Spring Break!

This past week was spring break at school here and was supposed to be when my lovely big sister Ashley was meant to come visit, but unfortunately those plans fell through because I had other obligations for classes. So, the following is how I spent my spring break instead:


Orpheus Island Research StationSunday, September 26th 6:00am -Wednesday, September 29th 3:00pm



Those first few days of break I had a field trip to JCU's Orpheus Island Research Station out on the Great Barrier Reef. I had to wake up at 5am on Sunday morning to finish packing my things so that I could make it to the bus at 6am for departure. It was roughly an hour and half bus ride north of townsville and then a 30 minute boat ride out to the Island. The whole night before I had slept roughly 2 hours because I was working on getting a lot of my other assignments done so I had less work to worry about for break. The result was that i was really exhausted for the bus ride, but didn't end up falling asleep. We ended up at orpheus before noon and brought all of our stuff to the dorms (see top left picture) before throwing on our swimsuits and getting on the boats to get in the water for our first exercise. We swam along a transect that had a bunch of corals numbered and it was our job to identify which family they belonged to. We were encouraged to swim down and touch everything and anything, because sometimes you need to be able to feel the skeletal differences to really make a conclusion about the classification. That was awesome because usually when you go snorkeling or diving they tell you not to touch anything. After that we all hopped out and had some lunch, which turned out to be really amazing. It was mostly just fixings for sandwiches and a variety of fresh fruit, but they also had a fancy cheese platter with nice crackers and nutella and stuff like that. After lunch we got back in the water for another couple of hours to run an exercise about how benthic structure changes as you move from reef flat, to crest, to slope. This is basically how the next few days proceeded. Usually we'd have to be in our wetsuits and ready to get in the boats by 8:30, and we were responsible for waking up early enough to eat and take care of whatever else. This was no problem, except my roommate (and research buddy) decided to wake up at 6:30 every morning because that is how much time she needed to get ready. What the hell. And of course, when she woke up I woke up because she made so much noise and kept putting her alarm on snooze. Ridiculous. But yes, other than that, things went well. I got bitten by so many bugs and by the end of it i was really tired of running transects and looking at corals. They really aren't very exciting when you look at them. Luckily one day we finished one of our exercises early and we were able to free snorkel while everyone else was finishing up. We saw 3 giant cuttlefish and a wobbegong (this crazy shark thing). That was really cool. Towards the end we also got a talk on education after we finish undergrad or masters. Basically this whole trip and the talk made me realize that I'll probably never go on to further education and that it sounds like complete torture. I think i'll save myself the trouble because if I have to write more research papers I might just go jump off a bridge. They cause me too much stress and I don't enjoy doing it, so yes, no thank you. On the last day we had to do a station-wide cleanup, but it was okay because we ended up doing it quick and we had to wait for the tides to come in before we could leave so the boat could get out. This meant lots of sitting on the beach and working on my sweet tan (don't worry, i was generous with sunscreen application). The little beach outside our dorms (see picture 2, this was taken at low tide) made the perfect location for a little sunbaking and I was joined by some of my fellow classmates. This whole trip was a really great opportunity to get to meet them and find out they're actually pretty cool. I even met this one guy who would basically only speak spanish to me because he was excited to find another spanish speaker. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure I ended up giving myself a double ear infection because my ears were hurting like nobodies business. But yes, when I wasn't on the beach I was wading in the mangrove shallows and watching the sting rays and the little baby black tipped reef sharks, one of which swam basically a foot away from my leg. it was AWESOME. We ended up a little late on the boat and busride home so i didnt end up getting to my room until a little after 3. I was hoping to get there sooner, because I was supposed to be getting picked up for my next big adventure!
Airlie Beach
Wednesday, September 29th 3:15pm - Friday, October 1st, 4:00pm



So I had just rushed into my room at 3:15 lugging all of my crap from my orpheus island fieldtrip and I was in a hurry to repack because steph was picking me up so we could drive home to her house in Airlie Beach. Luckily, I had basically set out all the things I would need so i could just throw them in my bag and leave again. I threw my wetsuit and nasty towels out on the balcony, repacked my bags, hopped in the shower really quick because I was epically smelly (we were only allowed 3 minute showers on orpheus because the water supply was from rainwater) and then got dressed. By 4:00pm I was lugging all of my stuff over to the car park on the other side of Uni hall and getting into Steph's car for the 3-4 hour drive south to Airlie Beach. By the time I got in the car I was completely exhausted, but there was no time for sleeping because I was busy having some nice chats with steph and listening to some sweet tunes! We ended up getting into her house around 7:30pm. Her house is unlike any house I've ever been to. They live on 8 acres of land that used to be a sugar cane plantation. None of their lawn is mowed because it just takes so long, so the grass is like...waist to shoulder height. There is all sorts of crap all over their yard and house because her dad is a mover and he gets all sorts of new crap from people everyday, its kind of like a ridiculous antique store kind of? But yeah, it was still great. They have a chicken coop where they get fresh eggs, a flock of guinea foul (which are the ugliest birds on earth), and a paddock of fruit and nut trees ranging from mangoes, to mulberries, to lemon and mandarins, to avacados and something else i can't remember. It really was so fantastic. They also have passion fruit vines and cherry tomatoes growing all over the place. That night i got swept up in conversation with her dad, who is probably the quirkiest old man I have ever met, but he was really nice and entertaining and he was really excited that he had somebody new to talk to, so that was cute. He taught me all about the guinea foul and the sugarcane land, and about how house numbers x 100 signify the distance of the house in kilometers to the nearest main road. crazy. Her mom made some pretty good pasta for dinner, so it was really nice to have some delicious food for once. I got to meet one of her other brother's, michael, and her, her mom, and i spent the night just talking and sitting around and munching on an assortment of M&Ms. Her other brother, Daniel (my favorite) was stuck at work until late and ended up being delayed further by a flat tire he got driving home. He didn't end up home until after dinner around 8:30, but I was really excited to see him :) I was really excited for bedtime that night because I was so tired. I ended up sleeping in michaels bed because he went to spend the night at his girlfriends house. I was definitely okay with it, because it was probably the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in. I guess Michael came in in the morning because he had to grab a work-shirt and I was all sprawled out. He mentioned to steph she might want to wake me up otherwise I'd probably end up sleeping all day. She had to come and wake me at 11 haha. That day we kept it Low-key and just kind of hung out. We did a little shopping to try to find steph a dress for Val Ball but had no success. So we ended up just going to sit down by the lagoon to do a little tanning and to chat and hang out. Her mom ended up coming down to join us a little later in the afternoon for some chatting and sunbaking. Because her mom was working so hard with feeding us, steph and I decided we would make dinner that night. On the way home from the lagoon we stopped by the grocery to pick up some ingredients to make chicken schnitzel/chicken parmesan for dinner so that her mom wouldn't have to worry with dinner. Dinner ended up being great, of course, and the three of us ended up all working together in the kitchen, it was quite cute. Michael called his girlfriend so we could all have a nice family dinner and we all sat down and ate together. Unfortunately, after dinner i was informed that michael and his girlfriend would be staying at the house tonight so I was getting kicked out of the comfortable bed in his room. that was no good, but i ended up sleeping in a different bed anyway so it all worked out, just not as comfortably. After dinner steph and i showered and got ready for going out! Some of daniel's friends from Brisbane were in town for a few days and she was excited to see them and hang out, so we all went over to his friend Tai's house for some beverages and then hit up the town. Well, turns out all of these kids are professional alcoholics and can pound alcohol like nobody I have ever seen. After everyone had sufficiently pre-gamed we hopped in a taxi and went downtown to hit up the clubs. The night out was ridiculously fun and lots of crazy and silly dancing ensued. Lucky for me this kids are just as crazy as I am (in a good way) so we all had heaps of fun. We started out at evolutions where we were basically the only ones there because nobody really goes out on thursday nights. After busting a move there we moved to mama africa's which was completely packed because it is more of a foreigner/backpacker's club. This was the part where we took multiple photos of steph getting grinded on by a bunch of creepy guys..and then photos of her making out with them. hilarious. Steph doesn't make the best decisions when drunk, but we all kept an eye on her so it was okay. We ended up losing steph when we thought she had gone to the bathroom, so a few of us left to go find her. Turns out she had been sitting downstairs falling asleep against a wall and told people what her brother looked like in case he walked by. We found her fairly quick and then ended up back at evolutions to cap off the night. We tried to go to McDonalds to get some snacks, but some crazy was trying to start fights so we just went to the taxi area to wait for one to get home. At this point, steph was drunkenly laying on the sidewalk looking like a complete mess. We all got home safe and I had to help steph take off her purse and shoes so she could get into bed. poor thing. The next morning we all snuggled up in daniels bed to watch super troopers and eat breakfast. Steph made bacon and eggs with toast which was delicious. She also made baked beans which is a breakfast thing here and totally weird to me. So yes, after a nice morning breakfast and movie it was time to head back to campus because steph had to be home for work at 6.


Chilling at GR
Friday, October 1st 4:00pm - Sunday, October 3rd 8:30pm





(Yes, I am wearing both rayban's, safety goggles, and a lab coat)
After getting back from awesome times at Airlie Beach I had no desire to go back to Uni hall where i no longer have any friends, so I just decided to run back to my room really quick to pick up some more clean clothes and then crash on Lisa and Alek's couch for the next two days. It turned out to be a really great decision and we had a lot of fun just bumming around. Friday night we watched a movie that I could barely stay awake for and I ended up falling asleep around 11pm. I was so exhausted. The next morning I woke up late and we all went to breakfast together. That day we walked down to the river to play in the water (but i kept my head dry because my ears were still bothering me) and sunbathe a little bit. It was a really chill afternoon and that night we ended up playing with makeup and having a dance party. We all looked completely ridiculous, so of course, Aaron had to walk in and ask what the hell we were doing. As if one boy walking in wasn't bad enough, Jesh decided to come in too. He was holding a cup that was covered and told Alek's he had a surprise for her. It turned out to be a spider that was 3inches in diameter and it hopped right out of the cup into the tiny cramped bathroom that we were standing in. Well, Aleks is deahtly afraid of spiders, so she ran into the shower and was pressed up against the wall shaking and almost in tears. It was a little bit hilarious. Jesh had issues catching the spider, but eventually got it out and left. Poor Aleks. We quit makeup soon after and decided to watch a movie. The girls wanted to watch p.s. I love you, so we watched that. I ended up crying like a baby and of course, Aaron decided to walk in again. I got made fun of a lot and they laughed at me so much that nobody else ended up crying. I felt a little bit silly, but it was a really sad movie...yeah. After that Aleks went to bed and I decided that I needed a pick-me-up after that sad movie. Lisa and I decided to watch Jennifer's Body, the horrible movie with Megan Fox about a girl who gets possessed by a botched satanic ritual and then goes around eating men. Oh, not to mention there's a lesbian make out scene. Overall it was quite the classy film. It was so horrendously bad that lisa and I ended up laughing. I kind of want that two hours of my life back, but oh well. It was then bedtime soon after. Sunday we went down to the river again because i had to take some pictures for my photography class because I had a presentation today (monday). After that lisa and I hit up the mall because I needed some laundry detergent and other items and then before I knew it it was dinner time and then time to go back finally to stupid Uni hall.

So once again, I'm back at Uni hall in my crappy room. But at least I had a really great break! And in even more exciting news, Daniel is going to be driving up to hang out this coming weekend, so I'm pretty stoked for that!