Sunday, May 24, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Orpheus Island: coral reef geomorphology
May 19-24th
Wednesday afternoon I turned on my cell phone to find a voicemail from the dive instructor I had during my advanced open water course, inviting me to go diving that night with them at the strand--for just 10 bucks I'd have the air, weights and mask I'd need to dive. Because it was such last minute I questioned it and decided I wouldn't go as I had to be up early the next morning for a class field trip. However, the guy caught me on facebook and again asked me to come, finally convincing me that it would be okay. So I went--against my normal instinct. I thought this was ok because I'm trying to be more flexible with my life and try to seize more opportunities--kind of like Yes Man (the movie) but in a lot more controlled fashion. I also thought since they were diving on the strand that perhaps I would be able to find my mask.
It took me nearly an hour and a half to get to the Strand (mind you I was lugging around my luggage looking like a complete idiot tourist). Finally I made it to the farthest end of the strand to find a whole group of divers geared up and ready to go. I quickly suited up--however it was now about 7PM and as its winter here--it was basically pitch black. I didn't have a dive light, and they hadn't brought me one. I was a bit nervous as back home I dive with 2 lights and if the primary light goes out I know to call the dive off. Here I wasn't even beginning with one. (Don't be nervous Dad I am still alive and nothing bad happened.) It was an interesting dive--I think it was a lot of the people's first night dive -so everyone was basically on top of each other--I was too because obviously I am not going to dive by myself in the dark but I was the only one with this excuse. Despite this it was a pretty awesome dive. I saw two sea turtles, two sting rays and tons of foot long fish! Surprisingly the visibility was a lot better than it had been when I did my rescue diver course the weekend before in the same area. That reminds me--no luck in finding my mask. The netted enclosures we had been in for the rescue course were removed from the Strand for the winter so it will be impossible to locate my mask now unless it were to wash ashore. Anyway, after the dive I quickly broke down my gear and headed back to the bus. It took me from 8PM-10PM to get back to campus, but overall I think I am glad I went.
When I got back I had to pack for my trip the next morning (leaving at 4AM), but all my Aussie friends were confused about where I had gone since I wasn't at dinner and hadn't said where I was going. So I had a chat with each of them, finally making it to bed at 11:30, only to wake up and then pack at 2:30AM. Needless to say it was a long day. Once we got to Taylor's Beach, where we'd be taking the boat to the island we had to wait because only 14/the 36 of us could be transported at a time. This was fine because Morgan and Scott brought their computers so we watched an X-Men movie and watched the sun rise, not bad for 6AM. By 9AM we were headed across to the island and by 930 we were settling in to island life. Thursday we relaxed a bit, had a good walk around the island while our instructor explained different geological structures and the history of the reef growth on the island. In the afternoon we snorkeled. I actually wasn't too keen on this snorkel session because I had already snorkeled several times on my previous trip to Orpheus in this spot, so it felt old and boring. The water clarity was also poor and the borrowed mask I had kept fogging and filling with water. I point blank told the girl that I was partnered with that I was bored and wanted to get out. It was very funny to me because I've never really been so point blank with people, but its been slowly becoming a part of me. Its just easier to say things point blank than chasing around in circles trying to get what you want. Oh well, it worked and I got to leave the water.
Thursday night was pretty fun. We had a yummy BBQ dinner with lots of tofu dogs or meat if thats what you prefer and then Scott took out some uno cards. This turned into a massive game of spoons--I think we had about 15 people playing at one point. It was so much fun and it passed the night away.
Friday morning we were up by 730. In the morning several people presented different research topics--called tutorials--most of us had done them in our practical sessions, however these topics were not overlapping in the different practical times so our teacher wanted everyone to hear them. Topics were things like cold water reefs, turbidity's effects on coral, reef management, carbon dating, stable isotopes etc. These were quite interesting and I learned a good deal, hopefully I will remember it. By 11AM we were out on the reef beginning our field work for the weekend. This was surveying the topography of the reef in Pioneer Bay where Orpheus field station is located and we would compare it to a reef on Iris Point on the other side of the island (a high energy reef). We pretty much did this all day. There was time in the afternoon for another snorkel but after Thursdays disappointment my group decided to just get going on our project report. This turned out to be not a bad idea as in the long run we were probably the least stressed about it out of everyone.
Saturday we had to get up around 7 to race the tide. We were headed to the other side of the island today to do more topographical surveying. We loaded up 5 boats and headed for Cattle Bay, our first stop. Here we got off and went ashore to see the succession going on of previous reefs to what they are today. It was odd because our teacher brought us into the middle of the island where there was like a peat pool--but that had actually been where a reef was a long time ago before some big cyclonic episode. After Cattle Bay we had a bit of a crisis--each boat was suppose to be able to hold 8 of us and each boat was suppose to be equipped with a radio, unfortunately this really wasn't the case so we had a few problems. We were supposed to be able to go snorkeling on the exposed side of the island but we would have to take turns--5 people at a time with one observer and only 2 boats the two with radios could go. It turned out to be fine as everyone else just snorkeled from the beach and we all ended up being in the same place, but it sure was annoying to think about. After a lovely snorkel, in which I regained my appreciation for snorkeling we went in to shore to have lunch. By the way, I got some great photos with my new camera and it didn't flood yayyy. Soon after it was pretty much low tide so we could start our survey. This took forever as we had to walk nearly a mile down the beach (ouch on the feet!) to get to where we could survey. By the second transect we were raising the tide coming back in. On the walk back to the boats the tide was coming up fast and eels were popping out left and right. Pretty cool! I loved this side of the island--it was so expansive and beautiful--you could also see all the surrounding islands. The reef on this side was a lot different (I think thats why we were to compare them), there was barely any live coral and all the dead coral was covered in this aqua colored algae. There were also tons of urchins and brittle stars--something I had not seen on the other transect that day or in Pioneer Bay the day before. Anyway that was that, we were all whipped out by that night. But unfortunately we had to stay up and write our final report. My group was up until 2 AM, though many groups never went to sleep as we had to be up the next morning at 5AM to pack up and get off the island. Surprisingly I was not tired until about 5PM that day. 8 of us took a different boat back--they called it the long boat--it was definitely faster and more exhilarating than the research vessel we came over on--and I didn't get sea sick! When we got to the other side we had to wait for the boats to return with the rest of our classmates so Scott, Morgan and I cuddled up and watched another movie. We were back on campus by 11AM. It really was a great trip--and I can say with certainty I would rather be a coral geologist than a fish expert!
Wednesday afternoon I turned on my cell phone to find a voicemail from the dive instructor I had during my advanced open water course, inviting me to go diving that night with them at the strand--for just 10 bucks I'd have the air, weights and mask I'd need to dive. Because it was such last minute I questioned it and decided I wouldn't go as I had to be up early the next morning for a class field trip. However, the guy caught me on facebook and again asked me to come, finally convincing me that it would be okay. So I went--against my normal instinct. I thought this was ok because I'm trying to be more flexible with my life and try to seize more opportunities--kind of like Yes Man (the movie) but in a lot more controlled fashion. I also thought since they were diving on the strand that perhaps I would be able to find my mask.
It took me nearly an hour and a half to get to the Strand (mind you I was lugging around my luggage looking like a complete idiot tourist). Finally I made it to the farthest end of the strand to find a whole group of divers geared up and ready to go. I quickly suited up--however it was now about 7PM and as its winter here--it was basically pitch black. I didn't have a dive light, and they hadn't brought me one. I was a bit nervous as back home I dive with 2 lights and if the primary light goes out I know to call the dive off. Here I wasn't even beginning with one. (Don't be nervous Dad I am still alive and nothing bad happened.) It was an interesting dive--I think it was a lot of the people's first night dive -so everyone was basically on top of each other--I was too because obviously I am not going to dive by myself in the dark but I was the only one with this excuse. Despite this it was a pretty awesome dive. I saw two sea turtles, two sting rays and tons of foot long fish! Surprisingly the visibility was a lot better than it had been when I did my rescue diver course the weekend before in the same area. That reminds me--no luck in finding my mask. The netted enclosures we had been in for the rescue course were removed from the Strand for the winter so it will be impossible to locate my mask now unless it were to wash ashore. Anyway, after the dive I quickly broke down my gear and headed back to the bus. It took me from 8PM-10PM to get back to campus, but overall I think I am glad I went.
When I got back I had to pack for my trip the next morning (leaving at 4AM), but all my Aussie friends were confused about where I had gone since I wasn't at dinner and hadn't said where I was going. So I had a chat with each of them, finally making it to bed at 11:30, only to wake up and then pack at 2:30AM. Needless to say it was a long day. Once we got to Taylor's Beach, where we'd be taking the boat to the island we had to wait because only 14/the 36 of us could be transported at a time. This was fine because Morgan and Scott brought their computers so we watched an X-Men movie and watched the sun rise, not bad for 6AM. By 9AM we were headed across to the island and by 930 we were settling in to island life. Thursday we relaxed a bit, had a good walk around the island while our instructor explained different geological structures and the history of the reef growth on the island. In the afternoon we snorkeled. I actually wasn't too keen on this snorkel session because I had already snorkeled several times on my previous trip to Orpheus in this spot, so it felt old and boring. The water clarity was also poor and the borrowed mask I had kept fogging and filling with water. I point blank told the girl that I was partnered with that I was bored and wanted to get out. It was very funny to me because I've never really been so point blank with people, but its been slowly becoming a part of me. Its just easier to say things point blank than chasing around in circles trying to get what you want. Oh well, it worked and I got to leave the water.
Thursday night was pretty fun. We had a yummy BBQ dinner with lots of tofu dogs or meat if thats what you prefer and then Scott took out some uno cards. This turned into a massive game of spoons--I think we had about 15 people playing at one point. It was so much fun and it passed the night away.
Friday morning we were up by 730. In the morning several people presented different research topics--called tutorials--most of us had done them in our practical sessions, however these topics were not overlapping in the different practical times so our teacher wanted everyone to hear them. Topics were things like cold water reefs, turbidity's effects on coral, reef management, carbon dating, stable isotopes etc. These were quite interesting and I learned a good deal, hopefully I will remember it. By 11AM we were out on the reef beginning our field work for the weekend. This was surveying the topography of the reef in Pioneer Bay where Orpheus field station is located and we would compare it to a reef on Iris Point on the other side of the island (a high energy reef). We pretty much did this all day. There was time in the afternoon for another snorkel but after Thursdays disappointment my group decided to just get going on our project report. This turned out to be not a bad idea as in the long run we were probably the least stressed about it out of everyone.
Saturday we had to get up around 7 to race the tide. We were headed to the other side of the island today to do more topographical surveying. We loaded up 5 boats and headed for Cattle Bay, our first stop. Here we got off and went ashore to see the succession going on of previous reefs to what they are today. It was odd because our teacher brought us into the middle of the island where there was like a peat pool--but that had actually been where a reef was a long time ago before some big cyclonic episode. After Cattle Bay we had a bit of a crisis--each boat was suppose to be able to hold 8 of us and each boat was suppose to be equipped with a radio, unfortunately this really wasn't the case so we had a few problems. We were supposed to be able to go snorkeling on the exposed side of the island but we would have to take turns--5 people at a time with one observer and only 2 boats the two with radios could go. It turned out to be fine as everyone else just snorkeled from the beach and we all ended up being in the same place, but it sure was annoying to think about. After a lovely snorkel, in which I regained my appreciation for snorkeling we went in to shore to have lunch. By the way, I got some great photos with my new camera and it didn't flood yayyy. Soon after it was pretty much low tide so we could start our survey. This took forever as we had to walk nearly a mile down the beach (ouch on the feet!) to get to where we could survey. By the second transect we were raising the tide coming back in. On the walk back to the boats the tide was coming up fast and eels were popping out left and right. Pretty cool! I loved this side of the island--it was so expansive and beautiful--you could also see all the surrounding islands. The reef on this side was a lot different (I think thats why we were to compare them), there was barely any live coral and all the dead coral was covered in this aqua colored algae. There were also tons of urchins and brittle stars--something I had not seen on the other transect that day or in Pioneer Bay the day before. Anyway that was that, we were all whipped out by that night. But unfortunately we had to stay up and write our final report. My group was up until 2 AM, though many groups never went to sleep as we had to be up the next morning at 5AM to pack up and get off the island. Surprisingly I was not tired until about 5PM that day. 8 of us took a different boat back--they called it the long boat--it was definitely faster and more exhilarating than the research vessel we came over on--and I didn't get sea sick! When we got to the other side we had to wait for the boats to return with the rest of our classmates so Scott, Morgan and I cuddled up and watched another movie. We were back on campus by 11AM. It really was a great trip--and I can say with certainty I would rather be a coral geologist than a fish expert!
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Rescue Diver weekend
May 15- May 17
This past weekend was again pretty laid back. Friday night some friends and I (Rhona, Miranda, Laura, Chris, Morgan, Scott and Chris’s two roommates) went to see Angels and Demons. I thought the director did a pretty good job from my memory of the book. I think everyone else liked it, but they hadn’t read the book. We went to a late showing so it was pretty late when we got back. But I had to stay up late and finish my readings for a rescue diver course I was taking this weekend. Though I was up late I’m really glad I finished it because it turned out that the teacher checked us on all of it.
So Saturday morning I made my way to the JCU pool. There were three of us in total in the class, so really small, but this worked out well I think because then we didn’t have to wait around for ever for others to do their skills. It was pretty similar to lifeguard rescues, just incorporated dive gear really. Saturday night I had the Americans, Rhona and Miranda over for a movie night. That seems to be our thing here, movies and icecream—can never get enough of them! We watched Jumper, which I thought was really cool and Beverly Hill Chihauahs, which was a joke-it was so stupid we had to keep watching it. The Americans made these things they call Oreo balls—with smushed oreos and cream cheese—tasted kind of like fudge and of course I supplied some popcorn. Nice way to relax the night away.
Sunday my class met at the Strand to do actual open water skills. We had to start at 9 AM so I was having a crisis the night before trying to figure out how I would get there because the first bus from Uni was at 910 AM. Luckily Sameer was willing to wake up and drive me, what a life saver! Today’s session was exciting and challenging as the water was super murky. We had to do things like search patterns and tows and mouth to mouth (but not really). It really was a fun course until my mask disappeared. I was really really mad. We purposely had one person be the gear collector so that we wouldn’t lose our stuff, and of course it had to be me to have my mask get lost. We searched for a good length of time, but I am not confident the girl knew where she lost it. My guess is she dropped it as soon as I handed it to her, but she thinks she brought it to the beach and it got pulled back in by the waves. It’s hard for me to say, because I was rescuing my victim at the time and was not paying attention to her. It makes me really mad because we were in a confined area, so we only have that area to search—its blocked off by the stinger net—yet we couldn’t find it and I couldn’t do much in the way of searching because I didn’t have a mask to search with! Anyway the plan now is to ask the girl to go half in with me so I can replace it. But I think I am going to wait until I go back to America to buy a new one so that I can get the same one again, I really like it so I don’t want anything else. Yup so that’s my latest drama. What other bit of equipment could I mess up?
After my class yesterday I was so pissed off that I took a 2.5 hour nap, but it may also have been that I was tired from the work of the class. After dinner and after updating this blog insanely haha I went with some friends to watch a movie called, Mongol. It was really good, in a different language, but subtitles, I am not exactly sure where it was done, maybe China? Anyway, I guess it’s pretty well known now and it was basically the story of Ghangis Khan, really interesting! I watched this with Josh, Xu and Miranda as well as two of Josh’s friends.
Well that brings you up to date on my life. For this week I have my fish skull due tomorrow and my rainforest project poster due Friday. Thursday at 4AM I leave for Orpheus Island again, looking forward to that. Next week is the final week of classes, holy crap right? Then we have two weeks of exams!
Ah for anyone not in my family, I just want to say, Maggie (my twin) bought me a ticket to come visit her in Los Angeles for our 21st Birthday! How cool ya? So despite my lose of my mask, destruction of my camera and getting dumped at the beginning of the year—it’s looking to be a good year so I’m okay with those set backs.
Take care and write me sometime!
This past weekend was again pretty laid back. Friday night some friends and I (Rhona, Miranda, Laura, Chris, Morgan, Scott and Chris’s two roommates) went to see Angels and Demons. I thought the director did a pretty good job from my memory of the book. I think everyone else liked it, but they hadn’t read the book. We went to a late showing so it was pretty late when we got back. But I had to stay up late and finish my readings for a rescue diver course I was taking this weekend. Though I was up late I’m really glad I finished it because it turned out that the teacher checked us on all of it.
So Saturday morning I made my way to the JCU pool. There were three of us in total in the class, so really small, but this worked out well I think because then we didn’t have to wait around for ever for others to do their skills. It was pretty similar to lifeguard rescues, just incorporated dive gear really. Saturday night I had the Americans, Rhona and Miranda over for a movie night. That seems to be our thing here, movies and icecream—can never get enough of them! We watched Jumper, which I thought was really cool and Beverly Hill Chihauahs, which was a joke-it was so stupid we had to keep watching it. The Americans made these things they call Oreo balls—with smushed oreos and cream cheese—tasted kind of like fudge and of course I supplied some popcorn. Nice way to relax the night away.
Sunday my class met at the Strand to do actual open water skills. We had to start at 9 AM so I was having a crisis the night before trying to figure out how I would get there because the first bus from Uni was at 910 AM. Luckily Sameer was willing to wake up and drive me, what a life saver! Today’s session was exciting and challenging as the water was super murky. We had to do things like search patterns and tows and mouth to mouth (but not really). It really was a fun course until my mask disappeared. I was really really mad. We purposely had one person be the gear collector so that we wouldn’t lose our stuff, and of course it had to be me to have my mask get lost. We searched for a good length of time, but I am not confident the girl knew where she lost it. My guess is she dropped it as soon as I handed it to her, but she thinks she brought it to the beach and it got pulled back in by the waves. It’s hard for me to say, because I was rescuing my victim at the time and was not paying attention to her. It makes me really mad because we were in a confined area, so we only have that area to search—its blocked off by the stinger net—yet we couldn’t find it and I couldn’t do much in the way of searching because I didn’t have a mask to search with! Anyway the plan now is to ask the girl to go half in with me so I can replace it. But I think I am going to wait until I go back to America to buy a new one so that I can get the same one again, I really like it so I don’t want anything else. Yup so that’s my latest drama. What other bit of equipment could I mess up?
After my class yesterday I was so pissed off that I took a 2.5 hour nap, but it may also have been that I was tired from the work of the class. After dinner and after updating this blog insanely haha I went with some friends to watch a movie called, Mongol. It was really good, in a different language, but subtitles, I am not exactly sure where it was done, maybe China? Anyway, I guess it’s pretty well known now and it was basically the story of Ghangis Khan, really interesting! I watched this with Josh, Xu and Miranda as well as two of Josh’s friends.
Well that brings you up to date on my life. For this week I have my fish skull due tomorrow and my rainforest project poster due Friday. Thursday at 4AM I leave for Orpheus Island again, looking forward to that. Next week is the final week of classes, holy crap right? Then we have two weeks of exams!
Ah for anyone not in my family, I just want to say, Maggie (my twin) bought me a ticket to come visit her in Los Angeles for our 21st Birthday! How cool ya? So despite my lose of my mask, destruction of my camera and getting dumped at the beginning of the year—it’s looking to be a good year so I’m okay with those set backs.
Take care and write me sometime!
Livin' the Vida Loca (Uni Life)
May 4th-May15th
This next entry is really just about life on campus for the last two weeks since I haven’t had any plans. No plans because I have so many assignments due—I almost feel like I am back at Cornell….not.
Anyway Monday after Theresa left I thought I would have a quiet afternoon, but it turned into more excitement. Scott, Morgan and I got together to work on our proposal for our marine wildlife conservation class. Our proposal is on humback whales and the effects of anthropogenic noise pollution on their ability to communicate. Basically it’s a written plan of a project we would hypothetically like to do to try to mitigate the problem. Anyway, it was quite a fun assignment—probably because you can relate it to the real world unlike pretty much any assignment back home. After this I ran off to join my floormate, Sameer, Rhona, Dylan and townhouse 1 people for dinner at Cactus Jacks (my favorite Australian restaurant). This was a lot of fun because I got to meet new people—I was on the end of the table with all the people I didn’t know. And though I was unhappy about that at first I actually am glad it happened because now two weeks later I didn’t have to sit alone at breakfast because I knew these kids to sit with! Funny how that works out. The good thing about Australian restaurants is that you don’t have to tip your server, the bad thing is, even if you were going to tip them you wouldn’t because they are so bad! It took forever for them to get us drinks of water and then forever longer to let us order. It was okay though, it reminded me of a dinner in Spain, dinners that last 2-3 hours! Afterwards everyone wanted icecream so we just barely made it to Juliette’s (the icecream shop on the strand) before they closed. What was supposed to be a one hour dinner turned into a 4 and a half hour event, but I sure didn’t mind. What fun it is to actually have the time to hang out with friends! Amazing.
That Friday was the Uni Hall home ball—this is kind of like a big dance party, pretty equivalent to a prom or something except that the theme of this was historical so we were suppose to wear costumes rather than formal wear. None of my friends were interested in going initially and I was pretty bummed about this, as anyone knows I love dancing (or pretending to dance). But then my floormates Sameer and Josh start running around like wild kids (even though they are both 23) and put on the weirdest clothes ever. This somehow got my friends pumped and we all got dressed in the most randomest clothing ever and went to the party. Since this was a spur of the moment decision we figured we wouldn’t be there for long—just enough to be able to reminisce about it the following day. It was Rhona, Dylan, Miranda, Sameer, Josh and I dancing and getting our groove on. Miranda, Josh and Sameer left after about an hour and a half but Rhona, Dylan and I had so much fun we stayed until the end. Gosh we love dancing! : ) Oh there was also food and it was so good—the richest most delicious chocolate cake—maybe more like a brownie—tough to dance with though. Highlights from the evening were…a drunk girl that was dressed as Marilyn Monroe, two girls with boxes on their body—trying to look like the Titanic (yes they won the costume contest), a guy in a man thong (and no I don’t mean flip-flops here), and Sameer dancing around with my flashlight in his pants—weird I know.
The last few weeks I’ve been really getting to know my floormates. They are all really cool and I’m glad I ended up on their floor. I think part of it is that they aren’t my age and they are actually a bit more mature than most people here—though at times they most certainly aren’t. So let’s see there is Sameer and he’s the first one I started to have some more than hows it going conversations with. He’s a 5th year med student, pretty opinionated but after you realize that it’s actually really enjoyable to listen to him talk. We like to make late night McDonald’s runs, yum, they have the McCafe here and its superb—are they in America yet? We also ran in the rain last week, which was pretty cool. Then there is Josh, and he’s also a 5th year med student—him and Sameer have been best friends since they got here. Josh is probably one of the most random people on this planet, perhaps even more than me, so I like that. He’s helped me out a lot with schoolwork—even when he doesn’t know the topic –he still knows how to make you really think about it. He has the most entertainingly random dance, that I will definitely get a video of before I leave. Then there is Sheran, another med student, and he’s kind of a hyper kid-we have push up contests and wrestling wars—oh and I creamed him, Noor and their other “curry” friends in basketball (wohoo!). Then at the end of the hall is “Tuna” or Alex—so called because I guess he use to eat a lot of tuna. He has a twin, which obviously makes him cool in my book. I try to fight him but he’s just really strong. Then lastly there is Xu and he’s from China. He’s a pretty quiet kid, I guess he’s not confident in his English, but he picked out a really cool movie for us to watch tonight so I know he’s at least got good movie knowledge. Other than that there are the two girls, Amy and Julie. Amy I talk to a good amount, though not like the guys. She’s a youngin’ still and definetly living the carefree party life. Julie, well she stole my mattress, she’s used my pocket knife and I’ve heard odd noises coming from her room when her boyfriend is over so that’s all I want to say about her. Yup so I’ve really been enjoying hanging out with all my friends—since I haven’t been traveling the last few weeks its really given me an opportunity to build my friendships more, which has made me realize I’m really really really going to be sad to leave. This semester has gone by far too fast, and I only have about a month to go before it’s over. I wish I could stay longer—I tell them all I will be back, but things will change and I know this is the only opportunity to live in this moment. This semester truly has been awesome.
As I said this past week has been a lot of work—but somehow it is so much easier to have a life here than it is when I have similar workloads at Cornell. I think its perhaps knowing that my exact grade doesn’t matter. I feel like I still go into the assignment with a similar mindset, but I’m sure I don’t give it the insane effort like at Cornell. I am interested to see how this approach turns out. I have seen a different in the amount of time I spend on things—I take breaks now when I see myself getting inefficient, I wonder if this is really a good thing or if the work is really just easier than Cornell.
What else? Ahh I’ve replaced my camera, 290 bucks—managed to negotiate with the distributor for that price, so I felt pretty good about that. Bummed that I had to replace it and that it wasn’t covered under the warranty. But hopefully now I will have learned my lesson about taking care of things absolutely perfectly and double checking that absolute perfection 50 times over. I’ll let you know how it goes—I plan on bringing the camera back to Orpheus Island for round two this weekend!
Umm I did this awesome workout with Morgan and Scott last week in the pool. They called it the hell swim workout—and ya, next day I was feeling it. It involved swimming sprints, climbing out of the water—doing lunges and then doing more sprints. Wish I had the desire to do that every day!
We were having a crappy bit of weather for a while, but it seems to have gone away. The temperature is basically perfect now, I think we are in the heart of autumn here. Nights are chilly, so definitely wearing pants but days are just right for shorts and t-shirts. I just hope I have enough warm stuff for Tassie and NZ!
And finally I had this meeting last week, figured I’d write about it because it’s about the only club type thing I am involved in here. I don’t know if I wrote about it earlier, but I am in this committee between students and staff—I represent my rainforest ecosystems class and my reef fishes class. Basically I am suppose to bring any concerns of my classmates to the attention of the school. We have two meetings a semester and last Monday was our final meeting. Yup, so that’s pretty cool, and one of my friends, Chris (the swed who went clubbing with us) is in it too—which I didn’t know from the first meeting.
This next entry is really just about life on campus for the last two weeks since I haven’t had any plans. No plans because I have so many assignments due—I almost feel like I am back at Cornell….not.
Anyway Monday after Theresa left I thought I would have a quiet afternoon, but it turned into more excitement. Scott, Morgan and I got together to work on our proposal for our marine wildlife conservation class. Our proposal is on humback whales and the effects of anthropogenic noise pollution on their ability to communicate. Basically it’s a written plan of a project we would hypothetically like to do to try to mitigate the problem. Anyway, it was quite a fun assignment—probably because you can relate it to the real world unlike pretty much any assignment back home. After this I ran off to join my floormate, Sameer, Rhona, Dylan and townhouse 1 people for dinner at Cactus Jacks (my favorite Australian restaurant). This was a lot of fun because I got to meet new people—I was on the end of the table with all the people I didn’t know. And though I was unhappy about that at first I actually am glad it happened because now two weeks later I didn’t have to sit alone at breakfast because I knew these kids to sit with! Funny how that works out. The good thing about Australian restaurants is that you don’t have to tip your server, the bad thing is, even if you were going to tip them you wouldn’t because they are so bad! It took forever for them to get us drinks of water and then forever longer to let us order. It was okay though, it reminded me of a dinner in Spain, dinners that last 2-3 hours! Afterwards everyone wanted icecream so we just barely made it to Juliette’s (the icecream shop on the strand) before they closed. What was supposed to be a one hour dinner turned into a 4 and a half hour event, but I sure didn’t mind. What fun it is to actually have the time to hang out with friends! Amazing.
That Friday was the Uni Hall home ball—this is kind of like a big dance party, pretty equivalent to a prom or something except that the theme of this was historical so we were suppose to wear costumes rather than formal wear. None of my friends were interested in going initially and I was pretty bummed about this, as anyone knows I love dancing (or pretending to dance). But then my floormates Sameer and Josh start running around like wild kids (even though they are both 23) and put on the weirdest clothes ever. This somehow got my friends pumped and we all got dressed in the most randomest clothing ever and went to the party. Since this was a spur of the moment decision we figured we wouldn’t be there for long—just enough to be able to reminisce about it the following day. It was Rhona, Dylan, Miranda, Sameer, Josh and I dancing and getting our groove on. Miranda, Josh and Sameer left after about an hour and a half but Rhona, Dylan and I had so much fun we stayed until the end. Gosh we love dancing! : ) Oh there was also food and it was so good—the richest most delicious chocolate cake—maybe more like a brownie—tough to dance with though. Highlights from the evening were…a drunk girl that was dressed as Marilyn Monroe, two girls with boxes on their body—trying to look like the Titanic (yes they won the costume contest), a guy in a man thong (and no I don’t mean flip-flops here), and Sameer dancing around with my flashlight in his pants—weird I know.
The last few weeks I’ve been really getting to know my floormates. They are all really cool and I’m glad I ended up on their floor. I think part of it is that they aren’t my age and they are actually a bit more mature than most people here—though at times they most certainly aren’t. So let’s see there is Sameer and he’s the first one I started to have some more than hows it going conversations with. He’s a 5th year med student, pretty opinionated but after you realize that it’s actually really enjoyable to listen to him talk. We like to make late night McDonald’s runs, yum, they have the McCafe here and its superb—are they in America yet? We also ran in the rain last week, which was pretty cool. Then there is Josh, and he’s also a 5th year med student—him and Sameer have been best friends since they got here. Josh is probably one of the most random people on this planet, perhaps even more than me, so I like that. He’s helped me out a lot with schoolwork—even when he doesn’t know the topic –he still knows how to make you really think about it. He has the most entertainingly random dance, that I will definitely get a video of before I leave. Then there is Sheran, another med student, and he’s kind of a hyper kid-we have push up contests and wrestling wars—oh and I creamed him, Noor and their other “curry” friends in basketball (wohoo!). Then at the end of the hall is “Tuna” or Alex—so called because I guess he use to eat a lot of tuna. He has a twin, which obviously makes him cool in my book. I try to fight him but he’s just really strong. Then lastly there is Xu and he’s from China. He’s a pretty quiet kid, I guess he’s not confident in his English, but he picked out a really cool movie for us to watch tonight so I know he’s at least got good movie knowledge. Other than that there are the two girls, Amy and Julie. Amy I talk to a good amount, though not like the guys. She’s a youngin’ still and definetly living the carefree party life. Julie, well she stole my mattress, she’s used my pocket knife and I’ve heard odd noises coming from her room when her boyfriend is over so that’s all I want to say about her. Yup so I’ve really been enjoying hanging out with all my friends—since I haven’t been traveling the last few weeks its really given me an opportunity to build my friendships more, which has made me realize I’m really really really going to be sad to leave. This semester has gone by far too fast, and I only have about a month to go before it’s over. I wish I could stay longer—I tell them all I will be back, but things will change and I know this is the only opportunity to live in this moment. This semester truly has been awesome.
As I said this past week has been a lot of work—but somehow it is so much easier to have a life here than it is when I have similar workloads at Cornell. I think its perhaps knowing that my exact grade doesn’t matter. I feel like I still go into the assignment with a similar mindset, but I’m sure I don’t give it the insane effort like at Cornell. I am interested to see how this approach turns out. I have seen a different in the amount of time I spend on things—I take breaks now when I see myself getting inefficient, I wonder if this is really a good thing or if the work is really just easier than Cornell.
What else? Ahh I’ve replaced my camera, 290 bucks—managed to negotiate with the distributor for that price, so I felt pretty good about that. Bummed that I had to replace it and that it wasn’t covered under the warranty. But hopefully now I will have learned my lesson about taking care of things absolutely perfectly and double checking that absolute perfection 50 times over. I’ll let you know how it goes—I plan on bringing the camera back to Orpheus Island for round two this weekend!
Umm I did this awesome workout with Morgan and Scott last week in the pool. They called it the hell swim workout—and ya, next day I was feeling it. It involved swimming sprints, climbing out of the water—doing lunges and then doing more sprints. Wish I had the desire to do that every day!
We were having a crappy bit of weather for a while, but it seems to have gone away. The temperature is basically perfect now, I think we are in the heart of autumn here. Nights are chilly, so definitely wearing pants but days are just right for shorts and t-shirts. I just hope I have enough warm stuff for Tassie and NZ!
And finally I had this meeting last week, figured I’d write about it because it’s about the only club type thing I am involved in here. I don’t know if I wrote about it earlier, but I am in this committee between students and staff—I represent my rainforest ecosystems class and my reef fishes class. Basically I am suppose to bring any concerns of my classmates to the attention of the school. We have two meetings a semester and last Monday was our final meeting. Yup, so that’s pretty cool, and one of my friends, Chris (the swed who went clubbing with us) is in it too—which I didn’t know from the first meeting.
Theresa vs Townsville
May 1st-4th
Theresa’s visit
6PM Rhona, Miranda, Morgan, Scott and I jumped on a bus headed for the ferry terminal. One of my best friends from America, who is studying in Cairns (just North of Townsville) was coming to visit. It was like a Baywatch episode when we saw each other, haha not really, but ya we were both excited to see each other. We decided ahead of time we were going out for dinner-hence the crowd coming with me to get her. We ate dinner at this “fish and chips” shop—obviously I had a veggie burger and chips (French fries). Yummm. Then we enjoyed the most delicious icecream (of course) in Townsville before heading down Flinder’s Street to catch a bus back to Uni. The bus stop was an interesting adventure because we had to wait forevvvver for it to come. Miranda, Scott and I did head stands in the small section of grass in the road (ouch!)
Theresa came in hopes that we could dive the infamous shipwreck, the Yongala, but unfortunately the trip was cancelled. Supposedly the wreck is a pretty tough dive to make. They require that you have at least 6 dives under your belt and 15 if you want to dive without a guide. Anyway, the conditions were supposedly really choppy due to wind exposure, probably one of the reasons the ship got shipwrecked in the first place! We rescheduled for Monday (as it was a public holiday) but with our luck it was also cancelled for similar reasons.
However, we made use of our time and enjoyed a relaxing laid back weekend. Funny story—I had to register that I had a guest that weekend, and it happened to be the same weekend that some large concert was going on in Townsville (I actually didn’t hear about it until like a day before it happened) so there was competition to get a mattress for your guest. I luckily had applied for one several days in advance so it wasn’t a problem. The problem was that I put the mattress in my hall thinking it would be okay because all my floormates are cool and wouldn’t take it. However, when Theresa and I arrived back in my room after picking her up—the mattress was gone! I was like WTF? Thinking the RA must have come by and taken it I called them up, no word of it. I was making a pretty big fuss up and down my hall about it but no one had taken it. I didn’t ask the girl living next door to me because I assumed that she hadn’t taken it—I never talk to her and she seems like a quite reserved person. What do you know, I gave it a shot, went to her door and she freaking had it! I was so aggravated—she could obviously hear me making a fuss about it in the hallway but just ignored it and pretended she was clueless when I came to her door. So bizarre—one of my floormates came in my room and was like ya see you know those people that are all quiet and then blow up their school—she’s one of them!! I totally agreed. : p
Saturday we slept in (what a weirdddddddd concept!) and when we finally got going for the day we decided to climb Castle Hill, the big mountain in our town. It was definetly the hottest part of the day and here we were making the exhausting hike. It was definetly tiring, the view was good though and it actually took far less time than we thought. We enjoyed some picture taking and a bit of a picnic at the top. Theresa had a tripod with her and was snapping landscape photos for her class. I got to pretend to be her sweet assistant. Scott and Morgan also came with us. On our way back down it was much harder, I guess we are all out of shape –scary! Our legs were shaking all over the place by the time we got down—even after we were on a flat surface. By the time we got down pretty much everything in Townsville was closed so we simply had to go back to campus.
Saturday night Theresa was convinced we were going to live the Townsville night life. We (Theresa, Scott, Morgan and I ) got all jazzed up and headed for Flinder’s Street (the club street), as soon as we pulled up to the city mall bus stop we saw Dylan. Somehow we convinced him he had to come out with us and surprisingly he did! It was a pretty hyper night—we went to this club called the Bank and also to our favorite restaurant Cactus Jack’s. The music at the Bank was so much better than at the place we went a few weeks ago, so when we decided to leave at 1AM I was a little bummed. But I think we all got loosened up and really had a good time—we even got up on this platform to dance!! AH! (lots more details but not really necessary to write here) Quite a fun night!
Sunday Theresa really wanted to go shopping, specifically she needed sunglasses. It seems like sunglasses are cursed here, I have lost the ones I originally came here with, Morgan has broken 2 or 3 pairs and Theresa too. We decided to go to the Sunday markets but obviously we slept in and pretty much missed that. But we did manage to get into some stores where Theresa found some good stuff. Then we continued our shopping at Stockland, the big mall-plaza place, in Townville. This was fun because I never really looked here just to look, I usually went to get essential things like apple juice and crackers (haha). I didn’t buy anything, but I definitely found enough stuff if I had the extra money (which I most definitely won’t!). Sunday night we didn’t have any plans, but wanted to do something since for the second time our dive was cancelled Monday which meant Theresa was going to leave earlier Monday. So, we decided to go for a movie! We went to see this movie called 17 again. Obviously a chick-flick but the main character was actually a boy this time so maybe it was a boy-flick? I’m not sure, definitely a new twist on chick-flicks. Basically it was about this boy who was the basketball superstar of his highschool but he got his girlfriend pregnant and instead of going on to college and bball he got married and lead the family life. Then obviously something happened where he could go back in time and live it again. Since it is a chick-flick you should be able to figure out what happened. It was nice—and Rhona, Scott and Morgan went with us.
Monday morning—we slept in again and then took a tour around campus so Theresa could get a picture by the sweet big JCU sign. Then we went down to the bus terminal and parted ways. A relaxing weekend, but it was nice to just chill out for once!
Saturday, May 16, 2009
brisbane
April 23rd-April27th
Thursday night my floormate Josh drove the Americans and I to the airport. We boarded our plane at 9:45PM and arrived in Brisbane at 11:30PM. It was too late to get any form of cheap transportation so we hailed a cab. $41 and 7 stall outs later we made it to the heart of the city, Palace Backpackers Hostel. We thought we had the hostel booked previously because we knew we'd be getting there late, but it turned out Morgan's reservations didn't go through. We managed to convince the reception attendant that we only needed two beds and thus miraculously 6 people shared a 4 bed room. I guess we weren't the only ones to chat up the receptionist! It was a pretty nice hostel, though my bed was squeaky and two people got up at the crack of dawn and were banging around in the room. I was ready to go once the 8AM alarm went off.
Friday we decided to be cheap and save money, so naturally our first stop was STARBUCKS!!! YUMMMM. haha. But more to the cheap side we decided to have breakfast and lunch from a grocery store. This was a good idea as 24 bucks got us a huge bag of cereal that lasted till Sunday, 6 donuts, gummy worms, 3 things of bottled water, peanut butter, jelly, shapes (a delicous Australian version of cheeze-its)and probably other things I can't remember. We enjoyed some of these delicious products in the food court of the shopping center we were in. We also checked out the sweetest store in that shopping center, Australian Geographic. Wicked. It reminded me of this story my mom use to work at, The Nature Company. Of course I bought something here, but I can’t say what as its someone’s birthday present!
Next we decided to head toward City Hall to get a map so we could give ourselves a heritage tour of the city. In City Hall there is an observation tower--basically you ride up an elevator in the center of the city hall clock and can look out at the city. It was pretty cool, but the view wasn't that far--mostly you could see the other huge buildings surrounding. The cool part is that the city hall is built on a swamp so its under construction right now because its sinking. The City Hall is a beautiful building and is also home to two museums--one is an art museum, which was wicked cool. It was mostly modern art, but unlike most modern art I've seen, it made a lot of sense. (see the pictures) And the other museum was furniture. I didn’t like this so much because if you tried to reach toward the furniture this beeping sound went off and I kept forgetting it was going to happen.
Next we enjoyed lunch in the Anzac Memorial Park, there were heaps of people there enjoying their lunch, dressed in business suits. There were also some crazy pigeons and ibises that wanted to eat our sandwiches. After, we decided to go check out some more free museums on the other side of town. We made our way, in a roundabout pattern—stopping at this street mall, casino and these huge circular balls in the middle of the walk way, finally crossing a bridge on which we could see the whole city. We could see about 4 bridges in either direction, it was a bit odd that there were so many. Anyway, great view. As we headed over the bridge we saw this ginormous ferris wheel—Scott and Morgan were excited so I let them ride it, kids you know! Haha I enjoyed a bit more touristy reading in my travel guide. When they were done we took a walk through a university campus that was situated in the city, I’m ashamed to say I can’t remember the name now, but most of you wouldn’t know what it was anyway right? At the extent of our walk we found a man-made lagoon and decided to check it out. It was chilly, but there was tons of good people watching to be done. We were absolutely amazed by the number of tan people, and by tan I mean TAN. Weird! Anyway, I really wanted to go check out this other museum that supposedly had a sweet science center in it. So we headed back the way we came until we found this. It was pretty sweet. There was an entire exhibit on megafauna and other current fauna of Australia. There was also an entire collection of birds, reptiles, corals and random fish, including a Mola Mola! There was an enlightening exhibit on Aboriginal culture and finally a pretty cool exhibit on Darwin. I should also mention there were some random exhibits on Queensland itself and of boats and airplanes that had tackled some improbable feats. (Check out the pics!) Sadly, the science center was not free, and none of us really wanted to pay. With that said it was nearly time to head back to our hostel collect our bags and head South for the surf adventure of a lifetime!! The walk back was leisurely as we found out our ride (giant Mojo Surf bus) was delayed, so we stopped for some pushups in a park (to warm my body up), peanut butter and jelly and our huge bag of cereal. Yes, I should mention it is getting colder in Australia! (Today it was 78 degrees but I had to wear a light sweater because I thought it was cold!)
After collecting our bags from the Palace backpackers hostel we waited outside for our bus to arrive. We were quite stupefied by the people waiting there. There were Asian girls in high heels, couples making out and obviously boys that thought they were the coolest thing on the planet. It basically looked like the oddest set of people possible. But as the phrase goes, never judge a book by its cover—they all turned out to be foreigners—not a single American other than ourselves (actually I lied there was a single other American). So already we were off to a good start. Our surf instructor was exactly what you would imagine a surf instructor to look like. He was probably a 40 year old man in a 17 year old’s body, tan skin, spiked hair, never left the town he grew up in and this was considered “Living the Dream.” Despite this paradox he was a pretty cool dude, he called us legend surfers and really helped us out in the water.
Anyway, when we were all on the bus (it was such a sweet bus by the way) we started out by passing a microphone around and had to introduce ourselves by saying our names, our turn ons and our turn offs. My turn on was the ocean and turn off is Americans, everybody laughed at this. There were people from Germany, Japan, France, the Netherlands, Venezuela, Holand and so on, WICKED COOL. For anyone that doesn’t know, I love foreign people (even if they aren’t the greatest person they still earn points in my book for being foreign). Yupp so this was the start of our 5 hour journey to Byron Bay, Coff’s Harbor and a bit farther south. The bus ride was entertaining, we made a few pit stops to pick up people and for some to get alcohol (you know, the scene of a surfer) and we also watched an amazingly boring surf movie. When we finally got there we were asked to split into groups of four –so this Holand girl asked it she could room with us, naturally we said yes. She turned out to be a good roommate, not a super partier and not sketchy. Our accommodation was pretty cool, basically a little trailer with two sets of bunk beds and a tiny tiny bathroom you could barely turn around in. But it was warm and sleep felt good.
The next morning we had to wake up “early,” fortunately for us, early in the surf world is really NOT early. Wake up was 8 and breakfast was delicious, I think this is when I became addicted to tea (even more so than the Paluma field trip). Our first surf lesson was at 9:30AM and I was pumped for it. We had a different surf pro talk to us this morning, its so bad, but I can’t remember his name. He gave us a bit of a lecture then got us suited up into “shorties,” short sleeve wetsuits. Then the coolest thing ever—we got our surfboards, radical! Morgan and I carried ours together because honestly those things are so dang long and thick that you just can’t manage it yourself. When we got down to the beach we practiced our stand up approach on the boards in the sand. This was pretty fun, and obviously I did a much better job on land than in the water. I was situated next to some Colombian girls speaking Spanish, so that was pretty cool. Finally we got to make our way to the water. It was not long until I was catching waves—er attempting and falling. It was really not as hard as I thought, I really thought I wouldn’t even get up on one wave for the first session, but I did! Morgan and I faired pretty well, but Scott—he was a natural born surf pro—I think he caught everything he attempted! Anyway, I honestly have enough fun falling off of things (like snowboarding) that I didn’t mind if I didn’t catch a lot. When we had to go in for lunch I was so bummed, I really wanted to stay out there forever! Surfing, my new found favorite sport? Quite possibly!
Lunch was the usual sandwich, but after lunch we were headed into town to check out the Legend Surfer, Scott Dillon’s, surf museum. I don’t know much about surfers but I guess this guy was the “shiz.” He has made loads of peoples surf boards and continues to do so today. His museum was packed with famous people’s surf boards, articles, pictures and knick-nacks. It was cool. The man himself had pretty good stories too.
I’m not sure if this happened before or after the museum, but we stopped at this lookout point where we could see some amazing waves and a beautiful view of the ocean. The waves were massive.
Finally we made it back for our 3:30 second session on the waves. This was awesome, the waves were pretty good but the current was rough. Needless to say I was not disappointed to go back in—it was a good session but I was tired.
That night everyone was pretty tired, but we were supposedly suppose to party like surfers. I ended up laying on a picnic table taking pictures of a candle flame followed by disappearing into the TV room to watch a movie. Step-brothers—great movie check it out. Unfortunately the projector in the TV room stopped half way through so we ended our night by 10 PM. Slept like a lamb!
The next day we again had an “early” start again. This time no lecture just straight for the water. It was great, we were a bit apart from the group so we didn’t run into each other. I had the instructors help me catch some waves a few times, but I also got them on my own. Its hard to describe how fun surfing is, but the surfers do it pretty well, “living the dream.” Its so relaxing and exhilarating at the same time. When you’re done all you want to do is smile.
After this session we had to eat lunch and head out. We were out by 12:30 and on our way to Byron Bay. This took 3 hours maybe and was back up the coast. Byron Bay is a great surf spot for those who are good. It also had some amazing views. Definitely a tourist and party spot. We were allowed to get out and walk around for two hours—get food, site see, eat etc. We stopped in some pretty cool shops and Scott and I split a pizza. Then we all got icecream (of course!) I forgot to mention our Holland roommate joined us, so that was pretty nice. The view of the ocean from the bay was so gorgeous—there was a mist coming in as the sun was setting and the people down on the beach were silhouetted so perfectly.
When our two hours was up we were back to the bus and on our way back to Brisbane, I think it took us about 3 more hours to finally get back to Palace Backpackers (hostel). We decided to find a spot for the night because we hadn’t made contact with any hostels before. We really wanted to get to Moreton Bay, in preparation for our trip to Moreton Island the following day. However their reception closed at 8 and we were more than 40 minutes across town when 8 pm came. It was a repeat of Sydney, I called a million places and we even walked to a bunch –it was Anzac weekend so everything was booked. We tried a Holiday Inn just to see if it was affordable, it was 195 yuck! That wasn’t going to happen, so we continued to walk, finally coming across the Brisbane Transit Center and finally Chill Backpackers ( I forgot to mention we ran into this crazy man who really wanted to help us find a hostel—and he had worked at Chill—though at the time we had no idea what he was talking about-now we understood!) Chill happened to be one of the newest hostels, it wasn’t even in the tour books. It was a great place—we each had a bed for 35 dollars including sheets and it was just the three of us in the room. So nearly as good as the hotel from Sydney. Anyway, we wanted to really get the hostel experience so we checked out their roof haha and kitchen. On the roof they have a movie room and it actually caught our interest. The Happening was playing—again pretty good (but then again I really like anything I see) After this it was pretty much time for bed as we would have an early morning since we were now even farther away from Moreton than we were earlier that night.
Luckily the transit center we passed was exactly what we needed, so the following morning (Monday) we took a little walk to the transit center. We got train tickets and stored our huge bags in a locker (3 huge luggage things fit in 1 locker costing 7 bucks! Good deal!). We really had no idea where we were going, Moreton Bay is not known as a tourist spot and therefore actually the train dude didn’t even know which stop to get off at. We decided to go with whatever the heck I said –it didn’t work out so good—we ended up walking around some random town haha but it was really entertaining and quite honestly I didn’t mind seeing Brisbane from a locals point of view and I definitely would repeat my mistake again. Finally we found the right stop and got off—well it still wasn’t the right stop but we made it right enough. We ended up at a place called Manly (ya reminds you of Sydney right? Weird) and this was a quite place, with a big boating area and school children running about. We decided at that point it was hopeless to go to Moreton Island (the 2nd largest sand dune island!) and were just going to enjoy Manly. I bought breakfast and lunch from a grocery store because I wanted to try to be cheap (see mom and dad I’m trying!) and Morgan and Scott enjoyed a yummy looking meal at a café. Pretty much the rest of the day we hung out on the white beach of Manly, only moving to dip our feet in the water and walk around to some lookout point. It was really beautiful, but hey isn’t everything here? We just relaxed, read books, took pictures, ate more food..enjoyed our peaceful Monday afternoon.
Finally we had to go back and catch our plane back to Townsville. I’ll spare you the exact details, but we finally got to experience the skyrail of Brisbane-a private line costing 14 bucks each! REDICULOUS, but with the high traffic of that hour it was cheaper than a taxi. (Yes don’t worry we did go back to the transit center to get our bags). The plane ride back was enjoyable, I attempted to snooze and listened to some good beats. Noor and Dylan were there when we arrived to drive us back to school. It was really nice to see them again : )
Yup that’s about it for Brisbane. Nice city, relaxing, peaceful.
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