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.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
The Grand First Posting: whales, wallabies, and moving in
Sorry for the delay all, but limited internet access has delayed my first posting to you all. However, I am now moved in at JCU and now have all the internet i want, so, the story begins!!
All of the flying to get here wasn't too bad. Although, for the first day and a half of my trip, i didn't really feel like i had traveled anywhere, after all, an airport is an airport, no matter what timezone you're in. The trip was full of emotional ups and downs like, listening to "On the Western Skyline" by Bruce Hornsby while sitting in the Denver airport (an up), and finding out that the long flight from LA to Sydney was delayed an hour and half (Def. a down). Despite all that though, stepping out of the terminal and into the sunny, warm, Australian air of Cairns was pretty hard to beat. It really did feel like the other side of the world, due to the sheer time it took to finally get there.
Apon Arriving, we were bussed straight to the backpackers resort that we were staying in. ("We" being the 65 Australearn students I was traveling with at this point.) After a MUCH needed shower and some rest, had an informational session, and free dinner at a local venue. The next day (July 15th) was a huge highlight.
We had the oppurtunity to get up at about 6:30 and bus to the wharf and board a boat called "Passions of Paradise" for a day of snokeling and island hopping on the Great Barrier Reef. We drove/boated away from the bay for about two hours in delightfully sunny weather toward Paradise Reef. About an hour into the journey, Our driver slowed the engines and veered off toward what he claimed was the spouting of a humpback whale. Sure enough, after about 8 minutes of waiting, we got a full glimpse of a mother humpback whale, and her calf. Even the tour crew on the boat said it was about the closest they had ever been to a humpback. They both came up for air about 8 meters off the side of the boat. Needless to say, it was spectacular.
After Arriving at the reef, we grabbed our snorkel gear and took a plunge in water with 14 meteres of visability. The sheer number and density of the fish around us was incredible. I almost felt like part of the school at times. I saw Parrotfish, meter-long Groupers, clownfish, a blue-spotted ray, 1 sea turtle, and i heard reports of petting a giant clam! The size of the coral formation we were at was astounding. The guides told us that most types of coral take about a year to grow a centimeter, and I saw a plate shaped red piece of coral that was a cirlce, about 5 meters in diameter, and about 5mm thick.
After about an hour of snorkeling, we headed back on the boat to Michaelmas Cay. An island that is a National Park, and exept for a tiny, gorgeous beach, is illegal to walk apon, or access, pending a 10,000 dollar fine. There are about 25,000 birds that live, and lay eggs on the island, and we were allowed to be within a meter of them, with only a small rope fence between us. Snorkeling off the Island, we saw more turtles, clams, and some black-tipped reef sharks.
After that, we spent the dayt in Cairns, at our leasure, and enjoyed another meal, curtesy of Australearn.
The next day we spent at the Rain Forest Station north of Cairns. This Rain Forest and the Great Barrier Reef are the only two adjacent UNESCO World Heritage Sights in the World. After arriving at the station, we were given a tour of the forest on one of the amphibias army ducks, and saw amazing forest-scapes and wildlife, including the gimpie-gimpie stinging tree, which can inject you with neurotoxins, via hairlike barbs on it's leaves.
After the tour, we got to hold (yes HOLD!) a real live koala bear. Kia is about 3 years old, and probably the cutest thing I have ever seen in my entire life. We got to have a picture taken with Kia, and i will post it as soon as i can, so you can all be super jealous. I also got to hold a 2 metere long water python, feed wallabies from my hand, and nap under a tree next to two kangaroos. Some Aboriginees taught us how to throw boomerangs, play a didgeridoo, and dance.
After all the fun at the Rain Forest, we went back into Ciarns, and Melanie and I went out for dinner at The Crown, where I had some pretty good lamb shanks for 15 dollars.
The next day (Thursday) we took a 4-hour bus ride to Townsville, and got moved in on the Beautiful James Cook University Campus. We have had a couple informational sessions, 2 trips into town, several confusing bus rides, and Melanie just got back from a great 5k run on some lovely shaded trails.
I will post pictures on here very soon, so please, please email me, check out the pictures, and wire money, but i must leave you now for a dinner of fish & chips in the dinning hall.
Love to all of you,
Matt
p.s. you wont have to wait as long for my next posting :)
All of the flying to get here wasn't too bad. Although, for the first day and a half of my trip, i didn't really feel like i had traveled anywhere, after all, an airport is an airport, no matter what timezone you're in. The trip was full of emotional ups and downs like, listening to "On the Western Skyline" by Bruce Hornsby while sitting in the Denver airport (an up), and finding out that the long flight from LA to Sydney was delayed an hour and half (Def. a down). Despite all that though, stepping out of the terminal and into the sunny, warm, Australian air of Cairns was pretty hard to beat. It really did feel like the other side of the world, due to the sheer time it took to finally get there.
Apon Arriving, we were bussed straight to the backpackers resort that we were staying in. ("We" being the 65 Australearn students I was traveling with at this point.) After a MUCH needed shower and some rest, had an informational session, and free dinner at a local venue. The next day (July 15th) was a huge highlight.
We had the oppurtunity to get up at about 6:30 and bus to the wharf and board a boat called "Passions of Paradise" for a day of snokeling and island hopping on the Great Barrier Reef. We drove/boated away from the bay for about two hours in delightfully sunny weather toward Paradise Reef. About an hour into the journey, Our driver slowed the engines and veered off toward what he claimed was the spouting of a humpback whale. Sure enough, after about 8 minutes of waiting, we got a full glimpse of a mother humpback whale, and her calf. Even the tour crew on the boat said it was about the closest they had ever been to a humpback. They both came up for air about 8 meters off the side of the boat. Needless to say, it was spectacular.
After Arriving at the reef, we grabbed our snorkel gear and took a plunge in water with 14 meteres of visability. The sheer number and density of the fish around us was incredible. I almost felt like part of the school at times. I saw Parrotfish, meter-long Groupers, clownfish, a blue-spotted ray, 1 sea turtle, and i heard reports of petting a giant clam! The size of the coral formation we were at was astounding. The guides told us that most types of coral take about a year to grow a centimeter, and I saw a plate shaped red piece of coral that was a cirlce, about 5 meters in diameter, and about 5mm thick.
After about an hour of snorkeling, we headed back on the boat to Michaelmas Cay. An island that is a National Park, and exept for a tiny, gorgeous beach, is illegal to walk apon, or access, pending a 10,000 dollar fine. There are about 25,000 birds that live, and lay eggs on the island, and we were allowed to be within a meter of them, with only a small rope fence between us. Snorkeling off the Island, we saw more turtles, clams, and some black-tipped reef sharks.
After that, we spent the dayt in Cairns, at our leasure, and enjoyed another meal, curtesy of Australearn.
The next day we spent at the Rain Forest Station north of Cairns. This Rain Forest and the Great Barrier Reef are the only two adjacent UNESCO World Heritage Sights in the World. After arriving at the station, we were given a tour of the forest on one of the amphibias army ducks, and saw amazing forest-scapes and wildlife, including the gimpie-gimpie stinging tree, which can inject you with neurotoxins, via hairlike barbs on it's leaves.
After the tour, we got to hold (yes HOLD!) a real live koala bear. Kia is about 3 years old, and probably the cutest thing I have ever seen in my entire life. We got to have a picture taken with Kia, and i will post it as soon as i can, so you can all be super jealous. I also got to hold a 2 metere long water python, feed wallabies from my hand, and nap under a tree next to two kangaroos. Some Aboriginees taught us how to throw boomerangs, play a didgeridoo, and dance.
After all the fun at the Rain Forest, we went back into Ciarns, and Melanie and I went out for dinner at The Crown, where I had some pretty good lamb shanks for 15 dollars.
The next day (Thursday) we took a 4-hour bus ride to Townsville, and got moved in on the Beautiful James Cook University Campus. We have had a couple informational sessions, 2 trips into town, several confusing bus rides, and Melanie just got back from a great 5k run on some lovely shaded trails.
I will post pictures on here very soon, so please, please email me, check out the pictures, and wire money, but i must leave you now for a dinner of fish & chips in the dinning hall.
Love to all of you,
Matt
p.s. you wont have to wait as long for my next posting :)
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