BARCAAAA

Oh, how I love Barcelona. The weather has been beautiful & sunny, sitting mostly in the 60s & 70s. There are tons of cute little shops around, cool old & modern architecture, lot of nice wide streets for pedestrians as well as tiny alleys going through artsy living buildings, and art is everywhere.

The city is also very lively! You see people hanging out in parks everywhere, and locals are always whizzing by on rollerblades & bikes. The city has a bike system, where you can pick up a bike from one of the many stations and just drop it off at another station when you're done with it.

On Wednesday, we took a free guided tour of the Gothic area (Barri Gotic). He showed us some cool buildings and the school where Picasso studied. It was interesting to hear about the Catalan history & how it became a part of Spain. We didn't realize that the Catalan language existed and is quite different from Spanish; it's supposedly a mix of Spanish, French, and Italian.

After the tour, we ate some deliciously fresh oysters and a seafood plate at the Mercat de la Boqueria, the biggest open-air market in the city. It's full of food vendors selling everything from fruit & sausage & cheese to cows' tongues and pigs' ears, and LOTS of fish and exotic sea creatures, half of which I'd never seen before. Apparently, you can buy ants and worms here too.

Later, we walked along the port, then grabbed some beers in Barceloneta near the beach and watched the huge soccer championship (Barcelona vs. Italy) that the city had been chanting about in the streets all day long. The next day, we walked on the beach, then ate some mussels at a locals restaurant that were not terribly keen of American tourists. Oh well, the mussels were delish!



Friday, we decided to be touristy and ride the double-decker bus that takes you to all the sites in the city, which are really spread out anyway.. First, we rode to Sagrada Familia, a HUGE & elaborate church designed by Antoni Gaudi. Construction started in 1882, so he only saw about 40 years of its progress (now at 140 years & counting) before dying. The church has been under constant construction and won't be complete anytime soon.



Next, we went to Park Guell, another awesome project by Gaudi. The park is massive and spans a hillside. It's filled with mosaic structures, trails, garden areas, and has an awesome view of the city from the "balcony" in the center of the picture.



That night, we had some wonderful seafood & wine at El 4 Gats, an old restaurant/bar that Picasso, Gaudi, and Miro used to hang out at & drink absinthe. An added plus was a pianist that serenaded us throughout dinner.

Most places were closed on Saturday since it was Labor Day, so we checked out some outdoor markets and hung out in George Orwell plaza, one of the local hangouts. We took the tourist bus to the northeast part of town with a nice shopping center, amusement parks, and neat city parks with art structures throughout them.

Yesterday, we took the gondola up to the hill Montjuic, where there were some great views of the city, port, beach, and Mediterranean.



Unfortunately, we also got a great view of an old dude's naked butt with tattooed underwear. We've also seen an old dude riding around the city on a bike completely nude as well as a naked sun bather on the beach. Not sure what's up with the old men & nudity here...

Last night, we met up with Jordi, a Catalan who Eric knew because he bought a From Exile record a few months ago.. Weird coincidence that he lives here! He turned out to be really nice & took us to a bar to hang out with his friends. He told us about his culture & people, who are all very proud to be Catalan; it was interesting to hear him talk about how they'd like to be separate from Spain.

Apparently, it never rains here, but decided to start last night, just for us! So we had a nice run in the pouring rain back to the hostel.

Well, we changed our itinerary. We're gonna take a boat to Civitavecchia, Italy, then a quick train to Rome for a couple of days!

Eurotrip ensues...

Yes, my titles get better with each entry. Sorry for the delay; this will be a mega-post of my last few days in Prague as well as a recap of the past week that I've spent in Berlin!

Friday, we moved to a hostel across the river to stay in a different area of town. It was closer to the city center, but far enough south to be away from the massive amounts of tourists. We decided we'd had enough Czech food (meat and potatoes) and found a delicious recommended Indian restaurant nearby.

Saturday, we met a couple from couchsurfers (Czech international relations student and French film graduate) who took us to a tiny little bar with 3 old dudes playing some blues-y chill rock and singing in Czech. The bar and band definitely had character, although we had no idea what they were saying the whole time..

Sunday, we found a market that was slightly disappointing, but we did snag some tasty strawberries. We climbed the Powder Tower and got a great 360 view of the city; we could see the Prague Castle off in the distance and the myriad other old towers and steeples and churches sprinkled throughout the city.



Monday, we took a day trip to Kutna Hora, a ~90 min train ride. We mainly went for the Sedlec Ossuary, which was insane. It's estimated that the bones of 40,000 people make up the interior. The chandelier I'm standing under supposedly contains every bone from the human body.



Additional bonuses included the Cathedral of St. Barbara, which was another gorgeous gothic building, and the Cathedral of the Assumption of Virgin Mary (or something). Both had huge murals and framed paintings on the walls as well as weird religious artifacts and figurines. We got a late start that day (+ train delays), so unfortunately, we missed the medieval silver mine shaft tour.

Luckily, the Icelandic volcanic ash in the air hasn't ruined any of our plans; we got to Prague just before it happened and Tuesday, we hopped on a train to Berlin. The ride was about 5.5 hours and full of great scenery. We followed a river lined sporadically with colorful houses and rolling hills for a good bit of the way.

Berlin is a nice change from Prague. It doesn't have the gorgeous old architecture everywhere, but also doesn't have hundreds of tourists & souvenir shops crowding every street. Berlin is a very friendly, lively place, and I feel pretty safe here, even on the metros.

Wednesday, we walked around for awhile, then met another guy from couchsurfing, Julien, who showed us around his area of town and took us to a really cool, artsy bar. Thursday, we checked out the Altes Museum on the Museums Island, but got museumed out and didn't make it to the other ones.

Friday, we went down to the Reichstaggebaude (Parliament building), but the entry line was massive, so we snapped some pics and headed to the Brandenburg Gate, one of the gates separating the east and west after the Berlin Wall was built. Next we visited the Jewish Memorial, which was really cool and had a great museum under it; fairly small, but full of information and personal anecdotes. (Eric's head is hidden in the memorial somewhere..)



We saw one of the few remaining sections of the Berlin Wall next to where the Topography of Horror Museum was supposed to be, but alas, it was conveniently closed for the time we're in Berlin. Nearby, there were a ton of informational panels on walls lining the street about the history leading up to and following the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. The US Checkpoint Charlie was pretty cool to see, although just a replica. On the way back to the hostel, we found a neat little area off of the road full of art, including huge metal structures.



That night, Julien took us to a metal show. The venue was close to another section of the Wall, but a much cooler one where artists had drawn murals. After the show, the venue turned into a club full of typical American pop/hip-hop hits, so we attempted to dance for awhile, then called it a night.

Saturday, we slept in, ate some Indian food, then checked out an AWESOME open-air market. Unfortunately, we were too full to enjoy the food stands, but we got some fresh juice and homemade sausage for later. Deciding we couldn't pass up the homemade pasta and fresh pesto, we asked Julien if we could cook for him (and use his kitchen!), since our hostel doesn't have one. We met up with him later for dinner, and him and Eric played guitar for each other for awhile (how cute). Julien plays classical though, so that was entertaining.

Yesterday, we took the train up to Oranienburg, where the Sachsenhausen concentration camp was. It was one of the smaller camps, and it was still massive.. Depressing, but it had really great displays throughout the camp; interactive and very informative. It even had a cinema where we watched a 30-min movie about the camp.

As a side note, it is too easy being an English speaker. Almost all the displays at the camp were in German and English, and the movie was offered in 4 languages. We thought we'd have a little trouble in Prague, since it was the farthest east of the places we went, but no. Almost every restaurant & sign had an English translation and many people spoke it at least functionally. Granted it is a touristy city, so they also had other languages like French & German, but if there were only 2 languages, the other was always English. It's been the same in Berlin, but more people here speak English fluently.

Today, we rented bikes for a few hours and rode in the huge park down by the Reichstag. We even got a peek at some animals inside the zoo while riding by. It's pretty amazing how many people ride bikes here. Nothing like Japan, but still a lot: kids, business people in suits, super old people. There are a few bike lanes, but they're not everywhere, so I was impressed with their bravery.

Tomorrow, we hop on a plane for Barcelona! I'm so excited. Looking forward to markets and good food!! Paella and tapas and sangria, which Randy has promised will not be beaten anywhere. Now, to brush up on my Spanish a bit and practice sounding like I have a lisp..

One ends, another begins...

After splitting from the group, I had plenty of time to myself for reflection... From Auckland, I had a 10.5 hour flight to Hong Kong, where I had a 2 hour layover, then a 13.5 hour flight to London. Due to a late arrival, I practically had to run for the next 2 hours to catch the chunnel to Paris. I was literally escorted to the train by 5 different people and was the last passenger to board. I felt like my brother for a minute. ;)

The next morning, we had some DELICIOUS crepes at a creperie next to the Centre Pompidou, then walked around for the rest of the day. Sunday, we took a train to a town called Angers about 1.5 hours southwest of Paris to see a symphony that Yoel Levi was conducting (Dvorak & Ravel). Monday, we spent a few hours in the Louvre looking at Greek and Roman statues, huge French paintings, and other artifacts we came across while journeying through the museum. That place is huge, but we walked briskly and covered a lot of ground. That night, we met up with Simone & Charlotte - two of Eric's friends who spent some time in Savannah 10 years ago - and some of their friends for dinner.

Tuesday, we caught a flight to Prague. This city is so gorgeous, with gothic architecture, towers, castles, a central river, bridges, and super cheap! Meals are usually ~$6 US and beers ~2. We've checked out a medieval torture device museum, a classical organ concert, and the Prague Castle (the largest castle complex in the world). Thursday night, we listened to a jazz trio and ate a nice dinner while riding down the Vltava River.

the bittersweet end.

I actually had some work to do last weekend (and little motivation to spend it in the barren desert), so I decided to stay in Brisbane. I did take a day trip to the beach at Gold Coast with a few characters, which was awesome! Beautiful and relaxing.

Also, GUESS WHO WENT TO THE KOALA SANCTUARY AND SAW A MILLION KOALAS?!!?! that's right, this girl. I had been dreaming about the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, which has ~300 koalas, so as you can imagine, I had a blast! They had some exhibits of only babies, which were my favorite. We also saw a platypus & some wombats. I bonded with a sheep (perhaps with hay as a bribe), pet an emu, and fed some more kangaroos and wallabies.

I survived a final and a group paper & presentation, and I am [almost] officially done with GA Tech classes forever! What a great feeling that is.

Well, departure from the group was sentimental and slightly painful. The layover in New Zealand was such a tease. I watched the sunset through the airport windows, where a serene lake sat in front of mountain silhouettes stretching on for miles. It makes you want to live on a farm amidst the scenic rolling hills and never go back to the real world... Aerin and Jessie decided to take this route, for a month at least. They are WWOOFing, where you work on a farm for a few days while the hosts feed and house you. Oh, how I miss New Zealand already. That place is unparalleled.

All in all, it was an incredible trip that I feel so fortunate to have gotten to take. I cannot fathom a better study abroad; amazing scenery, awesome laid-back cultures, exhilarating side trips, and great new friends to experience it all with.

Winding down...

Our stay on Heron Island was short, but oh, so sweet. Upon arriving, we got our snorkel gear for the week and had a DELICIOUS meal prepared by our hired caterer before being informed that the authorities were evacuating the island. Cyclone Ului had changed its course and appeared to be heading for us. We tried to enjoy as much of the island as we could in our short time there. That night, we went out to the dock and watched for turtle and ray shadows in the water underneath us for awhile. Later, we took a long walk in search of baby turtles heading from land to sea (with no luck) and circumvented the island in about 30 minutes.

The next day was slightly windier, but it still felt like we were leaving paradise for no reason.. I pondered the complexities of the universe in solitude in my last moments on the island:



I think all of us feel privileged to have seen Heron Island, even if only for a day. Matters were not made better by our professors repeatedly referring to what we "would have done on the island" in class lectures at our hotel the following week.

With a newly free weekend, we decided to make the most of it and go somewhere, so we took a day trip to Moreton Island on Sunday, the closest island to Brisbane and the 3rd largest sand beach in the world! (Fraser Island is the largest and fairly close, but supposedly crowded) We took a couple-hour ferry ride to the island, where they set us up with snorkeling gear. We snorkeled around 10 shipwrecks right off the beach and saw a surprising amount of life. We even saw a turtle!

After that, they took us to a lake, a lighthouse with a great view on the other side of the island, and sandboarding on some sand dunes in the middle. It was misting all day, so the boarding was only slightly successful, but still fun. It was a fairly large island, seemingly devoid of people.. I wish we could've stayed for another day with sun, but alas, we had to return.

Wednesday, we took a field trip to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo a couple of hours north. It was an awesome zoo. We saw an adorable otter feeding; I saw about a million koalas; we pet and fed kangaroos and wallabies for an hour; I PET koalas; we saw a wildlife show where birds flew around the auditorium and they fed a scary crocodile; I HELD A KOALA AND IT WAS AMAZING. My life is complete.



Thursday night, 9 of us headed north for Cairns, where we embarked on a journey to the Great Barrier Reef! We did a liveaboard, in which we dove, ate, and slept on a boat for 3 days. We went to the East and West Timor Reefs a couple hours away. It was diving overload, but awesome. We were allowed to do 10 dives over the course of the weekend, including 2 night dives, and we could snorkel whenever. Due to this ridiculous cough and sinus action that I cannot seem to get rid of, I had a rough time the first day and couldn't do the night dive. It was much better the next day though, and I did the rest of the dives, including the night dive, which was kind of creepy. We did wake an adorable turtle from his slumber and followed him for awhile. Unfortunately, we didn't see any bioluminescence due to the weather, but it was still cool.



Oh, they offered an advanced diving course for $50 (usually $4-500), so Aerin and I did it. It was very relaxed (aka sketchy), so it only took a little bit of our time. :)

Cairns was a surprisingly neat city. They had a sweet massive public pool by the ocean/marshy coast, a ton of stores open late, and bars. Unfortunately, this little girl was too exhausted for anything besides food and bed.

Today we took our last field trip to Lamington National Park, a rainforest about 2 hours away. The tree cover was so dense, it would be pouring for a couple minutes and you would only know it by the sounds of the drops hitting the trees way above. It was a nice 17.4 km loop trail taking us by a nice view of the farmland valley below. There was also a cool "tree top walk," a small bridge suspended 15 meters above ground.



I was planning on going to the outback this weekend, but honestly, there is just nothing there. I'd rather take a 1-2 day trip to the Sunshine Coast or something. We shall see.

Just a week left, then I'm off to Europe. I can't believe the trip is almost over! What an adventure it has been...

And so begins our odyssey...

SO! This morning, we got news that Cyclone Ului was heading for Heron Island, much to everyone's disappointment. Dr. Garton looked pretty stressed and worked very hard to figure out our options. We had a meeting later in the day, in which he informed us that the forecasts are looking better and we're gonna go ahead with our original plan. Might face a little wind and rain, but hopefully the cyclone will miss us or dissipate slightly in the next few days... Thus, we are hopping on a bus at 1 am (yep), arriving in Gladstone around 8 to hop on a ferry at 9 am headed for Heron Island with 3 meter swells, WOOHOO!

It was quite a scare, but I'm super excited we're going, even if the weather isn't ideal. This is the first group that gets to go to Heron Island, and I think it'll be a great experience regardless. Plus, we get catered food all week.

Sidenote: I'm pretty sure I've coughed up a lung and a half by now. I thought it was the air in Sydney, but it's persisted through Brisbane. Perhaps the fresh island air on Heron Island will cure me.

Our hotel in Brisbane is awesome. They didn't have any three person rooms, so our triplet (me, Aerin, & Sheri) had to split. :( I made the sacrifice and volunteered to take the single room. ;) I now see why they didn't have any 3-bed rooms. Everyone gets their own queen-sized bed! My pad is pretty sweet, although not nearly as massive as the double rooms. At least I'm free to sing along to the Carpenters in peace... :D We have flat screen tvs, a nice desk, and internet in our rooms (YAY!). Oh, and a working AC unit, unlike the Travelodge in Sydney. The only bad thing is that we don't have microwaves, just an electronic kettle. I've been eating a lot of cup-o-noodles and sammiches. The breakfast is delightful though. Pancake machine, fresh fruit (watermelon, cantalope, honeydew, prunes), dried fruit (apples, apricots), and even a fruit squisher (?) to make fresh orange juice.

Saturday, we checked out the St. Patty's Day parade, complete with bagpipes! We also visited a couple festivals, then all took some naps for the night ahead... We got Jay a cake for his bday, then did an awesome pub crawl. Almost the entire group (~30 kids) was there, although a few dropped off after every pub. About 6 of us made it till the end with the birthday boy and decided to cap our night with a trip to the casino. I still have yet to play some blackjack; maybe when we get back from Heron Island.

Off to do some work before my long night/morning on the bus...

On the road again...

Thursday, March 4 through Friday, March 12, 2010

Last week was pretty rough between finishing up the final paper for my environmental politics class, writing my first paper for biomedicine and culture, and completing the e-learning portion for the PADI course. Luckily, the weather was slightly chilly and wet pretty much all week, so I didn’t spend too much time staring out the window longingly.

Tuesday was a nice break; the ecology class took a field trip to the Long Reef Reserve, where our groups were assigned different areas to record numbers of individuals of different species. Afterwards, we got to explore the biodiversity in the area. We saw crabs, tons of differently colored sea urchins, coral, a funky, sea-slug-like mollusk that looked like Shrek (below), a huge squid leg that did not like being poked and stole Drew’s pen. We attempted to retrieve the pen for a good 15 minutes before it was time to go. College kids are easily amused.



Already severely sleep-deprived, I decided to go out Thursday night to dance with my friends and have some fun after a fairly uneventful week. Perhaps not the best idea since I had to get up at 6am the next morning for 3 open water dives and my PADI test, but I survived. After 2 Fridays of 1 pool session and 3 open-water dives and about 6 hours of e-learning, we are officially certified! It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for long time, so I’m glad it worked out so well and didn’t take too much of our precious time in Sydney. Exhausted yet again from diving, lugging around heavy gear and tanks, and an ever-increasing sleep deprivation, I had a $3 wheat microbrew across the street, watched The Prestige with a few friends, then promptly passed out.

I really wanted to go caving in the Jenolan Caves as per Dr. Garton’s recommendation, so I organized a day trip to the Blue Mountains for Saturday. Allison, Tomas, Steven, Katherine, and I all got up around 7 to grab the rental car and hit the road. It was fun to pile in a car and go exploring once again.. reminded me of NZ! The plughole cave tour was fun, although a lot like TAG caves that I have back home: crawling, squeezing, climbing. It was a good introductory cave for the rest of the crew though, and I got a sweet t-shirt.



After caving, we took a brief walk around the cave area and saw an ADORABLE echidna! (one of the 3 species of monotremes – egg-laying mammals), as we learned in the NZ biology course) We were literally a foot away from him for a good 5 minutes as he pecked his long nose in the ground for food, then waddled away to peck in some different areas. Too cute.



A cave guide told us of a nearby field where we could see kangaroos, so of course, we took a short detour for our first kangaroo siting. We saw around 30 kangaroos in a huge field; some were hanging out by the playground eating some grass. I probably got about 20 feet away from another grazing group, before they did their funky alternating arms and legs hobble away from me.



We took a stop in the Wentworth Falls area to watch the sun setting over the gorgeous Blue Mountains. We did a short hike until it was dark, then headed home.

Sunday, a few of us headed to The Rocks (the area near the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge) for the weekend market. There are tons of markets here, at least a large one in every part of the city and lots of smaller ones sprinkled throughout.

Monday, we took a field trip to the Quarantine (‘Q’) Station near Manly Beach, which they opened up just for our group. The tour guides took us around the complex and showed us what it would have been like to be an immigrant until just a couple decades ago. Afterwards, our professors were nice enough to cancel our other classes and let us hang at the beach. To get to Manly Beach, you have to walk about 25 minutes to The Rocks area, then catch a ~35 min ferry to the beach, so it’s quite an ordeal. Unfortunately, it was cloudy the entire time until we stepped foot on the return ferry (go figure), but Aerin, Sheri, and I definitely fit in some lovely beach naps.

Tuesday after class, a few of us went to the Sydney Fish Market in Darling Harbour for lunch, and it was glorious. I cannot believe it took me so long to go there. I am definitely kicking myself for it now. I shared a dozen raw oysters with Jay and seared tuna with Allison. Then I grabbed some fresh tuna and salmon sashimi, half of which I brought back for dinner. YUMMM!

Later that night, we saw Avatar at the IMAX theater in Darling Harbour, which is apparently the largest in the world. It was amazing.

Cloudy skies killed any chance of paying a last visit to Bondi on Wednesday, so we checked out the Royal Botanic Gardens instead. They didn't have anything on the Botanic garden in Christchurch, or even Wellington's, but it had a nice view along the coast of the opera house and sydney harbour bridge.

Thursday, the entire group took a trip to the Blue Mountains for a field trip. We hiked a ~5 hour trail where we saw the three sisters and a lot of nice waterfalls. We also saw a lyre bird! The bird is known for its amazing ability to mimic other birds calls as well as mechanical sounds, such as a camera shutter and a chainsaw. Pretty awesome.



Oh! And we went out for a nice dinner for our last night in Sydney. We ate outside with a beautiful night view of Darling Harbour. After some searching, we found a restaurant that served kangaroo, which was our goal for the night. There were 5 medium-rare strips atop mashed potatoes and covered in red wine jus. It was pretty tasty, although I think I'll stick to lamb! I still need to try crocodile and emu..

Today after checking out, I went back to the fish market for some more deliciousness. I got more oysters and sashimi. :)

We’re about to hop on a bus for the airport now. We’ll spend a few nights in Brisbane, before heading to Heron Island.

I can’t believe my time is Sydney is drawing to an end already. I have fallen in love with this city. We shall see what Brisbane holds...

First week in Sydney

I’m kind of behind, so this entry will just be from last, last Thursday, February 25, till Wednesday, March 3.

Wait, sidenote. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOMMYYYYY!!!!!! I’m sad I missed your 50th, but it sounds like you had a wonderful birthday. I hope you remember that you are still young and vibrantly beautiful! :)

Thursday, we had an ecology field trip to the Waverley Cemetery between Bondi and Coogee beaches. We took a nice coastal walk to the cemetery, where we collected data from gravestones. We were relieved for the rest of the day, so we headed to Bondi Beach where I frolicked in the water, then enjoyed a scrumptious happy-hour meal and sangria at Mocean, yet again.

That night, Aerin and I had a nice date at the Sydney Opera House to see La Traviata, and it was AMAZING! This city is incredibly nice to their poor students; there are student tickets for everything. Not only did we score $270 tickets for $55, they were awesome seats right in the middle, fairly close to the stage, but not so close that we had to strain our neck to see the translations. The story was overwhelming (I tend to get emotional), but beautiful, the sets were amazing, and the singers had incredible voices, especially Violetta, the lead female role. I hit the sack fairly early, since I had to get up around 6 the next morning.



I organized a crash PADI dive course for 5 of us to get certified before heading off to Heron Island. So Friday, we had a pool session and our first open-water dive at the reef off the coast. No, we had not had any formal training yet! I don’t know how the instructors managed to teach us that day, but we had fun! We took a nap after returning, with intentions of going out after dinner. Exhausted from diving, we decided a night in sounded more appealing.



Saturday, the gay and lesbian mardi gras parade took place. Apparently, it’s the largest gay and lesbian event in the world. Our hotel was the staging area for some of the parade and sat amidst all the partying. We got to see the entire parade hanging out right in front of the hotel. Needless to say, this city was pretty ridiculous for a weekend. I’ll spare you the pictures from that one… I think I’ve seen enough scantily clad men and women to last me a lifetime.

Sunday was a fairly lazy day. After sleeping in, Aerin and I managed to score 2 raffle tickets to see Wicked from the front row! The musical was hilarious and entertaining throughout. (Did I mention that Fiero was dreamy?!)

Monday, we took a field trip to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Museum in Newtown. It housed a lot of really old medical devices (scary what used to be the norm!) and a display of about 25 pacemakers, showing the progression to the present-day form.

All in all, a great first week of fun with great weather!

All good things must come to an end...

My, oh my. Where to begin. I'm now in Sydney, but I'll start with our last weekend in New Zealand, which was close to perfection. We used our 1 skip day in NZ to take a full tour of the south island over 4 days.


(Thanks, Steven!!)

Thursday, 13 of us flew into Christchurch after classes, where I had my first nice meal in NZ: lamb, mint jus, and mashed potatoes. We walked around, climbed a roof, went out, and danced.

Friday, we walked around Christchurch by the river, hit up a small market, then headed to Arthur's Pass to check out a waterfall on the way to the west coast. The drive was beautiful, and our danger van was like a roller coaster:




Devil's Punchbowl Falls (I'm at the bottom in a white tee):


Jay, Steven, Allison, and I decided to go North a little ways to check out Pancake Rocks, a bunch of limestone that has been carved out by water over time to look like stacked pancakes:


As the sun was setting, we headed back down the west coast toward the glaciers. We got to our hostel pretty late and crashed. It started raining that night and continued through Saturday, so we were sure our glacier tours were going to be canceled. Luckily, the ice climbing tour for Franz Josef Glacier was still on for the daring souls: Aerin, Steven, Drew, Jay, and I. (The walking tour on Fox Glacier was canceled for the other 8). It was pretty chilly and misty/rainy all day, but the beauty and magnitude of the glaciers kept my mind fairly occupied. Ice climbing and walking around in crampons on a glacier was an incredible & unique experience. Back in town, thrilled that I survived the glacier with only a few bruises on my ankles, I came out of restaurant with a hot burger and fries only to get plowed by a bus going in reverse. That was certainly a first; let's hope it's a last too!





Yet again, we arrived at our next hostel in Te Anau around 2am and passed out. The next morning, we got picked up for our trip to the MILFORD SOUND! Needless to say, I was pretty pumped. We took a 3 hour bus ride into Fiordland, complete with a Kiwi bus driver with bad jokes, then a 2 hour boat ride in the fiord to the ocean and back, then a bus ride to the hostel. The weather could have been nicer, but even with cloud coverage and mist, you could see how huge the walls of the fiord were. We saw seals, dolphins right under the boat, tons of waterfalls, and overall amazing panoramic scenery. I hung out on the top deck for most of the boat ride despite the drizzle. It was definitely worth it; by far the most gorgeous and majestic place I have visited in New Zealand. My next goal: tramping the Milford Track. Apparently you have to book the 4 day hike months in advance.

We took a pitstop in Queenstown on the way to our next hostel. Queenstown was really cool; I wish we could've spent more time there. You can take a gondola up to the top of the mountain and look over the city and surrounding lake. I settled for a scrumptious lamb burger (lamb is becoming a delicious theme here...) and brief walk around the quaint, ski-like city.

The hostel in Omarama was in the boonies; basically a couple wooden buildings in the middle of a grassy field. Slightly creepy, but old-school and neat at the same time. There were stars and cosmic dust covering the entire sky, so we grabbed blankets and star-gazed for awhile. It was the perfect way to end our tour of the south island.

After a few-four drive back to Christchurch, a walk through the art museum, and a plane ride back to Wellington, I was officially exhausted when we got back Monday night.

Unfortunately, I had a presentation and finals to worry about, as well as a field trip to another sanctuary, Mt. Bruce, that took up all of Tuesday. Mt. Bruce was pretty neat though. Like Karori, they are trying to preserve native NZ flora and fauna. However, they have a captive breeding program, where they raise endangered species, such as the kakarikis (parakeets) and whios (blue ducks). The coolest part was watching two kiwis in an artificial night setting (they’re nocturnal). Kiwis are like the national emblem of New Zealand. Their image is on everything, but they are endangered and not likely seen in the wild, so that was a rare opportunity to see them pecking around and playing with each other.

Last week was pretty intense. I had a final Friday morning 2 hours before we were supposed to leave for Australia, so I had no time to enjoy the last of my time in Wellington.

We were all sad to leave, but Sydney has been a great replacement. Jay and I spent Saturday going to the harbor, seeing the Sydney Opera House, walking on the Sydney harbor bridge, checking out a market in the rocks, and going to Bondi Beach with Aerin. Sunday, we checked out an indie film festival, which was PACKED with 60,000 people. Monday, a few of us went to the beach after class around 3pm. Frisbee, napping in the sun, body surfing... We’ve decided to make this a normal occurrence.

Last night, I saw Jimmy Eat World and Sunny Day Real Estate at a small venue on the university's campus... totally awesome. pretty sure that's the smallest crowd JEW has ever played to, and SDRE is OLDDD SCHOOL and don't don't tour very often, so that was a rare treat!

Today, we're going to a cemetery at Bondi Beach to collect demographic info for my ecology class. Luckily, we're allowed to stay at the beach after we finish.. That will be the 3rd time in 5 days at Bondi. Life is good. :)

I will try to elaborate on the awesomeness of Sydney soon... class time!

Weekend in Wellington

We hit a record for number of field trips this week. It ruled.

We spent Tuesday with Dr. Jonathan Gardner from CMEER (Center for Marine Environmental & Economic Research). In the morning, he gave 3 lectures on marine reserves and ecology. After lunch, he took us down to the coast to explore the marine life. I was surprised how much you could find around rocks and in crevices where the receding tide had left water. I probably killed a few creatures just walking around; they were everywhere! We found starfish, a teeny tiny seahorse, tons of different types of algae, pauas, and sea slugs (below).


Wednesday, we visited the Karori Sanctuary, a recently established effort to restore and protect flora and fauna endemic to New Zealand. The 500-acre area is surrounded by a specialized fence designed to keep mammalian predators out. The reserve is free-flying, meaning that the birds are allowed to fly out and attempt life on their own if they so please. It has been fairly successful at increasing the population of some threatened and endangered species, such as the Tui bird. However, hihis have not been so successful outside Karori. Our class split into pairs to count hihis and bellbirds visiting the various feeders sprinkled throughout the park. All the birds are tracked with 4 colored bands on their ankles, so we tried to record the four colors on each bird with marginal success.

The next morning, we went to the US Embassy where we met David Huebner (middle), the US ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa, as well as Bob Clarke (far left), the Deputy Chief of Mission. Huebner was well-spoken and enjoyable to listen to.


Then the madness began... I found three tickets for the Sevens rugby tournament, so Sheri, Aerin, and I dressed as adorable flamingos to join the crazies. There was not a single person that wasn't in some type of costume (ok, maybe one). It was absolutely ridiculous; children, college kids, adults, you name it. Some people had some good outfits, but I must say I will not be sad if i never see a man in a short skirt again.


The stadium was far from full on Friday (it's packed on Sat, we hear), so we sat right at the front near where all the players run out. I'd never seen a rugby game before; it is INSANE. No pads, no helmets, shorts & tees; they looked like they were about to go jogging or play a friendly game of soccer. Ah yes, and the classic streaker made it onto the field later in the day and was promptly tackled by security with a covering. Some of us took it easy that night and watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

One day of Sevens was plenty, so Saturday a few of us went to a small reggae festival, One Love. No crazies there, just hippies. We tried to find a tree from LOTR on Mount Victoria, but to no avail. Apparently it's unmarked, and unfortunately, all trees kind of look the same. Most of the group went down to Courtenay Place on Saturday night, but the streets were packed and nearly impossible to navigate. Kind of a bust. It was fun to dress up though. The entire group dressed up; most in togas, 2 boys in dresses, and Aerin and I as flamingos.


Sunday was a lazy day, and it was amazing. My biggest accomplishment was making it down to a restaurant for dinner. We watched Death at a Funeral, and called it a night.

Today, we had the privilege of visiting the Victoria University marae (sacred building) for a powhiri (Maori welcoming ceremony), which was completely in Maori. We learned a sweet song about love, faith, and peace, and becoming one people that we sang to them. It was neat to see a more traditional view of Maori culture, in contrast to the contemporary feast and dance we saw in Rotorua.

I'm getting pretty excited about this weekend to the south island! More to come...

tempting fate on cloud nine.

Wow, where to begin... I've been trying to remind myself every day how fortunate and happy I am to be here. However, this weekend needed no reminder.

Thursday at 8am, the entire study abroad program (including profs and spouses and children) all hopped on the bus for the ~5 hour drive to Taupo, home of a lot of volcanoes, including Ruapehu, Tongariro, and Ngauruhoe, as well as Lake Taupo, supposedly the trout fishing capital of the world. Lake Taupo is a water-filled crater that formed about 26,500 years ago with the violent, massive eruption of the supervolcano. The resulting void magma chamber then caused the walls of the volcano to collapse, leaving a caldera. Eventually it filled with water, forming the huge lake that is there today. The last eruption was in 186 AD.

We took ski lifts up Mount Ruapehu and sketched some volcanic layers in our field journals for island biogeography (there was a lot of that this weekend). We finally arrived at our hotel around 6pm, then hit the town for some food. We treated ourselves to some delicious Thai food, then walked to the lake to watch the sunset. We followed the lake back to our hotel, watching the sky grow dark, lightning storms in the distance, and the stars above us.

Friday, the bio class had a day hike planned to the Mangatepopo Valley between the Tongariro complex and Ngauruhoe (also known as "Mount Doom" from The Lord of the Rings) - a [relatively] young and active volcano. We observed and sketched more volcanic material. The non-bio kids got to continue past the saddle where we turned around, on to the good stuff: the Tongariro Crossing. They saw bright blue/green lakes, a red crater, and a forest. I'll have to steal someone's pics.. It looked absolutely beautiful.



After that, we went for a chilly dip in the lake, played some tennis at the hotel, watched some TV, and spent some time in the hot tub to end the day.

Saturday, the bio kids only had a half-day planned, so after examining some more thrilling rocks, geothermals (steam coming out of the ground), a hydropower plant, and Huka Falls, we were free. Huka falls was awesome. The rapids were fierce, but the clearest blue I've ever seen. Few daring souls have ventured down that river in kayaks.



The rest of my day got exponentially more intense. It turns out that only 7 of 36 kids are dumb enough to jump off of a 150 foot ledge. Oh, and a professor. A 60+ year old aerospace engineer, in fact. Bungy jumping originated in New Zealand, so that somehow contributed to my rationalization of participating. The ledge was above the Waikato River full of more gorgeous, clear blue-green water. They bundle your feet together and attach them to a massive rubber band, then give you the count-down. I wasn't brave enough to jump backwards, but I did dip my arms in the water below, screaming like a little girl the whole time. After bouncing upside-down a few times, laughing at the ridiculousness and enjoying the reversed scenery, I was lowered to a raft and transported to the safety of solid ground.



A couple of hours later, another adventure van came to pick us up, although this time for skydiving, which surprisingly, most of the 36 kids were willing to do. No professors this time, although our geology teacher has done it before. Dr. Garton did not hesitate to restate the stupidity of jumping from a perfectly functioning airplane, but we were already enamored with the idea by that point.

My tandem instructor and I dropped out of the plane at 15,000 feet with a sea of clouds beneath us (see video below). I remember being pelted by some form of precipitation in my face and palms, but it only lasted until we went through the clouds. He popped the parachute, and I could finally just enjoy the beauty of everything around me. I could see for miles on end; mountains, rivers, fields, tiny buildings, the gorgeous blue Lake Taupo, the sun covered by some clouds, my friends & their parachutes above me, and even a few distinct storms off in the distance. I just sat back soaking it all in until we did some awesome flips and turns in the sky.



Later, we grabbed some wine and fish & chips to celebrate our survival.



After witnessing another awesome sunset on the beach, we were perfectly content making fun of old school music videos for the remainder of the night.

We assembled at 8am yet again, hit the road, and examined some more rocks and the site of a bridge that collapsed due to a massive flood when a barrier of a crater lake broke (Tangiwai Disaster). In island biogeography, we are now shifting from geology to the biology portion, so I'm pretty excited that I don't have to hear the words "rubbly bits" or "pyroclastic flow" anymore. :)

This weekend was epic and cannot accurately be described in words. Especially not the words of a pre-med engineer. Maybe more pictures will help...

Taupo showed us awesome sunsets every night:







View from Mount Ngauaruhoe:



Bungy jumping video: (sorry, my camera lady sucked and missed the beginning, as indicated by the "I'm in trouble" narrative. ;) )



Skydiving video:

Weekend on the North Island

I spoke too soon. The weather was absolutely beautiful last week! I was even able to break out shorts and dresses. We played a lot of frisbee and frolicked on the field next to the Wier House. One day, Hannah and I took a dip in the fountain by the field.

In terms of classes, last week was pretty exciting. For environmental politics, we took a tour of parliament. We're going to go back in February when it's back in session to observe the process. We're allowed to stand in the public gallery and watch the chaos that supposedly occurs in there on a daily basis. For island biogeography, we visited a quarry to examine rock layers and faults, a small island representing waveform platforms, and the lookout at Mount Victoria, which has a great 360 view of Wellington.

We made a loop in the North Island this weekend, packing as many highlights in as possible.

After classes on Thursday, we picked up our rental cars for the weekend and headed out soon after. The drive was long, especially with the winding, foreign roads, squishing 9 people into 2 sedans, and the drivers' inexperience with driving on the left side of the road in a foreign country. However, we did see pastures, mountains, hills, a sunset, and more sheep than we've seen New Zealanders along the way.

Friday, we "abseiled" 27 meters into a dark cave with a stream and glowworms covering the ceiling. The guide informed us that we were not, in fact, looking at glowworms, but rather the bacteria in the intestines of Arachnocampo luminosa larvae only found in New Zealand and Australia. For a few hours, we mixed bouts of strenuous caving (crawling, squeezing, climbing) with peaceful drifts in an inner tube down the dark stream staring in awe at the bright green luminescing ceiling. The venture ended with a rock-climb up a steep wall leading out of the cave.



After a feast of spaghetti and veggies back at the hostel, the 6 ladies then decided naps were in order, while the 3 boys continued their adventures exploring trails and caves via the light of an occasional camera flash. After our naps, another feast of rice and tofu curry was prepared for dinner. It seems like I'm always eating here... Hopefully I'm working it off with my weekend excursions!

Saturday turned out to be a packed day driving to all of our destinations. The Waikite hot springs near Rotorua were delightful after so much driving. The temps were around 97 to 104 degrees F. We stopped by the geothermals in Hell's Gate on the way back to Rotorua. Lastly, we watched a Maori traditional performance and gorged ourselves in a real feast, then headed to our hostel a couple hours away.


We were pretty lucky Sunday. Long story short: the Google Maps driving time estimate failed us, but we still got to do our original plan of kayaking down the Whanganui River. We were on the river for about 5 hours, going through occasional small rapids and leisurely enjoying the beautiful scenery of surrounding trees, pastures, cows, sheep, birds & butterflies flying across the gorge, and 2 of the 3 boys flipping out of their kayaks. We arrived at the pick up spot early, so we ended this weekend like the last: napping in the sun.

We got after midnight on Sunday & the week has been pretty uneventful. I did have 2 tests today, which kind of ruined any chances of unwinding and relaxing this week. However, on the advice of my dad, I continue to take naps and play frisbee when I should be studying, so it's not all that bad. Classes are really started to get in the way of my recreation... ;)

Tomorrow at 8am, the entire study abroad group is venturing on a trip to the Taupo region (where we were last weekend), but to hike geology-related trails and such. Off to pack...

The journey begins...

After years of fantasizing about this trip to the Pacific, I have finally arrived. With my biomedical engineering classes officially finished and a med school acceptance in hand, it's probably best that studying abroad didn't work out until now. When others are taking engineering courses and science labs, I get to take environmental politics and island biogeography, complete with field trips! It's pretty nice when your biggest worry is laundry.

After a 5-hour flight from Atlanta to LA, 12.5-hour flight from LA to Auckland, 1-hour flight from Auckland to Wellington, and a bus to the Weir House at Victoria University, I settled into my awesome room, then set out for the town below with 5 new friends. We soon realized that there are a lot of hills in this town. And by "hills," I mean little mountains. Something tells me we will be experiencing a lot of these in the next 6 weeks. There is a quaint little permanently-angled red cable car that goes straight up the hill for a small fee of $1 NZ, but with about 20 different ways to get down the hill to the city, it's more interesting to walk anyway.

The first day was gorgeous, although pretty windy. To our dismay, the next few days turned out to be fairly gloomy with only sporadic patches of sunlight peeking out. Speaking with Kiwis (New Zealanders), it turns out that this is the coldest summer they've had in awhile, which they didn't seem too thrilled about either. Despite the cool weather and clouds, the UV index here is 11 on a scale from 0 to 10. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that I'm going to need to wear sunscreen every day. Hello again, pink nose and freckles. The air stays in the 60s though; I can't complain.

After a couple hours of wandering around aimlessly in the city and by the water, taking silly pictures, and foraging for something cheap and decent, we ended up with Chinese mall food. Go figure. Oh well, I'm not here for the cuisine, that's for sure.

Sheri, Matt, Tomas, and I decided to spend our first weekend backpacking ("tramping") on the Queen Charlotte Track in the Marlborough Sounds. Thursday after classes, Sheri and I trekked to the ferry terminal for the couple-hour ferry from Wellington to Picton on the South Island. We all stayed in a hostel, then got up bright and early, hit up a delicious bakery, and headed to the water taxi to take us to Ship's Cove, the beginning of the 71 km (~44 mi) Queen Charlotte Track. It was a gorgeous morning, but clouds soon covered the sky. This cold summer actually turned out to be a blessing, for our weekend at least. The shade, wind, and occasional mist made for absolutely perfect hiking weather. As someone who uses backpacking solely as a means to an end - a cave - the trail was a little tougher than I expected, but not terrible. We made good time with roughly 7-8 hour days. The trail had nice variety between the coast, ridgeline, lookouts, areas with only one type of tree, and grassy fields. For almost the entire trip, you could see bays and little coves for miles. The view was incredible from almost anywhere, although the highlight for me was on the second day. After a long stretch of hiking up, we took a sidetrack that was pretty much a straight shot to the top of the mountain. The picture does not nearly do justice.

Sunday, we got an early start to make sure that we made it to the end in time for the water taxi pick-up. The sun decided to show up on the last day and made for a perfect ending. Even with breaks and a wonderful lunch by the water, we made it to Anakiwa 2 hours early and napped laying on the grass by the beach and basking in the sun.

Alas, I am back in school for the week, but I'm already pumped about this coming weekend, which we'll leave for in a couple of days... Man, life is tough.

I'll try to do weekly updates with tales from my sweet weekends around the country. More pictures from my trip are uploaded here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2224701&id=12811794&l=9181b54f45

Of course, my dreams were only made a reality through the neverending support of my parents, for which I am truly grateful. I love you all and miss you dearly!