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| Yeah thats me at the Great Barrier Reef. I know I already through a picture of that in my post yesterday but I just thought it was awesome enough to get one of me with it and include that. My calves and bottom half of my thighs got super burned while snorkeling. Didn't think to put sunscreen there and now I have this very attractive tan line. It rules. |
Friday, December 10, 2010
Picture of the Day 1
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Appendix
As impossible as it is to give you an account of my after semester travels that do them justice, I will try to just provide a general insight into my experiences across Australia and New Zealand. The past three weeks have probably been the most fun I have had in my life so far. Traveling with a group of friends by ourselves on the other side of the world exploring places we had only seen in media sources was amazing. As we traveled further and further our group dwindled down to the people I had become better friends with in Perth with one exception and a couple of people in other groups that I would not have minded traveling with but I cannot complain at all.
Our travels started right after I took my hardest exam (Vertebrate Zoology practical) at UWA. I came back, finished packing, ate dinner, and headed off to the airport with almost everyone since most of us were flying out to Cairns as the start of our separate adventures. Our group opted to skip Urulu (Ayer’s Rock) due to flight conflictions and general increase in costs that it would have presented. As much as I would have liked to see that rock, one of Australia’s three most prominent icons, our travels brought us to the other two, and .666 is Hall of Fame material. Cairns was the site of the Great Barrier Reef and the main reason for heading up there. We went snorkeling on the second day there for basically the whole day, which included two different dive sites and the two-hour boat ride each way. We decided to spend a bit more and instead of going to Green Island, which is the most popular spot for tourists because of proximity to Cairns’ port, go out to the outer reef. The corals were amazing [see right].
It is really impossible to describe landscapes in words for me so I will resort to pictures to help (but otherwise you will have to put up with my lack of describing ability). I figured that spending a little extra for pictures of the reef would make a better souvenir than any article of clothing I could find that said Australia on it. The other days in Cairns were spent exploring the tropical rainforests around the area, which was a novel experience for me since I have never been in such an environment before. It was extremely humid most of the time and made for sweaty hiking, for most of our group since apparently I don’t sweat according to the others. A lot of this trip involved large amounts of hiking and/or walking. We just view all of it preparation for the Kepler Track, the three-day great walk we were doing in New Zealand. Our last day in Cairns involved a road trip up the coast to Barron Gorge National Park and Daintree National Park. We rented a minivan and a car for the ten of us since only two out of our whole group were 21+. It was unbelievable how important having people over 21 is for renting cars and stuff and how in sort supply they were in our group. Oh well, everything worked out tin the end.
The next stop on our trip was Sydney, home of the iconic Opera House. We got in late afternoon and after doing all the practical things such as checking into our hostel, grocery shopping, and eating dinner we headed up to the harbour at night to get some great views of both the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was unbelievably beautiful lit up against the dark harbour and I spent a decent amount of time just sitting around on this sandy rock bed looking at them. The next day we decided to go out and explore the Blue Mountains, a two-hour train ride out of Sydney, which was spent tramping all over cliffs and seeing their famous Three Sisters rock formation. Sydney in general was a really nice city. We spend a day on a free, guided tour getting some history and seeing the sites, while others were spent at world-famous Bondi Beach and going around shopping at various markets throughout the city. We even had a delicious Thanksgiving cookout in Centennial Park with another group of friends that were in Sydney the same time we were.
Yes Sydney was very cool and all, as was Cairns, but the part of the trip I had been looking forward to the most all semester was the 11 days we were going to spend in New Zealand. New Zealand had previously been number one on my countries I most want to visit list and now can be crossed off. Those 11 days were amazing. At this point our group was down to six (me, Kevin, Ally, Kelly, Sush, and Brian). We got a relocation deal with Wicked, a hip company that rents out campervans all over the world, which let us hire two three-person vans for us to sleep drive around in. This company has artists paint the sides of the vans to give them character and make them more recognizable on the road; the two were got were called Scarface and Gangster. We basically then spent the next nine days driving around the South Island taking in the views and enjoying life. We hit up Aoraki (Mt. Cook) on the second day and then drove down to Te Anau, the start of the Kepler Track.
This great walk is a three-day 60km hike around Fjordland National Park. The first day was mostly all the work to get up to the top with a walk along the shores of Lake Te Anau to start, the second day was the breath-taking hike along the top of the mountains and down to a forest basin, and the third day was a walk back through the forest to the start. The hut we stayed at during the second day was up in the clouds and they didn’t fully dissipate even after we started late and climbed to the summit of Mt. Luxmore. This walk was probably the highlight of the trip and just an overall great experience walking through nature at its finest. I love mountains more than any other geographic feature and being back in them for basically the whole New Zealand trip was refreshing. After the third day’s hike we drove up to Milford Sound [see below], one of New Zealand’s most highly publicized sites. We didn’t end up taking a cruise because of our gas situation but ended up camping on the side of the road in the middle of the mountains for the night and enjoyed gazing at the southern stars that shown so brightly there. The rest of the trip was more of the same, hiking, driving through amazing scenery. We hit up some glaciers, took a ferry from South to North Island, climbed up the volcanic mountain in Tongariro National Park that was Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings movies.
I probably won’t end up putting a lot of pictures up on Facebook, mostly because I don’t really like Facebook, but also because they are my pictures and I want to keep them that way. I am more than willing to show anyone who wants to see them, all you have to do is ask me and I will go through any and all of them with you in more detail but in order to give my faithful readers at least a taste of what my travels were like I will upload a picture of the day for the next week or so on here in addition to the ones already in this post for your enjoyment. I know this post is kinda short for all I did, but again I am more than happy to talk to people more in depth. I just felt like something needed to be put up here and I didn't really want to go to in depth for fear of boring my readers!
Cheers,
Joshua Lee
PS. If you have nothing to do in the next 14 or so hours and see me on FB chat or gmail hit me up because I am just sitting in the LAX airport and would welcome a distraction if I cannot sleep. I will have spent roughly 24 hours in this airport today and tomorrow when this is all over with.
Our travels started right after I took my hardest exam (Vertebrate Zoology practical) at UWA. I came back, finished packing, ate dinner, and headed off to the airport with almost everyone since most of us were flying out to Cairns as the start of our separate adventures. Our group opted to skip Urulu (Ayer’s Rock) due to flight conflictions and general increase in costs that it would have presented. As much as I would have liked to see that rock, one of Australia’s three most prominent icons, our travels brought us to the other two, and .666 is Hall of Fame material. Cairns was the site of the Great Barrier Reef and the main reason for heading up there. We went snorkeling on the second day there for basically the whole day, which included two different dive sites and the two-hour boat ride each way. We decided to spend a bit more and instead of going to Green Island, which is the most popular spot for tourists because of proximity to Cairns’ port, go out to the outer reef. The corals were amazing [see right].
It is really impossible to describe landscapes in words for me so I will resort to pictures to help (but otherwise you will have to put up with my lack of describing ability). I figured that spending a little extra for pictures of the reef would make a better souvenir than any article of clothing I could find that said Australia on it. The other days in Cairns were spent exploring the tropical rainforests around the area, which was a novel experience for me since I have never been in such an environment before. It was extremely humid most of the time and made for sweaty hiking, for most of our group since apparently I don’t sweat according to the others. A lot of this trip involved large amounts of hiking and/or walking. We just view all of it preparation for the Kepler Track, the three-day great walk we were doing in New Zealand. Our last day in Cairns involved a road trip up the coast to Barron Gorge National Park and Daintree National Park. We rented a minivan and a car for the ten of us since only two out of our whole group were 21+. It was unbelievable how important having people over 21 is for renting cars and stuff and how in sort supply they were in our group. Oh well, everything worked out tin the end.The next stop on our trip was Sydney, home of the iconic Opera House. We got in late afternoon and after doing all the practical things such as checking into our hostel, grocery shopping, and eating dinner we headed up to the harbour at night to get some great views of both the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was unbelievably beautiful lit up against the dark harbour and I spent a decent amount of time just sitting around on this sandy rock bed looking at them. The next day we decided to go out and explore the Blue Mountains, a two-hour train ride out of Sydney, which was spent tramping all over cliffs and seeing their famous Three Sisters rock formation. Sydney in general was a really nice city. We spend a day on a free, guided tour getting some history and seeing the sites, while others were spent at world-famous Bondi Beach and going around shopping at various markets throughout the city. We even had a delicious Thanksgiving cookout in Centennial Park with another group of friends that were in Sydney the same time we were.
Yes Sydney was very cool and all, as was Cairns, but the part of the trip I had been looking forward to the most all semester was the 11 days we were going to spend in New Zealand. New Zealand had previously been number one on my countries I most want to visit list and now can be crossed off. Those 11 days were amazing. At this point our group was down to six (me, Kevin, Ally, Kelly, Sush, and Brian). We got a relocation deal with Wicked, a hip company that rents out campervans all over the world, which let us hire two three-person vans for us to sleep drive around in. This company has artists paint the sides of the vans to give them character and make them more recognizable on the road; the two were got were called Scarface and Gangster. We basically then spent the next nine days driving around the South Island taking in the views and enjoying life. We hit up Aoraki (Mt. Cook) on the second day and then drove down to Te Anau, the start of the Kepler Track. This great walk is a three-day 60km hike around Fjordland National Park. The first day was mostly all the work to get up to the top with a walk along the shores of Lake Te Anau to start, the second day was the breath-taking hike along the top of the mountains and down to a forest basin, and the third day was a walk back through the forest to the start. The hut we stayed at during the second day was up in the clouds and they didn’t fully dissipate even after we started late and climbed to the summit of Mt. Luxmore. This walk was probably the highlight of the trip and just an overall great experience walking through nature at its finest. I love mountains more than any other geographic feature and being back in them for basically the whole New Zealand trip was refreshing. After the third day’s hike we drove up to Milford Sound [see below], one of New Zealand’s most highly publicized sites. We didn’t end up taking a cruise because of our gas situation but ended up camping on the side of the road in the middle of the mountains for the night and enjoyed gazing at the southern stars that shown so brightly there. The rest of the trip was more of the same, hiking, driving through amazing scenery. We hit up some glaciers, took a ferry from South to North Island, climbed up the volcanic mountain in Tongariro National Park that was Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings movies.
I probably won’t end up putting a lot of pictures up on Facebook, mostly because I don’t really like Facebook, but also because they are my pictures and I want to keep them that way. I am more than willing to show anyone who wants to see them, all you have to do is ask me and I will go through any and all of them with you in more detail but in order to give my faithful readers at least a taste of what my travels were like I will upload a picture of the day for the next week or so on here in addition to the ones already in this post for your enjoyment. I know this post is kinda short for all I did, but again I am more than happy to talk to people more in depth. I just felt like something needed to be put up here and I didn't really want to go to in depth for fear of boring my readers!
Cheers,
Joshua Lee
PS. If you have nothing to do in the next 14 or so hours and see me on FB chat or gmail hit me up because I am just sitting in the LAX airport and would welcome a distraction if I cannot sleep. I will have spent roughly 24 hours in this airport today and tomorrow when this is all over with.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Top Ten Things of the Semester
There comes a time in every blogger/internet journalist in which a top ten countdown is absolutely inevitable and this feels like one of those times. I have currently completed half of my six exams as of today and have a couple days off before my next one so I thought I would update my blog since I hadn't in a while due to studying for these finals. I have my psych, vertebrate zoology theory, and human reproductive bio lab done, and am looking forward to bio theory, zoo lab, and sports psychology next week. I have an exam Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and then leave Thursday night for Cairns. So without further ado since I know you don't really care about me finals I give you the top ten things I have learned/done/have happened to me since I have been here. I figure I will make a blog post about my post-semester travels after I do them so they will not be included in my top ten.
I learned that I hate flies (at least in Australia). I already commented on this in my last post but when you end up swallowing flies and having them crawl up your nose your disdain for them grows. I really hope my hate for them dwindles when I get back to the states.
When you have the same things over again (some kind of meat, potatoes, steamed veggies, cut up fruit) for dinner every night it really makes you appreciate other dinners. I really am not complaining since I don't mind Tommy dinners as much as some others on the trip, but it makes you appreciate South Dining Hall and laugh remembering when you and your friends went through saying "there's nothing for dinner tonight!" On a related food note, I have cooked out or barbecued here on three separate occasions for groups of people and have enjoyed cooking kangaroo steaks, lamb, and sausages for people immensely. Kangaroo is especially good.
DC. I love DC. I thought one 320 GB hard drive was big enough to bring here. Boy was I wrong. I am down to my last 50 gigs and have been very selective about what I download. I love getting new music, movies, and tv shows.
I have learned a whole bunch of Australian words and lingo since I have been here and would just like to share a couple of my favorites as well as some just plain weird ones. Favorites: Heaps - meaning large amounts of anything, "I [hopefully] have heaps of friends back a Notre Dame reading this right now" Arvo - short for afternoon, "Hey can I borrow your homework this arvo?" Cheers - thanks, goodbye, basically the best way to end an email Annoying ones: Starting out any answer to any question regardless if it is answerable with the word 'yeah', Me: Hey how ya going? Australian: Yeah, good thanks. Saying 'hey' an obnoxious amount at the end of any sentence. "They're playing so bad hey" or "This is so good hey"
I have also learned that most Australian accents are not that cool and just really annoying, especially the females. Really not all they are hyped up to be. Trust me on this one.
I miss volleyball a lot. After going a semester without playing it competitively for the first time in eight year it really dawned on me how much I love the sport. I knew it was easily my favorite sport to play but it just hit me how much I do like it and gave me a taste of what will happen in a year and a half. I think I miss the camaraderie and my teammates more than the sport itself however. That is what really makes being on a team fun, not the sport itself.
I have learned that taking time out for oneself is harder than it sounds. I have never really had this much free time during a semester without all of my normal activities, like sports and work, so trying to fill that time has been a bit of a challenge for me. Or at least was at first. I have gotten a hang of it as the semester progresses and when it comes time to have almost everything scheduled into my day again it will be just another thing I have to adapt (or should I say revert) to
Not having a cell phone (kind of). I do have a cell phone that I bought here to contact my parents since our internet sucks back home and therefor cannot Skype, but I hardly ever use it here. I do not carry it around with me at all during the day and is just pretty liberating not being attached to one at all times. It will come in handy for travels however.
Card nights in the JCR. One of my favorite activities of the semester has been getting a group of friends, my computer for music, and heading down to the Junior Common Room to spend an evening playing cards. I would much rather sit around playing cards than watching tv most nights and after teaching a handful of people the greatest card game in the world, Sheepshead, and learning a couple new ones myself we were set for the semester. It was a great way to spend a lot of nights here getting to know people and just hanging out in general.
And number one. Some of you may have guessed it by now since it hasn't come up on this top ten list yet or in my blog in general really. The best thing that has happened to me since I have been here is finding someone special to share all the experiences with. Yeah I am not going to get all mushy on you guys but seriously meeting my girlfriend Kelly Nickodem has made the trip that much better.
I learned that I hate flies (at least in Australia). I already commented on this in my last post but when you end up swallowing flies and having them crawl up your nose your disdain for them grows. I really hope my hate for them dwindles when I get back to the states.
When you have the same things over again (some kind of meat, potatoes, steamed veggies, cut up fruit) for dinner every night it really makes you appreciate other dinners. I really am not complaining since I don't mind Tommy dinners as much as some others on the trip, but it makes you appreciate South Dining Hall and laugh remembering when you and your friends went through saying "there's nothing for dinner tonight!" On a related food note, I have cooked out or barbecued here on three separate occasions for groups of people and have enjoyed cooking kangaroo steaks, lamb, and sausages for people immensely. Kangaroo is especially good.
DC. I love DC. I thought one 320 GB hard drive was big enough to bring here. Boy was I wrong. I am down to my last 50 gigs and have been very selective about what I download. I love getting new music, movies, and tv shows.
I have learned a whole bunch of Australian words and lingo since I have been here and would just like to share a couple of my favorites as well as some just plain weird ones. Favorites: Heaps - meaning large amounts of anything, "I [hopefully] have heaps of friends back a Notre Dame reading this right now" Arvo - short for afternoon, "Hey can I borrow your homework this arvo?" Cheers - thanks, goodbye, basically the best way to end an email Annoying ones: Starting out any answer to any question regardless if it is answerable with the word 'yeah', Me: Hey how ya going? Australian: Yeah, good thanks. Saying 'hey' an obnoxious amount at the end of any sentence. "They're playing so bad hey" or "This is so good hey"
I have also learned that most Australian accents are not that cool and just really annoying, especially the females. Really not all they are hyped up to be. Trust me on this one.
I miss volleyball a lot. After going a semester without playing it competitively for the first time in eight year it really dawned on me how much I love the sport. I knew it was easily my favorite sport to play but it just hit me how much I do like it and gave me a taste of what will happen in a year and a half. I think I miss the camaraderie and my teammates more than the sport itself however. That is what really makes being on a team fun, not the sport itself.
I have learned that taking time out for oneself is harder than it sounds. I have never really had this much free time during a semester without all of my normal activities, like sports and work, so trying to fill that time has been a bit of a challenge for me. Or at least was at first. I have gotten a hang of it as the semester progresses and when it comes time to have almost everything scheduled into my day again it will be just another thing I have to adapt (or should I say revert) to
Not having a cell phone (kind of). I do have a cell phone that I bought here to contact my parents since our internet sucks back home and therefor cannot Skype, but I hardly ever use it here. I do not carry it around with me at all during the day and is just pretty liberating not being attached to one at all times. It will come in handy for travels however.
Card nights in the JCR. One of my favorite activities of the semester has been getting a group of friends, my computer for music, and heading down to the Junior Common Room to spend an evening playing cards. I would much rather sit around playing cards than watching tv most nights and after teaching a handful of people the greatest card game in the world, Sheepshead, and learning a couple new ones myself we were set for the semester. It was a great way to spend a lot of nights here getting to know people and just hanging out in general.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
No man is an Island
In between that trip and the next island trip that I took today I finished up classes last week and am now in 'study' week. They seriously give us a week off for studying and then proceed to spread out our exams over two weeks. A huge change from Notre Dame where we get Friday off before one week of exams. Don't get me wrong, I will be studying during this week and even started yesterday, since exams are worth so much here but I thought it was fine just to take a break today and head out to Rottnest Island since a group of ND kids had gone earlier in the year and were raving about it. I was hesitant about going just because I want to save money for traveling after but it wasn't too expensive and got persuaded to go. The was one huge difference between when the other group went and when we went that we didn't account for: flies. There were so many flies on that accursed island that it made the trip pretty unbearable for the most part.
This island was quire larger than Penguin Island and a pretty big tourist spot for Perth. The scenery was actually very nice around the entire island (we rented bikes and were thus able to circle it) but the flies were just terrible. I thought there was not another creature that I hated on this planet as much as mosquitos but flies have made a strong case for second place after their showing today). We eventually ended up wrapping towels, shirts, or in Spencer and Will's case, boxers, around our faces in an attempt to keep them at bay. It must have been pretty comical looking. It was such a disappointment to go to this nice island on a beautiful day and get it ruined by these little bugs, but I do kinda regret going. On the bright-side our trip to Rottnest will be unforgettable; that much is true.
It was Erin's 21st birthday yesterday and while most of the other ND kids are off on trips to Bali or up north, the group of us that were still here (mostly guys) went out to the Deen to celebrate. I was privileged enough to be able to buy her first legal (in America, which is a semi-moot point since we are in a country where the drinking age is 18) drink, and went with the house special mango daiquiri. She had a fun night which was the only thing that mattered. Erin's birthday also signaled the first of November meaning that our trip after is only 17 days away, 16 now. Its getting so close I cannot wait. Got to bear down and focus here for these 16 days and then Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef here I come.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
It's a Cliché for a Reason
So many song lyrics and thrown about quotes remind us to make the most of life since its time is very limited, and seize the day or as the movie Dead Poets Society frequently repeats its Latin translation "Carpe Diem". These phrases are used so often most of us hear them and maybe reflect on them for a second or two and just let them go right through our ears, not really giving them a chance to get what they are trying to convey to us. This is of course understandable since it goes against human nature to have the idea of our own deaths salient in our consciousness constantly. Many times it takes a tragedy to cause people to sit down and really reflect on their own usage of time here and this is very unfortunate. A tragedy such as the one that occurred at my home university today. The death of Declan Sullivan was an unnecessary event that could have easily been prevented if the university used common sense, however, as with everything, it is in the past and cannot be changed, only lamented.
Even though I never knew him, I am dedicating this blog post to Declan, a young man whose soul is now in the hands of the Lord and the thousands of prayers that will be said from Domers across the world. That being said the current mortality rate of the world is calculated to be .883, meaning 1 out of every 113 people died last year (>150,000 per day). Without trying to sound insensitive, death is a part of life and will happen to everyone at some point. Our university is making this a huge deal, mostly due to the fact that Declan died while working for them, but (with no disrespect meant for the life of Declan) people die everyday. Especially people that we don't know. A large amount of facebook statuses we posted saying that they were praying for him and his family, but many of these people have no idea who he was, their only connection to him was being part of the Notre Dame family. I am not saying this is a bad thing only that all his death did was remind those with no other connection to him about the salience of life in general. The tragedy of death lies all within the timing. Since it is an event all of us will undertake at some point, and when we are reminded of it through events such as this we are confronted with thoughts of how much more that person could have experienced in their lives before it was cut short of all its potential. After lamenting that person's loss, our thoughts naturally lead to our own lives (not out of selfishness, just the salience of death) and all of the things we want to accomplish and the unknown things that we will accomplish with the rest of our time. But, with Declan as an example, this time can be untimely cut short, which leads to the overused but often under-appreciated cliché phrases that remind us to make the most out of the time we are given because we never know how much we have. I urge you readers to take this message to heart, at least for the day, and do something special that makes this day different than the rest.
Even though I never knew him, I am dedicating this blog post to Declan, a young man whose soul is now in the hands of the Lord and the thousands of prayers that will be said from Domers across the world. That being said the current mortality rate of the world is calculated to be .883, meaning 1 out of every 113 people died last year (>150,000 per day). Without trying to sound insensitive, death is a part of life and will happen to everyone at some point. Our university is making this a huge deal, mostly due to the fact that Declan died while working for them, but (with no disrespect meant for the life of Declan) people die everyday. Especially people that we don't know. A large amount of facebook statuses we posted saying that they were praying for him and his family, but many of these people have no idea who he was, their only connection to him was being part of the Notre Dame family. I am not saying this is a bad thing only that all his death did was remind those with no other connection to him about the salience of life in general. The tragedy of death lies all within the timing. Since it is an event all of us will undertake at some point, and when we are reminded of it through events such as this we are confronted with thoughts of how much more that person could have experienced in their lives before it was cut short of all its potential. After lamenting that person's loss, our thoughts naturally lead to our own lives (not out of selfishness, just the salience of death) and all of the things we want to accomplish and the unknown things that we will accomplish with the rest of our time. But, with Declan as an example, this time can be untimely cut short, which leads to the overused but often under-appreciated cliché phrases that remind us to make the most out of the time we are given because we never know how much we have. I urge you readers to take this message to heart, at least for the day, and do something special that makes this day different than the rest.
Monday, October 18, 2010
A(nother) Weekend in Southwest Australia
After finishing up classes on Thursday, I was forced to skip my lone friday lecture by the University of Notre Dame in order to go down south to Margaret River for the weekend. It was a travesty indeed. Instead of staying around Perth for the weekend, waking up early to watch us beat a very mediocre Western Michigan team, and doing homework, I instead got to go surfing, wine tasting, and bouldering (the act of climbing on rocks in a non-intense fashion that would otherwise be called rock climbing). But I am getting ahead of myself. Lets go back to last weekend. I have had a fairly busy week and lament the fact that I have almost gone two weeks without a post.
Anyway. The previous weekend our college had its annual ball. It was just an excuse to get dressed up nicely on a Saturday evening, eat some good food, and dance. Oh and experience the first open bar event that we were legally allowed to partake in with all my friends down here. Technically it wasn't an open bar seeing as they only came around with beer, red wine, and white wine (my choice for the night) but it was unlimited refills and some people took advantage of that more than others. Needless to say that our dorm providing free-flowing alcohol was an experience that I would never get at Notre Dame. The food was delicious and a welcome break from the over-cooked meat that we get at Tommy on a very regular basis. The table I was at was filled with Notre Dame people and a super fun group to share the long meal with. After that it was a short-lived night of dancing with my girlfriend Kelly due to poor speaker quality. But overall an extremely fun night.
Nothing earth shattering went on during last week which was part of the reason I didn't update this sooner since I really only had the ball to talk about. Just doing normal school work for four days and then headed down to Margaret River on Friday. I am really getting used to this three day weekend that I have effectively had all semester with only one lecture on fridays in the morning. It is going to be rough going back to ND where almost every minute of my days I will have to be doing something and can't take as much free time for myself like I am able to down here.
On to Margaret River. We left Tommy at 7:30 am on Friday and drove down to some mine about and hour south of Perth after picking up Jane, one of our leaders, at her house in Cottesloe. Friday was incredibly boring and felt like a waste of an entire morning and afternoon. We basically drove around the Alcoa mine for the entire morning in our bus, since it was an aluminum mine and just harvested it from a couple meters into the earth (not down super far underground like the Super Pit). After having lunch late at around two in the town of Harvey we drove the rest of the afternoon down to the Surfpoint Lodge that we were staying at. We first visited the town planning committee and listen to them talk for a while. After that we got sized up for wet suits at a surf shop down the road and then came back for a delicious meal of sausages, kangaroo steaks, and salad. We barbecued ourselves as a group and I was the one in charge of the kangaroo on the barbie. It was awesome. After a talk with Martin and Jane it was off for a night walk along the beach and then to bed.
The next morning we got up bright and early to eat breakfast and catch the world-famous waves of Margaret River. We met up with our surf instructors at a beach and were divided into two groups. I was in the second group so while the first were out learning how to surf we walked around and out to some rock formation. I just couldn't wait and was so excited all morning just to get out and experience one of the things Australia is most famous for. We got taught how to stand up before heading out. It was an awesome experience. I got up multiple times, as well as eating it multiple times as well, and actually had a pretty good runs that I was proud of for my first time. To be fair we didn't have super-gigantic waves that were on either side of the area we were in but they still got decently sized. After a spot of lunch we headed over to Wardan Aboriginal Cultural Centre for a talk with an elder and a walk through the bush. For dinner that night we headed into the town of Margaret River and ate at the Spaghetti Bowl. The night concluded with listening to a live instrumental band at Settler's Tavern which was a blend of didgeridoo, drums, saxophone, and flute among others I am probably missing.
Sunday morning a group of us went to mass in Margaret River in the morning after catching part of the Wisconsin-OSU game and having a chat with Martin and Jane. Technically these trips constitute a one-credit class so we have to have some scholarly discussion. After mass we drove to Leeuwin Estates, one of the best vinyards in all of Margaret River (an area of Australia that is known worldwide for two things: wine and surfing). We got a tour of the wine making process which finished up with wine tasting. This wine was better than the wine I had had on spring break. I really am not a fan of red wine at all, but these expensive white wines are growing on me. After that we headed up to Canal Rocks, a place I have previously visited on my spring break trip, but it is still a beautiful place to spend a while. Alan, Mary Kate, Kevin Bell, Spencer, Kelly, and I swam over to part of the rocks that were only accessible by water and continued our bouldering there.
A weekend experiencing some of the finest aspects of Australian culture. It doesn't get much better than that. This trip is just making me more excited to get to traveling afterwards. Two more weeks of lectures. I am planning on getting all my papers, lab reports and presentations done with this week and then start studying for exams next week. Finish up this year strong then head out and see more parts of Australia and then the part I am most excited for: The Kepler Track and Milford Sound among other things in New Zealand.
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| Right-left: Andrew, Me, Kelly, Kevin, Bee, Mary Kate, Karina, Alan |
Nothing earth shattering went on during last week which was part of the reason I didn't update this sooner since I really only had the ball to talk about. Just doing normal school work for four days and then headed down to Margaret River on Friday. I am really getting used to this three day weekend that I have effectively had all semester with only one lecture on fridays in the morning. It is going to be rough going back to ND where almost every minute of my days I will have to be doing something and can't take as much free time for myself like I am able to down here.
On to Margaret River. We left Tommy at 7:30 am on Friday and drove down to some mine about and hour south of Perth after picking up Jane, one of our leaders, at her house in Cottesloe. Friday was incredibly boring and felt like a waste of an entire morning and afternoon. We basically drove around the Alcoa mine for the entire morning in our bus, since it was an aluminum mine and just harvested it from a couple meters into the earth (not down super far underground like the Super Pit). After having lunch late at around two in the town of Harvey we drove the rest of the afternoon down to the Surfpoint Lodge that we were staying at. We first visited the town planning committee and listen to them talk for a while. After that we got sized up for wet suits at a surf shop down the road and then came back for a delicious meal of sausages, kangaroo steaks, and salad. We barbecued ourselves as a group and I was the one in charge of the kangaroo on the barbie. It was awesome. After a talk with Martin and Jane it was off for a night walk along the beach and then to bed.
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| The closest pic I have of me actually surfing |
Sunday morning a group of us went to mass in Margaret River in the morning after catching part of the Wisconsin-OSU game and having a chat with Martin and Jane. Technically these trips constitute a one-credit class so we have to have some scholarly discussion. After mass we drove to Leeuwin Estates, one of the best vinyards in all of Margaret River (an area of Australia that is known worldwide for two things: wine and surfing). We got a tour of the wine making process which finished up with wine tasting. This wine was better than the wine I had had on spring break. I really am not a fan of red wine at all, but these expensive white wines are growing on me. After that we headed up to Canal Rocks, a place I have previously visited on my spring break trip, but it is still a beautiful place to spend a while. Alan, Mary Kate, Kevin Bell, Spencer, Kelly, and I swam over to part of the rocks that were only accessible by water and continued our bouldering there.
A weekend experiencing some of the finest aspects of Australian culture. It doesn't get much better than that. This trip is just making me more excited to get to traveling afterwards. Two more weeks of lectures. I am planning on getting all my papers, lab reports and presentations done with this week and then start studying for exams next week. Finish up this year strong then head out and see more parts of Australia and then the part I am most excited for: The Kepler Track and Milford Sound among other things in New Zealand.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Looking Ahead
Our final exam schedules finally came out the Thursday in the week before spring break. The University certainly took its time about this and it hurt us a bit in trying to plan travels after the semester especially since almost everybody I wanted to travel with was gone during spring break. But we talked friday night before break and got a rough idea, I worked on plans throughout the break, and yesterday we finally were able to go down to the Quantas agent in Perth and extend our ticket home. Notre Dame has a deal with Quantas that allows us to add stopovers in cities on the way back to LAX for a reduced price. After a very long morning at the Quantas builing we eventually got all of our flights booked for the way back to the states. My plans are to fly out to Cairns first and stay there a couple of days, then hit up Sydney for a handful more, and the fly into Christchurch, New Zealand and travel all around the south and north island for 10 days. This is the part of my study abroad experience that I have been looking forward to the whole semester. I cannot wait to hike and drive all around New Zealand seeing the one country that I have wanted to visit forever.
Classes are going pretty well at this point. I have most of my assessment work done until finals except for one lab report and one paper. But other than that I just have three and a half more weeks of lecture and then I am done with classes. This weekend our Dorm is having a ball on Saturday, next weekend we have our last Notre Dame sponsored trip down to Margaret River (same area that I had gone for spring break) for the weekend (+ friday), and after that I really don't know what but I only have two free weekends left.
I cannot really tell you where the semester has gone because it seems to be flying by and before I know it, it will be Dec 9 and I will have to come back to the states. The best parts of my experience down here are coming up though and I will try to enjoy every moment up until then of my time down here instead of only looking forward to these after-school travels. Time to head off to psych (this class is terribly boring however and I would rather be managing my three combined 10-2 fantasy football teams or continuing this blog)
Classes are going pretty well at this point. I have most of my assessment work done until finals except for one lab report and one paper. But other than that I just have three and a half more weeks of lecture and then I am done with classes. This weekend our Dorm is having a ball on Saturday, next weekend we have our last Notre Dame sponsored trip down to Margaret River (same area that I had gone for spring break) for the weekend (+ friday), and after that I really don't know what but I only have two free weekends left.
I cannot really tell you where the semester has gone because it seems to be flying by and before I know it, it will be Dec 9 and I will have to come back to the states. The best parts of my experience down here are coming up though and I will try to enjoy every moment up until then of my time down here instead of only looking forward to these after-school travels. Time to head off to psych (this class is terribly boring however and I would rather be managing my three combined 10-2 fantasy football teams or continuing this blog)
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