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.