Sorry everyone! but, I'm back now

Sorry, to all my faithful followers, for the long hiatus I've taken from writing entries. If it's any excuse, I've had about the busiest month of studying that I've ever had, so that seems like a logical spot to start re-filling you in.

The two biggest things that were weighing down upon me were a Presentation for Sport and Exercise Nutrition, and a poster project for Exercise Testing and Prescription for Health. The presentation was about Dietary needs specific to swimmers. My partner and I narrowed our focus a little bit, and specifically about micronutrient consumption, and how many elite swimmers take multi-vitamins that are unessential, and end up getting way too much of some vitamins, and still fall short with others, leading to less-then-optimal health, and performance. So, to all you swimmers out there, just eat healthy to get all your vitamins. No more of this shotgun approach to getting all your vitamins. You're just making your urine more expensive. (Also, benefits of taking lots of vitamin E are unsubstantiated at best.)

The bigger challenge was my poster project. Each pair of students was given a case study, to prescribe 6 months of exercise, diet, and testing, to meet the specific goals of our hypothetical clients. It took us weeks to come up with it all. It was one of those projects that you absolutely hate, while you're doing it, but as soon as you're done, you are immensely proud of it. If any of you are interested in reading some of it, I could email it too, you. (you will need microsoft publisher to view it) Good news though, I just got the grading back on it, and my partner and I got the 2nd highest grade in the class for our poster. Yay!

Also, on the same day as my poster was due, i had a test in another class, so you can imagine how much i have relished this weekend. I feel as if a great homework-shaped weight has been lifted from my chest.

I am now entering my last week of class, after which there is a dead week (called Swotvac in Australia) for revision, and then finals. ouch.

Since I have had relatively little work this weekend, I have had time for some more enjoyable pursuits. Friday night, we went out to the ice-skating rink for a night of cold fun. It was disco night at the rink, so the music and lights made it even better. Even though the rink was a little small, and the ice was rough (to small for a zamboni) it was a little taste of Minnesota, and it was funny to see all the Australians fumble around on the ice. Ok, they weren't that bad, but they certainly don't have the cold weather instinct like those of us fortunate enough to have touched snow in our lives. There were a couple great falls, including yours truly trying to skate between my friend, Chris's legs. It was probably the most awkward wipe-out anyone had ever seen, and we all had a good laugh about it. After leaving the rink, we decided to nurse our new blisters with 50 cent ice cream cones, and free soda re-fills from Hungry Jack's. For those of you who don't know, Hungry Jacks is what Burger King is called down under.

Saturday was a very relaxing day. I mainly sat around, relishing in the fact that I had no homework to do. I spent most of they day being about as active as a bump on a log, and loved every minute of it. We watched a movie in the evening, played some video games, and actually got to bed at a somewhat respectable hour.

Sunday was truly great. Me, Melanie, and few friends went downtown for the Sunday market to view the vendors wares, and make a few purchases for loved ones. After that it was hours on the beach, soaking up sun, swimming in the ocean, and taking walks by the waterside. After we had far exceeded our vitamin D for the day, we hopped on the bus back to Uni for dinner, and relaxing in our rooms.

Today (Monday) has been good. Laura says she can tell I miss home, since I talk to her on facebook more often then I did a month ago. She's probably right. I think a semester is the perfect amount of time to spend, and come thanksgiving, I will be very thankful to be back with family. After talking with family, I grabbed some lunch, and finished the physics work that I had gleefully neglected all weekend. I had a good 8k run in the early afternoon, but I wasn't moving too quick, since it was fairly warm out (about 83). I remember now why I usually run later in the day.

Well, sorry again for making you wait so long (especially the Gatewoods, and Phil) but I will be keeping up more vigilantly now. As for the rest of my night, I have a practical exam to study for, and some cleaning. My room looks like I have a small tropical storm for a room-mate.

Love to all of you,

Matt

So many firsts

Ok, brace yourself, because this is going to be a long one. Sorry about the delay, but hopefully i'll make it up to you with these two very eventful weekends.
Two weekends ago, Melanie and I ended our weekend of class, and decided to relax and have some fun at a rugby game. It was the last game of the season for the North Queensland Cowboys, and Dairy Farmer Stadium was packed with a sold-out crowd. On our way to the game, A man approached me on the bus, and asked me if I had tickets. I didn't since we were just planning on getting GA tickets when we got there, but he hooked us up with two Grandstand tickets, for ten bucks each. So, we got awesome seats, and even saved money! The game was great, and very close the entire time. With about a minute left, we were down by one try, and made a great run for the tie. The backs swung the ball out to the sideline and started charging for the endzone, they kicked it forward, and the outside man made a diving catch to try and score the try, but it went just of the end of his finger tips, with 1 second left on the clock. So, sadly, we lost, but you couldn't have asked for a more exciting finish. I'm glad we took advantage of going, but also sad that the season is over, and we can't enojoy any more games.
Saturday morning entailed a group of us loading up our packs and hopping on the ferry to Magnetic Island, to camp out overnight. Thank you Gatewoods, since much of information I got on the island was from the book you got me, and it made for an amazing camping trip! When we got off the ferry, we went to go rent a car (for really cheap), and then went to get groceries. Our meals were mainly alot of sausage cooked over the fire, so it was all delicious, and easy to shop for. After driving across the island a bit, we stopped and walked some gorgeous trails for a bit. The sun was just starting to get low, so the views were great, and whilst climbing on some boulders, I saw my first wild Koala! We took some pictures near him, and then left him to his sleeping. When we got back to the car, we had to hike a little ways to get to Florence Bay, but it was worth it, since the entire bay is just gorgeous, at night, and during the day. We set up camp on the far end of the beach, amongst the rocks, and got a small fire going. After enjoying our first pack of sausages, we all layed around on the beach, played games, and were just silly for a while. Jimmy and I decided that we wanted to run out into the water, and crash into the waves, so we took off running down the beach, but we didnt know the tide had gone out while we were eating. After a while, we wondered why we hadn't hit the water yet, and we realized what had happened. Since the bay is so shallow, the tide had receded about 110 meters! It was really impressive, and gave us some great oppurtunities to observe nature a bit. We grabbed some flashlights, and checked all the large rocks that had been half submerged earlier. We got to see all kinds of crabs, barnacles, limpets, and other stuff.
In the morning, we all relaxed out in the sun, and I took my time making a sweet sand castle. A couple walking by on the beach even told me I should be an architect! Make sure you check the picture site so you can see for yourself. After laying out for a while, we packed up our stuff and hiked back up to our car. After driving back across the island, we stopped and got some ver refreshing ice cream cones before getting back on the ferry and heading home.
This most recent weekend, involved some very different excursions. I spent my time up north of Paluma, on a conservation volunteer trip. Our goal for the week was to trap and tag Northern Bettongs. They are a critically endangered species of Marsupial, whose numbers have fallen below 1500. Our first day, we made bait, and went out to set 40 different traps throughout one region of the bush, where there had been some recent mosaic burns, hoping to catch something. The following morning, we didn't find any bettongs, but we did catch quite a few gliders, and brushtail possums, so it was cool to see some new wildlife. Saturday afternoon, we went to a homestead that supervises all the major burnings in the area, in order to coordinate with the national parks service. The people living there gave us afternoon tea, and taught us loads about the area, and the types of conservation efforts that they are involved in.
Sunday, we got out early to check the traps, but caught much of the same from the day before. On our way down the mountain though, some misfortune struck. They side of our troopy got hit by a motorcyclist on one of the curves, and he went into a slide a little ways up the road. After we stopped, i ran over with our first aid kit, and cared for Less (the rider) and his severly lacerated ankle for about 40 min. until the EMT's arrived. I've heard that he is fine though, and everyone in our vehicle was fine. It was an experience that I will never forget though.
After all that excitement, we made our way down to our next work site, where we were painting a cattle trap on a bridge. It's basically a series of stripes that confuses the cows, and keeps the from crossing the river into the national park.
When that was done, we got to do some sightseeing at Wallaman falls, Return Gorge, and many other beautiful areas of the region. After arriving back at uni, it was time for dinner, and one of the best nights of sleep that I have gotten since I've been here. It's amazing how much energy you spend after a weekend of romping through the bush.
For now though, I have a biodiverstiy paper to finish, and a test on diagnosing ECG's to study for, so I must bid you all farewell.
love from,
Matt

Don't worry mom, we played safe.....kinda

Well, I promised a busy weekend, so here it is:
Friday was pretty relaxing actually. After a mind-numbingly boring physics lab, my academic constraints were gone for the day. I enjoyed a nice and HOT run, but only went about 4k, it was more a pleasure run, then for conditioning, and I just wanted to go fast for a bit. After shower/dinner, it was kind of uneventful for a friday. We stayed up super late, watched a movie, and I fell asleep to Star Trek Voyager. (my new favorite way to end the night)
Saturday was when all the fun began, with hearing people come back home, drunk, at about 6:30. Well, that really wasnt the exciting part, but it was a little astonishing to say the least. It's good to know that stupidity is international, and not unique to America :P. After a few more hours of sleep, it was up for a satisfying breakfast, and a little reading. Around lunch-time, a group of us decided to head down to the river and swim for a couple hours. Well, swim and jump off the rope swing. The water was very refreshing, and the swing/dock area was just busy enough to be fun, but not enough to be crowded. Jimmy and Marisa took plenty of pictures of us being idiots for their photography assignment. Well, to be honest, it was mostly me and Jason being idiots. But nevertheless, we all had fun, and you can reep the photographic harvest of our afternoon via shutterfly. Daring each other to jump off the dock, out of trees, and 0ff the swing was great fun, and after a couple hours, we tired, and headed back for diner. Much to our delight, it was hamburgers in the DC, so all of our tummies were as happy as we were. We hung out in the dorms for a while in the evening, waiting for everyone to congregate, and decided all of us wanted to head out to the small casino down on the strand. We got showered, dressed up all spiffy, and got on the bus for Jupiter's. It's a pretty small place, but it was fun. Some played blackjack, some slots, a couple roulette players, and we all spent some time watching the rugby match on outrageously large tv's. It was a really fun night of socializing, and when we left for the night, I ended up with a net gain of $12. I was pretty excited to come out of my gambling debut with a 60% profit; but dont worry, im not getting any ideas of quitting school and making a career of it. After a sleepy bus ride back and a cup of hot chocolate, I went to sleep.
Sunday was a fun day, packed with education, if you can believe it. The early afternoon was our scheduled time for our field trip to the Reef HQ aquarium. My Biodiversity of Tropical Australia class was assigned to go, and collect data on species richness and diversity. We had sample areas in the main tank to approximate the number of different species, and when they appeared in our sample area over time. To sum up: we got to sit there and look at all the pretty fish for a while, writing down which ones we saw, and when. Well, it was a little more in depth then that, but needless to say, it was a very relaxing and fun experiment. Jimmy, Marisa, Melanie, and I decided not to head back on the bus with the rest of the class, but take our sweet time at the aquarium, and then spend the day at the strand, the surrounding parks, and have dinner somewhere along the way. We headed to many of the small park areas along the strand where all of us enjoyed taking lots of pictures. Jimmy and Marisa had photography asignments to complete, and Mel and I just wanted to take pretty pictures! We climbed some trees, did some swinging, got some sun, and walked alot. It was all very relaxing. When it was starting to get a little dark, we went down to the corner to get some dinner. We found a couple great places to get a burger and chips, and I had a large bacon and egg burger. I have kind of fallen in love with that sandwich since I have been here. Dinner was great, and afterwards, went to Juliette's for gellato. We frequent this place every time we are at the strand, and are determined to try every flavor. My two for the night were Ferrero Rocher and Coconut. It was definetly a winning combination. We played hearts for a while while we waited for the bus, then headed back for the night. I got some more reading done and headed to bed.
Today (Monday) has been pretty standard. My morning was occupied with finishing my revisions on a paper for my nutrition class. I'm very pleased with it, and it was kind of a tricky assignment. I wrote on the accuracy of Bioelectric Impedance Analysis on determining body composition. We were only given 500 words, so we had to be very concise with what we wrote. I actually enjoyed writing this way though, since usually I up filling papers with fluff to fill page requirements. I tend to have a rather concise writing style anyways, so it was nice to have the criterium align with my own preferences for once. Well, a busy day in Academia awaits me, so I need to get some sleep. Enjoy the latest batch of pictures on shutterfly. Mom: try not to worry, and Rob: there's a couple pictures up now that you've been waiting for.
Love to all,
Matt

2nd place isnt so bad

Well, most of this last weekend was dominated by the Fisher Shield basketball tournament. We had a team of 8, and thought our chances were pretty good for the tournament. On the first day, We lost our first game by 2 against our bitter rivals, George Roberts, but then won our next two games by significant amounts. I even had 4 steals in our second game. It was a really fun afternoon of games, since lots of people come down to the courts to cheer on their respective dorms and everyone is just there to have a good time. Saturday night was loads of fun, and all of us stayed up way too late. We had some fun looking at pictures that Jimmy and Marisa took for their photography class that involved "light painting". It involves shooting in the dark, and using different colored lights to add effects to your pictures. I got to do one where I shot lightening from my fingers!
I was a little sleep deprived for our games on Sunday, but a good lunch was enough of a pick-me-up, and we started out the day well, winning our last 2 round robin games. We relaxed for a bit, and watched some TV, went to supper, and then it was time for the semifinal match. We played against St. Marks college, and beat them handily, although, halfway through the 4th quarter, the court light turned off suddenly, and we had a 20 min. intermission until they could be turned back on. The championship game was once more against our rivals, George Roberts. We were up the entire game, until their point guard decided he didn't want to miss any shots, and scored about 12 points single-handedly. Needless to say, it was enough to overthrow our lead and take the win away from us. Although, we scored lots of points for the dorm by getting 2nd, and I even got some applause for my jump shot in the championship game (so there Carolyn; you thought we would be terrible :P) The games finished up at about 11:00, so i was pretty tired and just headed to bed.
The Week started out very busy for me, and I had a 3 slide presentation to give on my progress for a project on dietary needs, specific to elite swimmers. My partner and I found some interesting figures and charts, so I think we impressed the T.A. more then anyone else, by presenting good, raw data.

A full weekend

Well, this Friday started off a very eventful weekend. After a full day of classes, I went upstairs to buzz my hair down to a shorter length, and when I was about to start, Melanie and Jimmy shouted to me "Do a Mohawk!!" so...I did. I buzzed the sides, and spiked up the middle for a very silly and entertaining hairdo. Next, we all decided that it would be for the best if we went into town for the afternoon/evening/night. After busing down to town, we grabbed some supper at a cafe place that served good sandwiches, then walked the strand for a bit. After the sun had gone down and it was totally dark, the 12 of us or so went swimming in the ocean under a huge full moon. Out on Magnetic Island, there is a huge full moon party every month, so i think we are all going to try and make it to the next one. We all had fun playing in the waves, throwing the volleyball around, and burying a semi-cooperative Chris in the sand. After we rinsed and dried off, we started walking down the strand again until we found the night market out in the oval. I guess it pops up on the first Friday of every month, and the entire mall area is filled with tents and stands selling their wares, souviners, trinkets, food, and anything else worth buying. None of us had much cash on us, so we are eager to head back to that next month as well. I can imagine that i number of you might be seeing some items from the market sometime in your future! On our walk back, a few of us grabbed some delicious ice cream and gellato, and then took the bus back after some very silly frisbee in the street.

Saturday started out very early, since it was the morning of the annual Fisher Shield Cross Country race. For those of you that dont know, there arent a whole lot on intercolliegete sports in Australia, so at JCU, there is a huge, year-long competition between all the dorms and colleges. There is swimming, Cross country, basketball, cricket, rugby, soccer, water polo, and most other sports you can think of. Points are tallied throughout the year, and the winner is presented with the Fisher Shield; a glorious traveling trophy. Needless to say, everyone here in Uni Hall is eager to defend our title from last year. Anyway, everyone was awoken by the fire alarms and megaphones at 6:00 AM to head out to the oval for the start of the race. It was a mass of people that I have never seen so early on a Saturday morning. It was a 5k course, over some pretty varying terrain, including one very rocky hill, but when it was all said and done, Uni Hall place 4 people in the top 10, awarding us some very handsome points. Yours truly placed 6th overall, with a time of 18:20. For not killing myself, i was pretty happy with the time, and it was a very fun race.
After heading back for a nap, we discovered that all study abroad students were invited to a lunch-time Wine and Cheese tasting with some faculty, so a number of us enjoyed that very much. The snacks were amazing, and all tof the faculty was very friendly, and were great conversationalists.
Following that, the rest of the afternoon was filled with a giant party out on the lawn for the residents of University Hall only. It was loads of fun with BBQ, games, slip&slides, and at the end, a huge mud pit, and a mud wrestling. I didn't feel like getting to dirty, so some of us went inside, and chilled until a great evening of celebrating our Fisher Shield Victory wore us all out for the night.
Sunday was a very lazy day that involved mainly doing laundry, and going down to the river to feed turtles.
So far this week, I have shaved off my mohawk, since I have some rather important presentations coming up. I cleaned my room *gasp* and last night, a huge group of us headed out to Cactus Jacks for all-you-can-eat chili, and to celebrate Chris's 20th Birthday.
The rest of this week wont be to strenuous, but this weekend, we are going to the North Queensland Cowboys Rugby game, playing in the Fisher Shield Basketball Tourny, maybe driving to Crystal Creek, and who knows what else. Stay tuned!
Love to you all,
Matt

Classes, mainly

I'm all done with my first week of classes, and it has been a rather easy thus far. For the first week, we only have our lecture sessions, and we dont attend any of our practicals (labs) or and tutorials we might have. Tutorials are kind of q/a sessions where we go and work on things with the professor, so we can get any help if we need it.

So far, there has been a big difference in the way material is presented here, then in the states. There is a lot more of an expectancy to show up with some knowledge of the material you are going to learn. This is to my liking thus far, as it keeps class moving, and you dont dawdle on the simple logistics of things, and we can get down to business a little quicker. There is one thing about this system that frustrates me a little though. My coolest class, Exercise Prescriptions and Practices, is very, very, centered on you knowing the material before you show up to the "Synthesizing Sessions". It is kind of nice, since I feel like i get so much more out of the material, but at the same time, my coolest class is my hardest class, and also the class that i have the least amount of actual class time. Despite the benefits of this different style, it will take a little getting used to.
I am really excited about some of the practicals that we get to do for Exercise Presciption. We get to go in the heat chamber and exercise in heat and humidity and monitor different things on the people in the chamber. We get to do power and acceleration tests for lower body strength, VO2 max, aerobic capacity, and all kinds of cool stuff. There are lots of very nice facilities here that would not be available to me at Bethel. Such is the nature of attending a bigger (and state funded) school.
Sport and Exercise Nutrition has been really interesting so far, and professor Andrews is a very good lecturer. Although, it may just seem really interesting in comparison to physics, which I have right before hand.
Physics is kind of a drag right now, since I've already taken most of it in AP Physics in high school. Even so, i would of thought that college students could skip the lecture on scientific notation and converting metric units. (I kid you not). On the other hand, an HD in that class should be no sweat.
My last class is Biodiversity of Tropical Australia. So far, lectures have been incredibly informational, and interesting. The professor we have seems amazingly knowledgeable in his field, so lectures are great. This class is unique for me since I'm quite out of my area of "expertise". I'm finding myself asking Melanie all kinds of Biodiversity terms and things since this is more her arena then mine. Despite the initial catching-up, I think that this class is going to be awesome. We are going to take some really neat trips, including one to the Reef HQ museum in town, which is world renowned.

Enough about classes though, I want to talk about fun stuff. Last weekend we were down at the Strand again (huge long beach-y area with a walking path all along it). It has been pleasantly warm all week, and the water has been pretty cold, but refreshing. The waves aren't real big here, since Magnetic Island and the reef block most of them, but swimming in the ocean again is amazing.

I have also found the home page for the Townsville Roadrunners club. They meet on Saturdays and go for big group runs, then do some snacking and socializing after. There is a small membership fee, but i am thinking of joining since a lot of weeks, they do fun runs, road races, cross country events, and other stuff. More on that later though.

Until next time,
Matt

Getting Settled at JCU

I'm almost done with my first week in Townsville, and I have to say that I love the area around here.
At the beginning of the week, I got acquainted with a couple ozzies (Jason and Chris) that I've been hanging out with all this week. They're pretty cool guys, and my new workout partners.
University Hall is a great place to live. Apparently they are very proud of their reputation on campus as being one giant community. I find that to be very true. Almost everyone I see is eager to introduce themselves and make an effort to get to know you.

Despite all that, this week hasn't been terribly social, as many of the American students have been very busy with meetings and orientations. The orientations have been rather dry, but on Tuesday, I did get to have a talk with my head of school, Dr. Anthony Leicht. He seems like a very nice guy, and will be teaching my Exercise Prescriptions and Practices course. We talked for about a half hour about various topics, including all the facilities that are available to Exercise Science students here at JCU. They have a very large heat chamber for studying enviromental performance, and a motion analasys lab that consists of many large, force sensative plates and 6 infrared cameras (each one costs about $300,000). Others meetings were less interesting, like getting my ID card, and other logistic stuff.

On Wed. a large group of us all went out to see the new Harry Potter movie. Still no comparison to the books, but definetly entertaining. Then we all drove around a little bit and Jason showed us around Townsville a little bit. I was riding shotgun, and it was little wierd to be on the "wrong" side of the road when driving. although, the wierdest thing isnt even being on the left; it's that the center lines are white, instead of yellow like we are used to. So, at my first glance, it's not real apparent where the center lines are. It all made me very glad that I don't have to drive anywhere.

Tonight (Fri.) should be a pretty fun night though. It's to the point where almost everyone is moved in here, so a bunch of us are headed downtown to see more of townsville, and maybe do some bowling or something.

This next week is very highly anticipated by everyone on campus. O-week (for orientation) is jam-packed with tons of dorm-wide, and campus-wide events for everyone to attend, and should be tons of fun. All that, and classes starting should make for a pretty great week.

I've been doing some exploring around and have found some really nice running trails that go all around the south part of Townsville. It is all very scenic, and my new gps watch is doing wonders for me. It's nice to just go out for a run, and not thing about time or distance until i get back, and it tells me everything. :)

Well, that's all for now, but i hope to hear from all of you soon.

love from,
Matt

P.S. pictures from the Rain Forest Station should be up on shutterfly now.