Day 29

The past few days have been exciting!  On Sunday we managed to successfully get a van, and we drove up to Mossman Gorge for a hike.  I was expecting a real hike--a grueling, five-hours-long trek up a mountain, fighting back plants and venomous animals.  What I found was an elevated platform through the forest, probably best-suited to the elderly and those bound to a wheelchair.  It was very pretty, but when you've got a full bag of hiking gear, complete with a first aid kit and emergency snacks, it's a little unnerving to see old women in flip-flops.

It was a lovely walk, but I wouldn't go back again.  There were some nice trees, and lots of turkeys, but that was about it for wildlife.  (One of the turkeys bit me!  It was my fault, though.  It didn't draw blood or anything, but it sure surprised me!) I also managed to forget my camera's battery in the charger, so no photos of Mossman Gorge, I'm afraid.  Sorry, folks.  It poured on us almost the entire time, so no great loss, I suppose.

Monday and Tuesday were uneventful days of class, but on Wednesday the aquarium folks went out for a little field trip!  We were trying to collect fun animals for a touch-tank for next weekend's Open Day, which is (to my understanding) a sort of 'prospective student' day where they show potential future students all the wonderful and exciting things they can do at James Cook.  We drove up to a little place called Yule Point, which to anyone who doesn't know it already appears to be a random pullover on the highway.  We went at low tide, armed with buckets and nets and dive booties, and went out to catch cool stuff!

Starfish were everywhere!  They kinda freak me out when they move, to be honest.  They just kind of glide.  :-/
Of course, being freaked out didn't stop me from playing with them.

There were hundreds of them!  I also saw an octopus, but I didn't get a photo of him.

It's a bit blurry, but this is a rough file clam.  They're very majestic when they swim!  (I took my crappy old point-and-shoot
for the trip, which took AGES to get the photos off of.  And they were crappy photos anyway!  Bah!)

One of the other girls caught this pretty eel!  She named him Dexter.  He's about a foot long.  We love him!

Just as the tide started to come back in, one of the students in our group stepped on a stingray.  I wasn't aware of this, but stingrays are actually pretty scary.  The tail is barbed, and it went right through his bootie and cut him pretty deeply above the ankle.  I didn't realize how bad the wound was until he removed the bootie and blood poured out it!  We were more than half a mile from shore, and the walk was through water, sand, coral, and uneven rocks--and he had to be carried.  The strong folks got him most of the way but it was very difficult, and they eventually got too tuckered out.  The rest of us took all the gear back to the van.

We called an ambulance, and what we got were two--an hour later!  I couldn't believe how slow they were.  Both ambulances had exactly one woman in each.  Nobody else, just a single woman.  When they got there and saw him out on the beach, they said, "How are we going to carry him?  We're just women."  Then why did they send them?!  So much for these being the days of equality.  We had to call the fire brigade to come carry him, because the EMT-women wouldn't let us use their stretcher.  He was taken to the hospital, where they cleaned up the wound and stitched it up.  He's on heavy antibiotics now, but he'll be fine, thank goodness.

We had to wait so long for the ambulances/fire brigade that a lot of the animals we collected died.  We tried to get this
little guy back into the open water, but he didn't get very far before he went belly-up.  Sorry, little fish.

This clam almost took my finger off!  We brought him back to the aquarium and named him Clarence.  :)
(I took photos of animals while we waited for the ambulance.  I SHOULD have taken photos of the fire brigade!)

Fortunately, the professor overseeing the field trip was Jamie Seymour, a well-known expert on venomous animals.  He's done work with box jellies, stonefish, cone snails, and venomous snakes from all over the world.  He was even on the Nat Geo Wild channel last year!  I'm working on getting my hands on the full episodes, but the promo trailer is definitely worth taking a look at, here.  Jamie was actually on-board with Steve Irwin when he was fatally barbed by a stingray, so we were very fortunate to have him with us!  Everyone handled the situation very calmly, especially (and most commendably) the victim, who stoically informed the group that he was at "an 8" on the 1-10 scale of pain, and that it was "the worst pain he'd ever felt."  I'm fairly sure I would have been a little freaked out if that much blood had been pouring out of my leg!

We had a 'debriefing' today about the incident, just to be sure none of us had any psychological trauma and to let us know what happened to our injured friend.  (He'll be fine, by the way.  He's just got a bit of a gaping wound above his ankle.  No biggie.)  We might be going for another trip, since most of what we caught died while waiting for the ambulance.  Yay!  :)

Tonight I went out with Taylor to look for toads.  We need them for our Venomous Australian Animals class, where we're going to knock them out, crack their ribs, and inject venoms into their hearts!  (Yes, they're going to die.)  We needed at least two toads each, but as every Australian we spoke to told us, it's not toad season!  I received a toad at breakfast from one of the lovely employees of the student lodge, who heard (not sure how, maybe I talk louder than I think?) that I was looking for toads, and when she found one in her dog's water bowl this morning she put it in a bin for me.  But one wasn't enough, so we had to go find more!

He's a pretty good size!  And I didn't even have to look for him!  I named him Charlie.

Taylor and I each needed at least two each.  Toad hunting is basically taking a flashlight around in bushes and looking for toads.  It is time consuming because, as previously mentioned, it's not toad season.  Taylor found the first one, and hers is a big guy.  The rest are a bit small, but we ended up with 6 toads total, or 3 for each of us.  Success!

We caught four smallish ones, I hope they're big enough for our envenoming needs!

The top-right one is Charlie.  Bottom-left is the HUGE one Taylor found.

Awww.  I'm so sorry I have to kill you tomorrow, Charlie.  :(

I'll be going on a field trip to Green Island this weekend, so hopefully I'll have some more cool photos soon!  And I won't forget all my stuff at a bus stop this time!  :)

Day 24

I haven't found a job yet, but I did find a volunteering position at the university aquarium!  It's a pretty small and out-of-the-way place, but they have some very neat stuff in there.  There's a whitetip reef shark, a lionfish, seahorses, rays, batfish, epaulettes (tiny sharks), cone snails, peacock mantis shrimp,a baby crocodile, and lots more more.  I will be helping with feeding the animals and cleaning.  I've started cleaning out a greenhouse for a lungfish project, and I think I'm going on a 'field trip' with them on Thursday, although I don't know where to.  (They insisted on getting my next-of-kin info before we went, so I think that's a good sign?)  I'll try to get photos of the animals but it's hard when they're all underwater.

School has been fairly easy, as expected.  One of my classes, Ecology & Australian Indigenous Cultures, is apparently less learning of new information and more discussing our feelings about ecology.  The Australian students eat it up, but the American students all sit awkwardly during these 'discussions' because we don't think that feelings have much of a place in science.

Today we were supposed to take a trip up to Mossman Gorge, but the boys' poorly-planned car rental fell though because they didn't call to ask if we were old enough to rent.  We're supposed to go tomorrow now, but we'll see how that goes.  Instead of the Gorge, I spent most of the day out in the rainforest taking photos of whatever I could find.  Usually I'm either running or hiking with the group, so I don't have a lot of time to stop and look for things and take decent photos.  I had to end my photo-hike early because of a torrential downpour (I was not kind to my camera today) but I found lots of good stuff!

A butterfly!

This Dome Tent spider has been living on the side of the highway for at least two weeks.  Isn't she pretty?

A masked plover!  I love how silly they look.

The underside of a Dome Tent spider.

The backside of a Dome Tent spider.  This one was a bit smaller than the one on the side of the highway.

I guess when it rains, all the beetles huddle together under leaves?

Look at all those beetles.  Geez.

A sulphur-crested cockatoo!  It is REALLY hard to take bird photos so I got very lucky that this one stayed still!
(I am also very lucky to have a telephoto lens.  This guy was at least 50 feet up.)

Tiny tiny flowers!

Unidentified spider.

The beetles were everywhere!

I am not sure if this is a crayfish or a prawn.  He lives in a little pool of water in a dried-up river and
chases the little minnows that are stuck there with him.

Another butterfly.

And what a miracle, I got him with his wings down!

And today was extra excellent because I found a golden orb weaver!!!  It was bigger than my hand, so it was at least 6 inches long.  The body was very skinny, but I think they get fat once they start to produce eggs.  I think I've found a few before, but never anywhere near this size.  It was HUGE!!!

A GOLDEN ORB WEAVER!!!

This spider is breathtaking.  Mostly because you are so shocked by its size that you forget to breath.

Just imagine your hand next to this spider.  And that they're the SAME SIZE.

Another excellent find: a flower that looks like a woman's privates.  I had to grab it to get a closer look.  But wait, what is that poking out...?

OH GOD IT'S ANOTHER SPIDER.  This little Flower Spider was not very happy with me.
I can't really say that I blame him.

On an ending note, allow me share the biggest lesson my travels have taught me: America is number one!  I had never thought of myself as an outstandingly patriotic individual, but I find myself getting very defensive when anyone insults my country, or more often, my state.  Michigan is awesome and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.  Last night I had to suffer through a New Englander's explanation that she knew Detroit was a crappy city because she flew through the airport once, and another girl from the West Coast who insisted (even after I tried to correct her) that Michigan actually faces the opposite direction, with the thumb in Lake Michigan.  So yes, apart from our apparently-failing education system and our continued use of high fructose corn syrup, America is number one, and don't you forget it.

Day 19

I made a panorama!  It's my first one and frankly I didn't even know my computer was capable of something this cool, but let me tell you, it's TOTALLY AWESOME.  I can't get the full-size image to stick anywhere, but if you go to my Picasa page (<--click that!) you can download it full size and check it out for yourself.  Which I strongly suggest you do, because as previously mentioned, it's totally awesome.

You will not regret downloading the full size.  Trust me on this one.

I have survived the first week of classes!  I used 'survived' in a semi-joking sense because Australian university does not seem nearly as intense as it is in America.  Some classes only do projects, which is pretty darn easy.  Others only have a single test at the end of the year, but they give you a study guide with all the questions on it.  Their idea of a long essay is four double-spaced pages.  HAHAHAHA!

My coolest class is definitely going to be Venomous Australian Animals.  My professor was actually on-board the boat with Steve Irwin (may he rest in peace) when he got the stinger in the heart and died.  Unlike my other classes this is a real hard-science class, where we talk about how venoms affect cellular processes and what effect they have on the body.  And to test this--because Australians believe in the importance of hands-on experiences--we will be injecting venoms of various animals into the still-beating hearts of unconscious toads!  So yes, we will be killing toads.  And we have to catch the toads ourselves and bring them to class.  This would never fly in America, but apparently Australia is lacking a PETA-type organisation and so it's totally fine!

But enough about school.  On Saturday morning we went down to Rusty's Market in Cairns, which is basically a fruit-and-veggie market with a few clothing and jewelry vendors sprinkled in.  We decided to try all the new and exciting fruits that we'd never seen before, and as seems to be the case with everything Australian, some was good and some was absolutely awful.

Dragonfruit!  They're very pretty, and kind of scaly-looking, like a dragon.

These things bleed like crazy!  They're very messy and juicy and stain everything they touch.

Dragonfruit tastes like pumpkin, but just slightly fruitier, and also has a much nicer melon-y consistency.
You eat it with a spoon, seeds and all.

The closer you get to the rind, the more it tastes like pumpkin.  Apparently you can
make dragonfruit pies, which I would love to try if I can find an oven!

This is a pawpaw.  It's basically like a papaya, only bigger, and yellower.  Papayas are smaller and redder, I think.

Papayas and pawpaws taste exactly the same: like fruity butt-hole.  I did not care for these AT ALL,
but apparently some people can't taste the butt-hole taste, and actually like these things.

My favorite: starfruit!  These things are delicious, and I can pick them fresh off a tree on the way to the mall!

They have a grape-like consistency in the flesh and skin, but the inside tastes mildly sweet and fruity, with a hint
of citrus.  There's not really anything that tastes like a starfruit.  I could eat these all day long.

There are two kinds of passion fruits: purple and yellow.  The purple ones (in my hand) are smaller and brown-purple
in color on the outside.  The yellow passion fruit is the size of an orange and has a bright yellow exterior.

On the inside, though, both types of passion fruit are exactly the same.  They're filled with a goopy yellow substance and
little crunchy seeds.  

The meat of a passion fruit is yummy, but HOLY CRAP it is strong.  It's very tart with a tiny hint of sweetness.  It's usually
not eaten alone, and you can make drinks and lots of desserts with it.

This is a longan, which is kind of like a lychee, but most people haven't heard of either one.

It's basically an individually wrapped grape, but it feels more like you're peeling an eyeball.

Looks like a grape, and the consistency is like a grape with extra gelatin mixed in.  Some have very weak (kinda grapey)
tastes, while others have a very strong taste that is nothing like a grape.

Longans also have a pit.

This is called a 'custard apple.'  When we bought it, it was bright green and kinda spiky.  I think we left it too long!

It tastes like a combination of apples, pears, coconut, and pineapple.  It has slimy consistency, like a raw coconut.
The bit near the skin was kinda grainy, like when an apple gets old.  All in all, my favorite of the weird fruits!

The winner of the weird fruits: custard apple!  Custard apple is definitely the yummiest, although it's very slimy.  I still haven't tried the 'chocolate pudding fruit,' whatever that is, so that'll be the next food tasting event.

On Sunday we decided to go for a hike to Saddle Mountain.  It should be noted that half the people in our group are avid outdoors enthusiasts, with decent outdoorsy shoes and backpacks and snacks.  The other half came in in normal clothes, street shoes, and with no snacks--but they did bring money, which in the end, was the most important thing.

Some kind of butterfly.  (It's dead, that's the only way to get nice pictures of butterflies, you know.)

This guy was actually alive.  I thought he was dead at first though.

This is called a Spider Ant!  See how all the legs are very long, and how the antennae look like a fourth set of legs?

This is a real spider!  But I have no idea what kind of spider it is.  :(

The hike started nice enough, an easy ascent that we had done before.  Then we started onto the Saddle Mountain trail, and hoooo boy did things get tough.  I didn't bring my protractor but the path was about 70 degrees at some points.  It was pretty difficult, but doable--if you had decent shoes.  I was bringing up the rear and was scared for my life at several points because I was so sure someone was going to fall backwards onto me.  It was all worth it though, because the view at the top was AMAZING.

Double Island (that's the real name, seriously), which is just off the coast of Palm Cove/Ellis Beach.

Those two blue squares near the center?  That's the student lodge where I live.

And this is my campus!   (It's not very big.)

The mountains are beautiful!

And once again, the panorama, because I think this is the most amazing thing since bacon:

Seriously, computers are great!  All I had to do was click a few things, it even corrected the colors for me!

Then we made the fatal mistake: we decided to keep going and see where we ended up.  Well, the trail ended at a road.  Not a parking lot or anything nice--it spit us out in the middle of nowhere.  After about 20 minutes of waving at cars, someone finally stopped to tell us where we were.  Apparently hitchhiking is semi-illegal in Queensland, and people aren't too keen to pick up hitchhikers anyway.  I must have waved at a hundred cars before someone even stopped to give directions.  The lesson here: Australian drivers are not the most helpful or friendly people.  Bring your own cell phone and med kit because nobody is going to stop and help you.

We ended up walking down to the Rainforestation, which is a little touristy place about 3km from where we got unceremoniously dumped onto the road.  There was no shoulder, no sidewalk, and it was very curvy--not a good road to be walking on.  The Rainforestation people gave us a phone number for a cab service, and it cost $120 to get back to Smithfield.  It ended up being a very expensive hike!  Good thing I got that awesome panorama out of it.

Lastly, I have two corrections to make:

1) I retract my previous statement about Tim Tams being crappy, because the dark chocolate ones are actually pretty delicious.  I stand firm about the original ones though, they suck.

2) I think I misidentified a spider.  I originally thought it was a St. Andrews Cross spider, because of the X-shaped resting position, but now I think it's actually a Dome Tent Spider, which just happens to also sit like a cross.

Sorry I misID'ed you, buddy.