Whew! I cannot believe that the trip is over! Tomorrow night we are having our farewell dinner at a nearby restaurant where we will reminisce about the trip and say our goodbyes. Then the day after I am getting on a plain and flying to Auckland, New Zealand.
Lamington Plateau was beautiful and the week that we spent there camping was fantastic. There is not much to say about it, we camped in safari style tents and did heaps of science. We were once again fed fantastic food. The trend throughout the trip is that the food gets better and better the farther we get from civilization. After we packed up camp, we got on our second to last bus ride and drove to our retreat in the Glasshouse Mountains, which is just north of Brisbane. The eco lodge that we stayed at was really nice and such a treat after a week of camping. The kitchen and dining room was a converted train car and some of us stayed in a converted church that the owner of the lodge brought from a nearby town. I had my own room and my own bathroom. While we were there we took our last test, hung out a lot and on Monday night we had a full Seder. Andy printed out a short Hagaddah and we used it to lead the Seder, it was a lot of fun.
In New Zealand I am going to be traveling with five other friends from the trip. We are going to spend three days on the North Island and then we are flying into Christchurch on the South Island. Once we land we are going to rent two vans and then spend 11 days driving through the South Island. The vans have beds and small kitchen spaces in them so all six of us are going to be living in the vans for 11 days. Christchurch is still in really bad shape because of the earthquake so we won’t be spending much time their but the rest of the south island is absolutely gorgeous. I am sure that we will see a lot of amazing nature and do a lot of hiking. I also think the plan is to go sea kayaking and see the Fiordlands.
Ps. Also the South Island is where the Lord of the Rings was filmed, just in case you don't already know...
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Heron Island
My week on Heron Island officially began when we all met in Gladstone to take a Catamaran to the island, which was quite an experience in itself. In short it was the most brutal ride I have ever taken in my life. The open ocean is just so much more powerful than I could have ever imagined. For two hours we were thrown around violently, by the Pacific Ocean, until we reached Heron. All I can say to describe it is that it was like the worst airplane turbulence I have ever experienced, times ten. The Catamaran is the only way to reach the island unless you are willing to spend a whole lot of money on a helicopter ride. When I am trying to fall asleep I still feel like I’m on a boat…
Once we got off the boat things got a whole lot better. We found ourselves on a tropical island (well, the Tropic of Capricorn runs right through the island, so half of the island is in the sub-tropics while the other is in the tropics) with nothing but wide-open ocean all around us. The island sits on top of Heron Reef, which is part of the Great Barrier Reef. The reef extends about 11 kilometers and the actual island takes up just 840 meters of that, its very small. We could walk all the way around it in just 25 minuets.
The Heron Island Research Station, where we were staying, takes up one half of the island, while the other half is devoted to a really fancy resort. As you walk away from the station and towards the resort, everything changes. People are dressed nicely and families with lots of kids are everywhere. Some of us went over there in the evenings for drinks at the bar. Also the resort runs on a different time zone than the research station, the resort was an hour ahead. Back on the station there was another student group from University of Cali schools that were also doing research at the station. However, they seemed to be working a whole lot harder than us. Whenever I saw them they were in lab, or in a lecture or collecting data on the reef.
Except for the test that we took at the end of the week, our time on heron was fairly relaxing. It was hard to remember that I was at school while in such an amazing place. The day started with breakfast at 7:00 followed usually by a lecture and a mid morning tea and cake. We then usually spent the rest of the morning collecting data on the reef and then had lunch, did a bit more work and had another snack and then went snorkeling. We would usually snorkel right off the beach but they took us on two boat snorkels, which were absolutely breathtaking. The boat took us to right outside the reef, where it drops off into the open ocean. The marine life is incredible, it’s a whole other world. Bright neon fish both big and small, coral like you wouldn’t believe, sharks, stingrays and sea turtles were just some of the highlights. We also did one night snorkel which brings out a whole other world of life that only comes out at night. We each had an underwater flashlight and had to attach cylumes (glow sticks) to the tops of our snorkels so that the people on the jetty (dock) could count us to make sure that we were all still there.
At night we also spent time walking along the beach looking for turtle hatchlings that were scurrying out of their nest, down the beach and into the water and mother turtles that were coming up the beach to lay eggs. Of the seven species of sea turtles in the world, six of them are found in the Great Barrier Reef. Heron Island is known as a nesting place for Green Turtles. Mother turtles, who are between 40 and 90 years old, come up the beach to lay their eggs at night during the summer months. They dig a big sand pit, lay their eggs and return to the ocean until the next time they are ready to lay. We saw lots of turtles while snorkeling; they are huge, 4 or 5 feet long. Also at night we could see baby hatchlings erupting from their nest and going into the water. The hatchlings know where the water is because they feel the magnetic pull of the moon. They are about four inches long and so unbelievably cute. If you stood by the waters edge, you could feel them scampering over your toes.
It’s actually quite sad because sea turtles are almost endangered species. The statistic is that only 1 out of every 1000 hatchlings actually make it to adults. There are so many natural and un-natural predators. Sometimes we would watch a set of hatchlings make the long journey into the water just to see a seagull pick the turtle off the top of the water and fly off with it in its beak. This makes it all the more incredible to see the mother turtles slowly walking up the beach at age 50 or 60 to lay eggs, because you know that they were once one of thousands of scurrying hatchlings making their way out to sea.
Leaving Heron was bittersweet, because of the immense amount of sand that got absolutely everywhere! It was hard to get back on the Catamaran and leave such an amazing place that I am sure I will never have a chance to go back to. After ten hours of travelling we arrived back in Brisbane for a much needed day of laundry and Internet. Tomorrow morning we leave to go camping and do more biology in the Lamington Plateau, which is a rainforest. We will spend a week in Lamington and after that the trip is almost over, only a few more days until I go to New Zealand.
Ps. Just so you all know, I will not have internet again until April 19th.
Once we got off the boat things got a whole lot better. We found ourselves on a tropical island (well, the Tropic of Capricorn runs right through the island, so half of the island is in the sub-tropics while the other is in the tropics) with nothing but wide-open ocean all around us. The island sits on top of Heron Reef, which is part of the Great Barrier Reef. The reef extends about 11 kilometers and the actual island takes up just 840 meters of that, its very small. We could walk all the way around it in just 25 minuets.
The Heron Island Research Station, where we were staying, takes up one half of the island, while the other half is devoted to a really fancy resort. As you walk away from the station and towards the resort, everything changes. People are dressed nicely and families with lots of kids are everywhere. Some of us went over there in the evenings for drinks at the bar. Also the resort runs on a different time zone than the research station, the resort was an hour ahead. Back on the station there was another student group from University of Cali schools that were also doing research at the station. However, they seemed to be working a whole lot harder than us. Whenever I saw them they were in lab, or in a lecture or collecting data on the reef.
Except for the test that we took at the end of the week, our time on heron was fairly relaxing. It was hard to remember that I was at school while in such an amazing place. The day started with breakfast at 7:00 followed usually by a lecture and a mid morning tea and cake. We then usually spent the rest of the morning collecting data on the reef and then had lunch, did a bit more work and had another snack and then went snorkeling. We would usually snorkel right off the beach but they took us on two boat snorkels, which were absolutely breathtaking. The boat took us to right outside the reef, where it drops off into the open ocean. The marine life is incredible, it’s a whole other world. Bright neon fish both big and small, coral like you wouldn’t believe, sharks, stingrays and sea turtles were just some of the highlights. We also did one night snorkel which brings out a whole other world of life that only comes out at night. We each had an underwater flashlight and had to attach cylumes (glow sticks) to the tops of our snorkels so that the people on the jetty (dock) could count us to make sure that we were all still there.
At night we also spent time walking along the beach looking for turtle hatchlings that were scurrying out of their nest, down the beach and into the water and mother turtles that were coming up the beach to lay eggs. Of the seven species of sea turtles in the world, six of them are found in the Great Barrier Reef. Heron Island is known as a nesting place for Green Turtles. Mother turtles, who are between 40 and 90 years old, come up the beach to lay their eggs at night during the summer months. They dig a big sand pit, lay their eggs and return to the ocean until the next time they are ready to lay. We saw lots of turtles while snorkeling; they are huge, 4 or 5 feet long. Also at night we could see baby hatchlings erupting from their nest and going into the water. The hatchlings know where the water is because they feel the magnetic pull of the moon. They are about four inches long and so unbelievably cute. If you stood by the waters edge, you could feel them scampering over your toes.
It’s actually quite sad because sea turtles are almost endangered species. The statistic is that only 1 out of every 1000 hatchlings actually make it to adults. There are so many natural and un-natural predators. Sometimes we would watch a set of hatchlings make the long journey into the water just to see a seagull pick the turtle off the top of the water and fly off with it in its beak. This makes it all the more incredible to see the mother turtles slowly walking up the beach at age 50 or 60 to lay eggs, because you know that they were once one of thousands of scurrying hatchlings making their way out to sea.
Leaving Heron was bittersweet, because of the immense amount of sand that got absolutely everywhere! It was hard to get back on the Catamaran and leave such an amazing place that I am sure I will never have a chance to go back to. After ten hours of travelling we arrived back in Brisbane for a much needed day of laundry and Internet. Tomorrow morning we leave to go camping and do more biology in the Lamington Plateau, which is a rainforest. We will spend a week in Lamington and after that the trip is almost over, only a few more days until I go to New Zealand.
Ps. Just so you all know, I will not have internet again until April 19th.
Monday, March 28, 2011
A Queens Land
The last two weeks have been nonstop work. For the first time during this whole trip I actually have felt that I am in college. It is almost over though, I just have to finish my final research paper and then I will be free of homework for a while.
We have been in Brisbane for a month and my time with Hayley (my host mum, well me and Melanie say that Hayley is our MUM, because that’s how they say it here. Our real mothers at home are our MOM’s) was fantastic. For the next week we are on spring break. We are given a stipend and we have to figure out our own travel and we can go anywhere we want.
I am on my way to Byron Bay, a small hippy beach town that is about two hours south of Brisbane. I think that it is going to feel like we are back in Seattle/Portland because of all the hippys. Its going to be great. Some of us are staying at this hostile called the Arts Factory and we are going to be sleeping in these big teepees. Sadly we won’t be putting them up ourselves (Ali and Rianna).
After a few days in Byron Bay we will take a long bus/train ride way up the coast to a small town called Gladstone where we will meet back up with the rest of the group. From there we will get on a catamaran to Heron Island to do some marine biology and snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef! I have been told that you can walk around the whole island on the beach in just 20 minuets.
Also some of you will be happy to know that there are Passover plans in the works. So many of us are Jewish that we are going to make our own Seder. It will be one of the very last days of the program and we will be in the middle of a forest in the Glasshouse Mountains I think. I have encountered so little Judaism here; I think that it would have been hard to find a Seder to go to. I was told that there is only one conservative synagogue in the whole country and it is in Melbourne. The lack of Jews in this country stems from the post world war two period when the government excluded Jews from immigrating after the Holocaust. When Australia became a country in 1901 the government initiated the White Australia Policy, which basically meant that nobody who wasn’t European, or white could immigrate here. So the lack of Jewish people sort of comes as a result of that policy. The White Australia Policy did not end until 1973 and even today the government is sort of strange with their approach to multiculturalism.
We have been in Brisbane for a month and my time with Hayley (my host mum, well me and Melanie say that Hayley is our MUM, because that’s how they say it here. Our real mothers at home are our MOM’s) was fantastic. For the next week we are on spring break. We are given a stipend and we have to figure out our own travel and we can go anywhere we want.
I am on my way to Byron Bay, a small hippy beach town that is about two hours south of Brisbane. I think that it is going to feel like we are back in Seattle/Portland because of all the hippys. Its going to be great. Some of us are staying at this hostile called the Arts Factory and we are going to be sleeping in these big teepees. Sadly we won’t be putting them up ourselves (Ali and Rianna).
After a few days in Byron Bay we will take a long bus/train ride way up the coast to a small town called Gladstone where we will meet back up with the rest of the group. From there we will get on a catamaran to Heron Island to do some marine biology and snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef! I have been told that you can walk around the whole island on the beach in just 20 minuets.
Also some of you will be happy to know that there are Passover plans in the works. So many of us are Jewish that we are going to make our own Seder. It will be one of the very last days of the program and we will be in the middle of a forest in the Glasshouse Mountains I think. I have encountered so little Judaism here; I think that it would have been hard to find a Seder to go to. I was told that there is only one conservative synagogue in the whole country and it is in Melbourne. The lack of Jews in this country stems from the post world war two period when the government excluded Jews from immigrating after the Holocaust. When Australia became a country in 1901 the government initiated the White Australia Policy, which basically meant that nobody who wasn’t European, or white could immigrate here. So the lack of Jewish people sort of comes as a result of that policy. The White Australia Policy did not end until 1973 and even today the government is sort of strange with their approach to multiculturalism.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Dry, Old, Salty and Infertile
Here is the blog post that I wrote for our group blog at lcaustraliaprogram2011.blogspot.com
To our American families I can assure you that we are all enjoying our time with our new Australian families here in Brisbane. Melanie and I are happily settled in a small town house with our new mum and dad, a young couple who enjoy playing card games and touch football (or “footie”), which is a very different game from our American football, but that’s another story. As Katy previously mentioned, we are realizing that much of our time here has miraculously disappeared, but I feel that we still have many things yet to do before returning to our mundane American lives. With projects to prepare, papers to write and tests to study for, we are remembering that we are here first and foremost to go to school. This fact was easy to forget while hiking through the Blue Mountains, following kangaroo tracks in the bush, or swimming at Straddie’s subtropical beaches.
After a free day on Tuesday that was spent studying at the library—with a short break to dip into Allison’s pool—I found myself back in our classroom on Wednesday for a full day of lectures and student delivered presentations. Peter Kopittke, a soil expert from the University of Queensland, gave us a fascinating lecture on the formation and degradation of the Australian landscape. He began by telling us that the most important thing to know about Australia is that the landscape is dry, salty, infertile and old, four conditions that do not sound particularly inviting. The most rainfall that the center of the country got in the past year is just less than two inches. This lack of rain causes harsh living conditions for both plants and animals. The combination of low levels of rainfall and the fact that the water that is stored in the ground (or groundwater) and has high levels of salinity (or salt), adds up to a less than ideal situation for growing crops throughout Australia.
One way that salinity occurs in Australia is through dry land salinity. This takes place when the natural landscape is cleared, often for agricultural purposes, and salty groundwater rises because there are no longer any deep-rooted plants to drink the low-lying groundwater. Another type is irrigation salinity, which occurs when plants are overwatered, so much that the groundwater rises and the salty water kills all of the shallow rooted shrubs and plants. Both situations create a landscape that is impossible to live or grow crops on. In fact, some of the most fertile soil in Australia is in northern Queensland. But it is inhospitable to plants because it has some of the worst salinity in the country.
Professor Kopittke taught us that there are two ways of dealing with this salinity. The first is to re-plant all of the original vegetation back into the landscape so that the deep roots of native plants will drink the lower and less salty groundwater. The problem here is that you cannot ask a farmer to abandon his crops and re-plant the original, native landscape, especially when farming is most likely his sole livelihood. The other solution is to dig large trenches to drain the salty water. However, the problem then becomes, what do you do with all of the extra salt water? The conclusion being, once again, that Australia is an extremely inhospitable environment for any animal or plant that depends on water. Naturally, we have found it hard to believe that Australians have chosen to dedicate much of their land and economy to sheep, cattle, corn, sugar cane and wheat, investments that are extremely water intensive and foreign to this dry, salty, infertile and old country.
This is an example of how salinity made this landscape in Western Australia inhospitable for its native vegetation.
As we have learned in previous lectures, the earth’s crust is made up of a number of continental plates, and the entire continent of Australia sits in the middle of one of these plates. As a result, continental Australia contains very few mountains because it sits on no plate boundaries where most geologic activity occurs. Most land formation changes have occurred on the eastern coast due to a process called rifting. Rifting occurs when an uplift of magma in the ground causes two continental plates to be pulled apart, which then causes a deep valley to form between the two plates. 95 million years ago, this process occurred between Australia and New Zealand and led to the formation of the Great Dividing Range along the eastern coast of the continent. The consequence of Australia having so few mountains and very little geologic activity is that the soil is very infertile; it no longer has the essential nutrients and minerals for most plants to survive.
Professor Kopittke also demonstrated that another problem that currently plagues the Australian landscape is erosion, which is the process by which soil, rock and water is transported in the natural environment from the source and deposited elsewhere. Erosion is a natural process but it has been increased dramatically by human land use in Australia. It can severely damage a landscape in a very short time. When the natural landscape of an area is destroyed, often by grazing animals, the barren soil is exposed and can easily be eroded by wind that carries the soil and deposits it somewhere else. The result is huge scale dust storms that engulf entire Australian cities.
Here is a dust storm that occurred in South Australia.
Following our very informative, yet slightly discouraging lecture on the harsh conditions of the Australian landscape, we took a short lunch break and then began our second round of neighborhood presentations. Remember way back to when we were in Sydney, we all split into groups to do an in-depth study of specific neighborhoods around the city. We have once again done the same project but this time in Brisbane. First and foremost you should know that the Turrbal people are the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land that we now call Brisbane. The Turrbal mob refers to their land as Mian-Jin, which means ‘place shaped like a spike,’ and they have lived here for tens of thousands of years.
Our four neighborhoods, the CBD/Spring Hill, Fortitude Valley, Kangaroo Point and South Brisbane, are shown on this map.
My group studied the historic Central Business District (CBD) and Spring Hill, the original land that was settled by Europeans in 1823. The CBD/Spring Hill is home to the Queensland parliament house, which you might have learned about in a previous blog, as well as the Spring Hill Baths, the first swimming pool in all of Queensland, and the historic Old Windmill, which is only one of two convict built structures still standing in Brisbane.
Adjacent to Spring Hill is a neighborhood called Fortitude Valley (or just The Valley), which is named after a boat called the SS Fortitude that arrived in the area in 1849 with 249 Scottish Presbyterian migrants. This suburb is known through the city as the center for entertainment, arts and high-end commerce. Due to its Presbyterian past, it is filled with churches, some of which have been converted into bars and nightclubs. It also has less savory venues such as strip clubs. In 1999 residents of The Valley started complaining about the level of noise that had developed and began a campaign called “Save The Music” to stop the residents from shutting down all of the music venues. The police have now created an entertainment precinct so that venues within the precinct are exempt from strict loud noise laws and residents outside the precinct can happily live noise free.
An old Presbyterian church that has now been converted into a bar called ‘The Church.’
Just across the river is Kangaroo Point, which is cleverly named because it historically had many kangaroos and is shaped like a point. Pretty original. After Brisbane’s discovery, the area of Kangaroo Point was cleared and used for cultivation of crops. By 1843 the first land sale took place and the area became an urbanized suburb with about 80 houses, a wharf, a ferry service to north Brisbane, a sawmill, a brick-works, and a postal receiving box. When large-scale immigration to Brisbane began in the late 1880’s, Kangaroo point became the Ellis Island of the city. An immigration depot called the Yungaba, an Aboriginal word meaning ‘welcome’ or ‘resting place’, provided immigrants with temporary housing. It received its first group of 299 immigrants from England.
South Brisbane, which includes the neighborhood of West End, is the last neighborhood that we learned about and is the home to the GED office. West End, named for its similarity to West End London, was a hub of industry in the early 20th century. Thomas Dixon’s tannery and shoe and boot factory (1908), Tristram’s soft drink factory (1928) and Hume Pipes Co. (1932) are some examples of the industry that took over the neighborhood. Later in 1988 the world expo came to Brisbane and led to the revival of South Brisbane. Many buildings and attractions were erected, including the noticeable Ferris wheel and Sky Needle, which we can see from the GED office, where we attend class everyday. The needle has a bit of an interesting history. It was originally going to be moved to Tokyo Disneyland following the expo. However, it was bought instead by a local hairstylist named Stefan, painted in rainbow colors towards the top as a sign of gay pride, and moved to Stefan’s corporate headquarters in South Brisbane.
The sky needle reminds me of the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington, where I grew up.
For each of our neighborhoods we also studied the effects of the 2011 Queensland floods and previous floods that have affected the area. The general consensus was that the recent floods were detrimental to all of our neighborhoods in some way and hard work was done to transition the city back to a normal state. Here are some photos of the effects of past and present flooding in Brisbane. I am sure that you will agree that these photos touch a full range of emotions:
Someone diving into the water during the 1974 flooding of the CBD
An arial shot of the 2011 flooding in the CBD
Flooding in the streets of the CBD
On Thursday we received a lecture on woman’s suffrage in Australian history from Shirleen Robinson, a senior lecturer at the University of Queensland. She reminded us that Australia was the second country in the world, after New Zealand, to allow women to vote. We were then introduced to the two waves of feminism in Australia. The increasing level of female education and employment prompted the first wave from the 1880’s to 1910’s. The second wave, in the 1960’s and 70’s, was partly sparked by the American feminist movement in addition to an incident that happened in a local Brisbane bar. On the 31st of March 1966, three determined women walked into the Regatta Hotel, and when they were refused service, because women were not allowed to be public bars, they chained themselves to the bar and threw the key in the Brisbane River across the street.
Thanks for sticking with us throughout the last two days; I hope you have enjoyed learning about this fascinating and historically rich, yet dry continent as much as we have.
-Hanah Goldov
To our American families I can assure you that we are all enjoying our time with our new Australian families here in Brisbane. Melanie and I are happily settled in a small town house with our new mum and dad, a young couple who enjoy playing card games and touch football (or “footie”), which is a very different game from our American football, but that’s another story. As Katy previously mentioned, we are realizing that much of our time here has miraculously disappeared, but I feel that we still have many things yet to do before returning to our mundane American lives. With projects to prepare, papers to write and tests to study for, we are remembering that we are here first and foremost to go to school. This fact was easy to forget while hiking through the Blue Mountains, following kangaroo tracks in the bush, or swimming at Straddie’s subtropical beaches.
After a free day on Tuesday that was spent studying at the library—with a short break to dip into Allison’s pool—I found myself back in our classroom on Wednesday for a full day of lectures and student delivered presentations. Peter Kopittke, a soil expert from the University of Queensland, gave us a fascinating lecture on the formation and degradation of the Australian landscape. He began by telling us that the most important thing to know about Australia is that the landscape is dry, salty, infertile and old, four conditions that do not sound particularly inviting. The most rainfall that the center of the country got in the past year is just less than two inches. This lack of rain causes harsh living conditions for both plants and animals. The combination of low levels of rainfall and the fact that the water that is stored in the ground (or groundwater) and has high levels of salinity (or salt), adds up to a less than ideal situation for growing crops throughout Australia.
One way that salinity occurs in Australia is through dry land salinity. This takes place when the natural landscape is cleared, often for agricultural purposes, and salty groundwater rises because there are no longer any deep-rooted plants to drink the low-lying groundwater. Another type is irrigation salinity, which occurs when plants are overwatered, so much that the groundwater rises and the salty water kills all of the shallow rooted shrubs and plants. Both situations create a landscape that is impossible to live or grow crops on. In fact, some of the most fertile soil in Australia is in northern Queensland. But it is inhospitable to plants because it has some of the worst salinity in the country.
Professor Kopittke taught us that there are two ways of dealing with this salinity. The first is to re-plant all of the original vegetation back into the landscape so that the deep roots of native plants will drink the lower and less salty groundwater. The problem here is that you cannot ask a farmer to abandon his crops and re-plant the original, native landscape, especially when farming is most likely his sole livelihood. The other solution is to dig large trenches to drain the salty water. However, the problem then becomes, what do you do with all of the extra salt water? The conclusion being, once again, that Australia is an extremely inhospitable environment for any animal or plant that depends on water. Naturally, we have found it hard to believe that Australians have chosen to dedicate much of their land and economy to sheep, cattle, corn, sugar cane and wheat, investments that are extremely water intensive and foreign to this dry, salty, infertile and old country.
As we have learned in previous lectures, the earth’s crust is made up of a number of continental plates, and the entire continent of Australia sits in the middle of one of these plates. As a result, continental Australia contains very few mountains because it sits on no plate boundaries where most geologic activity occurs. Most land formation changes have occurred on the eastern coast due to a process called rifting. Rifting occurs when an uplift of magma in the ground causes two continental plates to be pulled apart, which then causes a deep valley to form between the two plates. 95 million years ago, this process occurred between Australia and New Zealand and led to the formation of the Great Dividing Range along the eastern coast of the continent. The consequence of Australia having so few mountains and very little geologic activity is that the soil is very infertile; it no longer has the essential nutrients and minerals for most plants to survive.
Professor Kopittke also demonstrated that another problem that currently plagues the Australian landscape is erosion, which is the process by which soil, rock and water is transported in the natural environment from the source and deposited elsewhere. Erosion is a natural process but it has been increased dramatically by human land use in Australia. It can severely damage a landscape in a very short time. When the natural landscape of an area is destroyed, often by grazing animals, the barren soil is exposed and can easily be eroded by wind that carries the soil and deposits it somewhere else. The result is huge scale dust storms that engulf entire Australian cities.
Following our very informative, yet slightly discouraging lecture on the harsh conditions of the Australian landscape, we took a short lunch break and then began our second round of neighborhood presentations. Remember way back to when we were in Sydney, we all split into groups to do an in-depth study of specific neighborhoods around the city. We have once again done the same project but this time in Brisbane. First and foremost you should know that the Turrbal people are the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land that we now call Brisbane. The Turrbal mob refers to their land as Mian-Jin, which means ‘place shaped like a spike,’ and they have lived here for tens of thousands of years.
My group studied the historic Central Business District (CBD) and Spring Hill, the original land that was settled by Europeans in 1823. The CBD/Spring Hill is home to the Queensland parliament house, which you might have learned about in a previous blog, as well as the Spring Hill Baths, the first swimming pool in all of Queensland, and the historic Old Windmill, which is only one of two convict built structures still standing in Brisbane.
Adjacent to Spring Hill is a neighborhood called Fortitude Valley (or just The Valley), which is named after a boat called the SS Fortitude that arrived in the area in 1849 with 249 Scottish Presbyterian migrants. This suburb is known through the city as the center for entertainment, arts and high-end commerce. Due to its Presbyterian past, it is filled with churches, some of which have been converted into bars and nightclubs. It also has less savory venues such as strip clubs. In 1999 residents of The Valley started complaining about the level of noise that had developed and began a campaign called “Save The Music” to stop the residents from shutting down all of the music venues. The police have now created an entertainment precinct so that venues within the precinct are exempt from strict loud noise laws and residents outside the precinct can happily live noise free.
Just across the river is Kangaroo Point, which is cleverly named because it historically had many kangaroos and is shaped like a point. Pretty original. After Brisbane’s discovery, the area of Kangaroo Point was cleared and used for cultivation of crops. By 1843 the first land sale took place and the area became an urbanized suburb with about 80 houses, a wharf, a ferry service to north Brisbane, a sawmill, a brick-works, and a postal receiving box. When large-scale immigration to Brisbane began in the late 1880’s, Kangaroo point became the Ellis Island of the city. An immigration depot called the Yungaba, an Aboriginal word meaning ‘welcome’ or ‘resting place’, provided immigrants with temporary housing. It received its first group of 299 immigrants from England.
South Brisbane, which includes the neighborhood of West End, is the last neighborhood that we learned about and is the home to the GED office. West End, named for its similarity to West End London, was a hub of industry in the early 20th century. Thomas Dixon’s tannery and shoe and boot factory (1908), Tristram’s soft drink factory (1928) and Hume Pipes Co. (1932) are some examples of the industry that took over the neighborhood. Later in 1988 the world expo came to Brisbane and led to the revival of South Brisbane. Many buildings and attractions were erected, including the noticeable Ferris wheel and Sky Needle, which we can see from the GED office, where we attend class everyday. The needle has a bit of an interesting history. It was originally going to be moved to Tokyo Disneyland following the expo. However, it was bought instead by a local hairstylist named Stefan, painted in rainbow colors towards the top as a sign of gay pride, and moved to Stefan’s corporate headquarters in South Brisbane.
For each of our neighborhoods we also studied the effects of the 2011 Queensland floods and previous floods that have affected the area. The general consensus was that the recent floods were detrimental to all of our neighborhoods in some way and hard work was done to transition the city back to a normal state. Here are some photos of the effects of past and present flooding in Brisbane. I am sure that you will agree that these photos touch a full range of emotions:
On Thursday we received a lecture on woman’s suffrage in Australian history from Shirleen Robinson, a senior lecturer at the University of Queensland. She reminded us that Australia was the second country in the world, after New Zealand, to allow women to vote. We were then introduced to the two waves of feminism in Australia. The increasing level of female education and employment prompted the first wave from the 1880’s to 1910’s. The second wave, in the 1960’s and 70’s, was partly sparked by the American feminist movement in addition to an incident that happened in a local Brisbane bar. On the 31st of March 1966, three determined women walked into the Regatta Hotel, and when they were refused service, because women were not allowed to be public bars, they chained themselves to the bar and threw the key in the Brisbane River across the street.
Thanks for sticking with us throughout the last two days; I hope you have enjoyed learning about this fascinating and historically rich, yet dry continent as much as we have.
-Hanah Goldov
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Straddie
This past weekend we took a trip to North Stradbroke Island (the locals call it Staddie because Aussies shorten everything!!) to learn about sand island ecology. The island is only two hours out of the city, we took a vehicle ferry to get there. Straddie is a sand island, meaning that it was formed by sand dunes building up over many years. We learned that the sand body extends 50 meters below sea level. On sand islands when it rains a film of fresh water laying over the sea level which actually creates fresh water lakes on the island. Basically if you dig in the sand enough in the middle of the island you will always reach fresh water that is super clean.
On our first day on Straddie we went to walk through a Mangrove forest. Mangroves live on the beach in the muddy sand where the tide comes in every day. They have roots that grow down from the trunk and into the ground. The craziest thing about the Mangroves was that every time you take a step your foot sinks about a foot into the mud, it was quite difficult to walk through. Once we got through the forest it opened up into a beach of quick sand. We got sooo stuck, but the funny thing was that we got stuck on purpose… Nat told us to stomp our feet into the ground so that when you lean back your legs are so cemented in the sand that you don’t fall over, did that make any sense? Well it was a lot of fun but we had quite a hard time getting ourselves out of the quick sand. I got my feet out ok but for about 20 minuets my shoes were stuck three feet underground.
The beaches on the island are truly amazing and the water is like bath water. The sand is actually white and because its so fine, when you walk on it, the sand squeaks. We spent our second day there exploring the island with our local teacher Shane as our guide. We went on a hike of the cliffs along the beach that was breathtaking. I always think that this trip couldn’t get any cooler and then we see something that just blows me away more than the last thing. I thought that our beach hike was cool but later that night it got even cooler. A few of us decided to take a walk on the beach after dark. We walked for a while and chased some crabs, which was heaps of fun, but after a guy from the hostel showed us that when you stomp in the sand at night there are bioluminescent organisms (I think???) that light up. We then proceeded to spend a good 30 minuets stomping around in the sand, watching it light up around our feet on every stomp. Pretty cool, right???
In a few weeks we will be going to Heron Island, which is an even more tropical than Staddie and is further north where we will be snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef. I am sure I will be blown away by what I see there as well, but for now we have some time in Brisbane with our homestays and lots of homework!
Speaking of homework… Today we had a free day and decided to go on an adventure in Brisbane because we felt that we don’t really know the city at all. We basically got ourselves lost in the city. Brisbane is located on a river and the river is used for transportation. They have catamarans called City Cats that are used like busses for public transport but on the river. Today we decided to get on one and see where it takes us, it was quite fun. Another strange thing about Brisbane is that if you want to get on a bus at a bus stop, the only way that it will stop for you is if you hail it… you know like hailing a cab. I always feel strange waving my hand about and hoping that the bus will stop. We also have noticed that there is very little evidence of the flooding. They must have cleaned the city up incredibly fast because you can’t tell at all that it was under water a couple months ago.
On our first day on Straddie we went to walk through a Mangrove forest. Mangroves live on the beach in the muddy sand where the tide comes in every day. They have roots that grow down from the trunk and into the ground. The craziest thing about the Mangroves was that every time you take a step your foot sinks about a foot into the mud, it was quite difficult to walk through. Once we got through the forest it opened up into a beach of quick sand. We got sooo stuck, but the funny thing was that we got stuck on purpose… Nat told us to stomp our feet into the ground so that when you lean back your legs are so cemented in the sand that you don’t fall over, did that make any sense? Well it was a lot of fun but we had quite a hard time getting ourselves out of the quick sand. I got my feet out ok but for about 20 minuets my shoes were stuck three feet underground.
The beaches on the island are truly amazing and the water is like bath water. The sand is actually white and because its so fine, when you walk on it, the sand squeaks. We spent our second day there exploring the island with our local teacher Shane as our guide. We went on a hike of the cliffs along the beach that was breathtaking. I always think that this trip couldn’t get any cooler and then we see something that just blows me away more than the last thing. I thought that our beach hike was cool but later that night it got even cooler. A few of us decided to take a walk on the beach after dark. We walked for a while and chased some crabs, which was heaps of fun, but after a guy from the hostel showed us that when you stomp in the sand at night there are bioluminescent organisms (I think???) that light up. We then proceeded to spend a good 30 minuets stomping around in the sand, watching it light up around our feet on every stomp. Pretty cool, right???
In a few weeks we will be going to Heron Island, which is an even more tropical than Staddie and is further north where we will be snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef. I am sure I will be blown away by what I see there as well, but for now we have some time in Brisbane with our homestays and lots of homework!
Speaking of homework… Today we had a free day and decided to go on an adventure in Brisbane because we felt that we don’t really know the city at all. We basically got ourselves lost in the city. Brisbane is located on a river and the river is used for transportation. They have catamarans called City Cats that are used like busses for public transport but on the river. Today we decided to get on one and see where it takes us, it was quite fun. Another strange thing about Brisbane is that if you want to get on a bus at a bus stop, the only way that it will stop for you is if you hail it… you know like hailing a cab. I always feel strange waving my hand about and hoping that the bus will stop. We also have noticed that there is very little evidence of the flooding. They must have cleaned the city up incredibly fast because you can’t tell at all that it was under water a couple months ago.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Into the Outback
On Saturday we arrived in Brisbane after spending about two weeks traveling by bus through the Outback. Following our rendezvous in Adelaide after our week of independent travel, we all boarded a bus and drove for about 7 hours up to the mining town of Broken Hill. The town had absolutely nothing in it, we stayed on the main street in a hotel called the Palace (you might know this hotel if you have seen Pricilla Queen of the Desert because it is the hotel that was featured in the movie). While in Broken Hill we visited the Royal Flying Doctors Service, which is the only way that people that live in remote parts of the dessert get any medical care. When there is an emergency, the doctors fly out into the outback where an ambulance could never get. We also went to The School of the Air, which is a similar principle, but for school. It is basically a grade school that is through satellite connection on the computer. Each grade has a class every day on the computer where they have a web cam so that they can see their teachers giving the lesson at the home base in Broken Hill. We sat in on a kindergarten class and listened to the kids cute Aussie accents.
After a couple days in Broken Hill we drove a ways to Kinchega National park, which sits on the Minindee lakes. These lakes are part of the Darling River and are the water source for Broken Hill. Because of the drought, the Minindee lake was completely dried up until just 2 months ago. It is very interesting to be traveling in Australia right now because just a few months ago the landscape looked completely different. Australia has been in drought for the last 10 years but recently due to all the rain, everything is different. There is once again green plants growing and the whole Murray Darling river system (which is what we came here to learn about) actually has water flowing through it. To get an idea for how strange this was, during the drought years the whole interior of Australia never got more than one inch of rain in a single year...
In Kinchega National park we stayed in small bunk houses and spent two days in the field doing biology experiments of the flora and fauna. I spent a good 4 hours one day watching ants run around a large ant hill to try to understand how they ANTeract with each other. It was surprisingly interesting!
Following our stay at the national park we drove another 5 hours to a sheep station in the middle of nowhere, then again, everywhere that we went was in the middle of nowhere... This sheep station was 325,000 acres, which is bigger than some US States. People can have land this big because the center of the country is just desert, no one wants to live there. 95% of Australia’s population lives on the coast near the water. The unique environment makes the wildlife here magnificent. We saw heaps of wild kangaroos, lizards, pelicans and emus but thankfully no snakes. The other day while I was sitting outside of the cabin writing a Goanna (which is a huge lizard/reptile that is about 5 or 6 feet long) walked right in front of me across the road. The sheep station was interesting because of the large size and unique wildlife however, we did not actually see any sheep while we were there...Hmmm
After the sheep station, we drove all the way to the coast to a small beach town called Port Elliot. I was so happy to see ocean again and be out of the outback, at our accommodation the beach was our backyard. In Port Elliot we went on a boat tour of the mouth of the Murray River. We saw the place where the whole Murray-Darling river system opens up into the ocean. It was kind of breath taking to see all of the water that had come through the whole country flowing into the open ocean.
Finally after Port Elliot we drove back to Adelaide to catch a flight to Brisbane. For the next month in Brisbane, I am staying with one other girl from the trip in a home stay. We are living in a small town house with a young couple in their mid 20's. It is a nice house but they do not have Internet, which is going to be hard to adjust to, especially for doing research. It is very nice to be stationary in one place for a while with my own room. For classes every day I will take a bus into the city to the GED office where we will have lectures.
I am glad to be here but also getting back to the city means that I once again have a lot of school work to do so, I should probably stop writing and get to work!
After a couple days in Broken Hill we drove a ways to Kinchega National park, which sits on the Minindee lakes. These lakes are part of the Darling River and are the water source for Broken Hill. Because of the drought, the Minindee lake was completely dried up until just 2 months ago. It is very interesting to be traveling in Australia right now because just a few months ago the landscape looked completely different. Australia has been in drought for the last 10 years but recently due to all the rain, everything is different. There is once again green plants growing and the whole Murray Darling river system (which is what we came here to learn about) actually has water flowing through it. To get an idea for how strange this was, during the drought years the whole interior of Australia never got more than one inch of rain in a single year...
In Kinchega National park we stayed in small bunk houses and spent two days in the field doing biology experiments of the flora and fauna. I spent a good 4 hours one day watching ants run around a large ant hill to try to understand how they ANTeract with each other. It was surprisingly interesting!
Following our stay at the national park we drove another 5 hours to a sheep station in the middle of nowhere, then again, everywhere that we went was in the middle of nowhere... This sheep station was 325,000 acres, which is bigger than some US States. People can have land this big because the center of the country is just desert, no one wants to live there. 95% of Australia’s population lives on the coast near the water. The unique environment makes the wildlife here magnificent. We saw heaps of wild kangaroos, lizards, pelicans and emus but thankfully no snakes. The other day while I was sitting outside of the cabin writing a Goanna (which is a huge lizard/reptile that is about 5 or 6 feet long) walked right in front of me across the road. The sheep station was interesting because of the large size and unique wildlife however, we did not actually see any sheep while we were there...Hmmm
After the sheep station, we drove all the way to the coast to a small beach town called Port Elliot. I was so happy to see ocean again and be out of the outback, at our accommodation the beach was our backyard. In Port Elliot we went on a boat tour of the mouth of the Murray River. We saw the place where the whole Murray-Darling river system opens up into the ocean. It was kind of breath taking to see all of the water that had come through the whole country flowing into the open ocean.
Finally after Port Elliot we drove back to Adelaide to catch a flight to Brisbane. For the next month in Brisbane, I am staying with one other girl from the trip in a home stay. We are living in a small town house with a young couple in their mid 20's. It is a nice house but they do not have Internet, which is going to be hard to adjust to, especially for doing research. It is very nice to be stationary in one place for a while with my own room. For classes every day I will take a bus into the city to the GED office where we will have lectures.
I am glad to be here but also getting back to the city means that I once again have a lot of school work to do so, I should probably stop writing and get to work!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Aboriginal Camp
I have been putting off writing about Aboriginal camp because it was such an amazing experience I don’t know how to fit it on a page. I won’t say everything but ill try to give the highlights. The whole week was like summer camp but our councilors were all really well respected elders who wanted to teach us about their culture. Uncle Paul who is the head honcho and the head law holder of New South Whales formed the camp in the 70’s. We were informed that Uncle Paul answers to no one but what Aboriginal people believe is the creator that lives up in the sky. The camp was designed to be an immersion camp for Aboriginal children who do not know about their cultural heritage. However, many young Aussie’s do not care to learn about Aboriginal culture so Uncle Paul only ends up doing three or four camps a year.
When we arrived at camp we were put into different mobs, (or tribes) and for the duration of the camp we were part of that mob and we had to look out for our brothers, sisters and our land. In my mob the boys were called Ipai and the girls Ipitha. That is the other thing about Aboriginal culture, there is men’s business and woman’s business and as a woman you are not allowed to know man’s business and visa versa. The separation of men and woman in their culture kind of reminded me of Orthodox Judaism.
On the second day that we were there, Uncle Wane (you call the elders of your tribe aunt or uncle) took us all to learn to throw boomerangs! This was really the most exciting thing that has happened thus far. In case you don’t know what boomerangs are used for, Aboriginal people designed them for hunting purposes. You can throw it and kill an Emu and have your weapon returned to you. Once upon a time they used spears but often times the Emu would not die and then it would run off with all of your hard work. I was expecting it to be really difficult to throw correctly but it was actually quite easy and all 18 of us threw one successfully. It is easy to a boomerang but it is hard to make it come right back to you, it usually ends up a few meters away.
Much of the week was spent preparing for the last night of the camp when we had a traditional Corroborree, which is a sort of big gathering or dance. In preparation we spent two hours a day learning and practicing the dances that we would do on the last night, which was so much fun! The dances were all about communicating with the ancestors. We danced like kangaroos, emu’s, ants, birds and spirits. During the week each of us also made a set of clap sticks, which are just hand held wood sticks that when taped together make a clapping noise. Each of us started with a tree branch and took off the bark, cut them and whittled down the wood until it was deemed suitable by the elders.
On the last day the whole time was spent getting ready for the corroboree at dusk. The food was cooked traditionally in the ground under a fire. Some of us dug the hole for the food to be cooked in and then we had to take turns watching it throughout the day. We also spent hours preparing the circular dancing grounds, which consists of a ring of soft dirt. Once the grounds were finished, we were not allowed to walk on them with shoes on. At dark the dancing began. The men and woman entered from different parts of the camp because we were separated for much of the day to get ready. The guys were completely covered from head to toe in charcoal; when they started dancing we did not even recognize them because they were so black. The girls were covered in white ochre, a type of rock that has many different colors (ochre is used for absolutely everything in their culture). Each color has a very specific meaning and depending on who you are you are allowed to wear certain colors. During the corroboree we were not dancing for an audience, we were dancing for Mother Earth, who Aboriginal people consider to be their mother. At first dancing naked felt quite uncomfortable but once we overcame the initial shock, we all got over it and really enjoyed the experience.
On the last morning we were all surprisingly emotional. It had been a very powerful experience for many of us. We actually didn’t say goodbye to our new aunties and uncles because in Aboriginal culture there is no word for goodbye only one for see you later. This is because they do not believe in death, they believe that you go into The Mother (earth) and come back as a plant or animal. So, we said see you later and headed back to Sydney.
When we arrived at camp we were put into different mobs, (or tribes) and for the duration of the camp we were part of that mob and we had to look out for our brothers, sisters and our land. In my mob the boys were called Ipai and the girls Ipitha. That is the other thing about Aboriginal culture, there is men’s business and woman’s business and as a woman you are not allowed to know man’s business and visa versa. The separation of men and woman in their culture kind of reminded me of Orthodox Judaism.
On the second day that we were there, Uncle Wane (you call the elders of your tribe aunt or uncle) took us all to learn to throw boomerangs! This was really the most exciting thing that has happened thus far. In case you don’t know what boomerangs are used for, Aboriginal people designed them for hunting purposes. You can throw it and kill an Emu and have your weapon returned to you. Once upon a time they used spears but often times the Emu would not die and then it would run off with all of your hard work. I was expecting it to be really difficult to throw correctly but it was actually quite easy and all 18 of us threw one successfully. It is easy to a boomerang but it is hard to make it come right back to you, it usually ends up a few meters away.
Much of the week was spent preparing for the last night of the camp when we had a traditional Corroborree, which is a sort of big gathering or dance. In preparation we spent two hours a day learning and practicing the dances that we would do on the last night, which was so much fun! The dances were all about communicating with the ancestors. We danced like kangaroos, emu’s, ants, birds and spirits. During the week each of us also made a set of clap sticks, which are just hand held wood sticks that when taped together make a clapping noise. Each of us started with a tree branch and took off the bark, cut them and whittled down the wood until it was deemed suitable by the elders.
On the last day the whole time was spent getting ready for the corroboree at dusk. The food was cooked traditionally in the ground under a fire. Some of us dug the hole for the food to be cooked in and then we had to take turns watching it throughout the day. We also spent hours preparing the circular dancing grounds, which consists of a ring of soft dirt. Once the grounds were finished, we were not allowed to walk on them with shoes on. At dark the dancing began. The men and woman entered from different parts of the camp because we were separated for much of the day to get ready. The guys were completely covered from head to toe in charcoal; when they started dancing we did not even recognize them because they were so black. The girls were covered in white ochre, a type of rock that has many different colors (ochre is used for absolutely everything in their culture). Each color has a very specific meaning and depending on who you are you are allowed to wear certain colors. During the corroboree we were not dancing for an audience, we were dancing for Mother Earth, who Aboriginal people consider to be their mother. At first dancing naked felt quite uncomfortable but once we overcame the initial shock, we all got over it and really enjoyed the experience.
On the last morning we were all surprisingly emotional. It had been a very powerful experience for many of us. We actually didn’t say goodbye to our new aunties and uncles because in Aboriginal culture there is no word for goodbye only one for see you later. This is because they do not believe in death, they believe that you go into The Mother (earth) and come back as a plant or animal. So, we said see you later and headed back to Sydney.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Melbourne: Heaps of Fun
I will definitely write about Aboriginal camp, but first Melbourne.
So this is what happened, we arrived at the airport in Sydney to fly to Melbourne on the 11th just to find out that Allison, Delanie and I somehow all booked our ticket for the day before. Eight of us had planned to be on the same flight so the other five went through security while we figured out what to do. As the tickets are not refundable we all decided to buy new tickets that were three times the price for later that night. To put this in perspective, we arrived at the airport at 11:00 am and our new tickets were for 9:30 pm… So we planned to spend the whole day hanging around in the airport. However, when we walked up to the ticketing counter to check in, the lady told us that she could change our flight to an earlier flight for free, which was great! So we went through security and by the time we got some really good sandwiches and salads it was time for our flight to leave. The flight was short and sweet and the view from the plane was spectacular. We could see all the way up the east coast of Australia. When we got to Melbourne Delanie’s friend was there to pick her up and he offered to drive us to our hostel. I guess if this is the worst thing that happens on this trip that would be fine with me.
Melbourne has been great so far. All eight of us are staying in the same room in this really nice hostel that is in a neighborhood called St Kilda, which is a 20-minuet ride from the center of the city. I learned today that it is considered the Jewish district of Melbourne. Walking around I saw four or five people wearing Kippot and Tzitzit and we went into a store that was called Jerusalem and sold everything Jewish. If we were here for longer I would definitely find a synagogue to go to.
The other day I saw my first Australian sports game. Sport (that’s how they say it) is HUGE here. We went to an AFL game, which is Australian Rules football. It was very strange and a lot of fun. I would say that it is a mix between football and soccer with a bit of Quiddich thrown in. I have no idea how to explain how the game works so I would say look it up if you are curious. The other big sports that are popular here are American football, soccer (or sometimes called the true football), rugby, cricket and I think that ultimate is picking up steam.
Yesterday we all went to a music festival called Good Vibrations that is touring around Australia. We spent all day listening to bands and dancing. It was pricey but heaps of fun. (Another Aussie word, everyone says “heaps” all the time). I saw heaps of great bands and went to bed completely exhausted.
While not listening to bands and watching sport we have just been walking/stumbling around the city. They have a pretty good public tram system here that we have been using a lot. When we arrived in Melbourne we learned that you should never pay for public transport because you will look like a tourist. It feels pretty strange to never pay for the tram. Also no one knows the city at all so we have been pretty much just been wandering around lost quite a lot. To deal with this, we get on any tram that is going down the street that we want and then get off as soon as it turns onto another street…. It is a fairly effective way of getting around.
Today was Valentines Day and I must say that it ended up being quite romantic. Delanie’s friend offered to drive us down to Philip Island, which is about two hours south of Melbourne on the coast. It is known as the place where you can watch the Little Penguins at dusk come out of the water and up the beach to spend a few days on land in burrows in the hills. Little Penguins are the smallest in the world, about a foot tall and unbelievably adorable. However, the environmentalist in me was quite disgusted by the whole thing. It was a huge tourist attraction that was just sitting on these penguins natural habitat. I was put off by the hundreds of people staring and making lots of noise around these baby penguins that were trying to climb up the hills to safety. The ranger told us that Little Penguins have become nocturnal to keep away from predators and I felt that we were just making it worse by stomping all over their natural habitat. No matter how bad I felt about being there, staring at the open sea towards Antarctica with the Southern Cross (the big dipper of the southern hemisphere) directly above us and watching the penguins make their journey up the beach, was all quite humbling. To top it off, when we got back to the room the boys had bought chocolate roses for the girls, which was cute.
On Wednesday we will fly to Adelaide and spend a night there. On Thursday morning we will meet up with the program again and take a ten-hour bus ride to Broken Hill. I am not so much looking foreword to it.
So this is what happened, we arrived at the airport in Sydney to fly to Melbourne on the 11th just to find out that Allison, Delanie and I somehow all booked our ticket for the day before. Eight of us had planned to be on the same flight so the other five went through security while we figured out what to do. As the tickets are not refundable we all decided to buy new tickets that were three times the price for later that night. To put this in perspective, we arrived at the airport at 11:00 am and our new tickets were for 9:30 pm… So we planned to spend the whole day hanging around in the airport. However, when we walked up to the ticketing counter to check in, the lady told us that she could change our flight to an earlier flight for free, which was great! So we went through security and by the time we got some really good sandwiches and salads it was time for our flight to leave. The flight was short and sweet and the view from the plane was spectacular. We could see all the way up the east coast of Australia. When we got to Melbourne Delanie’s friend was there to pick her up and he offered to drive us to our hostel. I guess if this is the worst thing that happens on this trip that would be fine with me.
Melbourne has been great so far. All eight of us are staying in the same room in this really nice hostel that is in a neighborhood called St Kilda, which is a 20-minuet ride from the center of the city. I learned today that it is considered the Jewish district of Melbourne. Walking around I saw four or five people wearing Kippot and Tzitzit and we went into a store that was called Jerusalem and sold everything Jewish. If we were here for longer I would definitely find a synagogue to go to.
The other day I saw my first Australian sports game. Sport (that’s how they say it) is HUGE here. We went to an AFL game, which is Australian Rules football. It was very strange and a lot of fun. I would say that it is a mix between football and soccer with a bit of Quiddich thrown in. I have no idea how to explain how the game works so I would say look it up if you are curious. The other big sports that are popular here are American football, soccer (or sometimes called the true football), rugby, cricket and I think that ultimate is picking up steam.
Yesterday we all went to a music festival called Good Vibrations that is touring around Australia. We spent all day listening to bands and dancing. It was pricey but heaps of fun. (Another Aussie word, everyone says “heaps” all the time). I saw heaps of great bands and went to bed completely exhausted.
While not listening to bands and watching sport we have just been walking/stumbling around the city. They have a pretty good public tram system here that we have been using a lot. When we arrived in Melbourne we learned that you should never pay for public transport because you will look like a tourist. It feels pretty strange to never pay for the tram. Also no one knows the city at all so we have been pretty much just been wandering around lost quite a lot. To deal with this, we get on any tram that is going down the street that we want and then get off as soon as it turns onto another street…. It is a fairly effective way of getting around.
Today was Valentines Day and I must say that it ended up being quite romantic. Delanie’s friend offered to drive us down to Philip Island, which is about two hours south of Melbourne on the coast. It is known as the place where you can watch the Little Penguins at dusk come out of the water and up the beach to spend a few days on land in burrows in the hills. Little Penguins are the smallest in the world, about a foot tall and unbelievably adorable. However, the environmentalist in me was quite disgusted by the whole thing. It was a huge tourist attraction that was just sitting on these penguins natural habitat. I was put off by the hundreds of people staring and making lots of noise around these baby penguins that were trying to climb up the hills to safety. The ranger told us that Little Penguins have become nocturnal to keep away from predators and I felt that we were just making it worse by stomping all over their natural habitat. No matter how bad I felt about being there, staring at the open sea towards Antarctica with the Southern Cross (the big dipper of the southern hemisphere) directly above us and watching the penguins make their journey up the beach, was all quite humbling. To top it off, when we got back to the room the boys had bought chocolate roses for the girls, which was cute.
On Wednesday we will fly to Adelaide and spend a night there. On Thursday morning we will meet up with the program again and take a ten-hour bus ride to Broken Hill. I am not so much looking foreword to it.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Back In Sydney
I am back in Sydney for a night before I fly down to Melbourne tomorrow. The Aboriginal camp was absolutely amazing. It was an incredibly powerful experience and definitely one of the best weeks of my life. Some activities included were: Boomerang throwing lessons, dancing, eating, singing, swimming, learning, sewing, RAIN!, petting horses, holding baby's and so much more that I can't even begin to tell you about right now. I will write more later but now I must sleep!
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
105 Degrees
It was so unbelievably hot today. Sydney is going through a bit of a heat wave. Right now it is 10:30 pm and 90 degrees outside. We have been warned that this is only just warming us up for later in the trip when we will be in the outback. Im pretty sure that this is the hottest weather that I have ever been in.
Our time in Sydney is rapping up and on Saturday we leave to go to an Aboriginal camp for a week. We have learned a lot about Aboriginal culture but I have no idea what to expect. I do know that there will be a point at the end where we will be doing traditional naked dancing... After the Aboriginal camp we have a week of independent travel to go and do whatever we want. I will be going to Melbourne, with some other members of the group, and staying in a hostel.
So much is going on all of the time and so many interesting things happen, I cannot even begin to put it all in the blog but I will continue to do my best. I love to read your comments and I am happy to chat or answer questions anytime (anything to keep me from doing homework!)
Our time in Sydney is rapping up and on Saturday we leave to go to an Aboriginal camp for a week. We have learned a lot about Aboriginal culture but I have no idea what to expect. I do know that there will be a point at the end where we will be doing traditional naked dancing... After the Aboriginal camp we have a week of independent travel to go and do whatever we want. I will be going to Melbourne, with some other members of the group, and staying in a hostel.
So much is going on all of the time and so many interesting things happen, I cannot even begin to put it all in the blog but I will continue to do my best. I love to read your comments and I am happy to chat or answer questions anytime (anything to keep me from doing homework!)
A Trip to the Loo
Here is the blog post that I wrote for the group blog at http://lcaustraliaprogram2011.blogspot.com/
Greetings from sunny Sydney,
As we are well into our third week here in Australia, I feel that I can say with some confidence that we are all starting to get into the rhythm of Sydney life. This past weekend we had three free days, which were full of many new experiences. However, much of this time was spent working on our independent projects.
Throughout the semester, each of us will be doing individual research on a topic of our choice that addresses people and their relationship to the environment. Because all of us come from different backgrounds and are interested in different things, the variety of topics is extensive. Some people have chosen to take a scientific approach, while others have elected more of a humanities or social approach. On Friday, we spent some time all together discussing our projects, and many interesting questions were brought up.
Here are a few examples of project topics: Emily will study how human relationships with whales have changed through Australian history. Whaling has been very popular in past years, although I found it interesting that whales are nowadays more profitable alive than dead due to the tourism of whale watching. Other people hope to take more of a biological approach; Katy will study the epidemiology of skin cancer and how the social practices of skin care have impacted today’s statistics on skin cancer. Jared will look at the introduction of invasive species and their impact on Australia. Rebecca will study the ecological and social implications of logging in Tasmania. Some members of our group want to focus on the Indigenous populations of Australia; Aboriginal people are often stereotyped as having poor health, and Allison will study how diet and environment directly affect diseases in indigenous populations. Delaney will learn how the environment is depicted through contemporary Aboriginal art. The floods in Brisbane have also brought up some interesting topics; John is going to study the effectiveness of the social response and recovery with regards to the floods. For my project I will try to understand how the built environment has adapted to Australia’s harsh and varied climate. For example, I have learned about one opal-mining town called Coober Pedy whose residents live almost entirely underground in converted mining shafts due to unbearable daytime temperatures.
Everybody’s project is fascinating and I look forward to hearing the final products. Most of all, what this weekend showed us is that there are many ways to approach our chosen topic and we all have a lot of work ahead of us. In the end we will hopefully have gained an understanding of how people relate to their environment in Australia.
Speaking of the environment, on Friday night many of us had our first big spider sighting! We saw a Huntsmen spider in the lounge room at the Arundel house. Huntsmen spiders, which are also called Giant Crab spiders because of their large size (the one we spotted was about as big as the palm of a hand), are not poisonous and are commonly found in homes and buildings. As adults they do not build webs, but rather hunt and forage for food. One startling thing about Huntsmen, that we learned first hand, is that they are able to travel extremely fast, often using a springing jump while running. They also tend to cling onto things if they are picked up, which makes them very hard to shake off (luckily none of us had to experience this). Seeing the spider jump towards me touched a full range of emotion.
In addition to our independent project we are also doing group projects about neighborhoods in Sydney. Each group will be giving a walking tour of a Sydney neighborhood later this week; during the weekend many of us prepared our tour. My group visited our neighborhood, Woolloomooloo (which is often just referred to as “The Loo”). The Loo is located along the Sydney Harbor and is one of the first places that was settled when Europeans first came to Australia in 1788. Woolloomooloo (which could get its unique name from Wallabahmullah, an Aboriginal name for a young black kangaroo) has gone through many phases as a working class suburb, but recent gentrification has made it into a very affluent part of Sydney. The Loo’s main attraction is the Finger Warf, which is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest wooden structure in the world. The Warf was once used as a deployment point for troops joining the World Wars but today it has over 300 apartments, a hotel and many very high-class restaurants. The famous Australian actor and musician Russell Crowe lives at the end of the Warf in a $14 million penthouse.
On Monday we visited the Australian Museum and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. At the museum we spent a couple hours in the Indigenous Australians exhibit, which was put together with the help of many Aboriginal people. When we first walked in, there was a sign directed towards Aboriginal people that warned them that there might be content that will upset and offend their culture. Any museum that depicts stories of deceased Indigenous people must put up this sign because in Aboriginal culture it is disrespectful to talk about people who have passed away. The exhibit focused on themes of spirituality, culture, heritage, the land, family, health and social justice. It covered Aboriginal art and history from before Europeans arrived to present day. Because aboriginal culture is so distinct from my own, I found it difficult to fully grasp the concepts and stories that were told.
One interesting thing about the art was that much of it depicted themes of European culture and religion through traditional Aboriginal styles. This is an example of how missionaries changed and contributed to the suppression of Aboriginal culture. Mostly what all of this art showed us is that it is very difficult to define what is Aboriginal art. Aboriginal art can be classical Aboriginal designs created by native people but can also be created by non-native people. Sometimes Aboriginal art is created for a more utilitarian purpose, to tell a story or as a weapon, while other times it can be created for solely viewing purposes. There were also periods of time where Indigenous people were forced to create art for European intentions. Is this also Aboriginal art?
At the Art Gallery of New South Wales, an aboriginal woman named Emily McDaniel, who has been our lecturer in the past, gave us a tour of the Aboriginal art gallery. We saw Indigenous art created traditionally on tree bark, using ochre as paint. Shades of red, yellow and brown were common in these paintings. They had many themes of animals and landscape and always told a story. At the gallery we also saw contemporary aboriginal art on stretched canvas using acrylic paint and varied bright colors. This art is equally as “Aboriginal” as the more traditional-looking art and conveys many of the same messages. No matter how it is presented, Aboriginal art serves many different functions and is often used to pass on messages from generation to generation.
The last few days have been amazing. We have learned a lot and still found some time to spend lounging at Manly beach in this hot, sunny weather.
Greetings from sunny Sydney,
As we are well into our third week here in Australia, I feel that I can say with some confidence that we are all starting to get into the rhythm of Sydney life. This past weekend we had three free days, which were full of many new experiences. However, much of this time was spent working on our independent projects.
Throughout the semester, each of us will be doing individual research on a topic of our choice that addresses people and their relationship to the environment. Because all of us come from different backgrounds and are interested in different things, the variety of topics is extensive. Some people have chosen to take a scientific approach, while others have elected more of a humanities or social approach. On Friday, we spent some time all together discussing our projects, and many interesting questions were brought up.
Here are a few examples of project topics: Emily will study how human relationships with whales have changed through Australian history. Whaling has been very popular in past years, although I found it interesting that whales are nowadays more profitable alive than dead due to the tourism of whale watching. Other people hope to take more of a biological approach; Katy will study the epidemiology of skin cancer and how the social practices of skin care have impacted today’s statistics on skin cancer. Jared will look at the introduction of invasive species and their impact on Australia. Rebecca will study the ecological and social implications of logging in Tasmania. Some members of our group want to focus on the Indigenous populations of Australia; Aboriginal people are often stereotyped as having poor health, and Allison will study how diet and environment directly affect diseases in indigenous populations. Delaney will learn how the environment is depicted through contemporary Aboriginal art. The floods in Brisbane have also brought up some interesting topics; John is going to study the effectiveness of the social response and recovery with regards to the floods. For my project I will try to understand how the built environment has adapted to Australia’s harsh and varied climate. For example, I have learned about one opal-mining town called Coober Pedy whose residents live almost entirely underground in converted mining shafts due to unbearable daytime temperatures.
Everybody’s project is fascinating and I look forward to hearing the final products. Most of all, what this weekend showed us is that there are many ways to approach our chosen topic and we all have a lot of work ahead of us. In the end we will hopefully have gained an understanding of how people relate to their environment in Australia.
Speaking of the environment, on Friday night many of us had our first big spider sighting! We saw a Huntsmen spider in the lounge room at the Arundel house. Huntsmen spiders, which are also called Giant Crab spiders because of their large size (the one we spotted was about as big as the palm of a hand), are not poisonous and are commonly found in homes and buildings. As adults they do not build webs, but rather hunt and forage for food. One startling thing about Huntsmen, that we learned first hand, is that they are able to travel extremely fast, often using a springing jump while running. They also tend to cling onto things if they are picked up, which makes them very hard to shake off (luckily none of us had to experience this). Seeing the spider jump towards me touched a full range of emotion.
In addition to our independent project we are also doing group projects about neighborhoods in Sydney. Each group will be giving a walking tour of a Sydney neighborhood later this week; during the weekend many of us prepared our tour. My group visited our neighborhood, Woolloomooloo (which is often just referred to as “The Loo”). The Loo is located along the Sydney Harbor and is one of the first places that was settled when Europeans first came to Australia in 1788. Woolloomooloo (which could get its unique name from Wallabahmullah, an Aboriginal name for a young black kangaroo) has gone through many phases as a working class suburb, but recent gentrification has made it into a very affluent part of Sydney. The Loo’s main attraction is the Finger Warf, which is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest wooden structure in the world. The Warf was once used as a deployment point for troops joining the World Wars but today it has over 300 apartments, a hotel and many very high-class restaurants. The famous Australian actor and musician Russell Crowe lives at the end of the Warf in a $14 million penthouse.
On Monday we visited the Australian Museum and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. At the museum we spent a couple hours in the Indigenous Australians exhibit, which was put together with the help of many Aboriginal people. When we first walked in, there was a sign directed towards Aboriginal people that warned them that there might be content that will upset and offend their culture. Any museum that depicts stories of deceased Indigenous people must put up this sign because in Aboriginal culture it is disrespectful to talk about people who have passed away. The exhibit focused on themes of spirituality, culture, heritage, the land, family, health and social justice. It covered Aboriginal art and history from before Europeans arrived to present day. Because aboriginal culture is so distinct from my own, I found it difficult to fully grasp the concepts and stories that were told.
One interesting thing about the art was that much of it depicted themes of European culture and religion through traditional Aboriginal styles. This is an example of how missionaries changed and contributed to the suppression of Aboriginal culture. Mostly what all of this art showed us is that it is very difficult to define what is Aboriginal art. Aboriginal art can be classical Aboriginal designs created by native people but can also be created by non-native people. Sometimes Aboriginal art is created for a more utilitarian purpose, to tell a story or as a weapon, while other times it can be created for solely viewing purposes. There were also periods of time where Indigenous people were forced to create art for European intentions. Is this also Aboriginal art?
At the Art Gallery of New South Wales, an aboriginal woman named Emily McDaniel, who has been our lecturer in the past, gave us a tour of the Aboriginal art gallery. We saw Indigenous art created traditionally on tree bark, using ochre as paint. Shades of red, yellow and brown were common in these paintings. They had many themes of animals and landscape and always told a story. At the gallery we also saw contemporary aboriginal art on stretched canvas using acrylic paint and varied bright colors. This art is equally as “Aboriginal” as the more traditional-looking art and conveys many of the same messages. No matter how it is presented, Aboriginal art serves many different functions and is often used to pass on messages from generation to generation.
The last few days have been amazing. We have learned a lot and still found some time to spend lounging at Manly beach in this hot, sunny weather.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Blue Mountains: Snakes, Caves and Platypus
January 25th
The last few days in the mountains have been extraordinary. Even the pictures can’t do justice to the things we have done. However, I will try to do my best to give you some of the highlights. Let me start by saying that right now as I begin to write, I am sitting outside in the Australian Bush (WHAT!) at our Blue Mountain accommodations called Jemby Rinjah. We are all staying in a eco-lodge, which means that everything from electricity to water use is sustainable. The toilets are compostable, meaning that they don’t use any water and they don’t flush… They are kind of like a really fancy honey bucket. We have been eating our meals in the restaurant in the main lodge and the food has been sooo good. We have been told that this is the nicest place that we will stay on the whole trip.
Jemby Rinjah (I have been walking around saying it with an Aussie accent) is in the middle of a Eucalypt forest. Eucalyptus trees are the most common type of tree here and are well adapted to the Australian environment. The leaves carry toxins in them that are poisonous in high doses for most animals. Koalas are the main marsupials that can eat the leaves. The trees also thrive on fire. The oil that Eucalypt produce is highly flammable so bush fires, which are necessary, can easily travel through the oily air. Some Eucalypt also produce little fruits called gum fruits, which is where the song comes from: “Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree…” Also the tree oil produces a blue haze that covers the forest, which is why the mountains have the name Blue Mountains. Speaking of mountains, the Blue Mountains are not really mountains. They are made of many plateaus that are dissected by gorges that are hundreds of feet deep. The highest point is only 1,190 meters above sea level. The mountains look Grand Canyon ish.
On our way to Jemby Rinjah on Saturday we stopped at Scenic World, which is a tourist attraction that sits on the side of a cliff overlooking a huge valley. We took a trolly on railroad tracks down the cliff to the forest floor. The train had a peak descent angle of 57 degrees, or so steep that it felt vertical. I must say it was pretty fun. We walked in the forest for a while and then took a gondola back up the cliff. The next day we got up and drove to the Jenolan Caves. We then proceeded to spend two hours walking through the most amazing system of caves. We were 200 meters below the earth’s surface at some points.
This is the trolly, It felt like it was going vertically down the cliff
Shot of inside the caves
*sorry that the pics are sidewise, if you click on them they get bigger.
Now the coolest thing that happened was after the cave walk while we were swimming in a nearby swimming hole and eating our lunch. We simultaneously saw our first poisonous snake and at the same time a platypus in the wild. Our leader Nat, who is a native Aussie, had never seen a wild platypus before. Also they are nocturnal animals so it was very strange to see one in the middle of the day. I was surprised by how small they are, only about a foot long but sooooo cute. We also saw a Red Bellied Black snake, which is one of the top ten most poisonous. However, I am getting the feeling that they are all the most poisonous.
That night we all sat around a fire at our accommodations talking and drinking grog (beer here is called grog) with our teacher!! Strange. I learned that you can smoke Eucalyptus bark. It doesn’t do anything but taste good. We also did some stargazing. We found the Southern Cross and Orion’s Belt (which you can also see from the Southern Hemisphere). No more Big Dipper and North Star!
On the last day we woke up and got to feed the wild birds, parrots to be exact. They all congregate in one spot each morning to be fed. It was cool to watch them pick up a sunflower seed and de-shell it and eat it in less than a second. After the bird feeding, we went on a Bush Walk and by bush walk I mean the coolest hike I have ever been on. We hiked down into the rainforest to the top of a waterfall and sat and ate lunch. The rainforest is amazingly beautiful. The hike back out kicked all of out butts. It was 1,002 steps up and up, we counted.
Feeding Birds
We ate lunch here on our Bush Walk
It was a fantastic weekend and I didn’t want to leave at all. Here are some other random observations about Australia:
-It is the law to vote in elections. If you reach 18 and don’t vote you get fined a lot of money. It seems like a really simple fix to our voting problems but I don’t think people in the States would be up for it.
-Australia seems a lot more environmentally aware than the US. Every single bathroom that I have been in has been dual flush. Also because of drought here, kids from a young age are taught to use very little water.
-Read our group blog at http://lcaustraliaprogram2011.blogspot.com/ its great!
The last few days in the mountains have been extraordinary. Even the pictures can’t do justice to the things we have done. However, I will try to do my best to give you some of the highlights. Let me start by saying that right now as I begin to write, I am sitting outside in the Australian Bush (WHAT!) at our Blue Mountain accommodations called Jemby Rinjah. We are all staying in a eco-lodge, which means that everything from electricity to water use is sustainable. The toilets are compostable, meaning that they don’t use any water and they don’t flush… They are kind of like a really fancy honey bucket. We have been eating our meals in the restaurant in the main lodge and the food has been sooo good. We have been told that this is the nicest place that we will stay on the whole trip.
Jemby Rinjah (I have been walking around saying it with an Aussie accent) is in the middle of a Eucalypt forest. Eucalyptus trees are the most common type of tree here and are well adapted to the Australian environment. The leaves carry toxins in them that are poisonous in high doses for most animals. Koalas are the main marsupials that can eat the leaves. The trees also thrive on fire. The oil that Eucalypt produce is highly flammable so bush fires, which are necessary, can easily travel through the oily air. Some Eucalypt also produce little fruits called gum fruits, which is where the song comes from: “Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree…” Also the tree oil produces a blue haze that covers the forest, which is why the mountains have the name Blue Mountains. Speaking of mountains, the Blue Mountains are not really mountains. They are made of many plateaus that are dissected by gorges that are hundreds of feet deep. The highest point is only 1,190 meters above sea level. The mountains look Grand Canyon ish.
On our way to Jemby Rinjah on Saturday we stopped at Scenic World, which is a tourist attraction that sits on the side of a cliff overlooking a huge valley. We took a trolly on railroad tracks down the cliff to the forest floor. The train had a peak descent angle of 57 degrees, or so steep that it felt vertical. I must say it was pretty fun. We walked in the forest for a while and then took a gondola back up the cliff. The next day we got up and drove to the Jenolan Caves. We then proceeded to spend two hours walking through the most amazing system of caves. We were 200 meters below the earth’s surface at some points.
*sorry that the pics are sidewise, if you click on them they get bigger.
Now the coolest thing that happened was after the cave walk while we were swimming in a nearby swimming hole and eating our lunch. We simultaneously saw our first poisonous snake and at the same time a platypus in the wild. Our leader Nat, who is a native Aussie, had never seen a wild platypus before. Also they are nocturnal animals so it was very strange to see one in the middle of the day. I was surprised by how small they are, only about a foot long but sooooo cute. We also saw a Red Bellied Black snake, which is one of the top ten most poisonous. However, I am getting the feeling that they are all the most poisonous.
That night we all sat around a fire at our accommodations talking and drinking grog (beer here is called grog) with our teacher!! Strange. I learned that you can smoke Eucalyptus bark. It doesn’t do anything but taste good. We also did some stargazing. We found the Southern Cross and Orion’s Belt (which you can also see from the Southern Hemisphere). No more Big Dipper and North Star!
On the last day we woke up and got to feed the wild birds, parrots to be exact. They all congregate in one spot each morning to be fed. It was cool to watch them pick up a sunflower seed and de-shell it and eat it in less than a second. After the bird feeding, we went on a Bush Walk and by bush walk I mean the coolest hike I have ever been on. We hiked down into the rainforest to the top of a waterfall and sat and ate lunch. The rainforest is amazingly beautiful. The hike back out kicked all of out butts. It was 1,002 steps up and up, we counted.
It was a fantastic weekend and I didn’t want to leave at all. Here are some other random observations about Australia:
-It is the law to vote in elections. If you reach 18 and don’t vote you get fined a lot of money. It seems like a really simple fix to our voting problems but I don’t think people in the States would be up for it.
-Australia seems a lot more environmentally aware than the US. Every single bathroom that I have been in has been dual flush. Also because of drought here, kids from a young age are taught to use very little water.
-Read our group blog at http://lcaustraliaprogram2011.blogspot.com/ its great!
Friday, January 21, 2011
ZOO
January 21st
Today my school day consisted of going to the zoo, which was fantastic. The trip to the zoo was also an adventure by itself. We took a bus from Arundel to Circular Quay (remember that its pronounced key) and then caught a ferry across the harbor. The ride gave us a great view of all of Sydney and also reminded me of Puget Sound, which made me happy. Once at the other side we took a short gondola ride over and up to the top of the zoo so we could walk down. We then had a few hours to explore the zoo and the whole time was spent in the Oz (Australia) specific exhibit. I started with koalas and worked my way through emus, wombats, platypuses, kangaroos, wallabies and many interesting birds. It is times like these that I am amazed that I am here going to school because my class today was effectively a day at the zoo! After the zoo we took a ferry back over the harbor and a bus to Arundel. In the evening we went to the last Sydney Festival story performance and then out to Japanese food. Anywhere you go you can find tons of cheap Asian, Indian and African food. I actually think I saw four Thai restaurants on one block.
Anyway I should probably stop writing and go to bed because tomorrow we are getting out of Sydney for the first time. We are going to the Blue Mountains for the weekend, which are two (ish) hours west of Sydney. When Nat was telling us what to bring she reminded us to take our Ace Bandage in case of a snake bite. Almost all species of snakes in Oz are highly venomous. AAAAHHH! Still, I am really looking forward to seeing the mountains and getting out of Sydney. In one of our lectures we learned that the tallest mountain in Oz is 3x shorter than the tallest one in the US. I expect that they will look a lot different than the ones that I am used to. I also can’t wait to see more of Oz. Sometimes it does not even feel like I am in a different county with all the European/American neighborhoods, English speakers and loads of Asian tourists in the city.
I will be away from technology for the next three days so don’t be alarmed if I don’t respond. I will also add zoo and other pictures in a few days!
Today my school day consisted of going to the zoo, which was fantastic. The trip to the zoo was also an adventure by itself. We took a bus from Arundel to Circular Quay (remember that its pronounced key) and then caught a ferry across the harbor. The ride gave us a great view of all of Sydney and also reminded me of Puget Sound, which made me happy. Once at the other side we took a short gondola ride over and up to the top of the zoo so we could walk down. We then had a few hours to explore the zoo and the whole time was spent in the Oz (Australia) specific exhibit. I started with koalas and worked my way through emus, wombats, platypuses, kangaroos, wallabies and many interesting birds. It is times like these that I am amazed that I am here going to school because my class today was effectively a day at the zoo! After the zoo we took a ferry back over the harbor and a bus to Arundel. In the evening we went to the last Sydney Festival story performance and then out to Japanese food. Anywhere you go you can find tons of cheap Asian, Indian and African food. I actually think I saw four Thai restaurants on one block.
Anyway I should probably stop writing and go to bed because tomorrow we are getting out of Sydney for the first time. We are going to the Blue Mountains for the weekend, which are two (ish) hours west of Sydney. When Nat was telling us what to bring she reminded us to take our Ace Bandage in case of a snake bite. Almost all species of snakes in Oz are highly venomous. AAAAHHH! Still, I am really looking forward to seeing the mountains and getting out of Sydney. In one of our lectures we learned that the tallest mountain in Oz is 3x shorter than the tallest one in the US. I expect that they will look a lot different than the ones that I am used to. I also can’t wait to see more of Oz. Sometimes it does not even feel like I am in a different county with all the European/American neighborhoods, English speakers and loads of Asian tourists in the city.
I will be away from technology for the next three days so don’t be alarmed if I don’t respond. I will also add zoo and other pictures in a few days!
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
A Day At The Beach
Today we had a free day and a few of us took an hour bus ride to a beach called Coogee. It’s on the coast a little bit south of downtown Sydney. The weather was not great and it sprinkled for most of the day but that meant that we got almost the whole beach to ourselves. We climbed over some rocks to some tide pools and found an awesome swimming hole along the side of the beach. It was un-real, huge waves were crashing over the rocks. The water here is so clear and fresh, nothing like Puget Sound.
Another interesting thing that I have noticed about Australia is that, of course, the cars drive on the wrong side of the road. However, this means that while walking on the sidewalk people also walk on the wrong side of the path because that’s how cars do it. Am I making sense? I have been trying to train myself to walk to the left so as not to walk into the nice Aussie’s on the street…
Another interesting thing that I have noticed about Australia is that, of course, the cars drive on the wrong side of the road. However, this means that while walking on the sidewalk people also walk on the wrong side of the path because that’s how cars do it. Am I making sense? I have been trying to train myself to walk to the left so as not to walk into the nice Aussie’s on the street…
Birthday
January 18th
I had quite an incredible and unique birthday. It all started at 9:00am with two lectures about Aboriginal migration to Australia and culture. It was a pretty interesting set of lectures; in the middle we walked over to a small museum and saw some exact replicas of the first Homo erectus to come to Australia. After the lecture I made a sandwich and ate it on our beautiful roof. Following a short Friends break (which, by the way, is the only reason I am getting through all of this. Props to Laura) a few of us walked down the street to get some bubble tea. It turns out that Bubble tea in Australia is not quite the same as it is in Seattle. I ordered milk tea with Taro and I was given tea with cut-up peaces of Taro root at the bottom. It was still vary tasty. Other peoples drinks were also very strange and interesting for example, who would have thought that salty cheese would be good in a drink!? We walked back to Arundel via a romp in the park nearby. The playground was awesome; we have been back many times since then.
At around 6:00 the whole group went to see a Vietnamese-Australian comedian named Anh Do tell his live story. The show was part of the Sydney Festival, which is an art, and culture festival that runs throughout January. It was by far the best stand up that I have ever seen and it was also very interesting. I think that Anh Do is actually quite famous in Australia.
We then all walked from the show to a restaurant across town for a birthday dinner. Even Andy and Philip (Andy’s Partner) came with. It was great fun and Andy and Philip paid for my dinner and drink, which was such a treat! The whole group also gave me a b-day card, which was sweet. After dinner we walked to a bowling ally close by in Darling Harbor. I have never ever seen a bowling ally that is as swanky and fashionable as the one we were at. I had a very expensive but delicious fruity cocktail! After bowling, which I completely failed, we all did karaoke together until the place closed. It was a hoot! After a long walk through the city I am back at Arundel and as soon as we walked in, it started pouring rain… sound familiar? It was a fantastic and exhausting birthday, one that I will never forget!
I had quite an incredible and unique birthday. It all started at 9:00am with two lectures about Aboriginal migration to Australia and culture. It was a pretty interesting set of lectures; in the middle we walked over to a small museum and saw some exact replicas of the first Homo erectus to come to Australia. After the lecture I made a sandwich and ate it on our beautiful roof. Following a short Friends break (which, by the way, is the only reason I am getting through all of this. Props to Laura) a few of us walked down the street to get some bubble tea. It turns out that Bubble tea in Australia is not quite the same as it is in Seattle. I ordered milk tea with Taro and I was given tea with cut-up peaces of Taro root at the bottom. It was still vary tasty. Other peoples drinks were also very strange and interesting for example, who would have thought that salty cheese would be good in a drink!? We walked back to Arundel via a romp in the park nearby. The playground was awesome; we have been back many times since then.
At around 6:00 the whole group went to see a Vietnamese-Australian comedian named Anh Do tell his live story. The show was part of the Sydney Festival, which is an art, and culture festival that runs throughout January. It was by far the best stand up that I have ever seen and it was also very interesting. I think that Anh Do is actually quite famous in Australia.
We then all walked from the show to a restaurant across town for a birthday dinner. Even Andy and Philip (Andy’s Partner) came with. It was great fun and Andy and Philip paid for my dinner and drink, which was such a treat! The whole group also gave me a b-day card, which was sweet. After dinner we walked to a bowling ally close by in Darling Harbor. I have never ever seen a bowling ally that is as swanky and fashionable as the one we were at. I had a very expensive but delicious fruity cocktail! After bowling, which I completely failed, we all did karaoke together until the place closed. It was a hoot! After a long walk through the city I am back at Arundel and as soon as we walked in, it started pouring rain… sound familiar? It was a fantastic and exhausting birthday, one that I will never forget!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
First day!
January 15th and 16th
I survived my first day in Sydney! After traveling for 24 hours (with only one 2 hour delay) all I wanted to do was take a shower and sleep… At the airport we all met up with Andy, our LC Professor, and Nat, who is our Australian leader from Global Education Design (GED) the company that has organized our trip. When we arrived at our Sydney accommodations we had an orientation to the academic program, which I found to be very overwhelming. With all the planning and packing that went into this trip I forgot that I have to go to school. While in Sydney I will be staying in a dorm like situation at a place called the Arundel House, which is located next to the University of Sydney (which is where we will have lectures during our stay here). At Arundel I have my own room and I share a porch with three other girls on my trip. The porch has a great view of the Sydney skyline, as well as a view of the squatters who live next door… There is also a beautiful view of the city on the roof where we often eat dinner.
After our orientation a group of us walked to the mall, which is just a few blocks away. The malls here are different than they are in the States because they have absolutely everything, i.e. we went to the supermarket in the mall. Most of the time GED will give us a stipend and we have to buy and cook our own meals, its about $100 per week. That night all 16 of us went out to Thai food near Arundel on Glebe Point Road, which is a street that is a bit like the Ave. After I was so unbelievably exhausted and went to bed!
This morning I woke up at 6:00 with lots of energy, which if you know me as you all do, is very strange. I suppose its going to take some time to adjust to the 5 hour time difference. Today we went on a bus tour of the city. We started at Circular Quay (pronounced key), which is where the Sydney opera house and the Harbor Bridge are. We then made our way through the many Sydney neighborhoods and ended at Bondi beach, a huge and very popular public beach, the water felt great!
Here are some things that I have learned/observed about Australia:
• In the late afternoon and evening small bats come out and fill up the sky.
• In the morning the birds that I wake up to sound like nothing that I have ever heard before.
• Bundanoon is a small city south of Sydney that is the first city in the world to completely ban plastic water bottles.
• It is not customary to tip in Australia. It can sometimes be seen as rude to give someone your loose change. There is no tipping because every Aussi makes a minimum wage of 15 dollars an hour and 25 dollars an hour on the weekends!
• Another result of the high minimum wage is that there are very few homeless people in Sydney. (however I am not sure about other cities)
• Most domestic flights in Australia are between 30 and 90 dollars.
• Internet is very rare to have here and always very expensive. (I will learn more about why and let you know)
• Dish rags/napkins (what the Goldov’s keep in that drawer by the sink) are called tea towels.
• And garbage is called rubbish!
Make sure to also check out our group blog at http://lcaustraliaprogram2011.blogspot.com/
I survived my first day in Sydney! After traveling for 24 hours (with only one 2 hour delay) all I wanted to do was take a shower and sleep… At the airport we all met up with Andy, our LC Professor, and Nat, who is our Australian leader from Global Education Design (GED) the company that has organized our trip. When we arrived at our Sydney accommodations we had an orientation to the academic program, which I found to be very overwhelming. With all the planning and packing that went into this trip I forgot that I have to go to school. While in Sydney I will be staying in a dorm like situation at a place called the Arundel House, which is located next to the University of Sydney (which is where we will have lectures during our stay here). At Arundel I have my own room and I share a porch with three other girls on my trip. The porch has a great view of the Sydney skyline, as well as a view of the squatters who live next door… There is also a beautiful view of the city on the roof where we often eat dinner.
After our orientation a group of us walked to the mall, which is just a few blocks away. The malls here are different than they are in the States because they have absolutely everything, i.e. we went to the supermarket in the mall. Most of the time GED will give us a stipend and we have to buy and cook our own meals, its about $100 per week. That night all 16 of us went out to Thai food near Arundel on Glebe Point Road, which is a street that is a bit like the Ave. After I was so unbelievably exhausted and went to bed!
This morning I woke up at 6:00 with lots of energy, which if you know me as you all do, is very strange. I suppose its going to take some time to adjust to the 5 hour time difference. Today we went on a bus tour of the city. We started at Circular Quay (pronounced key), which is where the Sydney opera house and the Harbor Bridge are. We then made our way through the many Sydney neighborhoods and ended at Bondi beach, a huge and very popular public beach, the water felt great!
Here are some things that I have learned/observed about Australia:
• In the late afternoon and evening small bats come out and fill up the sky.
• In the morning the birds that I wake up to sound like nothing that I have ever heard before.
• Bundanoon is a small city south of Sydney that is the first city in the world to completely ban plastic water bottles.
• It is not customary to tip in Australia. It can sometimes be seen as rude to give someone your loose change. There is no tipping because every Aussi makes a minimum wage of 15 dollars an hour and 25 dollars an hour on the weekends!
• Another result of the high minimum wage is that there are very few homeless people in Sydney. (however I am not sure about other cities)
• Most domestic flights in Australia are between 30 and 90 dollars.
• Internet is very rare to have here and always very expensive. (I will learn more about why and let you know)
• Dish rags/napkins (what the Goldov’s keep in that drawer by the sink) are called tea towels.
• And garbage is called rubbish!
Make sure to also check out our group blog at http://lcaustraliaprogram2011.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Snow!
Today is my last day at home and it is snowing! I think its a nice send-off before summer starts in a few days... My travel time will take two (ish) days and approximately 19 of those hours will be spent in the air. AAAAHHH!
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