The animalistic update

Sunday night again! One week from the Unigames and a week of recovery in order to kick butt during them. Back in classes and actually had some work to do, there is not as much work here as there is back home.

Its a dull Sunday, but relaxing. The weather is getting better by the day and I am very excited for the beach and taking a couple of surfing lessons.

Happy New Year too! I hope everyone is doing well and take care!

Spring Break to Cairns

Well, hello all again, sorry about missing last, but nothing really happened in the week coming up to session break. That’s right, I cannot believe the session is half way over. There is so much left to do, and the time already has been incredible. The break I took accomplished so much for me in one week.

We left Sydney for Cairns in Northern Queensland, a town that reminds me of Dewey Beach town in Delaware, except no beach, but Reefs and rainforest surrounding it. We arrived Sunday to raft down the Barron River outside of town. Relaxing and fun, the rapids were nothing too turbid and it was a great time. The night was fairly quiet to get ready for the three day tour of the Great Barrier Reef. Diving in the reef was all adventure and I was able to get 10 dives in 3 days, which was tiring for me.

Dive 1-Encountered a stingray right under the boat, toured around unguided and had a blast
Dive 2-After a surface swim saw two reef sharks in the day time, grouper, puffer fish, another shark and wonderful coral beds
Dive 3-First Dive off the boat we slept on
Dive 4-My first night DIVE!!!
Dive 5-Early Morning dive, not much to see, I was too tired
Dive 6-Swam among large coral beds some great pictures and my first close encounter with a green turtle after ending up too far down current
Dive 7-We took a drift dive because the current was too strong with a group of other divers, it was guided. Saw two cuttle fish.
Dive 8 –Second Night Dive, night encounter with two sharks and tremelly fish, I caused the death of one fish
Dive 9- .75 m puffer fish and fun with currents, along with a sand goby
Dive 10-Final Dive with people I came with, say a flowery grouper, and a Hawksbill turtle feeding

Thursday we took the train to Karunda, the train lies on top of the tracks laid back in pioneer years and was used to access the rainforest town. The scenic railway headed up through the Daintree Rainforest along the Barron River to Karunda. Once there we took in a walk through the forest into town. Along the trail there was a crocodile sunbathing along the river. Once in town we took in the local art shops and a bird sanctuary. I made friends with the avian locals. To get home there was a gondola to take us over the canopy of the forest. Thursday night would entail a dinner in the rainforest.

The crew took a one and a half hour drive North of Cairns to dine in the rainforest. With an open bar and candles lighting the surroundings we knew we were in for a great evening. An aboriginal family from the area hosted the meal as we dined on seasonal and local cuisine including crocodile and kangaroo. The evening highlight when two brothers told us a story from what would be known as the dreamtime.
This was their story

Once all the ducks in Australia sat in ponds isolated from one another. They stayed this way for they were afraid of the deadly water rat that would hunt them in open water. Hiding among the reeds and their burrows ducks let their lives pass by.

There was one duck though, a rebellious and strong female duck. The duck wished to explore the pond beyond her family. So as an adventurous and rebellious duck, she ventured out to the pond. It was in the open water, after swimming for so long, she took rest on a small island. As it so happened, she was on top of the lair of the vicious water rat that hunted her and her family.
The water rat thought had followed her here; he watched her frolic out of the weeds. He became entranced by her grace and beauty. He showed off his most courageous and brilliant hunting skills. The female duck watched the water rat and was intrigued as he showed off for her. The water rat lured the duck back to his lair and she followed to his chagrin. She chose to stay with the water rat and fell in love with him.

She loved the water rat and stayed with him for many years. As time passed she began to think about the family she left so long ago. She wondered if her family missed her as much as she missed them. As a rebellious one, she did what one would expect. She loved the water rat, but had to find out that her family was still out there. She escaped the water rat’s borough one night and returned to her family.
Once back to her family’s nest she was greeted with the love she had forgotten. It was at this time though it was time for her to find her own way. She went into seclusion for some time in her own borough. When she emerged she was not alone, it was spring and her offspring came back to the pond with her. Her children had the beak and feet of the duck, but the body of the water rat.

The children were shunned and feared, they became shy and embarrassed. The children hid away from the other pond creatures. To this day they stay hidden from most. These children made the first tribe of the platypus. They are in the rivers and ponds, but you must tread lightly if you wish to lure one out of its hiding place.

It was a beautiful evening and we drove back to Cairns merry and happy. The final day was relaxing as we woke to a jet skiing, parasailing, and tubing adventure in the Cairns Harbour. I managaed to throw myself off the jet ski and had couple of dunks in the parasail. After lunch, we headed to a crocodile farm and then the airport.

BACK TO SCHOOL!!!!

Hey,

Today is the first day of classes back at the University of Rochester. I hope everyone enjoys the weather and has a great week!

Almost to Session Break!!

Hey everyone, the action doesn't let up here in Sydney and won't settle down any time soon. Last weekend the frisbee team participated in the Sydney IV tournament to get some experience before Uni Games. Unfortunately, I pulled my hamstring and bruised the right achilles and took this week off from training. This week was lackluster from running around, but the excitement was made up in scuba diving this weekend.


I completed my advanced certification at Camp Cove in Sydney Harbour and on the North Head of the Harbour. Highlight from day 1 included cuttle fish, a grouper and for the first time I had visibility more than 3 meters. The second day started with a deep dive and encountering a 1 meter long Port Jackson shark. Check it out on google images, they are generally unique to the Sydney area. The second dive added more wild life, including moray eels, a shovel nose stingray, and a 1.5 meter bull ray. The ray was truly magnificent. Next week I will dive the Great Barrier Reef with the IES Program for session break.

I lied about photos, I will upload tomorrow when I recharge my bandwidth credit

Well that was fun

Hey everyone, its fairly hectic here. Hopefully you have looked through the facebook photos. If not send me an email and I will make sure you see them.

It has been too long since I posted because I have issues with the server here. Sadness.....but here is the update and stories. Silly season in Baxter begun to wind down with a wine tour to Hunter Valley outside of Sydney. It was very pretty and the wine was pretty good.

After that, silly season officially ended with the Baxter Royale Ball that took place at the foot of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was a great evening of dining and dancing with all the Baxter ressies. There was a 15 piece jazz band that played for us.

Outside of Baxter, I made the UNSW Ultimate Frisbee team and am traing for the Australian University Games at the end of September. They take place in Surfer's Paradise in Queensland about an hour or so North of Brisbane. The team is great and we play a lot of frisbee. We played a tournament this last weekend and did alright. We are a new team and still need to learn each others' place on the field.

Next weekend I am taking my advanced certification for SCUBA here in Sydney, so ow you know what is happening next weekend.

The weekend was also highlighted with the Tri Nations Rugby match between the Australian Wallabies and New Zealand All Blacks. The game was great, but the Aussies lost by one right at the end.

So...photos from all this? Coming soon...I need to upload them...and let me know if you want mee to email them straight to you.

Classes are great too, I go to all of them like the nerd I am. This week has a fair bit of work, but I will manage fine.

Finally, tell me what you want to know more about!

Week 2 of classes

Well, now that classes have started life is not as exciting as it once was…wait…oh no…the main topis this week is that I contracted a dysentery-like disease after my birthday after eating a Maccer’s hash brown. I blame it on the hash brown because I have not eaten Maccer’s in 8 years. Wait correct that, the last time I ate maccers was three years ago, which when before it had been five. What happened the last time was that I vomited in a toilet for two hours. What happened this time is closer to death…yay!! Other than the gut pains, class is great! Still getting into the full swing, but it’s all going well. The class list is:

Fluids, Climate and Waves

Physical Oceanography

Coastal Resource Management

Coastal Environmental Assessment and Monitoring (yes we go to the beach)

Thursday was Foundation Day at UNSW, the school’s 60^th birthday! It is a day much like Dandelion Day in Rochester, except not as old and celebrates the school’s birthday. I think Dandelion Day celebrates temperature over 57 degrees.

This week was not as exciting, well it was exciting if you consider recovering from salmonella exciting, but other than that, it was not swine flu!!

Getting used to life here is what is on my mind mostly right now. With silly season being my main social life and frisbee starting to take up more and more time, it is getting hectic already. The courses here rely a lot more on independent work than studies back in the US. Back stateside there are more assignments that count toward grades. Here though there are fewer chances to earn marks, and more emphasis on studying.

Beyond that though, it is still a fish in new water, I feel like I have left my plastic bag from the store, but I sometimes want it back for safety, I know though it is not coming back. More adventures to come though and stories to tell, until then....courage

Two weeks later!

OK here is a long post, I will keep them shorter from here

Well, just over a week later and classes are starting. It has definitely been a long week. I left you at just the beginning of orientation, which was only the beginning. After the botanical gardens we headed down and got our first views of the opera house. It is truly magnificent to see in person finally. The goal after that was to stay up until 9 that night to beat the jetlag.

We were based in Coogee Beach (Pronounced ‘Cugi’) an area usually populated by American study abroad students. The area has a few nice restaurants and some bars. The next day we headed to the opposite side of the downtown region and walked over to Darling Harbour. From there the group went on a jet boat across Sydney Harbour for amazing views of the Harbour Bridge and Sydney skylines. Sorry, the boat was too wet for pictures. Going in the tourist direction we headed for the highest point in Sydney, Sydney Tower. The group took photos from the observation deck and proceeded to a tour on the outdoor deck of the tower for some amazing sunset views (about 4:45…it is winter).

The final day of IES orientation took us outside of Sydney for the first time. We headed across the Harbour Bridge and West into the Blue Mountains. The term comes from the eucalyptus trees that give off a blue hue across the mountain range. In Australia, if there is eucalyptus, that means koalas are not far behind. Our first stop in the region outside of Sydney was a wildlife preserve to get close to some of Australia’s indigenous wildlife. The park allows visitors to get up close to Australia’s most beloved animals. We were able to feel wallabies and grey kangaroos! There was also the chance to bet a Koala. Check out the videos below. Unfortunately, we had little time at the animal park and headed further into the mountains for a small hike around a mountain valley.

That was one orientation, now it was time for another one. UNSW orientation, but it is not as conventional as you think. The group took care of paper work at school and moved into our housing for the session. I was living in an apartment far from campus (1 mile), but was extremely lucky to get moved into one of the Kensington Colleges on campus. A college at UNSW is a dorm that is also its own community of about 200 students. As “freshers” we were introduced to college life touring around Sydney again, this time doing ridiculous tasks around town including some fountain swimming. No we were not arrested…yet. For three days we were woken at odd hours for McDonald’s (Maccer’s) breakfast with a tour of Sydney’s finest bars.

Taking off from that classes had to start at some point and in the last week I have one class start, the others start next week, but we are all acclimating to college life. It is hard being back in a large dorm, but a lot of fun. The people are great and a lot of fun to be around.

Week two sees the start of all of my classes, and much more fun to come!

This is really slow for uploading images anyone know a better system for images?