"Straddie"

Last weekend I went on a field trip with my Marine Science class to Moreton Bay. University of Queensland has a research station on Stradbroke Island, which is one of the many beautiful islands on Moreton Bay, about 2 hours from Brisbane. The commute consisted of an hour bus ride and then an hour ferry ride on Friday morning, and we returned back home Sunday night. The weekend was very fun, especially for a field trip. We were able to spend time on the beach during the day, looking for cool marine animals in the water and also just laying in the sand. We were split into 10 groups of 5 and throughout the weekend we worked on our own research project with our groups and presented our findings at the end of the weekend. This was probably the most fun I have ever had doing any type of schoolwork, we had a lot of freedom and it was actually very fun learning about everything. My group did our research on Pygmy Squids, which are very small squids (less than 20mm) that change color from clear to brownish-green. We tested whether they changed color based on the color of their habitat or not. We did this by going out to the water early in the morning so that it was low tide and we were able to walk pretty far out and sift through the sea grass with nets to try and find these tiny squids. They were really hard to find (we found about 18 in an hour and a half, and I only found 2 the whole time) but it was still fun and I felt like a real scientist. We took our 18 little squids back to the lab at the research station and conducted our experiment. We filled Petri dishes with sea grass, brown algae, and sand, and also put empty Petri dishes on top of a black surface and a white surface. This allowed us to see weather the squids would change color to match their environment. It took us a pretty long time to complete the experiment, but it was really cool being able have a hands on learning experience and working with a new group of people. In the end, our hypothesis that the squids would change to a darker color in a darker environment and a clear color in a lighter environment was pretty much correct, though not completely true all of the time. It was basically just fun to stare at them and see them change color right before our eyes. After presenting our project and watching the other groups present the next day, I really learned a lot about the marine environment in the area and about how research projects work.

On the last day of the trip we left the research station and went to the other side of the island where we took a walk on some cliffs and saw some beautiful views of the ocean. Then they gave us a few hours to relax on the beach before we had to head back to Brisbane. It was a great weekend, I met a lot of new people and learned a lot of new things. Who knew a field trip could be so fun! Well, in 2 days I will be off to Cairns where will finally get to dive in the Great Barrier Reef and take a real rainforest tour. I can’t wait!

Melbourne & The Great Ocean Road

Last weekend I took an amazing 4-day trip to Melbourne. Melbourne is Australia’s second-largest city and is located on the southern coast in Victoria. It is known for some of the country’s best art, music, food, fashion, and coffee.

My roommate and I booked a hostel for the weekend and there were also four other girls (2 girls from U of I and 2 of their friends) going to Melbourne that same weekend- we were all on the same flight there but stayed in different hostels since ours was full when they tried to book it. So, the 6 of us flew out of Brisbane Thursday evening and arrived in Melbourne at about 10:00 that night. We all got a huge kick our of the fact that they didn’t ask for our IDs once at the airport, only asked for our boarding passes once when we were entering the gate, and did not have the crazy liquid restrictions. It made getting through security and to our gate almost too easy, I guess that’s what the olden days were like in the states, which I must have been too young to remember.

Our hostel was located in St. Kilda, which is the city’s most famous seaside suburb. By the time we got to St. Kilda it was close to 11pm and we were starving. We stopped at a street side Italian restaurant and ordered the most delicious pasta I have had since I’ve been in Australia.

This was very exciting for us since we have been very frugal with food since we’ve been here- I pack my lunch everyday when I go to campus so I don’t have to spend money on food and we cook dinner at the apartment every night. Having delcious food (especially Italian, my favorite) was a great treat to start the weekend off.

We then wandered over to our hostel, where the adventure really began. Our hostel was full of young backpackers (every traveler here is called a “backpacker”) and 20-something year olds from all over the world who are on one-year work and holiday visas and have been “living” at this hostel for months. As soon as we enter our 6 person room, it is obvious that our roommates had been living there a while...We got a huge kick out of this, amazed that people could live in these conditions for so long, and thankful that we were only there temporarily and had a nice apartment waiting for us back in Brisbane at the end of the weekend.Throughout the weekend we spent some time talking with our roommates, who were from Belgium, Canada, and Germany.

They were all in their mid 20s, traveling all over the country for about a year, spending a few months at a time in different cities, working random bartending and restaurant jobs. This really opened our eyes to the amount of people who are traveling all over the country, living out of hostels and working random jobs, and started us thinking about the possibility of being one of them after we graduate next year.The next morning we woke up early and I had my first taste of delicious Melbourne coffee, which was the best coffee I have had in my life. We headed to the Queen Victoria Market, one of the largest open-air markets in the southern hemisphere. The market has been around for over 125 years and has everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to handmade shoes and jewelry. We spent hours there, browsing around for souvenirs and gifts.

Since it was a Friday morning it wasn’t too crowded and we were able to take our time browsing through and stopping wherever we wanted. We spent the rest of the day wandering around the city. We stopped for a delicious lunch at a street-side café and people-watched for a while.

It felt very liberating being able to walk wherever we felt like around the city, no matter what street we turned down we found beautiful sites, interesting people to watch, and cute stores to stop in. That night we ate dinner at a BBQ that our hostel hosted on the rooftop of our building. We met some friendly and interesting people, who we ended up going out with to a bar that night for a few hours. We called it a pretty early night since we had to get up very early the next morning for our Great Ocean Road Tour.

The Great Ocean Road is the country’s most famous stretch of road, running for about 150 miles along the beautiful coast.

We were picked up by our small tour bus (15ish people) at 7am and began the drive. We drove on the Princess Highway to the city of Geelong, through Torquay, the famous Bells Beach Surf, and then on to the Great Ocean Road.

Along the Road we made many stops- at lookout points and also spots where we could actually walk down to the sand and water.

We also made a stop at the Split Point lighthouse, which was very beautiful and also apparently the filming location of some old famous TV show about a single dad raising his kids in a lighthouse..?

We also stopped for a picnic lunch where we saw Koalas sleeping in the trees. We then took a short hike through the rainforest, with the biggest trees I have ever seen in my life. We headed back down the road and made a long stop at the famous rock formation known as the Twelve Apostles.I realize that wasn’t a great description of the tour, it was honestly indescribable so hopefully the pictures will speak for themselves- they were some of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. It was definitely a day that I will remember for the rest of my life, it was worth every penny and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

The next day was Sunday and we woke up early, sat down at an adorable café for breakfast, and then headed to Brunswick Street. Brunswick Street is on the border of the Central Business District and is full of quirky boutiques, bars and cafes.

After only a little bit of walking around it began to rain, so we escaped into a coffee shop where we were able to relax a little while reading the paper and catching up on earthquake news in Japan. Since we have limited internet and basically no TV here, it is very easy to get disconnected from the outside world, so being forced to sit down for a bit and read the paper was nice.

On Monday we were able so spend the beginning of a beautiful bay in St. Kilda before our afternoon flight.

We relaxed on the pier for a bit, and then rented bikes for about an hour and rode around the area. We even made it to the Botanic Gardens, which were relaxing and beautiful.

After my first big trip since I have been in Australia, I am even more confident in the fact that this country is the most amazing place on earth. I have been enjoying Brisbane so much that I guess I kind of figured that there was no way that I could feel the same way about Melbourne. I was extremely impressed with the beauty, character, and excitement of the city and I would definitely love to go back there one day. That day probably wont come for a while though, so in the mean time I am heading about an hour away from Brisbane to Stradbroke Island in Moreton Bay this weekend on a field trip withone of my classes and I’m sure that will be a memorable experience that I can tell you all about as well.

Almost forgot about that school thing..

I just had my first week of classes at University of Queensland! In January when everyone else went back to school and began the stress and work of a new semester I was taking it easy at home feeling sorry for them, but now its my turn... Australian schools begin their first semester of classes in the end of February because that’s technically towards the end of their summer. I am taking 4 classes here (that’s the average course load, you have to get special permission to take more or less classes in a semester). I got lucky and was able to schedule my classes for only 3 days a week- Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I set up my schedule this way so that I would be able to get some longer distance traveling in on my 4-day weekends (we are traveling to Melbourne next Thursday after class and returning home Monday night!) Many of the study abroad students were able to set their schedule up the same way as well so we will get some good weekend travel in.

These are the classes I am taking:

1. Australia’s Marine Environment, which includes a 3-day field trip to Moreton Bay and also a 4-day field trip to Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef during Mid-Semester Break. 2. Australia’s Terrestrial Environment, which includes field trips to Brisbane Forest Park, Lamington National Park, Australia Zoo, and a 4-day trip to Fraser Island during the other half of Mid-Semester Break.

There are many study abroad students (including the majority of my roommates) in these 2 classes. I am very excited about these classes because not only do I get to see some great parts of Australia, but I get to learn about them and the prices are a lot better than if I were to plan a trip on my own. Also, these classes go along great with my Environmental Science major, so I will actually be gaining valuable knowledge that I can use in the future!

3. Contemporary Australia is going to be a bit more work than the first two classes, but I think it will be very interesting. This course is “an introduction to key issues and debates concerning Australia as a nation, a culture, and a society” (yes, that’s straight from the syllabus). There are a lot of assignments and also a large research paper, which will be a lot of work but I figure that I should do some actual learning about this country that I’m living in.

4. Introduction to Environmental Management will also be a larger amount of work, but I will be learning things that will be very helpful to me in the future. This course focuses how we approach the environment and deal with the environmental problems. I have taken many environmental classes but have never taken one specifically focused on management so it should be helpful and interesting.

After a week of classes, I am pleased and excited with my schedule and also am very impressed by this university. I sort of blindly chose University of Queensland when deciding on which school in Australia to apply to. My study abroad office did not give us great information on the differences between the many schools we could chose from so I felt pretty lost a rushed when it came to make a decision. My friend Becca who had also planned on studying in Australia this semester (but had a change of plans) did a little more research than I did and decided UQ might be a good choice because of a few small factors that I don’t even remember now. I was annoyed with the study abroad office and wanted to get my application started (and I also trust Becca J) so I chose UQ too. My point is, a quick and mostly blind decision turned out GREAT (thanks Becca!)

University of Queensland (“UQ”) is the oldest university in Queensland and the 5^th oldest in all of Australia (founded 100 years ago!) It is a very large school, with over 44,000 students across the three campuses. The campus I am on (St. Lucia) is very big, with beautiful sandstone buildings surrounding The Great Court, which is a large grassy area similar to (but bigger and much more attractive than) The Quad at University of Illinois. This makes for an amazing atmosphere to go to class and get homework done, but also just hang around and relax. I am also very impressed by the teaching style and course structure here. I am not sure if it is all of Australia or just UQ, but it seems as though they have figured out the right way to teach. Most of all they are very ahead on their technology- almost all lectures are recorded and accessible online after the class period. Also, the teachers’ notes/powerpoints are always posted online days or weeks before that class period. At home there are many teachers who don’t post their notes before class or don’t post them at all. It takes more than just listening in class for me to understand or remember things so it is very helpful for me to have notes and recordings of lectures. As you would imagine, this causes most people not to attend lectures, but that leaves it up to the student to make that decision based on their own learning style or the grade they want in that class (I don’t really understand this completely yet, but from what I have gathered most Australian students only need to pass their classes, the letter grade doesn’t matter as much). The teachers are all also very friendly and helpful and make me feel like they want to help me learn. This is all very refreshing and exciting to me, because while I am obviously excited to travel and spend some time at the pubs, I am also very passionate about my major so I’m excited to learn about the environment in these classes.

It was definitely a great first week of classes! It was weird being on a new campus and feeling like a freshman again with my campus map out and arriving late to lectures, but I enjoyed every second of it. I just penciled in my big assignments and tests into my calendar so I am a bit nervous about the amount of work combined with all of my traveling, but I know it will be worth it and I will make it work. Everyday I feel lucky to be on such a beautiful campus at such an amazing school, and I am very excited for the next 4 months.

As I said before, I am traveling to Melbourne this weekend with my roommate and a few other girls so I'm anxiously looking forward to that!

Surfers Paradise

Last weekend my roommates and some other study abroad students ventured to Surfers Paradise, one of the beaches on the Gold Coast. The Gold coast is a popular tourist location in Queensland, consisting of 35 beaches and evidently 300+ sunny days a year.

Surfers Paradise is the beach on the Coast that is visited by the most tourists, which is completely obvious the moment you arrive.

Surfers Paradise is about a 2 hour commute from our apartment. This consists of a bus, a train, another train, and another bus. We left our apartment early Saturday morning, stayed in a hostel Saturday night, and left the beach at about 3:00 Sunday evening. The area is made up of a beautiful sandy beach right next to an area with high-rises, shops, restaurants, and nightclubs. It is said to be comparable to Daytona Beach or Miami in the US.

We basically spent all say Saturday laying on the beach, and playing in the water. The beauty of the ocean was almost overwhelming when we first arrived. It has been so long since I have seen an ocean, sand, and so much sun that I was taken a bit by surprise.

The water is very warm (compared to what I am used to with Lake Michigan) and usually the salt bothers my skin and eyes but this time it did not so I was able to play in the water a bit. The waves were pretty big and there were some people surfing, but it seems as though there are much more popular places to surf on the Gold Coast (contradicting this beach’s name…) All of the local Australians that we spoke to throughout the weekend acted a bit ashamed of Surfers Paradise and said we need to go further south on the Coast to see a real Australian beach and real surfing. Looking back I can see where they are coming from- the area is screaming TOURISM, which gets exhausting even after just 2 days. The palm trees have flashing lights on them at night and there is a bar called Vegas... so the beach is the only relaxation you really get here.

Saturday night we paid to participate in a “Wicked Pub Crawl” which took us to 5 bars on the strip, gave us 1 drink at each bar, and also some food. This did not turn out to be the best night out I have had in Australia.

The drinks were pretty terrible and the music was too loud to think, let alone have a conversation. Most of the girls we were with did have a lot of fun but it was a bit too night-clubby for me. It wasn’t terrible, but I don’t think I need to experience the nightlife at Surfers Paradise again before I leave.

We woke up pretty early and spent the whole day Sunday on the beach, adding to our sunburn and marveling the beauty of the ocean some more. Surprisingly, the beach wasn’t too crowded all weekend, we were able to have our own space and didn’t feel overwhelmed by tourist until we actually got off of the beach near the restaurants and stuff. Basically the weekend was filled with laying, relaxing, and marveling at the beauty of the ocean. It’s very lucky that we are relatively close to the Gold Coast because people travel long distances to see this famous area.

It was definitely a good idea to pay for a hostel and stay the night since the commute was pretty rough. I hope to be able to go back to the Gold Coast but would like to spend time on one of the other beaches that the locals suggested to us. In the mean time, I need to go buy some more sunscreen.