Byron Bay, Miles Away

Just got back from Byron Bay, these airplane rides are getting tiring! We left early Thursday morning and flew to Ballina, which is about a half hour away from Byron. So the first day we sat on the beach and read our books, then walked around some of the shops and had some great thai food. I wasnt feeling too good so I was in bed by around 11 while the rest of the girls had quite the night out!

Friday was a beautiful morning, we had a great breakfast at a neat little place overlooking the main strip of Byron. Then we headed to the beach where the temperature was perfect and we spent the time baking.
In the afternoon I met up with one of my friends who I've actually never seen before, we are pen pals of sorts, and we've talked continents away over msn for the past year! She lives in Coff's Harbour, which is about an hour south of Byron, if I have my geography straight! We had a great afternoon, having lunch and ice cream and going around "alternative" health stores and buying yummy organic soaps! I found a smell in a soap that I have been looking for for years, it was an old Lush product that was discontinued! That just made the day so much sweeter. The similarities between our personalities and our experiences were uncanny...what a small, small world it is.

Byron weather is peculiar as it is hot in the mornings and cools off around 3:00. By evening it is as cold as Melbourne! We were bundled up and we decided to go to Cheeky Monkeys, after many recommendations! Cheeky Monkeys was truely a backpacker's place, lined with flags from all over the world, cheesy games and prizes, and dinner menus for $2.00! But we were so tired we decided to be party poopers and we were in bed by 10:30!! So much travelling does that to a gyal!

We were planning on going to Nimbin one of the days but decided not to...maybe if we had more time. We loved Byron too much! Today we trekked to the most easternly point of the Australian mainland, to this lighthouse that I will definitely be painting when I get home! (That is my plan, if i dont find a job for the month of August I am going to spend all my time painting pictures of Australia!) We saw dolphins from the look out point and watched surfers riding the waves. It was amazing!




All in all Byron Bay was such a relaxing little town with a very positive and energizing aura. I feel relaxed, rejuvenated, and ready to conquer my exams! Can't say i'm not disspointed to be back here in Melbs facing round 2 of Reactions Engineering wrath this Wednesday...but hey thats life! Back to life, back to studying!

Sydney - The Harbour City

And it begins...Crocodile Dundeena's adventures in New South Wales!

Initially our trip to Sydney was supposed to be a road trip...a 12 hour drive from Melbourne to Sydney on Friday morning, and a 12 hour drive from Sydney to Melbs on Sunday. This was all so that we could study for our Heat and Mass transfer test this Wednesday! But Jen and I changed our minds on Friday night when we realized how much there was to see in Sydney. We decided to be troopers and instead booked a flight to fly out of Sydney on Monday night. Essentially this gave us 2 extra days to explore! It was very spontaneous and very un-meenaesque, but definitely something that I am trying to do more often (go with the flow)!! Of course this also means that I only have tomorrow night (Tuesday) to study for Heat and Mass...but my motto this term is "Get your priorities straight! Do not let school get in the way of experiences!" Fair dinkum mates!

Anywho so the drive on Friday morning was heaps of fun...we stopped off in this small town called Albury, where the average age of citizens was probably about 64.3 years. It was cute! Then we stopped in a random little town based on a submarine in the middle of it...seriously this town is known for a random submarine, but its not even real its a replica from WWII. "We all live in a yellow submarine..." is what we were singing. We also stopped in front of a huge marino (baa baa black sheep have you any wool...) ya it was quite random! Thats the best thing about road trips!

Well it seemed like we were driving through the prairies in Canada but the landscape had random trees scattered through it...pretty boring roads! Considering that Melbourne is rainy every single day, I do not know how the country is in drought. But you could finally tell the influence of the drought when we were driving...the grass was NOT green! it was a yellow-green-brown and looked like how my backyard at home looks from about Sept to June. Apparantly, there was a lot of roadkill, kangaroos in particular, but Blake was driving and was kind enough not to say something like..."oh look a kangaroo"...and have us turn around excited only to see cute-used-to-be-hopping-roadkill *tear*.

We got to Sydney and it was CRAZY...so much traffic, lots of nice cars, lots of people everywhere! Just a beautiful place. We got to our hostel called WakeUp! and it was just pure class, the nicest place i've stayed in so far in my travels! We were on the African floor, and there were different themes on different floors.

We had dinner in this HUGE china town, i seriously felt like i was in Hong Kong again! So much bigger than the Melbourne China town! Then we met up with the girls (Jen, Sarah, Ioana) in the city and we went to this lounge called 5 below. So the concept is the same as upper floor of Mynt in Calgary, with the Ice Bar. You pay a certain amount to stay up there for 30 mins, they give you parkas and ugg boots and gloves and you go in this cold lounge and take pictures and hang out and "chill" ahha. sorry i couldnt help it. it was really "cool"! excuse the pun, these jokes suck! Anyways it was sooo refreshing to feel the cold again and see my breath in the air! Even though it was only minus 5 and i could probably have done it without the gloves, its like a health hazard for these australians to be in there longer than 30 lmao but it was fun. There were lots of ice sculptures, including one of the opera house. That night i danced to reggae for the first time in SO long it was amazzin!

On Saturday we walked around to the harbour, what a beautiful sky line it is! I REALLY wanted tickets to the ballet at the Sydney Opera House for that night, they were showing Giselle and i have never watched a ballet in my life! Those of you that know me knew what my obsession with ballet was when i was young! I always wanted to watch Nutcracker but i though Giselle would suffice...sadly tickets were sold out save for standing room...and no one would come with me in a standing spot for 2.5 hours :( So we ended up taking a tour of the opera house which really wasnt as impressive from the inside as it was from the outside. This is primarily because Utzon, the one who won the competition for the design of the structure, was not able to finish off the inside of the house b/c of budget restrictions and change in governments in the 60's...so the outside was developed by him but the whole inside of it was different from the original plan...you can see the 70's style in it which isnt too classy...wood panelling, concrete...just a bit dissapointing! Apparantly they need to do remodelling and renovations but it will cost them way too much to shut the venue down...in any case it was neat to get the whole story! One thing i found interesting is seeing the outer shells of the Opera House up close...I never realized it was all tiled like a mosque! Utzen was inspired by a lot of middle eastern design, and you cant tell from the ground. Definitely a sight to see!

Sunday would have been the day i was supposed to leave, but instead we went to Manly. "7 miles from Sydney and a thousand miles from care"...it was a beautiful little suburb that we got to through a ferry ride from the harbour.

Cards on the beach and shopping, what could be better? The weather has not been amazing here, it was probably only about 18oC, but it was still ok. After that we had the most interesting experience at a particular hostel we were supposed to stay at...Nomads Beached at Bondi...i do not recommend it!

We got there and we had requested a 6 person room for us girls, so we could have a slumber party like back in the day. And the guy was seriously a stoner or something and he didnt understand there was a difference between a 4-6 person room and a 10 person room...his exact words were...."well...uh...sometimes things dont work out u know...it happens..." and "well princesses you can fit 4-6 people in a 10 person room..." and of course the classic "well this 8 person room has 5 spots in it so you can all fit so I dont know what your complaining about" (there were 6 of us). Anyways then after some "conversation" he told us he would just give us 4 rooms and we could decided whatever we wanted to do with them "just to get us out of his hair"! By this point i was ready to punch something. We asked him for keys and he said "Why would you need to lock your doors?". Thats when we turned around and left lol it was the most amusing hostelling experience i've ever had.

Anyways we spent the night at Bondi Beach having quality girl talk time and today we just walked around the shops! it was a bit too cold to stay on the beach, but the houses along the water looked so very mediterranean against the torquoise agains the sea! It was beautiful.

Now i have a day to study, then Heat and Mass test on Wednesday, then I leave for Byron Bay on Thursday morning! Byron is apparantly amazing and it's also in New South Wales. We are flying back on Sunday then I have to cram for another test on Wed in Reactions Eng! Its going to be a busy week :)


Pictures soon! Miss you all :)

Under the Sea

Pictures from the Great Barrier Reef along with quotes from The Little Mermaid (1989) (yes it really was that long ago) for your viewing pleasure!


Ariel: [singing] Up where they walk/up where they run/up where they stay all day in the sun/Wanderin' free/wish I could be/Part of that world...

Ariel: Is he - dead?
Scuttle: [Opens Eric's eyelid] It's hard to say. [Puts his ear against Eric's foot]
Scuttle: Oh, I - I can't make out a heartbeat.

Scuttle: I haven't seen this in years, this is wonderful.
Ariel: What is it? Scuttle: A banded, bulbous snarfblatt.
Ariel & Flounder: Ooooooh.
Scuttle: Now the snarfblatt dates back to prehysterical times when humans used to sit around and stare at each other all day. Got very boring. So they invented this snarfblatt to make fine music.


Scuttle: It's a dinglehopper. Humans use these little babies... to straighten their hair out. See? Just a little twirl here and a yank there and voila. You've got an aesthetically pleasing configuration of hair that humans go nuts over.



Ariel: There he is! Isn't he handsome? [Scuttle looks at the dog and scratches his neck]
Scuttle: I don't know, he looks kind of hairy and slobbery.
Ariel: No, not that one. The one playing the snarfblatt.


Life can be better down where its wetter take it from me!

The Rabbit-Proof Fence

As part of my Contemporary Australia unit, we were required to watch a movie entitled Rabbit-Proof Fence, which describes the plight of the Stolen Generations. In my first research paper, I decided to analyze the themes in the movie and how they relate to contemporary Australian society. Following is an excerpt from my paper describing the racism prevalent in Australian society today. Thought some of you who dont know much about Australia and its policies might find it interesting! The more I learn about Australian foreign policies on immigration, assimilation (including the White Australia Policy which only really ended in the early 70's) and asylum seekers, the more i realize how much people around the world are in the dark about the amount of racism in Australian politics and history.

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Social Darwinism is a strong underlying theme throughout the movie. When Mr. Neville, the Chief Protector of the Aborigine Populace, speaks of his plans to “breed” the Aborigine blood out of the half-caste children, he states: "In spite of himself, the native must be helped"[1]. This statement is one that shows the underlying thought of European superiority over the Aborigines, who were considered “barbaric”, “savage”, and essentially an “inferior” race. This eugenic point of view was quite obviously a doctrine of racism from the outset[2]. Although the basis of Aborigine culture is spiritual and based on Dreaming, the Aboriginals were seen as being as being “heathens” because of their lack of belief in the Judaeo-Christian God. This is what condemned them in the eyes of the colonialists. In an attempt to “save” the Aboriginals, the British saw it in their best interest to “Christianize” them. The Aboriginals were seen at the bottom of the Great Chain of Being, not only because of their religion but also because of their skin color. On this chain, the refined Christian white male was seen at the top, just underneath God and the Angels[3]. Using this theory, the superiority of culture was described as a function of biology, and natural selection was used as a tool for attempted genocide of the Aboriginal race[4].

Although this case of extreme genocide is not seen in modern Australian society, there still exists an underlying racism that indelibly flows through the country. The legacy of “White Australia” has since been left behind, however the target seems to have shifted to widespread “Islamophobia”; a fear of the Muslim faith and Middle Eastern culture. Stemming from both geography and the current American foreign policy induced “War on Terror”, the fear of all things Muslim seems to have gripped the country. This is apparent in the comments by Sydney MP Bronwyn Bishop last August on the banning of the Muslim headscarf. Stating that the headscarf is an “iconic item of defiance”[5] demonstrates an insulting ignorance of basic Islamic teachings. The underlying racism in modern Australian society is evident in incidents such as the Sydney Race Riots which occurred in December on Cronulla Beach. Hundreds of Australians of mainly Anglo-Celtic and European decent gathered on the beach and carried banners stating anti-Islamic and ethnically motivated statements such as: “We grew here, you flew here”[6]. People of Middle Eastern decent were targeted and although the event was condemned by the Howard government, the incident highlighted the sad truth of the racism prevalent in contemporary Australian society today.

Rabbit-Proof Fence raises many issues that are quite obviously still of relevance in modern Australia. Although each issue is not directly paralleled, the attitudes expressed in history are shifted to present day society. Issues of Aborigine identity loss are still impacting a generation of Indigenous peoples today. Many Aboriginals have a connection to a part of land that is also an innate part of their being, and more still are currently trying to reclaim their Aboriginal rights on that land. These issues, along with the prevalent societal racism, metaphorically forms the “Rabbit-Proof fence” that separates all that is “White Australia” with all that is not. This fence will remain an icon of Australian thought unless steps are taken to educate Australians and encourage them to embrace the multicultural and pluralistic society that exists in Australia today.

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My next paper is a comparason of how national identity is protrayed and maintained in both Australia and Canada! Fun stuff :P...i love being Canadian!

Strawberry Fields Forever

Lots of random thoughts...spent the entire weekend exploring the CBD of this sprawling urban metropolis. The iconic Melbourne figure has to be Flinder's Street Station, the hub of the city. It is across from St. Paul's Cathedral and down the street from Federation Square.

The rest of the city oozes Victorian architecture and feel...fitting since I am in the state of Victoria...

The Crown Casino was a site to see, it felt like i was trapped in Vegas again. Went up to the Rialto Towers, the highest point in Melbun and got some fantastic views of the city.

Explored the Greek Precinct (Lonsdale), had some great thai food, and considered going into an Asian Karaoke place for some bubble tea. Really discovered China town on Bourke Street on Sunday morning for a great Dim Sum experience...prawn dumplings are just amazing. The comedy festival being held all month was in its last night and we caught the very last show...i actually get aussie jokes now and i'm not sure that I can even notice the acent anymore. I have started saying: "Do you reckon..." and also "What do you reckon?". I have caught myself saying "yah?" after sentences more than "hey?". ie: "You heard that thingo, yah?"

As for school - yuck...the only thing that makes me happy right now is how perfectly everything fits into my extra huge Roxy pencil case. My TI83+ calculator has never been so happy.

Surfing Culture...i knew i would get sucked in. So far i've accumulated:

• Rip Curl: Hat, keychain
• Billabong: Bathers (bikini), Backpack
• Cult: Bathers
• Roxy: Jumper (hoody), pencil case
• Havaianas: thongs (flip flops)

It was inevitable! I love surf culture and the laid back ease of it's style. Supporting St. Kilda Saints or Essendon Bombers in AFL - still undecided. Got both scarves because i liked the colors! tee hee hee. Played footy for the first time! it was spot on.

Oh ya and a quick more personal observation... phonetically, people here dont call me "meen-ah" (softly, gently). They call me "MAIN-ah" (roughly, crudely). Its so odd! I'll try to teach them how to say it "right" and it just doesnt work. So i've now resorted to introducing myself as "main-ah" (softly, gently) to try to make it easier for them to make the transition.

Cake shop in St. Kilda on Acland Street. This place has a ton of bakeries!

*nb: Something i found quite amusing...The Ladoo Shop- Ludikrishna style (a parody of fiddy's Candy Shop).

The Best of Queensland!

Its 2 am - exam tomorrow in Reaction Mechanisms...the unit i always fall asleep in. But ironically, i have too much caffeine in my system and I can't sleep! I was relying on the book to put me to sleep but its some sort of twisted poetic justice. Anywho i figured i may as well update - if i wait any longer i'll feel like it was all a dream. Queensland sure does seem like it was lifetimes ago...what can i say, i have this love-hate relationship with engineering. *sigh* back 2 life - back to reality - stay in school kids.

BRISBANE

We flew into brissy on April 13th, the start of a new adventure! Went down to Southbank - talked about it in previous posts...it was so warm - the temp difference between Victoria and cities in Queensland is just incredible! For those of you who dun-noi, in N. America we fly down south for the winter, here they fly up north :) Below is a picture of the ghettoist elevator EVER at Palace Backpackers Hostel- its a manual operating elevator, and it really can't be safe...it just doesn’t seem stable! It looks like it came right out of a cheesy horror flick.


HERVEY BAY

From Brissy we caught the greyhound early morning to go to Hervey Bay...we were supposed to stop in Noosa to do some surfing but it didn’t work out...needless to say after a 7 hour greyhound trip without a Noosa stop we arrived in Hervey Bay quite cranky! Our camping trip to Fraser island was scheduled to leave the next day.

FRASER ISLAND


It is said that the sand from the east coast of Oz eventually ends up in Fraser Island. Its a gigantinourmous sandbar measuring 120 km by 15 km. It seems too lush and green to be the world’s biggest sand island, but that is due to the island's diverse ecology. it is dotted with about 200 fresh water lakes and contains rainforests and towering sand dunes. These "sandblows" tower up to 224 m tall, and "allegedly" the island contains more sand than the Sahara. The sea is lethal, containing undertows and man eating sharks...but looking up in the sky at night will take away all your worries...you can actually see the Milky Way blazing.

We got a 4wd Toyota we rightly named the "Sexy Beast". A little rough around the edges, leaky, unstable, but it got us around! We were given a map, tents, sleeping bags, and tide times...and set off to navigate the island on our own. Lots of beautiful lakes, lots of off-roading. We set up camp at a random spot along the beach, and spent most of the evening having some insane conversations that only happen when there is nothing around to distract you but the full moon and the tide rolling in. Politics, religion, life, death, extra terrestrial life...all the good stuff haha. We were even lucky enough to see 2 Dingos pass by our camp. Just glad i didnt see one while we were digging pee holes! (yes i was really roughing it .... with only 2 sets of clothes and no shower for 3 days). The last night was crazy because there was a huge storm...our crappy tents were leaking and there was a point in time when i looked up at the top of the very teeny 3 person tent and thought it would collapse because of the wind - it was quite scary for a bit. Thank God the rain caught up to us on the last day rather than the first! Anyways ya nature is good and all - camping was fun BUT its hard work! putting up tents, cooking, sleeping on a vine in your back, seeing little transparent crabs ranging from 1 cm to a fist size....I can do it but I cant say I particularly LOVED it! In any case it was nice to go back to civilization...and shower...


AIRLIE BEACH

12 hours of a greyhound later, we arrived in Airlie beach... a cute little town with a perfectly manicured man made beach much like Southbank. We couldn’t go into the ocean water because of the stingers this time, not the sharks! Had a great night with the people we were sharing our dorm with - played Kings and made everyone say "Go Canada" a lot - its great hearing it in different accents, especially Irish! Actually it became "Go bloody Canada" after a while. Anywho, a night on the town is just what was needed after camping for 3 days. The next morning we got ready to leave for sailing.

WHITSUNDAY SAILING


Our boat was called the Kora, and we were departing Airlie with 2 other ships. Pulling into South Molle (pronounced Mole) Island I felt as though i was entering Jurassic park. It looked like lush green untouched land....it was just bliss. Beautiful palm trees with coconuts that you could just crack open and eat, and tons of lorikeets everywhere! The next 2 days we went sailing and snorkeling. One of the best parts was sailing to Whitehaven beach, which is just gorgeous...white silica sands and turquoise waters...paradise on earth!









Sailing was definitely the highlight of my trip...met so many different people from so many different places - and it really makes the world feel smaller. Its amazing how many people travel alone and how interesting it is to sit and talk to them and hear their stories. Living life as a backpacker is so unique...you have a chance to be yourself completely, or to reinvent yourself - whatever floats your boat. In these small clusters of time you meet people that you become so close to, and you completely become a part of each others lives. You form globalized "crews"...you eat together, relax together, talk, party. Then all of a sudden everyone goes their separate ways and you know inside when you say goodbye that you probably wont ever see them again. You cant have a soft heart, because every thing that passes through your life is in flux. Its like life is flowing and you try to root your feet in the ground to grasp on to a moment and live it before it slips away...but ultimately every breath you take is one less breath...so carpe diem!






DAINTREE RAINFOREST

It was quite sad leaving Airlie, but leave we had to and we took another 9 hour greyhound to Cairns. We arrived there early morning and got picked up by a small tour van, called Cape Tribulation Connections. Our friendly driver took us bushwalking, and then to Cape Kimberly- a beautiful quiet place a nestled in the heart of the Daintree Rainforest. The Daintree is a World Heritage listed rainforest, and it has amazing amounts of biodiversity. Its the Earth's oldest standing rainforest! Oh yes, and vines twist the other way on this side of the world, anti clockwise. (for geeks: Coriolis Effect)

There was a huge cyclone that passed through northern Queensland just a day or two before we got there, so everything was flooded and people were stuck in Cape Kimberly. When they got the fairy working, everyone left the area. So basically, when we got to Cape Kimberly, we were the only 4 people on the resort! It was complete isolation, and we had no idea what to do! So we ran around on the beach that we had all to ourselves, and wrote things in the sand. At one point in time we were messing around, and we wrote a big HELP sign on the sand, then we actually saw a helicopter coming above us so we scrambled to try to "erase" it...and the helicopter kept going...i wonder if it would have worked? Anywho after nothing else to do we retired to the empty lounge and played board games...Australian Monopoly, Trouble, and Texas hold em...the experience of staying in a remote area of the jungle was really neat...more than once we busted out in a chorus of "in the jungle the mighty jungle the lion sleeps tonight..."




The next day we got picked up and taken to PK's Jungle Village in Cape Tribulation...again it was exciting to see CIVILIZATION, as little as it was! There was even a mini grocery store and a chemist (pharmacy)! But that’s about it. That day we went Jungle Surfing, which was incredible. Basically we ziplined through the Daintree...I felt like i was on Amazing Race! It was beautiful being so high up in an area that looked the same way millions of years ago, when dinosaurs roamed. The team that was guiding us was so well learned on the area and everything around us had a story. The upside down zipline was the most fun. The next day we tried to find one of the "watering holes" to swim in (I really felt like i was in the Lion King) but it was soooo muddy! Then we left for Cairns again.

GREAT BARRIER REEF

I'm sure most of you have heard of the Great Barrier Reef...its larger than the Great Wall of China and the only living thing visible from space. It is one of the seven wonders of the natural world! As the planet's biggest reef system, it has more biodiversity than the rainforest! We took a boat out of Cairns and sailed to the reef to snorkel at two different sites...it was just amazing. Psychedelic colored glowing fish, electric blue with huge lips, bright yellow, zebra stripes...and tons of different colored coral reef...it was just another world all together. Which Disney soundtrack did I have stuck in my head this time...? You guessed it, Under the Sea! I really felt like Ariel except my hair is now a sun bleached brown rather than red!





From Cairns we flew back to cold cold Melbourne...but it was nice to sleep in my own bed after so long. Queensland was heaps of fun...it is such a beautiful tropical splice of paradise...everyone should see it!! Okay really time to go to bed now! Right-o!