Byron Bay

It was after merely an hour in this hippy beach town, that we realize we would need more time here. The small-town, laid-back aura of Byron was exactly what we were looking for after a bustling, fast-paced Sydney. The streets were lined with adorable café's, surf shops, funky hippy stores, and expensive boutiques, and the parking lot along the beach is lined with converted vans and even some station wagons in which travelers and vagabonds live.
The hostel was unlike anything we've stayed at prior. It had a very clean-cut, modern 'Alice in Wonderland' kind of feel, with its neon stripes and geometric shapes painted on the walls. I'd almost get dizzy walking down the tunnel-like hallways if I stared at one pattern for too long.

After unpacking our luggage and picking up a few things at the grocery store, we headed back to the hostel to meet up with Katherine, our friend from SIT whom we planned to cross paths with during our post-program tour de Australia. The four of us cooked dinner and made plans for our next few days, starting by adding an extra day in Byron.

Some people might tell you about the Surfer's Paradise in the Gold Coast, but what most locals will tell you is that Byron Bay is the real surfing capital of Australia. We tried our hand at surfing one sunny day and had an absolute blast. Feeling the wave take you as it crests and rolls to shore is invigorating and almost addictive; you'll want to keep catching waves, "maybe even a bigger one next time!" you'll say to yourself. Standing up on the board is actually quite hard and takes a lot of balance; I found it fun and much easier to sit on my knees or squat on the board while riding a wave. After our surfing excursion we had a lovely picnic lunch by the beach. While enjoying some pita and hummus, a man in old clothes with a messenger bag slung across his chest and a recorder in his right hand walked up to us and asked if he could play us a song on his "flute". While the other girls hesitated at the sketchiness of the situation, I immediately blurted, "YES!" Who wouldn't want to enjoy a flute/recorder serenade while picnicking at the beach? The man proceeded to play a very repetitive song that he'd probably made up just then. Nevertheless, his music thoroughly enhanced our picnic experience and was fifty cents well spent.

Sydney

It takes a certain balance between organized and "go-with-the-flow" to be an efficient backpacker. Although we each have our personal strengths as travelers, the three of us are still tweeking that balance.
We got off the plane in Sydney, collected our bags and hopped into a taxicab. "To the Blue Parrot hostel!" we announced to the driver.
"There's heaps of hostels in Sydney, what's the address?" he answered, slightly annoyed at the cliché.
The three of us looked at each other hoping that the other would blurt out the specifics of our destination. After a 5 second pause, our eyes widened as we realized that none of us has any idea where we were going. Erin told the driver that it was in Potts Point on a street that started with an 'M'.
"Maceay Street is the only 'M' street in Potts Point; it's gotta be that," the driver said with confidence. Hesitantly, Erin agreed and we allowed the cabbie to take us to Macleay Street, all the while watching the numbers on the dashboard climb steadily. We got to the "M" street and the driver pointed toward an area with "heaps" of hostels so we decided to get out and take our chances before our fare got any higher.
As we were unloading our bags on the sidewalk, a scruffy blond hair, blue-eyed surfer dude stopped and asked us if we were going to the Blue Parrot. Amazed at this boy's psychic capabilities, we followed him to the hostel about a block away. We arrived, finally, at the hostel in one piece, but the fiascos were not over. Erin and I went to the ATM to get cash, but for some reason neither our PIN's would work. After (stupidly) typing in my PIN incorrectly three times, I was locked out of the system, when I remembered that my number was changed after my card was stolen. Erin and I both only had enough cash to pay for one night at the hostel so we paid and vowed that we would sort out our money issues in the morning. With Erin and I fresh out of cash, and Julie down to her last $10, we were in a serious pickle. Luckily, we were able to straighten things out at the bank the next morning while Julie went to the US embassy to apply for a new passport (that’s actually why we were in Sydney).
For the rest of the day, the three of us trolled around the city and then had a picnic lunch in the Botanic Gardens overlooking the opera house and Sydney Harbour Bridge.
On Saturday we went to Bondi Beach, which is easily the coolest, most beautiful part of Sydney. Enormous waves, stunning cliffs, and a cute beach town make Bondi a must-see for anyone traveling to the Sydney area.
Sunday was basically the same drill: wake up, get coffee and do some people-watching, walk around, picnic at the gardens.
Although the weather was slightly on the freezing side (we had no appropriate clothes in this unexpectedly chilly and overly trendy city), we had a spectacular time and can't wait to go back!

Spelunking!

Yesterday we went on our final little group trip and traveled to Chillagoe to do some caving. We saw some pretty spectacular stalactites!
For some reason, yesterday was just such a happy, blissful day. It had something to do with the combination of fantastic weather, perfect sunlight, sitting next to Julie and sharing music on the bus ride, having the giant window open the whole time, and smelling all the fresh scents of the Tablelands (leaves, cows, asphalt?, grass). It just felt like a beautiful carefree summer day. Bliss.

After getting back to the hostel, we had about 20 minutes to shower and get ready for a fancy dinner with the whole group. We all put on our bathing suits and hopped in the shower in pairs to save time (and water!!). Jack took us to a restaurant in Holloways beach and since SIT was paying for the meal, we all ordered a ton of food! He also gave us our T-shirts that we designed, Lizard Island coozies, and a mystery poster that is rolled up in a package and we're not allowed to open it until we get home.
I cannot believe this semester is coming to a close!...I'm not ready for that.

Done with "School"!

I'm officially done with schoolwork! I wrote my 29 page paper and gave my presentation on my ISP and now its time to relax and enjoy Australia backpacker style! For about 5 days none of us saw daylight because we were in Reef Teach all day writing our papers. But alas, my paper is printed and bound and turned in. No more work to worry about!

Groovin' The Moo

On Sunday night we went to the Groovin' The Moo concert in Townsville. It was an all day concert that featured about 15 bands and traveled to 3 other towns in Australia. Basically, Townsville was flooded with twenty-something year olds for this concert.
At around noon, we headed to our friend's house to meet up with some people and have a feed and drinks before walking over to the concert ground. The line to get into the concert was enormous. It took us about 40 minutes to get through the line and into the concert. The weather was perfect-- warm with blue skies and some clouds to give us just enough respite from the sun. Three stages were set up for the event-- one was under a huge tent where a DJ played mostly techno music and the crowd jumped up and down in a mosh and threw water bottles. The other two stages were for the main acts and were right next to each other about 100 meters away from the tent. They alternated the stages so that when one band was playing on the first stage, the crew was setting up the second stage for the next band. This made the concert run extremely smoothly and eliminated any excessive down time.
Empire of the Sun put on quite an interesting show with extremely odd costumes and choreography. At many points during his show, I wondered if he was serious…like, is this real?? It was just bizarre, but the music was good and overall it was very entertaining. Vampire Weekend played a phenomenal set. I think they should have headlined the concert, but I guess everyone there was pretty obsessed with the Aussie band, Silverchair. The lead singer of Silverchair had a good voice, but it was just not my kind of music. Overall it was a great concert with fun people and good music.
Another fun experience in Australia…check.

Dinner with Ian and Russell

On Saturday night we had dinner at our friend Ian's house. He and Russell were our Aboriginal guide during the camping trip. Russell picked us up and when we pulled up to Ian's house there were about 8 cars parked in the driveway and on the front lawn. We asked if he invited other people over for dinner. He just laughed and said they were all his family's cars. A majority of his extended family was there, including his daughters, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, and father-in law.
His wife made several dishes, all of which included some form of pork. Ian made an elaborate fruit salad and a bread pudding for dessert. He made a point to tell us that the apples in the fruit salad were "Pink Lady." He had asked the person at the grocery store which apple would go best in a fruit salad and they recommended pink ladies. I thought it was cute that he wanted to pick the right apples.

Last Day at AIMS

Today is my last day of work at AIMS. I'm leaving for Cairns on Tuesday and since Monday is Labor Day (yes, another three-day weekend), today is my final workday.

Here are some pictures of AIMS's private beach that I took last week. When I have time I usually take a walk or go for a jog on the beach in between data analysis.

Four Nations Party

Last night, we had a "Four Nations Party" at the guest house. This whole idea started because we wanted Kim to make us some authentic Fu because she is from Vietnam and is an amazing cook. We told her that if she made us Fu, then we would make her some good old American apple pie. Well Kim doesn't like cooked fruit (she's very picky with what she eats and allergic to just about everything). She told us that her favorite dessert is tiramisu, which is odd because she is allergic to dairy, coffee, and alcohol...the three primary ingredients in tiramisu.
Anyways, so we decided to include Ian in this and asked if he would make us a typical English dish if we made an American apple pie. This is how we came up with the "Three Nations Party". But then, we realized that Dave, the Australian man who usually stays in the room we were in, was coming back to Townsville on Tuesday from his holiday in Perth. Consequently, we decided to postpone the party until Dave returned and call it the "Four Nations Party," including dishes from America, Vietnam, England, and Australia.

The party was fabulous. Ian made his English curry, Kim made fried rice, plain rice (for the curry), and banana bread, Rachel made chocolate chip cookies, I made a blueberry-apple pie, and Dave (since he doesn't cook) made lattes with his fancy coffee maker.
We had a great time trying everyone's dishes, listening to Bob Dylan (Ian's favorite--he's been trying to get me to like it), and talking about our cultures. The party, however, did not satisfy our craving for Fu, which Kim told us is just too time-consuming to make; nevertheless, we had an excellent time and were glad the whole house got together for a nice meal.

ANZAC Weekend

This past Sunday was ANZAC day, a national day of remembrance to honor members of the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps who fought in Turkey during WWI.
On Friday, Rachel and I went to a footie (rugby) game. The North Queensland Cowboys played the Parramatta Eels. This was a Rugby League match, which is somehow very different from Rugby Union and AFL. The Cowboys are the home team and people are pretty crazy about them here. Their jerseys sell for no less than $160, yet half the crowd was wearing them.
The Cowboys ended up losing, but it was a very close game. Rugby is by far the most brutal and rugged game I have ever watched.

On Saturday, we met up with Darren, our reef instructor from Lizard Island. He is working on his PhD at JCU in Townsville. He took us to his friend's housewarming party, which was a blast! Everyone there was studying marine biologist at JCU from all over the world. This was a legit party, complete with a full DJ set-up. Good music and friendly company made for a very fun night.

Sunday, we were a bit incapacitated, but we managed to make it out of the house and to the farmers' market to pick up some vegetables for the week. There, we saw our friend, Ian (not our house-mate Ian), who was one of our guides during the Aboriginal Camping trip. He introduced us to his family and we made plans to have dinner at his house later this week.

Since Monday was a national holiday (if a holiday lands on a Sunday Australians always take the following Monday off), we met our adviser, Ray Berkelmans, at the Ross River to water ski with his family. They own a small speed boat and go out on the river almost every weekend. We spent the day tubing and today my arms are very soar.




Back to work now, after a delightful ANZAC weekend.

Trivia Night

Last night was trivia night at the pub and our whole house went down as a team! Kim doesn't usually leave the house so it was pretty amazing that she came out with us. The four of us (Rachel, Ian, Kim, and I) compiled our knowledge, answering questions ranging from current events the tennis to European geography to inorganic chemistry. The pub was packed since it was also $7 crumbed steak and chips night, so we had even more competition than last week-- last week, we got third place and won a pitcher of beer. We were determined this week, however, to win big. Our trivia studying paid off (we bought a 6pack of Barefoot, which has trivia questions under the cap) and we managed to tie for second place! We won $20 to spend at the pub. It only makes sense that we'll win first prize next week.

Magnetic Island

After 3 days of working at AIMS, our boss informed us that his day off was on Monday and that we wouldn't have to come in to work. We had a 3-day weekend after a stressful (hah) 3-day work-week. We went out on Friday night and were very disappointed with the T-ville nightlife-- everyone seemed like they were 12 years old, horrible techno music blared from every club, and most of the clubs smelled like moldy carpet. On Saturday morning, feeling bummed about the night before, Rachel and I decided to go to Magnetic island for the rest of the weekend. After all, we'd had a long, productive week and deserved a relaxing tropical island holiday. We found a sweet deal that included a round trip ferry ride, two nights at the hostel, dinner, breakfast, a drink, and snorkel gear, all for $94.
We swiftly bought the tickets, packed, and headed to the ferry. We stayed at an enormous backpackers' hostel right on the beach overlooking the ocean. On Sunday morning we decided to rent scooters so we could go all around the island to snorkel. After spending 2 hours at the scooter rental place (this was a very inefficiently run business), we decided that we were too scared to drive them and got a lift back to the hostel to go snorkeling in the reef there. Well that was covered in algae so we took the bus to Florence Bay. After walking in the wrong direction for 15 minutes, we pulled out our map to try and decipher our location. Almost instantly, a big 30year old Ford slowed down and an old woman rolled down her window. She asked us if we needed a lift anywhere. She and her 87 year old husband drove us around the island and showed us all the good snorkeling spots. We never really got to go snorkeling, however, since we had to return the gear by 4:45, but nonetheless, this was quite the experience.

The next morning we went for a hike and then relaxed at the beach for most of the day, returning to Townsville that evening.

A delightful hiatus this was from our less than stimulating jobs.

Working at AIMS

ABOVE: the view from my office, my excel spreadsheets, the guest house.

For the past week and a half I've been working at AIMS, located 40 minutes south of Townsville in the middle of a large nature preserve. Each morning, an AIMS car picks Rachel and I up in front of guest house and drives us to work. Since it is so far away from the city, AIMS employees are assigned to a car and carpool to work every day. Also, they get one day every other week off so they can run errands and do things that people who work in town can do more easily.
My project investigates the differences between inshore and offshore coral reef communities by analyzing photographs of 2 inshore and 2 offshore coral reefs in the Northern GBR that my researcher took last year; and also by looking at trends in temperature regimes of the 4 sites. It is our hypothesis that sea surface temperature of inshore reefs will be warmer compared to offshore coral reefs, and therefore, the former will have less hard coral and more macro algae.
For the first 3 days of my project I was literally sitting in front of a computer for 7 hours each day punching in numbers and equations into an excel spreadsheet. Now, I'm finally starting the benthic identification part of my project and using a special computer program called Coral Point Count with Excel extensions to accomplish this. With 4 reefs, 2 sites per reef, 3 transects per site, and 25 pictures per site, I have about 600 pictures to analyze...

Townsville

On Monday morning, I walked to the Greyhound station at 6:30am and boarded a bus to Townsville, Australia to begin my Independent Study Project. The ride took 6 hours, but time flew by, as I managed to sleep for much of the trip. We actually passed several of the placed that I'd been to with the rest of the group, including Mission Beach and 4 Mile Beach. I arrived in Townsville at around 1pm and walked around for two and a half hours before Rachel got in. The town is actually quite lovely, despite what EVERYONE has been telling me. It has real Australians living in it! The town is built on hills so, all the houses are basically hanging of cliffs, overlooking the ocean. In fact, it quite resembles Greece in an abstract kind of way. There is The Strand, which is a long road along the ocean/marina that has luxury apartments, bars, restaurants, and cafe's. And Flinder's Street, which is the walking street with the more backpacker type bars and pubs, restaurants, and clothing shops. It's hard to understand why people don't think this place is awesome.
Today, we tried to hike up Castle Hill, the giant cliff that overlooks the whole city and the ocean, but after walking for an hour trying to find the path, and then in the pouring rain, we decided to attempt the trek another day.
We start work tomorrow at the Australian Institute of Marine Science. A car from AIMS is supposed to pick us up at 7:20am and take us to the research station, which is about 30 minutes South of the city..somewhere in the forest.
I'm definately looking forward to the next month here!

Thank God for Modern Medicine

I have strep throat! ahhhh! I'd been ill for the past week and then developed a sever sore throat two days ago so finally decided that I should probably go to the doctor and see if anything could be done. I went to the 24 Medical Center down the road from our hostel and waited for an hour to see a physician, and boy am I glad. I had a fever of 38 degrees (Celsius) and swollen tonsils-- it only took him a split second to see that my tonsils were enormous. He put me on penicillin, some sort of anti-inflammatory, and codeine for the pain. He also said I couldn't have cold drinks or ice cream, which I think is bullshit. Ice cream makes everything better, duh
To make matters more annoying, today was our final exam so I had to reschedule that…and I'm leaving for Townsville on Monday to start my Independent Study Project. Geez, talk about inconvenient timing for strep throat.
So I've been on meds for a few hours now and I'm starting to feel better already! Thank god for modern medicine.

More Lizard Island Photos

Snorkeling on Lizard Island

You guys, I'm living in paradise

On Thursday, March 18th, we woke up early and boarded a charter plane to Lizard Island off the northeastern coast of Australia. We took 3 small planes in order to carry our entire group…each was basically a minivan with wings. We went for a snorkel that afternoon in stinger-infested waters. Jellyfish are some of the most beautiful yet scary creatures in the water. We did wear stinger suits with hoods, but parts of our faces were not covered and I found myself swimming with my hands covering my chin the whole time. I can't say that I was dying to stay in the water that day.
Today, however, we went in small boats to a different spot on the reef where there were fewer stingers. We saw numerous giant clams, all kinds of hard and soft corals, sea cucumbers, Christmas tree worms, stingrays, a sea turtle, starfish, sea anemones, anemone fish (nemo), and heaps of other fish species.

A typical day here is: breakfast at 7am, snorkel from 8:30-10:30, lecture, lunch, snorkel from 2:30 to 4:30.
The island is totally isolated--so much so that we had to order our ten-day supply of food in advance and have it shipped here. There are no stores here; only a research station and a 5-star resort ($1,600/night). We are not allowed to visit the resort, but we are allowed to go to the resort staff bar. Fine by us--we'd rather drink with the commoners!
I'm trying to take as many pictures as I possibly can because unless I become a marine biologist or a billionaire, I probably will not have the opportunity to return to this paradise.