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