I am alive

Wow, I have a lot to catch you guys up on. Sorry for the long period of nothing…I got pretty busy and had to actually start doing work? It definitely took me by surprise. Well, I guess I’ll start from where I left off…I’ll try to organize everything so that it’s not too overwhelming for me or for you all. So I think my last post was all about my dive trip, which at this time seems so long ago. Since then, I have set up a pretty routine week. Tuesday nights I have been attending a Bible study aimed for freshmen, but since I am kind of like a first year, I decided to join. Everyone is really nice, and we have been having some really good discussions on the role of the church and what the Bible has to say about how a church should run. Wednesday nights I have been playing on an Ultimate Frisbee pick-up team that is part of the UQ league. Most of the people that play are really new to the sport, so the focus is more on understanding the game and having fun instead of being super competitive, which I like. Our team name is the “Good Times” and our cheer is “Let the good times roll!”, but ironically no one knows The Cars song that goes along with that cheer. I started singing it during the game and everyone asked me what song I was singing. I don’t really understand why they think that cheer is cool. Thursday nights I have meetings for the scuba diving club on campus. Most nights I just go to grab the $3 dinner, but sometimes when I feel up for it I’ll do the pool training with a group. We look pretty goofy because we swim with our masks, snorkels, and fins next to all these hard core swimmers. After doing all that stuff plus my school work and some hanging out with friends, I don’t really have time during the week to do anything exciting. My weekends, however, have been pretty enjoyable. The weekend after my dive trip I told you guys I was going to be playing in a frisbee tournament which ended up being tons of fun. I played for another university’s team, and although they had tons of new players, we did pretty well. We lost all our games horribly, but by the end, most of the girls had a pretty good grasp of the strategy of the game. The coach of the women’s team in Brisbane asked if I was interested in training with the team and playing in Nationals with them which made me feel pretty good. Overall, it was a really fun weekend, and I made a lot of Australian frisbee friends which are always fun to have.
The next weekend (21 March) I had my first field trip for my Australia’s Marine Environment class to Moreton Bay Research Station on North Straddie Island. It was quite an extraordinary trip. The research station is on the bay side of the island and is run by a woman named Kathy who has quite a plethora of knowledge regarding the area. The first day we got there we took a beach walk in front of the station, and I learned so much cool stuff! The first area we explored was a rocky shore region, and our tutor Bonnie did a really good job of pointing out different organisms and relationships that are usually found in that region, including mollusc-eating snails and hermit crabs. We then travelled across a mud flat to a sandy shore and a grassy shore. There were tons of puffer fish and crabs everywhere, and by the end of our exploring there, I was able to identify most of the organisms in that area. Kathy helped us do a seine netting, which is pretty much just walking a long net out into the current then pulling it in so that fish get caught in it. We were able to see some really cool animals that way, like a pajama squid and a blown up puffer fish, but it killed a lot of the fish as well so I wasn’t too keen on doing it again. That night we picked our research project (yes we did work), and my group ended up doing a study on natural rocky shore habitats vs. man made habitats and seeing if there was a difference in species diversity. It ended up being a pretty tedious project, but the presentation of our study ended up winning so I got a cool water bottle from the research station. One of the groups decided to look at species diversity on the sandy shore at night vs. during the day, so I went out and watched them do a seine netting at night. They ended up pulling in some really cool animals, like sting rays and pretty big squid, but because the tide was going out, they ended up killing about a quarter of the fish they caught. People were trying to throw the fish out of the net as quickly as they could, but they weren’t throwing them far enough to reach the water, so all the fish were landing on sand. My friend Tina and I had to do an emergency rescue mission to try to save some of the cool fish that were being suffocated on the sand…we weren’t too happy with the group running the project. The last day Kathy took our group to Point Lookout and Cylinder Beach on the ocean side of the island. It was really cool to have a marine scientist’s perspective on all the relationships between the animals and habitats that we saw. The hike took us along the same ridge I walked along when I went diving there earlier, but then we went and walked along a rocky shore on the beach which I hadn’t done yet. Every tide pool I looked in had some sort of cool animal or plant in it, and I was enjoying being able to identify some of the animals and know a little background to them. We saw a lot of fun stuff that day, including some dolphins playing in the waves. Apparently if I go in late winter here, I’ll be able to see humpback whales migrating south, so needless to say I will be visiting Straddie at the beginning of next semester. The whole weekend really made me consider doing some sort of fieldwork as a career, and marine science is looking more and more appealing every time I get near the water.
The next weekend one of the frisbee guys had his 21st birthday party, which they surprisingly have a big celebration for here. It’s considered a family event where they make speeches and tell funny jokes about the birthday boy. It was a really fun night at a cool venue in the city. The next Friday I went with a group to the Brisbane Forest Park right outside of the city. We drove to a point called Jolly’s Lookout which had a great view of the city and all the way to the bay. We went on an 8 km hike through a eucalyptus forest that had tons of birds and beautiful flowers. The hike wasn’t too hard, but it was quite enjoyable and relaxing.
The weekend of the 4th I was supposed to go diving at Flinders Reef, but it got cancelled due to rain and big swells from a cyclone hitting up north. Queensland has had a surprisingly long wet period, and Brisbane has been getting a good watering for the past couple of weekends. Unichurch was putting on a conference that weekend, so I decided to attend that instead. The speaker was from Canberra and is the chaplain for a team down there called the Brumbies. He went through the book of Philippians and did a chapter by chapter synopsis and analysis which was really insightful. I met a lot of people that I hadn’t seen on Sunday nights, and I felt like I am getting more involved with that church family.
I started off my Easter break this week with a fabulous trip to Heron Island. My Australia’s Marine Environment class went on a field trip to an island on the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef which consists only of a fancy resort and a research station. Not many people get to visit there, so I felt really blessed that I got to experience something like that. However, it really sucked getting to the island…we had to take a 7 hour bus ride during the middle of the night, which meant we lost a night of sleep. Then we took a two hour ferry ride of death that made almost everyone on the boat sea sick. Thankfully, the sea sickness pill, sea bands, and ginger beer I consumed allowed me to go on one of my first sea sick free boat rides! Arriving at the island was kind of magical…you could see this small, green island in the distance with a sunken boat nearby and a giant reef flat surrounding it all. I felt like I was in a movie or something. I spent most of the weekend in a wetsuit snorkelling, diving, or just enjoying the clear water. The second day of the trip we snorkelled around the island and got to see some small sharks and huge sting rays. We also did a walk of the reef flat and got to get a glimpse of what a larger coral reef would look like. It was cool how colourful and vibrant everything was…there were so many different hues and textures to look at. The week continued to be full of snorkelling and diving adventures. One day we went out on a boat snorkel, and I got to see my first true coral reef. It was so cool…I loved peeking inside the coral crevices and seeing all the colourful fish hiding inside. My dive the next day was pretty spectacular as well. Our voyage out was guided by a pod of dolphins, and when I was diving we saw a manta ray, a turtle eating, tons of fish, and huge clams. It was breathtaking to float eye level with a coral bommie and look at all the fish hovering on top. I wish it had been just a little bit sunnier so all the colours were more vibrant (we had a pretty wet weekend). We also did a night snorkel as a group, and I got to see an octopus and giant green sea turtles swimming around. The beach surrounding the island was really nice as well. The sand was a little rough and sticky, but it was so relaxing to sit and look out to clear blue water (even when it was raining). I don’t think I could ever get bored of that island. Even though it only takes about 20 minutes total to run around the island, the sunsets were some of the best ones I have ever seen, and no matter what time of day it was, you could always find something cool to observe from the jetty in the harbour. Whether it was sharks feeding on bait fish or meter long turtles coming up to breathe, I was always very impressed with the wildlife in that small area. The island is also a nesting ground for green turtles, so while we were sitting on the beach at night we could see baby turtles hatching and running to the water! It was overall an amazing weekend, and I feel so lucky that I was able to experience something like that. On the bus ride home, I got to watch a lightning storm for about an hour…I could even see individual bolts from the bus. The bus ride still felt like it took forever though. We got in about 1 am, and I had to wake up the next day for induction at a lab I am going to start volunteering at. It took about five hours to go through all the lectures, quizzes, and tours, but now I get to start doing some fun stuff in a lab on Mondays and Tuesdays.
The rest of my Easter break was spent relaxing and not doing too much. I went to Uni a couple of times to use the internet and hang out with some friends, but I didn’t really end up getting too much work done. One of my friends gave me the most recent season of LOST, so I spent a lot of time sitting on my bed catching up on everything I’ve missed. I finally tried a kangaroo steak! It was marinaded in BBQ sauce and was pretty delicious. It was surprisingly cheaper than beef steaks even though it’s one of Australia’s native animals. Saturday I went on another dive trip with the Unidive club. We headed down the Gold Coast to Cook Island which hosts a coral reef and head wall to follow along. We did a double dive, and I got to see some pretty cool stuff including some nudibranchs, a bright purple cuttlefish, a huge lobster, and a turtle. The cuttlefish was actually really cool to look at because it was hiding under an overhang and didn’t move even when we were really close. I don’t know if it was injured or something, but we were pretty much able to touch it without it swimming away. I’m really enjoying hanging out with the people in that club…they all have such cool dive stories and are all really willing to help newer divers get some good dives in. I’m hoping that as I gain more experience I will be able to impress them somehow, but for now I’ll be happy with just being able to identify most of the fish that they can. Now that I am all caught up, I am going to try to stay caught up. This blog took me all week to write! I’ve probably left out a bunch of stories, but I have to have something to talk about when I get home right? My next planned adventure is two weekends from now…I am going to try to get my advance open water certification. We’ll see if I can squeeze some other cool stuff in before that time. Until next time…
-Erin

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

Noosa, Australian Zoo, Eumundi, and O-week

I have had a really good week here on the eastern coast. Apparently northern Australia only goes through two seasons, the wet season and the dry season, and thankfully the wet season of humidity and rain is starting to wane. On Wednesday, two other UCSD girls and I headed up to Noosa on the Sunshine coast for a couple days of sun and relaxation (like we weren’t getting enough of that already). On the train ride up, an Australian man felt it was his duty to inform us about all the sites we were passing by. We got a very lengthy explanation on the Aboriginal stories about the Glass House Mountains, Germans use of the area during WWI, and all the fruit that was being produced in various regions we passed through. The area of Noosa was absolutely gorgeous. As a ritzy beach town, there was no sense of time or responsibility, and it was full of nice shops and sights unlike most surfing towns. We stayed at the Noosa River Hostel, about a 30 minute walk from the main beach, and met some really interesting people, like an English girl who was going to be cattle ranching in the Northern Territory. We went hiking in the National Park one day and really wanted to find a wild koala, but apparently we were looking in all the wrong spots. We did, however, see a sea turtle swimming in the waves which was pretty cool. Our hike showed us some pretty amazing views of the rugged coastline and gave us an opportunity to swim at the clearest and most refreshing beaches. Every night at about 6, thousands of bats would come piling out of a cave and fly right over our hostel. It was the craziest/scariest sight I had seen in awhile. We visited the Australian Zoo which is way more hands on than any other zoo I have ever been to. I got to feed an elephant, hug a kangaroo, pet a koala and camel, and see a crocodile leap up with its tail to grab food hanging in the air. It was kind of creepy how obsessed the zoo was with the Irwin family, and I have a feeling that Terri Irwin is using the kids to keep attention on the zoo. All in all though, the zoo was really fun, and I would recommend it to anyone who comes to the Brisbane area. That night, we saw one of the most spectacular lightning storms that I’ve ever seen…it made the whole river front turn a lavender color, and we sat and watched it for over an hour. On our way home the next day, we stopped in Eumundi (you-muhn-dee) for the weekend markets they have there. It was fun to walk around to all the booths and see all the interesting arts and crafts that were being produced locally. Even though it was nice to be out doing stuff, I was pretty ready to get home to my St. Lucia apartment, which I think is a good sign that this place is really becoming my home. Orientation week started today, and I feel like a freshman all over again. They gave us numbers on how many international students were studying from each country, and I was astounded to hear that only 79 Americans were here vs. the 238 Chinese students that came. I finally got my timetable figured out, and I will be taking 4 science classes this semester (Marine Science, Ecology, Metabolism and Nutrition, and Molecular Cell biology). It will probably be a pretty difficult semester, but I think all the subjects will be very intriguing. I’m rolling on my last week of summer vacation, and I’m hoping that I can get one more excursion done before Uni starts. I made a list of all the places I want to visit while I’m here, so maybe I’ll cross off some of the local ones this weekend. Thanks for catching up with me, and make sure to keep the bushfires in your thoughts and prayers!

-Erin
P.S. I posted all the pics from my trip. Click the link on the right to find the album

Some random thoughts

Hello, hello! Don’t get too excited…this post doesn’t contain a cool travel story or anything. I’ve gotten pretty used to getting around Brisbane. The buses go everywhere, and everything is discounted since I am a student. I rode the Citycat (ferry) into the city the other night and was floored at how cool the city looked, especially from the water. It made me wish that I could take the ferry to school at home. The people here are really nice too. I accidently left my wallet on my mailbox, and somebody personally returned it to me later that day, which was a huge relief for me. I have found that signing up for classes is a huge pain here, and the biology department is less helpful than the advisors at UCSD (who are painfully unhelpful). I don’t start school until March 2nd, so I still have time to put my timetable together. I visited a church service the other night and had a pretty interesting experience. I really liked it until the preacher started prophesying/praying over people then bashing them in the head as he healed them of unknown problems. Let’s just say I’m still looking for a church to attend. I got the opportunity to run around the campus yesterday, and I was really excited by everything I saw. The campus has multiple lakes and garden areas that are just beautiful right now because of all the rain. There is a tennis center on campus that has both hard courts and grass courts, which I have never played on before. Thankfully, Kate is also a tennis player, so I’ll be able to try out grass court tennis while I am here. The buildings at the Uni are very interesting. The bricks are made out of sandstone, and every brick contains different colors and shapes. When they are put all together, it creates an attention-grabbing affect that is really fun to look at. I’ll post some pictures up later so that you guys can all see. So far, I am having a really great time. However, wildlife problem of the day: I got chased around my kitchen by a bright red dragonfly…kind of scary. On the other hand, Kate and I noted my one week anniversary of being in Brisbane which made me feel pretty accomplished. I’m leaving for the Sunshine Coast and Noosa on Wednesday with some California girls, so I’ll write more once I’m back. Miss you guys!
-Erin

Sorry for the delay

Hello everyone!! Sorry for the gap in stories. A lot has been going on, and I'm still getting situated in my apartment in Brisbane. The rest of my stay in Sydney was a lot of fun. Saturday, we all went to Circular Quay and finally got to see the infamous Harbour Bridge and Opera House. It was pretty unreal being there. I spent so much time hearing about them, and actually seeing it all was a punch from reality that I am in Australia for a year, which my mind still hasn't grasped yet. Our group took a Sydney harbour cruise during the afternoon, but I spent more time finding spots out of the sun then actually looking at the city I think. The hole in the o-zone is directly over Australia, so my pale skin was not doing so well in the 100 degree, sunny weather. It would take me about 5 weeks of California sun to get as dark as my 3 day Australian tan. I found a group of girls from the program that wanted to explore the downtown area of Sydney, so we ended up staying near the harbour and wandering around the city at night, which was absolutely gorgeous. Sunday, a group of us headed over to Manly beach by ferry and spent the day lounging in the sun and looking at the coves and tide pools. The surf here is a lot stronger than in CA…one girl figured that out by getting her shoulder dislocated. On Monday, I flew from Sydney to Brisbane and got to meet my new housemate Kate. She is also a third year at UQ, and we have a lot in common. Our apartment is really nice…it reminds me of a beach house you might rent for vacation or something. Right now my room is pretty bare, but I was able to get a bed and a few other items from K-Mart. There are still many surprises to living here, such as having geckos run around my apartment, but I am getting more used to the language differences and wildlife. I’m only about a 10 minute walk to the University, and everything else is connected through the train, a bus, or a ferry. Brisbane is a very lovely area and is not as busy as Sydney was. The downtown area has really nice stores and walking areas, but the weather is usually really hot and humid which makes it harder to be outside. Recently it has been rainy, which is a relief from the high heat. The bushfires in Victoria have been all over the news…they are the worst natural disaster in all of Australian history. Please keep that area in your thoughts and prayers because it has been such a devastating time for a lot of families. A group of us are trying to plan a trip to the Sunshine coast for next week, so I’ll keep you updated on that. Hope all is well in the States!

-Erin

Hello from Sydney

After a long 14 hour plane ride sitting next to a Canadian and an Australian, I have finally landed in Sydney, Australia!! There are no words to describe how unique and intriguing this city is. I am already having a great time, and I've only been in Australia for less than a day. My hotel is near Rushcutters Bay, but we've been walking around King's Cross alot (which is a red light district) and the town hall area. The sites and architecture are comparable to Chicago, but the people and weather are unlike anything I've seen before. Tomorrow we are touring Sydney harbor, and I'm excited to finally get to see the Opera House and ride a ferry around. I got to talk to my roommate on the phone, and she has only said geat things about my apartment (an answer to my prayers) and the Brisbane area in general. Surprisingly, I've only had a little bit of alone time since I landed, and I'm looking forward to a good night of sleep. As of now, I have been able to use free internet in an Apple store and a McDonalds...I thought that was pretty ironic since I usually hate going into both of those places. Well, until I can find internet again...
-Erin