Ladies and gentlemen, this will be my shortest blog post ever (I promise), but I just wanted to write these very few words extolling how FANTASTIC the Australian Postal Service is: eight days from Portland to Cairns. Gloriously wonderful.
I love snail mail.
And now I'm off to go dance in the sunshine :)
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Song of the day: Sing My Lonesome Away by Matt Wertz
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
The wheels on the bus
Just the other day, I was sitting at the bus stop right outside the Student Lodge, a cool breeze on my face, I realized how much I enjoy riding the bus. Yes, it sometimes is frustrating to have to plan out my day based on when the buses run. But waiting at hot bus stops, sitting in blue and turquoise and navy patterned bus seats, and walking between bus stops and where I need to go--all of these actions give me more time to think. Instead of jumping in my car, turning on the radio, and getting to my destination exactly when I want to, exactly when I was planning, I have to wait. And that waiting is good for me. I can often be very impatient, and this is helping me to slow down and not be so antsy and uptight about things, especially involving being "on time" to things. I may want to get into Cairns at a specific time, but I will simply get there whenever the bus does, and I have no control over that.
I could just put in my iPod headphones and tune everyone out with my music, but I have this hope that by not wearing earbuds and staring vacantly out the window (like half the people on the bus do), by looking people in the eye and smiling, that people will be more likely to interact with me, to sit down and talk to me. And if not, that's fine, I'm still being a much more active participant in my environment than they are. And without music, my thoughts are free to somersault around in my head as much as they please :)
I have thought of 13 different subjects for future blog posts. I have imagined exactly what I would say and do if I ever met Aragorn, son of Arathorn (and I know this is the 2nd blog post in a row in which I've referred to Lord of the Rings, but I swear I'm not obsessed with it, really, I've just watched it recently. Twice). I have identified that my biggest pet peeve here is that my bath towel is always wet (it never fully dries unless I spread it out in the sun). I have deeply pondered the surliness of most Sun Bus Transport bus drivers. I have composed postcards to friends back home in my head. I have brainstormed some spring break travel ideas. I have thought about which two artists I am going to compare in my art review for my Art, Artist, Environment class. I've daydreamed about the luxurious and over-extravagant trips I would take around Australia if I was a multi-millionaire. I have people-watched and made up stories and names for my fellow bus-travelers.
I love riding the bus :)
_________________________________________
Song of the day: The Fox (cover) by Nickel Creek
I could just put in my iPod headphones and tune everyone out with my music, but I have this hope that by not wearing earbuds and staring vacantly out the window (like half the people on the bus do), by looking people in the eye and smiling, that people will be more likely to interact with me, to sit down and talk to me. And if not, that's fine, I'm still being a much more active participant in my environment than they are. And without music, my thoughts are free to somersault around in my head as much as they please :)
I have thought of 13 different subjects for future blog posts. I have imagined exactly what I would say and do if I ever met Aragorn, son of Arathorn (and I know this is the 2nd blog post in a row in which I've referred to Lord of the Rings, but I swear I'm not obsessed with it, really, I've just watched it recently. Twice). I have identified that my biggest pet peeve here is that my bath towel is always wet (it never fully dries unless I spread it out in the sun). I have deeply pondered the surliness of most Sun Bus Transport bus drivers. I have composed postcards to friends back home in my head. I have brainstormed some spring break travel ideas. I have thought about which two artists I am going to compare in my art review for my Art, Artist, Environment class. I've daydreamed about the luxurious and over-extravagant trips I would take around Australia if I was a multi-millionaire. I have people-watched and made up stories and names for my fellow bus-travelers.
I love riding the bus :)
_________________________________________
Song of the day: The Fox (cover) by Nickel Creek
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Sweating and more sweating
Yesterday, I went hiking with my friends Katie, Amanda, and Sam. We caught the bus to the Cairns Botanical Gardens and started walking up the Blue Arrow trail that starts behind the gardens. I don't know how hot it actually was, but I started sweating almost immediately, despite the tree cover over most of the trail. The Blue Arrow trail is about 8km round trip (which is a little under 5 miles) and it was very steep and switchback-y in parts. I am not in the best of shape, and this hike was hard.
I felt like two different Lord of the Rings characters at various points on the hike: Samwise Gamgee when he loses sight of Frodo around the bend when they're just starting their journey, about to leave The Shire, and almost has an epic freakout; and Gimli the dwarf when he, Aragorn, and Legolas are running across Middle Earth to rescue Merry and Pippin from the Uruk-hai, and he is panting and falling over and getting left behind his fitter counterparts. But I didn't get lost or left behind, and the four of us survived the hike with little more than a few bug bites and mud streaked legs and feet.
And my legs were complaining like Pippin when he realized that Aragorn didn't know about second breakfast, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner, or supper. My right knee (that I kinda messed up pushing our stuck van off a beach in Mexico, and again climbing into a volcano in Lee Vining, CA) was bugging me, as it tends to do when I overexert it. I'm glad I brought me knee brace thing with me here. Also, I felt super healthy after completing my hike, and somehow I always forget that I love hiking, even when it is a hard trail. Oh, and I also felt like I was on LOST because we were right across the street from the airport and could hear planes loudly taking off quite frequently. Hearing loud jets while hiking through a tropical rainforest just made me feel like I was following Jack as he led the group on a hike to the radio tower to use the satellite phone to call the freighter to be rescued (except the freighter wasn't there to rescue the Losties. Anyway.....)
Today, Katie told me about Zumba in the park, which happens outside at (you guessed it) a park in downtown Cairns every Tuesday and Friday evening. And it is FREE (classes normally cost about $15 per class), so we headed into Cairns on the bus.
Called "exercise in disguise," Zumba is a crazy, latin-inspired, high-energy dance workout to super upbeat music, most of it designed or adapted specifically for Zumba. If you've never tried it, I strongly encourage you to. I was skeptical at first, because I don't really enjoy dancing in public and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, but I decided to just go for it, and I'm SO glad I did!
Before the class started, I warned my friends that I was about to make a huge fool of myself. I needn't have worried: over half the people there looked more ridiculous than I did (hopefully) and most people didn't know what they were doing, but they were doing it anyway. No one just stands around and makes fun of people; the instructors tell everyone who walks by/lurks around watching to just join in, because anyone can do Zumba. I saw a 3 year old girl there with her mom and a 65+ year old man, and everyone else in between. And let me tell you, you haven't really lived until you've seen a 65 year old man in a singlet and short shorts shimmying to a Shakira song.
When I woke up this morning, I didn't think that I'd be doing a sweaty dance workout in a park in Cairns with 200 other people, but that's just what happened.
I can't wait until next Tuesday :)
_______________________________________
Song of the day: Waka Waka (This Time For Africa) by Shakira
I felt like two different Lord of the Rings characters at various points on the hike: Samwise Gamgee when he loses sight of Frodo around the bend when they're just starting their journey, about to leave The Shire, and almost has an epic freakout; and Gimli the dwarf when he, Aragorn, and Legolas are running across Middle Earth to rescue Merry and Pippin from the Uruk-hai, and he is panting and falling over and getting left behind his fitter counterparts. But I didn't get lost or left behind, and the four of us survived the hike with little more than a few bug bites and mud streaked legs and feet.
And my legs were complaining like Pippin when he realized that Aragorn didn't know about second breakfast, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner, or supper. My right knee (that I kinda messed up pushing our stuck van off a beach in Mexico, and again climbing into a volcano in Lee Vining, CA) was bugging me, as it tends to do when I overexert it. I'm glad I brought me knee brace thing with me here. Also, I felt super healthy after completing my hike, and somehow I always forget that I love hiking, even when it is a hard trail. Oh, and I also felt like I was on LOST because we were right across the street from the airport and could hear planes loudly taking off quite frequently. Hearing loud jets while hiking through a tropical rainforest just made me feel like I was following Jack as he led the group on a hike to the radio tower to use the satellite phone to call the freighter to be rescued (except the freighter wasn't there to rescue the Losties. Anyway.....)
Today, Katie told me about Zumba in the park, which happens outside at (you guessed it) a park in downtown Cairns every Tuesday and Friday evening. And it is FREE (classes normally cost about $15 per class), so we headed into Cairns on the bus.
Called "exercise in disguise," Zumba is a crazy, latin-inspired, high-energy dance workout to super upbeat music, most of it designed or adapted specifically for Zumba. If you've never tried it, I strongly encourage you to. I was skeptical at first, because I don't really enjoy dancing in public and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, but I decided to just go for it, and I'm SO glad I did!
Before the class started, I warned my friends that I was about to make a huge fool of myself. I needn't have worried: over half the people there looked more ridiculous than I did (hopefully) and most people didn't know what they were doing, but they were doing it anyway. No one just stands around and makes fun of people; the instructors tell everyone who walks by/lurks around watching to just join in, because anyone can do Zumba. I saw a 3 year old girl there with her mom and a 65+ year old man, and everyone else in between. And let me tell you, you haven't really lived until you've seen a 65 year old man in a singlet and short shorts shimmying to a Shakira song.
When I woke up this morning, I didn't think that I'd be doing a sweaty dance workout in a park in Cairns with 200 other people, but that's just what happened.
I can't wait until next Tuesday :)
_______________________________________
Song of the day: Waka Waka (This Time For Africa) by Shakira
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Meat pies and a muddy river
My friend Peter drives a ute.
Affectionately named "car-truck" by yours truely as a child (and a "pickup-pickup" by my dad when he was a kid), these odd vehicles were a rare sight growing up in the Pacific Northwest. I don't know if Americans have a real name for them, but in Australia, they are called utes (short for utility vehicle, I'm guessing).
They are EVERYWHERE.
And they look like this:
But Peter's is white, not this vomitous mucusy green-yellow atrociousness.
Anyway, we had made plans to venture to this bakery in Gordonville (a town on the other side of Cairns, about half an hour away) because Peter had discovered that I had never had an Australian meat pie. This was the best place to get them, according to him, and as he grew up in Queensland, I trust his judgment on local baked goods. So we arrived at Pie-fection Bakery on the main strip of this 4,500 person town and walked into meat pie heaven. There were SO MANY kinds to choose from. They had meats ranging from chicken to lamb, not to mention various kinds of beef (I don't know what all the different cuts mean, clearly I'm still a vegetarian in my head), paired with different vegetables (if desired)--potatoes, carrots, shallots, etc.-- and gravy. I ordered a chicken and shallot one, and got a carton of chocolate milk to go with it. We got our still-warm pies and chilly beverages and went to a table outside.
With a brief wish I had brought my camera as to document this momentous occasion, Peter and I said "cheers" and dug in.
MAGICAL DELICIOUSNESS. Oh my goodness, it was EXACTLY what I had imagined meat pies to taste like, and it was just what I wanted. So damn tasty. I wish this place was closer to where I live, but it is probably a good thing that it isn't, otherwise I'd have to buy two seats on the plane ride back to carry my giant pie-fattened girth back to the states. But I will be back to this pie place.
After thoroughly enjoying our pies, we headed back to the ute and back towards Smithfield. We made a pit stop at the Barron Gorge Hydro Plant. Driving in on a narrow road cut into the side of a very green and rocky mountain, I was amazed at how beautiful everything was, and cursed myself again for not bringing my camera (oh, it's raining, you won't be taking pictures and of COURSE the weather won't change into sunny gorgeousness or anything *grumble*). We got out and walked across the bridge over the frothy brown Barron River. Because of all the rain, the river was quite full and surging, and the "No diving, jumping, abseiling, or swimming" signs on the bridge seemed to make a lot of sense.
Everything here was beautiful.
The big green mountain was close enough to touch.
The sunshine was warm on my hair.
I saw a big Ulysses Butterfly, which look like this:
They are unique to the World Heritage Rainforests of Far North Queensland, and they are quite large and incredibly incandescent.
All the rain also greatly increased the flow of this waterfall, which apparently is quite small normally:
On our way back, we stopped at this very cheap (but legit) meat warehouse and Pete bought a bunch of steaks and mince (ground beef) for him and his roommates to eat this month. I entertained myself by looking at funny names of cuts of meat: bulk thick pork, fatback, rump, Boston butt, chuck arm. Good times. Then we voyaged back to the Student Lodge.
All in all, it was an excellent day :)
_____________________________________________
Song of the Day: Toes by the Zac Brown Band
Affectionately named "car-truck" by yours truely as a child (and a "pickup-pickup" by my dad when he was a kid), these odd vehicles were a rare sight growing up in the Pacific Northwest. I don't know if Americans have a real name for them, but in Australia, they are called utes (short for utility vehicle, I'm guessing).
They are EVERYWHERE.
And they look like this:
But Peter's is white, not this vomitous mucusy green-yellow atrociousness.
Anyway, we had made plans to venture to this bakery in Gordonville (a town on the other side of Cairns, about half an hour away) because Peter had discovered that I had never had an Australian meat pie. This was the best place to get them, according to him, and as he grew up in Queensland, I trust his judgment on local baked goods. So we arrived at Pie-fection Bakery on the main strip of this 4,500 person town and walked into meat pie heaven. There were SO MANY kinds to choose from. They had meats ranging from chicken to lamb, not to mention various kinds of beef (I don't know what all the different cuts mean, clearly I'm still a vegetarian in my head), paired with different vegetables (if desired)--potatoes, carrots, shallots, etc.-- and gravy. I ordered a chicken and shallot one, and got a carton of chocolate milk to go with it. We got our still-warm pies and chilly beverages and went to a table outside.
With a brief wish I had brought my camera as to document this momentous occasion, Peter and I said "cheers" and dug in.
MAGICAL DELICIOUSNESS. Oh my goodness, it was EXACTLY what I had imagined meat pies to taste like, and it was just what I wanted. So damn tasty. I wish this place was closer to where I live, but it is probably a good thing that it isn't, otherwise I'd have to buy two seats on the plane ride back to carry my giant pie-fattened girth back to the states. But I will be back to this pie place.
After thoroughly enjoying our pies, we headed back to the ute and back towards Smithfield. We made a pit stop at the Barron Gorge Hydro Plant. Driving in on a narrow road cut into the side of a very green and rocky mountain, I was amazed at how beautiful everything was, and cursed myself again for not bringing my camera (oh, it's raining, you won't be taking pictures and of COURSE the weather won't change into sunny gorgeousness or anything *grumble*). We got out and walked across the bridge over the frothy brown Barron River. Because of all the rain, the river was quite full and surging, and the "No diving, jumping, abseiling, or swimming" signs on the bridge seemed to make a lot of sense.
Everything here was beautiful.
The big green mountain was close enough to touch.
The sunshine was warm on my hair.
I saw a big Ulysses Butterfly, which look like this:
They are unique to the World Heritage Rainforests of Far North Queensland, and they are quite large and incredibly incandescent.
All the rain also greatly increased the flow of this waterfall, which apparently is quite small normally:
On our way back, we stopped at this very cheap (but legit) meat warehouse and Pete bought a bunch of steaks and mince (ground beef) for him and his roommates to eat this month. I entertained myself by looking at funny names of cuts of meat: bulk thick pork, fatback, rump, Boston butt, chuck arm. Good times. Then we voyaged back to the Student Lodge.
All in all, it was an excellent day :)
_____________________________________________
Song of the Day: Toes by the Zac Brown Band
Saturday, March 05, 2011
God bless the budgie smuggler
Or perhaps God bless the cultural norms here in Australia that allow glorious gorgeous golden Aussie men to proudly wear Speedos in public without fear of ridicule or subtle photo taking for submission to Fail Blog.
And now, here are some more gems I have from people watching at the lagoon earlier today:
-A mustached man wearing shorts so minuscule I could barely see them underneath his shockingly bright retina burning orange work shirt. Excellent.
-A SUPER intense dreadlock mullet, oh my goodness.
-The Glee version of My Life Would Suck Without You was playing from the Lagoon Cafe (not really having to do with people, but it made me chuckle anyway).
-An 80-ish year old man wearing a singlet (tank top) imprinted with the words "Go hard and do drugs."
-A ridiculously blonde and long-haired Asian man (not a wig, by the way, DEFINITELY his real hair).
-A pair of Italian men in quite possibly the tiniest and tightest Speedos I've ever had the pleasure or displeasure of witnessing (I realize this may sounds like a shallow double standard about men in snug swimwear, but I don't really care. But am sorry if I offend anyone).
-A man wearing only shorts and an iPod practicing bartender tricks with a bottle and glass (I bet he was listening to a mix of the 12 songs that ALL CLUBS play so that he's used to mixing drinks to Ke$ha and "I Just Had Sex" and Enrique Iglesias).
I have come to realize that the styles of the 30 and under crowd in Australia, or at least in Cairns, appear to be an obscure and random, but somehow pleasant, collection of 90's douchebag, hipster, and urban hippie. It is fantastic, and people watching NEVER gets boring!
PS: It is now thundering and lightning-ing intensely right now, along with the utterly TORRENTIAL downpour. Exciting weather :)
________________________________________________
Song of the day: Rhythm of Love by the Plain White T's
And now, here are some more gems I have from people watching at the lagoon earlier today:
-A mustached man wearing shorts so minuscule I could barely see them underneath his shockingly bright retina burning orange work shirt. Excellent.
-A SUPER intense dreadlock mullet, oh my goodness.
-The Glee version of My Life Would Suck Without You was playing from the Lagoon Cafe (not really having to do with people, but it made me chuckle anyway).
-An 80-ish year old man wearing a singlet (tank top) imprinted with the words "Go hard and do drugs."
-A ridiculously blonde and long-haired Asian man (not a wig, by the way, DEFINITELY his real hair).
-A pair of Italian men in quite possibly the tiniest and tightest Speedos I've ever had the pleasure or displeasure of witnessing (I realize this may sounds like a shallow double standard about men in snug swimwear, but I don't really care. But am sorry if I offend anyone).
-A man wearing only shorts and an iPod practicing bartender tricks with a bottle and glass (I bet he was listening to a mix of the 12 songs that ALL CLUBS play so that he's used to mixing drinks to Ke$ha and "I Just Had Sex" and Enrique Iglesias).
I have come to realize that the styles of the 30 and under crowd in Australia, or at least in Cairns, appear to be an obscure and random, but somehow pleasant, collection of 90's douchebag, hipster, and urban hippie. It is fantastic, and people watching NEVER gets boring!
PS: It is now thundering and lightning-ing intensely right now, along with the utterly TORRENTIAL downpour. Exciting weather :)
________________________________________________
Song of the day: Rhythm of Love by the Plain White T's
Thursday, March 03, 2011
Sharks and spiders and scorpions, oh my!
So today, my friend John offered to give me a tour of the aquarium on campus.
Obviously, I said yes. I had no idea that JCU even had an aquarium, and apparently most people don't know it exists either. It isn't really an official labeled proper type of thing, but it is still SO COOL! There is a super huge tank with all sorts of fish and one shark (only about 2 feet long or so) and sea cucumbers and anemones and rocks and plants and more fish. There were lots of tanks, inside and outside, full of all sorts of excellent and strange marine life: corals, jellyfish and jellyfish polyps (including some Irukandji jellyfish polyps, which are the ones that are the size of a fingernail and can KILL YOU), rockfish, unknown species of anemones, clownfish, a 5 foot white-tip shark, crabs, lobsters, parrotfish, mantis shrimp (which have to be put in thick glass tanks because they can run at the glass and CRACK it. A shellfish!), and lots of other crazy things that I cannot remember (ugh, should've taken notes).
*Side note* I feel like this post is being overly dramatic, and I apologize for that and my gratuitous use of CAPS LOCK, but I just get SO EXCITED about COOL NATURE THINGS. And I may have had a few too many cups of tea today :D
(Also John, if you're reading this, please feel free to correct me on anything I got wrong)
After the aquarium tour, John had to go feed the spiders and scorpions. He is studying to get his Master's degree in Entomology and is in charge of a lot of creepy crawly things. I hesitantly went along.
Until this summer, I thought that I was perfectly fine with spiders, but then I discovered a HUGE BIG FAT YUCKY spider in a box of stuff in my room and had a sweaty freakout high-pitched voice shivery moment where I put on heavy shoes and garden gloves as to better combat the dark purple spider of death that was OH MY GOD crawling around in my personal space. Yeeerughthgfhhhhhhhh.
But I digress.
Anyway, so I followed John and he started off by taking out a large glass container full of bark and newspaper and spider food. AKA cockroaches of varying sizes. They really do scatter when light is turned on. Anyway, next, various boxes containing spiders and scorpions were removed from the temperature controlled metal refrigerator-like apparatus where they spend most of their time. I learned that scorpions (at least the ones JCU has) glow turquoise/teal under black lights, and nobody knows why they do. However, I think that if they were turquoise all the time, they would be much less creepy.
He fed and watered the scorpions, then moved on to the tarantulas. There were a few different kinds, all equally disgusting and fascinating. There was one baby tarantula only about an inch long and I hate to say it, but it was super cute. However, it is a good thing I remembered to put on deodorant that morning because I may have been sweating about three times as much is normal.
THEN, he discovered the shed exoskeleton of one of the adult tarantulas and pulled it out of the box. And then let me keep it to freak out my friends and family :D
Now, I'm off to Thai food with Katie, and Ladies Night in Cairns!
(the spider exoskeleton will stay behind in my room)
__________________________________________________
Song of the day: At the Bottom of Everything by Bright Eyes
Obviously, I said yes. I had no idea that JCU even had an aquarium, and apparently most people don't know it exists either. It isn't really an official labeled proper type of thing, but it is still SO COOL! There is a super huge tank with all sorts of fish and one shark (only about 2 feet long or so) and sea cucumbers and anemones and rocks and plants and more fish. There were lots of tanks, inside and outside, full of all sorts of excellent and strange marine life: corals, jellyfish and jellyfish polyps (including some Irukandji jellyfish polyps, which are the ones that are the size of a fingernail and can KILL YOU), rockfish, unknown species of anemones, clownfish, a 5 foot white-tip shark, crabs, lobsters, parrotfish, mantis shrimp (which have to be put in thick glass tanks because they can run at the glass and CRACK it. A shellfish!), and lots of other crazy things that I cannot remember (ugh, should've taken notes).
*Side note* I feel like this post is being overly dramatic, and I apologize for that and my gratuitous use of CAPS LOCK, but I just get SO EXCITED about COOL NATURE THINGS. And I may have had a few too many cups of tea today :D
(Also John, if you're reading this, please feel free to correct me on anything I got wrong)
After the aquarium tour, John had to go feed the spiders and scorpions. He is studying to get his Master's degree in Entomology and is in charge of a lot of creepy crawly things. I hesitantly went along.
Until this summer, I thought that I was perfectly fine with spiders, but then I discovered a HUGE BIG FAT YUCKY spider in a box of stuff in my room and had a sweaty freakout high-pitched voice shivery moment where I put on heavy shoes and garden gloves as to better combat the dark purple spider of death that was OH MY GOD crawling around in my personal space. Yeeerughthgfhhhhhhhh.
But I digress.
Anyway, so I followed John and he started off by taking out a large glass container full of bark and newspaper and spider food. AKA cockroaches of varying sizes. They really do scatter when light is turned on. Anyway, next, various boxes containing spiders and scorpions were removed from the temperature controlled metal refrigerator-like apparatus where they spend most of their time. I learned that scorpions (at least the ones JCU has) glow turquoise/teal under black lights, and nobody knows why they do. However, I think that if they were turquoise all the time, they would be much less creepy.
He fed and watered the scorpions, then moved on to the tarantulas. There were a few different kinds, all equally disgusting and fascinating. There was one baby tarantula only about an inch long and I hate to say it, but it was super cute. However, it is a good thing I remembered to put on deodorant that morning because I may have been sweating about three times as much is normal.
THEN, he discovered the shed exoskeleton of one of the adult tarantulas and pulled it out of the box. And then let me keep it to freak out my friends and family :D
 |
| You can see the FANGS (sorry, not in this picture). It's AWESOME. |
Now, I'm off to Thai food with Katie, and Ladies Night in Cairns!
(the spider exoskeleton will stay behind in my room)
__________________________________________________
Song of the day: At the Bottom of Everything by Bright Eyes
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