"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." -St. Augustine

This is just a quick post!

I wanted to keep everyone updated on a few things! I’m sure you love hearing about the life in Brisbane but I bet you would love to hear about my travel plans as well!

Each month I have about 2 weekends to travel. Here is my current itinerary so far and a little excerpt on what I’ll be doing during the trips.

19^th March- Biol Field Research Day Trip to Brisbane Forest Park

Brisbane Forest Park is a rugged national park that encircles the Brisbane region from the west.  This full day field trip offers a great chance to experience some of south-eastern Queensland's magnificent rainforest.  At Walkabout Creek Wildlife Centre you will  get to see a platypus, a wombat and mainland Australia's largest marsupial carnivore, the spotted quoll.  Other animals include various rainforest birds, freshwater fishes, turtles, snakes, lizards and local wallabies and kangaroos. 

19^th-21^st March- Mojo Surf, Surf Weekend ( literally departs 1 hours after Field Research)

This is an awesome way to start your surfing career and escape the city for the weekend. Departing every Friday evening you will head to one of our secluded purpose built surf camps where the vibe will wipe away the hustle and bustle of the city. By day you will be learning to surf on some of the world’s most pristine and uncrowned beaches. Saturday night is always a blast around the campfire telling tall tales, meeting new friends and experiencing the best lifestyle on the planet.

28^th March- 1^st April- Fraser Island 5 Day Research Trip

Fraser Island World Heritage Area is the world's largest sand island.  The 5 day BIOL2001 field trip to Fraser includes 4WD transport, accommodation and meals.  Activities include hikes and four-wheel drive excursions to various island ecosystems, ranging from the beaches to the towering inland rainforest.  Highlights include visits to spectacular freshwater lakes and giant sand dunes, as well as spotlighting for wild dingos.

2^nd -8^th/9^th April- Nadi, Fiji! ( we are booking this on Monday if the flight prices stay the same.)

First stop this morning is Wailolola Beach where your Guide and Driver will outline the Feejee Experience product. Then it’s onto Nadi Town markets to get some supplies and barter with the locals. From Nadi town we head south to our lunch spot and one of Fiji’s most famous beaches, Natadola Beach for sunbathing, body surfing and mingling with the locals all whilst your Driver and Guide cook a BBQ lunch. Early afternoon is the first cultural experience at Malomalo Village, where your Guide will explain traditional customs in a Fijian village. The last activity is on the Coral Coast itself - sand boarding the Sigatoka sand dunes! Later in the afternoon we arrive at our accommodation, Mango Bay - a beachfront resort, complete with free snorkelling, kayaking, pool, volleyball and loads of other free and paid activities.

22^nd-27^th April- Syndey

We just booked this today on a “happy hour sale” so we have no current plans but we will make some! J

I love and miss you all from home. <3

"One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating"- Luciano Pavarotti, Pavarotti, My Own Story

Food. This post is all about Food.

The first few weeks here in Brisbane were excellent. But I already began feeling sick of eating the same things every day. The grocery stores are similar to ours but the food, well I can’t complain to much. I actually really enjoy all of the food here! Except for the mayonnaise, yuck. I asked my mom for a few easy recipes that I thought would be simple but Australia doesn’t have the little things!

For example, I wanted to make my moms delicious Stuffed Shells, (obviously NOT as good as hers,but I wanted to attempt) but for the past week, 3 grocery stores, and a fresh pasta market later…I’ve come to the conclusion that Australia, or at least Brisbane does not sell large shells. This was an unfortunate discovery but I am surviving. What else don’t they have? Well cheese is a bit different. They don’t have string cheese, or any of the wonderful laughing cow cheeses. Only the basics. It also seems like every flavor of cheese I get it called “Tasty” cheese. What is that supposed to mean?! This is labeled on my shredded cheese, my parmesan cheese, and my slices of cheese. I just want some Mozzarella!

On the other hand let me begin on the topic of Candy! Or as the Aussies call it, Lollies. I may have fallen a little head over heels for anything confectionery in this country.  Now, everything delicious and really unhealthy for you is way overpriced here, but about once a week I spend my change on some new treat. The first thing I bought was a package of starburst babies. This was a recommendation from the lovely Chris McCarthy, and I wasn’t allowed to leave Australia without trying these. So the very first week I decided to buy these” babies”. They tasted just like any other fruit snack but I think that these Aussies are a little out there. These fruit snack are literally molded babies! I’m sure some of you will be offend but when eating them I can’t really say anything but, “these babies are delicious” or “what flavor baby did you get?”. If heard in the wrong context, well you get the point.

This other delicious chocolate delight would have to be the TimTam. These are made with a variety of different chocolates, with wafers in the middle of them. I guess you could compare them to a Kit Kat, but less crunchy and more chocolaty. I believe there is about 8 flavors and I have had about 4 of them so far. They come in a pack of 8 or 9 and if your really craving the chocolate fix, you could eat them all in a sitting or two.

The third and final treat would be Pods. Pods cannot be related to anything in the US and I’m almost positive my dad would love them. Pods are bit sized candy similar to what you get at Halloween or something. They only have a few flavors, like twix and crunch bar. I have only had the twix so far and it was awesome! Okay, so imagine a bit sized twix, but the cookie is in a little cup form with the perfect amount of carmel and chocolate in the middle. This is the only picture I didn’t take, but I just had ot show everyone anyways.

Here is a few pictures of the lollies that I have been talking about. The pod picture is probably the best because: 1.) I didn’t take it  2.) There’s food in the picture and unfortunately my candy is gone by the time I think of taking a picture.

Fast Fact of the Day!

If you are looking for the cheapest meats. After about 4pm, all of the butchers and grocery stores give price reductions on meat. This goes for hamburger, to chicken to fish. I think this is one thing I won't be looking for a deal on.

P.S- If anyone is having trouble seeing the photos that I am posting here, if you click on  the photo, it will enlarge it! 

Love & Miss xox

"No part of Australia is more than 1000 km from the ocean and a beach. "

I have made it through my first week of Uni!

The Australian school system is so different compared to what I’m used to at Bridgewater State. I am not too worried about studying, and doing my work, its just the most difficult thing that I have found is during lectures. I cannot for the life of me, listen and take notes at the same time. Since the class sizes are much larger than 30 people, the lecturers can’t just stop for a question. During my first real biology class, I realized that I’m going to need some help if I’m going to remember anything from the lectures so I ended up going to Dick Smith, Australia’s electronics store, to get a voice recorder. By spending the money on the recorder, I can already see that it has made a difference to how my study habits will be.  It seems like for the three weeks I’ve been here, I’ve spent the most money this week on school supplies, books, and field trips.

School supplies..yay! Well down under, they don’t use paper that is 8 ½ by 11, its just slightly larger at 8.3 by 11.7.  Its not that big of an adjustment but its annoying that if I bring my notebooks back, they will be a different size. With all of my classes, I needed a total of three books, which was great. Many of the professors put their notes online because they do not want students to waste their money on material that they cannot sell back. The highlight of the week was paying for my field trips! Like I said in an earlier post, I will be going on 4 trips this semester, most of them day trips, and one 5 day trip.  Here are my research trips!

March 19th- Brisbane National Park Research Trip

March 28^th- April 1^st- Fraser Island Research Trip

May 7th- Lamington National Park

May 28^th- Australia Zoo ( behind the scenes! )

This past weekend week was a relaxing but eventful weekend! Since I have no Friday classes, my friend Emily and I went into the city, but then decided to go a different way to explore! Well in a few short minutes we found the entrance to Brisbane’s Botanical Gardens! It was such a lovely find, it didn’t seem like it belonged in the city! There were lakes, flowers,  tropical trees, picnic areas..everything! We enjoyed it because for the past 6 days or so its been raining and even in the misting rain, the Botanical Gardens were beautiful! There was so much wildlife, I couldn’t believe I was in the city! Giant bearded dragons, ducks, eels, (yes eels) it was awesome. Friday night was an early one because I’ve been planning on going to an event in the city for the past few months. It was Brisbane Welcomes International Students Day! So I got up and headed into the heart of the city with Emily and Chelsea. We got some great information about the city, we heard Brisbane’s Chancellor speak, and best of all I got to meet and speak with “Greatest Job on Earth” winner, Ben Southall!!!! That 100% made my day!

Sunday my roommate Melissa and I deiced that we were done exploring Brisbane and made our way to the Surfers Paradise, on the Gold Coast. Our apartment complex is in the perfect location beucase we rolled out of bed and caught the 8:03 train down to the beach right next door. The ride was about 45 minutes and then we hopped onto a bus for about a half hour to take us right to paradise. The ride was smooth! This is defiantly a day trip/ overnight trip. We got their early and it was BEAUTIFUL! The water was 74 degrees and the sand was so soft. Since we were their early in the morning we were able to watch some surfs schools, lifeguarding classes and swim team all in different areas of the beach! I was very impressed with the lifeguards.

 Watching them practice made me miss guarding a lot, but it was really interesting how they recovered victims from the ocean as opposed to a pool in the U.S like I am used to. As we were walking, I was also mesmerized by the swim team swimming laps in the ocean! This may not seem like a big deal, but the swells were at least 6 to 7 ft high and all of the kids just jumped right in! After sitting in the sun for a while we decided to take a walk around all of the different shops and food areas. It was a great area and the people watching was by far the best in Australia so far! We both put layers of sun block on but we still managed to get burnt. The sun is just so hot that after just a half hour you really feel like your baking in the oven. My burn isn’t bad though, its like a usual beginning of a summer burn that goes away in a day or two. We headed home at about 5 o’clock so  I would say it was a successful day trip! We are already thinking of going back on Friday!

Fast Fact of the Day! What is a Seppo? Well, Australians sometimes refer to Americans as Seppo's.Why? Because this is an abbreviation for 'Septic Tank' which is rhyming slang for Yank as in Yankee. If you dont get the lingo, it understandable because usually someone would have to explain where a certain name came from. 

Cheers from the heat!

Love & Miss.