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