Last Post in Australia

Hello Everyone!
Tomorrow (Tuesday the 7th) I am heading home to the states! I will be back in good ol' Minnesota on the 7th at 8pm or so. (Gotta love gaining a day going back home! lol). I had the most amazing time traveling the last 2 weeks. Being able to experience soo many things and be in a variety of places around Australia... i have been so lucky to be able to have this opportunity. I was in Brisbane for a few days and stayed with a family friend. I really enjoyed being in the city and Simon took great care of me, making sure that I made the most out of my trip with tours and explaining about the city and surrouding areas. Not to mention that I was able to go to a pub to watch the State of Origin games and witnessed Queensland beating New South Wales!! :) They have won twice and has made it a win for the state of origins cause there is only one game left. I bought a Queensland state of origins beanie and wore it around Sydney today --- which is pretty gutsy given the area that i was in but i wore it with pride. :) I went to the Sunshine and Gold Coast while I was in Brisbane and got to see the Australian Zoo, famous for Steve Irwin. It was all pretty amazing. Took a bus to Byron Bay, the most eastern point of Australia and is known for surfing. There I went skydiving.... totally amazing by the way!!!, tried out surfing (got owned by a few waves!), and climbed to mount warning to watch the sunrise (the first part of australia that the sun shines on). Then it was on to Sydney. I was able to see the Opera house and Harbour Bridge, go to the Taronga Zoo, visit the Botanical Gardens, walk across the harbour bridge (on the bottom), went to manly beach and just toured all over the city! Throughout the last week of my travels I was with my friend Annie from back at home and her brother. It was a lot of fun hanging out with them --- many memories. :)
It has been so amazing here. All of the things that I have learned and experienced. It is amazing to be able to live in a different place for a while and be able to compare it to life back at home. Things seem different and you get used to life in your new country -- make things back at home almost seem foreign. Stuff like driving on the left side of the road or the tone the phone makes when you call someone becomes something that you get used to. I remember when one of the rangers was taking me home from Billabong Sanctuary and had an automatic and it actually bothered me that it wasnt a manual and the car wasnt shifting. Its amazing that the things you get used to after 21 years and after spending 5 months in another country can totally change the way you view life and every day things.
I hope that you guys had a great fourth of july!! Take much care and talk to you soon!!

Travels

This is the map of the east coast of Australia. My travels originally started up in Cairns, which is a little north of Townsville. What is cool is by the end of my trip I will have traveled the road way from Cairns all the way down to Sydney. I will have a pretty good feel of what the scenery of the coast looks like. A little over two weeks left. I am really looking forward to being able to travel around and feel really lucky to have the opportunity to do so.

Last Day of Uni....

Today I finished Uni. I had my final exam in Rainforest Ecosystems. I think that it went by well, just hope that he is not too strict when grading it.
A lot of my friends have already left. All of my Australian friends are gone and I have a few american friends left. Three are leaving tonight and one tomorrow evening. It has been an interesting day today. One of my friends was getting ready to leave as I went to my exam and then two left when I got back and then two more after lunch. It has been a big day of goodbyes. Tonight I am going to friends apartment with the rest of what remains of our group and we are cooking pasta. Afterwards we are going to Bludgers on campus for some drinks and to hang out. I am meeting up with a friend from Hungary who I first met at the Billabong Sanctuary. It should be a pretty good night. :) Tomorrow I am volunteering at Billabong for my last time. I am going to ask to see if I can hold a wombat! I have held and worked with a lot of the animals there but havent with the wombats -- one of my favorite!!
I just reserved my spot on the train to Brisbane for Sunday! It is going to be an 18 hour ride, getting there at 9:10 the following morning. It will be interesting to see the landscape of Australia. :) I am staying with a family friend who lives there. I am looking forward to that. I havent seen him for 11 years so it will be nice to catch up.
I am going to head out. Have to start getting ready soon and I may take a little nap. Staying up to study for exams kind of takes the energy out of you. . . . .

Great Memories, Great Friends.

The Australian's and I. <3
Morgan, Me, and Hayley waiting for the bus.
Outside of Hog's Breath.
Hanging out in the activity room in GR.


Last night was our last outing. We were all able to get together, which was so nice! We took the bus to Hog's Breath Cafe and had some amazing food! A good change from what at the dining hall. I had a steak burger and it was pretty amazing. What was interesting was it was decorated with american things. License plates from the different states lined the walls, there was even a green bay packers lamp! It was interesting, felt like i wasnt in Australia. Then we went to cold rock, which is the us equivalent of cold stone. I got cheesecake icecream with boysenberry and tim tam toppings. Needless to say, it was pretty fantastic! :) After that we walked to the bus stop to find tha the next bus didnt come back for almost and hour and then we took a 'maxi taxi' back to fit all 10 of us in there. When we got back to GR some of our friends went back to their rooms but there were 5 of us in the activity room in where we played some pool and played a game of spoons. It was a pretty good time. Made for a wonderful evening.
The Aussies loved their presents! It was such a good time and we actually took them by surprise. :)

Last Hurrah in Townsville

Today is the last time that my group of friends will be hanging out. :( We are going to Hog's Breath Cafe for dinner and then the Aussies are going to get some gifts from us Americans. We bought picture frames and took a nice group picture at one of our previous get togethers - so they are going to get that and a card signed by us all. Pretty much everyone is leaving Uni a week from today - I can't believe that time is going by so fast! Just when you start to get into the swing of the friendships that you have made and really feel apart of the group, its time to leave! I have made a lot of great friendships, from various places in Australia and different areas of America.
It is amazing at how fast 5 months can go. Even though I have been apart from my family and friends for so long, it seems like I am going back to home to where i left off. There is going to be some readjusting to get used to and catching up with people, but it doesnt seem like it has been a whole semester.
I had my first final yesterday, I think that it went well. It was for conservation biology and was a in essay format. Today I have psychology. Then two next week and i will be done friday afternoon. This has been the longest I have ever had for exams! One ENTIRE week to study and then two weeks for finals.
Well, I should get back to studying. Today will be a great day - hanging out with my buds tonight AND fish and chips friday!!! Gotta love it! :)
Take care everyone!
Bobbi

Queensland 1 . New South Wales 0

Queensland won the first game for the state of origin. An amazing try (touch down) was made at the end of the game making the score 28-18 and the Queenslanders were thrilled!!

More stem/root pictures.....

Here are some more pictures of the stem and roots from my rainforest ecology project. Just to show how much they vary in size and the different colors you can get while staining.

Last Month....

As of today, I have one more month in Australia. Time has gone by fast and I have made a lot of friendships and have had many great experiences and there is still more to come!

Here are some travel quotes that I found:


“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain

“Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quiestest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” - Pat Conroy

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” - Miriam Beard

“Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” - Seneca

“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” - Samuel Johnson

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” - Jawaharial Nehru

Food.... Aussie Style!

Tonight to dinner I had some "fairy bread". It is popular among kids (and even with some college students). :) Basically it is white bread, non-toasted, with butter and 'hundreds and thousands' on top, or as we know them, sprinkles.
Another fairy term that Aussies use is fairy floss.... which is cotton candy. I like the term fairy floss, gives the treat a more interesting name.
Not a fan of vegemite but I may have to give it another go before I leave to see if my taste buds have changed.
What I think is interesting is one of my friends has never had a PB&J sandwich! Peanut butter isnt nearly as big as it is in the states and our aussie friends make fun of us from all of the different ways we use it like on apples and in ice cream.
What is good here is pumpkin soup. It is pumpkin squash that they use, not Halloween pumpkins.
Wednesday is the first State of Origin game!! I am pumped for it! :) It should be a good time. :) :)
Take care everyone! Talk to you later ~
Bobbi

Rainforest Ecosystems Project

Here are some pictures of the project that I worked on this semester. These pictures are samples from stem and roots that have been cut up and placed on slides and then taken a picture of while on the microscope. The white circles are vessels and they were measured with a program in order to get the average diameter.
The stems and roots were stained, which is why they turned out so colourful! :)

Classes end.... the semester is nearly over... :(

Skink that was hanging around in the shower.
Got ya! He is pretty sweet looking.
Let him go outside my room.
Walking back to GR on the last day of class!



My classes ended on Friday of last week. It was a pretty easy day, just had one class --- it was three hours long and we gave presentations on the projects that we developed and did research on. This was for my rainforest ecology class. We went to Paluma for a weekend to do research. My group wanted to see how vessel diameter changed in a species of vine called Pothos longipes when being compared to the number of branches it had. It was pretty interesting because we found that once the vine had branches, the vessel diameter in the vines was a lot greater. Once the vine estabolished branches and added them in number, the diameter didnt change that much. It was just the jump from having no branches to branches that made the difference.
Right now I am working on a paper for one of my classes. It is due tomorrow night. I will be so happy once it is done. It had A LOT of data analysis. It is from my Australia Vertebrate Fauna class from when we had our Undara Fieldtrip. We have to analyze and interpret the data we have about the animals we collected in relation to vegetation and habitat type.
This week is our week to study and then we have 2 weeks for finals. My first final doesnt occur until next Friday, so I have plenty of time to study for that. Then I have my other finals after that. I will be leaving sometime on the weekend of the 19th to begin my journey towards Sydney (by stopping in Brisbane and Byron Bay along the way!!).
Today I found a skink by my shower! I was so excited that I got my camera and caught him and brought him outside. (Attached are some pictures)
Hope that all is going well --- take much care everyone!
Bobbi

Just thought that I would check in and share some stories and photos.
I volunteered at the Billabong Sanctuary on Saturday - It was pretty awesome, as usual. I love the Australian critters! I dont know if it is because they are so new and unique or what.... but they are great! Volunteering there has been one of my favorite experiences since I have been here. Doing things like being able to work with koalas by learning how pick them up and hold them has been very rewarding. The people that I work with are great --- so friendly and always cracking jokes.
Last night I had a cocktail party in my room with some friends. It was really fun to be able to get everyone together before finals start. We got dressed up and made drinks like Pina Coladas, Fire Engines and Vodka Sunrises. One of my roommates and his friend hung out with us towards the end -- which was pretty cool to spend time with him and have him enjoy the event.
This is the last week of classes then there is a week to study and then a week for finals. So about 3 more weeks in Townsville -- I think that it is crazy we will all be leaving soon. So many friends and memories were made here.
I dont know too much about my plans school -- I know for sure I am going to stay with a family friend in Brisbane for a while and visit the Australian Zoo with my friend Annie (she goes to the University of Minnesota with me and we are both studying at JCU) and her brother. Then I may go to Bayron Bay - the most eastern point of Australia and famous for its surfing. Depenidng on money, I may take part in surfing. My plane leaves from Sydney on the 7th of July. I am going to be there for a few days with Annie and her brother and we are going to met up with one of our Aussie friends who leaves in a suburb of Sydney. We plan to go to the Taronga Zoo and sightsee with Opera House and the bridge. I need to finalize my plans soon so I can start to plan out buses and plane tickets.
Hope that things are going well with everyone! Thanks for stopping by - take much care!
p.s. Here are some more Aussie terms:
rock up = arrive
ranga = red head (refering to orangutans)
fringe = bangs of your hair
maths = math (abbr. of mathematics .. just adding and s at the end)
Ay = beg your pardon.
spew = throw up
trolley = shopping cart
tomato sauce = ketchup
gridiron = american football
mobile = cell phone

Dividing up for the State of Origin. Queensland Maroon and New South Wales Blue.
Cane Toads - QLD, Cockroaches - NSW

Hello Everyone!

Not a whole lot going on this week.... just been hanging out and getting some school work done. I have been a bit sick... so that has sucked but oh well. On Saturday I am going to be volunteering at the Billabong Sanctuary!
There is only one more week left of classes here! Then I am have a week study break and then a week for finals! It is coming pretty close to an end! I have 2 weeks to travel afterwards... so that will be nice. On Saturday night I am having a cocktail party in my common room. A bunch of friend are invited over and we are going to dress up and have some mixed drinks --- it should be a pretty fun time to get everyone together before the semester gets too crazy!
Last night both the boys and girls lost in rugby. Us girls played Uni Hall, our arch rivals. We did real well and even went into over time, but Uni managed to score first. The boys played against St. Marks and lost. It was sad night for GR, but it was nice to be able to make it that far. Last year the girls only won one game... so it was nice to be able to get as far as we did. State of Origin is starting up soon! Only 3 games.... but three INTENSE games!!! State of Origin is a rugby league game where rugby players represent where they were born (either in New South Wales or Queensland). Queensland has won for the last three years... so lets see if we can win a fourth!!
Queensland is coloured maroon and we are the cane toad. NSW is blue and they are the cockroaches. The first game is on the 3rd of June. I am going to go to a pub in the city with some of my friends to cheer on QLD! I do have a few NSW fans.... so it should be interesting to see the reaction that they get in the pub. It is a pretty big deal, there are shops that are selling merchandise for the big games. The games at held in the bigger cities of Australia - first being in Melbourne, Second in Sydney and third in Brisbane. It should be a pretty good time. :)
Hope that all is going well for your guys! Take much care~
Bobbi
Here is a link of you guys are interesting in learning more about State of Origin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_League_State_of_Origin

Randoms

Taking a picture of the sunset from the bus....

You can see the stinger nets in the background...

Had to share and Aussie drinking song with you guys: (true blue means a real aussie, piss-pot is a drunk, and bastard can be said in a friendly manner in Australia)

Here's to (insert name), s/he's true blue
S/he's a piss-pot through and through
S/he's a bastard, so they say
Tried to go to heaven, but s/he went the other way
Drink it down, down, down (this is the part where you scull (chug))

The following link is a clip about togs (swim suits) vs. underwear and how to tell the difference because lets face it.... some togs do seem like they are nothing more but underwear.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-Lx2ihpGbc

Flinders Market and The Strand

The beach!!! :) Finally made it!
Never really seen a beach report....
Maggie Island in the distance
Least we forgot. This was one of the many surrounding the memorial.
The memorial that I saw near the strand....


Today I went to Flinder's Market and The Strand with 3 of my friends. It was pretty fun. I bought some more tropical fruit and looked around again. Afterwards, we walked down to The Strand. It was such a nice walk... there is a lot to see there. We walked past a war memorial and I had to stop to take some pictures. There are play grounds along the beach and a cool little water area. There are also random things that you can work out on -- its really weird to see. For example, right along the path they had this little rock wall like thing. It was very short, just enough so you can walk up it a few steps with a rope. It is just funny to see those things.
The beach was really nice but wow was the water salty! The only other time that I had been in the ocean here was in Cairns and the water didn't seem to be that salty there. The waves were not that big. My friend from Sydney was even making fun of them saying that they were wimpy compared to the ones he is used to. The area that we swam in had a stinger net --- which is to help keep out the jelly fish. Jelly fish season is just ending (as it is over in May) so there was not much to worry about. We hung to swimming and just hanging out for a while then we went to get some gelato! They have so many great and unique flavours. Everything from snickers to watermelon to mango. We were able to get home just in time for dinner.
Here is some more Aussie slang....
Bogan = hick
pissed = drunk (piss pot)
togs = swim suit
slip, slop, slap = motto for going into the sun..... slip on a shirt, slop on sun screen, slap on a
hat...there has also been a term at the end of slide pertaining to sliding on sun glasses

Picture of Mount. Stuart. At the top is an army base.
The buildings with the Green roof is George Roberts hall!
George Roberts hall again.
I love those hills.... they are so pretty.
Picture of waves and rocks at Maggie Island.

Just thought that I would add a few more pictures to the blog. There is one of Maggie Island and the rest of pictures of the top of a hill I walked up this afternoon. It has a pretty awesome view! I love the hills off in the distance!!

Maggie Island and More! ...

Rocky Wallaby! What a cute tail! They were so close to us.

The ocean! Gotta love ocean pictures...
Some of the friends that I went with.
possoms in a tree! mom and baby.


Hello Everyone!
Last weekend I went to Maggie Island with some friends to go to the Full Moon Party. Every time there is a full moon, there is a party on the friday closest to that day. One of the hostels has a party and it is right next to the ocean .... it was very pretty getting the breeze and seeing the ocean at night! We walked around the island the next day and we come to a spot with some rock wallabies! :) I was able to get really close to one of them! They must be pretty used to people or something.
Last night I went to see X men Origins: Wolverine. It was a pretty good movie. There parts in the movies where the events that happened got me pretty upset --- but in a good way, as a movie should move you. There was hardly anyone in the movie theater, which was great because we pretty much got there right before the movie started!
Tomorrow night I am going to Uni Club with some friends and then on Saturday I am volunteering at the Billabong Sanctuary.
Last night at dinner I learned some interesting things about Aussie words.....
Jello for us is Jelly to Aussies and what we consider jelly they call jam.
They have pumpkin squash here and they just call it pumpkin, so for a while i was confused if it was like the pumpkin we have at home.
Instead of opossom Aussies have possoms, which are very cute! (picture attached)
The movie theater did not have ICEEs! It was a little bit strange.

Line Outs, Scrums and Tackles, OH MY!

Boys playing against Uni Hall
Picture of a line out. I think that would be so uncomfortable....
Scrum.
Posing like a scrum.
Jess 'tackling' me.


G'Day Everyone!
Sorry that is has been a while since I have last written. Papers have been taking over my life lately. I volunteered at the Billabong Sanctuary on Saturday. The way that we go through the sanctuary to take care of the animals in the morning was changed a little -- so it was nice to get something a little different. I usually work with the nocturnal animals, mainly dealing with various birds, but they addded the dingos to the track as well! So I got to go into their cage. :) It is weird cause they are so tame, it seems like they are your own pets. I found out that it is illegal to breed them in Queensland though. I also got to hold a black headed python. I love holding snakes, they are so awesome!
Last night was our last rugby game before we go into the finals. The boys won 4 of their 5 games and the girls have won 5 of the 6. We got to play an extra game for some reason.... We dont have any games next week but then our finals start up. I am really hoping that our residence hall can get the Fisher Shield! It is the recognition that you get when you win in the finals against the other residence halls. Last night we played against my friends in Uni hall. It was a fun game and I enjoyed hanging out with my Uni hall friends afterwards.
On friday I am going to Magnetic Island to the Full Moon Party. Everytime there is a full moon the island has a party on the Friday that is closest to that night. There is a band or a DJ there and you just dance and party. On Saturday we are going to hike around the island and hopefully spot some wild koalas!! :)
Hope that all is well with everyone! Take much care and I will try to update this more often.

Australian Holidays

Thought that I would talk a little bit about some of the holidays in Australian.
ANZAC Day was celebrated on April 25th. ANZAC -Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. - is celebrated for those who have served in war. There were services at 4am during the holiday, i thought that was pretty early!
Here is a site about ANZAC day .... http://www.anzacday.org.au/
What I found to be interesting is that Aussies celebrate father's day in September and they celebrate labour day in May. (Actually, this Monday is Labour Day!) Yay for having school off.
Halloween is not popular in Australia and Christmas is nothing like in the states. Also, it doesnt snow during xmas cause it is getting close to the summer months (the seasons are resersed).
Easter is pretty low key and there is no big dinner with family like in the US.

Kookaburras!

I found the lyrics to a song that I learned when I was younger about the Kookaburra....

Kookaburra Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree
Merry merry king of the bush is he
Laugh Kookaburra, laugh Kookaburra
Gay your life must be

Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree
Eating all the gumdrops he can see
Stop Kookaburra, stop Kookaburra
Leave some gums for me

Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree
Counting all the monkeys he can see
Stop Kookaburra, stop Kookaburra
That's no monkey, that's ME!!!

Here is what the Kookaburra sounds like --- just copy and paste the link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0Op4PZzwwU&NR=1

Rugby League

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm5SXqqhrwo

The theme song for Rugby. Whose your team? ;)

Pictures of Undara Field Trip!

It was pretty dusty... someone made a little art on the back of the troopie.
Root from the cave! You can not touch them because the acid on our fingers will kill it.
Venomous snake!
Sun just about setting....
Picture of a tree at the top of the crater while we were watching the sunset.
Beginning of the sunset at the top of the crater.
Frog I caught while frogging by a swamp
The tour guide with a frog mouth.
Picture of bats leaving a cave.
Velvet lizard... they are amazing!
A bandicoot that we caught in one of our traps.
Loading into the troopie! It was our transportation around Undara to get to different sites.

I love the red soil!