PS--

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

Croc at Trinity Beach

An Eventful Weekend

This past weekend has been very fun and I really lucked out on the weather for my trips. On Saturday I went to the Cairns Flecker Botanical Gardens for a field trip for my Biodiversity of Tropical Australia class. We stayed there for the whole day and got to see all of the plant families that we've been learning about over the past few weeks. Not all of the plants at the gardens are native to Australia since there are quite a few Asian plants there as well. I liked the Aboriginal plant section the best because the indigenous people had so many different uses for the plants; there's one that they used to help with marine stinger wounds, one used to kill fish in rivers, and also one that has tiny blueberry-like fruits that can be used to make one salivate and make them feel less thirsty. There are many plants and fruits that are safe for humans to eat...but it isn't recommended to eat them unless you are 100% sure that they are safe. We heard about a professional botanist that just took a tiny bite of a plant that he thought was safe to eat and went into cardiac arrest in less than a minute. Just like a lot of the animals here, the plants can be extremely toxic as well. In the final 2 hours at the gardens, we went on a rain forest hike primarily to learn about the primitive and ancient plants that once inhabited Australia. We had hoped to see some cassowaries, but we were informed that they have all been killed by dogs. It was very hot out and it was a steep hike...so by the time I got back to the lodge I was exhausted.
On Sunday, we took a guided shuttle up to Port Douglas, which is about an hour's drive from JCU. I had gone up to Port Douglas once before, but it's a truly gorgeous area of north Queensland so I was very excited to go again. It was a bit cloudy out, so the sights weren't as breathtaking as before, but the water looked more turquoise because we haven't had as much rain lately. Once we got to Port Douglas we got to walk around for a couple hours before lunch. There are markets every Sunday there so it was interesting to see all of the handmade crafts, jewelry, and clothing. Before the BBQ we also had time to go down to the beach and take some pictures (since like all of the other north Queensland beaches, you can't swim this time of year without the protective nets due to marine stingers). I have swam within the confines of the protective nets quite a few times at Palm Cove, but it is still a little nerve-wracking since the tiny (but still excruciatingly painful and sometimes fatal) jellyfish can still get in through the holes. Also, a couple days ago at one of the beaches I go to, a woman was swimming inside the net and a large crocodile popped up next to her, so needless to say the nets aren't 100% safe.
After lunch, we drove another 45 minutes to the Daintree rainforest to go on a river tour of the Daintree river and see some crocodiles and other wildlife. We got there a little early but we got to sit and talk to our shuttle driver/guide which was interesting because he is an Aborigine and also knows a lot about the land and wildlife. Only 3 of us on the trip were from JCU and there were only about 9 or so other students from Europe (they were going to the English speaking school in Cairns), so we practically each got our own seat on the boat. Once we got on the boat, only about 2 minutes passed before we saw our first crocodile. Saltwater crocodiles are the largest crocodilians in the world and the males can potentially grow well over 1,000 pounds. They can live up to 100 years old and although their brain is only about the same size as a ping pong ball, they have been known to cleverly stalk prey by observing their daily routines and finding when they are most vulnerable. We were told that the crocodiles are capable of jumping out of the water and grabbing things (or people) from the boat, but the last confirmed crocodile attack on the Daintree River was nearly 20 years ago when a woman was taken by one when she went for a drunken swim. The crocs that we saw were used to tourists and didn't even flinch when the boat went by them, and they were very docile and we were told that they would be docile unless one of us fell into the water...then they would think that there was struggling prey in the water and would attack.
On the tour, we saw 3 crocodiles...2 females and 1 adolescent. There were 5 huge crocodiles around the area (each over 1,000 lbs)...but we didn't get to see them. We thought we might get to since they like to attack the feral pigs as they swim from the island to the shore, but we only saw the smaller females. The floods had ruined a lot of the crocodiles' nests because before the crocodile hatches its eggshell becomes porous so that it can breathe through it...but because of the flooding, the babies drowned inside their eggs. It was sad though because there is this one female croc that has been standing guard over her nest for 3 months waiting for her babies to hatch, but they are never going to...but eventually she will give up. I was so excited to see my first saltwater crocs (since they are basically the main reason why I wanted to come to Australia), and I'm very glad that the first ones I saw were wild as well and not in captivity. We also saw a lot of different types of birds including cockatoos and kingfishers as well as white-lipped tree frogs. I'm going on another river tour in April for my reef and rainforest trip, so I'm hoping I might be able to see some more wildlife that lives in the Daintree river (sharks, pythons, other snakes, sting rays, etc). Although apparently I just need to stick around the lodge to see some snakes because a couple of my friends found the world's 2nd most venomous snake, the eastern brown (a taipan), outside their window.

Indigenous Speaker

Today was the first day in my indigenous people course that we actually got to hear about the indigenous people. We had a guest speaker who was very interesting to listen to because she is a woman of Aboriginal (Muruwari Murri) descent. She discussed the history of the indigenous Australian people upon contact with the Europeans as well as the more recent happenings that occurred within her parents' and grandparents' generations. She told us that her grandmother's two young children were taken away from her, to be "educated" and during her father's generation, people of Aboriginal descent had to be off the streets by 6pm or they would be imprisoned.
The history of the indigenous people is tragic and also gruesome since many were slaughtered and it wasn't considered a crime to shoot them. Parliament was even quoted as saying "There is no scientific evidence the Aboriginal is a human being at all." Eventually, as time passed certain rights were granted to the people who had Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal blood...but the government still wanted to rid Australia of the indigenous people by having them merge into society and "forget that there ever were Aborigines in Australia" (as quoted by AO Neville, who was in charge of Western Australian missions). During the 1960's-1970's, as I discussed in a previous blog post, children were taken away from their parents "to be educated," but most families were never reunited. They were taken away in hopes that the Aboriginal people would die out. Today, many Aboriginal people are viewed as alcoholics, but we were told that the majority of the alcoholics are people from that stolen generation who were forced to leave their families at such young ages.
I found the lecture to be very moving and it also made me better understand why it was such a big deal that Prime Minister Rudd recently apologized to the Aboriginal people.

Happy Easter!

It's Sunday here, so Happy Easter to everyone! Easter is a pretty important holiday in Australia as well, but not big enough to not have the buses stop running. On Friday, none of the buses were running because it was Good Friday, which is apparently more of a public holiday in Queensland than it is in the states. So, we weren't able to go to the zoo then. The bus schedule has been even more unreliable than usual this weekend because of the long weekend, so we really haven't been able to go many places which I am fine with because I have some trips planned for next weekend to Port Douglas, the Daintree rainforest, and the Cairns botanical gardens. Today, we might just spend the Easter afternoon on the beach because they have put the jellyfish nets back up so that people can swim.
This morning a bunch of the girls from the lodge and I went to a church that is only a 5-minute walk from here for the Easter service. I don't really follow a particular religion, so I really like just seeing what other churches and religions are like. This one was called the Northern Cairns Congregation and the service was very cheery and also was oriented around the children, which I liked. All of the songs and verses were projected onto the wall so I also thought that was neat.
This past weekend wasn't exciting enough to be blog-worthy, so I will write more after my trips next weekend! Sorry for the lack of excitement in my posts lately!

It Finally Stopped Raining for a While!

The title of this blog is very true! It hasn't rained for two consecutive days now and the weather has just been beautiful...lots of sunshine and even a nice breeze so that it's just the right temperature. I haven't done many exciting things lately, just been doing a lot of reading and assignments for uni. Last weekend I went into the city again a couple times...got some more souvenir shopping done so that was fun. It was a pretty rainy weekend though so our zoo and beach plans didn't get accomplished. There are no classes this Friday or next Monday because of Easter, so hopefully it will be nice so I can go to the Cairns Tropical Zoo and Palm Cove beach then. I also have to begin working on my first photography portfolio, but that poses some difficulty because the school only has about 7 digital SLR cameras to rent out, and there are over 50 students in the class, but eventually I will get to borrow one of them to work on my portfolio. My other courses are going well and my professors are all very nice. I will post another decent blog when I have actually done something interesting....and if it rains all weekend and I don't get to go on any adventures, I will browse through my journal to find some inspiration for a good post! Hope that all is well with everyone back in the states and that you all have a very happy Easter!

Week 2 of Classes

There was a break in the rain for a couple of days, but that break has now ceased and it is pouring once again. Hopefully it will not rain enough to cause flash floods again. I have had a busier week since we actually had to attend practicals and tutorials this week, which is nice because I have something to occupy myself with on these rainy days. The course structure is a bit different here than in the states...there are lectures, but they only meet once a week. For each course there is usually a practical (basically a laboratory component) or a tutorial, which is like an hour-long discussion-based period. The lectures here are not mandatory, but it is helpful to attend since in Australia the final exam for any course is usually anywhere from 45-75% of your final grade. The sizes of the classes are basically the same as at Saint Michael's...with my biggest lecture having about 300 students and my smaller lectures, tutorials, and practicals having about 20 students. Generally, most of the professors seem to have similar teaching methods and standards as most of the professors that I've come across at Saint Michael's, but I do have one professor here that is extremely laid-back and told us not to worry about due dates because they are really "more like guidelines." At JCU, since most of the student's grade depends on several large assignments and the final exam, there is a special procedure for handing in assignments. When it is due, you don't just hand it in to the professor, you have to take it to a special office where they will stamp it with the date that it was handed in on and enter it into the computer system so that if a professor loses it, the assignment can then be traced. In Australia, one refers to high school as college, so after many people mistakenly thought that I went to Saint Michael's High School in Vermont, I too started saying "Uni" when referring to higher education. A lot of the students here are quite young though, since they graduate from high school when they are 17 years of age. However, there are 2 16-year olds in one of my courses!

Today was the first time since I've been here that I've really felt like a minority. Although I live with 2 Australians, there are many Americans at the student lodge since most of the Australians that go to JCU commute and find accommodations in or near Cairns. In today's class though, I was the only person who was not from Australia. I didn't really realize this until class started and we all introduced ourselves since you can't determine who is Australian or American just by appearance. The fact that I was the only American in the class didn't bother me at all until we started discussing the indigenous people (it is an indigenous studies course) of Australia and then I started to get a little intimidated because all of the students had grown up with and around the people whom we were discussing, but I knew very little about them and had never actually met an indigenous person. So I felt like I didn't really have a right to state my opinions about any of the issues going on right now with Australia and its indigenous groups. I feel like this is just something I have to get used to though, since I already learned a lot about them even in just this first tutorial. One of the things that just happened that we discussed was that the government decided that they're going to stop giving any person (regardless of ethnicity) money to send their children to school if they spend that money on activities such as drinking. Perhaps I will write more on this topic once I learn about it some more. On a lighter note, we also talked about Australian Idol (their version of American Idol) because a girl in the class made it to Brisbane (like their Hollywood?) when she auditioned for the show. I used to be a fan of American Idol, so I thought that was pretty cool!

A Weekend in the City and at the Beach

This past week was very relaxing, since it was the first week of classes so we didn't have to attend any of the tutorials for the courses, only the lectures. Because of the canceled classes on Wednesday due to the flooding, I only had 3 classes all week. It was a pretty boring week since I didn't have any homework to work on and it was raining constantly. So far I really like the 3 courses that I did have though. On Saturday there was finally a break in the rain, so a few of my new friends and I went into Cairns city for the day. We walked around all day and went into some touristy shops to get souvenirs for our friends and family, but I really tried to get away from all of the touristy stuff. People back home will love a lot of the more touristy items that say "Australia" on them and such, but for my own souvenirs I want to get some things that are a little more meaningful. The actual city of Cairns is very pleasing to the eyes and also very tropical, with palm trees and pretty flowers all over. The rain forest kind of comes down to meet the city in places and we saw a tree full of flying foxes (which are basically really big bats).
After we did some shopping, we walked down to the esplanade, where there is a big artificial lagoon for public swimming, since there is no beach because the reef blocks a lot of the water from getting to the bay that Cairns is built around. There are enough beautiful beaches around Cairns to make up for it though. The sun was still out on Sunday, so we decided to take the bus down to Palm Cove again. The stinger nets had been taken down because of the flooding, so we weren't able to swim...but I had a very nice time just lying on the beach and listening to the waves hit the shore. I actually have a full week of classes ahead of me, so I am sure that I will have more to write later on...and I am also planning on going to the Cairns Tropical Zoo next weekend...so I will write about that too!

Floods

So today all of the classes at JCU in Cairns were canceled as well as the elementary and high schools in the area due to flooding. It has been raining very heavily for the past few days and this has caused a lot of flash floods in and around Cairns. It was quite an adventure getting to the campus this morning. Here is the link about the flooding if anyone would like to read it.

http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2008/03/05/2043_local-news.html

A Little Background

I have only been on the continent of Australia for less than three weeks, but I have already fallen in love with the captivating landscapes and slow-paced way of life. Often in the United States I felt as though everyone, including myself, was in a rush most of the time. Here, in the land down under, the Aussies seemed to have adopted a more laid-back lifestyle. While most Australians have been exposed to American music, movies, and television, their culture still differs from that of Americans and most Aussies can pick out the Americans in a crowd before they even hear them speak.
I have had a chance to meet quite a few people from Australia. While Australia is about as big as the United States, the population is about as equal as the population of New York state. Most of the people that I’ve met are from the well-known cities like Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne, but I have also had the pleasure of meeting some from the smaller towns, like Dubbo and Smithfield. Since Australia is very dry and often the greater portion of the continent is having a drought, the most populated cities are on the coast. Even in the Wet Tropics, it only rains during the wet season, but during that time it rains daily. Although Cairns is surrounded by tropical rain forest, only a very small percentage of the continent is covered by the rain forest. Australia is the driest continent after Antarctica, but as in most cases life has still found a way to adapt and thrive.

This semester I am taking a course on the biodiversity of tropical Australia, and already I have learned what a truly unique continent Australia is. The greater portion of the plants and animals are endemic, meaning that they are only found in Australia. After the giant continent of Gondwana broke up, Australia spent nearly 40 million years in isolation, allowing a unique flora and fauna to develop. One of the key supporting examples of this is the presence of marsupials and lack of primates in Australia.
I’ve only covered some of the basics in this post, and everyday I learn more and more about the land and people of this extraordinary country that I have had the opportunity to travel to. I am taking a course on the indigenous people of Australia so I am very eager to learn about their history and culture because they have lived here for nearly 70,000 years.

Course Schedule

Here is what my schedule looks like....I only can take 4 classes. It doesn't look like I have classes very often...but I can assure you that I will probably be very busy. I wanted to take at least 2 biology lab courses, but I didn't meet the prerequisites for many of the courses I was interested in because Saint Mike's really doesn't offer any zoology courses. I will start to post actual structured blogs soon, since lately I've really just listed what I've been doing. I am excited to begin classes because I will get into a routine and be able to manage my time and money better. Also, I have started booking my spring break plans...me and my new friends Katie and Dana are going to fly down to Brisbane and go on one of Australia Zoo's organized tours. We will get to go see Australia Zoo and after that we will get to spend a few days on Fraser Island. Fraser Island has extremely gorgeous beaches with very white sand and also has an abundant amount of wildlife as well. It's very well known for its dingo population..so I hope that I get to see some wild dingoes while I'm there! I wish that the Crocodile Hunter was still alive of course, but I am very excited about getting to see all of his favorite animals at the zoo. I've got to call it a night because I start classes tomorrow, but here is a copy of my schedule!

Monday: Biodiversity of Tropical Australia lecture (12:00-1:50pm) (we only meet for 10 weeks for this course because a major component to it is the rain forest field trip)

Tuesday: Photography Practical (11:00-12:50pm)

Wednesday: Australian Indigenous and Anthropological Perspective tutorial (9:00-9:50am)
Italian (5:00-7:50pm)

Thursday: Australian Indigenous and Anthropological Perspective lecture (11:00-12:50pm)
Photography lecture (1:00-1:50pm)

Friday: FREE!

Just a Brief Notice

This is just a notice that I will have limited Internet access starting tomorrow, so I probably will not be able to upload very many photos that I take. I will still keep up with my blog since I'll be able to write that prior to going online, but I will post the rest of the pictures once I get home in July...I'll try and post a few occasionally to my photo site, so do check for new photos every so often. Here's the link again (it's also located at the bottom of my blog and also you can get to it if you click on 'Website' within my profile. http://cbizzarro.myphotoalbum.com/albums.php

Great Barrier Reef

I just had one of the most amazing days. I went on the Great Barrier Reef trip through my school for the day. I spent most of the day snorkeling on the reef and also got to go in a semi-submersible to view some more of the outer reef. I got to see so many amazing marine creatures including a green sea turtle, clown fish, sea cucumbers, jellyfish, parrot fish, butterfly fish, and hundreds of other brightly colored tropical fish. Since it is prime marine stinger season, I had to wear a protective suit over my entire body to protect myself from their stings. We were given snorkel gear and flippers and then we went down the stairs and right into the water. It was a pretty rainy and cloudy day so I expected the water to be pretty cold since we were about 2 hours out to sea, but the water was nearly 65 degrees Fahrenheit. The second I put my face in the water I was in awe at the reef's enormous size and at the biodiversity that thrives on it. The Great Barrier Reef is made up of many sections of reef that are separated by channels. There were so many different types of coral and some of the larger ones are hundreds of years old. I snorkeled around for about an hour or so and was using the disposable underwater camera that I had purchased aboard the boat. On my way back to the boat I came upon an enormous wrasse....which is an enormous fish and this particular one must've weighed about 300 pounds. At first I was a bit frightened because when I swam by it, it grabbed my flipper in its mouth and pulled me back a bit. After a few minutes though I realized that it was quite friendly and swam right up to the snorkelers to be stroked. I even got my picture taken with it by one of the marine biologists. After lunch, I went back into the water, but got out after about a half hour or so after a close encounter with a jellyfish that was too close for comfort. I was swimming around and realized that there was one right between my legs...it brushed against my suit but of course I was wearing the protective suit so I didn't feel anything. There were also thousands of tiny jellyfish larvae floating around in the water...the marine biologists there said that they believed them to be jellyfish larvae, but weren't 100% positive. The reef was only 2 or so feet below the water in some places, so you had to be careful not to bump into it because it can give you a nasty cut. In other places, it dipped meters and meters below the surface at steep drop-offs, where I explored in hopes of seeing some black-tipped reef sharks and sea turtles. I had a truly wonderful day and I can't wait to get back out on the reef over spring break....and since it'll be the dry season then it'll probably be a nicer day out too! Make sure to check out my photo site to see some of the photos that I took today...I will get the ones from my disposable underwater camera printed on a CD so that I can upload them as well!