The Dive Trip

As my dad would say, it was “another it doesn’t get any better than this” kind of weekend. The scuba diving club and I went over to Straddie Island and had a fantastic weekend of diving. On Friday we all met together at the gear shed then headed over to the Brisbane coast where we hopped on a ferry. The car ride over was very interesting…I had a crazy Spaniard driving with a British girl navigating and a French guy playing DJ. The amount of accents and misunderstandings of each other was quite abundant. At the ferry terminal, we were picked up by our dive organizer for the weekend, who was probably one of the most hard core Australians I have met yet. He looked like he had probably wrestled a shark at some point in his life, and within 2 seconds of being in his car, we were already off-roading in the parking lot to cut people in line for the ferry. Once we had crossed the bay and had driven to the house, we unloaded all the gear and food then went exploring. The house we stayed at was a 2 minute walk to the beach and about a 5 minute walk to the pub (which most people found more important). It was fun to get to know all the people on the trip, which included many foreign PhD students and Americans from Wisconsin (ironically there were probably only 3 Australians). I was thankfully put with the morning group, so at 6:00 Saturday morning I was up loading gear and getting all suited up for the day. I was buddied up with two girls, one a dive master and the other a somewhat experienced diver. I was definitely the weakest diver out of the three of us, but I think we all still had a really good time together. Ken (the hardcore Australian) had a zodiac dive boat that we hauled to the beach and launched from the shore. We then took a fun 30 minute boat ride out to our first dive spot at Manta Ray Bommies. The swell was pretty bad and the current was picking up, so a lot of us had troubles getting out of the boat and to the anchor line. However, once we did our descent, we were instantly hit with an amazing dive. We allowed the dive master to navigate (for obvious reasons), and within the first minute she was pointing out porcupine fish and sea turtles. The highlight came when we looked up and saw a 3 meter wide manta ray gliding through the current then stopping and hovering 2 meters from us. You could see tons of bubbles coming from all of our regulators, and water started filling our masks because we were smiling so much. It had this ghostly appearance as it sat in the current so effortlessly, which is a sighting that will be forever imprinted on my mind. Thinking that the dive couldn’t get any better, we started swimming again and ran into a leopard shark swimming on the ocean floor, a school of trumpet fish, another manta ray swimming, and a bunch of spotted sting rays. And to top it all off, we started following a sea turtle, and it led us straight back to the anchor line. There were no words to describe how all of us on the boat felt after that dive…the dive master said it was definitely in her top 5. I felt like the Pacific Ocean was telling me “Welcome to Australia!” Then I got sea sick and the good feeling was instantly gone. The other three dives we went on were still pretty fun, but no where near as exciting as the first. Over the course of the weekend I saw tons of sea turtles, boxfish, trumpet fish, parrot fish, Christmas tree worms, clown fish in anemone, wobbegongs (kind of like giant catfish/sharks), a nudibranch, a school of squid, a moray eel, a lion fish, a lobster, spade fish, and sea cucumbers. It was so cool…I definitely feel like I am a spoiled diver now, and I haven’t even seen a true tropical coral reef yet. One of the funniest stories from the weekend was when a crazy German guy tried to chase a dolphin and got caught in a current which took him to the other side of the island. A jetskier had to come over to our boat to report that some of our divers had definitely taken a wrong turn. The island itself was also a lot of fun as well. There was a hike that went right along the coast, and from the rocks you could see turtles, manta rays, and dolphins swimming around in the water. I felt blessed the whole time I was there, and it was definitely worth the total $120 USD I spent on the trip (I am loving the conversion rate right now). The rest of the week flew by with school, Bible study, frisbee, and a dive club meeting. I feel like I am starting to meet and get to know a lot of people, and I really feel like Australia is becoming my home. I am enjoying my classes so far, and I am liking the slower pace of the semester system. I truly am having the time of my life right now, and I am thanking God every day that I was able to come here. This weekend I’m playing in a frisbee tournament, so I’ll update you guys on that later!
Love
-Erin

Saying goodbye to February

Helloooo! I have had a fun and exciting past week and a half. We had orientation week, or O-week as they call it, so I ended up going to a bunch of meetings that were more directed towards freshmen. Wednesday was Market Day, and the center area of UQ was full of people, booths, and food. I ended up signing up for the science club, Unidive (the scuba club), and Student Life (a Christian organization on campus). I also went to an Ultimate Frisbee pick-up game to check out what that club is like. Overall, I am really happy with all of the activities and outlets the school offers, and I am excited about all the opportunities for the semester. During the day on Thursday, I took a trip to the botanic gardens at Mount Coot-tha. It was so nice just to walk around in a rainforest and observe all the interesting plants and creatures that were there. I probably looked ridiculous because I had to keep running away from giant lizards. I also made my way to the Mount Coot-tha summit and got an amazing view of the Brisbane area. I could not only see the city, but also the ocean and a vast range of mountains. I attended a Unidive meeting on Thursday night, and I am officially signed up for a dive at Stradbroke Island from the 7th-8th of March. A TA from one of my classes was at the meeting also, which may come in handy later on. Friday, my friend from UCSD Sam and I explored South Bank for an afternoon. We hung out at the fake beach by the river and went to the Sciencentre of the Queensland Museum, which is kind of like the Tech Museum in San Jose. We were definitely a little too old for the activities, but we had fun trying everything out. Saturday a group of us headed down to Surfer’s Paradise at the Gold Coast. The beach there was really crowded and full of tall buildings, kind of like the beaches in Florida. However, the water is so refreshing especially with the hot sun beating down, so we weren’t complaining too much about all the people. Because it has been awhile since I did a dive, I decided to do a refresher course at a dive center nearby. On Sunday, I ended up doing the pool training with a group getting their certification, and I definitely feel way more confident now with my dive skills. I actually had an interesting experience when I entered the pool. Right when I entered the water, my fins exploded into a million little pieces. Let’s just say I’m definitely glad I did the refresher course so that didn’t happen in the middle of the ocean. I have found a church nearby that I am really keen on, and I will probably be attending it for the duration of my stay here. The people are really nice, and they teach straight from the Bible without adding personal bias in order to bring in more people. It has also been a great way to meet some other young adults in the area. Today was my first official day of school. I only had one lecture, so I was eased in from summer vacation pretty well. I ended up changing my schedule around to get easier/more fun classes. I figured that I’m here to enjoy myself, and I’ll still get the same amount of credit at UQ and UCSD while saving myself a lot of time. Right now I’m taking the Anthropology of Aboriginal Australia, Ecology, Australia’s Marine Environment, and most likely Molecular Cell Biology. I can already tell from my one lecture that schooling here is going to be much better than at UCSD. For my molecular biology class, they bring in 4 different lecturers to talk on the areas that they specialize in. There is no textbook; it’s all based off modern day research. I’m really excited for the semester, and there are a lot of cool field trip opportunities with most of the classes. We are all starting to plan our Easter break trips…it’s looking like Melbourne and Tasmania for me right now. We’ve been checking the airline sites to get the best deals that we can. I’m still not used the humidity or heat, and I’m ready for it to cool down and dry up a little here. Well, I’m off to bed…I have an 8 AM class tomorrow. Oh wait! Wildlife story of the week: a giant cockroach flew into our apartment and hit Kate in the face. It then hid in her closet, so we had to sneakily creep up on it and hit it multiple times with a book to kill it. A giant moth also flew in that night as well. It was all very disgusting. Until next time…
-Erin