Week 10

Hello!
Week 10 was cool. I passed in my Drugs and Behavior paper. It was alright but I am taking the class pass/fail so as long as I get a 50 (crazy right) I pass the class. The grading system here is very different from that of the US education institutions.

There are 71 million kangaroos in Australia. They are a protected species and you cannot kill them unless they are on your own private property. That is 3 times as many kangaroos as people!

There are millions of koalas in Australia as well. In the 1920's to the 1950's the koala fur trading business was very lucrative. Furs were sent throughout Australia and to the United States, especially New York City. The koala population was almost decimated as it reached only around 100,000 koalas. In the late 1950's koala fur production was deemed illegal and the animal has been a protected species ever since. Now the koalas are multiplying at a rapid rate and are eating up all of the eucalyptus trees. They are pretty much running out of food because there is no real danger to them. They have an extremely hard back bone so birds of pray cannot attack and eat them if they aren't babies, sick, or old.

Thursday Tom, Dana, and I were picked up at 4:00AM by a shuttle and were brought to Brisbane Airport. We boarded a 6:10AM plane to Cairnes (pronounced Cans) which is a large city thats coastline boarders the Great Barrier Reef waters. At the airport we rented a car and started a drive up to Cape Tribulation and the Daintree National Rainforest. We looked around and had some lunch at a shack, which actually was pretty good! We had to cross a ferry to get to Daintree. It was just a wooden board that was pulled across a river by cables. There were lots of boat tours on the river because there are thousands of crocodiles living here. The ride up was cool half of the time we were riding along the coastline and the beautiful beaches of northern Cairnes. The other half of the time it was either all rainforest or Aboriginal reservations. I drove for the first time on the wrong side of the road. Well here they consider it correct, but I drove on the left side of the road! It was cool and I did a good job! :)

We got to Cape Tribulation and went jungle surfing, otherwise known as ziplining 25 meters above the rainforest floor. We saw different bugs, spiders, birds, and plantlife. We went upside down on the ziplines and stuff. It was cool but kind of slow. The actual zipline part was fun but it took awhile to change harnesses and let everyone go etc. It was cool but I guess nothing can compare to sky diving at this point.

We left and checked into out hostel, The Northern Greenhouse back in Cairnes. The staff was kind of mean. We didn't know we absolutely needed our passports to check in and they were kind of mean about it, but they ended up letting us staying anyways. The hostel was so clean and nice. It use to be a motel. It was only like 20 bucks a night. Free internet. Free breakfast. The rooms were wicked clean. There was one kid in the 6-bed room from Montreal. He is going to Optometry school in Boston next year. He was nice.

We went to dinner at some huge Chinese place. It was okay. Then went back got a few beers in the hostel bar and went to bed.

Friday we walked down to the espanalde at 7:00AM and boarded a boat with the cruise line "Down Under Tours." We went to two different parts of the Great Barrier Reef. It was so sunny, hot, and humid, but truly beautiful out. I went snorkeling for almost 2 hours total on the two different reefs. They were absolutely gorgeous. I saw Nemo fish, huge fish, small fish, blue fish, red fish, one fish, two fish... Okay, Okay. I saw tons of different types of coral and these very long skinny fish called Alligator fish. If you sat still for awhile you could hear "Chomp! Chomp! Chomp!" of the fish eating the coral. It was pretty cool. Otherwise I got some beers on the boat, laid in the sun, talked with some Aussies and had an overall great time. We got a free dinner at a local bar from the boat company and drank at the bar and danced and had fun the rest of the night. Tom went diving with another guy my age who ended up being from the Gold Coast area and he paid for all my drinks all night. He is a nice guy who I will probably hang out with again. His friend went spear fishing up north in Cookstown and went down too far in the water and came up way too fast and passed out in the water. He unfortunately drowned. Kind of crazy that even just diving in the water to catch fish you could die.

Saturday it hurt alittle bit to get up but we had to. We were picked up at 6:30 AM by Raging Thunder, the white water rapid tour company. We boarded a bus and I took a great nap. We landed at a northern part of the Tully River, which has Level 3 and Level 4 white water rapids. We did 12 kilometers total over the course of 5 hours on the river. It was so awesome! When the waters weren't rough we jumped in and let the currents take us downstream. At one section they made six of us in the raft hook arms. They shot us off a white water cliff and we all barrelled into the water head first. It felt like I was underwater for a minute, but it was probably only 10-15 seconds. The water was so strong but it was SOO cool. We then had to swim to catch back up with the raft but it was so awesome. We almost flipped on one huge rapid and wow it was a close call. So fun! I definitely want to do this back in the states. I know there are rapids in Maine and New Hampshire. Would love to go to Arizona or somewhere with even bigger ones. I am going to New Zealand in two weeks and definitely want to do it there. We had a classic Aussie BBQ lunch which hit the stomach good and kept going. Some chick lost her camera when her friend tossed it down to her off a large cliff and it sunk. Stupid.

They then drove us the hour back to the hostel and we were done. We showered up and these guys fell asleep. I did some crosswords and brain teasers while I waited for them to wake up. We then walked around and found some Modern Asian cuisine place. It was delicious. Real good quality. We then went back to the hostel and went to bed fairly early.

Sunday was tough, not because I drank the night before, because I didn't but because I am officially a chicken. A wuss. :( We went to AJ Hacket bungy jump course. The bungy was 50 meters high (aka more than 150 feet). At the top we could see the ocean, all of the rain forest, it was real cool. I was hooked into the bungy and had my toes off the legde. I freaked out and froze in place. It was really one of the scariest things I have ever (almost) done. I am telling you sky diving is just VERY different. You have more time and a ton more space (clearly). I am disappointed in myself but I don't really regret it. I was scared and crying what can I say? I wasn't mentally prepared to jump off a cliff. Sorry! lol. I would like to try it again because I am so mad at myself, but I don't know if I ever will. Just not for me. Plus Tom and my friend Amber said sky diving is 100,000,000 times better, which I could already tell. Instead I did a minjin jungle swing that goes 120 kilometers per hour. I was hoistered up into some wire contraption and I pulled a rope and it swings you straight down and then upwards like a swing. It felt like freefall for the first 2-3 seconds or so. It was pretty cool. Oh well.

We had some BBQ burgers, mmm, some beers, and then grabbed the shuttle back to the hostel. We then went shopping around the town. I got some cute trickets for my family members to give to them at the annual Holiday Yankee Swap at my uncles house. I am very excited to see everybody and give them their gifts, no matter how small some of them might be. We were going to go skydiving and see the Great Barrier Reef from the sky but we messed up and it ended up our flight was at 9:00AM instead of 2:30PM. DAMMIT! Oh Well I will try to sky dive in NZ then.

Back at the hostel we went swimming all night got a slice of pizza for dinner and drank with some of the locals in the hostel. The hostel had crazy good prices and 7-8 was 2 for 1 drinks for $4. You can't even beat that in the sh*tholes in Worcester! Yeah so the people we chilled with at the hostel, cool people. Then I got a kabob. Yum.

Next morning we had to catch a flight at 9:05 am. We got a taxi and made it with plenty of time to spare. Got to Brisbane and then jumped on the train back to Bond. Got back and then went to Lakeside and did homework. Now on Week 11 but techincally week 10 of classes... Wow time flies....

Check out this news article>> It's about this spider that I saw. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24540399-5009760,00.html

Photos of White Water Rafting should be up in a few days.. Comments welcomed.

Week 9 - Bday Week :)

Hello there!

Monday I got a ride to Pacific Fair (huge shopping center) and got some tanks and a dress for Derby Day in Melbourne. Also got a cool feather to wear in my hair. I worked on my Drugs paper alot.

Tuesday I had a bunch of different classes and did heaps of work. Then I went to CBD and Varsity Tavern. Midnight I turned 22! My friends were all buying me shots and it was a good time. I stayed out until 2AM even though I was being picked up at 7AM for skydiving. I mean you only turn 22 once! It was cool.Wednesday: BDAY! I woke up and got a coffee with Tom. We then got picked up by "Sky Dive Byron Bay" and headed to Byron. I suited up and met the person I was to be attached to at 14,000 feet!! Big, strong, man? Nope. She was half a foot shorter than me! She had jumped out of a plane "a few thousand" times! Wow!! So we packed into this tiny plane which was rather uncomfortable and headed up in the sky. I got a video tape and over 60 photos of the jump. The video is priceless. So at one point I said so are we almost there and she said Jackie we are at 5,000 feet, we have 9,000 to go! WOW! It took about 20 minutes to get to maximum height. All of a sudden... BOOM they slid open the door and out popped a tandem. She pushed me up to the door and I was like whoaaaaaa... The look on my face is absolutely priceless. Not only do I look like I want to die but I thought I was going to die. I was second out of the plane with not an instant to even second guess it.

We started to free fall and it was one of the best things I have ever experienced in my life. It was cold and so fast. We were moving at over 120 miles per hour (approx. 200 kilometers per hour). I couldn't help but keep my mouth WIDE open almost the whole drop. My camera man and the chick Sally told me SMILE but that wasn't what my mind was thinking. I was thinking OMG THIS FEELS SO GOOD!! WOW I AM GOING FAST! WOW MY EARS HURT! WOW MY MOUTH IS DRY! WOW WOW WOW Like my mouth was wide open all the pics are ridiculous lol. After like 20 seconds we had fallen 9,000 feet and she opened the parachutte. WAM we got lifted up. It didn't hurt though. I was in AWE. It took

another minute to touch down to the ground. My views up in the air were amazing. Byron Bay is already one of my favorite spots in Australia, and let me tell you boy was it gorgeous.

As soon as I touched the ground I said, "I want to do it again! Let's go back up!!!!" And I meant it. When I get back to the states my friend Lisa and I are going to go up to Lebanon, Maine and do it again. After I do one more tandem, if I still feel so passionately about it I am contemplating getting my license so I can do jumps alone. The girl talked to me alot on the ride down and I kind of just wanted to be in awe and look out onto the world while floating down.

After this amazing begining to the day, the company brought us to Byron. We got lunch at the Beach Hotel which was real delicious. Then we chilled on the beach and walked around. We were all pretty exhausted. We got a ride back to Bond.

After that I showered and got ready and showed the video to a few people. Colleen and I then went down to Don's and my buddy bartender gave us 6 free drinks/shots. It was great. Then me Sarah, Colleen, Jen, Kayte, Kayleigh, Amy, and Dana went to dinner at Lake in Marketsquare. It was delicious.
Afterwards me, Kayte, Tom, Jennie, Joe, Samarth, and Josh went to Strike Bowl Alley in Surfer's. It was kind of a disappointment not more of my friends came. So many people on facebook said they'd come and didn't even bothering telling me otherwise. Ben and Will didn't even make an attempt to come. They were supposed to be real good friends of mine which is pretty upsetting. Ben especially. He really kind of just showed the lack of understanding when the next day he didn't realize he did anything wrong. I had to beg him just to watch the video nevermind a hug a happy birthday a card for crap's sake. Both guys instead of chilling with me got obliterated from whisky in the dorms. Cool.

The bowling alley was heaps of fun though! We played 2 games with girls versus boys, where we lost miserablly, and then switched up the teams. I got one strike which was awesome. Then the next round up I got zero, so kind of shows how I play. LOL. Everyone got me so many drinks and it was just so much fun. We then went to Melba's nightclub where they gave me a huge scorpion bowl for free. We danced and then I went home. It was probably the best birthday I have ever had. I did a bunch of different things, ate great food, and hung around with all different people throughout the day.

Thursday I woke up at 6AM and jumped into a taxi with Kayleigh. Halfway to the airport she realized she had forgotten her ticket to Derby Day so we had to turn back to get it. Good thing we made it back to the airport on time. We jumped our flight to Melbourne and then got a taxi to the hostel. The hostel was one of the grossest living quarters I have ever seen in my life. I have stayed in many a hostel and this one was by far the worst. Porn magazines thrown about, empty mayonnaise containers on the floor, and ever a band aid stuck to the bed. Good thing Kayleigh had a friend who lived right outside of the city. He had an extra mattress and I ended up sleeping on that the three nights we were in Melbourne. It was cool.

Day one in Melbourne we just walked around and ate lunch at a cafe. That night Kay and I plus Amber and her sis, Kelly, and Gabi went to Little Italy (Lygon Street) and got food. We talked the owner dude into giving us each a free glass of wine and free garlic bread. I even got free pasta with my chicken parm. It was good for sure. Then Kay's friend picked us up and we were off to his place. We chilled and watched some television and passed out. Friday we had to be back at the hostel to be picked up by 7:20 AM for a full day tour of the Melbourne Coast.

We left his house at 5:30 AM and went into the city and got breakfast. The breakfast was actually so good too. So far Melbourne is definitely the place to be for good food!!! We then got into the shuttle and were on our way touring the Great Ocean Road.Great Ocean Road Tour: We saw live koalas in the forest. We went on a short hike in a 250 year old rainforest named Maits Rest Rainforest. There were trees there that are a breed that is the tallest flowering tree on earth. These trees were monsterous. Really. They were 50-80 meters high, and the highest ones go to 150 meters high (um 1 meter = about 3 feet). They were crazy. Unfortunately most of the day is rained and it was freezing but I still tried to stay positive and enjoy the natural surroundings in the environment. We went to the best wave beach in Australia, Bells Beach. We saw some wild kangaroos just chillin around.

We went to the 12 Apostles, which you can see in the picture right below.
There are really only like 8 Apostles now because some have dissipated into the sea. You could see all of the lines of sediment in the rock formations. It was pretty cool. All of the rocks are losing 2 cm per year and forming new apostles as the old ones are being washed away.

We went to an Aboriginal culture center where a guy showed us different weapons and tools, which were cool and definitely lethal. He also played the didgeridoo for us which was real cool. It seems like such a stoner type of instrument. It is made from natural wood in which a termite has eaten the insides out, but not the outer piece making it completely hollow, naturally. I got a sandwich at a health food shop for lunch and had Chinese food for dinner. They were both just okay.

We went to a giant gorge called Loch Ard Gorge. It was cool. Then we went to London Bridge, which is a natural formation of a bridge in the water. It used to be connected to the main piece of land but it broke off in the 1990's. Funny anecdote: There were two people on the other side of the bridge when it broke off. They were safe, but trapped on it. Helicopters and news agencies came and it took about an hour for them to be rescued. The two who were rescued? It was a man and his mistress. He told his work he was sick and called out. His wife thought he was at work. Neither were true. His wife left him and his job fired him. Moral: Never skip work and cheat on your wife in a spot where a natural disaster could happen. Ha Ha.

We got back into Melbourne real late (10PM) and didn't even get to our friends house until 11PM. It was Halloween and I really wanted to go out but it just wasn't feasable. This is probably the first Halloween I have officially missed and not done anything. At least my mom sent me a bunch of Halloween toys! lol

Saturday: DERBY DAY AT FLEMINGTON RACETRACK

Kayleigh, Brad, and I went out to breakfast. It was good and cheap. Then we got dressed up for Derby Day. The Australians pronounce it Darby Day. Over 120,000 people attend this race every year in Melbourne. The culmination of this race is the Melbourne Cup. There were 10 main horse races. I did some research and learned how to bet on different horses. I ended up betting around $100 dollars. I won some money on all the races but two. One race the horse Wilander broke through the wood doors and started to race on his own. I was pissed. He clearly has enough strength to break through the doors, he ran so fast around the track too. He would have won; I am sure of it. On race 7, this horse Whobegotyou was so famous. He had placed in 1st the last 3 of his races. On the radio people said he'd win. All my friends said he'd win. So instead of betting "Each Way" which is if the horse gets 1st, 2nd, or 3rd you win money, I bet WIN $15. Of course the horse didn't win, he got 2nd. So if I had stuck to Each Way I would have won money. In the end I made 85% of my money back which isn't that bad. It was entertaining and it enabled me to talk to a bunch of people around. We ended up getting a good table inside the glass. It was FREEZING outside so we were lucky. We ended up standing with those old guys in the photo but it was cool and they gave us a few free beers. All my friends drank champange and got toasty but I stuck with the beer because I wanted to stay out all night.

I met up with a friend who had good seats upstairs and chilled up there for a few of the races. They had a good view. I stayed until the end and went to the train. It was insane. SO many people and not enough trains. We got on the third train (after being separated from everyone but one girl) and then walked 20 minutes from downtown Melbourne to the hostel. I grubbed out hardcore on the walk home. Yum. Kay and I met up with some other people had a beer and then walked down to this nightclub. The nightclub was called Equinox. We ended up crashing some girls birthday party but I don't think she minded. There were tons of Lebanese people there. I told one of them I had seen Lebanon two times before and he was like how. I said I was in Israel and looked out through an army post. He asked if I was Jewish and I said what if I was? I was just chillin in Israel anyways.. He said "Jews run the world! They really do! They suck." Then I flipped it and told him not really and what not I am good at the advocacy shit. Then I admitted I was Jewish. He was like, "Whoa. But you are pretty. and normal. I don't understand." I was the first Jew he had ever met in his life and he already had these horrible thoughts in his mind. Then he told his friend they were all whispering and it was weird. They were still nice to me after the fact though and hopefully they weren't drunk and remember that we are normal and nice too. OY! and no not OI like Aussie, OY like Oy gavulta! lol

After this we went to some other bar on the street. I met some chill girls and we got into a taxi and followed them to another club. Unfortunately we lost them and so Kay and I went into the biggest casino in Melbourne, The Crown. It was out of this world. SOOO nice. Like a Foxwoods but maybe even flashier. I had half a sandwich and it was time to go. We jumped in a taxi and went back to Brad's. I fell asleep waiting up for the boys on the couch. I was awoken by a 30 year old friend of Brad's creeping in the room but all was okay and I went back to bed. The next morning Brad made awesome breakfast and we watched movies all day. He dropped us off at the airport. Our flight was delayed (what else is new) and then we got back to the Gold Coast. I watched television, unpacked, and went to bed.

What an awesome week!! I love it here!!! I just wish the weather would perk up!!!!! Plans for next week: 2000 word drugs paper due. Melbourne Cup partying Tuesday. Thursday 6:10AM flight from Brisbane to the Great Barrier Reef~!!! NEXT WEEK IS GOING TO BE ROCKING WITH EXTREME SPORTS 4 DAYS IN A ROW!! YEA BABY YEA

I LOVE YOU FAMILY AND MISS YOU. THANKS FOR THE CARDS AND MESSAGES ON MY BIRTHDAY! :) KEEP THE MAIL COMING WAHOO!

Photos of me jumping out of a plane at 14,000 ft:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2222664&l=498e2&id=1812695

Photos of my trip to Melbourne: (2nd largest city in Australia, by 2010 it will be the largest)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2223807&l=b4711&id=1812695