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