Meeting the locals

Squee! My cuteness-o-meter just hit critical! Ok, let me back track. Several days ago I bought tickets to go to the wildlife sanctuary. I knew I was going to encounter some of the local wildlife, just not to the degree I met them. The tour started as most do, a greeting, short background story of the sanctuary and then move to the first exhibit. The first animals we saw were koalas. They were so chill and relaxed. The ranger said that they sleep most of the day because of their nutrient poor diet. Then he told us we could go in and pet the koalas! I was so excited I squeed and started hopping up and down (my natural reaction to most animals). We met one of the younger koalas named Ray Charles, a blind koala. This little koala was surrounded by a swarm of uni students getting up close and personal and he didn't even bat and eyelash; he just keep on eating and then fell asleep!

We also got to meet what I thought was the cutest animal at the sanctuary, not just because he was fluffy, but because of his history. I’m referring to Tonka the wombat, this gigantic marsupial nearly the size of a bear cub. The ranger brought him out and he looked so sleepy and relaxed (wombats are nocturnal, so he was tired!). The ranger told us that a cyclone hit Townsville in February and they had to close down Billabong temporarily. During this time Tonka stopped eating and was listless. After he lost weight and took him to the vet they discovered that Tonka was depressed; he missed getting hugs from the visitors! (He was raised by humans since he was little, so he thinks he’s a human!). Since the park has reopened he’s gained his weight back and is now happier than ever. I made sure to give him a big warm cuddle and pat on the head.

Hopping outside the enclosures were dozens of kangaroos. You could walk up to them and pet their fur; it was so soft! They weren’t the big kangaroos you normally think of (those are red kangaroos) these came up to around shoulder height. I fed a little kangaroo, he was adorable; hopping on his little legs and eating out of my hand (don’t worry it was feed handed out by the park keepers). I also held a baby crocodile, python, and joined to feed the turtles!!! It was so funny watching them eat raw fish whole! I missed the turtle race because the bus came early, oh well. I did manage to bring a little friend back from the sanctuary; maybe I’ll introduce him some time soon.

I enjoyed Billabong a lot! We closely interacted with the animals and had a wonderful tour guide. He was informative and very funny, which seems to be the normal Australian attitude. I wasn’t a fan of the new cockatoo being acclimated to humans though. They put it on a branch and clipped its wings. Poor thing was freaking out as people crowded it. The rest of the sanctuary was fun though.

Yesterday we went to ReefHQ the largest coral reef aquarium in the world! The coral was gorgeous and the fish were so colorful! This one type of fish, called an orange spot surgeonfish (because their fins are sharp and used as defense) change their color right in front of me. It turned from black to silver grey. Apparently this change occurs when the fish becomes less hostile and wants to invite cleaner fish to groom it. They also had the largest nurse shark I’ve ever seen! It was easily 6 feet long and very big. Since we had a private tour we were lead to the sea turtle hospital. They had several green turtles in tanks recuperating from various things, mostly from garbage in their stomachs.

On the way back to campus we saw the forest fire that has been burning for the last several days. Ok, before anyone freaks out, it was a prescribed fire. This means that they intentionally burn some of the underbrush so when wildfires happen they don’t spiral out of control. It is controlled and monitored closely and they do this often, so don’t lose your head. It is pretty to see it in the middle of the night though.

Aussie word of the day: joey= infant marsupial

p.s.: You can see more pictures of my first week in my new facebook album "Aussie Welcome Wagon"

Couching nerd, (not so) hidden dork

So I tried my first Australian party…not a fan. The music was pounding, I a million conversations going on at the same time, and beer. Australia seems to be a drinking culture. I’ve been here a week and it seems that there’s a party or people going out to drink every night. It may just be due to classes not starting yet, but I’ve talked to some of the locals and people go clubbing on a Tuesday (called cheap Tuesdays).

Call me a teetotaler, fuddy-duddy, lame; I don’t care. I don’t get it. I don’t care about it either way; it just tastes gross to me (drinking age is 18 here, calm down). Which is a good thing because alcohol is expensive over here. Ehh. I was more excited about seeing the wallaby walking back from the party (I can already hear the chorus of friends and family saying “you would be” :D ).

Today was full of meet and greet events. I finally met the Japanese language professor, who has been very nice about responding to my neurotic emails. Unfortunately I won’t be able to take the intermediate level because my coral reef ecology class practical is during one of the lectures. RAGE! I’ve made so many sacrifices for this class; took a 3 week summer stats class, constant emailing of professors to approve everything, reorganized my schedule, sacrificed my week long lecture break for research (which is in a beautiful remote location, which is cool, but its grating on my last nerves, plus the trip wasn’t mentioned in the course offer). I’m so drained from this class and I haven’t even started it! Enough about that, I found the shark section of the library! I checked out a huge textbook field guide to sharks of Australia; need to know who I’m looking at when I dive.

I’m gonna try to fall asleep now, there’s a party going on next door…ugh.

Aussie word of the day: Bubbler= water fountain

p.s.: next post is a surprise!

Almost like home, but not quite

I’ve been here for nearly a week now and I’m already noticing a few differences. Not big differences like everyone walks backwards or speak another language (though sometimes the accent is difficult to manage) but little things like; a parking lot is called a “car park” and when you order a burger they slap a salad on top of it. Seriously I had a hamburger with lettuce, cheese, tomato, carrot, ketchup, pickles, pineapple and beet root (beet root seems very popular over here). I’ve been out exploring via (pronounced vai~a, not ve~ia) car, I’ve found a friend with a car very quickly, and completely on accident. Yay for striking up random conversations in the dinning hall!

Food wise things are recognizable with a few changes; you have spaghetti on toast in the morning, dessert is only at dinner (the apple crumble and custard is delicious), you sprinkle cinnamon directly on to your toast, there is no soda in the dinning halls (probably a good thing), and coffee is always: instant, 1/5 coffee and the rest is milk. Not unsettlingly different but its caused me to double take more than once. The other night we did go out to the Strand (a nearby beach) and I had the most delicious goat curry. It was spicy and savory and wonderful!

I also went to see Harry Potter; it’s been in Australia since the 13^th (release dates over here are a bit wonky). It was awesome and a good way to get to know my new friends better. On a side note the concessions at the theater were like a candy store, you could get anything from normal snacks from home to chocolate dipped ice cream cones and pizza!

Normally on Sunday all the stores are closed. So streets are closed down and dozens of street markets open up. The one I went to was a fairly standard market; fresh produce, handcrafted toys, crocodile skin belts (ok, maybe not that one). Everything was bright and colorful…and expensive. I know that the American dollar isn’t very strong right now and the exchange rate adds to it, but I still couldn’t help but whistle under my breath at some of the prices. So I window shopped! I found the cutest hatters that specialized in those fancy hats you see ladies wear at the Kentucky Derby. Apparently at weddings here you usually wear a hat, they also have a lot of horse races locally. Some of my friends went to one last week and had a ball. Maybe I’ll go next time, maybe even wear a fascinator.

Today was more or less checking off things on my list:

-get an Australian phone

 -get snacks

       -buy tickets to JCU sponsored events (They’re a secret, but I’ll write about them eventually)

Buy books…

I tried to find them, but nothing came up on my ‘books I need to buy list’, which is weird. I’ve never had a biology class that didn’t have a textbook big enough to k.o. a kangaroo. But I did come across this stunning flock of rainbow lorikeets munching on flowers outside one of the dorms!   

p.s.: Since there isn’t going to be a turtle count anymore I’m going to have a word of the day that’s either a different from the American phrase or completely new!

Word of the day: zebra (pronounced zebra) crossing = cross walk

Fresh off the boat

Hi everyone! Sorry about the lack of posting, I’m a little discombobulated and overwhelmed. So I made it Australia, and what a trip it was! 24 hours of flight + lay over + different time zone – 1 day= 1 very dazed and confused me. By the time I stood in front of the Townsville Airport I could only sway back and forth on my feet as I tried to respond to people with accents. Luckily I met up with the other students from my school and I met one of my roommates! Our dorms are suite style singles! Dinning halls are annoying though. There’s one for every dorm and they have strict hours so interacting with campus is limited to the dorm, meh. I have met quite a few people so far; Germans, Norwegians, Dutch, Hollanders, Ecuadorian, English…and a bucket ton of Americans. I came here to escape America! Oh well, I have noticed that foreign students tend to group together, mostly with their own nationality. It feels weird being the international student, now I know why my schools foreign students huddle together like they do; being in a foreign country is easier with people going through the same things.

I’ve mostly been getting familiar with campus and smoothing out my schedule. I had to drop photography due to a clash, so now I’m taking painting. Other than that I’ve been hanging out with my new friends and trying out the local activities. I’ve been to the tav (tavern) and we tried to go to the aboriginal full moon drum circle; unfortunately it was rained out. Which is weird because we’re in the middle of Australian winter.

At the tav last night we met one of the tav’s usuals, a beer loving possum! They’re very different from the possums back home (this guy was actually cute, I suggest you look them up on Google). A bandicoot also joined the party to snack on bugs. That's the thing about the wildlife here, its everywhere and mingles surprisingly well with the people. I wake up to hear the stereotypical jungle background sound every morning (the kind that has all the bird calls). Kookaburras are abundant; causally flying around giving students only a passing glance and laughing raucously at 6 am… They’re not the only birds around campus; I’ve seen ibis, magpies, turkeys, and other birds I couldn’t name. These animals are very unique even the turkeys are pure black with bald red heads and a double-fanned tail, and these animals are just on campus. Henrietta (my Norwegian friend) says she saw a wallaby early one morning, I’ve yet to see one.

Everybody do the construction car conga!

My times as turtle hunter have come to an end. Word must have got around the terrapin water cooler because we found 6 turtles yesterday; the first one we found even before we started our route, we drove up to it! I guess they wanted to see me off, or get one final nip at me. 8174 wished me farewell by sitting in the road and making me carry her across it; seriously we caught her 4 times and she’s always crossing the road, just pick a spot you finicky reptile! Maybe she has a death wish.

It was sad to leave my housemates, we may have only known each other for about a month, but when you’re with someone nearly every waking moment of the day and are all huge zoology nerds you just click. I’ve done a lot with these girls over the past month, from chasing down threatened species to errands and hanging out. They’ve certainly made this a memorable and fun experience. They even surprised me with pie and ice cream on my last night!

 And so began my 6 hour drive back home…you would think that driving at night would lessen the crowds, it did except for the infinite number of construction sights spawning like zombies in a horror movie! Its like every tractor trailer in the state magnetizes towards them and no one has ever heard of the concept of alternate feed. And why is there so much construction if there is an economic downturn? I digress; I made it home and now am scrambling to grab everything I need for 5 months in Australia. Going a little nutty I must admit.

I also went to the new Yankees stadium for the first time, only to see them soundly beaten, oh well. The seats were comfy and I enjoyed myself immensely, go Yankees!

Final terrapin tally: 58

Final nest tally: 15

Turtles don't go on vacation

Working 7 days a week in the outdoors with only one coworker means that you often forget what day it is. I completely forgot about the 4^th of July until one of my housemates said she was going to a barbeque. The plethora of tourists reminded me though, ugh. Traffic was bad and there were people everywhere. We got to see the parade though…correction, we drove through it.

We were driving back from Great Island and we saw a lot of people going into town. We thought we’d go around it, but a police officer waved us through…into block party’s worth of people. Children running in the street, parents standing in the road taking pictures, it was utter pandemonium! I was freaking out just a bit and rolled up the windows so my color commentary wasn’t shared with the entire street. We made it without having to pick tourists from Vinnie’s grill, so it wasn’t so bad. I think they thought we were part of the parade, silly me.

Since it was the 4^th our house had to have a picnic! Did we go into town and watch fireworks? Go to a barbeque? No. We made banana bread, cheese, bread and other assorted delicious things, packed them up and sat on the dunes to watch the fireworks! There were a lot of bugs, but it was worth it. It was pitch black; the only lights came from the town. Since the dunes in the Province Lands are so high we saw fireworks in Province Town, Truro and Wellfleet! No one else was there because everyone was in town and we could climb the dunes thanks to our permits. (Afterwards we had to look for toads). It was gorgeous; we were level with the explosions and far enough away that the sound was delayed. When the fireworks died down we lay on our towels and watched the endless map of stars above our heads. We talked and made wishes on shooting stars navigating the sky. We were completely alone in the dunes except for the chirping crickets and coyote pups learning to howl. To quote my Peanut: “Its like a scene out of a movie.” It certainly felt like it.

Terrapins today: 1

Terrapin count: 53

Nest count: 14

Hey Lady!

Today was kinda gross…scratch that, really gross. It was hot, sunny, and cloudless. This was perfect weather for a swim and relaxing...and I had to work. I had sand and dirt sticking to me everywhere and it looked like I stepped out of a tanning salon. It all washed off in the shower though, bummer. (But now I know what I look like with a tan!). We found only one turtle, 8134, a recapture. She had a protrusion on her right front leg; we think it's a bone. Ouch! These turtles are tough! Most of the older ones are beaten up; some look like they’ve been run over too. (I’m not joking!)

We had some guests recently join us on our patrol; little day campers! They were so cute!!!! I felt like I was giving another aquarium tour, but without all the usual hyperactive screaming and running. They got a little too excited over the turtle we found. No you cannot hold the turtle, watch out he bites, no you can not take him with you. You have no idea how glad I was that we found at least one turtle. I can’t imagine what would have happened if we didn't find one.  Luckily Emily and I knew enough about the flora and fauna to entertain the kids ( I even gave the horseshoe crab talk I’ve said uncountable times at the aquarium job while trying to illustrate as best I could with a molted horseshoe crab carapace). They were so exhausted by the end of walk that they barely talked, let alone complained. The councilors were very thankful. The kids and councilors were really nice and I doubt they would have complained much even f we didn’t see a turtle, I just keep thinking about some of the tours I’ve led at my previous job *shudder* not pretty.

Today’s terrapins: 1

Total terrapins: 52

Nest total: 13