AmeriCorps!!

Yes, yes, it has been two months (almost to the day) since my last post. Consistent blogging is a bit of a challenge at times, especially since I tend to overschedule my time. Always busy makes life interesting, but leaves less time for telling you about adventures. First big news, then a brief update.

Big news:

Yesterday, in one of the best holiday presents I've ever received, I got an email from AmeriCorps NCCC accepting me into the Perry Point campus of the Corps for this spring. Beginning February 8th, I have the amazing privilege of spending the next 10 months travelling the nation (mostly the east coast and down to the Gulf, since my campus is based in Maryland) on a team of between 8 and 12 corps members (all ages 18-24) doing service projects in this beyond phenomenal government program. We get uniforms, do 5 am fitness training during the first month, and get stuff done across America. I'm beyond thrilled.

Hopefully, I'll maintain some vague semblance of consistency in sharing those adventures with you, as they promise to be spectacularly amazing. I applied back in March and now it's only five more weeks until I begin to serve. In AMERICORPS!!!

Updates on adventures:

Apart from hoping to hear from AmeriCorps (they sent out the first round of acceptances, chosen by random selection, about five weeks ago), I've had many other exciting things happen in the past two months.

-The week after I returned from Tasmania comprised my final week of classes at Melbourne Uni. I learned fun facts in all my classes and quite enjoyed a math-free semester in which I studied entirely new and different subjects.

-After my usual Monday through Wednesday class schedule, I headed to Canberra for a five-day weekend with Kristin (a fellow Arcadian). We celebrated Halloween in style with upscale desserts and an excellent UK film ('Five Minutes of Heaven') at an International Film Festival being held in Canberra that weekend. We caught up with a camp friend I hadn't seen in three years and spent endless hours walking through suburbia, since most of Canberra is sprawling tree-lined suburbs connecting the weekend markets to the Parliament Building to the Royal Mint.

On our walks, we got to see many of the foreign embassy buildings for Australia. New Zealand and England had side-by-side modest office-building-structure embassies down the busy road from Parliament. The US embassy, on the other hand, was a huge gated mansion complex atop a hill overlooking the Parliament building from a distance and towering over the nearby Indian and Israeli embassies. Quite the contrast.

-When I returned from Canberra, it was off to the races. Literally. Lara, Jodi, and I donned summery dresses and fasteners - fancy decorated floral arrangements to be worn perched on a lady's head - and headed to the Melbourne Cup, the biggest horse race in Australia. Cup Day is taken more seriously as a holiday than the founding of Melbourne. Everyone stops work to watch the big race, if not already off for the day socializing with friends at one of the many Cup Day parties in each neighborhood. We spent most of the day watching people, but even saw the big race itself after edging up front so we could see over the masses of people around the course. Lots of fun.

-After Melbourne Cup, it was back to work. In the nine days that followed the Cup, I had six volunteer days with CVA (leave UC around 7 am, return about 4 pm), four final essays to hand in (only one of which I had already started to any significant degree (and, fortunately, finished)), and final arrangements and packing to complete for my 11-day trip to New Zealand. It did, of course, all get done. I had a wonderful time volunteering with my now-familiar CVA friends, learned many new things as I wrote essays on possible causes of the plague of 1348 and whether Australia should adopt a Bill of Rights (it currently has no written guarantee of free speech, adopting more of a British, of-course-it's-implied approach), and finished packing late Wednesday night before my Thursday morning flight.

-I then spent 11 days in New Zealand. By this point, I had finished all my course work at Melbourne so considered myself (un)officially graduated.

-Two days after I returned from New Zealand, on a Tuesday, my mother arrived. She'd never been to Australia and this seemed like a perfect opportunity to check it out. We had a wonderful time together, travelling around and seeing many sights. We spent our first few days touring through Melbourne favorites, staying in the city until my fellow Arcadians flew back to the US on Saturday. We went out for a final dessert at Brunetti's, saw Jersey Boys at Her Majesty's Theatre, and took the tram down to Saint Kilda to see the sunset and a plethora of penguins.

That Saturday morning, we flew to Queenstown, New Zealand. I went bungy jumping at the Kawarau Bridge, the site of the first ever commercial bungy jump. (There's a reason Queenstown is considered the adventure capital of the southern hemisphere, or even the world.) Jumping off a 43-metre bridge helped convince me that my past fear of heights has dissipated significantly with age. We also went on a flightseeing tour of Milford Sound. This consisted of flying in a tiny plane (8 or 9 passengers) over snow-capped mountains to the Sound, taking a cruise through the Sound itself in which we spotted seals, waterfalls, and even a penguin, and returning via plane over pristine alpine lakes and craggy peaks.

Three days later, it was up to the reef for us. We had a fabulous day out on the Great Barrier Reef before heading into the rainforest via scenic railway to wander through the picturesque town of Kuranda. We returned by SkyRail, riding in one of a series of hanging glass globes which cruised just over the rainforest canopy.

Our final stop before returning to the States was in Sydney, where we spent my 23rd birthday. It's always fun to enter a prime of your life (us math types take primes quite seriously (and literally), of course) and 23 has been no exception thus far. I started out this new year of aging with a day at the zoo (both the seal show and the giraffes had a backdrop of Sydney Harbour and the distant Opera House and Harbour Bridge), a fun pre-theatre dinner then a viewing of Wicked (which I still absolutely love, having now seen it in both Melbourne and Sydney), and finally dessert at the Lindt chocolate restaurant in Darling Harbour, where we split a pair of cakes. A birthday that amazing still seems rather surreal.

-After nearly five months away, I finally made it back to the States on December 6th. It took a bit of work, since strange flight adjustment policies caused us to fly from Sydney to Melbourne then back to Sydney for our flight to Honolulu, that being easier than cancelling the Melbourne-to-Sydney leg of our return journey which we had booked months before. I spent the next 10 days in Hawaii, catching up with my uncle, aunt, and cousins. Highlights included running a 1 hour, 2 minute 10 K in the Honolulu Marathon Race Day Walk (clearly, I had chosen not to walk, in spite of the name) and cooking delicious recipes out of my new Williams-Sonoma recipe book.

The Honolulu Marathon, on a side note, is ridiculously huge. Lake Placid had 2,000 people running, this had 32,000. There were fireworks as the first runners crossed the starting line and runners were STILL crossing more than 15 minutes after the officially start when they began the walk. It was crazy. It was also fun, though, since this meant there were always tons of people on all sides as I ran. This led to some serious weaving and people-dodging as I set off from the start, but also gave lots to see as the crowds thinned to a teeming mass by a mile or so in.

-On the 17th, I returned to the mainland, making it home the following morning just in time for pre-meet lunch with dad for my first swim meet of the season. Northampton was taking on Longmeadow and the boys had a great meet, winning close races with good swims across the board. They're an excellent group and I've already loved the coaching time I've had. I look forward to more in two weeks.

-In two weeks? Yes, because I leave for Argentina in two days. Yes, I did JUST get back to winter here in the northern hemisphere. This, however, is for my phenomenal Outward Bound trip in Patagonia. We'll be there for 14 days (we being myself and the other approximately 10 members of my group whom I have yet to meet outside of Facebook, but who all seem quite wonderful already) and we'll spend the first week engaged in service projects with members of the local community then the second backpacking through the mountains of Patagonia. It will be amazing. I'll spend more on this trip than I make in an entire summer at camp, but I'd rather live to the fullest now and have these experiences to apply later when I do get a job and settle into the real world. And before that, when I hike the Appalachian Trail.

If you've made it this far, I'm quite impressed. If you've skipped to this point, that's completely understandable given the length of the above. Next time, perhaps there will be more pictures. I hope all is wonderful on your end!

A new wombat friend

I'll tell you more about my adventures in Tasmania later (and by later I mean earlier in the day on a future date), but for now I'll give you a glimpse into the trip. Here, a wombat (a new friend of mine, bottom right) sits overlooking a valley and the mountains beyond. Quite a nice wombat, if you ask me.

Travels along the Great Ocean Road

I spent this weekend travelling along the southern coast of Victoria (one of Australia's six states - the important one because it includes Melbourne - for those of you who are a bit hazy on your Australian geography) with Arcadia friends as part of an Arcadia-run excursion along the Great Ocean Road. The trip was lots of fun, mixing active and beautiful in the perfect blend.

We set off from Melbourne Saturday morning shortly after 8:30 and began with a long, peaceful drive to a small town named Forrest. Along the way, those of us who weren't sleeping played Contact, a wonderful large-group pass-lots-of-time game which involves long words and crossword-puzzle-like definitions. (Needless to say, I enjoyed it immensely.) Here and throughout, I got lots of opportunities to catch up with all my fellow Melbourne Arcadians in one place, which I loved.

Once in Forrest, we split into two 11-person groups by chosen mountain-biking intensity. My group, the higher-intensity of the two, headed off on a bike ride for the late morning. We had a great, long ride with lots of hills and a couple of windy passages along narrow (i.e. barely wider than the bike) dirt tracks. I managed to be that one who fell off (twice), but this was not a bad thing as I learned from it that 1) it does not always hurt to fall off a bike (in fact, it didn't hurt at all and I was left with only copious streaks of dirt along my leg as tell-tale proof of my momentary lapses in verticalness), 2) I'm very good at falling in slow motion (as per witness accounts of both occasions), and 3) perhaps I'd better stick to road biking as my primary form of bicycle encounter. To my credit, the first fall was along a very narrow, windy passage (when I ran into a two-foot tree trying to avoid a root) and the second involved a large rut.

Speaking of encounters, our afternoon (after lunch) was primarily occupied by lake time. Swapping with the other group, we headed to a nearby lake for a quieter activity: platypus spotting. Half of us headed out in the canoes, which were tied together like a raft, while the other half enjoyed a walking track around the lake. We did indeed find a platypus while canoeing. It was just over a foot long and swam rather like a crocodile: its head and tail were visible above the surface but the rest was hidden and it was prone to sudden dives after which it would surface half a minute later 30 or more feet away. We kept a nice distance from our platypus friend so as not to frighten it and got to watch its antics for about 20 minutes. During this time, we kept near-silent so as not to prompt it to go into hiding. Thus we spent lots of time sitting on a silent lake platypus-watching. Pretty cool.

After we'd switched groups and walked around the lake (very scenic... lots of trees), we headed back to our transport and further along the coast.

Our next stop was at the famous Twelve Apostles rock formation (of which fewer than 12 remain due to the constant pounding of waves on the rock bases). The evening light was perfect and I got to take lots of pictures, which I have never not enjoyed. It was incredibly picturesque:

After a full day, we drove to the town of Port Campbell, where we spent the night in cabins near the bay. We enjoyed a delicious barbeque dinner at the campgrounds, then turned in for some rest before an early wake-up (after taking a few minutes to wander down to the night-dark bay, of course).

Today commenced at 5:17 AM, at which (lovely) time I got up, prepared myself for the day, wandered down to the bay with friends, then headed to Lyndon's cabin (Lyndon being our fearless leader, of course) for breakfast at 6. After breakfast, we began our morning adventures with a wander along the scenic trails of Loch Ard Gorge.

The gorge lent itself to some of my favorite Australia pictures thus far. Example 1: the view from above:

Example 2: standing in the gorge:

After that amazingly pristine stop, we continued on to the Barron River. Here, we wandered along a riverside path searching for koalas in the trees. Koalas are easier to spot than platypi, since they don't move nearly as much. They spend 18 to 20 hours per day sleeping. This was my second encounter with koalas in their natural environment, my first having been the previous day as we headed down the path to go canoeing. We got to see perhaps six koalas chilling in the trees, one of whom even moved his head around a bit and stared at us across the river.

Our next stop was the seaside town of Anglesea. We had a leisurely lunch followed by a full two hours of surf instruction. Yes, I went surfing. Lots of excitement. My surfing skills were rather limited (as I would expect), but I did manage to stand up on the board twice and made it up onto my knees many more times than that. I also managed to have lots of fun being in the water and moving fast along wavetops. As an added bonus, we got to wear wetsuits.

Our trip concluded with the drive back to Melbourne, where we returned to UC (and other places of residence) for dinner and warm showers. Now, having been awake for close to 19 hours, I sleep. Sleep too will be amazing.

Spring break in photo form

If you were wondering what spring break looks like, this is it:

Friends from Melbourne (other international students, three from my ten-person Melbourne Welcome orientation group) jump for joy on Whitehaven Beach during our Whitsundays sailing trip. They were travelling together, but my day with them was a chance encounter of the best sort.

Zoolunteering

Yesterday, I went to the zoo. 'Wait, Becca,' you say, 'don't you volunteer on Thursdays? I'm confused.' Why yes, reader, I do volunteer on Thursdays and I appreciate your attention to every detail of my ten-time-zones-away schedule. Yesterday, however, I got to volunteer at the zoo.

Our usual Thursday CVA (Conservation Volunteers Australia, in case you've forgotten over spring break) project is at Point Cook, where we cut down boxthorn and pick up litter. This week, Point Cook cancelled so we got a special trip to the Werribee Open Range Zoo instead, joining a CVA group of half-day volunteers (taking part in CVA's more-flexible-hours Green Gym program) at the site. The Melbourne Zoo, located in one of the parks bordering the university, is rather small and is unable to fit lots of large animals. Melbourne's home for those large Australasian friends (lions, elephants, giraffes, and more) is the Werribee Open Range Zoo. Situated a 40-minute drive outside the city, the Werribee Zoo has much more space to spread and allow the animals to roam relatively free.

What did we do at the zoo? Pretty much the coolest project ever: we planted giraffe food.

It turns out giraffes eat wattle, a plant common to Australia, so we spent our morning planting rows of little (perhaps 4 inches tall) wattle plants in soil fertilized by (seriously) rhino poo. In four to five years, these wattle plants will be about 5 feet tall and the top can be cut off and fed to giraffes. The plants will then regenerate once and the regrowth can provide giraffe food for a second year. Rows near ours contained wattle planted in each of the previous years which will also help feed the zoo's giraffe population (currently 4 males, 2 older (11 and 17), 2 1-year-olds).

After lunch, all of us CVAers got the amazing treat of taking a free tour of the zoo. A safari-style tour bus took us right into most of the enclosures, so we got to drive within a few yards of rhinos, hippos, zebras, our new giraffe friends, and lots of kinds of antelope. We learned about one male zebra (that's 'ZEH-bra' here, not 'ZEE-bra', since Aussies say 'zed' rather than 'zee') who was moved away from the rest once he lost his dominance in his group and was housed with the antelopes instead. Our guide described the zebra's 'identity crisis' in that he now seems to think he's an antelope at times, even joining in standing guard over the females while they sleep. It was fun to see the zebra chilling with his antelope buddies after we heard this story.

The tour was phenomenal and afterwards we got to see even more cool stuff, taking a half hour to wander through the rest of the exhibits, seeing lions, leopards, and adorable monkeys. (The Green Gym-ers headed home after the tour, but the 6 of us there for the full day were up for a wander.) I found it fascinating to watch the monkeys dig into the ground with their hands, their intelligence evident in their facial expressions. One monkey tried to take over another's digging spot and was promptly picked up and removed by his friend. He returned, however, and eventually won out as his friend wandered off in feigned boredom before returning to digging a few inches from his original spot.

The zoo was a great surprise on a rainy day and I got the once-in-a-lifetime experience of helping plant food for giraffes. All in all, a pretty cool day.

Now I'm off to the Great Ocean Road for the weekend. More about that on my return.

Be well!

Sometimes we run

Hello hello!

What, you wonder, have I been up to since spring break? Good question! Last week was largely spent getting back into classes, going to lectures about sport, sports coaching, and other such things. (It's easier to love going to lecture when these are the topics covered.)

Over the weekend, I ran a half marathon (13.1 miles or 21.1 kilometers) at the Melbourne marathon. The weather was beautiful, which made for a pleasant race. The course was mostly flat, which made it rather more boring than it would have been with some hills sprinkled in, but we got to run around a lake for about 1/4 of the distance, so that was enjoyable.

My race started at 8 AM, so I got to watch a friend begin his full marathon at 7 (we had headed down to the course together at the lovely hour of 5:40) before dropping off my bag of warm clothes and such and heading down to the start line. Just over 2 1/2 hours later, I finished with a lap around the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) which concluded with a run under the finish arch. The MCG is one of the biggest sporting arenas in Australia, so it was great to be able to finish the race there.

The best part? When you complete a race this long (which took, in my case, 2 hours, 35 minutes, and 18 seconds), they give you a medal just for finishing. I like that.

Since then, I've been walking a bit slower as my leg muscles readjust to life in the real world. Hopefully, they'll be good by this weekend, when I have an Arcadia excursion to the Great Ocean Road (just outside Melbourne). Swimming each afternoon has helped my recovery, as have the 2-hour naps I've taken both race day and the two days since. Mmm, sleep.

As usual, life is lots of fun here. Great classes, new experiences, and lots of friendly people with whom to share it all.

Have a wonderful week!

Day 18 (aka Back to School Day 1)

Salutations!

Due to the nature of my travels (backpack + hostels = amazing), I have had limited internet access over the past couple of weeks. Now that I'm safely back in Melbourne, I get to share with you all the rest of my spring break adventures. We left off on a hazy Friday in Airlie Beach, so I'll continue from there.

Saturday (nine days ago), Lara and I hopped on another Greyhound bus for the ride up to Townsville. Before the bus ride, we explored the morning markets, which had fun crafts and clothing and such. As the bus was an hour late, we could have perhaps had more in-depth exploration time, but we instead sat in a full bus shelter in the middle of a parking lot enjoying the music and scents drifting out of the nearby beachside markets.

After a long (5+ hours), largely uneventful bus ride, we arrived at the Townsville ferry terminal. This was the perfect drop-off spot, since the ferry was our next destination. We rode the ferry out to Magnetic Island then took a bus to our hostel on the northeast corner of the rather large island. (For a sense of size, it took about 25 minutes to traverse the east coast of the island by bus.) We checked in and settled into our bungalow accomodation, then walked down to the beach for dinner, sitting in the sand, and watching the second rugby league semi-final. It was in this game that we discovered the amazingness which is Melbourne Storm rugby (the Storm being Melbourne's one elite rugby league team).

Sunday morning, we woke up at 5 AM to head down to the beach to watch the sun rise. This involved lots of serenity and beauty, both of which I quite enjoyed. We then took a two-hour nap from 7 to 9 before checking out of our hostel, leaving our bags, and heading back down to the beach. We wandered through Horseshoe Bay's morning markets (Australia has tons of amazing markets) then sat in the sand for awhile before making our way slowly back to the bus terminal for our final Greyhound encounter. We spent the entire afternoon and much of the evening on this next bus, travelling further up the Queensland coast from Townsville to Cairns.

Monday was another bright-and-early morning, as we woke up shortly after 6 to make our way down to the docks for a cruise out to the Great Barrier Reef. We took a day boat out to the boat on which we'd spend the night, then spent the rest of the day snorkelling. Between our overnight and our day-boat return, we snorkelled the reef six times in two days (at three different sites). The snorkelling was amazing. Highlights include tons of gorgeous fish and coral of almost every imaginable color, seeing a reef shark (they're small and generally dislike hanging around people, but I was lucky to watch one pass by a few meters away), and following a sea turtle with Lara as it swam across the coral. There's not a much more idyllic spring break moment than watching a sea turtle float placidly over beautiful coral on a warm day on the Great Barrier Reef.

Tuesday was spent, much like Monday, out on the water. When we returned, we found Jodi (Lara's roommate and my wandering buddy) in our hostel room and joined up with her and Cassandra (my roommate) and Isa (another Arcadia/Melbourne friend) for dinner. We enjoyed one of the many $10 meal deals which abound in Cairns before heading out for a bit prior to sleep.

On Wednesday, Lara, Jodi, and I walked to Cairns' botanical gardens. It was a hot day and the gardens were about an hour from our hostel, so we decided to keep to the short loop (about an hour long walk) once we got there. We climbed lots of steps on the loop up to a couple of beautiful lookouts over the city. We enjoyed our lunch at one that looked out over both Cairns itself and the airport, where we could watch planes taking off and landing. The gardens themselves consisted primarily of open forest with some bamboo forest and such mixed in as well. We returned to the city along the Esplanade, an oceanside walkway, and I spent a quiet evening in the hostel recovering from many active hours in the sun before we all met up again to sit by the pool before bed.

Thursday began with our final early pick-up, a 7:05 AM bus tour up to the Daintree rainforest. The tour took us to a number of scenic spots throughout the morning, including Cape Tribulation. Cape Tribulation is notable because it's the spot where the Great Barrier Reef comes into the shore and the rainforest meets it at the water's edge. Both the reef and the rainforest are world heritage listed sites (a big deal), so Cape Tribulation gives you the opportunity to put one foot in the water and one on land and thus simultaneously stand in two world heritage listed sites: both reef and rainforest. Pretty cool. We had lots of fun on the tour chatting with Will and Dawn, two fellow Americans who had been on our same reef overnight.

In the afternoon, Lara and I got an early tour drop-off since we were staying in the rainforest for two more nights. We checked into our hostel, which was both charming and fabulous. The hostel, named Crocodylus, is literally in the rainforest itself, each bungalow accomodation surrounded by giant trees, vines, and wildlife. We wandered down the road to an ice cream shop just over a mile away (I got to try goji berry ice cream, which was delicious), then returned for dinner at the hostel restaurant (the nearest food store being over 10 miles north of us).

Friday was spent wandering up the road a bit further to both a picturesque cafe for lunch and another ice cream shop. This one, the Daintree Ice Cream Company, is cool because the fields along which you walk to reach the shop are filled with the trees from which the ice cream flavors are made. Many of the trees were labelled - macadamia, mango, and more. This time, we got to try delicious ice cream samplers, which included black sapote (a chocolate-flavored fruit), wattleseed (wattles are a very common plant across the country), coconut, and jakfruit (a greenish-shelled fruit larger than a pineapple). In the evening, we returned to our hostel for a night walk through the rainforest. Our guide, Possum, explained lots about the trees and plants to us and we got to see three adorable sleeping birds and lots of spiders in intricate webs on our multiple-hour, flashlight-guided trek through the trees.

Saturday, we made up for our lack of large-animal sightings on the nightwalk during an hour-long loop through the rainforest behind Crocodylus. The Orange Rope Trail took us on a loop through the trees guided by numbered signs along the way and a thin, orange rope which ushered us along the trail. During our walk, a big lace monitor lizard, perhaps four feet from head to tail, scampered across the path in front of us and into the trees. Along with hundreds of mosquito sightings, many of them on our bare arms, we also saw a feral pig with four or five squealing piglets. The pigs were in a dried-up segment of creek bed when we spotted them, but quickly made for the far treeline when they heard our footsteps along the path. The giant monitor lizard was my favorite sighting of our rainforest ventures, but all the animals we saw were pretty cool. Some of the plants, such as the fan palm, which can live to be 2 1/2 to 3 THOUSAND years old, were also rather amazing.

In the afternoon, we joined that day's version of the tour we'd left two days earlier for the final segment, a stop at the Daintree Discovery Centre then the drive back to Cairns. At the Discovery Centre, Lara and I did all the mid-level and aerial walks through the rainforest before climbing up the five levels of the canopy tower to the top lookout over the treeline. We enjoyed getting to see the rainforest from above after days surrounded by it. In the evening, we went out for a final spring break meal in Cairns then watched a fire show done by a street performer on the Esplanade.

Sunday, we got up at the lovely hour of 3:30 AM for a shuttle to the airport and a 5:45 AM flight back to Melbourne. The flight was quite smooth and we were settled back into dorm life by early afternoon. The rest of the day was spent procrastinating, reacclimating to College life (by College, I mean UC), and watching the rugby league Grand Final. As it should be, Melbourne won.

I Think It's Day 8?

Hello from sunny Airlie Beach!

By sunny, I mean vaguely hazy from remnants of the wicked dust storm that hit Sydney two days back (definitely worth taking the two minutes to search google for pictures of Sydney turned red from blown-in outback dust) but also warm and beautiful. Lots has happened since I left Sydney and I'll update accordingly (though still on YHA internet, so it will again be brief due to 15-minute blocks of time being charged to my account).

On Tuesday morning (fairly early), I left Sydney for Brisbane. The flight took about 90 minutes (60 in the air) and I arrived with plenty of the day left. After checking in at the hostel, I spent most of the afternoon wandering down to the CBD and beyond. There's a great pedestrian street in the middle of the CBD lined with shops and restaurants, which I quite enjoyed checking out. Afterwards, I walked down to the botanical gardens and took the path through the gardens along the river. (Like most major Australian cities, Brisbane is centered around a body of water - in this case a nice river much like the Yarra in Melbourne.) In the evening, I joined many fellow hostellers for pizza night (cheap pizza and meeting new people) on the roof of the hostel. Brisbane's hostel is 5 floors and the top floor has outdoor sections where you can sit by the pool or catch great views of the city at night. I made friends with a girl from Germany and three guys from Ireland, Canada, and England whom I sat with for dinner. I went to bed early as a result of having had to get up early for the flight.

Wednesday was my one full day in Brisbane so there was lots to do. In the morning, I rode a CityCat ferry up the river from the botanic gardens all the way to the University of Queensland and back to the CBD, about an hour ride. I love the Brisbane ferry, which operates much like the Melbourne tram system with single ride or daily passes, all the way up to monthly and such for commuters. When I hopped off the ferry at the CBD, again at the bustling pedestrian street, my plan was to get lunch at a cafe along the street before heading across the river to South Bank (creatively named, as in Melbourne). Instead, I found a big weekly farmers' market taking place right at the entrance to the street, so I got to wander through that. A nice unexpected surprise. I ended up with, among other things, some absolutely delicious Greek yogurt.

After the market, I did cross the bridge to South Bank just after the dust storm that had hit Sydney was sweeping into town. It was windy and visibility was reduced to the point that you could barely see the buildings on the other side of the not-too-wide river. Fortunately, my next planned activity was an indoors one. I checked out the hands on ScienceCentre at the Museum of Queensland. There were lots of fun exhibits, including a table and chairs 75% larger than normal ones so adults sitting in them could get the size perspective of a 3-year-old sitting at a table. I also played myself in a very intense game of 4x4x4 3D tic-tac-toe. Blue won. After the ScienceCentre, I decided to stay indoors because the dust was still everywhere outside so I went and watched Funny People at the cinema. I had another early night due to a plane the next morning.

Yesterday (Thursday), I flew from Brisbane to Mackay then took a Greyhound bus up to Airlie Beach. The bus broke down on the side of the road for about an hour due to a blown hose, but my newly-made Canadian friend and I enjoyed sitting on the grass playing with an energetic local puppy named, according to his tag, Minus, so it was all good. During the rest of the bus ride, they showed the movie Hairspray. In the evening, I hung out with Lara, my travel buddy for the rest of break, at the hostel. We made a delicious dinner of veggies, chicken, and rice; it was fun to cook as well as to eat.

Today (Friday) was our big day in Airlie. Airlie Beach is a big tourist destination as a starting point for sailing trips into the Whitsunday Islands (of which there are 74). I went out sailing on a boat called Camira (an aboriginal word meaning 'of the wind'), which fit about 60 people on its roomy outdoor deck. Lara was on a different sailing trip, so I thought I wouldn't know anyone on the boat. As it turned out, six friends from Melbourne, including 3 from my original Melbourne-Welcome orientation group, were on the same boat. I also made a new English friend who joined our group for the day. It was great to have lots of friends on the boat (especially as a fun surprise like that) and we had a fabulous time.

In the morning, we sailed a couple of hours out to the famous Whitehaven Beach, which is 7 kilometers long and comprised of fine white pure silica sand. (I think the actual silica content is about 97%, which is ridiculously high.) We played an intense game of catch in the water, then much of our group played English v. Americans cricket on the beach. (I stuck in the water with a friend since the air now felt cold compared to the lovely amazingness of the water.) Though the English prevailed, I think, the Americans did have a very solid showing. After a delicious lunch on the boat (they also provided both morning and afternoon tea), we sailed a bit further to go snorkelling over coral. I got to see all colors of coral - pink, yellow, white, purple - and all sorts of fish. My favorite was a bluish-purplish-green fish with little blue fins with red centers and a bright yellow tail. I also loved the tiny bright blue fish that were about 1 1/2 inches long. Once we had snorkelled for a solid hour, we returned to the boat for our sail back to Airlie Beach. This evening, Lara and I went to a bar with my new English friend, where we watched the rugby league semi-finals. For anyone interested (and you should be), the finals will be broadcast in the US on Spike TV at 11 AM next Sunday. Definitely worth checking out. The team I was going for won and it was lots of fun to finally get to see a full rugby league game.

Synopsis: Lots and lots of fun and sun and amazingness. Many nice new fellow hosteller friends. Everything is wonderful and happy, which is good.

What's up next? Tomorrow, we board a bus for Townsville, about 5 hours up the coast, where we'll be able to take a ferry out to our hostel on Magnetic Island. The next afternoon, we head to Cairns for what's apparently the best snorkelling ever. So I've been told.

Have fun!

Spring break - Day 4

Greetings!

This will be shorter than last time, because you only get five minutes of my time rather than fifteen (take it up with my email accounts if you wanted more).

Today was wonderful. I took a tour up to the Blue Mountains, which was a lot of fun. I was thinking it might be quiet on a random Monday, but we had a full group of 21 travellers, plus our guide. We walked two trails of about 45 minutes to an hour each and got to see the iconic Three Sisters rock formation and some lovely waterfalls. We walked down into rainforest and took the steepest railway in the world - with an incline up to 52 degrees - back up to the top. For those of you who aren't math nerds, that's real real steep.

Tomorrow, I'm off to Brisbane for more fun in a new city.

Enjoy your day!

Whoo!! Cabo!!

Greetings from sunny Sydney!

Okay, that's a bit of a stretch; it's past 5 PM so really more of a sunset purplish-grey, but it WAS sunny once upon a not-so-distant time. I'm writing this from the Sydney Central YHA (hostel, for those of you who don't speak backpacker), where you're about to get 75 whole cents of my time (75 cents being equivalent to 15 minutes internet-wise). In that time, I'll update you on days 1 through 3 of spring break. (Yes, it is spring here.)

Day 1: On Friday morning, I flew to Sydney after far too little sleep. Fortunately, my ride to the airport was with Arcadia friends Mitch and Mara, both of whom are morning people, so we were all quite talkative and energetic in spite of it being just after 5 AM. The flight was a bit late but generally smooth and I made it to Katie's dorm at UNSW (another Arcadia friend) by about 10. In the afternoon, Katie and I ventured into the city, where we wandered through the botanical gardens for a few hours. The gardens have a harborside path with wonderful views back at the Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. We took lots of pictures of the scenery, as well as a few of our shadows dancing and such.

In the evening, we managed to stay up all the way until 9:45 (having both slept not-quite-enough the night before) then got lots of wonderful sleep.

Day 2: Yesterday (Saturday), I met up with Lauren, a camp friend whom I hadn't seen in 3 years, at Circular Quay (where the bridge and opera house are). We took a ferry to Manly, which is about 7 kilometres away. In Manly, we walked along the coast for awhile and looked in lots of the shops along the main street. We enjoyed some delicious ice cream from a shop called Copenhagen, where they'll dip the edge of your cone in chocolate just before filling it and they had free toppings such as nuts and sprinkles which you could add yourself. We also had dinner on the harbour where we could watch the sky change color as the sun set. We took the ferry back in the dark, so the Sydney skyline was all lit up and beautiful.

Upon our return to Sydney, we found a pub where we could watch sports. Lauren's local footy team (footy in Sydney referring to rugby league football, not aussie rules as in Melbourne) was playing Brisbane so I got to watch rugby league for the first time. (Rugby union is the international game, league is an Aussie game which is rather like touch rugby with tackling.) We left before the end so we could head to our respective homes for the night; for me, this entailed taking a bus out to Bondi Beach for my stay at the Bondi Beach YHA.

Day 3: This morning, I woke up at 5:50 AM for some inexplicable reason and decided to go down to the beach (about 10 minutes down the hill) to watch the early-morning surfers for a bit. After that chill time, I had a lovely breakfast of yogurt and muesli (Aussie version of granola) at a cafe across the street from the beach then headed back up to the hostel for a nap before check-out. After I checked out at 10, I walked back down to the beach to spend some time in the sun and enjoy the later-morning busy-ness of Bondi. There were hundreds of people all along the beach and the crowd of surfers 20 meters out had multiplied fivefold. In the afternoon, I took the bus back into the city (Bondi, the closest ocean/surfing beach to the city, is about 30 minutes outside of it) then went to a grocery store for food and made myself a delicious late lunch here at the hostel. While I was dining, there was an announcement over the intercom that there was a Brazilian festival today at Darling Harbour, so I wandered over to that after lunch, stopping by a giant market (Sydney's indoor version of Queen Vic) on the way. Tonight, I meet up with Katie for dinner before lots of rest for a trip up into the Blue Mountains tomorrow.

More later!

Sydney

After my adventures in Adelaide, I headed to Sydney to continue my wanderings. I checked into the Sydney Central hostel on another beautifully sunny afternoon then decided to walk down and see the big sites.

First, I went and checked out Darling Harbour. I sat in the sun and watched a little choo-choo train circle by on its way to the aquarium, much like the one in Look Park at home.

I made it to Circular Quay just in time for sunset. As I walked down to the Harbour, I found the perfect spot to watch both the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.

Two nights later, I went with friends to the Australia-New Zealand rugby game. It was one of the best games I've ever watched, finishing 19-18 New Zealand with Australia left on the try line 5 meters from scoring at the final whistle.

The kickers for both teams were amazing. Australia's 18 points all came off penalty kicks; they were a perfect 6 for 6. New Zealand had 4 penalty kicks, but won because they also had one try (and, of course, made the conversion). As usual, there was also a bit of violence. Elegant violence, obviously.

It was a fabulous game, capping off a wonderful trip. After such a busy ten days, it was nice to return to Melbourne to catch up on sleep. And classes, too.

Adelaide

I haven't posted as regularly as perhaps I should recently, but rest assured that it's because my time has been filled with activities of vital importance such as

- watching a free pre-screening of a movie tonight ("(500) Days of Summer") with a friend down on Southbank (that being the south bank of the Yarra River, for those of you not yet hip to the lingo)

- booking hostels and such for spring break, which commences in less than two weeks

- walking all the way to my 9 AM lecture this morning only to find it cancelled for the second week in a row (fortunately, I had NOT walked there to find that out last week) ... proceeding to spend lecture time looking at train routes through New Zealand

- reflecting on the fact that people back home are just starting classes while we're already into week 7 of 12

- sometimes even writing essays on such topics as the Black Death and the perceived 'Americanisation' of Australia

As you see, lots happening, but I still wanted to take a few minutes to share some pictures with you. These ones are from the trip I took to Adelaide back during week 4 of classes (when I went on an Outback trip with Arcadia then headed on to Adelaide then Sydney).

Adelaide is a smaller city than Sydney or Melbourne, with a cool mixture of old and new architecture.

My day there was beautifully sunny with perfect warm spring temperatures. The city has lots of parks which are wonderful for lounging, many of them bordered by classically-inspired buildings such as these.

After touring a chocolate factory in the early afternoon of my first day there (and my wonderful used bookstore stop that morning to pick up some Australian plays (unintended result)), I went and sat by the river. Lots of joggers went by on some sort of active business people running event. This black bird floated over to say hi a couple of times.

All in all, Adelaide is a beautiful city, perfect for a wandering day or two of visits.

Conservation Volunteers Australia

I have found my new ideal form of volunteering. Hang out in nature and play with fun tools. Sounds great, yes?

The past three days, I've volunteered 7 hours each day with Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA). Our day starts at 8:20 AM (which means mine starts at 7:05 so I can grab breakfast and my packed lunch and still catch the 7:39 tram) at the CVA office in North Melbourne. When I first contacted them about volunteering, I thought it would be shorter days and I'd have to get to the site myself. Instead, they drive us out there in troopies (Aussie for 4WD and other vans - always Toyota, always white) and we spend the whole day volunteering before returning around 3 or 4. Lots of hours and easy transport both make me happy.

So what do I do with CVA? Lots of stuff.

On Thursday, we headed out to Point Cook Coastal Park, 'we' being our leader, a late 20-something woman named Erin, and 5 gentlemen probably in their 60s. In the morning, we cut down boxthorn, a weed which is prevalent in the area. As the name suggests, it is indeed quite thorny. I worked with Erin (and at times our leader Matt) to tackle the boxthorn. We would wander along through the coastal field identifying the boxthorn, cutting it down with clippers and, when necessary, hand saws, and applying poison to the cut stumps so it didn't grow back. I don't generally associate conservation with poisoning plants, but it makes a lot of sense when I stopped to think about it.

At lunchtime, we drove to some picnic tables elsewhere in the park. During our lunch break, we saw about 50 black cockatoos gathered in the trees. There were perhaps 30 in one tree then most made a mass exodus to another tree further off and suddenly there were 20 more over there. It was very cool. Apparently black cockatoos are fairly rare, so it's quite a treat to get to see them at all. After lunch, we drove down to the beach and split into two groups of four to wander in opposite directions picking up trash along the coast. High tide limited the actual beach to under 10 feet in many places, often mostly covered by seaweed, but we still found lots of 'rubbish' (Aussie for trash, for those of you requiring a translation) including a dive belt with weights on it and a deflated inner tube. As we walked, we had beautiful views across the bay to Melbourne's CBD. Also very cool.

On Friday, we (now two Korean girls, another older gentleman (again around 60) named Lance, a woman named Suzanne, myself, and our leader Deb) headed out to Yarra Bend Park, one of the closest sites as it's just 4 kilometres outside the CBD. (It still took close to 30 minutes to get to it.) Our work site this time was on a hill directly overlooking the river. It being a rather steep drop-off, the river was probably about 10 feet away horizontally, 20 vertically. Our task for the day was to remove fencing that separated a narrow path from said drop-off. The ultimate goal is that another CVA group will come in and fix up the path, put up new fencing (this was quite old and often mashed up wire mesh), and mark the path with clear new signs to keep bikers off. Currently, bikers come in and create ruts (which lead to path widening as people avoid said ruts) and risk hurting themselves and others on the narrow, winding path. The goal is to have them not do that anymore. Anyway, much of our day was spent sitting on this quiet path overlooking a calm stretch of muddy brown Yarra River as we clipped through mesh wiring then rolled segments of the wiring for disposal by Parks Victoria. I mostly worked with Suzanne; it was lots of fun.

The cool animal siting of the day actually came before we headed to the site, when we stopped at a viewing platform on the way. Deb pointed out trees just across the river from the platform which were each filled with HUNDREDS of sleeping flying foxes. Again, very cool.

In the afternoon, once we had finished our work for the day, Deb took us to another site she had done work on before - a wetlands site on the way back to the city. We walked down to the wetlands and by another section of the Yarra and Deb pointed out some plants of interest and such. We also got to see where the old town swimming pool had been for the suburb which is home to the wetlands, basically a roped-off section of the river with cement bleachers and a diving board stand still extant. Deb in particular but also CVA leaders in general are very into appreciating the nature around you as you work. They remind us to work slowly and safely and take time to look up and look around you. I like that about them.

On Saturday (that being today), I headed to the Island overlooking Werribee Gorge with 9 others. The Island, about 45 minutes outside the CBD, is not a literal island but is bordered on one side by the river that runs through Werribee Gorge and on the other by a creek that sometimes flows. It's mostly a big hilly area near a forest with views of the city in the far-off distance. Since it was a weekend day, the group demographic shifted drastically from 60-year-old men to 20-something women, usually a few years out of college. Of the 10 of us, our group leader Marcus and one guy who had come with one of the girls (who is planning to write an editorial about CVA in the Monash Journal in a few weeks, having become interested after writing a story for the paper about a group of kids planting trees at the Island with CVA) were the only males. Our task today was planting trees and protecting them with tree guards (essentially white posterboard rectangular boxes with no top or bottom held in the ground by two wooden bamboo-like sticks). We planted in pairs; I worked with Jacinta, who was very nice - she had studied at Melbourne Uni and gone abroad to UNC, so we got to swap exchange experiences. Our planting work was done on a fairly steep slope (perhaps 35 to 40 degree incline), which we reached by climbing down a very steep slope (maybe 70 degrees). This was all well and good until my overly persistent (now in week 6) bronchitis tried to steal all my oxygen on the climb back up the hill. It took a very laborious and uncomfortable 10 or 15 minutes, which made me quite unhappy.

What did make me happy was planting trees. Amongst the 10 of us, we planted and guarded 10 rows of baby trees - 440 trees total - in the course of the day. Though some won't survive, most of these will grow into tall, strong trees and shrubs someday. Right now, they're between 2 and 8 inches tall for the most part. I'm still not able to identify each little tree-let, but I know that we planted eucalypts and multiple types of wattle, along with a peppermint plant and two others.

Though we spent a bit of time making tree guards before we started and after lunch, most of our time was spent sitting on this hill overlooking beautiful pastures (with 7 or 8 cows in the afternoon) and looking across at a green forest. Sometimes it rained, generally it was windy and cold, always it was stunningly nature-y and gorgeous. Today's animal siting, however, was not the cows. Once in the morning after we returned to the top of the hill before lunch (when we had a moment to look out over and across the gorge around the corner from our site) and twice while driving, I got to see kangaroos in the wild! Pretty cool. They were eastern gray kangaroos and I can attest to their phenomenal ability to freeze statue-still when they sense danger (like nearby troopie noise). The first time I saw 5, the second 6, and the third probably 10 all together on the hillside. I got to see both hopping and motionless kangaroos all hanging out on grassy hills around the Island. This made me happy.

As you have hopefully established, CVA is a good fit for me. I get to sit around in nature for hours on end giving little tree-lets life or playing with fun tools and there are always amazing animals to be seen and spectacular views. Lots of fun.

Highlights of the Day

Tomorrow, I head into the Outback. Five days wandering from Alice Springs to Uluru and King's Canyon with desert nights under the stars. Amazing.

That will be followed by two days in Adelaide then three in Sydney (including an Australia-New Zealand rugby game). Yay for first major Australia travel!

Since I'll be away from electronics for the next five to ten days (to which I'm looking forward immensely), here are some recent highlights to tide you over.

Saturday and Sunday I wandered around with Jodi, then I had my three class days of week 3 (of 12) of the semester.

Saturday:

Shrine of Remembrance - a WWI memorial

Royal Botanical Gardens - took a 45-minute winter tour which ended up as a 1.5-hour individual tour for just the two of us, which provided lots of knowledge on the history and evolution of the gardens

The Ugly Truth - fun movie time with Jodi and Lara in the CBD

Sunday:

Yarra river crafts market - amazing crafts, delicious cookies (why are there always so many cookies?)

Docklands brewhouse - dinner on the water followed by 20 minutes sitting around watching footy from our table (I love breweries)

Monday:

Classes

Because-I-have-bronchitis hot chocolate in the CBD

High table dinner in UC (complete with Harry Potter robes)

Tuesday:

More classes - signed up to do my Australia & America presentation during the political leadership week (yay for Obama and Rudd)

High table dinner at International House - optional dinner swap resulting in delicious food and fun company

Traffic light party - saw lots of friends who had been absent from my life for far too long (over a week, that is)

Wednesday (today):

Classes again - sensing a theme? got my small group for our first practical coaching assignment (coaching each other) and decided it'd be useful if I had any level of proficiency in soccer. or footy. or netball. or basketball. good thing coaches don't necessarily need talent in the short term

UC dinner - had Corey and Eitan over to join

Royal Pains - watched American television with Jodi and ate delicious cake

Packing - got stuff organized for heading into the desert for five days!

It's 1:01 AM and our cab arrives at 6:30 to take Cassandra, Corey, and I to the airport for our trip, so I'm off to bed. If the snakes (or spiders) get me, know that I think you're wonderful.

Have an amazing week!

Australian Uni Health Services

A semester in another country just wouldn't be complete without at least one visit to Health Services. Fortunately for you, I'm able to report back on not one but TWO trips for your educative pleasure.

Trip 1 (last Monday):

Having experienced a cough and congestion for close to two weeks, I decided it was finally time to visit Health Services. I came to this realization when I had a hand on my chest as I coughed and felt vibrations beyond what one should perhaps normally feel. Since I've had bronchitis manifest itself while travelling on more than one occasion (twice, to be precise: once each in Bermuda and Italy), I figured I should probably get checked out. Having no success booking an appointment by phone, I decided to pack up some reading and head over for a walk-in appointment.

After I found the building (not as easy as it seems, despite having had it pointed out by a friend previously), I filled out a few forms then sat down for my walk-in. An hour later (right about the wait time I had expected), I got in to see the doctor. She took my temperature in my ear (normal), checked my throat (clear), and listened to my breathing with a stethescope (apparently fine). She asked whether I had a wet cough - had I been coughing anything up? - and I said no, I hadn't. She then pronounced that it was probably viral, there was nothing she could do, and I would just have to let it run its course. She proceeded to enter this diagnosis into the computer.

It was at this point that I began coughing. The doctor turned to me, declared that this was NOT a dry cough (commenting quietly to herself about what WE consider a wet cough here in Australia), and said she'd give me something for it. She proceeded to use Google to make sure I wouldn't be allergic to the medication she was giving me, since I have one medication allergy which I apparently only know by its US brand name. Moments later, I had a prescription for Amoxycilin in hand and was sent on my way. Thanks, Google.

Trip 2 (today):

After the full course (7 days, 3 times per day) of Amoxycilin, I still wasn't better so I decided to head back to Health Services. I figured it'd be best to try to resolve this before I head into the Outback for 5 days this Thursday. This time, I walked over and made an appointment for lunchtime during my morning break in classes. After a brief wait, I got in to see the nurse.

As with the previous doctor, I listed my symptoms and mentioned that I have a history of travel-induced bronchitis (which term I made up during this post and did not use at the time). He took me through almost the exact same routine - temperature in the ear, throat check with a depressor and a flashlight, stethescope to listen to the breathing. I find this reassuring - they have an established pattern and aren't each just making things up; it gives the impression of being qualified in a way I haven't always been convinced Health Services people are at a certain US university I had the privilege of attending which shall remain unnamed.

The first two checks were again clear, but he pronounced my breathing "a little squeaky" and proceeded to select a new antibiotic for me. While he was doing this, I asked if he knew what I had or it was just something general, since he hadn't actually told me. He stated, as if perhaps it should have been obvious, that I have bronchitis. Silly me for not knowing already.

The new antibiotic, a mix of amoxycilin and other stuff, will hopefully get me healthy within the next few days. It's one of those potent ones that reminds you to take it with the first bite of a meal and warns that you must always take it with food. Fortunately, I love food and never skip breakfast (this one's 2-a-day for 5 days with an optional refill if it's not gone yet). I'm hoping this antibiotic is effective, partly because my bronchitis is probably now amoxycilin-resistant so uber-powerful in its lung-sitting capabilities. Guess what, bacteria, I can kick you out with stronger drugs!

Overall diagnosis:

The state of Health Services in Melbourne seems rather better than that in some parts of New England. I was neither asked whether I was pregnant nor diagnosed with a non-existent break in some bone. Instead, with the help of Google and an opportune cough, I was prescribed a variety of antibiotics and sent on my way.

In one major difference from at least one home experience, I was not forced to sit for an hour as a nurse who clearly had no idea what I have attempted to diagnose me; in expected big-school fashion, I was in the medical practitioner's room for under 10 minutes each time. Efficiency, efficiency, efficiency.

Thanks, Health Services. You (hopefully) make me well.

Long Days of Craziness

Yes, I'm back!

To where have I gone, you might ask? Well, mostly to class, sleep, and various social events with friends, but not much to blog-writing. I shall continue, however, to make an effort to share more of the amazingness of Australia with you. Right now, for example, seems like a perfect time; it is, after all, 45 minutes past midnight. Perfect time for life updates, yes?

For a general summary of the past two weeks, they've been filled with class (Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays starting at 9 AM), wandering the city (Thursdays through Sundays), doing reading for my classes (surprisingly interesting, unless you know what a giant nerd I not-so-secretly am, in which case you'll be aware that I very often love my readings), and trying to get healthy from my lingering cough (Australia has lots of swine flu, but whatever this is will hopefully be cure-able by the antibiotics I'm now on).

Event highlights:

My friend Jodi (another of the 12 Americans living in UC (University College)) and I have begun a weekly wander, during which we head down to the city Wednesday afternoon after class and go wherever life takes us. Last week, we went to Billabong, the police station (to ask about options for non-passport identification for which we are unfortunately ineligible, since we haven't known any doctors or dentists here for more than a year who could attest to our identity), and various other places. This week, we had amazing hot chocolate at a little place in an alley-style 'mall' - a mall being a pedestrian-only street of shops - where you can choose milk or dark chocolate then select from options such as regular, affogato (a scoop of ice cream in the hot chocolate), chili, or cinnamon. I had dark chili and got to select the spicyness on a scale of 1 to 10. Given that it was my first time, I went for a 2. It was absolutely delicious with just the right hint of spicy tang.

Yesterday, I had dinner in Chinatown for the first time. The Chinatown district in Melbourne runs along one of the cross-streets to the main street and lasts about 3 blocks, with two more populated with restaurants and shops than the third. The entrance to Chinatown is marked out by a huge Chinese-styled archway over the street and the lanterns in the district are different from the streetlamps in the rest of the city. The dinner was a reunion for the Melbourne Welcome orientation we had done and I went with Lara (Jodi's roommate - all the Americans are in doubles while all Australians in UC have singles), who didn't actually attend Melbourne Welcome but was up for joining nonetheless. I got to see friends from MW, meet lots of new people here on exchange, and enjoy delicious dumplings and rice. All in all, lots of fun. Afterwards, we stopped for gelato on Lygon Street (more about that in an entry about food someday) since Lara had never had gelato before (it's pretty big here) then came back to the dorm and spent about two hours in a friends' room talking.

Tonight, I went out to a footy (Australian Rules football, as you know) game with four Arcadia friends and Lyndon, our 'student coordinator' here in Melbourne. The game was tons of fun. Carlton was playing Geelong (pronounced "juh-LONG") at the MCG - Melbourne Cricket Ground - a huge stadium which fits about 100,000 people. There were maybe 55,000 there for the game and it was far from crowded. We cheered for Carlton since we all live in the Carlton area of Melbourne (for example Lygon Street, two blocks from campus, is in Carlton) in spite of the fact that Geelong was ranked 2nd in the league while Carlton is hovering around 7th or 8th (of about 16 teams, I think). Geelong had only lost once, last week to St. Kilda in a face-off of the final two unbeaten teams in the league. Carlton had a slow start, but ended up playing an amazing game and winning 97 to 62! After the game, we walked back up to campus and three of us stopped for dessert at a chocolate place Lyndon recommended. (Perhaps you're sensing a theme in the general phenomenal nature of food options here.) We sat at a table out on the sidewalk catching up on life happenings and enjoying the cool winter breeze.

To reassure my parents, yes, I do other things than eat amazing food and wander around the city sometimes. Quite frequently, in fact. My classes are all amazing and interesting; I enjoy attending them immensely. I'm meeting lots of new people in my dorm, which is great. I may even make it to a UC footy game against Queens College (one of the other residential colleges) tomorrow morning. That, however, requires that I get some sleep, so I'd better go work on that.

Happy winter to all! (FYI, 'winter' is now defined by weather in the 60s with plentiful sunshine.)

Classes! Yay!

I'm now going to write multiple anecdotal posts about events not directly related to the amazingness that is Melbourne. The primary reason for this is that it deserves time and mental energy, both of which are focused a bit more right now on the subject of this post: CLASSES!

Yes, it is the first week of August, but some of us still go to school! The Australian academic calendar has two semesters like the US, but first semester runs from February through June then second semester (which we're in now) starts at the end of July and continues into November. Since the seasons are reversed, we're currently at the late-winter end of spring semester. Winter, however, is a pleasant sixty degrees with lots of sunshine on most days. There are 12 teaching weeks, with most classes meeting once or twice a week for lecture then once for tutorial (section). All of my classes meet 2.5-3 hours per week and none meet on Thursday or Friday.

What are these classes? While most Australians study a single course (equivalent to a US major or degree program), I get to take classes (also known as 'subjects') across a range of courses, so I have far more diversity in what I'm studying, since I've already finished all degree requirements. The classes I've selected are as follows:

Sports Coaching: Theory and Practice - For this class, we actually get to spend two of our tutorials coaching school kids in gym class. I'm going to need to learn a bit more about netball, though, as it comes up frequently in readings, class-related films, and such.

Medieval Plague, War, and Heresy - In reading today for this class, I learned that the average life span in 1300s Europe was 35 to 40 years, but this dropped to about 20(!) amidst the epidemics of the mid-14th century (the Black Death struck in 1348), before recovering to 30ish in the first years of the 1400s. Interesting, yes?

Australia Now - On Tuesday, we'll be watching a movie, Gallipoli, in class. Lecturers here seem generally much more willing than US teachers to show film clips or even entire movies during lecture, rather than directing students to them for out-of-classroom viewing.

Australia & America - We talk about comparative history (including the extents to which it is beneficial, negative, and feasible) and compare AUS and the USA. There's an excellent split (close to 50-50) between Australian and American students, with a few other nationalities mixed in, which should make for engaging tutorial discussions.

Those are my classes. Classes here are different in some ways (for example, lecturers post complete audio of every lecture online for students to access at any point throughout the semester), but have all been very accessible and enjoyable thus far. Tomorrow starts week 2 (at the bright, sunshiny hour of 9 AM), so I'm off to do some more reading then go to sleep.

On a completely unrelated final note, I saw Wicked today and it was beyond wonderful. I love musicals.

My address

It has come to my attention that you might be longing to mail me things, so I'm taking a moment to supply you with my address for just that purpose.

(My name)

University College

University of Melbourne

40 College Crescent

Parkville, VIC 3052

AUSTRALIA

If you'd like a postcard and you're not in my immediate family, you'd best be sending me your address via email.

Remnants from the Sunshine Coast

To tide you over as I reenergize for more major updates, here are a couple final pictures from our time in Caloundra.

Here's the beachside resort we stayed at while in Caloundra.  The windows and balconies of our suites were on the left side of the building, looking out to the ocean about 70 metres away.

Here's the aboriginal guy playing a cool instrument.  For perhaps obvious reasons, this is known as a 'male' instrument.  There are both male and female instruments and tools, classified primarily by shape.

Here's our other Aboriginal guide, who was both very quiet and an excellent dancer.  I like the juxtaposition of Aboriginal tools, instruments, and artwork with modern building, clothes, and coke bottle.

Our fearless leaders, Lyndon and Cam, worked pretty hard at the Australia Zoo.  As six of us wandered, we chanced upon Cam (left, brown shirt) and Lyndon (right, blue shirt) taking a nap in the grass.  The only other time we saw them, they were riding around on the little tram that goes through the park, heading to an area we had just finished which was only a short walk from the rest of the park.  To their credit, they had most likely been up early surfing before the day's program began.

Orientation, round 17

Greetings from Melbourne!

Before we begin today, I'd like to offer a brief weather update.  Though it was sunny and perfect yesterday, it is actually raining as I write.  Yes, it does rain even in Australia.  It was fortunately quite beautiful all day until about two hours ago, neatly coinciding with the time I chose to come inside for the afternoon.

Tons has happened since my last post (1.5 weeks, 1.5 orientations) so I'll try to give a rough overview.

Caloundra remainders:

The surf & beach safety lesson was fabulous.  One of the Kings Beach lifeguards showed us a brief video on surf safety filmed at Bondi (bon-dai) Beach, the popular Australian beach with the most rescues each year.  We learned how to spot a rip tide and what to do if caught in a rip.  We then got to see the standard equipment the guards use at Kings Beach (including jet-ski-like rescue craft) and go up in the lifeguard tower.  The tower is actually a small building with a glass-fronted second floor from which two guards look down at the beach.  Their primary responsibility is the area between the two red-and-yellow flags that mark the swimming zone (rule 1: always swim between the flags), but they also watch further down the beach for surfers, who need to stay away from the swim zone (a blue flag marks the beginning of the designated surfing area).  I got a good sense of the effectiveness of raising your hand if you get caught in a rip upon seeing the view from the tower.  It seems much more sensible when you realize how effectively it would help the guards notice you from that angle.

After our on-land safety lesson, it was time to plunge into the Pacific!  The water was a bit chilly, but it IS the middle of winter.  For the Atlantic, it would have been a warm late-June day.  We practiced dolphin dives to go under waves and running with high knees to get through the shallows quickly.  After pairing up to rescue a buddy with a tube, we learned how to body surf.  Three words: so much fun!  

I was a bit nervous at first, but legitimately so.  The basic idea is that you pick a wave, time your movement so you push off the bottom towards shore to just catch the front of it, then hold a tight streamline as the wave carries you in.  After providing this explanation, one of the two instructing lifeguards showed us his neck scars from having broken his neck engaged in similar activities when he was younger.  I believe this was supposed to stress the importance of keeping your hands out above your head.  It also served to remind us to avoid choosing a wave that would crest as we pushed off, because then you can get dumped straight down rather than surfing in towards shore.

One attempt later, I discovered that a healthy fear is good to have but any other nervousness was completely unwarranted.  Body-surfing is so great!  As you hold tight and kick as hard as you can, the wave carries you into shore.  Suddenly, you're ten metres (more Aussie-ism) from where you started having just rushed through water faster than Ian Thorpe.  Okay, maybe not QUITE as fast as Ian Thorpe, but faster than Johnny Weissmuller, at least.  (JW of course being both the original Tarzan and an Olympic champion freestyler in the 1930s.)  I love how orientation combined information and cultural exposure with interactive fun at every twist and turn.

At the airport:

The next morning (Tuesday 14 July - 8 days ago), we headed to the airport for our flights to Sydney (UNSW - University of New South Wales - kids) and Melbourne (us Melbourne Uni-ers).  We got through security incredibly quickly since it's the most chill process ever.  You get your carry-ons scanned and walk right in, no ticket check or anything.  Since we hadn't had lunch, we enjoyed some delicious Aussie food before boarding our flight to Melbourne.  The flight was smooth and 2.5 hours later we were touching down in our new home city!

An air travel anecdote:

During orientation, we had split up into Melbourne and Sydney groups to learn a bit about our respective cities and unis (that's universities for those of you across the Pacific).  Lyndon, our student coordinator here in Melbourne, told our group to call him 24/7 in the event of an emergency or anytime during the day with whatever issues come up.  Emergencies, he noted, include broken bones and such but not finding a Huntsman spider in your room.  He explained this while showing us a slide of a Huntsman, which is apparently non-venomous but also about the size of a light switch cover, directly after explaining that this was the type of creepy crawly we might find in our room during the semester if we didn't clean up enough.  We all, of course, felt that an in-room Huntsman sighting really should constitute an emergency, even at 3 AM.  The moral, regardless, was that Lyndon is our person to call for help.

Andrew, who is studying at Melbourne but has one music class down the hill at RMIT (the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, which has lots of art and design classes, among other things), had to fly down early because RMIT classes start two weeks before Melbourne ones.  (Our first day of the semester is next Monday.)  While our flight was shortly after noon on Tuesday, he had to leave for the airport around 4:15 AM.  He overslept a bit, but was out with Stewart (another Arcadia person, whom we endlessly quote in his use of the word 'sauna' - Stewart's pronunciation: sah-OOOO-nuh, with the OOOO being louder and higher pitched) by about 4:30.  

In spite of a smooth arrival to the airport, Andrew unfortunately ended up missing his flight.  He had already checked his bags so had a couple of Australian dollars and little else.  He used some of his money to call Lyndon from a pay phone, since none of us had Australian cell phones yet.  Lyndon, our reach-me-anytime contact, did not pick up.  Andrew ended up reaching Vera, who works in the Melbourne Arcadia office, and getting on a later flight, ultimately barely making it to the last part of his class.

Yesterday, we had an enrolment session for classes - all 433 study abroad & exchange students here this semester - after which all of us Arcadia kids were hanging out chatting.  As he'd said he might, Lyndon showed up!  (Exclamation point because we hadn't seen him in a week as he was orienting another group of 80 Arcadians heading elsewhere while we had our first round of Melbourne orientations.)  In the course of the conversation, Andrew asked, "Lyndon, I missed my flight and called you from the airport.  Why didn't you pick up?"  Lyndon's response: "Sorry mate, I was out surfing."

I like the Aussie attitude this story hopefully shares with you.  Everything will, people figure, work out.  Go surf, party, have fun and get your work done in the interim.  As they say here, "No worries, she'll be right."

Next time: into the city!

Welcome to Australia

Specifically, welcome to the Sunshine Coast.  Until tomorrow, I'll be here in warm Caloundra (cull-AOUN-druh), about an hour north of Brisbane on the east coast of Australia.  As it is the middle of winter on this part of the planet, the weather is high 70s and sunny.

We arrived in Australia around 5:30 AM on Saturday after a 14-hour flight from Los Angeles.  I was fortunate to overhear a couple of people talking about Arcadia in the airport terminal at our gate, so got to talk to some fellow study abroad travellers before it started.  This included a guy who was sitting in the row behind me and agreed to trade his aisle seat for my window seat.  His beneficience made the flight infinitely more wonderful.  It was still very long.

Though the flight was a group flight, we weren't all seated together so I didn't get to meet other Arcadia-study-abroaders until we landed in Brisbane.  A few of us found each other and waited for luggage together then cleared customs and met up with the rest of the group.  Cam, one of our fearless leaders, met us at the airport with a smile and a great accent.  We met Lyndon, our other fearless leader, a few minutes later.

We had to wait about 30 minutes for our bus, but dropped half of our bags with the storage company which will be watching them until tomorrow then got to meet lots of people.  (It's times like this that I'm glad I'm fairly good with names.)  We then hopped on our bus and drove to Caloundra.  The day was filled with fun activities like Vegemite tasting in town (much better than I'd remembered it from camp), playing cricket on the beach before dinner (a delicious 'bundle' of fish and chips), and Australia trivia designed to keep us awake long enough to start getting on the right time zone.  We also had a couple of information sessions, but they keep them short and painless, which is wonderful.  (This morning, Stewart not only did not read slides aloud, deeming them important but obvious, but 

also told us lots of good stories about keeping coal in the bathtub of the Scottish hovel in which he grew up and such.)

Thanks to jetlag, I woke up early on Sunday (I thought 7 AM breakfast would be hideously early, but many of us were up by 6:15 or even much earlier) and got to see the sun rise over the Pacific.  I took this sunrise picture on the beach about 30 meters outside of our resort hotel.

In the afternoon, we went to the Australia Zoo, which was owned 

by Steve and Terri Irwin.  We took a zoo bus over which had 'Crikey' in big letters on the side with a picture of Steve, the infamous Crocodile Hunter, holding some dangerous animal in an enthusiastic manner.  I was thinking, "Oh zoo, cool," but thought it might be rather low-key as I'd seen most of the animals before.  We got to do lots of fun new things though.

I saw cassowaries wandering around, enclosed but not separated off by glass or big fences.  They have beautiful necks, a patchwork of vibrant blues, greens, reds, and oranges.  This one, viewed from above, is displaying his lovely curl on top of his head.

I got to pat a koala.

They had a big kangaroo enclosure, where we could wander around with and feed the kangaroos.  Here I am offering a kangaroo some tasty food pellets.

A group of us wandered through the zoo together.  (In total, there are about 30 of us here in Caloundra for training, all headed to U. of Melbourne or UNSW - University of New South Wales - outside Sydney as other Arcadia schools have their orientations on other weekends depending on when school starts.)  Here we are with a kangaroo (L to R: me, Sophia, Kristen, Mendissa, Sophie, and Cassandra (my future UC - University College - roomie)).

Today has been another laid-back day thus far.  After another sunrise (possibly my last in my time here, especially as it will only get earlier as we move into summer) and breakfast, we had an information session on culture and safety followed by a great couple of hours learning from an Aboriginal guy who lives in the area.  He and another guy showed us some Aboriginal dances and we learned a few cool terms.  For your edification, 'wanye' (WAN-yuh) means welcome in Gubbi Gubbi (GUH-bee GUH-bee), the area Aboriginal language.  (There are over 600 different Aboriginal languages across Australia.)  It functions rather like 'aloha' in that it can also mean goodbye.

We also got to see him play a really cool musical instrument which they create by testing small trees for internal termite damage.  He showed us some Aboriginal art and explained the meaning behind the design.  For example, a U-shape represents a person in Outback art, because the U mimics the shape left behind when a person stands up after sitting cross-legged in the sand.  We got to try our hand at spear-throwing and instrument-playing before our lunch break.

This afternoon, we head down to the beach for surf safety with a lifeguard and an opportunity to swim in the Pacific (reminder: yes, it is the middle of winter).  Tomorrow, we fly to Melbourne for three - yes, three - more orientations before we start classes in a couple of weeks.

G'day!

A look back at Brown

As I head off for exciting new adventures, I wanted to take a moment to share the recent past.  Here are a few visual representations, documented on my post-Commencement trip to Providence, which should help explain a small part of why it is simply impossible not to love Brown.

This was the view I had walking out the door every morning of senior year, making going to class that much more enjoyable.  This scene is, of course, up a sweeping stone staircase from the quiet street on which I lived.

Our common area junior year was on the other side of this second floor window (directly above the flowers).  Halfway between the main green and Barus & Holley, which was home to almost every math class I took at Brown, Hegeman was in the ideal location for snowy Providence winters.  Its proximity to the larger of the two dining halls on campus only seemed advantageous on especially rainy or icy days.

University Hall on the main green.  Could it be any more picturesque?

Sayles Hall, main green.  Enough said.

Even the Rock looks nice on a sunny day.  From the outside, that is.

Limitless reasons exist to cultivate a deep love for Brown over the course of four years.  Its storybook 'I can't believe real universities actually look like this' charm in the spring is one of them.