DR, DR, DR!

The day after we came back to the center from break we began thinking about our directed research projects (DRs). This is what we will be doing until the program ends. We previously chose which professor we would like to work with, and now it was up to us to come up with a research question to start tackling. I was so lost for this! I felt like everyone else had squared away their ideas, and were all set on choosing a question, while I was still in the process of deciding what it was that I was even interested in looking at. There were restrictions as to what I could research, too, because we couldn’t have too many people on one given topic. It ended up being that I chose to look at herbivory (the act of eating leaves, for those who don’t know) in relation to leaf pH and leaf thickness among 13 tree species. Soon after deciding this, my group headed off to Undara Volcanic National Park and the 40-Mile Scrub National Park to begin our leaf sample collection and to take notes on herbivory.

Undara and 40-Mile Scrub
10-11 November 2010


Undara was a lot of fun! Eleven of us squished into the van for a 3-hour drive into the dry rain forest. Along the way we collected firewood, which we later used for a bon fire that we roasted marshmallows over and told stories about ourselves and our past experiences. It was great to sit next to the warmth of the fire and breathe in the smells of summer, hear the crackling of the wood and see the smoke from the fire be swept into the sky and consumed by the stars. While collecting wood we found a skull of an animal, which we were pretty sure was a pig because it had tusks. That was neat… it was just like what I imagined to see when I think of dry, desert-like areas.


When we pulled into the camp site we saw a group of wallabies foraging in the grass. There were small ones, bigger ones and even some with little babies in their pouches! They were very watchful. The stopped and looked at us, waiting, and then continued eating the grass. There arms are so short, which I guess is an adaptation that suits them well. They lick their forearms to obtain subcutaneous evaporation to cool themselves down. That’s pretty neat if you ask me!


After checking in, we headed out to our sampling site, where we walked quite a bit off of the path to begin our research. We did this so that people wouldn’t see us conducting research. It’s a typical permit regulation thing that has to happen… we don’t want to bother others by sampling within a National Park. When we arrived, we were in a section of semi-deciduous dry rainforest. We broke up into our groups and started collecting data! I paired up with AJ, because we are both looking at herbivory, and started going around to all of the trees that we needed data for, including the python tree, lantana and brachychiton, among others. I had fun getting to know the trees and being outdoors doing actual research. It became a lot easier to identify the different trees from a distance and with ease by the end of the day!


After the 40-mile scrub we went to another site to find the same species. This place was more difficult to sample because the ground was covered in rocks, which made it difficult to walk without rolling our ankles. We had to be very careful of that and also had to be especially careful and mindful of snakes.


We then took a nice walk up a volcano to watch the sun set. It was a pretty quick hike which took only about 20 minutes total. When we looked out into the distance we could see miles of continuing dry rain forest and the sun setting across the horizon. We watched the sky turn from light blue to purple to orange to red and finally dark blue. We sat on a bench at the top and watched, letting our minds go free.


That night we had a barbeque and sat around the fire, as I described earlier. We were pretty early to bed because we had such a tiring day. The next morning was one of the best mornings that I’ve had in Australia. I loved waking up to the warmth of the sun on my face, to the pretty-faced wallabies and the grey kangaroos foraging outside of my tent, hearing the cacophony of the kookaburras from a nearby tree, watching the rainbow lorikeets talk across the bushes and searching for berries and hearing the click of the cicada wings before they started their song. It was so peaceful that I couldn’t help but be happy and be living in the moment.


The next morning we collected more data at the 40-mile scrub and then made our way back home. Shortly after we returned from Undara, our project proposals were due, and we began collecting data on the samples we had taken. I spent the next week in the lab taking pH readings of about 300 leaves and leaf thickness data of about 400 leaves. Needless to say, there were some nights during that week that I started confusing time with pH readings… and would read the time on the clock as 9.30pm and the pH readings as 5:04… that’s when I knew it was about time to put the meter down, unplug the microscope and go to bed.

Winding up to wind down...

so it's been twenty one days since I've last written... which means that it's been about twenty one days since I've had a moment free. We've started our directed research projects, which means that we've been spending the majority of our time in the lab... I am with Rohan's group, and my project is looking at leaf thickness and leaf pH in relation to herbivory. So far it has been really difficult setting up my own experiment, researching appropriate methods and finding time to do approximately 15 million pH readings with one single moldy pH meter. It's been interesting though... every day I find another problem with my experiment, and have been forever expanding upon my problems and experimental error section of my paper... hopefully everything will turn out alright, though! The other day I had a break down as I was counting the amount of hours I would need to spend in the lab collecting data on the samples I've collected... it turned out to be 600 hours. I got so overwhelmed that I just started crying. Rohan helped me to alter the experiment so that I am only collecting data on 2 leaf samples per species instead of 30 pH leaf samples per species and 150 thickness leaf samples per species. That made my life SO much better. So I spent most of yesterday and all of today in the lab taking pH readings and going crazy. 

I do believe that I owe a post about our mid-semester break trip to Magnetic Island, about collecting samples in Undara and about our last Cairns weekend trip…so here it goes!

Magnetic Island

30 October- 4 November 2010

 

So we got home from the Daintree, and then had approximately one day to study for our final exams. Friday we had our final exam for Tim's class, and then Saturday we had Siggy and Rohan's exams. They went pretty well, except they were all so crammed together that it was really stressful. After our last exam we all hopped in the vans and headed out to Cairns (haha, that rhymes!). On the way I felt so relieved that classes and exams were over and that I was going to get a break from almost everyone at the center and enter into real life again! In the van ride into Cairns we were driving along the road being followed by thousands of flying foxes (spectacled, grey and red) leaving the city to go find food in the forests. It was awesome watching their silhouettes fly by. The sun had just set so the sky was a rich bright blue. I had my head out the window just to feel the wind and watch the bats, the mountains and the forests roll by. I felt relieved by the end of that ride. 

When we got to Cairns we found a locker for our big bags because we weren't staying overnight. We ended up going to Gilligan's for the live band and 2 for 1 drink specials! It just so happened to be Halloween night, so all of the crazy costumes were about! At one point we danced with a man dressed as I don't know what, wearing assless chaps... it was ridiculous! So at about 11:45 we headed over to the bus station, where we got onto the midnight bus to Townsville. As soon as I got onto the bus I passed out... I was asleep before we even moved! The ride there was miserable... although I slept through most of it, all I wanted to do was be in a bed asleep with a pillow and a blanket, and not on a bus sitting up straight.

When we arrived in Townsville (at about 5:30 in the morning), Marcus and I walked through Townsville to find a place to eat. It was pretty early, so nothing was really open and we had to walk pretty far. We walked across a bridge and ended up at a small min-mart convenient store type of thing. We got two meat pies each and sat down on the curb in front of a hotel and ate them while we watched the town wake up.  We only decided to settle for meat pies because 1) we're poor and 2) the awesome buffet breakfast next door cost $22.00! That's ridiculous... while we were on the curb Marcus noticed that I had lost an earring... I must have lost it on the bus... it was the one that I had just bought at the Yungaburra Folk Festival, too. :(. Oh well! After eating, we went inside the hotel and fell asleep in the lobby chairs for about 20 minutes. After that we decided to mosey back and fall asleep in the park under giant fig trees filled with Australian king parrots. We had alot of time to spare, because our ferry wasn't scheduled to leave until about noon. It was a very relaxed morning.

So we boarded the ferry and made our way to Maggie Island. When we arrived (about 25 minutes later) we got on a bus to Arcadia, Alma Bay. The ferry docked in Nelly Bay. We walked from the bus stop to our house, which took about 5 minutes. The house was called Magnetic Blue, and it was indeed magnetic blue colored! It was beautiful inside! There was first a car port, and a downstairs with two bunk beds and a queen-sized bed and a full bathroom... and then an upstairs with a very open deck, kitchen, dining area and living room, and a room with two bunk beds, a room with one queen-sized bed and another full bathroom. It had all wood floors and had cool colored accent walls. There was artwork all over. The deck had a dining set and a hammock, where we often sat and had a drink and talked for a while or just took a nap. The kitchen had a garage door type of thing that allowed there to be a breeze throughout the entire house. It was gorgeous!

The first day Marcus and I took the Nelly bay walking track from Alma bay, which took us about 2.5 hours and was about 5.4 km. The hike was surprisingly hot! I didn’t realize that the vegetation there was more similar to Chillagoe than the rainforest I was expecting. It was a very up hill walk, with a small dirt track and a lot of rocks. We heard rumors that there were a lot of death adders at that time, and to be careful… luckily we didn’t see, or feel, any! There were a couple of lookouts every once in a while… the view was fantastic! We could see out across the sea for miles and down below at the few roads, and the beaches and bays…for  the entire walk we were surrounded by ocean views. 

We could actually see where the reef was out in the ocean, because there was a thin strip of clouds above it, from where the reef was producing aerosols. We didn’t think to look for koalas, but apparently the island has heaps! I reckon there were a few, but we just weren’t keen enough on finding them. We did see a rock wallaby, though… and cool lizards and skinks. When we finally arrived in Nelly bay, we walked around for a bit, had lunch at a picnic table and went swimming at the other group’s house! All-in all it was a pretty perfect day!

The next couple of days we made lazy days and took our time going to beaches, going to Nelly bay and getting groceries, and going to a place called the X-base at night. We explored the island by hopping on a bus with our day passes and going to Horseshoe bay and Picnic bay and having a drink on the water. I got an apple margarita, which was very sweet, but very good! At Picnic bay we went to a thrift store where I found Drop Dead Fred in VHS form! Hopefully I’ll be able to convert it to DVD and then have Drop Dead Fred, only one of my favorite childhood movies of all time!! The X-base is a whole other story! It’s located right on the beach, so you can see the stars and the ocean from just about every table. They have various games and competitions where you can win discounted or free drinks. It was fun twice, but then got sort of boring.

We had great meals every night… Marcus cooked delicious stir fry one night, and even wore an apron. I cooked penne alfredo another night, and it was delicious. Thanks, dad for teaching me that one!

The end of mid semester break came all too soon… although it was so much fun I guess we had to go back. We left on the 6:00am bus to go to the 6:20 ferry to catch the 7:15 Greyhound back to Cairns. On the way we saw a cassowary, and I found $5 in change! When we got to Cairns we just walked around… had lunch (tuna, again…), and just chilled. We went to an art museum. It was pretty interesting… there were a lot of prints and movies and such. I’ve definitely seen better… but it was a good way to spend a good chunk of the afternoon! While we were there there was some sort of controlled burn off in the distance… smoke and ash was rolling through the city, making it somewhat difficult to breathe. We couldn’t even see out across the ocean it was so smokey! We decided to duck into random stores to get away from it… and ended up having fun even doing that. 

Then it was time to meet the vans at the esplanade, have pizza and head home… we were very tired by this point, but also pretty refreshed. I wished it had lasted about a week longer... but it was an awesome break anyway!

I think that my favorite part of the trip was taking that long hike. It was really challenging for me, but seeing the beauty of everything really pushed me along and made me push through to the end. My shirt turned a different, darker shade of purple by the end from all of the sweat, and it was extremely hot and dry, but we made it. It was invigorating!

More excursions!

Yungaburra Folk Festival

22-24 October 2010

Friday night we had dinner at Moni’s house. Her house is very nice. She has 2 cats and SO MANY PILLOWS. The food was great!! We had fajitas with cheese, sour cream, chicken, CILANTRO and guacamole! We also had chicken wings that Charlie, Marcus and I basically devoured. Later that night we went out to the Folk Festival to check out the town of Yungaburra for a while. We had some drinks at the pub and met some friends that we know from the Peeramon. We were back at Moni’s by 10 in order to leave for the Center, because we were to be up early the next day to go back to the folk festival in order to set up our tents and begin our volunteer work.

Saturday morning we arrived at the camp site in Yungaburra at about 8 am, set up our tents, and then went to the volunteer desk to check in. We volunteered for 8 hours so that we could camp for free. The weather ended up being perfect! Sunny and warm and perfect weather for wearing flowy skirts. The Yungaburra markets were going on again because it was Saturday, so we strolled around there for a while, and we also checked out all of the other tents and festivities that were set up. There was an awesome tye-dye tent where I got an awesome long-sleeved brightly colored shirt. I also got awesome leaf earings from a little jewelry stand! They were so pretty… and then I lost one on the bus ride to Maggie Island L. There were food tents set up, lots of jewelry tents and very hippie-dippie styled clothing, artwork and jewelry stands. There were so many different venues where live music was constantly playing, and people we to be found every where you looked. It was such a happy, relaxed time! Saturday I worked at the Whistlestop café, where our artwork from the environmental art project was hung up! They looked so great all laminated. I also worked at the ticket booth selling tickets and at the Chapel checking wrist bands. I met a lot of cool locals who were all there volunteering with me. At night Marcus and I sat with a bunch of people listening to a band called the Blue Ruins. They were so good! This girl played guitar (backwards… she played a left-handed guitar on her right side…?) and her father played back up guitar and she sang. Her voice was amazing! We danced on the lawn and just enjoyed the music. We also got to dance on a HUGE dance floor to a live band. We danced like crazy! We were jumping and spinning and sliding, and having so much fun. I didn’t want it to end!

Sunday we did more of the same… we ate, we drank, we volunteered and we just had fun in the sun. That night there was a free volunteer party at the end of the festival, with live music again and free food! We all went, ate, chatted with the people we had met that weekend and then were brought back on a bus.

What a great weekend!

Daintree

26-28 October 2010

The drive to the Daintree rainforest was a little bit longer than the Chillagoe trip, but actually felt shorter… we stopped in the town of Mareeba, in another town for a field lecture from an Aboriginal woman named Robin, and at Mossman Gorge before arriving in the Daintree. She talked to us about Aboriginal land use agreements and the native title claims that her tribe went through in order to acquire rights to land and such. It’s such a difficult process that I guess I never really thought about before. Currently they are working towards dividing up the Cow Bay area into various land use agreements and such. While at that town we went to a thrift store and I bought an Australian flag hat for only $0.50!

We stopped at Mossman Gorge and were allowed to tour the place on our own. We took a free bus to the gorge from the parking lot, because it is illegal to walk on the streets. It was so beautiful there! Although Marcus and I went off on our own on what we thought was a circuit path… and then ended up getting somewhat lost. But it was alright because in the end we met up with Kenyetta and Natascha, who knew the correct way back. We followed the path along the rapids of the river where there were rocks and boulders, and saw huge golden orb spiders again and crazy, winding fig trees that looked like they would provide the perfect hiding places for hide and seek.

Once we arrived in the Daintree there were so many cassowary signs and speed bumps with rocks in them to seriously deter people form speeding. We got our rooms and our roommates and had some announcements. We were staying at a hostel, where Sophie was my roommate in a two bunk bed room. It was nice to have the room to ourselves! That afternoon, though, I saw a spider crawling on the wall… not a small spider, but a HUGE spider with orange stripes on its legs. I tried to catch it with my disc, but then it crawled SO FAST up the wall that I couldn’t reach it… and then once it was nearly to the ceiling, it lunged itself off of the wall and onto my pillow! Ah!

We got a chance to go to the beach, where I took some great pictures and we played some Frisbee and went for a long walk collecting rocks and shells… it was so beautiful and looked like it was exactly out of a movie. I actually started singing “born free, as free as the wind blows…” at one point, because it looked just like the scene from Madagascar where the rainforest meets the ocean, and the first sight you see are palm trees, white sand and blue waters.

The next day we got a chance to get a welcome to country ceremony performed by Robin at Cow Bay. It is a very rare ceremony that doesn’t often happen to such a large group. She brought us over to the creek that flows into the ocean a little way down the beach. First she stepped into the water, showering her arms and face with water while she spoke to her ancestors in her Aboriginal language. She then asked each of us to step down into the water. When it was my turn, she asked me to step down, and then asked for my name. She continued speaking to her ancestors, telling them my name and showering my arms and face with water. When she was finished, I stepped to the other side of the creek, and she did the same thing for each person in the group. Now her ancestors know each of our names, and will allow for safe passage through the Australian land. What an amazing experience!

Later that day we got to go to the Discovery Center, where we saw an absolutely beautiful rainforest! It was type 1b, which is very complex and has highly specialized life forms like palms, ferns and epiphytes. They had metal diprodonts and crocodiles that roamed this rainforest millions of years ago scattered along the boardwalk. They were absolutely massive! The flat-faced kangaroos at the time were something like 3 meters tall! That’s a 9-foot tall kangaroo!

We got a chance to walk through a type 3b rainforest, which is dominated by fan palms, and is a part of Siggy’s property. She has been maintaining it and catching feral pigs on the property for a while now. It was really amazing to see such a difference in the rainforest types… the fans completely closed the canopy, and radiated bright lime green light throughout the forest. Also on Siggy’s property we got a tour of her house, which is completely sustainable. We learned about how they built their solar panel tower, how every wall in the house makes a difference with the amount of sunlight that can penetrate, their use of few resources to build the house, and how leaving out unnecessary walls can save money and resources! Their bathroom consists of a lone toilet on their veranda and a lone tub. The septic system is all completely sustainable, and they use the compacted sewage for fertilizer on their land! Apparently after 6 months it no longer has a smell… hmm.

Then we went to the mangrove boardwalk, where we saw tons of mangroves with their prop roots, which they call stilt roots here. I had never seen rainforest mangroves before. We walked on a boardwalk through a swampy area littered with snorkel roots and other roots and soft-looking deep brown mud and a low tide. The walk ended at a sort of look out, where the swampy area that we had been walking through met the river, and crocodiles could often be found. 

We also got a tour of an exotic fruit farm. When we arrived there he had fresh squeezed lime juice ready for us, and gave us a brief history of the farm and how difficult it is to grow fruits because of changes in the weather and economy. We got to taste the Davidson plum, a very tart deep red fruit and the jackfruit, which sort of smells like wet socks and feels like goo, but actually tastes pretty good! There was one other fruit that was the best one there! It was called rollinia, and tasted like a mixture of banana and mango. It was so good! After the tasting, we walked through the farm and looked at the sugar banana trees, the jackfruit trees, and many more.

On the way back to the hostel we spotted a cassowary on the side of the road! We stopped the vans for about 10 minutes to get a good look at it. It was eating a dead animal on the grassy area on the edge of the forest, and had a baby cassowary next to it! The cassowary has such a beautiful color to its crest—majestic blue and bright red contrasted with a dark black body. The baby was light brown with black stripes. 

The next day we went on a board walk of the 1a forest, where we spotted bryophytes, relict species and a red-bellied black snake. Awesome! We also went on a boat on a crocodile tour! We all hopped onto this boat, which brought us up and down the Daintree river. Our tour guide taught us about the tree species, the mangroves and all of the different types of fauna that can be seen there. We got to see a tree snake first, which was cool… but then we spotted a female crocodile! She was hanging out in the water next to a log. She was very difficult to spot at first with her perfectly camouflaging brown, black and tan coloring pattern. I was glad that we got to see that! 
As we continued up the river, I just watched the passing trees and looked back at the wake we were making in the water. I was so happy just to be there and was enjoying every minute. The next bit of nature we saw were tree frogs hanging out in a tree by the water’s edge. They were such a bright green! It was a perfect picture—something I only ever imagined in picture books or on TV shows, but some how it was real life and I was seeing this with my own eyes… I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was! All-in-all we had an amazing trip and got to see and explore so many things. That was by far my favorite excursion yet!

and still  more to come...

Sensory overload!

So let’s see where I left off… I think I promised an entry about the Chillagoe trip… and then somehow I got distracted and too busy for life, and so I actually have way more entries than that! So we went to homestays, then took a botanical quiz, then went to Chillagoe, then took three exams, had a “mitigation threats” presentation, handed in our third field exercise, then went to the Yungaburra Folk Festival, then went to the Daintree, then handed in another essay for Rohan, took three more exams, finished classes for the semester, and went on mid-semester break to Magnetic Island. whew!

And so it begins…

Chillagoe

12-14 October, 2010

So we all piled into the vans at 8 am on Tuesday, 12 October and headed west towards the dry country. It took only about three hours for us to get there. We drove on a long dirt road dotted with cattle and wallabies, and through red dirt clouds from the vans ahead of us on the "highway". We stopped along the way to talk with two locals who are working towards protecting the Walsh River from being dredged by a local company who wants to take out sand for building purposes. They were very educated about the topic, and were totally against the whole project because of the wildlife that it would disrupt. That was a neat point of view to see...

When we got to Chillagoe, it was very hot. Apparently it was alot cooler than it had been in previous years, though, because it has been so rainy... apparently also the wettest dry season that Australia has seen in years. While in Chillagoe we got to swim at the Weir, which had a very shallow pool on one side, and then the water flowed over an edge to a faster flowing water spot on the other. It was great to get out of the heat, especially after a long day of driving. We played Frisbee and threw around a tennis ball with everyone and Tim and the interns. Tim made up a game called “weir ball”, which was fun.

We saw so many cool rock formations, and got to climb on some that sounded like metal when banged together, we saw other granitic rock formations and green ants that if you squeeze their butts it tastes like lime.

Over the next couple of days we had various field lectures. One was at an awesome cave formation that provides microhabitats and refugia for plant and animal species to go to. We explored the caves and climbed up the rocks and found passageways into other areas. It was very cool in there, which was a nice break from the heat. Also, we had a lecture at the old smeltering facility. That was a fun place to see how the town was once built up on mining and now is a ghost town because the economy couldn't support itself on mining alone... and there was nothing else around it to actually sustain it otherwise.



So now it basically is sustained on tourism and a little bit of farming. The old rocks and such are still at the smeltering place, because now it is deemed a national park. You could see the different colors in the rocks from where it was melted down, and all of the variations in the types of rocks. 

One field lecture that Siggy brought us on was called "snorkeling", but wasn't much snorkeling at all...we had to first climb underneath a barbed wire fence and then up a huge hill to the top of a dry, rocky lookout. All you could see around us were hills with dry grass, dry trees, the hot, shining sun and limestone rocks. This area was once covered completely by water, and the limestone rocks were 400 million year-old coral reefs. So this was the extent of our snorkeling trip... dry... hot... not wet... not refreshing... but still interesting. And, we could see the kangaroos hopping around all over!

The first night we had a basic barbeque... but the second night we got to eat at the pub, where they had all sorts of pasta salads, potato salad, tomatoes, and I got the barramundi on the barbie! it was SO GOOD! Then we stayed out at the bar and had some drinks.. and finally walked back to the camp site later on. Both nights we slept out under the stars with the flying foxes and the birds.. and the spiders... and the ants.  We watched shooting stars and just talked into the night. The first night of sleeping was great! It was warm, and I didn't get eaten by ants or mosquitoes or spiders! But then the next night... some people had been eating Pringles on the tarp that I slept on, and left them there... but I didn't know that.. and I woke up all night from ants swarming on my face and arms and legs! An also, at some point during the previous day I was bitten by something strange. The bite started off looking like a puffy bug bite, and then turned into a constantly growing pussing, swollen, infected mess over the next couple of days.
Leslie was constantly monitoring it by drawing an edge around it to see if it got bigger… and sure enough, it did! It grew until it was hot to the touch, basically consumed the back of my left upper leg and hurt to walk. Once I started feeling nauseous, Leslie took me to see the doctor. He didn’t seem too concerned about it, which was a good thing… but at the same time I was really nervous about my leg! So he gave me amoxicillin with some acid stuff in it, and it went away gradually… the picture isn't even the biggest stage...

I do still have a scar from where it was!

The drive home was pretty fast. Although before we actually exited Chillagoe we spotted a wedge tail eagle eating a dead kangaroo in the middle of the road! Siggy stopped the vans, got out and dragged the kangaroo by its tail off of the road and onto the grass, and checked its pouch to see if it had any babies... Siggy to the rescue!

Adventures, adventures, adventures!

So much has happened since the last time I've written...

So we went to our homestays AND went to Chillagoe! This post will be about homestays.. and my next, when I get a chance, will be about Chillagoe and other things!

My homestay was fun. We got picked up in Yungaburra on Friday at about 4:30 by our host mom, Penny. My first impression of her was that she was a quiet, sweet, old lady. She actually ended up being sweet and old, but not so quiet! So we drove to her house in Malanda (about a 45 minute drive from Yungaburra), which is a cattle farm. We pulled up into the driveway where we were immediately greeted by chickens and a dog named Dot! Although it wasn't exactly what I was looking for for a first impression, all objections had lifted, and I became very excited to be there spending time with an Australian family and doing Australian things. Also in the garage was our host dad Dave, or, Shore (pronounced Shorey) and a couple of his friends. He immediately offered us all (Rhiana, Camille and me) a beer! of COURSE we said yes! So we all had a beer (XXXX Gold) and some cheese and crackers while sitting around the kitchen table chatting. It was so interesting to listen to them all chatting together, because I couldn't understand almost any word that came out of their mouths! The way they speak out here in the country is almost a laid-back type of speech, or a southern accent... except Australian. I just nodded my head silently sometimes to be polite, and interjected when I actually knew what they were talking about! I laughed pretty hysterically at one point when Dave was talking about he never really travels... he has really only been to Cairns... and was saying that if he were to ever have to travel somewhere in a boat he would have to bring a bucket of dirt just to stick his feet in so that he felt like home! Hilarious!

So then we went out to dinner at the R.S.L (a local pub) where we ate dinner (pork and vegetables, nom!) and then had a couple of beers. We watched a live family band play, who happened to be friends with Penny and Dave (because everyone knows EVERYONE in Malanda). The band was great! The father and 2 sons played guitar, and the daughter played drums. One son was ABSOLUTELY amazing. I couldn't believe my ears when he played this one solo that his dad had composed! It sounded like 2 or 3 instruments were playing, but it was just him... pure talent! but anyway... as Dave was at the bar mingling with everyone (and I mean everyone) we saw our friend Blake from the Peeramon pub! I wouldn't believe my eyes when I saw him... I was like... dude, small world! Anyway, his dad and brother and sister were all there, and so we chatted for a while. Apparently he used to work for Dave and Penny... go FIGURE. Everyone was having a great time! Once the music started really getting going Penny started dancing! It was the cutest thing ever! She had bright pink pants on and a yellow shirt, and she was just such a cute little lady dancing like crazy with her hands in the air without a care in the world. As the night went on everyone was out dancing and having a good time. We finally went to bed at about 1:00 am! What an unexpectedly fun night out!

Saturday morning we woke up at our leisure and had a wonderful breakfast! First we had cereal (as some sort of appetizer) and then had poached eggs on toast with bacon and eggplant rounds. It was all home made AND when Penny needed more eggs, she went out to the chicken pen and got more... amazingly fresh :). We spent the rest of the day with Penny in the town of Ravenshoe (pronounced Ravens hoe). First we stopped at their friends house to see a one-month old baby! He was so cute... so precious! He reminded me of when I took care of Christian, Aiden and Jackalope when they were just brandy new... so cute! At one point Penny actually said to me "it looks like you've done this before..." when I was holding him. It made me miss my nephews REAL bad! So then we headed off to the parade and festival in Ravenshoe. It was fun! We sat on the bleachers and watched the parade go around the fair and all of the activities before we went to the various booths and got food. I goot a cheese Kransky-- a cheese-filled German sausage with sauer kraut and caramelized onions on top! It was SOO delicious! I also got a freshly squeezed pineapple-orange juice! A little ways down the row I got  a bag of 5 passionfruits for $1.00! It was the first time I'd ever had a passionfruit, and the farmer selling them let us each try one for free. They are very good! When you open them up they have a slimy seed that you scoop out and eat. It's sort of sour and sweet at the same time.

Next we went to the Torimba wood exhibit, where there were all sorts of art and sculptures, etc. made of local wood. They were all judged, just like at a county fair, and given prizes for the best ones. Some people are just so talented! The one that one the grand prize was amazing... It was a profile of a whale with its tail above the waves of a sea where there was an empty anchored canoe and beneath the waves was the rest of its body. It was really interesting! In the back of that building we watched a metalworker (blacksmith?) making cool metal trinkets. We also got to see Queensland's highest pub (The Tully Hotel) in Queensland's highest town (Ravenshoe). Afterward we stopped by the visitors center and read a little bit of history about the town. My general impression of Malanda and Ravenshoe is that it is a very large area that has a very small population. Most of the income comes from dairy and cattle farming, and everyone knows everyone. They work together to make their incomes work, and they are very friendly, out-going people just doing what they know how to do. They do seem a bit behind the times... I felt like sometimes I was living in a very patriarchical household-- Penny cooks and cleans, and Dave does the yardwork.

When we got home from Ravenshoe, we went with Dave to go check on the cattle and count the calves and check on a lame bull. Their property is so expansive! They own over 100 acres of land just for their cattle. We took the ute (pick-up truck) to go count cattle... Rhiana and I sat in the bed, while Camille sat in the cab! It was SO much fun! We had the wind whipping at our faces and could smell the countryside. It ended up being a very interesting ride, because we found a cow that was outside of the barbed wire... and so Dave reversed towards the cow to try to coax it into the fence, and when that didn't work we chased it from behind! The cow was sprinting towards the fence... and eventually snuck back under it just like a cat would under a fence. It was hilarious! Then we took the ATV to find the lame bull who had mud rot or something in his hoof. He seemed better Dave said-- he was walking again!

That night we had Barramundi, rice, cabbage and spinach, and carrots for dinner! It was the best meal that I've had in about a month and a half! The barramundi was SO FRESH! It was from a friend of theirs who had just caught it a few days earlier. nom nom!We went to bed fairly early because we were super pooped out from the day and had to get up in the morning to go fishing!

Sunday morning we had another great breakfast except this time we had no eggplant, but had toast with a jam that Penny bought at the festival... it was blueberry cointreau, made locally! It was SO TASTY! So then Dave took us out fishing... what an awesome trip that was! I got to drive the ATV to the creek! That was soooooo much fun! We went right through the meadows and on dirt roads, whil,e we were following Dave on his quad, with Dot on the back holding on! We wore yellow rain slickers and fished with only a line and a hook around a spool! I felt so in my element for the entire day! We first went to this one spot where I caught the first fish of the day-- a black rim! It was small, and we threw it back, but it was still fun! So then we went to another spot down the creek and I caught 2 more fish! They were all the same species and around the same size. I was having a grand old time! It was difficult actually casting out with the type of fishing gear we had and also difficult finding a place where I wasn't sunken a foot deep in mud!

After the second spot we went to yet another spot, where we got to get into the boat and fish in the middle of a river! It was a very quiet, calm river... but was really beautiful. The whole property was really very scenic! Anyway-- we had to roll up our pants and take off our shoes and socks in order not to get stuck in the mud! The boat also had no oars, so we ended up paddling ourselves to the other side with our hands so that we could tie our boat to a fallen tree across the way. This was after Dave shoved us out the the middle of the river about 5 times and then having us drift back to shore... I caught another fish here, except it got away before I could lure it up into the boat! Oh well... It was just Camille and me in the boat, and I taught her a little bit on how to cast her line. It was her first time fishing in her adult years, I believe! It was very nice... it even felt nice to be rained on while sitting in the boat, grubs in one hand, fishing line in the other and without a raincoat. Again, very peaceful and calm!

When we got back to the house, yet another friend of theirs was talking with Penny while she was cooking lunch. She made amazingly awesome chicken and vegetable stir fry with rice! I was so happy to have had such a great weekend and great food! After lunch we gave them their homestay gifts which they really seemed to enjoy! Rhiana gave them postcards and a book from Yellowstone, Camille gave them a nice bottle of wine and I gave them a Smith mug and a Smith picture frame with pictures of Smith inside. Shortly after we headed back to Yungaburra to meet the group again and head back to the center... I was happy that I had such a great weekend doing things I never would have done otherwise! It was really a great experience :).

until next time!

Em

rain, rain, go away...

So more of the same old same old has been happening. I am sick of the food, and sick of being told what to do, and sick of feeling like a four year old. They say that we're supposed to be following Massachusetts state law since this is a Boston University program, which makes sense. However, I am 21 in MA... but am not allowed to drink on site. The interns and our SAM can drink. Does that make any sense at all? no...
I am sick of not having any fresh vegetables, not having normal balanced meals... I just feel so gross about what I am putting into my body. I do feel good, however, about the exercise that I have been getting and the friendships that I have been making.
I am so used to being able to make my own decisions about what to eat, when to eat, where I can go, when I can go to the store... I just feel so restricted in an unnecessary way, since I am here in Australia with open spaces, huge places, etc.

Some awesome sightings have been happening recently! We lost our power at the center because a lace monitor actually got into the fuse box and got fried. Last week a group of students saw a 10-foot python on the way to the cabins! I wish I had seen it so I could log it in my field log book! The other night I was walking up the stairs to my cabin and I saw our friend Doug (who lives under our porch because he loves us) the small-eyed snake. That was a little bit unnerving...


Last Friday my group got to take some pictures around lake Eacham for an environmental art project, and take a tour of a nursery called T.R.E.A.T that is actually an NGO that works to plant rainforest seedlings. We will choose a couple of pictures to be presented at the Yungaburra folk festival in about a month. It's sort of like the photo gallery art project that we did in Belize with our advanced camp... except I'm being the student this time. It's interesting!

This picture is of a lenticil on a tree that I found with a drip of water streaming out of it from the rain.

Tears

Breathing

Crying

Telling

Truth

It rained non-stop starting Thursday evening, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. It finally cleared up Monday afternoon while we were in Malanda for a field exercise with Tim. Malanda is somewhat boring... except for the thrift store where I bought a plastic canteen with an Australian flag sticker and Marcus bought an awesome jungle hat with a neck flap! That was fun. The rain was really getting to me... I was sort of feeling blah. Yesterday we went exploring various forest types around the area and looking at landscape ecology type stuff. Last night, though, when the rain stopped, it was a very clear, beautiful night! I could finally see the stars again, and the bioluminescing fungi were dotting the forest floor on my walk to the cabin.

Today we handed in our second field exercise report to Siggy and started our third field exercise of the semester. We set up transects along the edge of the rainforest and a pasture and took data on invasive species composition and % canopy cover of those areas. We'll be compiling the data over the next couple of days and then writing yet another paper.... we also have a forest types presentation tomorrow. Thus far I've already handed in 3 assignments for Rohan, had 2 for Siggy, and this will be the 2nd and 3rd for Tim... This is all within the first month!

Friday we go to our homestays... I'm actually not as excited as I thought I would be. I am going to a house in Malanda with Camille and Rhiana, and we're going to a cattle farm. joyous. But, who knows? It could turn out to be alot of fun, and a great learning experience! We return to the center on Sunday and then have a botannical identification quiz for Tim on Monday... then we're going camping at Chillagoe in the Outback until Thursday! Then that Friday is our first exam... so soon! I can't believe it's already October... and that my every move is planned out until the end of the semester.

It's too bad my every move can't be planned out for me for the next few years of my life... I'm not even sure what I'm going to do starting in January when I'm home. and THEN I have to think about the summer, and then the next year... and GREs... and grad schools. merp. I guess I'm just nervous about going home (which is actually not that far away) and knowing that I have to apply for things very shortly after. I'm glad that I can talk to Marcus about these types of things, though. I had sort of a break down yesterday, that I didn't really realize was coming. I couldn't even explain my emotions to myself at the moment... but I talked to him about it. It's really a relief not to keep things on my mind and have someone who is such a great listener...

Hopefully this weekend and the next week will go more smoothly than this one did.

Also, more Aussie slang to come soon!

Em

They call today meatless Mondays

This past week has been filled with... alot! I'm not sure where I left off, but I know that we've been spending alot of time together, and not much time to ourselves... once again. We have been getting to swim at lake Eacham, which is a crater lake that isn't too far from the site. The water is nice, and apparently there's a small crocodile that lives there... eek!

Meatless Mondays includes fried everything... and a salad. Except today was actually fried everything, a salad and spinach ravioli! score!
Last week we got to take a canopy tour at Mamu, where we had a guided tour through the rainforest, and then got to walk up a 50m tower to see the lookout, which was absolutely breathtaking. We could see even more than we've seen already... about 7 layers of forests, a meandering creek at the bottom, and two cockatoos swooping through the whole scene. To add to the awesomeness of our day, we got to swim underneath a huge waterfall in the middle of the jungle in Millaa Millaa. The water was freezing and I almost didn't go, but after I made it across to the other side of the lake and under the showering water, I was sooo happy! I looked up and saw the mist from the water sparkling above me. It became difficult to keep my eyes open, but even when closed the smell and the sound was so overpowering that it was just as amazing. We were SO COLD. I couldn't stay long under the fall, but on the way out my professor Tim showed us a "bum-breathing" turtle! They actually have the ability to breathe out of their butts if they need to! How cooooool is that?
Last week we went to Jungle Farms and got to eat kangaroo and crocodile! When we first got to the farm we went down to the lake / river (not sure what it was) to watch for platypuses, but we were unsuccessful.  Dinner was great. I really liked the kangaroo. It tasted sort of like teriyaki beef. The crocodile was alright... it was in sausage form. It definitely wasn't my favorite. We also had beef, crab salad, regular salad, nice bread, cookies and tea and coffee. It felt really good to have some real meat in my body... we've been sort of eating really processed foods that are easy to purchase in bulk. After dinner we took a tour of the farm via spotlighting and saw 3 tree kangaroos!!! They have such long tails that hang down like a branch, and they are very fluffy with black faces. aww.

Thursday we had our first quiz! It was a bird quiz... memorizing 25 birds by sight and sound. I got 19 out of 20! Pretty exciting! Friday we had TREAT (community service time) and Warrawork. Last week my group did Lantana (an invasive vine from the Amazon) removal, and this week we went around the site finding tree species with fruits, sling-shotting their fruits down and bringing them back to the nursery to plant. It was alright... nice not to be inside a classroom, that's for sure! My group's warrawork (warrawok is a time when everyone on site has a designated section to clean, and they clean it) last week was cleaning out the cabin bathrooms and the study shack (bleh!). This week, though, it was easy-- we only had to clean out the car park (what they call parking lots here) and sweep the veranda. Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy!

On Saturday we got to go to the Yungaburra market. It was a really cute little town event, where all the local farmers and vendors brought their stuff and set up a table. Marcus and I went around finding all of the free samples (because we're awesome like that), and I ended up buying a canvas bag for $3.60 that has a tree kangaroo on it! I also bought more (5) avocados (nom nom nom), limes (5) and a tomato for only $2.50! I made out like a bandit!

That night we went to Cairns and stayed overnight!!! We all got rooms in various hostels-- I was with Marcus in a hostel called Cairns City Backpackers, which was actually really nice for FIFTEEN DOLLARS. yeah, that's right... cheeaaap! They gave us a free dinner and 10% off of his snorkeling trip, too! Other people stayed at the Global hostel, and most in Gilligan's. The city itself is a really nice area. The streets are really wide, and all of the stores are very nicely kept. The main street that goes down the middle of the city has old strangler figs remaining that were saved from being removed. The esplanade was super beautiful... there's a giant public pool that is flush with the land so it looks like a beach, and then the ocean is in the background. There are large sculptures all around (one of a group of angelfish) and street performers almost all of the time! It's a nice little place to buy some cheap wine, eat some good food and just enjoy walking around. On Saturday night a few of us sat on the esplanade wall looking out into the ocean just hanging out. It was alot of fun! 

Sunday morning we woke up bright and early to go diving!!! The group I went with was all of the certified divers, so Camilla, Evan, Kelsey and I. On the way to the first reef I was absolutely seasick. I filled up three bags with vom. ew. The first 2 dives tasted like that, too. We went to Saxon reef, where there was a giant magical wall, and Hastings reef where there was a giant fishbowl shaped reef. We saw absolutely giant corals, and GIANT clams! We saw huge purple giant clams that probably could have eaten Harmony if they really wanted to! They were mesmerizing! At the fishbowl we saw absolutely gigantic corals. One was about 20m tall! We saw tons of clown fish in their respective anemone habitats and I saw a unicornfish. No sharks, rays or turtles though :-/. We did three dives, the first one being the deepest. I couldn't go very deep (not more than 15m/40ft) because my ear wouldn't clear properly. By the third dive I couldn't clear my ear past 7ft, so I decided just to linger close to the surface and just enjoy what I could see from there. Oh well. The water temperature was 27 degrees C! We also had a nice lunch on the boat with potato salad, macaroni salad, roast beef, ham, bread, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, noodles and more. After my third dive I treated myself to a coke (sweetened with sugar cane, of course)! and I was not sick on the way home, so I slept on the bow of the boat in the sun for an hour :). Overall a pleasant weekend!

Today we spent the day setting up skink traps along the access road with Siggy. My group was at the 900m mark (aka almost the furthest away from the center). That was actually really hard work! We set up one open trap and one closed trap per group (groups of 3... I was with Charlie and Marcus, aka we were the best team ever :)). The closed trap requires  four walls of plastic that we had to dig trenches in order to stake them into the ground in a 5m squared box. In the center of the square we dug a hole for a bucket that we made flush with the ground so that unsuspecting scinks would just walk right into the bucket. We are doing this for practice for our DRs (directed researches). We've spent 3 days with Rohan to get an idea of what a DR with him is like, and now we're spending 3 days with Siggy to see what hers is like, and then will do 3 days with Tim to see what his is like. In November we start our DRs (ahh!) so we have to be prepared to come up with a research question and be able to set up the experiments ourselves. Today we were pretty leechy-- I had some leeches on my neck, hands, arms, legs, ankles, etc. and I had wait-a-whiles attaching to my face and hair! I even wore my hiking socks over my pants, with hiking boots and a long-sleeved shirt. I was doing alot of sitting and kneeling in the leaf litter and laying across vines and logs to lay out the plastic drift fence. but, it's all in the name of science!!!


Overall it was a successful week! Now, on to destinkify myself...
oh, and if you're wondering what a budgie smuggler is... picture a man wearing a banana hammock! (budgie is a type of bird I think, so it was a term used to tell a man that it looked like he was smuggling 2 small birds around in his bathing suit :)). Also, heaps= tons!

cheers!

so much to do, not enough time!

So the second week that we were here we did alot of lecture and field-based classes. We took a site tour to get a general idea of where we are living, and also got to take a tour of the area to learn about the ecology of the land in terms of tree species with our professor Tim. He showed us some of the different types of forests (re growth, old-growth, etc.). There was alot of damage caused by Cyclone Larry that left a noticeable mark on the land. Parts of the forest that were affected are less populated and do not have as thickly covered / dense forest cover. 

We did night spotting with Siggy, and saw a huge cricket molting, tons of huntsman spiders, caterpillars, a tree possum, a southern boobook (an owl-like bird), and learned of the forbidden strangler fig tree. The trail head was pointed out to us... of course we're going to go explore it!
We've already handed in 2 assignments, and are working diligently towards the completion of another one just for Rohan's class alone. We've written a 500 wd paper, a 1000 wd one, and are working towards a 1500 one and a presentation. For Siggy's class we've already had 1 presentation about scientific writing, and for Tim's class we have two presentations coming up. The schedule here is really rigorous... We wake up every morning to have breakfast at  7:30, and to begin our classes/ begin our day at 8:30. We often end at 5:30 for dinner, and sometimes even go until 9:00 pm. The birds turn on to wake us up at about 5:45am, and the cicadas alert us that it's almost time to end the day at about 6:30 pm. I have been able to sleep through the birds in the morning, though, and often get to sleep in until 6:45! With classes and a schedule (pronounced shedule) like this for six days a week, it becomes difficult to find any free time to think about yourself or do the readings for the next day's class or keep in contact with people from home... I have been making a strong attempt to keep in touch regularly, though! Starting this Thursday we have our first quiz, which is on the birds of the Australian rain forest. We have 25 birds to memorize via their call and picture... how exciting! (ugh). Thursday we also have that presentation for Tim...

By this time, we are all used to checking our beds for spiders and snakes and used to the long walk to the center. My cabin is up a pretty large rocky hill, which hopefully will get me in shape by the end of this trip! We're used to getting leached if ever it rains (it usually stays pretty dry and warm, except for these last couple of days and at night). We spent time in Atherton on friday, where I was able to find a Westpac bank in order to withdraw money without being charged crazy fees, use the internet and buy things like avocados and chocolate... yes, I purchased avocados and chocolate :-p. We have internet at a place called the study shack (aka spider shack), but it's not strong enough to watch videos or upload pictures...We also organized a frisbee game, which I played about the last 25 minutes of and realized how much I missed it! It made me feel good that I understood the game and remembered how to play (lol) and was able to help my team score the last few winning points :). We played with our 2 professors, Tim and Rohan. That was great-- maybe we'll play rugby next week!

I've really been enjoying the random animals and insects that we find here. Last night I saw a giant huntsman spider eating a millipede, the other night we saw a giant Hercules moth at the center (about an 8 inch wing-span), and this morning during class a Lewin's Honeyeater bird flew into the classroom chasing a moth, caught it, and left with it in its mouth! It was funny! There is a poisonous snake living under my cabin (it emerged the other night on the porch only to freak Kenyetta out and send her screaming for help), and today we found a rat in the dashboard of 2 of the vans! I look forward to seeing all sorts of other interesting wildlife around here.

Right now everyone is sort of winding down from the initial excitement of being in a new place. I think there is a bug going around. I've had a wrenching stomach ache for the past 3 days, Jake had a fever today, Sophie was sick the other day, Ali has a cold and Kenyetta has been feeling off... It's just a combination of being run down from so much activity and our bodies finally adjusting to where we are (at least that's what I hope it is!)

Next weekend we're going to Cairns! We're staying in a hostel on Saturday night, and then going diving on Sunday! I cannot wait to see the Great Barrier Reef!

For the past 2 Saturdays we've gone to the Peeramon Pub... We get picked up in the Peeramon Pub bus (which costs $4 round-trip per person), brought to the pub, everyone stares at us because there are 25 of us and like 4 locals, then we get dropped back off at the top of the access road, which is about a 2 km walk (25 mins) back to the cabins. That's a longggggg road at night! I have been getting used to walking alone at night, though when I'm coming home from the center or the study shack. It actually gets pretty peaceful when all you hear is the crumble of the rocks and the trail beneath your feet, and the symphony of cicadas around you and all you can see above are the stars and below is the path lit by the shine of the moon... I've learned not to be afraid of the forest so much, and just to accept all of the sounds that come from within it.

the first days...

So I'm here going onto my third week of chillin' out in the rain forest with some sweet tree possums, pademelons, cockatoos, parrots, deadly snakes and very large spiders (and many, many more...)! We arrived at the Center for Rainforest Studies here in the World Heritage rainforest of far Northern Queensland on Monday, 6 September, after having left CT on Saturday, 4 September. We didn't actually get the chance to live through Sunday the 5th... that was a very strange situation! I flew from Hartford to Dallas Fort Worth to La to Brisbane and finally to Cairns! (whew, that was a long one!). I met my first fellow student, Marcus, in the Bradley airport. It was nice not to be flying alone and sort of talk to someone about my worries, excitements, etc. We seemed to be on the same page about what to expect... except he made me feel a bit nervous that he was only bringing a hiking backpack and a regular backpack, where I had a 51 lb. suitcase and a duffel bag and my hiking backpack! Oh well...

So arriving in LA I was very tired and sick of planes... but SO EXCITED to be finally going on this trip and meeting new people (I had been anticipating my abroad experience since about a year ago when I applied to SFS). Marcus and I met up with some people in the LA airport and ate at On the Border, where alot of the group was hanging out. They were all very noticeable with their hiking backpacks and SFS T-shirts. I had a white Zinfandel to try to put me to sleep before our long 14-hour journey over the Pacific Ocean and Coral Sea to Brisbane. It worked very well. While in the terminal, I was greeted by almost the entire group of fellow SFSers. We were all excited to be on our journey to the Southern hemisphere where the toilets DO, indeed, flush the opposite way!

When I got onto the plane I was almost immediately prompted with dinner and then easily fell asleep for about 7.5/8 hours. It was sooooo nice. It was actually surprisingly pretty comfortable, too! They gave us alot of food. nom nom nom.  I plugged my headphones into the seat and Beethoven's 7th started playing... it was beautiful! My seat mate (visiting Aussie to thank a doctor that saved his hand while he was in the Marines training in OZ) gave me his Tiramisu desert (unopened, of course) and was very nice to talk to. The view out the window was absolutely amazing... it was dark out for almost the entirety of the trip, and mostly everyone was sleeping. I was awake for the last 6 or so hours of it, though (on and off of course). At one point I was staring out the window of the (double decker) plane at the stars and was graced by the presence of a shooting star! I couldn't believe it... when the sun started to rise it rose behind the plane in a horizon filled with reds, oranges and yellows, with a very deep purple above and ahead of us. Eventually the rest of the sky turned orange and red and again another deep purple was above us. It was one of the most beautiful scenes I've ever seen.

The arrival in Brisbane was successful, and the flight to Cairns was SO EASY compared to the past few flights I'd been on that day... when we arrived at Cairns and got our luggage, we were greeted by our SAM (Student Activities Manager) Leslie. She's super great-- she helps us organize ourselves into committees for deciding what to do on free time/ sundays/ mid semester break, helps us work out problems, is our mom when we're sick and is just someone to talk to outside of the group that understands and can offer sound advice. She's great. We met Rohan (our socio-economics professor), and Leah, Ian and Hester, all interns this semester. We then loaded the SFS vans (with the driver on the opposite side of the car!) and headed off to the CRS site. The vans were exactly what I pictured them as-- dirty and crazy with opportunity to get very close with the person next to you (due to the close proximity of the seats) and dangle your arm out the window if you're not driving past a wait-a-while tree/bush or near the center line of the road. The drive to the center was ridiculously windy-- we drove on the Gillies highway which you have to go slow on because it's along the edge of a mountainside (mom, you'd hate it!) and turns the opposite direction around every corner. Once we finally made it to the top, the lookout was fabulous! you could see for miles, and see the layers of the rain forest and the city of Cairns below. What a beautiful site!

Upon arrival to the site, we drove down a long and windy access road, which is our main road for entry and exit to and from the site. We are located directly in the rain forest, so you can imagine the vines and trees attempting to repopulate the roads. We took a general tour of the center, which is where we spend all of our classroom time, eating time, and other time (watching movies/ hanging out in the common room/ changing other peoples' facebook statuses when they forget to log out... things like that). Afterward we got to move into our cabins (I was assigned Cabin 2, which is the awesome cabin, basically) and meet all of our new cabin mates! There are 4 cabins, with one bathroom cabin... they are all located along one leg of the access road and trail to the center. Cabin 1 is the furthest away from the center, then cabin 2, then the bathrooms, then the dongas (where the interns and Leslie lives) and then cabin 4. My cabin mates are Kenyetta, Kelsie, Ali, Sonia, Val, Erin and Camille. They are all nice people, and fun to hang out with... we have some great cabin time conversations at night and in the mornings!

After moving in we had some basic ice-breaker games led by Leslie. This lasted until Thursday morning, when we began our first class with Rohan. We were to go out to an assigned town in the Atherton Tablelands (of course driven in the SFS vans) and talk to the local people about the economy, population, politics, environmental issues, etc. We learned alot about the surrounding towns through presentations that we gave at the end of the day. On the following day we did a geological tour of the Atherton Tablelands with Siggy (our ecology course professor) and learned about the basalt and granite soils, the cinder cones and formations of the rain forests throughout geological history. It was really alot of information to take in all at once, but overall a good introduction to the surrounding area. That night we had a barbecue at a cinder cone transformed into a state park. It was very pleasant... the sun was warm, and setting behind the distant mountains.