Lazy.

So obviously I've been really lazy about posting, but here's a short update! I went to a rugby game last Saturday and that was a lot of fun. I still don't understand the sport at all but it is really fun to watch. Unfortunately our team lost, but it was fun anyway...

I've been working on my fish dissections a bit lately, and I finished my 20 that I had to do for the month of February (the ones caught in that month). I also went lungfishing with this dude that also works in the lab on Friday - we didn't catch any lungfish, but it was fun. We used a seine net like the one on our field trip at Straddie, but it was a lot harder because the bottom of the river was really muddy so we just sank in and in parts we had to swim with the net. I was going to go next Monday to try again, but realized I have an exam next Wednesday and no time to study. I'm finally getting into school work...it's madness.

I can't think of much else that has happened recently...but when I do I will try to not be lazy and post some fun stories. This weekend my IFSA-Butler group is doing an "Adventure Weekend," so we're staying somewhere in the rainforest to do a ropes course, hike, and who knows what else. Next Thursday I leave for my first spring break trip to Fraser Island....I can't believe it's so soon! Time is flying.

Vegemite!

Fun fact: I got paid 10 dollars last night to eat a package of vegemite all at once on a spoon. It was awesome.

Also: Brynne spontaneously cut her hair short the other day and I got to witness it. We're basically twins (but not really, Meg!)

Basically what everyone does here is either: play sports, drink, or watch things on DC++. It's this program that you can use at the colleges (dorms) here to download shows, movies and music. Whenever I walk down the hall it feels like the majority of people are watching something or other in their rooms. It is amazing because it literally has everything you could want to find, and uses very little of our internet quota. I was struggling to get it to work on my computer for a while, but finally got this computer whiz kid to fix it for me the other day. It is AWESOME, and I think I'm going to download a bunch of shit and save it to my hard drive so I can have it at home. It is bomb.

Other than that...St. Patty's day was a ton of fun and I'm about to go out for one of my friend's birthdays. I'm going to play with some more dead fish tomorrow, yay!

Oh and today I went to Brisbane Forest Park on a field trip for my terrestrial class. It was pretty cool, we learned about lots of plants...and I got to see a platypus!! I couldn't get a picture because it was behind glass, but I took a video and I'll definitely try to post it. That was definitely the highlight of the day. Be jealous.

Fish guts!

So today I went to the lab of one of my profs and learned how to dissect a fish! I am working with a grad student and she assigned me a fish, the boney bream, and I will be dissecting I think ~20 a month and doing things like measuring length, weight of body/stomach/gonads, and taking out the otoliths, which is really hard! I thought I was going to hate dissecting, but it's actually pretty fun. I watched a kid do one and then I did one myself. So I'm going to be able to go into the lab whenever I want to and work on them. Apparently the work might lead to writing a paper by the end of the semester...but we'll see! It was totally gross but I was really excited about it...so I will now be playing with fish guts on a regular basis :)

Moreton Bay Research Station

This past weekend I went on a field trip for my Australia's Marine Environment class, to North Stradbroke Island which is off the coast of Queensland. It is a pretty small island, and it was a lot of fun. We had to get on a bus at 7 30 Friday morning, and we got to the island around 10. The rest of the day we spent eating/walking around the rocky shore and sandy habitats, learning about all the organisms that live there. It was so cool! We saw a blue striped octopus, which can kill you, and it was sweet. We saw lots of other cool stuff - spoon worms, sea sponges, sea cucumbers...among lots of other stuff. My favorite was probably the soldier crabs - they come out around dusk and run around together on top of the sand and when you go near them they burrow really quickly. I tried to get some pics/videos but we'll see how they came out...it was really hard to get. Oh, also the first thing we did when we got there was a seine netting, which is this huge net that some of the students took out to bring back the fish by the shore. Our prof pointed out all the fish that came in - and we got to see a few sting rays that got caught in the net. They were awesome. Towards the end of the day our tutor (groups of 10 were assigned to one tutor), asked us what we wanted to do an experiment on, and Brynne says that it would be cool to look at why hermit crabs clump together, and I was thinking the EXACT same thing for like 20 minutes. It was unreal. I am still in shock. Anyway, so that was what we did our experiment on, so on Saturday morning we had to go get crabs and we observed how they clumped...then we had a lot of the day to chill because we finished quickly and we had to give powerpoint presentations after dinner. Side note: they fed us like every 2-3 hours, which was sweet, and the food was pretty good. And the rooms were pretty nice - just bunks like a hostel but the bedding was pretty good and it was just cozy, kind of hard to describe. So anyway, the presentations took a while, then after I was just going to go to bed but then I decided to go out to the bar down the street, which normally closes at 10 pm but the people at the station asked them to keep it open because we were there. It was ridiculous...there was a high chair in the corner and I saw like a 5 year old kid. There was a local band playing and it was all these old dudes...and all these middle aged women were dancing ridiculously on the dance floor. I was majorly entertained. I don't think I went to sleep until 3 though and had to wake up at 6 30 because breakfast was at 7...but it turned out not to be too bad. After bfast we had to clean our rooms, then we left at 9 to go to Point Lookout and Cylinder Beach. Basically we walked along the beach/rocky shore for most of the morning/afternoon, and it was absolutely gorgeous. We stopped at a gelato place half way through, and it was amazing. I got fig flavored - best idea ever. So we had time to swim and stuff (which I did not because they didn't tell us to bring a swim suit...bitches) then we came back at 2, and got home about 5 30. So it's been a long day but I'm actually pretty awake...I was going to go out tonight but I'm going to save my energy for St. Patty's day! Anywho, it was a great weekend and expect to see pics on facebook soon. I didn't take too many, but I brought Brynne's camera on the walk today so I'll steal her pics and probably put some on the blog.

A couple of other random things

It has been rainy/cloudy/humid since Monday, which has been really nice because I can finally recover from my sunburn and it's not so hot so we're not sweating constantly. Yay.

Last week I started UQ Dance, which is a group that meets on Wednesdays and the leaders teach a different kind of dance every week for an hour, then have 2 hours of free dance afterward if you want to stay. Last week it was salsa, and it was great. Not sure if it will definitely happen because of rain (and we dance outside), but we'll see...

I talked to a prof/grad student about doing some marine research, and it looks like I may be able to get involved in some fish stuff, so that should be pretty cool. Details to come.

Another fun fact: Australians go out almost every night, start drinking between 5 and 7, go to bed on the early side, and always wake up early. They don't really need sleep. It is outrageous.

And, yesterday I booked a trip to the Whitsundays, which are islands off the coast of Queensland that have beautiful beaches and people mainly go to for sailing. We are doing a 3 day/2 night sailboat trip with snorkling and stuff. Sadly not till May 1 though!

This weekend I'm going on a field trip with my Marine Environment class to the Heron Island Research Station at Moreton Bay. I don't know much about it, but it should be good!

Fun Fact

I have an assignment due for my Marine class tomorrow, so we aren't going to have a lecture. And last week we had an entire lecture on how to write a good paper. It is great.

Surfers

So looks like it's time for another update. This past weekend I went to Surfers Paradise at the Gold Coast with a bunch of friends from UQ. We went Saturday morning and came back Saturday afternoon. Surfers is a popular beach for tourists - the sand was really white and the waves were huge! I didn't go in the water very much because I was scared I was going to get caught in a rip. The lifeguards put flags out to show where you can swim - it was a VERY narrow range but the beach was really long. I met up with 2 of my friends from Butler who go to Griffith University which is down there - they have a 20 minute bus ride to the beach! It took us about 2.5 hours to get down there, but only cost about 4 or 5 dollars. We had to take a bus, train, then bus again. We stayed in a hostel which was basically rooms with 2 bunk beds, a bunch of showers/toilets, and a bar. We started off at the bar there on Saturday night then headed out to this place called the Beer Garden - it was TONS of fun but Sunday was not the greatest haha. Everyone got burned basically...the sun is so strong here there's not much you can do about it. So it was really hot all weekend, but it was cool and cloudy this morning and rained this afternoon. I was really glad it wasn't so hot. I'm wearing jeans right now and hanging out in my usually sweltering room...I'm been really wanting to wear jeans lately for some reason!! Ok well we're heading to the Ville to get some food and stuff, send love!

Class sched - mainly for madre

Tuesday: 9-9 50 Terrestrial, 10-11 50 Aboriginal, 1-1 50 Marine

Wednesday: 10-12 50 Meditation (12-12 50 Terrestrial, might just not go to lecture this day), 1-1 50 Marine, 4-6 Buddhism

Thursday: 12-12 50 Terrestrial, 1-1 50 Marine

Then there will be an Aboriginal tutorial Tues at 12, 2, or 3

Party!


Saturday we held koalas and fed kangaroos, and pics are on facebook. The koala sanctuary is one of the coolest places ever - it was mad expensive but there were tons of koalas and other animals there so it was worth it. It has been in the 90s every day so yesterday we spent all day at our friends' pool off campus, and today I'm heading to South Bank with Brynne to the man made beach that is gorgeous and free to the public. Saturday night we went to a club called Down Under and it was a ton of fun. Most of the College went out last night, but I stayed in and watched a movie with a bunch of Butler kids because we were absolutely exhausted. Can't really think of anything else notable...I'm really excited for classes but I hope it cools off soon!! Guess it's better than snow though.....