Weeks 15, 16, and 17- The Dandenogs, Snorkeling, Surfing, and the Melbourne Cup

My apologies for not updating in forever. It’s been a busy past few weeks. I suppose I should start from where I left off.

The weekend after the 11th week of classes I traveled with Mike and his two friends, Michelle who goes to Berkeley and another girl who goes to BU, to the Dandenog Ranges park. We did a hike called the Kokoda Trail which mimicked a tail in another country. We couldn’t exactly figure out why the replicated it in Australia but enjoyed it none the less. Part of the trail was called the 1000 steps. They weren’t kidding about it being 1000 steps. For a few days after getting home I was insanely sore from doing the hike. There was another hike that we did as well to see a dinky little waterfall. We weren’t really impressed by the waterfall but the rest of the 3 mile hike was beautiful. We also had a really great time driving around and getting lost in the mountains.

Last week was the last week of classes at Melbourne University. I really enjoyed a few of my classes so I was sad for them to end. On the other hand, I’ll never have to listen to my patronizing biochem professor ever again which will be a delight. 

On Saturday I went snorkeling with Dawit, Mike, and Brian. We went back to the Mornington Peninsula to the towns of Portsea and Rye. We went out by the piers and swam under them. We saw tons of life: puffer fish, a school of salmon, star fish, kelp, weedy dragons (sea horses), and rays.

On Sunday we studied.

On Monday I went surfing with Mike, Abdul (Mike’s roommate), Michelle, and Brian. I was wearing a pink wet suit and used a pink surf board and called myself malibu barbie all day. I stood up! I had so much fun. I want to do it again and again until I’m amazing at it. I love being in the water so much. After getting out due to exhaustion and unattaching myself from my surf board I decided it would be a wonderful idea to go swimming. I took off my wetsuit, which was possibly the best feeling ever because I had been in it for over 5 hours, and went back into the water. It’s so interesting how different swimming feels after surfing. I was no longer intimidated by the waves that I had been surfing on but I would have been had I not gone surfing. I was easily able to swim out past the surfers which I found funny because as a surfer I had trouble getting to that point (even with my “floatation device”). By the time I had gotten out of the water everyone else was fully dressed and had almost entirely loaded the car. I could have stayed in longer but I figured people wanted to get home.

On Tuesday there was a state holiday, the 149th Melbourne Cup. It is the largest horse race in the world. 100,000 people attend from all over the world. People show up in their best apparel and wear fancy hats (the women most often wear fascinators which are funny feathery things that stick up out of their hair) and spend the day boozing and schmoozing. My friends and I bet between ourselves, each picking two horses and whose ever horse came closest to first would win the money. Abdul won both races and had actually managed to pick the winning horses. Although he was excited by his net profit of $26, he was disappointed that he hadn’t bet with the bookies; neither of the horses were set to win and had AMAZING odds. His $5 would have been over $100. Meanwhile he had convinced everyone around us that he had bet several thousand dollars and so had everyone congratulating him after the race. It was hilarious. We met a woman from Queensland who turned out to be the highlight of our day. Brian was made to wear a “monkey” suit but had no shoes to match and so wore his trail running shoes (black suit with brown/blue shoes) and this woman was asked what she thought about it. In response she took a bite out of his PB&J and proceeded to tell him that his sandwich didn’t make up for his style. She then gave us “high fives for Jesus” and screeched, “YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” She’s pictured with Brian at the top of this page. Later I accidentally befriended a woman who was trying to cut in front of us to get a better view. She caught the evil eye I gave her and said, “it’s all right, I’m on a mission from God.” We introduced her to “Jesus” and they hit it off quite nicely for a while. She was one of the people who was convinced that Abdul had actually bet big money on the race. After the races were over we went out for pizza and had a quiet night in after being in the sun all day.

It’s back to studying for me. Finals begin next week and mom comes to visit!

Week 14- The Mornington Peninsula

Last weekend was the opening for the Melbourne International Arts Festival. There was a theme of bells and the two free shows that I saw both incorporated them. I’ll try to upload video to youtube to show you one of the shows, the ringing of the federation bells (done in a very peculiar way...). The other show was incredible, making a moving mobile with trapeze artists and musicians as the hanging parts. I don’t have photos but here’s a video someone else took: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P31hmAP2Ua4

This weekend Brian, Mike, and I went camping on the Mornington Peninsula. The MP makes up the Eastern half of Port Philip, the northern most point of the bay being the location of Melbourne. Its a very touristy area, although surprisingly uninteresting. There were lots of pretty beaches and some nice overlooks. All of the other attractions, wine tasting and spas, were a little out of our price range for the weekend. Even finding a camp ground was difficult seeing as the camp sites were only open beginning in November. 

I faithfully took up my position as the lost navigator (I swear I have a good sense of direction but these guys expect way too much!) and was verbally abused for a good portion of the weekend until I let Mike navigate (read: he got to sit in the front seat and I had the map in the back because he couldn’t figure out how to read it). Brian was the driver and Mike sat in the back seat and attempted to listen to his biology lectures on his ipod but fell asleep quickly instead. 

At the very tip of the MP is Point Nepean (which I always read as Napoleon) which was an old military base. The Australians were afraid that the Germans and the Russians were going to attack them in attempt to jeer at the British in the first and second world wars. Signs at the base claim that the first shot of WWI and the first allied shot of WWII were both from Point Nepean. Both were warning shots. The Point never actually saw any real military action, although it did have some huge guns that could shoot 7 inch bullets 9 km out to sea. It was fun to explore all of the underground tunnels and the strange little rooms that made up the under hill fortresses. The coast line is really pretty. On one side the ocean crashes and dashes rocks against one another. On the other the bay is peaceful and makes up a nice wading beach. In the 1950s the Australian Prime Minister vanished while swimming at the beach and was never seen again. It took them 50 years to finally declare him dead by drowning (although his body was never recovered).

We went to a state park that had some really cool rock formations, the best being a mammoth rock called the “London Bridge” (although it looks nothing like the real London Bridge or the one that is a part of the Twelve Apostles). It formed this huge cave with a small opening in the back (small being a relative term, I could easily have walked out of it upright had I been Jesus and could walk on water) with lots of tide pools. I got to hold star fish with 7 or 8 legs. Some were tiny, the size of a 50 cent piece, while others were larger than my hand. It’s really cool to feel their suckers grab on to you and pulsate as they attempt to figure out their new location. There were also tiny fish and tons of hermit crabs. We decided to climb to the top of the rock, which probably wasn’t a good idea judging on how hard it was to get down again, where there was a beautiful view of the surrounding cove and a view straight out to Tasmania (which is way too far away to be seen). Another park had a really cool point where the two sides were under very different conditions. One was calm and would have had tide pools had we been there at low tide while the other had ferocious waves that crashed against the shore. There was a “sand beach” but the definition of sand that they were using was circular rocks. Every time the waves crashed into the beach and receded back toward the ocean the rocks would grind against one another. It was awesome to listen to, quintessential ocean. 

The highlight of the trip for Mike was seeing a wild echidna. It was pretty cool and very spiky, larger than I had expected. 

In other news, I’m now coming home December 20th and also traveling to New Zealand for two weeks. It should be fun! 

Week 13- A Week in Melbourne

Sydney

The first week home from spring break is always the hardest. With four weeks left before the end of classes everything begins to seem much closer. Papers become much more pressing and real. 

Assignments I have due:

1. 1.A presentation and paper on Male-to-female Transsexual’s role in the feminist movement.
2. 2.A summary of each of my psychology lectures
3. 3.A paper on another aspect of feminism, possibly raunch culture.
4. 4.A paper on something Australian, probably on the immigration of Asians to Australia and the reception they got. If not that, then the sustainable nature of their water system.
5. 5.A cognitive psychology exam.
6. 6.A biochem exam.

Week 12- Sydney and the Whitsunday Islands

The Great Barrier Reef!!!

After a two day lay over back home in Melbourne, 14 friends and I departed for Sydney. We caught taxis to the bus station at 3:30 am, caught the bus at 4 am, arrived at the airport at 5 am, and caught our plane at 6:15 am. We arrived in Sydney at 7:45 and by 8:15 we were in a shuttle on our way to a hostel called Woodduck Inn. The place was terrible. It smelled like a combination of chlorine and urine and the staff who worked there were not helpful in the least and made numerous errors when checking us in. We departed to go to the grocery store to buy breakfast and lunches for ourselves for the next three days. I never have spent longer in a grocery store. We argued over the type of bread to buy, how much we should get, what type of meat, how much milk, etc. It was pretty hilarious. Without even realizing it we were shopping under one of Sydney’s landmarks, its famous Coca-Cola sign. No one thought it was that special once we reflected on it. It reminded me of the one by the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. It lights up in red and white and flashes in different patterns. The day was sunny but due to the dust storm 3 days before, everything was a little hazy. In the afternoon we went to Bondi Beach and barely survived. It was a little too cloudy for a beach day and FAR too windy to enjoy it at all. The beach was pretty and the shops around it were quite cute. The surf looked good. I assume it is a decent place, I can’t imagine there would be so much hype (and a national geographic show about it) if the conditions were always like we saw them. That night we went out to dinner with other people we had met at our hostel and then went dancing. 

The next morning of a few of us got up really early so we would be ready to sight see the day away. We walked by a pretty church, through the botanical gardens (which are huge!), and ended up having an amazing few of the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge. We hadn’t planned on visiting the Opera House itself but once we realized how close we were we were drawn to it. I thought that it was probably hyped up as such an amazing building, but it truly is beautiful. We poked around inside a little bit (the bathrooms are really cool; there are no straight lines) before continuing our journey to the harbor. We decided to split into two groups, one went to Mannly Beach (which they said was so much better than Bondi) and my group went to the Toronga Zoo. It was huge! There were so many cool animals. As impressed with the zoo and I was, I think being in Australia has spoiled me. I’m used to seeing all of the animals in the wild and its just not as cool to see them any more. Who would think that you could become nonchalant about seeing kangaroos, emus, and wombats? Platypus’ are still really cool though but thats probably because I haven’t seen them in the wild. That night we went to a nice restaurant thats supposed to have the best ribs in Australia. I had chicken.

The next morning myself and three friends, Bou, Elaine, and Sam, left for the airport. We flew to Hamilton Island in Queensland. Hamilton Island is one of the 74 Whitsunday Islands. Something like 60 of them are national parks. Three have resorts on them and I have no explanation for the other 11... One is privately owned. The islands are renown for the proximity to the great barrier reef and their amazing beauty. We took a ferry from Hamilton Island to the mainland, to a town called Airlie Beach. It’s a total backpacker town, meaning that its small and kitchy, geared toward poor students/travelers on holiday. We stayed in one of the cheap hostels but in comparison to Woodduck it was amazing. It was considered a party hostel because it has a large pub style restaurant, beer garden, and live music every night. Every day my friends and I said that we would go down and dance but every night we came home and were so exhausted that the live music two floors down outside our window did nothing to keep us awake. 

Our first day was spent on the Maxi Raggamuffin. It’s an 56 foot sail boat with an 80 foot mast that had one a bunch of important international races back in its day (70s-90s). Now it spends its days taking people to Whitehaven Beach. The beach is 7 km (3.5 miles) long and made of very fine white sand that is a high proportion of silica. NASA uses the sand to make lenses and windows for things that go into space. The beach glows in a way that I have never seen before. It was hazy from the dust storm (which had unfortunately traveled north while we were in Sydney) but that didn’t stop it from being a beautiful day. The water was crystal clear and almost completely still. You could go in it waist deep and still see your feet. There were small white fish that had black stripes swimming all around. There were also tiny harmless jellyfish that were all clear except for a blue dot in the center that could only be seen in a certain light. I would be swimming and then feel like I was hitting a patch of jello. It was quite disconcerting. We had a picnic lunch, played some volleyball, lay on the beach, and swam more. Finally, after what wasn’t enough time (there could never possibly be enough time) we had to get back on the boat. On the way back everyone on the boat was a little friendlier and we got to know several of the people. There was a couple on their honeymoon who were really friendly (and live in SF) and a girl from Pennsylvania who we realized were going to be going to the Great Barrier Reef with us on Thursday so we became quite friendly. 

The second day we went hiking in Conway National Park, located right outside of Airlie Beach. We hiked up to the peak of Mt. Rooper and then to Coral Beach. The views at both places were gorgeous! The dust had begun to clear and the visibility was amazing. The water was so blue and it was really neat to spot patches of fringe reef surrounding the island. Coral Beach is named because instead of having rock or sand it has coral. We spent ages on the beach sorting through it, being amazed at all of the variations and patterns that coral has. I should mention that we made friends with one of the bus drivers on our arrival to Airlie Beach. All of our bus rides (I think there were 5 or 6 total) we took with him (except 1) by coincidence. He was really helpful because he would be willing to give us directions to wherever we wanted to go (we had no idea where Conway was) and would stop before he was supposed to so that we would be closer to our destination. He would make announcements about the locals as they got on and off the bus that were hilarious (and of course I can’t remember what they were because I never wrote them down). 

On the third day we went to the Great Barrier Reef! When you’re around the reef a huge distinction is made between fringe reef and outer reef. Fringe reef is located around the islands. It usually has some fish and a few species of coral but is generally considered more tarnished and dead. The outer reef is in deep water, has tons of fish, tons of coral, and is the coolest thing ever. We took a two hour boat ride on a supercharged ferry to get to a pontoon that was located just off of the reef. The pontoon had all of the equipment we could need for snorkeling and scuba diving. I really wanted to try scuba diving but couldn’t because of my asthma (which of course made me incredibly determined to learn how in the future). Instead I got to put on a baby pink “stinger suit” for protection against jelly fish, flippers, mask, snorkel, and a pfd to make it easy to hang out and just watch the fish go by. The initial plunge into the water was scary. You had to swim about 50 feet through open water before getting to the edge of the reef. I always jump into water with my eyes closed, I never trust that goggles will stay on , but when I opened my eyes I found myself underwater and surrounded by fish (regal tang, think Dory in Finding Nemo). I swam over to the reef and was immediately amazed at how different living reef looks from the pieces of it we found on the beach. It’s so colorful and it comes in so many shapes! There were a million fish everywhere which was really neat to see. Under the pontoon lived some grouper fish, which can weigh up to 600 lbs and be 8-10 feet long (they are so scary looking and luckily don’t come anywhere near the area we were in). First I swam around the edge of the reef and then I swam over it. There were about two feet of water so I had to be really careful not to kick the reef while swimming. Some patches of the reef are sandy on top. In these areas there are white fish that harvest algae. If you get too close to their algae farm they’ll swim up to you and harass you. I got smacked in the face by two of these fish. It was the most startling experience I’ve ever had. I fell in love with giant clams. Small ones went from my wrist to my elbow and larger ones were at least the size of half my arm span plus my shoulders. I really can’t explain how magical it was to put my face underwater and just get absorbed in everything that was going on. It felt weird to surface and become exposed to the sunlight. It makes everything look so soft under water. Going home was really sad. I didn’t want to leave at all. I could have spent hours more in the water (it was 80 degrees F) just observing life. The ride home was beautiful. The dust finally cleared and it was so sunny. We hung out with our friends from the previous boat and ended up having dinner with them. It was really good fun. 

After perusing the shops for a short while in the morning it was time to say goodbye to Airlie beach. We had to catch a ferry back to the island where the airport was. We arrived in a cold Sydney. Luckily we were in a different hostel, this one called the Funkhouse, which was clean and friendly. We went out dancing and I managed to rip my jeans. I’m quite upset about this. 

The next morning it was pouring rain but staying in the hostel sounded like no fun so we went out anyways. We first went to Darling Harbor and stumbled across a farmers market that was combined with the food festival that was going on. Further down the harbor was a Latin dance and music festival. We went to China town for lunch and then randomly found this huge indoor vendor mall. We stayed there for hours. Above it was a normal mall which we also perused for hours. What seemed like a day that wouldn’t be fun ended up being really interesting! We caught a shuttle back to the airport where we rejoined the other 10 members of our trip who had been in Cairns. I slept the entire ride home, not waking up for take off or landing. When I woke up I couldn’t figure out what was going on. 

In other news: one thing that strikes me as quite odd is that we just had our day light savings time switch last night. I don’t think it’s for another week in the US (I have no idea about any other countries). Mom is coming to visit in November and I’m really excited! I finally have my exam schedule and it looks pretty good. I think I like having finals spread over a month (although I’m sure I’ll probably hate it when I’m sick of studying after the first week).

Week 11- Tasmania!

Port Arthur

Week one of Spring break is over. With IES, the program I’m here with, my group went to Tasmania. We had such a fun time (except for the crazy bus driver who made me car sick every time we drove). 

Day 1 included getting picked up by a bus at 6:15am. When you consider the fact that I was working on a lab report until 3, that’s REALLY early. We flew from Melbourne to Hobart and hit the ground running. We briefly stopped at our Hostel before going to the Salamanca market. It was an open air street fair that takes place every Saturday by the harbor. There were crafts, food, art, and lots of acts. It was really fun to peruse the street looking for treasure. After a few hours of market going, my friends and I decided to go to the museum. There were several cool exhibits, unfortunately sleep deprivation fogs my memory slightly. We saw a skeleton of a Thylacine, the Tasmanian dog/tiger that has been thought to be extinct since the 1930s. We stopped by a movie exhibit and began to watch penguins march around. Pretty soon after we were all asleep (probably 15 of us) lying on top of each other. We were woken up by an usher type person (security?) who thought it was funny.  We got up and looked at another exhibit, only to be drawn into another movie where we fell asleep. This time the man didn’t find it so funny. We decided to take our leave. After a two hour nap at the market it was time for a very tasty sushi dinner. That night we decided to wander around and found a 24 hour bakery. I had an amazing chocolate cake. We made several local friends.

Day 2 was an amazing white water rafting trip down the Tahune river. Half way through the trip we got to a deep, open area where we played king of the hill. Two people stood on the top of a raft and wrestled until someone (or both people) fell in. I played with my friend Chelsea. We were really evenly matched so we both ended up in the 2 degree Celsius water (about 34 F). We also had raft wars where each raft attempted to sabotage all of the others. This included pushing people out of the boat, splashing each other, and occasionally kidnapping people. That night we went to a tasty pizza place.

Day 3 had the most amazing start ever. We went to the Cadbury Chocolate Factory! We got to learn about their processes to make the chocolate. They also have a store that sells the reject chocolate. I ended up with 4 kilos (8 lbs) for under $30. That’s probably the best investment I’ve made while here. We then drove to Port Arthur which was an old jail. It’s almost all completely in ruins and is so incredibly beautiful. The stories about it are horrifying, only the most horrible people were sent there from England. They were treated harshly. We went on a cruise around the bay and took a tour on the Isle of the Dead, their cemetery island. I heard several really interesting stories. I also found a headstone with my name on it. Creepy! Half of our group decided to walk home together along the edge of the bay. My friends and I were fast hikers so we quickly got ahead. We landed on a beach and weren’t sure wether to take the road or the beach so after waiting for the rest of the group for ten minutes we decided to take the road. After walking for about 10 minutes we hadn’t seen any signs letting us know if we were going the right way or not. I attempted to flag down a police officer but he thought I was waving at him and waved back and drove by. Eventually we reached our camp site (not before the same police officer had passed us twice) to be greeted by the bus driver who laughed at us because we had taken a route twice as long as the one going on the beach. We were worried that our “guides” would be worried about us but they hadn’t noticed we were missing. That night we had Kangaroo spaghetti and then went back to Port Arthur for a ghost tour. SO creepy! We walked through the roofless church that would have held 1000 people, the doctors house, the autopsy room (where there was a story about a woman with really long hair, and having the longest hair I was used as the subject of the story), we also went into asylum where they kept people in solitude and silence for 23 hours a day. At one point we were ushered into the dark cell. The walls were each a meter thick with one window. Prisoners who were badly behaved were punished with a month in the dark cell. Our guide closed the door on us for 30 seconds and we were all so glad to get out. I put my fingers an inch from my eyes but I couldn’t see them.

Day 4 we went to the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park. We saw the devils tear apart a wallaby skull and absolutely demolish it. Their jaws have 2000 lbs of force. They’re really cute. Unfortunately 80% of wild devils have a mysterious tumor that has become known as devil cancer. It deforms their face and mouth over the course of 8 months until they die from starvation. The pictures of it are horrifying. The Tasmin Peninsula is the only place that has wild devils unaffected by it. At the devil park they also had a kangaroo and wallaby petting zoo style thing. I got to feed a joey that was in its mama’s pouch! They were all so cute! That afternoon we were supposed to go on a hike but it was pouring cats and dogs and there was no sign of it showing up. A few of us didn’t want to be stuck inside all day so we decided to go for a polar bear swim. We drove to a nearby beach, went for a walk, went back to the bus to strip into bathing suits, and sprinted into the water. It was FREEZING! My breath was immediately taken away. There was a strong rip tide so we didn’t go in very deep. Mean while, there’s a storm raging around us. After a few minutes of splashing we quickly drove back to the hostel and took nice hot showers. That night we introduced the group to the game Mafia. It got to be very intense. We played from 10pm till about 2am (the rain was still pounding down). Several fights broke out.

Day 5 dawned bright and sunny. We did the hike we had missed on day 4. It was up to the saddle of a mountain range, to a beautiful look out, down the other side, and to Wineglass Bay. The waves were 10-15 feet tall! It was so beautiful. We all played in the water for a while and had to hike back home with soaked jeans. While I was putting on my shoes, a wild wallaby came over to me, sniffed me several times, and inserted itself onto my lap. I didn’t know what to do but scratch him behind the ears. He was really sweet. Sadly, no one got photos of him on my lap. We went for a wine tasting at Velo winery, run by Micheal Wilson a former Tour de France and Olympic competitor. His wife gave us a talk and was absolutely hillarious. That night I tried a classic australian dessert, which of course I can’t remember the name of..... I’ll get back to you on that one. We wandered around Launceston, one of Tasmania’s “big” cities, for the rest of the evening. 

Day 6 we did a walk to Cataract Gorge. It’s a beautiful peace of scenery in the middle of the city. The rocks there used to be quarried. Now there is a chairlift that spans the gorge. It was a really fun 10 minute ride. After the gorge it was time to go home!

Tomorrow (in 5 hours, at 3am) I leave for Sydney. I’ll be there for two days and then will travel to Airlie Beach for five days! The weather in Sydney is supposed to be 71 tomorrow and 66 on Sunday. The entire time I’m in the Whitsunday Islands the weather will be above 80! I’m really excited about this because of how rainy it has been in Melbourne (and Tassie). I’m sure people have probably heard about the sand storm in Sydney but don’t be alarmed, it’s over now and normality has been returned.

Week 10- Mt. Hotham

This weekend two friends and I went skiing at Mt. Hotham. It’s a resort off of the “Great Alpine Road” (notice the similarity to the naming of the Great Ocean Road) five hours north of Melbourne in the Victorian Alps. I had such an incredible time. My friend Mike is a snow boarder; he’s done it a number of times and is pretty decent at it. My other friend Brian is a skier on his college team and works for a ski resort in California, meaning he’s really good at it. I haven’t been skiing since I was maybe 11 years old. The gap in skill levels made for hilarity. 

The trip begun on Friday on our drive up to the snow. Everyone was a bit brain dead due to studying for midterms this week. Victoria has a really huge safe driving campaign going on. There are huge signs on the freeway telling you that drinking and driving is dangerous, that drugs and driving are dangerous, that being sleepy and driving is dangerous, that speeding and driving is dangerous. Mike kept reading the signs and not understanding what they meant. One sign we saw frequently said, “Slowing down won’t kill you” implying that speeding will. It wasn’t until the third or fourth time that we saw the sign that he says, “Ooooh! I get it!” Both Brian and I were very confused because we couldn’t understand what he finally understood (we had immediately understood the point of the advertisement). Again and again on the drive we all had revelations about the meaning of the signs. At long last we reached our destination, The Alpine Trailer Park (we would have camped but it was too cold). I immediately claimed the queen bed and sent the boys to the bunk beds. We settled in, made dinner, and went to bed. 

At 5:45 am the next morning we wake up to Mike’s alarm clock, “It’s 5:45 and time for you to get up. Beep. It’s 5:45 and time for you to get up. Beep.” We quickly got up and started the drive to the resort, about an hour away. We arrived and rented our equipment. The boys agreed to stay with me until I got my skis under me properly and give me a few pointers so I decided not to have a lesson (which probably wasn’t the best idea). We go up the first green lift and start going down the hill. I fall, we keep going, I fall, we keep going.... It takes a while to get down the hill. Of course I never get quite enough practice stopping the proper way, so when we get to the bottom of the hill I can’t actually slow down enough and crash into the nets in front of everyone taking lessons. Whoops. Turns out my shoes were a little too small (I had no circulation in my feet) and I had to switch. After doing one more run the boys decided it was time to try a blue run. This was the second bad idea of the day. We started going, it got steep and I freaked out. I went down, fell, and took of my skis. The boys were both further down than me and were yelling at me to put them back on and I kept refusing to. Finally a woman who worked there came over to me and very kindly told me that it was more dangerous for me to attempt to walk down than it would be to ski down. She helped me put my skis back on and sent me on my way. It took a really long time for me to get down to the lift (I kept falling). Unfortunately, due to the gale force winds at the top of the mountain, the lift was closed, meaning I had to keep going down a long blue run. I was not happy at this point (fear adding to my altitude sickness made for some unpleasantness). The boys had also promised not to put me in an area that had weird terrain and unfortunately the area that we were going down had mini moguls. I began to relax a little bit but managed to epically wipe out which disrupted my calm. At long last we got on a lift up the hill and had lunch. Deciding that I was too slow, Brian changed to a snowboard (his second time on one). We went down the green run a few more times until I began to actually feel comfortable. I made it down without stopping or wiping out! It also made me feel better because both Brian and Mike had started falling. With my new found confidence I agreed to try another blue run. Of course this didn’t work out as perfectly as I had hoped. It was steep and scary and I almost immediately wiped out into the direct path of the tow lift. I couldn’t get up again with my skis on and there was someone coming toward me, so I did the obvious thing, I took of my skis. Brian was at the bottom of the run and so Mike was left with the task of making me put my skis back on. I of course refused to do it and attempted to scoot down on my butt. Finally Brian came back up to us and bullied me into skiing down the rest of it. It ended up just fine (except for the difficulty I had learning how to use the two rope). We went down the other side of the tow rope (another blue run) and I did ok. I only fell once and didn’t take of my skis! Excited by my new found vertical position, I did the run a few more times, mastering it (and the tow rope)! We went back to the green run and I told the boys the could leave me. They went to do the terrain park (jumps, half pipes, poles) and I did the green run. I was so excited by my success of going fast, turning, and not falling that I didn’t wait for them at the bottom like I told them I would but jumped on the chair lift and did it again! It got really exciting. I refused to try the first blue run again (I told them to go off and do it by themselves so they could actually go at a normal persons speed) but decided that I enjoyed skiing. I want to try it again when I can ski for several days in a row (hopefully with someone who is close to my skill level) because I feel like I would improve enormously with more time. Both of the boys were afraid I hadn’t had fun but their fears were for naught. I liked being challenged by something I was uncomfortable with and triumphing!

On Sunday we went for several hikes to waterfalls and to a reservoir where Platypus’ live. Of course we went to the reservoir in the middle of the day and had no hope of seeing the platypus’ but we kept trying to convince each other we had seen one. We were going to go on a hike to and through an underground river but there was a sign with 12 things required to do the hike and we only filled one of them (sort of... The sign is in the photo album). It began to rain and we saw it as a sign to leave. The ride home was similarly hilarious to the drive to the snow. All in all it was an amazing trip. Everyone had different highlights. Mine was feeling good about skiing. Mike’s was hearing a cow moo for the first time. Brian’s was eating Cincinnati Chili. 

I may have mentioned previously that I’ve been learning to drive a stick shift (Brian’s Land Rover is a manuel). When we were approaching the city Brian pulled over and told me that I was going to drive for the last ten or so minutes. I was really nervous about stalling at a light or something else cliche that I’ve heard about beginners doing in the city because I had only driven on back roads before. I didn’t stall once while driving through the city (only once when I was about to get onto the main road and once again when parking)! I was really excited! I think I did pretty well! 

This week is midterms. I have a biochem exam on Friday and a Cognitive Psychology lab report due the week after but I will be on spring break so I have to finish it by Friday. For spring break I am going to Tasmania, Sydney, and the Whitsunday Islands. I will be out of contact for those two weeks, so know that I love you and that I’ll have much to write about when I get home!

Week 9- Wilson's Promentory- Take 2!

Elaine, Me, Brian, Mike, and Dawit!

 This weekend I took a trip with a carful of people to Wilson’s Prom: Elaine, Mike, Dawit, Brian and me. It was the first time Elaine and Dawit had ever been camping and was a very eventful trip. We drove down on Friday night, arriving about 7 pm which was after dark. The entire 3.5 hour drive it had been pouring rain which made the camping newbies a little nervous about the trip, especially when it came to light that one of them didn’t have a sleeping bag (just blankets) and the other only had a sleeping bag but not mattress pad. Everyone got a little more excited when we entered the park’s gates and began to see wildlife. We saw about 10 kangaroos on the side of the road, including one that wouldn’t get out our way in the middle of the road, and a half million wombats. Unfortunately the rain didn’t stop to let us set up our tents and since we had never put up one of the tents before (and it was a really odd tent) we ended up quite wet by the time we finished. Leaving the tents behind we drove to the site where we though the BBQ was. Somehow in the dark we completely managed to miss it and had to find another BBQ across the camp site (it should be noted that this is a huge camp ground, it holds about 300 spots). The rain lightened up enough for us to get our cooking supplies out of the car and under the shelter. We began to cook a tasty dinner of BBQ chicken, roast potatoes, and fresh veggies. After dinner we drove back to our camp site. The rain had stopped and everyone quickly realized that we weren’t ready for bed. The moon was incredibly bright and we all admired it for a while and several people attempted to take photos of it. Everyone quickly realized that it didn’t work with a normal camera so Brian took out his fancy camera and took several amazing photos of the moon that allowed us to see the craters on it and everything. We then did several long exposure photos of the sky that allowed us to see the stars and made the dark night sky look like day light. After that we began to have fun with long exposure or multiple flash photos that captured us moving around or haunting one another (I’ll post a few so you understand). At last we were tired and went to bed.

    The next morning we went to Squeaky Beach, Pillar Point, and Tidal Overlook. We had expected some serious rain but got only one light shower. We climbed a ton of rocks and took a huge number of photos. After a brief rest at camp we went to Lilly Pilly Gully which was supposed to have amazing native Australian Flora (Mike and Elaine are taking a course on Australian Flora and Fauna and wanted to put their knowledge to the test). Mike guaranteed that we would see several special types of plants. Unfortunately there was a fire that took place in February and had  destroyed a good section of the area which made it next to impossible for Mike to spot anything. For the rest of the trip it became a joke that when Mike guaranteed anything, it was sure not to happen. That night we had BBQ’d kangaroo, corn, and broccoli. I was a little grossed out by the kangaroo for several reasons; firstly I don’t particularly like eating red meat and kangaroo is about as red as it comes. Secondly, you take it out of the package and it drips blood, you put it on the grill and blood sizzles out. You can’t cook it too much or else it gets incredibly smokey and way too chewy to eat. This was probably the first time I’d ever eaten medium-rare meat and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the experience. It tasted like stake but wasn’t quite as tough. It didn’t melt in my mouth but it wasn’t as “meaty” as I expected. We talked to some Aussie’s who were using the other grill and gave them tips for their upcoming trip to the US. When we were getting ready for bed we happened to notice a large hole in the side of our tent. After puzzling over it for a while we realized that a wombat had just charged through the side of our tent in order to put footprints on my pillow. After a long day of hiking, we tucked in early. Everyone was in their sleeping bags before 9 pm. At about 9:15 we hear loud snarling right outside of our tent. We think it was the wombat, angry that we had re-inhabited our tent. I almost jumped out of my skin.

    The next morning dawned bright blue and sunny. We decided to climb Mount Oberon, the highest peak in Wilson’s Prom with an amazing 360 degree view. It took about an hour of uphill climbing on a fire road, then another 10 minutes of walking up stairs cute from stone before rising above the tree tops and seeing the ocean on three sides. It couldn’t have been more of an amazing view. We took lots of pictures and ate snacks while marveling at how blue the water was and what an incredible place Wilson’s Prom is. We hiked back down the trail and went to Tidal Beach for lunch. We had a flock of sea gulls standing near by, waiting to see if we would throw anything to them. Everyone was pretty disconcerted by them because their eyes were light blue and ringed with a red circle (they also had bright red beaks and feet with black wings). There were also two larger sea gulls that had black wings and bright red beaks and feet who seemed to be in charge of their smaller companions. We were all tired so we decided to do a short hike to another beach, Cooper’s Beach, where Mike one again made the fatal mistake of guaranteeing that we would see kangaroos and emus. I swore that I wouldn’t speak to him on our return journey if we didn’t see an emu (probably the last epically Australian animal that I hadn’t seen yet).  We had an easy walk to the beach in which we saw kangaroos and wombats. The beach was beautiful with large waves and a very slight breeze. Everyone took of their shoes and splashed in the water. I was taught to skip stones! We made a game of attempting to skip a stone right into a wave crashing, causing the stone to jump 5- 10 feet in the air. It was pretty awesome. We walked back and I started to threaten Mike about breaking promises. We got back into the car and I stopped speaking to Mike. After about a minute of driving down the dirt road which was to lead us back to the main road, I start shrieking. On the side of the road is an emu! Brian breaks sharply, having no idea what was going on, and I jump out of the car. Everyone else follows me out quickly, figuring out what I must have seen but the emu finally notices us and runs away before everyone saw it. They are so HUGE! It’s like a giant ostrich. I couldn’t believe it. It didn’t seem like the right size in comparison to anything else in the world. It was amazing how well it blended in with the environment considering how large it was. We got back in the car (I was told not to shriek again, to instead calmly alert everyone to the presence of emus if I saw any more) and kept driving and a few moments later I let out another squeal that was probably too loud and this time everyone saw the two emus that were just slightly hidden in the woods. As we continued our drive we saw another 5 emus. Needless to say, I apologized to Mike and we had excited conversation all the way home.

    One interesting thing about the drive home was a brief history lesson from Dawit. He goes to UC Berkeley and lived for  the last ten years in Santa Rosa, but before that had grown up in Ethiopia. Even so, he considered himself to be Eritrean. I learned a lot about the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, a conflict that I hadn’t known even existed. He taught us a lot about the culture and religion and how the older generation and the younger generations deal with the conflict and the politics of the country. It was also fascinating to hear the story of his family fleeing Ethiopia. As Eritrean citizens living in Ethiopia they would have been arrested and deported back to Eritrea, however they missed the officers by 12 hours and came to the US (his father and brother were caught but were able to come to the US soon after going back to Eritrea). It was a lot to think over and made me very thankful for the peaceful life I’ve lived.

Week 8- Wilson's Promentory

This weekend I went backpacking (or bushwalking as they call it here) in Wilson’s Promontory. It’s about three hours South East of Melbourne and is a large nature reserve on a peninsula. We left from the trail head Telegraph Hill at about 11 am on Saturday morning. We climbed up large hills, through forrest and tropical forrest, marshes and fields. Wombats are probably the cutest creature ever. We arrived at the first beach, Sealers Cove (pictured above), around 1 pm. Unfortunately we had to get across a “creek” which was at high tide. It was up to our chest and freezing cold so we decided to wait around until it was a little lower. We ate lunch with a few other groups who were also waiting for the tide to go down. Around 4 pm it was decided that the water was “lower” although no one knew exactly how much lower. Everyone took off their pants and shoes and waded through the creek (which by the way was red from being stained with tea tree oil) which at this point was mid thigh level. We all went on our merry ways to several different camp sites. Two hours later I arrived at Refuge Cove. The most spectacular part of this cove was that there was a whale in it. At first sight it looked like an underwater rock that occasionally peaked out but then a fin came out. The whale started flapping its tail and put on quite a show. It was incredible. I’ve never seen a wild whale before! It was getting dark so we eventually had to stop paying attention to the show and set up camp. This was a 16.6 kilometer hike (equivalent to 10.3 miles). 

The next day we hiked to the next cove over (7 km), Waterloo Cove, where we ran into two more whales which graced us with a show. The beach had bright white sand and the water was so blue and clear it looked photoshopped; I could have been in the Caribbean. The birds at this beach can open backpacks. They managed to undo a zipper, spread the contents of the pocket around the site, and sampled various objects including a deck of cards and a cliff bar (which they stole). That night it rained ridiculously hard and our packs got completely soaked.  

The next morning we ate breakfast and broke camp in the rain but almost as soon as we started walking it stopped raining and cleared up. It was gorgeous. We crossed overland to Oberon Bay where we encountered high winds and the strangest wave formations I’ve seen. At a single time there were 7-12 sets of waves crashing. There was never a lull in the water. It would have been impossible to get out into the water because you would expend so much energy recovering from getting knocked down. It was very picturesque. We were crossing on the beach and the tide was rising. I was too lazy to take off my shoes so I had to avoid the water. At one point in time I had to scramble up an embankment, face plant into it, and raise my feet as high as i possibly could. I missed the water by about two inches. At this point we sped up to avoid any other similar instances. We walked across Norman Bay Beach which was similarly picturesque. Eventually we got back to the base camp, Tidal River. The total days trip was 16.8 km. It was an amazing trip.

Week 7- Surf Trip

The gang!

This weekend I learned how to surf! I’m horrible at it. I can occasionally stand up and rarely do I manage to actually ride the wave. Most frequently I can be found eating wake. Even so, I loved it. There is something about just being in the water at the whim of the currents that makes me really happy. I guess I should preface all this by saying that I joined the surf club with a bunch of friends (shown in the above photo from left to right: Elaine, Joe, Krishma, Mike, Brian). They have “surf camps” where they bring a bunch of kids (there were 85 of us) to a “life saving club” which is basically a youth hostel for surfers and give us boards, lessons, and food. It was incredibly fun. I made so many new friends. Unfortunately being in the water for 3 days got me a cold but I think it was worth it. We watched the sunrise and sunset every day. 

Mom was asking me about my classes yesterday and I figured I should elaborate for everyone. The Australian school system is very different from the American system. It is generally a 3 year program. Like in the UK, students enter knowing what they are going to study. As an abroad student I get more flexibility to move between faculties. I’m taking 4.5 classes. I’m taking biochemical regulation of cellular function which meets for lecture three times a week for one hour with an extra one hour tutorial. Australia Now is a historical/anthropological/political look at the Australian society. It meets once a week for an hour and a half with a hour long tutorial once a week. Cognitive Psychology meets once a week for two hours with a two hour laboratory every other week. Nymphs, Sluts, and Madonnas is a feminist critique of art and it meets once a week for one hour with a two hour tutorial for two hours. Almost all of my classes are recorded and put up online. I’m not totally sure how I feel about this, I like learning in the classroom, but at the same time it is pretty convenient. Lecture is pretty self explanatory, a teacher talks for a set amount of time and then the class is over. There is no discussion. Tutorial is time for discussion, talking about the readings, and explaining the assignments. Tutorials are often run by grad students. Another interesting thing is that you don’t call your teachers “professor” and you address them by their first name. Only the most important person in the department (usually the chair but not always) is called professor.

Week 4- The Great Ocean Road- Part 1

One of the many lighthouses.

This weekend I went camping along the Great Ocean Road. It is a gorgeous drive about an hour and a half from Melbourne in the South West. There is bright blue water, gorgeous rock faces, and amazing hikes every where. I think I saw 5 waterfalls (Erskine falls in Lorne, and Triplet Falls  and another one in Maits Rest, plus some others which I don’t remember their locations). I also saw WILD KOALAS (in Kennet River)!!!! There was one sitting on the highway which I got really close to (to take photos of course, it was hard not to cuddle it) before attempting to scare it off the road so it wouldn’t get hit (apparently I’m not that scary- we had to use the cars horn). The water was cold but that didn’t stop me from swimming in the ocean (we saw whales!). We also visited a light house at Cape Otway (we visited another but didn’t get to go up it). The coast is very dangerous, with reefs and rocks abounding. You can actually go on a tour of all the ship wrecked boats that litter the area. Back in the day people sailing from Europe would go straight south, almost to Antarctica and then East until they hit Australia (in some cases, very literally). The most famous part of the Great Ocean Road is the 12 Apostles- huge rock formations that jut from the ocean. We didn’t get that far on this trip. Luckily that means I have an excuse to go back!

Week 3- Marysville to Walhalla

I bet they said oops.

I went camping this weekend! My friend has a land rover so we went off on a grand adventure. I got to learn how to drive a manual (an Australian one no less). We found a bar on the top of a mountain after getting lost and having some friendly Aussies give us directions to our camp site and to the bar (although they had accents so thick we could barely understand them), met a bunch of drunk aussies at a camp site who were hilarious (and got invited to a 21st birthday party next weekend. It’s a huge deal here), we got utterly lost on a trail in the mountains, found a flipped over trailer on the bottom of a steep hill we were about to go down and decided to turn around, helped tow the truck of two guys who gave us directions off the side of the road, camped out at this weird place to discover one that the shoe of one of the kids disappeared, searched every where for it to no avail (I was blamed), and finally made our way home. It was a super fun weekend. Since I don’t have class on Mondays I think there will be more like it soon!

Week 2- Melbourne Central

Aussie Rules Football- The field is larger than that off a US football field.

I’ve now been in Melbourne proper for a week. It’s a really terrific city. We had a welcome week for international students hosted by the college. I met so many people from all over the world, although there were probably more Californian's than there were Europeans. It was crazy, tours by day and night life by night. We went to the tallest residential building in the southern hemisphere, federation square, the melbourne zoo, had a formal dinner, and went to a footie game. Footie is the best thing ever. It is technically called Australia Rules Football but its usually just called footie or aussie rules. It seems to be a combination of football, rugby, soccer, basketball, and ultimate frisbee. It was so crazy. My team, the Bulldogs, won. It was awesome and incredibly exciting. Australians love to bet so in the spirit of things my friend and I made a wager, which I of course won. Nonstop action. It was really nice to finally move into my apartment for real. My roommate is proving to be really sweet although we haven’t really hung out at all. We just talk when we’re around but usually not for long. 

Saturday was my friends birthday so we went to see Harry Potter (they made things up, I am so mad!), then had an italian dinner, and then went out dancing. It was a fun night. Yesterday I had fun wandering around. My friends and I went on a group shopping trip (the best buy was 100 delicious apples for $10) and then cooked dinner. I cooked pasta sauce from scratch and three of my friends had to use their apartments to cook the pasta (each stove has 2 burners and we had 12 people). Another friend made Chinese pancakes with green onion in them. I told her that she has to teach me they were amazing.

Today a bay area friend of mine and I went to Saint Kilda’s beach. It’s really cute. I’d love to go back when its warmer. I’m not entirely sure you should really swim there but I think I’ll probably try. It wasn’t a far drive. I was navigator and it was a little problematic. They’re road system is really trippy. Major streets which have trams run through them often work as a round about when it comes to right hand turns. You have to pull over to the far left and wait until the light turns red to fully drive through the traffic and complete your right turn. Tonight I’m having what I call my, “My First Apartment” dinner. I was too lazy to cook for myself so I heated up soup, made toast, and had english muffins with cream cheese and jam for dessert (except I did it in reverse order). If anyone has any stove top recipes they’d like to share, please do! I don’t have an oven and its annoying. I can only survive on PB&J for so long. 

Tomorrow starts the real University Orientation. I get to pick classes and all that fun stuff. I’m a little nervous, partly because I have to actually navigate the campus for the first time. I can get through it but I’ve never had to go into the buildings before. Wish me luck!

Week 1- The Grampians

What's that you say? There's a kangaroo behind me?!

My program went to the Grampian National Park this weekend. It was amazing. Kangaroos every where. You turned the corner of a building and there was one three feet away. Apparently they’re about as dumb as deer. Aussies don’t really like them. We went on a night walk and saw a lot of night animals. We also got a short lesson in the constellations. There is the Southern Cross (depicted on the Australian and New Zeland flags) which when used in conjunction with the “Pair” you can tell where south is. There is also the Emu which is a black out of the stars. The stars were so bright and plentiful. The next day we did some team building exercises which were a lot of fun, surprisingly. Part of it was  a ropes course, which I had never done before. I ended up bruised all over but I did pretty well on it. I want to do another one! We also went abseiling (repelling) in the park. The next day we had Aussie Rules Footie Practice. We were rolling in kangaroo poo and it was absolutely hilarious. We created the term “waller” for when someone does something spectacular. Its a combination of baller and wallaby. I’ll see my first real footie game on Thursday. I’ve been told that I need to pick a team to cheer for and follow them. Its a hot topic. We learned how to play the digeriedoo. I learned how to do the kookaburra call and got one to answer me! I then was able to track where they were coming from and I got to see about five! They are so funny looking! The trip really got my group to get to know each other and surprisingly we get along really well. On the bus ride back we saw about 12 rainbows, at least three of which were double rainbows. The sky here is really amazing.

I’ve been slowly getting to know Melbourne. There is an open air market close to my apartment which is probably where I’ll end up shopping for food. Thats the Queen Victoria Market, shortened Queen Vic. When walking through there was a guy who was really loud. You could hear him half way across the market yelling, “Woah, what a banana!” It was a good sales tactic! Whenever someone in my group gets super excited someone else yells it at them. Confusingly there's also the Queen Victoria Center, abbreviated to the QV. It’s a good collection of stores. I’m looking forward to trying the chocolate store. 

I’m now at the Melbourne Welcome, a program for exchange students. We’re in the residential colleges. I’m living in Trinity College. It’s very Harry Potter esque. I have a single with such a high ceiling. I love it! I’m enjoying getting to know other international students. There is a huge collection of people here. I got a campus tour. I have no idea how I’m going to navigate my classes. I’ll need to do a practice run before classes start. The campus is ginormous. My guide is going on an exchange in a month to Penn and so I was trading advice with her. We then went to the QV before going to dinner. They feed us really well. Today we’re going to the zoo!

I met my roommate! Her name is Monica and she is from Mexico City. She’s going to RMIT which is another college. She is a third year food science and engineering major. She seems really nice although we only met briefly. I had just gotten home from the Grampians and she was about to go to bed because here classes started yesterday. I’m now living in the res halls and so I won’t see her again till Saturday. I did meet her father, Jesus (which obviously made me excited), in the early morning. He had a good sense of humor which made me hope that she will too.

Day 2- First Night

The tiniest apartment ever.

Last night we had a meeting with the guys who are in charge of us. It wasn’t too exciting; most of the information we’ll need we’ll be learning over the next few days on our trip to the Grampians, a national park and mountain range that lies in the west of Victoria.  

We decided to go get dinner after the meeting, at about 5:30. The sun had already set. We wandered around for a while until we found this cute little neighborhood. We decided to go to a burger place that was distinctly australian. One guy had an egg on his burger. I also purchased my first legal beer, James Boag’s Premium Lager- Tasmania’s Finest. After dinner we roamed the streets for a while before ending up in another girls apartment. I haven’t learned anyones names yet. I went to bed around 9 o’clock after watching rugby or aussie rules (I can’t tell which is which yet). My room is so freezing I ended up sleeping in my sleeping bag under the blankets. I’ll be getting a heater soon.

It’s now 9 am. It’s starting to get truly light out. It’s overcast and I think it rained last night. I’m going to go out and try to find some breakfast and get a cell phone. 

School starts on July 27th so the city seems kind of empty (as does the apartment complex). I have no idea when my roommate will get here. I really want to meet her. I don’t like waiting around....