Easter Weekend in Cairns

Hey guys!

I just got back from my weekend escape to Cairns with Danielle. It was pretty fun, though we mainly just did a ton of souvenir shopping and took a day trip to Green Island.

One little tidbit of information: flying domestic in Australia is crazy easy. After flying in they States and getting used to our crazy amounts of restrictions and stuff, Danielle and I were shocked at the seeming slack security. We never showed our IDs throughout the entire trip, and when I forgot to tell them about an aerosol can of sunscreen I bought in Cairns, they found it and just let me through with it. I even got to take my full water bottle through. But I must have looked a bit like a terrorist, because both flights I was the one randomly selected for the bomb residue test. Oh well...

Cairns Lagoon on the Esplanade

We left JCU for the airport at 4:30am on Friday for our 6:30am flight because we caught a cab with Julie and Ashley(who went to Brisbane and flew out at 6am). Running on 4-ish hours of sleep, we got into Cairns around 8am and went to the hostel, not realizing we couldn't check in until noon. So we just wandered around and waited to take a nap. Then we went to the lagoon for a little while, which was pretty fun. Other than that, we just shopped and hung out. I got some little nick-nacks for everyone, including t-shirts for Emily and Hannah. (Sorry if your shirts too big for you Emily! You're losing weight, so I have no idea how small you are now! And mom, if you want a shirt, let me know so I can find you one...I didn't know what to buy you!) That night, we were thinking about how boring Saturday was going to be, so we decided to take a day trip: either out to a random island or white water rafting.

We decided on the Green Island trip (though I want to get a group together to go rafting later in this trip) and headed out on the boat Saturday morning. Most of the tourists who were on our boat and on the island were Japanese and Chinese...it was so different being in the minority! About a 1.5 hour boat ride out of Cairns is the tiny (we walked around it on the beach in about 40 minutes, and its about 30 acres) island that only has a resort on it. It's a type of island called a cay, which is a small, low-elevation sandy island formed on the surface of coral reefs. They're mostly made up of biogenic sediment (the skeletal remains of plants and animals), which is pretty cool, because after a while, sediment gets built up and birds can deposit seeds, then plants start colonizing the place. Woo ecology and biology! The island was originally an initiation ground for the males of the Gungandji people. In Aboriginal, Green Island is called Wunyami which means 'place of haunted spirits'. Pretty cool. (PS- The cheapest rooms in the resort start at AUS $450!)

Green Island with surrounding reef

We started out the day snorkeling, and as soon as we got in saw all kinds of cool fish. My favorite part was when we saw the 3 meter long reef shark. He was just hanging out on the bottom, and didn't even move when some stupid guys dove down and touched him. While we were swimming around, another smaller shark just swam right under me. It was pretty awesome. I have to say that my favorite fish are the super colorful parrot fish. They make me happy:) After snorkeling, we grabbed some lunch and headed onto the island. We just walked around in the rainforest, which was nice. On the beach, we found these random crabs that I have to find the name of.

Parrotfish

We got back to Townsville around 8:45am and when I got back to Rotary I remembered we had an Easter egg hunt. Not too many people were here, so the few of us that stopped by got a ton of chocolate eggs, which was pretty cool. I left not too long after we found them and headed back to my room.

Now I'm back with a lot less money in my pocket and a ton of stuff to do. Namely, write at least 2,000 words for my lovely vert. fauna paper and study for my psych midterm. Both of which must be done before Tuesday! Then I just have to get through 4 days of class and then I'm on lecture recess (aka spring break). I've got no plans for the first half(possible a trip to Maggie, or get certified and dive the Yongala...maybe) and then we're going to Undara for Australian Vertebrate Fauna the second half, which includes my 21st birthday. So, I'll be camping out in the middle of nowhere for my 21st...though, all the super awesome animals I get to play with will probably make up for that!

Speaking of 21sts, I called Wes while they were downtown for his in Clemson. Actually speaking to my friends(other than Jessie) on the phone for the for the first time since I left was pretty fun, and them saying they missed me made me realize how I miss my awesome friends. Though I can't wait to get back and hang out, I don't really want to leave Oz any time soon. The perfect solution? Get them all to fly here:)

But that's it for now, got to get work done! There will be more pictures later, becuase they are all on Danielle's camera and, since I'm mooching them from her, I have to wait until she posts them to Facebook:)

-Jess

Easter Weekend Pictures:)

Tiny, tiny hostel room.


Super sexy stinger suits again and Danielle and I on the beach


Posing on a tree


We're slightly obsessed with this flag now!


Showing off the rugby battle scars


Me on the beach and Showing off my Mars Bar addiction

PS - Random fact: Aussies spell fetus "foetus" and fecal "faecal." Just so you know.

RAW Rugby: RAW means WAR!

So, we had our first game on Wednesday night, and I have to say, rugby is pretty awesome. The first half the girls were really nervous, because most of us had never really watched rugby to begin with and we had not had many full team practices. Second half we really started getting the hang of things and were a lot more confident. We were playing the preseason 1st place pick in our first game ever, so we understandable lost. But we did score a try before the end!

We only have three non-tiny girls, me being one of them, so we decided to only have 2 on the field at a time and just rotate the third in. When I was playing, I was chasing down this girl because I was the only thing between her and a try. I went low to tackle her, and she stuck out her hand and stabbed me in the eye. I ended up pulling a Tyler Hansborough, because it pushed my contact into the back of my eye and I couldn't see. It sucked and she scored, but I was really hoping for a super awesome black eye and Mandy and I had already started concocting a bar-fight story. But the next morning it wasn't too big and I only had a nail-mark. After I found my contact, I threw it back in and made some awesome tackles. Soooooo much fun. I can't wait for next week, because we're going to be great!

Here are a few pics, but more will come later!

Mandy and Anne on the lift...I do this too

Someone did something wrong...waiting to start up again

-Jess

Extra, Extra: Jess's Camera Is Coming Back to Oz!!!

EXCITING!!!

I just talked to my mom after writing my last post. Last Thursday she was nice enough to send me her camera to use in Oz until she got mine back from Canon. Then she got mine back on Friday! Score...Canon had to add the little post-it on the camera saying "HEAVY wear and tear." Yeah...that's why I got the stupidity-insurance. I swear....that's another good reason that I didn't get a D-SLR. It would be in pieces by the time I got out of Australia. Oh well, the good news is that I'll be getting a camera soon, and the posts will be up and going again. Anyone who knows my mom should go give her a giant hug for me, because she's awesome.

Also, Molly was nice enough to send me an extra Tiger Rag...so I'll start being cheesy and take pictures with my Tiger Rag. I'll even try to sneak it underwater on some dives;) How can that not get me in a Clemson brochure?

Speaking of Clemson and education in general, will some one please smack Mark Sanford for me. Though he wants us to stop spending way too much money (which is good), bargaining with education and law enforcement funds just isn't the way to do it. I could continue the rant, but I'll stop it before it gets going...

Time for studying!

-Jess

About A Month's Worth of Fun...

Well, I haven't posted in almost a month! Crazy...but I blame it on the loss of my poor camera. I mean, what's the fun of blogging if you can't share pictures? But here's the recap:

Cyclone Hamish
So, we get all of these warnings about this intense cat. 5 cyclone (hurricane for my American audience). It ended up not hitting land, but went down through the Whitsundays. The damage was nowhere near predicted, but it just goes to show how storms are intensifying these last few years. If it would have hit land, it would have been devastating!

Airlie Beach Young Adults Camp
The weekend of March 13-15, I got to go on the young adults camp with my church. I could have sworn I'd already posted about it, but it just shows how long it has been since my last post. The weekend was pretty much amazing, and it gave me a nice boost my worshiping and reading the Bible. I've already gotten 4 books read...1 Samuel through 2 Kings, now I'm going back to Genesis and reading through the whole thing. I think it will be a fun thing to do, because I don't have any books here and I've always wanted to read through the entire Bible. I'm even taking notes and stuff. I'm studying the Bible more than my classwork sometimes! lol
But back to the camp. It was down at Airlie Beach at the Whitsundays. We stayed in a hostel there, and Saturday we went out to the Whitsundays and Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island. Now, this beach is said to be one of the most beautiful in the world, and it definitely lives up to the title. It was soooooo beautiful! No one lives on that island, so it's pristine, and the sand is snow white and the ocean is so blue! I just want a chance to go back! We took these crazy ocean-raft-boat-things so the ride was intense, but well worth it. We also went snorkling, but due to my camera MIA, I don't have any pics. The visibility was pretty bad due to Cyclone Hamish though, so you're not missing much. I also discovered that I'm not a huge fan of snorkling (in low vis at least). I kept diving down to look at stuff and chase fish, then I would forget that I wasn't scuba diving and think that my snorkle was my regulator. That made for a lot of breathing ocean water. Delicious! Not.

Here are some pics from the trip:

Ocean rafting...so much fun!


Group shot at the overlook and Our snorkeling site


Beautiful Whitehaven Beach and Lunch on Whitehaven Beach


Me at the sign and Keeping up the Clemson/Carolina rivalry...even in Oz!

Billabong Sanctuary
I volunteered the next weekend (March 21) at Billabong. It was really fun, but I had to get up at 5:30am on a Saturday. Now, if you know me, I love animals, but I also love sleeping in on Saturdays. So, I haven't been back the last two weekends, but I may. It's just sooooo early!

Here's what I got to do: I cleaned out animal enclosures (best part! Not), helped prepare the food for the day, helped clean out croc and blue-tongue lizard pens (which was actually kind of cool, because I got to pick up the blue-tongues), learned how to handle koalas (you can't pick them up around the waist because their ribs are delicate and will snap, so you pick them up by their super strong arms) and got to watch croc feedings. Also, the woman who picked us up was playing foster mom to a baby wallaby named Arnie and I got to hold him on the car ride. He's adorable!!! It was a pretty intense 8 hours, and if it started just a bit later, I'd be okay to give my Saturdays. We'll see how it goes.

Here are some pics I stole from Bobbi from Billabong (I'm not in any, because Bobbi went on a different day than me):

Baby Arnie in his pouch and one of the koalas


Where we make the food and Heaps of baby crocs!


Blue-tongue that I got to hold

Photography Class
So...I like taking pictures. I do NOT like taking pictures for a grade. I tried to get out of photography and into a fun bio class when I got here, but no. I have learned a few fun things, like the fact that I love slow shutter speeds and selective focus. Here are a couple of my fav shots:

Rugby
One of the strangest things for me is not knowing the rules of the popular games here. So a bunch of us girls decided to take in a North Queensland Cowboys rugby game. Unlike football games back home, there is no time between plays for an announcer to tell you what the heck is going on...so we watched and just smiled. It was oddly quiet, until a team got a try (like a touchdown, but 4 points) or a goal (2 points). We ended up losing the game to Melbourne Storm pretty badly, but we had fun watching and being in the sporting atmosphere.

Waiting on the bus...an hour late!


Watching the game


Basically the same picture twice...lol

Clubbin'
I don't even know if the on campus bar/dance club counts, but it's the place to be on Thursday nights. It's a fun way for all of the girls to get together and dance. For the record, I am being a good little sober girl!

Random Other Things:

Other than that, there have been very few other things going on...I did sign up and get all of my Clemson classes for next semester. I didn't sign up for research other than 493, but I'm planning to go through with the double major deal. Biology and Psychology are two completely different majors, but I'll have them! Hurray.

I also joined the RAW (aka Rotary and Western Courts) women's rugby team. At first it looked like we wouldn't have enough girls to play, and we practiced with the boys at first. At the last minute, we got a bunch of girls, so we had to forfeit our first game last week and we'll start this Wednesday. We've had a few training sessions and I've already got a few random bruises from tackling people. I was so sore after Fridays practice that I did nothing but watch movies (Animal House and Some Like It Hot...nothing like a late night black and white movie!) and sit in my room on Saturday. But it's fun being active again. Except for today. We had a straight up fitness training session. It was pretty intense and reminded me why I'm so out of shape. Serious exercise is no fun at all! But hopefully it'll make me get off my butt and start running/jogging or something!

But that's it for now...hopefully the super long post will hold you until the next one, which will hopefully be next weekend, because I'm travelling to Cairns! I've got a lot of work to do (namely an 8 page Vertebrate Fauna paper, a 4 page field write-up for Functional Bio of Marine Org. and a psych midterm). Lots of work, and I've been lazy this weekend. I'll be working a lot this week so that my travels will be stress free.

Trips for this month:
- April 10-12: Cairns for Easter Weekend...I got roundtrip flights for $44 Australian dollars (aka $30 USD)!
- April 18-22: Not sure yet...it's mid-semester break, but I decided to go to Sydney and Melbourne later...
- April 23-26: Spending my 21st birthday in the middle of the outback on my Vert. Fauna field trip. Camping out and mozzies...great. Though we do set up traps for all kinds of animals, like snakes, lizards, rodents, etc...should be interesting.

Well, time for some studying...I'll post again soon (hopefully!)

-Jess

PS- Special thanks to Amber who reminded me that I've been super lazy with my posting and needed to update.

Happy Birthday Hannah!

This post is dedicated specifically to my awesome sister Hannah, because today (April 5, 2009) she is a teenager! 13 years old...and making me feel all the older! Ahh! Guess I'll have to be a grown-up soon, but not quite yet.Hannah's the one in the middle of my and Emily's craziness...21(almost), 17 and 13...we're getting old!

I'm starting to plan a road trip for the three of us when I get back to the states (mom, I guess you can come too...but my car is going to be cramped!). There will be camping out in the car and other fun sisterly-bonding activities, but I'm still planning. The three big places I want to hit are Yellowstone, The Grand Tetons and Grand Canyon. If we weren't going during one of the hottest parts of the year, I'd throw in Death Valley (I mean, I go to Clemson!)...but we'll see:)

That's about it for now, and you guys should yell at me for being a horrible poster. I'm working on a new Australia one at the moment...see you soon!

-Jess