one of the more incredible experiences we've had in Australia. The island is an all sand island - the largest in the world - and only four wheel drive vehicles are allowed on it. The perfect opportunity for me to play with a manual transmission four wheel drive vehicles...

We camped on the white sand beach every night, although swimming isn't allowed because it is infested with sharks (so they say). I think a couple people (six of us in all) chanced it and survived. We ended up renting a stove and some odds and end from the car hire place and ate speghetti, peanut butter and jelly, fruit, and oatmeal exclusively for the three days. I love spaghetti so it was not a problem.

Amanda and I both gave the driving a shot and neither of us were all that bad. The roads could be rough, but it was a quiet weekend so we didn't run into a lot of traffic. Never got stuck - although we saw some pretty bad pictures of cars being destroyed by people driving a little too close to the water and getting stuck. I remember the rental guy telling us one car (Land Rover) cost $20,000 to get fixed/removed from the island. I asked how and without hesitation, "I have no idea...I mean, they were French..." Overall, the driving went off without a hitch, even though the bumpy driving cost us a few jars of spaghetti sauce.

The island is a National Heritage site and includes sub-tropical rain forests, wet-sclerophyll forests, perched lakes (lakes that sit on top of an impervious layer above the water layer), and window lakes (where a space is cut into the water table and fills with water). Seeing as our field trips featured a sand island (North Stradbroke), sub-tropical rainforest (Lamington), wet-sclerophyll rainforest (North Stradbroke, Lamington), coral reefs (Heron), and the outback, we could have hit most of these "must sees" in one stop. The trip was worth the money - great time, saw a lot, and got to travel with a few more people (Sarah, Dan, Claire, and Kerry).

Back to Brisbane

We should all be back in Brisbane by this evening. Liz hit up Melbourne and Amanda and I made it back from Fraser Island last night. Fraser was a blast and Amanda was attacked by a dingo (allegedly).

We're in finals week down under, so blogging will be kept to a minimum, but we're running out of money so polite phone calls will be kept to a maximum. (Just kidding).

If we do get blogs up before we leave the Sunshine State (aka the "Smart State") they will be disorganized and littered with obnoxious typos. Words like their will be replaced with words like they're or there. Believe us, we know the difference, we just forgot, because Australian Microsoft Word doesn't remind us.

On the slate for the next few weeks:
October 31: Halloween and Terrestrial Final
November 1: Huge paper for Terrestrial and huge paper for Australian Culture due
November 6-8: Finals for Geology, Marine Ecology, and Australian Culture
November 9-16: Tasmania
November 17 - December 1: New Zealand

Lamington

Lamington was another great trip, which is kind of blurring together with all the other trips. Everything is flying by so quickly. Lamington National Park is on the border of Queensland (the smart state) and New South Wales, about two and half hours south of Brisbane. It is also the famed location of the animated film Fern Gully.

Besides being in a sub-tropical rainforest we also had with us a world leading expert on glow worms, Claire Baker. She has been studying glow worms in Australia for seven years now (or so) and got to help David Attenborough with the tv series Planet Earth, letting us in on a couple of the filming secrets. Glow worms are creatures that drop down sticky strands to capture prey in caves or near waterfalls and rivers. The worms attract the play by lighting up their rear end using bioluminescence, a process which is about 99 percent efficient. For reference, I think good light bulbs are around 40 percent efficient...

One of the striking aspects about being in a rainforest was seeing the plants fight one another for light. In the areas where there were recent openings in the canopy small trees were racing toward the sun and the surrounding plants were bending toward the opening - pretty cool stuff. Another strategy used by the Strangler Fig is to wrap around a tree, slowly blocking all the light from the tree. As the tree dies a huge opening forms in the middle of the tree, which makes for great pictures.

The other cool part of Lamington was an all day hike up to the peak of one of the mountains where there was a forest of Nothofagus (Antarctic Beech) trees. Nothofagus are ancient moss covered trees that grow up in cool, creepy forests (top of the mountain where it is cool). It is the perfect space to be if you are a mythical unicorn, hobbit, or perhaps an elf. Really a cool place, creepy, but cool. These forests are endangered by global warming, which might take their last sanctuaries (tops of mountains, probably Tasmania) away.

Sunsets were amazing and so were the hikes. Lamington is another great spot on our tour of amazingness in Australia.

Environmentalism in Australia?

We're off to Fraser Island tomorrow, but this general post should hold you all off until we get back on October 28. Look forward to Lamington and other updates after finals. Also, did everyone hear about Gore getting the Nobel Peace Prize? Pretty good political move...

I remember reading in The Economist before coming to Australia about John Howard (current prime minister) and Kevin Rudd (Labour challenger) and how an environmental element would be a part of the recently called election (Howard declared the election would take place on November 22). The article discussed Rudd's advantage, because he was more in touch with the environmental movement and Howard was trying to make up ground. Since I arrived, there have been a couple major happenings in Australia to suggest that neither party really cares about the environment at all. First, the APEC summit was hosted in Australia and Howard's biggest push for international environmental reform was to suggest non-binding, aspirational carbon dioxide emission standards for nations. Second, Australia has been struggling over the question of allowing a pulp mill in an old growth forest in the heart of Tasmania - political leaders, seeming unanimously decided to allow the pulp mill. The pulp mill will likely significantly disrupt tourism industries and the wine industry. On the flip side, Australia has had a stupid policy of exporting its old growth forests for several dollars per ton and Japan turns this old growth forest into valuable paper and sells it for thousands of dollars per ton. This is a quandary that Australia, obviously, hasn't been able to settle. So that's the political background, more talk than anything else. To me, Australian environmentalism mimics their Aboriginal History - used to promote Australia when convenient, advertised internationally, but realistically the government doesn't see it as a priority.

Public Transportation







Public transportation in Brisbane is good - much better than my experiences in Schenectady, at least, but I'd imagine New York and other major US cities is better (Washington, DC is better).

My trip consists of a ferry ride across a river to a train to a bus. The problem is the ferry only runs from 6AM to 6PM, so if I want to stay out later than 6 PM it is a 40 minute walk down a deserted country rode. I actually enjoy the walk a lot. There is a huge difference walking away from the bus stop into the larger estates as far as light is concerned - the stars really come out. It's especially nice when there is a storm - because you can see for mile and miles.

Despite the transport problems, it only takes about 1.5 hours to get into the city during rush hour. In a car it is about 45 minute to an hour. When I drove the rental car back to the rental agency it took me an hour and a half - so I'll take the train, where I can read and do work. It is very expensive, though. It costs me $20 per week to get in and out of school, but I have to lie about my student standing (international students don't get the discount).

Parks and Wildlife

The parks here are incredible. They aren't nearly as developed as in the US, which means that access is likely limited in many areas with those who can afford four wheel drive vehicles, but it also means it is relatively untouched. Most National Parks have one rode in and out and are relatively open for exploration - few limits as to where you can go or what you can do. Most signs are warning that you could die do something, but don't prohibit you from giving it a shot. About 95 percent of their sub trobical rainforest has been destroyed (I think 99.9 percent of the United States' primordial forests are destroyed). It's a bit of a problem as they are still developing rainforests, literally kilometres from world heritage sites. They have an incredible diversity in small pockets.

We were just at Lamington National Park, which is a sub tropical rainforest on an extinct volcano from 23 million years ago (this will hopefully be written about soon). On the other side of the range houses are being developed! The development was mooned and given the middle finger several times during our stay. This National Park was also the setting for the animated film Fern Gully, since Mount Warning is in the park (or near it).

One of our TAs during our week at Lamington is an etymologist (studies bugs) and has discovered several new species of glow worms, just in the last few years. New species are constantly being discovered and many have very practical applications (glow worms produce light with near perfect efficiency - CFL I think are about 10 - 20 percent efficient). Anyways, scientists often use new species as a means of protecting large areas of land - science's secret weapon against development. This TA, Claire, also spent three weeks with David Attenborough doing a segment on glow worms for Planet Earth.

Every park I have been to has been amazing and if I had a free month I might just spend it backpacking in Australian rainforests.

Social Acceptance


As much as Australians claim to be environmentally minded, I haven't seen it. I still see people watering grass and throwing out recyclables, despite the fact that they have about a year of fresh water left. Australians do participate in some ways - most people take four minute showers (90 percent participation) and schools and the government give out egg timers and information. The kids often question parent's habits. They are also pretty consumer oriented (behind the US, but if they could keep up I think they would). Recycling is less prevalent year and despite their seemingly unlimited solar, wind, and tidal potential they opt for coal, which they have huge reserves of. It does look like they will be testing out the first coal sequestration plant, though. They also seem to come out in force over the hot button issues, such as the Tasmanian Pulp Mill and APEC. Overall, environmentalism isn't at the forefront of people's minds, despite the fragility of their environment (no water, very poor soil nutrient concentration). Like the US, they are steaming toward the edge of the waterfalls.

A Long Vacation

Okay at home bloggers. Steve, Liz and myself leave this morning for Lamington National Park and five days in the rainforest. We return on Wednesday afternoon and then all three of us are off again Thursday morning. Steve and I are headed to Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world and Liz is taking a flight down to Melbourne. So, there may not be any posts for a couple of weeks. Don't fret, we will return with fabulous stories and incredible pictures of all our adventures. I think I can speak for all three of us when I say we love you all and miss you very much. Hope all is well.
Tata for now.

Road Trip

I started this one by looking at all the photos from this last weekend, trying to pick out the best ones. I decided none of the photos do our trip any justice and you'll have to take my word when I say the scenery we took in this weekend was amazing.

Amanda, Nikki (HWS student), and I took a car south for the weekend, stopping at the infamous Nimbin, Byron Bay, and several national parks (some of which are world heritage sites). The trip was about 1000 km or 700 miles and took us through heath land, grassland, coastal agriculture, the Dividing Mountain Range, coastal dune structures, wet sclerophyll forest, rain forest, and eucalypt woodlands. Just an immense diversity of natural wonders. We'll actually be headed down to Lamington National Park this coming weekend to take a look at the rain forest there (no internet, which is why I am getting a couple blogs done this week).

The car was pretty cheap - about $100 per person for "petrol" and four days rental. We would have spent well over that and seen far less if we had tried to use public transportation. Amanda and I only had one argument as to who would drive; Amanda won. If Nikki hadn't been there, I would have left without her. Test me again, dAmanda... Driving on the wrong side of the road is pretty thrilling, especially in a foreign city with 1.6 million people, during rush hour. Australians generally don't speed - there speed limit is ridiculously, dangerously high, though. I generally go about 10 percent above the speed limit, but I am a grandpa driver in Australia, going well below the speed limit pretty frequently.

Nimbin

The first stop was Nimbin - a hippy town buried in New South Wales. They are anti-Uranium, pro-marijuana, and anti-US from what I saw posted around the town. Australia's "pot problems" are, apparently, a direct consequence of the US' anti-drug campaign on "natural medication." I didn't figure out exactly why, but it is likely the Howard-Bush connection, although Australians seem a lot more conservative about pot (outside Nimbin, at least). It was a nice stop, but I had the feeling it was evolving into a commercialized town, rather than the quaint village from which it grew.

That's all I have to say about that.



Byron Bay

Byron Bay rocked. Some of the best surf in Australia and a pretty good night life. I don't think I would go a second time, because it was kind of a tourist hot spot, but the beaches were beautiful. Byron Bay also sports the eastern most point in Australia and a light house that is worth the forty-five minute walk to see.






Yamba

We stayed in Yamba's main hotel, right on the beach. We were pretty lame, though. Amanda fell asleep at like 7:30 PM and Nikki and I watched movies (we had a film comparison project due the day we got back). In our defense, most of the other people on this term abroad stayed in for the weekend.

Outside Yamba we took a coastal walk along the beach, which was less amazing than some of the other national parks we saw, but the beach at the end was beautiful. All along the trip we ran into these desolate, white sand beaches and were the only ones there. Yamba is reportedly the best surfing spot on the east coast of Australia - probably because of the huge waves (for very experienced surfers) and its relative isolation from the tourist spots of Byron Bay and the Gold Coast.

Other Stuff

We visited three or four national parks along the way, which I don't remember the names of, but if someone really wants to know I can find them. All along the trip it was striking to see how lush it was along the mountain range (orographical rainfall) and how much agriculture they had in a place that is 70 percent arid or semi-arid.

One of the highlights was seeing this huge waterfall 100 metres high and the wet-sclerophyll rainforest around it. Wet sclerophyll rainforest has a eucalyp canopy with a rainforest undergrowth and is controlled by frequent (<300 years) fire.

Okay, time to stop procrastinating. We've had a lot the last week or so - two mid terms and a film comparison with a short paper and a long laboratory report due in the next couple days.

It's Liz's birthday Thursday.

We're still in Brisbane for the week until saturday morning (your friday night in the states) then were off to Lamington National park for the week. Then Im going to melbourne the day after. We had a good weekend, I stayed in Brisbane and did some typical city things like going to the sunday morning markets on South Bank and Riverside. I also took at tour of the XXXX (4X) Brewery which is right down the street from my house. It was pretty fun. Last night Torie and I made pancakes for my homestay family. They loved the real maple syrup. Then my mom took us to the top of Mt. Coot-tha to see the view of all of Brisbane. It was awesome! You could see everything, the city, the airport, all of the suburbs, you could probably see all the way to zone 6 (where amanda lives). Game plan for the week: finish our lab reports, dinner on thursday, soccer with aussies on friday. Yay Australia!

Pictures are Better

I have gone through and compiled some of the best pictures taken over the past few weeks. None of them I actually took, but I figured everyone at home would enjoy them regardless. Sometimes pictures are a lot more fun than words and information. So enjoy.
Adrian - Doing a back flip off the peer on Heron Island.

Traveling is tiring - Steve asleep on the Heron Island ferry
Marine Ecology professor and student tutors

Saddler Springs staff
Sunset at Saddler Springs
Liz and a seacucumber on Heron Island
Shipwreck off Heron Island

Heron Island sunset

Heron

Hi, Im back, i know, it's been a while. Steve and Amanda pretty much said everything there is to say about the past two weeks, which have been amazing. We are back in Brisbane now and actually have work to do. The work we did in the past two weeks have been research projects. My group did the learning behavior of gobies. There is a picture of me and andrew snorkeling and poking gobies with a stick.
We had huge thunderstorms this week, only at night though. My apartment lost power last night so we had to order out dominoes pizza. Thats about all thats new. I think we should play soccer on friday again.

Brisbane and its Music

I thought I'd open this blog with a little bit about some things that make Brisbane cool. Then I compressed a lot of it into video. The scenes are as follows: Brisbane skyline in lightning storm, traffic under a pedestrian overpass, bus by University, compressed two minutes of the ferry trip, bridge in city, sunset on river, lightning striking the skyline (I took it!), speed limit sign, water going counter-clockwise, soccer stadium, pedestrian travel lane, then bands from Valley Fiesta starting with Iron On followed by The Audreys.

The music at Valley Fiesta was pretty good, pretty eclectic, and very local. First, I was surprised how good the bands were - I figured most of the local artists would be, well, bad, but the group of us probably bought a half dozen different artists through the weekend (three weeks ago, now). It was eclectic, because they pulled together many different instruments, styles, and personalities. I don't remember which was which, but I remember hearing some Jimmy Eat World type stuff, Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer (kind of) styles, some No Doubt, etc. One Band, Whitley, was soft like John Mayer, but had a Beck twist to it here or there. I didn't see it, but I heard there were some pretty good hip hop and rap bands representing, too. In this mix, there were stand up double basses, banjos, harmonicas, and that special piano that you blow into... I had been to Symphony and Surf the weekend before, where they mixed surf music from the fifties to Jack Johnson with a symphonic orchestra (and a did - jer - ee - do). I don't have video from it, I wish I did.

We read a little bit about the music in Australia and for a long, long time it was derivative of U.S. styles (and later Britain). Supposedly, they have been coming into their own, promoting national music. Jet is one band that I'm pretty sure came from Down Under along with Aerosmith. They are pretty good, but they haven't come to develop their own styles - on the radio, they mostly mimic Americans. Locally, it seems like there is a lot of experimenting (Valley Fiesta), but it doesn't seem to be commercial yet. There is a lot that could be done with the didjerido, but Aboriginal music hasn't been exploited and popularized (exploited, in positive and negative terms - recall Paul Simon and the Rhythm of the Saints fiasco). The Aboriginal artists could really benefit from a popularization of their music, since a lot of it goes back to their tribes (for tribal use). I have a feeling that most Australians would avoid Aboriginal music because of racial pretexts, but it has been a success internationally in the past. The didjerido is an amazing instrument and each tribe has its own set of sounds and instruments - the didjerido is just the tip of the iceberg.

Anyways, I thought I should include a little bit about Aussie Rock. I like it, but in a lot of ways it isn't very different from American styles, yet.

Heron Island

This was written 7 October 2007, several weeks after the trip, but has been post dated so that it fits in in the right sequence




I guess the best way for me to describe Heron is that it has a pretty active night life. Well, not like you would think. At night two things happen: obnoxious, squawking, birds come out in force. The birds have a couple habits worth mention. They poop absolutely everywhere, what I like to call the bombing strategy and they dig long narrow holes to lay their eggs. Our tutors told us people break their legs stepping in these holes every year. Unfortunately, the island is protected so the thousands of birds that migrate to the island are relatively untouchable. Our arms were tied against their bombs and land mines... I remember one student attempted to test them, shaking trees to see what the reaction was. There was no reaction. This scared me even more than if they had squawked or pooped on him. In the dark of night, they were planning to destroy Douglas Merkert...

The other memorable feature of Heron at night was its incredible night sky. I think it was Dan who put it best, "those stars really do twinkle." And they do. Every night it was worth the time to head down, past the carefully defended woods of the birds and take a peak. The stars roll over you, are bright, unending, and glisten. We tried to figure out why - whether it was quasars spinning, just atmospheric fluctuations, or excessive drunkenness I'm not sure.

The island was beautiful - maybe a kilometre in diameter and all white sand beaches. Protected as a national park (and by the birds) it is a relatively untouched paradise. You can see the incredible sunset or sunrise just by taking a ten minute walk to the other side of the island. Of course, it is on a barrier reef, so we couldn't surf, but the water was warm and blue like a glassy lake. The island actually formed from the Great Barrier Reef. The reef caused a refraction of the water - kind of like two ripples in a pond - where the ripples meet, the island formed from transported calcium carbonate from the reef. The island is surrounded by the Great Barrier Reef and the weather during our week there was absolutely perfect - no rain, not too hot, clear nights, blue skies.

Almost everyday was spent doing horrible, tortuous field work. Not really. We had wet suits and our own snorkel gear and snorkeled around the reef everyday. I don't have photos yet, but as soon as I get my camera developed I will upload pictures. We saw a little bit of everything - giant turtles the size of small cars, turtles swimming along bright blue and red corals, dolphins, wales... Yeah, our lab work was in a pretty rough environment.

Most Australians will never get the chance to see and do what we did. The resort fee was at a minimum $200 or $300 per night and I don't think that included the ferry or helicopter ride to the island. You would have to be pretty jet-set to get a helicopter ride to the island...

My group laboratory work investigated how invertebrates respond to threats. So...an invertebrate is something without a backbone - we looked at worms and clams - and the threat in this case was me poking at the clam or worm with a long wooden stick. The worms we looked at were Christmas Tree Worms and when you poke at them they pop back into a hole and the clams shut themselves into a hole. We would poke them and time how long it takes for them to show their faces again (usually within a couple minutes). We then would poke them again. We were looking to see if they would hide longer and longer or shorter and shorter with each poke. Liz did the same thing with shrimp gobies - an effeminate fish who hides away in a hole for long periods at a time.


Our research, or part of it. Refractory time is the amount of time it spends hiding. With each poke it hides longer and longer - it is learning to avoid us

Our research showed, amazingly, that the worms hide away for longer and longer periods of time every time we poked them. This is called habituation - the most primitive kind of learning. Worms learn! The clams weren't as quick, but we did find a correlation between size and hiding time, which has enough biological implications for us to make a half way decent lab write up. I probably speak for myself when I say that I really liked these projects - we chose the topic, decided how to do the research, and did our best at writing an objective scientific paper at the end. When I'd get bored during writing this up (long 12 - 15 page reports) I would google the scientist grandfather I never met and look at some of his papers. It reminded me of that old saying - something about how science is standing on the shoulders of giants. Even if it was just for a class, the research was cool, pertinent, and was built off the work of many others.

Heron was an amazing experience that, alone, made this term abroad worthwhile.