Melbourne *sigh*

After Saturday's day trip, we were finally able to go explore the city of Melbourne (pronounced "Mel'-bun).  Being that it was Easter Sunday, a few of us wanted to find a church to attend services, so we walked to St. Paul's Cathedral right off of Federation Square; the super-traditional Anglican service was a nice change in pace from what we've been used to attending here, not to mention being able to enjoy the *beautiful* interior.

After church, we hung out on the square to watch some comedy sketches done in conjunction with the International Comedy Festival, and then decided to wander around a bit.  Autumn is setting in and it was a nice, crisp sunny day, perfect for wandering.  We walked down to the Yarra River and followed it down toward the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the tennis courts where the Australian Open is held.

We found the Sunday markets and looked around for a bit then got ice cream and hung around a cute little park before meeting friends at the Eureka Tower to climb up to the skydeck on the 88th floor.

We timed it so that we could get to the top at dusk and watch the night fall, which worked out great.  The skydeck also offered "The Edge," where you can walk out on a clear floor that juts out over the city so that there is nothing but a sheet of glass between your feet and the ground 88 stories below.  Preeeeeetty awesome.

Monday was ANZAC Day (Australia New Zealand Army Corps), like Memorial Day in the US, and since the city was shut down for the parade, we watched for a while before wandering a bit more.

Because it was Easter Monday and ANZAC day at the same time, most everything was closed that day, so we just enjoyed seeing what there was to see.  Melbourne definitely has a lot of interesting street art here and there and in all of the dark corners, making even the dodgy-est of alleys a bit less dodgy.  We found our way to Lygon Street where we were told there are heaps of cute shops and cafes, and got lunch at a kebab joint and dessert at a reallyreally classy sweets shop.  Here, I learned the hard way that a "short black" is not a short cup of black coffee, but an espresso shot.  Oops.  It was still super yum!

Melbourne is a LOVELY city, and one long weekend was not at all long enough to do it justice.  The city itself feels really relaxed and friendly, and everyone is very stylish... I felt under-dressed the entire time I was there.  Almost every street has buildings with architecture that you would never see anywhere else-- the entire city is very artsy and interesting.  On a return visit, I would like to hit up some of the museums and galleries, for sure.  Because we had so little time, we did not stray too far away from our hostel- never going far enough to even have to use the trolley service, which is sort of sad.  

Going back to Canberra, we decided to take an overnight bus leaving at 8 p.m. and arriving at 4 a.m.... probably not the best idea we ever had.  It was heaps cheaper than flying, though, so we went for it.  Of course, it was too early to fall asleep when we go on board, and then actually sleeping was a feat in itself.  But after it was late enough for everyone to turn their reading lights off, it was nice to be able to look out the window at the stars as we drove through the empty bush.  Even if getting zero sleep was a bit of a downer, there was something nice about being on a slow overnight bus after a packed trip, having plenty of time to process everything that I got to do and see, with the Southern Cross sitting there in the sky reminding me how cool it is to be in Australia.

The Great Ocean Road

Easter brought with it a five-day weekend, so a group of us packed our bags and went to Melbourne!  We were out for the cheapest possible everything, so we flew down with Tiger Airways which was super dodgy (we got on and off the plane on the tarmac, and in Melbourne, the luggage claim looked more like a trailor) and stayed at the Greenhouse Backpacker which was super nice.  We arrived Friday night and caught a tour Saturday morning for the Great Ocean Road at a much earlier hour than any of us really wanted.                                                              

We were on a bus at 7:20 to make the three+ hour trip to the points of interest along the way.  We took the inland route to the furthest point of our journey, going through open countryside full of rolling hills covered in sheep and dairy cattle.  Victoria/South Australia are to Australia as Wisconsin/California are to the US-- cows, cows, cows.  As we got closer to the coast there was mostly bush, some of which had recently been burned back for environmental regulation, making for an interesting sight.

Our first stop was the impressive "London Bridge."  Earlier, the island part had been connected to the rest of the land with a second arc making it look like its namesake in England, but in 1990, part of the London Bridge fell down.  There were actually a man and woman on the far tip at the time of the collapse who had to call a helicopter to get back to land.   To make the story more interesting, the man had called in sick to work that day and the woman with him was not exactly the woman he was married to.  

 Next stop was Loch Ard Gorge, named from the Loch Ard, a ship that wrecked just off the coast from there with only two teenage survivors.  The erosion is so impressive- the wind and water have had its way with the coastline, and it blows my mind how the cliffs just go straight down.  Bits collapse every once and a while, but after a few years the rubble diminishes to sand and nothing remains.

     

Even more impressive are the Twelve Apostles, our next stop.  There are not actually twelve, more like eight, and there have only ever been ten, but it makes for a nice name.  These pillars are bits of the coastline that somehow managed to survive this long, now isolated off from the shore.  

We left the coast for a bit to drive inland to part of the local rain forest, which was beautiful, of course.  

Moving onward, we drove through the the town of Apollo Bay on Cape Otway, a cute little place situated among rolling hills where the Bass Strait and the Great Australian Bight meet, the closest to Antarctica that I'll get, for now at least ;)

Our tour made a pit stop at a small park/camp ground where we were able to stretch our legs, but all the while looking out for drop bears.  Constant vigilance!!  You never know when one will just come at you from their lofty perch.

Silliness aside, we got to see koalas!  There were just hanging out, munching on gum leaves, taking it easy.  You can see one of the little grey bundles in a tree below.  There were actually a few trees spotting the hillsides that were dead, and our guide blamed the koalas-- they eat heaps of leaves every day, so if a few attack a tree, it's a goner.  Koalas= vicious killing machines.

We finished up at a lighthouse lookout for sunset, making a lovely ending to a lovely day.  We had about seven hours or so clocked in on the road that day, which was rather exhausting but worth it!

What UC

Here's a video that some friends of mine put together for a video contest at the University of Canberra!  The theme was "What you see at UC." Yeah, the prompt is almost as corny at the video...

I was even recruited for parts of it :)   So watch it, laugh and watch it again, because if their video gets the most views of the competition, they get a prize!

Enjoy :)

Uni Life

After spending heaps of time travelling around, I've been thrust back into the reality that I am actually here to study at a university, not just play.  After my week in Cairns, I had to spend a week catching up on all of the things I had let fall by the wayside, which was basically all of my work.  Everything came together nicely in the end, so it was no big deal, but I have really started to realize how different it is to go to school in Canberra versus Tennessee.

Biggest difference:  instructors at the University of Canberra are only allowed to give you marks on three things.  THREE.  Sure, at home I've had classes where there are three exams and that is all you have, but this is every class.  One class I have works it out strategically, grading on class participation, a final research paper and giving an average grade on four small papers written over the course of the semester, making for a decent amount of work stretched over the semester.  Other classes don't quite work that way.  I have graphic design and web design classes that grade me on only three projects each, making for an awkward amount of time between assignments where there is nothing due for a while.  This means I seem to have lots of free time, even though I should be working on looming assignments.  Currently, I have only four assignments left before the term is completely over, and they are all due four weeks from now.  It is a difficult concept to get used to.

Grading scale:
High Distinction   85% - 100%
Distinction           75% - 84%
Credit                 65% - 74%
Pass                   50% - 64%
Fail                     0% – 49%
Ungraded pass   50% - 100%

The scale looks like it is super easy to pass classes here, but instructors grade much harder- I am usually an 'A' and high 'B' student, but the highest grade I have made on a real assignment here is an 85%.  High Distinctions are not given away quite like 'A's are at home, where it is difficult enough to get high grades.

It is a really strange mix of differences... I find myself feeling horrible about making a 75 on a paper I worked really hard on and try to tell myself that it really is a decent grade and to not worry.  Then at the same time, I have all of this free time that I could work on assignments and get ahead, but who really wants to write a paper a month before it is due?

But in all honesty, after spending all weekend at birthday parties in Sydney, spending all morning on Facebook and a large chunk of time writing this blog entry, I will probably continue to ignore impending assignments for the rest of the day.  No regrets.

Daintree Dreaming

Time for Part Two!
The day after our *amazing* day on the Great Barrier Reef, we spent a chill day hanging out in Cairns--we went to some shops, bought some souvenirs and chilled out at The Lagoon, a large (free!) public pool.  It was great to lounge around and do nothing for a while, which is what every good vacation should involve.  The Lagoon is located right on the edge of the boardwalk, so you can enjoy the pool while looking out at the ocean that you do not want to swim in because the coast of Cairns is all mud flats, not sandy beaches.  It's a nice area where everyone in the city goes to relax with open barbecues, free fitness classes and open space to play sports.  As we were dozing on our Australian flag beach towels, we realized there was an unending flock of large birds flying above us, but after we woke up and our eyes adjusted, we realized that the birds were actually bats.  Really big bats.  Seeing flying foxes like that definitely made me feel like I was in the tropics.  There had to be thousands of them!  There were certain trees in town just covered in bats just hanging out... a bit creepy until you get used to it.

We called it an early night so that we could get up for the next day's adventure:  a trip to the Daintree rain forest and Cape Tribulation!  Our tour took us from Cairns up the coast, stopping at a few points of interest along the way.  Stop number one was Mossman Gorge- our first look at a tropical rain forest!  It was absolutely beautiful!  We were able to wander around through trails for about an hour and see what there was to see.  Everything was SOOOOO beautiful!  Sometimes I felt like I was in Jurassic Park, and other times I felt like I was on the island from "Lost," but the entire time I was completely excited to know that I was in a tropical rain forest!

Here, basically, everything grows all over everything else.  Nothing is free-
standing or clean, it's all covered in green and fifteen other plants.

 

We moved further north after our walk, passing an area pictured above where our guide pointed out an island on the horizon off the coast of which, four or five years ago now, Steve Irwin had his fateful encounter with a ray.  Next, we visited a private zoo, home to many animals native to Australia like emus, kangaroos, wallabies, a cassowary, a large selection of birds and plenty of crocodiles!  After the zoo stop, we hit the road again until we came to another area to wander through the forest, then we stopped for lunch at Cape Tribulation Beach.  Unfortunately, we were not able to get in the water without stinger suits because of all the jellyfish... but it was still Very nice!  The beach seemed straight out of a  movie- the jungle spilled out right onto beautiful white sand, without a building in sight!

 At this point, I broke off from my travel buddies-- the trip was supposed to be a day tour, but I opted to spend the night at a lodge in Cape Tribulation and catch a ride home with the next day's tour.  One other girl from the tour stayed, so we got a room together and set off for adventures!  Michaela was a Swiss girl who had been studying English in Noosa and was my age, so we hit it off pretty well.  We found a small store to get some food, just in time for it to start raining like crazy.  We were sitting on the porch eating when a goat came from nowhere and jumped up the stairs, followed by a man running behind it to get out of the rain.  Later, we learned the man had raised the goat on a bottle and it pretty much thought it was a dog... Even later than that, we learned that the man is actually an ecologist who grew up in the area and has been a major part of making Cape Tribulation what it is today.  Thirty years ago, a large chunk of place was clear-cut.  He and a team came in to plant trees, and nature took over from there.  Now, the rain forest is thriving!  Animals moved in and vegetation has taken over, just the way it should be, crushing the myth that it takes hundreds of years for ecosystems to recover from clear cutting.  He is also fond of bats, but that's another story.

When the rain let up, Michaela and I went back to our room and met our other roommate for the night, Zoe, a young Taiwanese doctor from Melbourne.  It rained again and we sat around getting to know each other, then when it stopped again, we went for a stroll.  There was a boardwalk made for tourists to go through a mangrove swamp, so we sprayed on our 40% DEET bug spray and boldly faced the mozzies.

We walked around for about an hour, and every bit of the area was everything I hoped and dreamed that a rain forest would look like.  Then, all of a sudden the ocean appeared.  The three of us chilled out on the beach until time to find dinner.  All over were little balls of sand that crabs had rolled up and put in random designs and coconuts dotting the beach.

Michaela and I got dinner at crowded cafe that night, where two German couples ended up joining our table.  They had been travelling along the east coast for the past two weeks and we ended up chatting with them for over two hours before finding our way through the pitch black back to our cabin, attempting to dodge the cane toads and geckos on the path.  The next morning we woke up to a steady rain, but after it subsided, the day was rather lovely.  Below is the view from our front door--I believe that it was a field of tea. 

We had heard of a swimming hole that we could hike to, so we set off that morning with purpose.  Eventually we found the trail and managed to get down to the water.  I really have a hard time grasping the fact that things are actually this beautiful in real life.

 We met up with the tour group again that afternoon for our ride back down to Cairns, on the way stopping for a snack at the Daintree Ice Cream Company where they make ice cream from things grown on site.  The flavors for the day were Mango, Jakfruit, Wattle Seed and Macadamia Nut.  Wattle seed tasted similar to coffee, and Jakfruit seemed like a mix of bubblegum and banana.  Our final event for the tour was a cruise on the Daintree River, home to heaps of crocodiles!  We were able to see a few ranging from about a foot to four feet in length, but my friends the day before were able to see one that was about eight feet long!

The cruise was nice and relaxing, a perfect end to the day.  I was dropped off in time for another free meal with my friends, some of whom had gone deep-sea fishing that day.  The next day, we lazed around the lagoon again and got ready to head back home the next morning.  Overall, it was the best vacation ever.  I am SO blessed to have been able to see such amazing things and meet so many great people!  Now that I am back in Canberra, my housemates call me Pocahontas because of the awesome tan I got in Queensland, but now autumn has definitely set in, making for a stark contrast from the tropical north and leaving me bundled up in my room with fond memories of sunshine.

Finding Nemo!

I just got back from what is easily the best vacation EVER.  Six of us exchange students flew up to Cairns, Queensland for a week to leave Canberra and get a taste of tropical living, getting to be complete tourists for a while.  Being poor backpackers, we drug ourselves out of bed the morning after returning form Surf Camp and took a three-hour bus ride to Sydney to get a cheaper flight to Cairns, again roughly three hours, to touch down in Queensland Monday evening, just in time to check in to our hostel and go to dinner.

We stayed at Caravella Backpacker Resort, where the we got a six-person room to share for the week.  This hostel was Great!  It was right on the boardwalk, a ten-minute walk from the city center, and offered 10% all tours booked through their travel agent who we made instant friends with.  Gloria is an adorable white-haired, petite kiwi who has been in Cairns for years and told us which tours were the best bang for our buck and loved to look at our "beautiful" American credit cards.  She kept tabs on us all week, amazed that a group of Americans could be so congenial and that we could get along with the Canadian travelling with us-- we told her it was because we are Southerners ;)  Another wonderful thing about Caravella-- the resort had a deal with a local restaurant to give backpackers free meals every night!  Granted that the limited menu meant I ate spaghetti for six nights in a row, but at least it was free, tasty spaghetti!

Tuesday, as recommended by Gloria, the we joined a tour from Passions of Paradise to take us out to the reef for the day!  We got to the boat at 7:30 to get a full day, just as the fog was rising off of the surrounding mountains... lovely.

We left the city of Cairns behind us and went about two hours out onto the Coral Sea before we arrived at Michaelmas Cay a bird sanctuary where we had our first look at the Great Barrier Reef!!  

The water was a beautiful blue that I had never seen before, and was quoted to be 29 degrees Celsius, so something like 85 in Fahrenheit, almost like swimming in bathwater.  Very beautiful, salty bathwater with heaps of pretty things stuck to the bottom of the tub.  We took a glass-bottom boat ride to shore and were informed about some of the many interesting things hanging out on the reef, like the different types of coral and fish.  I asked the guide about how it is said that the reef is disappearing because of climate change, to which he replied that he has been diving the reef for twenty years and has noticed nothing of the sort.  He said that the reef does indeed have picky taste as to the temperature of the water and if it is too hot or cold for too long, the coral bleaches and goes into a sort of shock, but after the temperature is corrected, it will come back to life.  The balance is in a constant state of flux--as temperatures get too high, there will generally be a cyclone, which beings in cooler water, naturally fixing itself.  In other words, according the the friendly local, you have plenty of time to save up and come see it for yourself.

We snorkelled at the cay for a couple hours, then moved on to Paradise Reef for two more hours, which was teeming with even more marine life!  A few of us went in together and bought a disposable underwater camera, so I have pictures, but they hardly do justice to how beautiful it is!!  It is every bit as colorful and vibrant as all of the pictures and documentaries have you to believe.  There are fish EVERYWHERE, and they have no sense of personal space.  I could swim into a big group, and they could care less about me being right up with them.  There were parrot fish all over the place, and I could actually hear them munching on dead coral!  There were huge clams more than two feet in diameter that would snap shut when hit by my shadow, and once when I was at the edge of the reef bordering a drop-off to the deep blue, I looked out and saw a shark swimming about 20 yards away from me!  It was probably only as big as I am and could care less about me, but it was enough to make me want to get away from the edge.

I found NEMO!!!!!!!!

 

Myself and Casey, one of my travelling buddies for the week

We had a BLAST snorkelling!  Being able to see such a wonder of nature was absolutely amazing!  It was worth every cent to have the chance to swim around with all of the beautiful creatures and learn about such a fascinating ecosystem.  I also have a new respect for Marlin.  It took me over three hours to fly from Sydney to the reef, I can not imagine how that poor little clown fish made it from there all the way to Sydney Harbor. That's a devoted dad, right there.  Nemo should feel very loved.

After our time was up, the crew stowed the anchors, hoisted the sails and went full force toward the mainland.  It was truly a lovely day, and a wonderful way to start our week in Cairns!