Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest

Last week I took a fun trip to Port Douglas, Australia. It is a quiet little beach town about an hour north of Cairns. It was a wonderful, relaxing trip filled with time by the pool, by the beach, out on a boat, and hiking through a rain forest. While in the rain forest I learned a good amount about the indigenous population - how they used the land and some of their cultural practices.

This was the pool at my hostel. It was probably only mid 80s with a nice breeze - perfect weather. 

This is 4-mile beach, the famous beach across the street from my hostel. 

I took a day trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. It was BEAUTIFUL. I have underwater pictures as well, but I need to get them developed. 

This is the Port Douglas marina where I picked up my boat for my reef trip. 

Another day I went on a day trip to the Daintree Rainforest. This was on a boat ride across the Daintree river where we were searching for crocodiles. We didn't see any. I'm not surprised, there are boats that go back and forth across this river all day long. 

The landscape was amazing the entire trip - beach, mountains, rivers, everything!

This was one of my favorite pictures. Jellyfish are quite prominent in the area, to the point that swimming isn't allowed in most areas, but just in case you get stung here is some vinegar for you. 

Part of Mossman Gorge, in the rainforest. 

Me in front of the gorge. 

A flower in the rain forest. It just stuck out at me and required a picture!

Shrimp on the barbie

Me in my Crocodile Dundee hat taking care of shrimp and roo on the barbie. 

This weekend I went with my housemates, Katrina and Sebastian, to Sebastian's hometown of Castlemaine. It was a beautiful ride through the bush to get there. While there we stayed with his dad and several people were in town for Sebastian's sister's birthday. Everyone was so nice and welcoming and just made the weekend a relaxing trip away. Friday night we went to a local restaurant/bar and were the only ones there at around 10pm. On Saturday we did a quick walk around the entire town (it's pretty small) and then enjoyed a lunch and some time at the local watering hole. The best part was a barbecue on Saturday night. Sebastian's brother was in charge and the man likes his meat. As such we had chicken (chook), sausage (snags), kangaroo (roo), shrimp (prawns), and a little bit of potato salad. I earned my honorary Australian citizenship by putting shrimp on the barbie. When I did Sebastian's brother said "Melissa, can you please go back and tell everyone in America that we have prawns, not shrimp. We don't even know what shrimp are." So there you have it folks, they are prawns on the barbie. Oh, and the kangaroo was quite delicious. Similar to steak but sweeter. This trip crosses off #12. Eat kangaroo and # 16. Put some shrimp on the barbie (prawns will do) from the Goals for Oz list. 

Of course I found a large tree as well. This is the 'big tree' in Castlemaine - it's a large Elm.

Fancy dress does not mean dress fancy

A few weeks ago my friend Candice from work invited me to a 'Movember' party. 'Movember' is essentially the man equivalent to breast cancer awareness month. Basically, it is meant to heighten awareness about men's health and give men an excuse to grow that mustache (hence the mo) that their partners might otherwise despise. I have no particular affinity for mos or otherwise but it sounded like fun so I said sure. When trying to figure out what to wear this is the conversation that ensued between myself and two friends:

Me: What do I wear?
Candice: Oh, its fancy dress.
Me: Cool, what are you going to wear?
 (in my head): Maybe I can wear that grey dress I brought, I have some nice black shoes...
Kate: I'm going as the Black Swan so a tutu and leotard.
Me: Wait, what?
 (in my head): How is a black tutu fancy dress?

Turns out fancy dress is just another phrase for costume. Glad I found out before going to the party! Men were supposed to grow out their mustache and wear a costume to match. Female dates were supposed to match their man's mo. The rest of us were free to make up any costume. Thanks to Tamar, this was what I wore...

...a giant pink mustache! From left to right this is Tracy, Candice, Ben, me, and Be.

The event was so much fun. There were a ton of people there, probably 300+, and everyone did a great job with their costumes. Several people liked my costume and requested pictures, I happily obliged.  

 

These were a couple of the costumes - a group of  Mona Lisas and a mozilla firefox. 

This was another group of my favorites - the army man won the costume contest and Zach Galifianakis (second from the left; from the movie the Hangover) was a great match. There were several 'Goose' from Top Gun as well (far right). 

It's gonna be a hot one, folks

Just wanted to let you all know how unbelievably warm it was today - 44C. That is 111F! It wasn't so bad while I was at work, in the comforts of an air conditioned facility. When I got home, however, I was reminded that we don't have an air conditioning unit (most houses don't) and my bedroom faces the setting sun. When I asked my roommates how to cope at night they said to take a very cold shower, soak the towel (then ring it out), and lay it over you while you blast a fan.

Good news is it should drop to high 80s tomorrow and then low 70s by Sunday. They weren't kidding about this weird weather!

A 5th grade report on Australia

               

Natalie has been working tirelessly on a report about Australia for her 5th grade gifted class. I'm not sure of the specifications of the assignment but I know she had to write a paper of some length (maybe 5 pages or so), prepare 2 audio/visual aids, and give a presentation. I was so impressed with her work this year (particularly the visual aids) that I wanted to share. Above is one of her art pieces. It is a topographical map of Australia. The different colors represent the height of the land with blue being the lowest. She also added the dingo fence (described below), Lake Eyre, a kangaroo, and me (a little flag at the bottom right). Below is some of the paper. I cut it for brevity. Hopefully I have a future researcher on my hands although I think the current career prospect is equine veterinarian. Great job Natalie!

"Welcome to the land down under where many records have been broken. Learn about many fascinating creatures,  exciting locations and much much more in Australia the land down under!!The largest formation ever made by living creatures is named the Great Barrier Reef.  It is the world’s largest coral formation. It stretches 1,250 miles (2010 kilometers) along the north eastern coast. It consists of 2,500 living creatures!! It is even visible from the moon!!! Another Australian record breaker is Lake  Eyre. It is the lowest point in all of Australia!! It is located in the Outback and because of that it is normally just a dry bed of salt!

     The highest point on Australia is Mount Kosciusko (Coo-sce-usko).  It is 7,310 feet above the nearby pacific.   It is almost the tallest point in the world. Australia consists of 6 states. The largest city is Sydney. That is where Nemo was trapped in a fish tank to be given to a dentist’s daughter. Almost one fifth of Australia’s people live in Sydney.  Australia’s largest harbor is in Sydney.   Also seen in Nemo is the

Sydney’s opera house. Tasmania broke away from Australia  more than 12000 years ago!  It is the island southeast of Australia.  It is wet,  cool, mountainous  and green. Such a beautiful site.

         Hop hop hop goes the Joey…. That’s a baby kangaroo. They spend most of their young lives inside  a warm fuzzy pouch that  their mother provides. They both eat herbs and grass. Kangaroos can leap great distances on powerful hind legs and a big strong tail.Koalas can eat up to 2 pounds of leaves each day. But the eucalypts leaves they eat all their lives, come from one tree.  That means koalas are in danger of extinction. They need help from us but it costs lots of money to put up fences.

        About 20% of Australia’s people were born in another country. About 85% work and live in cities. Slightly more girls live in Australia. This is because girls live longer than men. People living in the Outback, have to use a two way radio to connect to each other.

       The world’s largest fence is in Australia. It is called the dingo fence. It is 3700 miles long. It runs from the southeast corner of Australia to Queensland.  It was built to keep the wild yellowish colored dingoes away. Dingos are small animals that look like a cross from a fox and a dog.  Dingoes hunt and kill sheep.

Although the smart dingoes managed to dig under the fence.

       Scientists believe the oldest living thing, Kings Holly which is located in Tasmania, may be 20,000 years old.  Kings Holly is a giant bush.  It looks like the top of a redwood tree with more leaves!  It is very bushy and there is not another bush that looks like it in the world.The largest rock in the world, Uluru (of – Look – room) is in the Outback. The ancient Australians named it that.  It is one old rock!!

       Australia has a funny nickname.  It is “The Land Down Under”.  It was nicknamed that because it is under the southern hemisphere. Thank you for visiting the land down under, where many records have been broken. We hope you  will visit  again."

                             

Busy Thanksgiving

I made these fun hats as a throw-back to something we did as kids in school. They also prompted a bit of a history lesson about the origins of Thanksgiving, Pilgram-Indian relations, and the many ways you can cook a turkey. 

This weekend was perhaps my busiest yet (with the exception of when Ali and Brendan were here). Friday night I went with Candice and several of her friends to dinner (Japanese) and then to see the new James Bond movie. I feel like I have seen my share of Bond movies and to be completely honest, I don't really care for them. Nonetheless, I went for the opportunity to socialize and eat a nice dinner. My movie ticket was $20 and the theater was the biggest I've ever seen. The chairs were akin to lounge chairs, fully outfitted with comfy arm rests and plump cushions. Not sure it was entirely worth $20 but it was pretty good. The movie was fine.

Saturday my housemates and I celebrated Thanksgiving. After a morning Pilates class I went the grocery store (twice) and started cooking with my roommate Sebastian. I made pumpkin pie, ambrosia, veggie tray with homemade ranch dressing, and homemade biscuits (American biscuits). Other dishes my roomies made included a stuffed chicken with gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green beans with glazed onions, pecan pie, macaroni and cheese, stuffing, and a kale salad. My roommates wanted a traditional American Thanksgiving feel so they went out of their way to make the recipes as authentic as possible. It was very sweet. We had about 12 people over to celebrate with. The weather was high 80s during the day but ended with a light shower and cooled to about 65 at night...perfect weather if you ask me.

Katrina and Sebastian preparing a bit the night before.

Me working on ambrosia salad (or watergate). They don't have cool whip, so I substituted whipped cream and I don't think it worked as well. I found that it was much more concentrated and less fluffy than I remembered. 

I also took this opportunity to try a new cider. Good thing it is 8% alcohol because at $17/4-pack, I can only afford a few. It was delicious.

My turkey veggie platter.  

Most of the final spread. 

The delicious chicken. 

Getting ready to eat outside. 

On Sunday I went for a long hike with my friend Be and her American friend Jaime who was visiting from California. I've been wanting to go on a hike for a while so I jumped on the opportunity. It was quite a trek of a day, I first had to walk to the tram (about 1.5 miles), then took the tram to the train station, took the train to Be, continued on the train to a new area of town, walked to the park (about 2 miles), then hiked about 10 miles in the park, then walked back to the train, took the train back to town, then walked to the tram (just a few blocks), took the tram to the grocery store, then walked home (about .5 miles). This was an all day adventure, I left at about 7:30am and got home around 5pm. Well worth it though, had a fantastic time. The weather was perfect, probably high 70s with a nice cool breeze. Also, I can now check off # 24 - ride a train - from my Goals for Oz.

Waiting at Flinders Street Train Station.

The back of my friend Be, walking across the bush.

We stopped at a lookout point. The sign said to "Enjoy the antics of kayakers." Sadly, there were no kayakers engaging in antics.

Hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving and weekend as well!

I heard you!

Today my right knee felt funny when I straightened my leg. I didn't think much of it and carried on with my day. On my walk home from work I was carrying my backpack (filled with laptop and other school supplies), another bag full of running shoes, clothes, a towel, and toiletries, and a 6-pack of toilet paper. Oh, and I was wearing heels. 5 steps before my door my right food turned slightly inward, my foot popped out of that shoe and I ended face down on the sidewalk. I stood up, brushed off my knees, and took it as a sign that I was behind on my blogging and the public was waiting.

Today was Melbourne Cup Day. The Melbourne Cup is a famous horse race, similar to the Kentucky Derby. It is actually a public holiday so much of the city was off work but I was not. I didn't really have an appreciation for the Cup and had lots of work to do so I didn't mind going into work. I have a few active papers I'm working on with the hospital dataset but more importantly I have job/post-doc applications due in  the next month. I submitted the Flagler application today (yippee!) and am furiously trying to finish the Hopkins post-doc app by the end of the week for an internal review by the Hopkins committee. I've identified a couple more post-docs to apply to so we will see what happens.

I haven't been doing as much exploring lately. I had a couple plans that fell through but a couple more are the books. One of my housemates may also join me to Cairns in Jan so that will be fun. My friend from work told me that you can only swim in certain parts of Port Douglas because of the jelly fish and crocodiles. She said it so nonchalantly "salt water crocodiles are the worst, they will eat you for sure." Guess I will need to figure out which parts those are. In the meantime, we are going to have a Thanksgiving dinner at the house so I need to get working on a menu. I was trying to explain biscuits to my housemates but they call cookies biscuits so they thought I meant something sweet, I'm trying to describe light, fluffy goodness - you understand.

Hope all is well in the States. I sure miss everyone and can't wait to get back to some of my favorite things and people!