Saturday, March 21, 2009

Angie - Spring 2009 - Australia

Wednesday, March 18, 2009updates from Australia!Hey everyone,Here is a brief recap of my past month in AustraliaOur group went to a research lodge in the rainforest and lived there forten days in the wilderness. We spent most of the days hiking in differenttypes of rainforest and Eucalyptus forests to learn about the trees,animals, and insects that live there and how they all effect each other.We saw a tree kangaroo which was a very lucky experience since they arevery shy and endangered; it was absolutely adorable, it was dark brownwith a teddy bear like face and a long brown tail. He just curiouslywatched us pass as he sat high up in a tree in the canopy of therainforest. We did a long hike one hot day and it would have been awfulbut once we reached the end there was a huge, blue waterfall pouring overa cliff and we got to go swimming in its cool pool. We had to give acouple presentations one on an animal of Australia and one on a plant ofAustralia; it was a lot of work but very interesting and we got to be theexperts on them and teach the rest of class about them. One night we wentspotlighting, where you take a spotlight and shine it into the trees andthe reflection of the light will make animals eyes glow so you can findthem. We saw several marsupial possums which were very cute, one even hada little baby clinging to its back, they are much smaller than ones athome and have cute little round faces and bright orange or red eyes.Everything here is so unique. One of my favorite project though was whenwe helped a local farm plant over 50 trees to help re-grow the rainforestwhere it had be destroyed! It really made me feel like I was making animpact for the better. During the rainforest trip we had to drive througha lot of farmland and there were lots of black and white cows all over thehills and it made me miss my little mid-west home some.Reasons you should be jealousI got to feed wallabies (they are like miniature kangaroos) from my handand they climb right into your lapTomorrow I will leave to live on a little island, Lizard island, and willspend almost everyday on a beach and snorkeling in the Great Barrier ReefWhen I get to the end of a long hike I can see mountains and sky and oceanfor miles and miles and it is absolutely breath takingI swam under a freaking waterfall!Reasons you shouldn’t be jealousA python lived in my ceiling and a dead skink was rotting under my bedI got 5 leeches and that was lucky cause other people got over twenty andthat was in a single dayThere are spiders that are very hairy and it would take a baseball bat orhammer to kill themWe did a hike that was so steep it was like going up three stairs in onestep for half an hour or moreAll in all I am having a wonderful time and loving this beautiful place!Angie

Australia- travel
The best thing i learned from traveling abroad is bring everything youneed for at least three days in your carry on becasue all my luggage waslost when i arrived in Australia. No worries though as they say here i gotit eventually and was able to buy what i needed. It is very easy to buythings here that are also in the states so i regreted packing so muchextra supplies like deoderant and shampoo and toothpaste casue it took upalot of room in my suitcase and was easy to find and cheaper here so thereis a good tip as well. It was also easy to get a phone to call home withbecause it was a lot cheaper and i got a good startup plan with lots ofminutes; dont bother trying to buy a phone in the states to take abroadbecasuse alot of them dont work well at all. several people have broughtthem here and they havent worked. All the trouble was well worth it, iabsolutly love it here and have been seeing as much as i can of thisbeautiful conutry.My program group has been taking lots of hikes in the rainforest to learnabout the many plants and animals of this area. We've also just gottenback from an incredible six day camping trip where we learned aboutaboriginal culture and traditions; it was interesting to hear about suchan ancient heritage considering America's mix cultures and short history.It has all been very eye opening!

2 Comments:

Blogger Kim said...

Hey Angie,

I will also be studying abroad in Australia this coming July. Thanks for the tips about packing. Do you have any other packing suggestions? How many suitcases did you bring?

Have fun!

Kim

1:58 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Angie!

When you first got to Australia and got over all the excitement that you were actually there, did you experience any culture shock? If you did what types of feelings did you experience and how did you get over the shock so that you could continue having fun?

Casey

P.S. we all miss you! your blog was just like what you were sending us on facebook. I hope you are having fun! see you soon!

4:13 PM  

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