October 30, 2006

Well, yesterday (October 29th here,) and today (October 29th back home), Daylight savings time started in Canberra and ended in the U.S. I still haven’t gotten used to the time difference and since I have spring forward by one hour and the U.S. has fallen backward, I am now 16 hours ahead of the Eastern Time zone back home. I am now enjoying the long days that come with a 6:00am sunrise and a 7:30pm sunset, for a grand total of 13.5 hour days, with 14.5 hours of visible sunlight. Only three more weeks until everything flips back into the short, cold, dark days of winter as I hop back over to the Northern Hemisphere. I’m not too excited about the cold or the short days, but I am definitely looking forward to being home! Time to start counting down the days… :)

October 28, 2006

Not too exciting today. It was cooler (a high temperature of only 60 degrees), and I worked on assignments for my group projects (i.e. writing up the reports). My lymph nodes started hurting a bit this afternoon, suggesting to me that my immune system is compromised and I better make sure I eat healthy the next few days to keep from getting sick. I went for a run around the lake today, and my lymph nodes didn’t like that; I felt like I was going to be getting sick for about an hour afterwards, but then I started feeling better again. I think I’ll take it easy with the running the next few days until I’m feeling back up to par.

October 27, 2006

I went to the mall today to buy some food items that I had run out of. My walk to the mall was beautiful, with clear, sunny skies making a beautiful warm day. When I stepped inside the mall and found that the halls were decked with Christmas decorations, it was an odd sensory experience. I still associate Christmas with cold, snow, etc; it is really weird to see decorations up when it’s so summer-like outside, and almost even weirder that they’re up so soon (it’s not even Halloween yet!). It seems to me like Christmas items are turning up earlier and earlier every year anymore. In fact, just over a week ago when I was in K-mart in the mall, they were already putting out their Christmas items. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me today in the mall; however, I took some pictures last week that I will include in this post. :)

In the grocery store I saw my first and only evidence so far that it’s almost Halloween – “Halloween pumpkins.” At the grocery store today there was one shelf where there were two orange pumpkins remaining and the going price was $12-something each. It looks like there was, when the shelf was fully stocked, room for 15 pumpkins at most. I learned this semester that, for some reason, Australians generally do not celebrate Halloween, and several Australians that I’ve talked to seem to think it is because Australians don’t want to be too much like Americans, and Halloween is a very American holiday, apparently. I’ve also learned that any type of winter squash is called pumpkin (I bought some “butternut pumpkin” today), and Australians don’t make and most have never tasted pumpkin pie. Apple pie may be American, but most Australians have had apple pie. If you want a pie that’s American, if you ask me it most definitely should be pumpkin pie. :)

October 25, 2006

The longest day of classes ever. Actually, I’ve had days that were longer back at MU. There really was only about 5 hours of classes, but since I did group work in between and went to FOCUS, I was only in my room for about one hour between 8:30am and 7:30pm.
This morning I got started with my Conservation Biology and Genetics class, where all five groups in the class presented their group work. It was interesting, because all five groups did the same project. We kinda saw where some of us didn’t do quite the same things as other groups, but overall the presentations presented essentially the same stuff. I think my group’s presentation went pretty well. We got a late start to class due to a fire alarm/drill at the beginning of class, so I had to cut out early to go meet with Ruby for my other group project.

Ruby and I spent some time today figuring out what needed to be said about all of our slides, and also figuring out who would say what, etc. This evening we finally gave the presentation; it went well and we stayed perfectly within our time limit (ten minutes). Finally, I can relax a little for the rest of the week… and leisurely work on the two writeups/reports for these projects as well as study for my upcoming finals. :-P

Tonight was “cowboys and Indians” theme night at unibar, and since I was done with work, I decided to head up and be social. There weren’t as many people there as I expected, but there was a fair number of cowboy and Indian attire. It was kind of funny to see cowboys and Indians there… I guess cowboys can be from anywhere, but Indians are clearly American – once again, the U.S. cultural influence was clear. :)

After getting bored at the bar, Melissa, Amanda and I (all Americans) came back to the dorms. On our walk back past the other dorm buildings, we came across a bunch of kangaroos and wallabies grazing in the grass along the sidewalk. The wallabies were only discernable as wallabies in the low light conditions by the fact that they were the size of the smaller kangaroos, but some had babies in their pouches. We stopped and observed approximately two dozen kangaroos and wallabies, and got a real treat watching some of the kangaroos: The two biggest (male) kangaroos were standing on their back legs and were gesturing at each other, obviously challenging each others’ dominance. The one male stood up really tall (seemed to be a bit taller than me even!) and brushed/flapped his arms along/in front of his chest. The other kangaroo, not wanting to fight, was flapping his arms too, but was leaning over to the side, with his head dropped pretty low to the ground – it seems like he was “surrendering” his dominance. We were all talking about how we wished they would start doing the fighting/kickboxing thing you always see kangaroos do on nature shows, but finally they hopped away from each other and we knew they weren’t going to fight. However, we were not disappointed – two younger (smaller) males a bit farther away got up next to each other, scratched at each others’ faces with their front paws, and one even jumped up and gave a firm kick into the other’s stomach! This fight lasted only about 10 or 15 seconds, though, and seemed to be more of a “learning to fight” brawl than an actual fight. Both were perfectly happy to munch on grass next to each other after this “practice fight”. We all wished we had brought our cameras to capture these moments on film, but none of us had. It was still really cool seeing all those wallabies and kangaroos within a 40-70 foot distance away from us!!

October 24, 2006

Today was spent working on various group work, by myself and with both of my groups again. This morning my Conservation Biology and Genetics group cut and pasted and edited all of our individual PowerPoint slides into one big slideshow that we plan to use tomorrow for our group presentation. In the afternoon I worked for a couple hours putting some finishing touches on my Data Analysis in Science PowerPoint, and submitted it to the professor for our presentation tomorrow. My group partner had to work today, but fortunately we don’t present that one until tomorrow evening, so we will still have time to practice our presentation before we actually give it.

After I finished my group work today, I walked over to the campus hair place and got my hair cut. It was $20 Australian (which converts to $15 U.S.), but it was worth it since my hair was getting so long (I guess that’s what happens when you let it grow for almost six months!). Also, the guy that cut my hair did a very good job, cutting it exactly as I asked, and making it all even. :) After my haircut I went for a run around the lake. I think I ran faster with all the weight that was taken off with my haircut. ;)

October 23, 2006

This week is going to prove to be insanely busy. Today I spent 6 hours nonstop working on two different group projects that are due this week. My one group lost a member (he vaporized without a trace), so that group only has me and one girl, which is nice – I don’t particularly care for group projects, but when there’s only two people it’s easy to make sure that both people put in a fair effort! My other group has five of us. Today Ruby and I worked on some statistical analyses and the PowerPoint presentation for our Data Analysis in Science project, and Rohan, David, Joel, Sarah, and I worked on getting organized and figuring out what needs done for our Conservation Biology and Genetics project.

By the end of the afternoon I was worn out from working all day on projects, and I came back to my room before I remembered that there was a “farewell dinner” for us exchange students this evening. I headed back up to campus to the café where dinner was being held, and got there just in time for our appetizers (bread and various spreads/dips) came around. The dinner ended up being three-courses and all-you-can-eat buffet-style. On top of that, it was some of the best food I’ve eaten since I’ve been here in Australia! It was a great way to end a long day, and it was nice catching up with a few of the exchange students and to mix with the Aussies that are planning on heading out on exchange next semester.

October 12-22, 2006

Sorry I haven’t been updating regularly. A lot has been going on recently and a combination of me alternately being busy and lazy has kept me from updating my blog.

Lately it’s been getting a lot warmer, with most days at least into the 70s, but a fair number of days with temperatures into the 80s. It’s been sunny and warm most of the time and I’ve definitely enjoyed it. While I’ve been running several times a week still, I’ve seen recently a family of Australian black ducks, as well as a family of black swans. One day when I was running, in a field where I had previously seen as many as 16 kangaroos, I noticed scattered mobs and individual kangaroos numbering at least 100! I’ve never seen so many kangaroos before… I guess that field must have lots of food for them!

Spring is definitely well underway here in Australia. It’s interesting to notice that although the grass started getting greener and growing faster in many places as winter turned into spring, recently much of the grass that had greened up and grown for a brief period, has once again turned brown. I guess Australia is just naturally dry and therefore this brownness is somewhat normal, although I’m sure the fact that much of Australia is still currently experiencing a drought has had an influence. It’s such a difference compared to the lush, extremely fast growing grasses that I’m used to seeing in the spring and throughout most of the summer back home.

Many of you may not know that my dad has been battling some health problems since last semester, and until this semester he seemed to be doing pretty well, considering. Some time after I arrived in Australia I learned in my phone calls home that he was no longer doing so well. I’ve been praying a lot that he would get better, but that ultimately God’s will be done. Sadly, on October 12th, my dad passed away. I must admit that this was one of the reasons why I did not feel like updating my blog in any spare time. It’s been somewhat difficult coming to the realization that he will not be there when I return home in November, and it was hard to not go home to be with family right after he died. Phone conversations over the past few weeks and months have sort of prepared me for the fact that his remaining days were numbered, but it was still hard for me to get the news. I had never really thought seriously about him dying in the near future before I left… but when Dad took me to the airport, we talked a lot, and one thing he mentioned was that if anything were to happen to him, and if he were to die, he did not want me to come home – he wanted me to continue doing everything that I had planned to do in Australia, and he assured me that my brother and sister would be there for my mom. I really didn’t know how to take it when he said this to me, and I didn’t really respond too much except to say “ok”. I realized on my flight out here that he must have known he was close to dying, although it didn’t seem like it to me or anyone else at the time. I’m glad that he told me to stay here though, because it made the difficult decision of “what to do now” much easier, although I really wanted to be with my family.

Since my dad passed away I have had a lot of time to grasp the reality and realize that it’s all in God’s plan for me and my family. Previous to this trip, I had never been away from home for more than a month, and I have never been so far away. I almost studied abroad last year, but I missed the deadlines for all the paperwork and decided to wait until this year. I’ve concluded that for some reason, God must have wanted it to happen this way. Although I have accepted that my dad is in heaven and won’t be at home when I go back, in many ways I don’t think it will completely hit me until I am back in the U.S., back home. Although I know he’s gone, I’m still on the other side of the world, and although things have changed at home, things in Australia are still very much the same. Only when I go home will I realize the differences that result from him not being there. If anyone out there reading this believes in God, please pray for my family in the time being. Also pray for me when I go home. To the rest of my family back home, I’m sorry I couldn’t be there through all of this, but I have been praying lots for everyone, and I’ve been doing ok over here.

Oh, for those of you who don't know, he died of lung cancer.

Soon after my dad passed away, I talked a bit to one of the other American exchange students and decided to still go on my planned learn-to-surf trip with about 20 other exchange students. The 2-day surf trip ended up being a lot of fun, and I often thought about how my dad would want me to be on that trip, since he told me to do everything I had planned to do, no matter what. Over the weekend I had four 2-hour surfing lessons/sessions, and by the end of the trip I was able to stand up on a surfboard and ride the waves in, and I was just starting to be able to turn my surfboard in the waves. I’m glad I went, and it was enjoyable hanging out with students from around the world, including a Finnish girl, three Germans, 3 Mexicans, an Italian, 2 Canadians, and a dozen or so odd Americans from the UC study abroad/student exchange program.

I had an interesting assignment in my literary studies tutorial this week. The assignment was to bring in an image or a picture and a description of something that is Australian and represents Australianness. I almost skipped class because I thought it was a really trivial assignment, and it was a waste of time. However, because I thought it was so trivial and a waste of time, I ended up deciding to go just so I could tell people about how trivial it was. I took a calendar that I got here in Australia, where the cover photo is of a group of kangaroos. I explained to the lecturer and the class how it represents Australia and Australianness because when you mention Australia in almost any context in the U.S., the image people almost immediately think of is kangaroos. The lecturer agreed that it was a good, very Australian image, and after discussing it for a few seconds or so, moved on to the next person. It was kind of interesting hearing about what other students brought in, but in the end I concluded that it was an extremely trivial class and I didn’t learn anything that was necessary for my education. It was my last formal tutorial for this class, so I figured I’d make the most of it. :)

October 11

This weekend I went down to Floriade on Sunday. Floriade is pretty much just a one-month (mid-September to mid-October) flower festival held in Commonwealth Park in the city centre region of Canberra, next to Lake Burley Griffin. I entered the gates (they have that part of the park fenced in), and it pretty much had a fair atmosphere, with flower beds galore everywhere, with tons of tulips, pansies, irises, etc., and them some booths and shows and a few vendors and stuff. The flowers were pretty neat and you can tell a lot of work went into designing the flowerbeds. Most of the flowerbeds were themed according to different countries' colors, flags, etc. I guess that makes a lot of sense, considering Canberra is Australia's capital city. I spent maybe an hour in the park, walking around and taking a few pictures. I was disappointed to notice that many of the tulips had already faded and the dead flowers had been picked, and all the daffodils were done already too. However, there was a nice variety of irises, tulips, and pansies that were still thriving, and the flower beds were definitely beautiful.

Monday I found out my grade from my second Intro to Exercise exam. It turns out this time the class did much better (averaging 61%!), and my grade was better also. I ended up getting a 43/50 (86%), which is really good for anything here in Australia. I was defnitely happy.

I haven't solidified any more plans for New Zealand yet, but I have been looking around at my options online and in my New Zealand travel guide. I think at this rate I'm going to end up renting a car in New Zealand and exploring just the South Island for 8 days. Paying for a rental car and gas would be cheaper than any of the tour packages, and it would be the most fun. It would give me the opportunity to go running in national parks, and hiking and looking at birds and stuff too. check back for more later when I figure out exactly what I'm doing.

October 1-6, 2006

This week was another busy one. I had two “major” assignments this week, which were a 10 minute presentation about a scientific paper detailing loggerhead shrike genetic population structure on the California Channel Islands, and a 1000 word critique of an Australian text for my literature class. I didn’t particularly enjoy writing the critique (I personally think most work in literature classes goes above and beyond what any author ever expected to be done their writing, and it helps ruin reading for me – I hardly read books as it is, but when I have to analyze one to death, it helps ruin any enjoyment I got out of reading it!). I managed to sit down and pump out a critique today though, and I handed it in about 20 minutes before it was due. I have no more papers to write for my literature class anymore – and since I never plan on taking another literature class in my life, that means I’m DONE with any educational aspects of literature! Yay!

My presentation in the conservation biology class went well. I managed to keep it right around the 10-minutes it was supposed to be, and I’m pretty sure I answered all of the questions well at the end. :) I’ve only talked to a handful of the students in the class previously, so I wonder how many of them found out for the first time that day that there was an American in the class. My accent is pretty obvious and my powerpoint was certainly filled with American spellings for some words, such as “program” and “analyze”, just to name a couple.

Classes sure are different here than they are in the U.S.A.; conservation biology is one example of a class that is far different from any other biology classes I’ve had back home. For starters, back home many classes have “strongly encouraged” attendance, as well as exams and other assignments throughout the semester. This class, however, has no exams, you never know who’s going to show up for class, and there are only a few assignments that will end up determining my entire grade. I was amazed last week when I saw one girl in the class that I don’t recall ever seeing before. She was back again this week because she also had to give her presentation, but then even more amazing was the presence of another girl this week that I hadn’t ever seen before! I’ve never had a class back home where people don’t go to class for the first 11 weeks of the semester and then show up to complete their assignments. Well, perhaps these girls were there on the first day of classes and I don’t remember them, but they definitely haven’t been there since. I guess they must be getting together with other members of the class to work on our group projects though, as I realized this week that our group projects are going to count for 70% of our grade. Yikes. I better get to work!

Another thing that’s different about this biology class aside from its structure is that I have three lecturers… yes, three. And they’re never teaching the class together. It’s a very different setup than I’m used to, but each has been lecturing us on the aspects of conservation biology and conservation genetics in which he or she is more of an expert. Early on this semester our lecturer was Will, and with Will we focused more on the ecological issues of conservation. After that we had Steve for several weeks, and he lectured us on some genetic aspects of conservation. The past couple of weeks we’ve had Nancy as our lecturer, and she’s been lecturing us on how analyses can reveal information about the genetic structure of populations and contribute to choice of conservation strategies for species and subpopulations within species. I talked to Will at the beginning of the course about a few things, and I’ve never really talked to Steve at all, and this week after my presentation Nancy realized I wasn’t Australian, so she asked me where I was from in the states and how I’ve liked it here so far, and how much of Australia I’ve gotten to see, etc.

I had an exam last week in my intro to exercise science class, but our grades haven’t been posted yet. This week the lecturer allowed students that missed the exam to have an opportunity to take the exam (with a proper, documented medical excuse, of course). I’m expecting to find out this weekend or early next week how I did. I felt much better than the first exam, so I’m sure I passed. Maybe I got an 80% this time. :)

The weather this week has been beautiful. Because I’ve been busy working on my assignments I haven’t gotten out running every day, but I did get out and run once every two days this week. Hopefully in the next few weeks I’ll be able to run more regularly. I’m definitely enjoying the sunny, low-70s weather every day and it feels great to get out and run in the evenings!

This week I began planning for my end-of-semester travels also. Another difference between college here in Australia and back home is the final examination period: back home it is 4 days (M-Th), but here it is almost three weeks (Nov. 1-17). Since I plan to return home soon after my final examination period ends, any travels I do before going home will take place during the examination period. It turns out I only have two exams during the examination period, so I have 10 free days after my last final before I go home – here I come New Zealand! This week I bought myself a travel guide for New Zealand and also purchased my airline tickets – so hopefully the rest of my plans will fall into place shortly.

Buying the plane tickets was kind of interesting. The listed fare price said “inclusive of taxes” – all together the roundtrip fare was $240. I clicked “book now” and when it came up with the subtotal, they were charging me $461 – over 200 dollars in taxes! That made me kind of upset, because it was the same site I used to get my ticket to Perth – and there were no extra taxes on my flight to Perth. I messed around on the site (and a few others) to see if I could find a better deal -- and I figured out a loophole. For some reason it was JetStar’s fares that were quoted really low, but were really at least double the advertised price after taxes were included. I changed my one flight to a “more expensive” VirginBlue flight and found out that the VirginBlue ticket had no hidden taxes. So, by selecting a more expensive ticket, I actually lowered my total bill by $80. Does that make any sense? Nope. But I’m happy I figured it out and was able to save $80! :)

Tonight I made some sort of rice/cheese/tomato concoction and ate it with steamed broccoli. It didn’t turn out quite as I was expecting, but it still tasted pretty good. Only 6 more weeks of cooking for myself! Then it’s back to the Fast Food Nation. ;) Don’t worry, I won’t eat all fast food when I get home. But I will eat at Wendy’s a couple times. They don’t have Wendy’s here in Australia and it’s my favorite fast food restaurant. I want a frosty! Just a little more than six weeks left! Time sure does fly!