Dolphins in Byron Bay.

So last saturday was my dolphin research training day in byron bay, which is about 30 miles away from here. There are buses running all day, but in order to be there in time, I had to catch the 4 am bus. Yes, that's right, 4 am. Lovely. So after about a 45 bus ride, I arrived in Byron at, ooh 5 am! It was absolutely gorgeous then. The sun was coming up, so the sky was all lavender and pink and just beautiful. All the old, hard core surfers were out, getting in their old style rides before all the young hot shots got there to hog their waves.

The lighthouse in Byron is the highest point there is in the area, which means it's a bit of a hike. When the bus dropped me off, I had about a mile beach walk before I actually got to the trail. The trail wound up around this hillside(mountainside) through a littoral rainforest, so some parts of the trail were completely surrounded by trees and moss and birds, just like walked through some mystical jungle tunnel. Other parts were right on the cliff side, overlooking all of Byron Bay. It was the best way to start a morning. I finally arrived at the lighthouse around 7, 2 hours before I needed to be there, so I just sat against the lighthouse and watched my ocean. I also watched a GIANT beetle climb up some metal cable next to me. He fell off once, and when I used my pen to turn him right side up, he hissed at me! I thought he was going to charge! I have never been more afraid of a beetle in my life. I then saw a lizard running along the path where it meets the grass. He was picking insects out of the grass line, while he ran along the warm cement. He seemed unconcerned with my presence. He let me walk with him for quite a while until he scampered over to a rock outcrop.

When the time for dolphin research came, I was so excited. I was the only one from the US there, so I was pretty psyched. Everyone seemed kind of shocked that I was from so far away. They were all mostly australian. So for the first half of the training we went up into the lighthouse to do observations, and learn how to run the program Cyclops. Using a camera scope and focus, it plots GPS points of where dolphins, fish, boats, etc are. We saw a pod of dolphins, one had a calf. They were gorgeous. I couldn't believe that they were just right there off shore. It makes me wonder how many times dolphins have been around me and I've never noticed. I also saw about an 8 foot manta ray! I just wanted to run out of the lighthouse and jump into the water and swim with him. He was so beautiful! I've never seen a manta in the wild, and it left me speechless. There were also multiple loggerhead sea turtles just kicking around. They are really big, much bigger than the green sea turtles I've seen in Hawaii. Australia definitely is the place to come for sea life. You don't even have to try to find it, if you just open your eyes, it's everywhere! I can't wait to get in the boat and do some water research!

Arrival in Australia!

So Tuesday night (the 5th) I hopped on a plane headed 14 hours over the pacific. Best decision I ever made!

The plane ride over was pretty great. I was in the middle seat. To my left was an Airforce guy, with huge shoulders.. enough said as to the proximity of airline seating. To my right was this skinny canadian going to discipleship school. Pretty much the three of us just laughed for the first three hours of the flight. I'm almost positive that the guy in front of mr. airforce was trying to shut us up by out of the blue leaning his seat back as far as possible (right as Chris was leaning forward) and smacking him right in the head! Have you ever been on one of those 2 leveled airbuses? The seats in economy lean almost all the way back! It's great. Even though we were flying during the am hours and I should have been sleeping, I didn't. The whole flight. Lots of movies...

When I got into Brisbane it was overcast and humid and warm. Never been happier. I'm pretty sure all the Aussie's thought I was an idiot cause I was smiling like a fool. I just couldn't stop. As I was walking to the bus I was laughing. They were all laughing at me though cause I had a backpack on, and was somehow trying to wheel three suitcases along. Yeah, really don't recommend that.

Brisbane is a wonderful city. It's a beautiful mix of old world Australian Colonial and Ultra-Modern. It's fantastic. All the new buildings have all this wonderful metal artwork outside them, and all these beautiful glass walls. The same however can not be said about the transit center. It is this total ghetto building, that looks abandoned. It's full of back-packers there. Everyone backpacks through Australia! It looks like a blast.

The bus ride to Lismore was 5 hours. It was really fun though, cause all we were driving through were these awesome little coastal towns with rows and rows of surf shops, bead shops, hippie shops etc etc. Hippies are big here in Australia. I feel like I fit right in! There's this one town we drove through called surfers paradise that was literally just one road. On the left was the ocean, and on the right were surf shops for just miles and miles. I just wanted to get off and walk around.

Lismore Is 30 minutes inland, and just this country po-dunk kind of town. I love it! Lismore is built all over these hills and valleys, so my apartment is on a hill, overlooking the Uni which is in a valley. Oh here in Aussieland they don't really say University. They say Uni. So I do too. When I first pulled up to my apartment all I could think was "This looks absolutely nothing like the pictures online." The grounds hadn't even been looked at I think all summer, and the buildings just looked old. When I walked in, all I could think was that exact same thought, just worse. There were piles of dead cockroaches everywhere! There's a little pile in the hall, there's one in the kitchen, one in the living room, and one in the corner of my room. It's awesome! Then, I found a living one, running around inside my fridge! My FRIDGE!!!! talk about gross. Then I found one in my freezer, but I think he was just chilling on the door and fell in when i opened it. It was great.... All the bugs are just bigger here. Bigger spiders, bigger dragonflies, bigger beetles, every bug just looks like it could eat you! And probably can.

Having only been here 3 days, I already love my little apartment. I really do. I have a twin bed that I am too tall for, a shower that I have to totally bend over in to get my hair wet, and cockroaches for flat mates but I wouldn't change it! I love it here!

I would encourage everyone who has aver wanted to come here, do it! It's wonderful.

Really Really Unexpected!!

So this week has been truly a wild wild adventure! I origianlly was planning to move to Australia sometime in the first week of February, a reasonable time before school started. Well wednesday came around, and I logged on to check my SCU email, and had one in my inbox titled "Dolphin Research in Byron Bay". I opened it and what I saw was a dream come true. The whale research team at SCU needed more volunteers for a dolphin research project about their habitat use, and the effects of human vessels on their habitat use in Byron Bay (just outside lismore).
I of course immediately replied back to the email saying I wanted to be part of the project and if they could guarantee me a place in the project, I would guarantee I would be there, and the hardest working volunteer they had. Friday night they emailed me back saying they wanted me to come out and would guarantee me a place in the project! The great part about this project is I have to be in Australia on January 9th for training, meaning I needed to leave January 5th in order to get there on time! So in doing the math, I needed to be ready to leave in only 4 days, 6 weeks before I had intended. So this week has been quite an adventure, mainly just lots of adrenaline, frantic packing/running around, and really excited phone calls to random friends and family.
So my timetable just got thrown on warped speed, and I love it!

My New Apartment

So I was just notified by Southern Cross University that I got an apartment on campus. I'm living in a sweet building called Orion College. I have my own room (wohoo), no clue how many roommates though. Our building has a pool (YES!) and the whole commons room game area tv deal. It is located on a hill overlooking the campus, so I'm very excited. Who knows maybe I will be able to see the ocean from this hill!

Song 1: Road Trip

This is one of my songs, I recorded this about 2 years ago, so my voice has changed A LOT, but hey, it's the lyrics and music that matter right? Hope you like it!

Getting Ready for Down Under

So I recently just dropped $500 on an Australian student visa! I mean seriously mates, what's up with that? Cut us poor international students some slack! I signed up for my housing! I'm living in an on campus apartment on this sweet hill that looks out over the university. I also started signing up for classes! So far I've only got Coastal Marine Ecosystems on my schedule, but there will be more to come.