Adventures in Townsville

JCU has been holding orientation week (O Week) for the past week, so I have been busy in Townsville attending various info sessions and welcome events. We went on a bus tour of Townsville, visited the aquarium, and went to the Billabong Sanctuary. The aquarium, Reef HQ, has the largest living coral reef exhibit in the world! They replicated the great barrier reef and built tunnels through it, so you could see the fish and coral.
We got a behind the scenes tour of the aquarium, so we were able to walk around the tops of the tanks and see various research projects that Reef HQ and JCU are working on together. Reef HQ also has a turtle hospital that rehabilitates injured sea turtles.

The Billabong Sanctuary is basically a big zoo where some of the animals are allowed to run wild - I wasn't really clear as to why they were called a sanctuary and what their mission was. We visited and got to hold some Australian wildlife, which was really exciting.

Me with a wombat - cutest animals ever!

Koala!

Crocodile

Python

We had to pay to hold the koala and wombat, but I now have big glossy professional looking photos along with these digital ones, which is kind of cool. At Billabong we also got to see a crocodile show, where one of the staff told us about crocs and fed them in front of us. There were wallabees (one with a baby in its pouch!), tons of birds, and other animals wandering around the sanctuary the whole time, as well as other animals in exhibits.

Crocodile Show

I forget what this guy is called, but they were like small wallabees

Yesterday we went to a horse race in Townsville. Apparently these events are a huge deal around here, so we decided to check it out. Everyone dresses up in cocktail dresses, big hairpieces, and high heels (or suits for men) and goes to socialize and maybe win some money. We dressed up as best as we could but sadly didn't have any big hats... I didn't bet on any of the horses since I had no idea which ones to pick, but some people I knew won some money. We had fun looking at everyone's outfits and checking out the scene.

Hats!

Maren, myself, and Hannah

Today I went to the beach for a Butler event - most of the kids from Butler took the bus down to the strand to meet Lalena, our contact person in Townsville, for an afternoon of sunbathing and food. We got lunch and ice cream (sponsered by Butler!) at a restaurant by the ocean.

O Week is drawing to a close, and most of the Aussies moved back into the dorms today. I start classes tomorrow!

Week 1 - Cape Tribulation

Six of my friends and I decided to take a 3 day trip during the week between the time we arrived and when orientation started. We went to the on-campus travel agent and decided upon Cape Tribulation, a town on the northeastern tip of Australia. It is in the middle of the Daintree Rainforest and borders the Coral Sea.

In order to meet our deadlines, we had to leave right after booking our trip. We took a greyhound bus from Townsville to Cairns, where we would catch a tour bus up to the cape the next morning. The bus was 6hrs long, but we got to watch a movie and sleep a little before arriving at about 1AM. We walked a short way to a hostel where we got beds for $17. We didn't get much sleep since there were a few rowdy people yelling in the downstairs bar and we had to wake up at 7AM anyway, but we were grateful to have a bed to sleep in.

We thought the company we booked the trip through was only going to provide basic transportation up the Cape Trib, but it really included a tour and a few activities along the way. We stopped and took a river tour of the Daintree River, where we saw lots of crocodiles from the boat! We also saw a bunch of snakes sitting in the trees. We also stopped and took a hike through the rainforest with our tour guide, who knew almost everything about each plant and animal in the forest. She was very enthusiastic and stopped to pick up every bug, poisonous or not, to show us.

Before the crocodile tour

Baby crocodile!!
Exploring the Daintree Rainforest

Golden orb spider, just chilling on the side of the path. This thing is huge.
Awesome buttress roots

The place we stayed at was a bunch of cabins surrounded by rainforest. We had the cheapest kind - dorm style, aka bunkbeds, but that was fine with us! The cabin settlement also had a restaurant and bar right next to the beach. Maren, Hannah, and I decided to walk down the beach to a swimming hole on the map. It took an hour to walk there, but the beach was beautiful and the swimming hole was really cool, since we were right in the forest! The water was crystal clear and there was a ropeswing that we jumped off of.

Our cabin

The swimming hole
Maren and I

In the next few days the group split up to do different activities that the area offered. I went to an exotic fruit farm and tasted tons of different tropical fruits. They were DELICIOUS! My favorite was called a guanana.

The fruit we tasted

Passionfruit

Maren and I went on a sea kayaking tour one morning, where we paddled around the cape. It was really windy off the cape, so it was hard paddling over huge waves, but that made it fun! We made it to the other side, which the guide says only happened 4-5 times in the past 6 weeks. People usually get tired and the group turns around, but our group made it. He picked up some coconuts from the shore and cracked them, and we got to drink the milk and eat the flesh.

When we went out on the beach at night, the stars were AMAZING. We could see the milky way and thousands of stars.

On our last day, the tour company picked us up again and on the way back to Cairns we stopped at Mossman's Gorge, a pretty river, and walked around Port Douglass, a cute town. They dropped us at the bus station and we caught a greyhound back to Townsville. It was a great trip!

Week 1 - Townsville

After three days of orientation, the group split up to travel to our new cities/universities. There are about 20-30 students travelling to James Cook University in Townsville. We arrived in Townsville after a beautiful plane ride over the east coast of Australia with a stop in Brisbane (note-I got a sub from Subway in the Brisbane airport, and they still sell 6 inch and foot long subs- no metric!) and moved into our new rooms.

I am staying in University hall which is 75% Australian residents. I have a single room with an awesome balcony overlooking palm trees and a mountain in the distance. There is a bird that likes to perch on my balcony railing - he is sitting there right now as I type this. He is a little noisy in the morning though... I have a full meal plan so I can eat every meal in a dining hall connected to my building. The food isn't that great here - makes me miss Usdan!


My Room
View from my balcony

My bird friend!

We took the bus into town - about a 20 minute ride - and explored busy downtown Townsville. It is a medium sized city and seems like it will be pretty fun. The bus is pretty cheap and brings us right to campus. In the next few days we explored other hotspots - "Stockies," the shopping center with Woolworths (grocery store) and Big W (Walmart like) where we got supplies, and "the strand," the Townsville beach/grassy running path. The beach was really nice but it was slightly chilly when we went - it is winter here after all. The weather has been beautiful the rest of the time - shorts and tshirt weather! There is still a lot to explore, but JCU's orientation week is coming up and they are going to take us to some of Townsville's attractions.

The Strand

I am still mostly hanging out with other Americans I met through Butler, but most of the Australians aren't on campus yet (it is there winter break). I have met a few at meals and they seem pretty nice.

We are in the process of choosing classes. The classes I am taking (hopefully) are: Marine Ecology and Environmental Assessment, Applied Soil Science, Biodiversity of Tropical Australia, and The Land and Its Legends in Australian Cinema. Classes start the 26th.

Week 1 - Sydney

So far I am loving Australia - it is beautiful here! This blog is to let my friends and family know what is going on with me so you don't have to hear it second hand, etc. I am studying abroad here at James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland until the end of November, and then probably travelling for a good chunk of December after my exams are done. I am travelling with a group of Americans organized by IFSA-Butler through Butler University, who keeps us organized and plans various activities throughout the year.

Butler organized an orientation in Sydney, so last Tuesday I flew from New York to LA to Sydney. The IFSA-Butler group was about 90 students from American universities studying at about five Australian universities - we had orientation together and then split up into our respective schools. The flight to Sydney was 15 hours long, but it was suprisingly nice because each seat had individual interactive TV screens with TONS of free movies, TV shows, and games to keep us occupied, plus a nice dinner and breakfast was provided. I managed to get some sleep but I had the middle seat so it was a little difficult. We arrived in Sydney at 6AM on Thursday.

In Sydney, we stayed at a sports camp in Narabeen in cabins. Butler planned many activities for us such as information sessions, a kayaking trip around Lake Narabeen, bushwalking (hiking), an Aboriginal performance, a band, a trip to the Taronga Zoo to see native Australian wildlife, a ferry trip across the Sydney harbor, and a walk through Sydney itself. Sydney reminded me a lot of San Francisco with respect to the harbor and houses built into the hills surrounding it. We visited the opera house and the historic 'rocks' area. It started pouring rain while we were walking around, but still fun.

Cool cave formations on our hike

At the zoo - a section where kangaroos and wallabees were just hopping around

sydney opera house!