My USA Blog

I loved keeping a blog while I was in Australia...so, I think that I'm going to make a new blog site to post to while I'm at school and such. I'm thinking of taking a year or 2 off before graduate school in order to get some research experience (or volunteer in a foreign country) so it'll be more interesting when I do that. I'll post the link on here once I create it!

~Carrie Lynne

Here's the link!!!: http://rementopia.wordpress.com/

Home Safe and Sound

Just to let everybody know, I've made it home. Didn't get home until Sunday night which was nearly 24 hours later than I was supposed to due to a messed up plane in Los Angeles, so I missed my connecting flight in Charlotte, but the airline paid for me to get a hotel room so that was nice at least. I'm pretty jet-lagged and trying to stay up all day and sleep at night is very difficult to do, but it's the best way to get over it. It's such a strange feeling being home, but it's nice :).

Goodbye Australia!

This morning I was persuaded to write one more blog entry...so I shall try to do so. I don't have a whole lot to say that I haven't already said. I am really excited to come home...but it really hit me today how much I'm going to miss it here. I had my last exam (which went pretty well I think) and I took my special rainforest path back to the lodge which was nice. The kookaburras and the cockatoos were watching me from the trees and it nearly brought tears to my eyes when I thought about how I won't be hearing them anymore after tomorrow. It's going to be difficult to say goodbye to all of my new friends, as I've said before....but I don't really need to write more about how difficult it is to leave because I think everyone gets the picture. It's hard, but at the same time I am too excited to be sad. I've missed everyone so much and I've been sick this week and I'm sick of studying so that'll make it easier to go home as well. I will always miss the people I met here and the fun times I had...but I am so grateful to have had this experience....saying goodbye is just part of it. Before I went abroad all I heard about was how it changes you and your outlook on life..blah blah blah...and now that I have actually been abroad for 5 months I really see what they meant. I've grown up a lot and feel that I can take on any challenges life may throw my way. I've lived on my own in a country where I didn't know anyone before I went. I've had my fair share of difficulties: social, physical, and mental, and I had to be the one to deal with them. I've met so many people from all over the world and I feel like I'm more cultured now as well. This is getting really obvious and boring though...to sum it all up this past semester has been amazing and while I'm sad it's over I will always have the memories and I'm ready for my next adventure! I've really enjoyed posting some of my experiences on here for everyone to read and I hope that you've all enjoyed them. Can't wait to see most of you when I get back! (I get back really early in the morning on Sunday EST)....it's actually weird because my flight for LA leaves Saturday afternoon and I'm in Albany, NY by Saturday night after 26 hours of flying!..gotta love the time difference!

What a Semester it has Been!

4 out of 5 exams are out of the way and I leave a week from tomorrow. I can't believe it! It'll be so hard to leave this place and say my goodbyes but the thought that my family and friends are at home really helps to keep the tears at a minimum. I'll save the personal emotional sappy mumbo jumbo for my journal.
I haven't been doing a whole lot lately other than studying...but since I have a week off until my next exam I plan to go to the beaches some more and I'm going to the city a couple of times this weekend since it's our last weekend all together in Australia. Last weekend I got to go to a rugby game in the city: Cairns Pride vs Redcliffe Dolphins..the Dolphins won but it was still cool to watch an actual Australian rugby game.
I'll try to make another post before I fly home...I will miss making posts to this blog :(....but when I go on my next adventure (wherever that may be) I will use the same address and similarly record my adventures. I'm looking into volunteering for a year or 2 overseas someplace before graduate school so we'll see where that takes me. Well, time to go get ready for the night markets...I'm going to buy my souvenir boomerang! :)

Chillagoe

I just got back from the trip a little while ago...it was really the best birthday trip I could've ever asked for! I had an amazing time! I haven't posted a long blog in a while so I will write about the most memorable parts of the trip.
I was a bit intimidated at first because when I was waiting for the van to pick me up I realized that I was the only student from JCU going on the trip...so everybody else was attending the Cairns English-Speaking School. That was one of the main reasons I thought the trip would be fun actually...since it would be another one of those "leaving your comfort zone" kind of experiences that I love so much now. Anyways, it was a little difficult at first because I had to meet all new people and I was the only person that spoke English as a first language....but after a couple of hours of traveling with them I had already made a bunch of new friends from Switzerland, Spain, Germany, and even 1 from North Korea. I was impressed by how much most of them knew about the United States and they were very interested in hearing my opinions about the upcoming election and they were also very curious about life in the states and similarly I was able to ask them a lot of questions about their home countries. We had the same tour guide as I did for one of my Port Douglas trips...his name is George and he is hilarious. He's Australian..an indigenous Australian...so I really enjoyed hearing about everything he had to say about the places we visited. He's very friendly and outgoing so by spending lots of time chatting with him I was able to learn a lot about his ancestor's culture and past.
Chillagoe is an extremely small town..we only saw like 12 locals the whole time we were there...it used to be a mining town half a decade or so ago, but once the mines shut down just about everybody left. So now it looks a lot like a ghost town, and a large rusted tower from the copper smelters overlooks the town so it kind of has this eerie feel about it. It is technically located in the outback so the dirt has that characteristic red tone to it and the town is surrounded by the savannah, limestone cliffs/caves, and what is left of the copper smelters. It'd take forever to go into detail about all the experiences we crammed into 2 days, so I won't explain all of them....but basically after we arrived at the Eco Lodge and got settled in we went to a little swimming hole for a dip since it was a very hot day (probably in the upper 80's-low 90's F). After that, we went to the Royal limestone caves where we had our first of two cave tours. We were each given a light to wear around our necks and it was a short walk to the actual cave. It was a little scary at first because it is very dark inside and even though there is a small pathway, large rocks jut out from every which way and you have to crawl through a bunch of small spots and climb up and down ladders while trying to stay with the guide so that you don't get lost in the dozens of different tunnels. I'm not claustrophobic so being inside thigh nooks and crannies didn't bother me, but huntsmen and snakes live in the caves and they eat the bats and large cockroaches...so I was trying very hard not to bump into any of those. If you don't know what a huntsman is it's an extremely large spider...I've seen some here bigger than the palm of my hand (not counting their leg span)...it's not venomous but the bite can still be very painful. I saw a few of them in the cave, but didn't have any real close encounters. Getting to explore a limestone cave was awesome....I'd love to be more descriptive but "awesome" is really the only word I can use to describe it right now. It's one of those things you really would have to experience yourself in order to understand how special it was.
After that, we visited the copper smelters and climbed a very steep hill (which I later fell down) to watch the sunset. Outback sunsets are spectacular so I'm glad I got to see one of them! We had dinner at the local pub...the only pub actually...and I got to sit around and get to know some of the people better. It had been a busy day so once we got back to the lodge we sat around the bonfire for a while and gazed at the stars (I really wish my photos of the night sky in the outback would come out...there are no city lights to interfere with your view of them and it's another one of those priceless experiences) and then went to bed.
The next morning, I got up pretty early for brekky (breakfast in Aussie slang)and watched some of the brightly colored wild parrots flying around the lodge, and then we went for our second cave tour. We had a longer hike to get to this one and we had to scale/climb a bunch of rocks to get there so it was quite rigorous exercise for the morning! The location of this cave as well as the fact that you have to crawl into it through a small opening makes it less of a touristy attraction..so it was cool that it was less-explored. Upon entrance to the cave all I could hear was a whooshing sound and when I looked up there were thousands of bats flying around. The cave guide didn't expect that there'd be so many bats so we couldn't really explore too much further because they would start hitting people in the head if we went through little passages. After that tour, we hiked back to the van and stopped at some Aboriginal cave art. I hadn't seen any in Australia before so I was especially excited about this since I had been learning about it in my indigenous course. The drawings are believed to be 300-400 years old and most of them are of snakes...probably of the highly venomous snakes found in Chillagoe and the outback that we were warned about. George told us some eerie stories about how Aboriginal spirits have haunted him when he has forgotten to ask the Aboriginal elders permission before visiting a sacred site belonging to another Aboriginal group. I'm really interested by Aboriginal customs, beliefs, and culture...so I could go on about it for hours..but I'll stop now..if you ever want to more about anything I have a lot of literature, pictures, and stories about it!
We then went for another small hike to see the balancing rock...I believe they're also called "devil's marbles". It is basically just an enormous rock sitting on top of another...if you saw it you'd think it would topple over, but it seems to be very sturdy! We then went back to the pub for lunch...the lady there even remembered that I don't eat red meat and she made me a special vegetarian sandwich so that was very nice. We had to stop for petrol (fuel) at a place owned by a little old barefoot man that is famous in Chillagoe for his Ford collection. I'm uploading all of my photos as I'm writing this so check them out if you would like to see!...but all of the models are really old so it's a very nice collection. On our way home, we also stopped at an abandoned hotel from 1901 which was really cool because the present owners kept the original decorations in it and they had quite the snake collection...decade-old snakes and a bunch of other critters in jars with some type of preservation liquid. When we got to Mareeba (about an hour from Cairns) we stopped at the golf course because the other students had never seen kangaroos before and there were about 40 of them just lying around there. It had been a while since I had seen wild kangaroos since I mostly just see wallabies around Cairns. We were able to get about 30 feet from them before they started hopping away. We stopped again in Kuranda at a lookout over-looking Cairns, the beaches, and the Coral Sea. Then, I was dropped off at the lodge and made it back in time for dinner!!! ....and that is the outline of my adventure in Chillagoe!

Weekend Plans

I have some weekend/birthday plans now! On Friday night a couple of my friends are going to take me out....it's quite sweet of them because they know that Katie/Dana/I are celebrating together in a couple weekends but they also know that 21 is a big year in the states. Then on Saturday morning I am leaving for Chillagoe until Sunday evening. I don't know much about Chillagoe...just that it is in the outback and has a population of 200 and used to be a mining town. I've done a lot of reef and rainforest things and I fell in love with the outback when I went to Undara so I'd really like to make one more trip out there. We are going to be doing a lot of exploring in the caves and get to see a lot of the pretty outback sights...like the huge balancing rocks. We also get to stargaze which is amazing in the outback because there is no pollution or lights to interfere with view of the stars. Over orientation we learned how to navigate using the southern cross...so maybe I will put my skills to good use. I signed up to go on one of the international student trips and as of now I don't know anyone else who's going..so it'll be an adventure. In my other journal I was just writing about how not knowing anyone really puts you out of your comfort zone which is difficult...but it's those experiences that really are the most beneficial and change you the most....so it's a good thing! I got bored with studying so I wrote in my journal for a couple hours....I wrote a couple things that I kind of like so maybe I'll post them as blog entries if I get hard up for material in the upcoming weeks. I have my first exam tomorrow (in photography) and I'm kind of nervous since it is worth 50% of my grade, but I've studied a lot this week and I think that I'm ready. My actual grades don't even carry over to Saint Mike's...but I have to do well for myself and it'll look good if I want to get into any graduate programs in Australia. Also, today we had the international student farewell meeting. The international student staff just talked to us about how it is difficult to go home and difficult once we get there as well. I had been thinking that it is going to be a little hard to get back into the swing of things because the life style is just so much more laid-back here. They said it's also hard to go back because your friends have moved on for 5 months without you and have shared experiences that you have missed out on....so it's a bit difficult to just suddenly be back in that social network because it's somewhat inevitable that you will feel a little left out. I've changed a lot while I've been over here...so it'll be interesting to see how things fall back into place for me in the states. On the brighter side, they gave us some Aussie souvenirs like a little packet of Vegemite and some yummy chocolate with an echidna on the front! This is really random and probably shouldn't be in this post...but I saw a bunch of wallabies today when I was studying in the rainforest (...literally, there are picnic tables set up in the rainforest that you can study at)...and one came within 6 feet of me and it was pretty awesome. I scared him away when I waved to him though....stupid idea! It was kind of funny though because I scared him and he jumped like 4 feet in the air! :(

Less Than a Month Left

I think I've had a post with the same title before...but it was a month before I left the states...now it's the other way around. I can't believe that a month from today I will be back home in Vermont. As I've said before, I'm very excited about the thought of seeing everyone again...but I get a little upset when I think about having to say goodbye to everyone here. It was different when I said "bye" to people at home because I knew that I would see them in 5 months...but my new friends are from all around the world and although we can still keep in contact I may not ever see them again. I plan to travel a lot throughout the course of my life though, so maybe I will meet up with some of them again one day. I'm sure I will see the ones that live in the United States ...but it's still sad to say goodbye. What a depressing topic! Anyways...
My 21st birthday is a week from today! I am still thinking of something fun to do for it. Traditionally people go out and get smashed on their 21st birthdays...but I don't really want to do that. Me, Dana, and Katie all have June birthdays so we are just going to all go out one night during our last weekend here together to celebrate. A lot of people are going away for the study break coming up but I can't go anywhere too far because I have an oral exam in the middle of the week. I might do something adventurous for my birthday though since a lot of my friends here will be away...I don't just want to study in my room all day! I was looking at some cheap crocodile mangrove tour thingys near Cairns..so maybe I'll do something like that. Who knows. Well whatever I do I will make a post about it since I haven't really had an big adventures lately to tell about....well, everyday here is an adventure for me. I've been spending the majority of my weekend afternoons at the beach..and today they took down the stinger nets so you can swim anywhere along the beach! It was a little intimidating at first since the water is still a bit murky and crocs/sharks are still around even though the jellyfish season is coming to an end.

Cairns Tropical Zoo

This weekend was one of the most fun-filled ones since we got back from mid-semester break. I rented one of the school's digital SLR cameras to work on my photography assignment, but I also have been going on a lot of hikes to take some photos. I went on a long hike a few days ago on the trails behind the university. I didn't really see any other people so it was really cool and felt like an adventure. It's never a good idea to hike by yourself though...especially in a country with so many dangerous animals (and plants!). I didn't touch anything though..and it was nice to be alone because I saw a lot of wildlife since no one was talking and I could stop and take photos without holding people up.
Today (Saturday), a few of us got up early and took the bus to Palm Cove and spent the early afternoon there. It felt so nice to just de-stress from the week and lie out in the sun while listening to the waves hit the shore. We're lucky up here in the wet tropics this time of year since it is really cold further south in Sydney in Melbourne. The weather here is pretty much perfect now. When I first arrived in Cairns the heat was nearly unbearable and you couldn't walk anywhere or wear anything without sweating profusely. But now, while it's still very hot in the sun during the day, it isn't as humid and is comfortable. It even gets a little chilly at night sometimes....nothing compared to what I'm used to in Vermont...but chilly enough for a long-sleeved shirt or even a sweatshirt.
After Palm Cove, a few of us had won tickets to the Cairns Tropical Zoo during orientation week, so we headed there. I had already been to 3 other zoos, so it was a lot like the other 3 I had been to, but it was still fun and I saw a lot of cool animals. My favorites were probably the red pandas because I had never seen them before and they were adorable. This zoo, like all of the others, had a walk-through kangaroo exhibit which was a lot of fun because they are very domesticated so you can feed and pet them. It's always kind of a bummer to see animals so complacent and in captivity...kangaroos are very over-populated in Australia though. I won't go into detail with my views on zoos and animal ethics type stuff...anyways...yeah, it has been a fun weekend.
It's hard to believe I come home in just a little over a month! I'm looking forward to it, but at the same time I'm a little upset by it. I'm so glad that I have had this opportunity and I really think that I've made the best of my time here....but I'll be sad to see it come to an end. Who knows when I will be back here or if I will ever see most of these people that I've met and become close with over the past 5 months ever again. I'm sure I will meet up with the people that live in the US on the east coast and Canada every so often...and if I end up coming back to Australia for graduate school I will see my Aussie friends...but it'll be a lot harder to see the ones from Europe and Asia. This is such an expensive country to study abroad in though so I really need to go home and start working again. It's not as bad for the Aussies because minimum wage is higher (...a great deal higher at that), but since it's getting closer to the end of the semester I literally have no money left. I wish I had a little more to go on some little excursions between my exams...but I am not too upset about that because I've pretty much gotten to do a lot of the things that I wanted to. The thing that I most wanted to do about 6 or 7 months ago was to go cage-diving with a great white shark...and I also wanted to get certified in diving..but since I'm planning on coming back it's not an issue that I haven't done those. They are quite pricey so I will definitely have to have a job when I come back.
Well, I'm not planning on doing anything too exciting in the weeks to come...but I shall try to write a few more entries before I leave on June 28th....12 hours after my last exam. Hope that everyone is enjoying the summer so far!

Undara Field Trip

The field trip this weekend was a lot of fun and we got to see some environments very different from those around Cairns. We left at 6:45am on Saturday and our first stop was at Yungaburra where we waited at a platypus-viewing platform. Unfortunately, we didn't see much though. After that we went up to the Atherton tablelands to Lake Eacham, which is a freshwater crater lake. There we worked on our field trip report assignment and had a talk about freshwater fauna. We had a variety of other stops along the way to places such as Malanda and Mt Hypipamee (which had beautiful waterfalls and a big crater) and by the time we reached Undara we had been in the bus for nearly 5 hours. The landscape was beautiful and very different from the tropical rainforest I'm used to. The sand is very red and the habitat is mostly classified as savannah but Undara is also known as Queensland's "accessible outback." That night we were given head lanterns and went on a night bush walk in hopes of seeing some animals but we only saw a lot of spiders...including the red-back, which is one of the most venomous spiders here in Australia. Earlier that evening we had seen some wild kangaroos though....including one with a joey in her pouch! The next morning I went on a bush-hike to Atkinson's lookout which was only about 1.5 hours round trip, but the view from the lookout was amazing because you could see half a dozen dormant volcanoes.

Happy Labour Day!

We had today (May 5th) off for labour day....Queensland's labour day. I guess in the states we would spell it as "labor" but in Australia they put the "u" in words like colour and "s" in words like specialised. I really shouldn't be writing a blog right now because I have a big essay due on Friday, but just thought I'd write a short one. Only 4 weeks left of classes (which is kind of stressful since the final exams and projects are worth so much) and 8 weeks until I leave to go back to the states. Hard to believe that I've nearly been here for 3 months now. It's going by too quickly! I will be away this weekend on a field trip with my biodiversity class to Undara (4 hours west of Cairns), which is pretty much an outback habitat. I'll write a more informative/interesting blog when I get back from that!

I'm Back!!!

I just got back last night from my Brisbane trip with Katie and Dana. I had so much fun and it was a very relaxing week. We really felt like we were on vacation because all of our accommodations were very classy (well, compared to the backpacker hostels that we would be staying at if we had planned the whole trip ourselves). It felt really great to finally be able to visit Steve Irwin's zoo (Australia Zoo in Beerwah, QLD) and I enjoyed seeing all of his beloved crocodiles and other animals. Most of the animals at the zoo had been rescued and Steve had designed the animals' enclosures himself. I really liked how there was such a strong emphasis on wildlife conservation at the zoo. It is huge and there are hundreds of animals including Tasmanian devils, tigers, Asian elephants, dingoes, wombats, koalas, kookaburras, tropical birds/birds of prey, otters, camels, kangaroos, wallabies, komodo dragons, perenties, snakes, foxes, tortoises, turtles, lizards, cassowaries, saltwater crocs, and there was even an estimated 140-year old freshwater crocodile. I took lots of photos and I posted a lot of them to my photo site to make sure to check out those!
Fraser Island was gorgeous and although it was a bit chilly at night since we were quite a ways south of Cairns, the days were still sunny and warm. We stayed at the Kingfisher Bay Resort which was nice and we felt pretty isolated since there isn't much on Fraser Island besides forests, sand dunes, freshwater lakes, and picture-perfect coasts. Fraser Island is also known for its dingo population. We spent all day Friday hiking (we were trying to go see Lake Mackenzie) but it was a bit further than we had anticipated which was disappointing but we still got to see some spectacular views.
We spent the majority of Saturday at the Brisbane airport because we had a 7-hour layover, but it gave me time to fill out postcards and such. Next time I'm at the Brisbane airport I will be waiting for a flight home to the states! It's sad that I only have 2 months left, but I will be very anxious to see my family and friends again and also to enjoy a Vermont summer before heading back to SMC for my final year of college (undergrad college anyways).

1 Trip Down

I just got back from my Arcadia mini-Reef/Rainforest trip today. I had so much fun! It would take forever to go into detail about every little thing that we did, so I will just talk about a few of them in this post. Snorkeling was amazing..even more so than the first time that I went because this time we went to 2 different reefs. It was a little scary at first again because the boat was anchored further away from the reef...so I had to swim in the open ocean a little ways before reaching the shallow waters by the reef. Also, I was a little nervous because the staff didn't advise us to wear stinger suits this time...but since it is getting closer to the end of marine stinger season and there aren't that many dangerous jellyfish near the reef anyways I wasn't too concerned about it. It was a really sunny day when we snorkeled this time so the reef looked even prettier..there were many colors of coral; purple, green, blue, pink....and so many brightly colored fish and other critters. I saw at least 10 clown fish which were so adorable darting in and out of their anenomes. We spent a few hours at the first reef and then we left for the second reef, which was a little smaller but there were sea turtles and white-tipped reef sharks. I got a photo taken with one of the sea turtles...it was so cool getting to swim next to such a graceful creature!
The next day we had breakfast with dozens of different species of birds...and I think that the rainbow lorikeets ate more of my food than I did! They're quite cheeky little birds and I enjoyed having them fly down and sit on my shoulder as I ate. We saw many other Australian animals at the Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary...including kangaroos, tree kangaroos, wallabies, freshwater/saltwater crocodiles, snakes, lizards, cassowaries, emus, cranes, and of course koalas. I was excited to see a cassowary because they are relatively rare nowadays because dogs have killed most of them and they also get hit by cars. Cassowaries are huge and stand as tall as a grown person..and they can be dangerous as well because when they feel threatened they will kick and they have huge claws on their feet. So we couldn't get close to the cassowary, but we were able to pet and feed the wallabies and kangaroos. I really liked getting to pet the roos..but the whole time I kept thinking about how the lodge serves kangaroo sausages every Sunday at the BBQ :(. In Australia, kangaroos and wallabies are kind of like deer in the states...people eat them, they are hunted, and often are hit by cars.
We also went on an Aboriginal guided hike near Mossman Gorge that I found to be very interesting. The tour was informative about the Kuku Yalanji tribe of tropical North Queensland and we learned about how they live off of the land. We walked right past a variety of stinging trees and plants which was a bit intimidating because if you lean against or brush past them you can have intense pain for up to a year until you shed through the affected layers of skin and any time you get wet you will have excruciating pain. If you touch the other stinging tree you can go mad because you will keep over-heating and itching. Needless to say, I don't touch ANY plant or animal when I'm hiking. The Aborigines found uses for a variety of the toxic and stinging plants though....including forms of punishment and also to poison fish. Roy, our guide, showed us a variety of his tribes' tools and items such as shields, shelters, music sticks, and spears. He knew so much about so many different plants and their possible medicinal or food value. The sap from some trees can be used as bandages while leaves from another can be used to make soap.
We went on the crocodile river tour again on the Daintree River but this time we saw a huge male crocodile named Scarface. The guide told us that the largest crocodile ever recorded was 8 meters long and weighed over 2,000 lbs and was 120 years old. We also got to see some tree snakes this time so that was something new...and there was a white-lipped tree frog in the boat.
Cape Tribulation was beautiful and we stayed smack-dab in the middle of the rainforest right next to the beach. There weren't any stores or anything and the road was a bit dodgey..but that's the type of place where I like to be so I loved it. I posted 5 new albums worth of photos on my photo site today...so feel free to look through those!

G'day!

Sorry that I haven't posted a blog in a couple weeks...I leave for my first mid-semester break trip next Thursday so I've been working hard trying to finish all of my assignments that are due the week we come back as well as the week after (since I have a 3-day field trip the following weekend after break). Since nothing too exciting has been happening I won't post a blog until after I get back from both trips, which won't be until early May...or possibly the night I get back from the first trip. Anyways, I thought that I would post the itineraries so that people can see what I'll be doing! Hope all is well back home and miss everyone so much!

Trip #1- Arcadia Trip: Mini Reef and Rainforest Trip (in/around Cairns)-
Thurs. April 24- Arrive in Cairns city, night at Gilligans (a hostel)
Fri. April 25- snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef for the day, dinner at Rhino Bar in Cairns city
Sat. April 26- Breakfast with the birds (literally eat breakfast surrounded by tropical birds in the rainforest) in Port Douglas, guided Australian animal tour, mangrove and crocodile tour, Cape Tribulation
Sun. April 27- Mossman Gorge, Kuku Yalanji Cultural Centre (local Aboriginal people will take us on an interpretive walk and teach us about their food and how they live off the land, back to Cairns Student Lodge by 3:30pm

Trip #2- Australia Zoo/Fraser Island Trip-
Tue. April 29- flight from Cairns to Brisbane, day in Brisbane, night at Mantra Mooloolaba accomodations
Wed. April 30- Australia Zoo for the day!, zoo safari tour, depart for Hervey Bay where we will spend the night
Thurs. May 1- depart for Fraser Island, stay at Kingfisher Bay Resort
Fri. May 2- Fraser Island
Sat. May 3- depart for Hervey Bay, flight Hervey Bay to Brisbane, flight Brisbane to Cairns

A Busy Week!

This past week has been busy, I had a lot of assignments due this Friday, but I've finished them all early which feels great! Today in my Indigenous class we had another guest speaker from Kuranda, but this one focused on Aboriginal culture and customs. He discussed how there were 5 neighboring Aboriginal groups around his particular group; some lived in the rainforest and the others lived on the coast. He mainly discussed the process of becoming a man, which I found to be very interesting and different from the American process of coming of age. The men are cut across their chest and the more cuts one has, the higher their status is. The most elite men also have cuts down their arms. A young adult's marriage is arranged by their grandparents and if they do not marry their chosen wife they will be stabbed in the thighs with spears. This may seem a bit harsh, but the punishments for disrespecting an elder and the chosen wife's family are severe. The chosen wives are usually very young and have just reached puberty when they are set to marry men sometimes a decade or so older than them. If a man's brother dies, he has to marry that wife as well and raise the children as his own brothers and sisters so that his brother's legacy lives on. The chosen wife is always from another group and it often takes the man a few days to walk to her location. Along the way there he is expected to hunt and prepare meat (usually kangaroo meat) for his future wife's family. After he arrives, his future father-in-law will throw spears at him and he is supposed to block them, which shows that he is brave and ready to become a man. The guest speaker brought in a variety of interesting Aboriginal objects, such as art, boomerangs, a spear and spear thrower, and also a device which was used as a communication device because it makes a loud whooshing sound when it is spun around. He also discussed some of the herbal medicines that his people used from the rainforest.
I have been reading some biographies from the library about Aborigines and I have found them all to be very moving and insightful. If anyone is interested in this topic and would like to do some reading, I'll post a list on the bottom right hand side of my blog site with some of the authors and titles. I'll also post a list of all of the towns that I have visited or will be visiting so that people can keep track of that as well! I have posted a lot of photos to my photo site....although it takes too long to post all of them...but I randomly add a few pictures to some of the old albums so feel free to look at those. I'll post the link here again: Australia Photos

PS--

Here is the link to the news reel video about the croc in the nets the other day.

Croc at Trinity Beach