Week 6

This week flew by as well! I did A TON of homework this week.

I presented my project on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam of northern and eastern Sri Lanka to my terrorism class. It went really well.

Over the weekend some tragedy happened at home. One of my best friends since kindergarten, her brother was severely injured in a car accident, and the passenger, who I use to hang out with sometimes in high school, died. :( I feel bad that I am not there to be with her in her time of dire need. I have been praying for her and her family and hopefully everything will work out okay....

I did three different research studies. They were all just questionnaires and they enable me to get a higher grade in my Love, Sex, and Relationships classes. Then Tuesday night I went out with some friends. It was a good time.

Wednesday I went to the Pot Bellyz concert with Ben and Jen. The music was cool and it wasn't crowded at all so we were able to get up close.

Some things I have realized about Australia and Aussie culture: Drinking is the center of everything. Even at 10AM the locals drink beers in order to be social. Gambling is huge here. Pokies, as we know them slots, are in most restaurants and are very popular. There is a huge casino called Jupiters Conrad in Broad Beach, but I haven't gotten there yet. Swearing: Everyone does it, and often. Shoes: Going barefoot is not only acceptable, it's normal. I have been going barefoot many places and no one ever looks at you strange or anything. It's just the way it is. I actually enjoy it. It's fun. Your feet get pretty rough but that's okay.

Thursday was Yom Kippur but unfortunately I had way too much work and hard projects due that day. The terrorism one was a 25 minute presentation/PowerPoint (which ended up going the entire class 1 hour!!) and a 3 page paper.

I also got a new camera this week. It is a Pentax brand. It was pretty cheap because of the exchange rate, which keeps dropping and dropping.

Continuing with Thursday, I went to steak night at Don's and then did a prank call for the head bartender there. It was pretty hilarious. He then gave me a few free jugs and bourbons it was cool. I took it easy though and then went and watched a movie with an Aussie friend of mine. I knew I had to be up early the next morning for Moreton Island..

Or so I thought... It ends up we were going to Moreton Island SATURDAY at 5:45 am not Friday! OOPS! So I went back to bed until 11 and then went to the library and worked on some projects about "Inherited Alcoholism" and "The Talibanization of Southeast Asia." Diverse topics, aye? I went to the Bra (cafeteria) for food with my friends and then went over to the Blocks (other single-room dormitories with a nice quad) and had some wine and met some new people. We then went to CBD and I had one beer and talked with friends. I was walking to Varsity Tavern when I got a phone call. My friend got a huge tattoo finished so I walked over to his place to see it. Then I went home and was able to wake up nice and early for Moreton Island.

Moreton Island is the 3rd largest sand-only island in the world. It use to be a volcano but over the course of hundreds of thousands of years sand washed ashore and created a complete sand island. It is also the fastest moving island in the world. We took a bus to Brisbane (45 minutes away) and then a 90 minute ferry to the island. It was kind of sad because it was pretty rainy. Australia is in a severe drought so rain = good but why the hell did it have to rain the one time I go away? Anyways, we made out tents (yes we went camping) and saw some crazy spiders!!!

We then suited up in wet suits and went to a spot with over 20 wrecked sea ships. They were put there by the Australia government many years ago to create an artificial reef. I saw some real pretty fish and a bright colored sting ray. We lucked out because you are totally able to snorkel while it is raining, but the other group tried to sand toboggan (sand-board) and you can't really do that in the rain. After snorkeling (dammit I wanted to see a shark) around the boats, we ate lunch and hung out by the beach and stuff. On the beach we were whale watching and we saw a pod of humpback whales! It was amazing. They were huge and flapping out of the water alot. They sprayed water of our their blow holes often. It was super cool. I wish I could have seen some dolphins, but still haven't had this opportunity.

They cooked us a really cool stir-fry dinner and we all sat around a fire and chilled. One of the guides found a carpet snake and was showing it to everyone. The snake was getting real aggravated because of all the flashes of the camera going off on it. So the snake was freezing (as were we lol) so he wrapped up around the guides arm and wouldn't get off. The guide put the snake under his shirt to keep him warm as he brought him back to his tire home. Unfortunately on the walk back the snake bit the guide 3 times, with only one time getting him pretty bad. The guides reaction? "I was excited to get bit! I have handled so many of these and have never been bit. I always wanted to know how strong these guys truly are and now I know! He's got a mean set of fangs on the bugger!" This same guide is picking me up on Wednesday October 29 (for those of you who know me aka family, yes this is my 22nd birthday) and we are going up to Byron Bay early in the AM. As long as the weather permits, we will be doing a 14,000 foot free fall sky dive. I will be tandem (with a guide) but I figure this will be the best birthday activity ever. He also is able to get me a pretty sick discount (plus the ride) and afterwards we are going to go to a nice pub for lunch and beers. My friend Tom from NEU is coming and I can fit 2 more people in his car so we shall see what happens.

The next morning we woke up early, had breakfast, and then went in the 4X4 to a place on the island called The Cave. The only way to get around the island is in a 4X4 because there are NO roads, everything is sand. We saw one guy get stuck in his 4X4 and it ended up being Marty, one of the guys who won The Biggest Loser, the weight-loss show on NBC.

The Cave was pretty. It has one of the only 2 lighthouses left on the island. Back in the day sailors use to knock right into the reed or the island and the lighthouse prevented them from doing so.

After the cave we went to the natural body of water on the island called Blue Lagoon. It was like swimming in a glass of Evian water. We could drink it, and boy it tasted delicious. Swimming in it was great, although it was sprinkling a bit out, it was still nice. The water is the natural source for the aquaphors and all the drinking water on the island. Currently, only 50 people permanently live on the island. They are the people who run the one shop there as well as a small mechanical looking garage.

After this we went on a 2K (1.2 miles) steep uphill hike on a spot called Mount Tempest. This is this tallest Vegetated Sand Dune in the world. It was a tough hike because the weather was starting to clear up and it was all pretty much sand, not much vegetation on the actual path. It was so well worth it. The view was incredible from the top. We were able to see the entire island from end to end. We also could see the skyline, although it was tiny, of Brisbane off in the distance. It was truly incredible. There are these trees there that only grow 1 CM per year. So if the tree is 2 meters high, it is 200 years old! They use to call the trees Black Boys, because they are burnt black, but they had to change the name to be politically correct a few years ago. These trees need fire in order to drop their seedlings on the ground so the rangers regularly set fire to many parts of the island. There are also these trees that have these crazy squiggle marks on them. They look as though they have been vandalized but really they have had moth larvae in them. The moth larvae eat the nutrients of the tree and then fly off once they are ready to go. They are truly incredible looking.

After the hike we went sand tobogganing! It was so cool. It was at least a 100 foot drop down a giant sand dune in a spot on the island called The Desert. The first time I went I got a whole face and mouthful of sand. It was pretty awful but I was determined to get it right. Climbing back up the sand dune was incredibly hard and exhausting. I went a second time and it was perfect. No sand in my face or anywhere and I traveled really far along the non-hill portion of the sand. It was pretty fun. We waxed our boards up first in order to get the least amount of friction possible. Some girl took my camera and used the video function to tape it but clearly didn't know what she was doing and didn't get it recorded. :( Oh well. Jen got it on her camcorder so hopefully I will get the clip someday. I climbed the hill and did the downhill slide one more time. It was definitely a cool experience. Then we went and packed the 4X4 up.

In order to enjoy the sun which just came out (What luck I know!!!!!!!) we walked 30 minutes down the stretch of beach to the ferry landing point. It was so gorgeous out. We found jelly fish, crabs, star fish, and more. It was beautiful with the sun on out faces, our feet in the warm Pacific Ocean water. It was truly a great camping experience and I will never forget it. I am so happy I went. It only cost $294 AUD which at this point with the exchange rate is only $220 USD approximately. What a great deal- 4 meals, sand tobogganing, ferry rides, shuttles to and from Brisbane, driving around the entire island, sleeping in a tent with Jen and a few fellow spiders, and so much more.

Other stuff: So our tour guide said pretty much what has happened to the Aborigines here is a Holocaust, they just don't use that term. There use to be upwards of 200 tribesmen on the island. They were all either kicked off or massacred. They were crazy smart people too. They knew how to use the land, even though they couldn't really grow any of their own crops and the fact there are no land mammals on the island, or there weren't at that point in time. In the 1920s-1950s the Australian government put goats and hogs on the island in case someone was shipwrecked they would have food to eat. They also put wild horses on the island too. Since then they have been eradicated. One tour guide did say that there are a few hogs left and one herd of goats.

So the Aborigines trained the dolphins to help them collect fish. When they would spear into the water the dolphins would chase schools of fish toward land and the tribespeople would hunt and gather all of the fish for their main source of protein. I don't know how they did it and what the dolphins even got out of it besides a few morsels the people would throw back to them. Now that just amazes me.

We also saw a type of bird that hunts oysters with extra long beaks. This specific type of bird is a monogamous species. They find their mate at about the age of 2 and stay with that same mate their entire lives. If the female bird dies first, the male dies within 3 weeks thereafter, which is not true for the female. Why? Because men need women to survive. Duh :)