I would have tons of sweet pictures to post from Sydney if I hadn't lost my camera during the trip. I think I'll be buying a new one at the Duty Free on the way to New Zealand... whoops, my bad. The trip was really fun, I spent way too much money shopping and eating out and didn't do any school work.
Day 1:
We arrived at 8AM (after catching a 6:30AM flight) and met our friend from Duke, Max, who is studying at the University of Sydney. We dropped our bags in the apartment where we were crashing and went to Darling Harbor, which is a really nice harbor in the Central Business District that a lot of boats sail in and out of. We visited the aquarium where I fell in love with some penguins. There was also a really cool shark tunnel and a seal tunnel where you walk under a glass tunnel and the animals swim over you and you can see everything. After we left the aquarium we walked over to Curcular Quay where the Opera House is and ate lunch at a waterside restaurant. Then we went to the Gallery of Modern Art in Sydney and spent awhile just wondering and seeing all of the artwork, which at times was very disturbing. There were two exhibits in particular that Lindsay and I analyzed for at least a half hour each and left highly unsettled. The one we analyzed most intensely was by an artist who included photographs of himself with a superimposed vagina and female mask on in his paintings (yet Lindsay and I concluded that the paintings were actually about World War II... strange, yes?). After the museum we went back and met Max's new friends from Sydney and went out for Thai food. We went to a place called "The Argyle" at night, which was in an area called "The Rocks."
Day 2:
Max and Katelyn had a sailing race all day, so Lindsay, Mollie, Laura, and I were on our own. Of course we all went to get our hair done in the gay area of the city. I got my bangs retrimmed and got gloss because my hair was very dry (or just becaue it was part of the package I bought), Mollie did the same, and Laura and Lindsay got highlights. Then we wandered around Sydney with our new hair and shopped. We wen't to the China Town of Sydney and went to a place called "Paddy's Market" with a lot of cheesy knick-knacks. We finally got back to the main shopping district where we finished our day at completely normal department stores with English-speaking citizens. We saw the Westminster Abbey Choir at the Opera House that night, which was really cool, even to someone who has zero affinity for Church music. The organ player was amazing and I have never heard men with such high voices. Afterwards, we went to the Opera House Bar and then met our other friends from Duke (Tad, Josh, and Alex) who were also in Sydney. We all headed over to a Beer Gardens place called Lowenbrau where I managed to steal like 8 steins but lose my camera. Barring the loss of my digital camera, I think that was one of the highlights of the trip and I'm jealous that Max got to spend forever in Germany. Then we went to a place called "Pancakes on the Rocks" and feasted over some of the most delicious pancakes I have ever eaten in my life. Did I mention that I'm like 20 pounds heavier than when I left?
Day 3:
Mollie left in the morning to go back to Brisbane and do work. The rest of us went to Coogee beach where we met up with all of the Duke kids again and did a hike from Coogee Beach to Bondai. It's about a two hour trek along the cliffs overlooking the ocean and it's one of those touristy things that everyone does. It was really fun and we got sushi in Bondai at the end, so it was totally worth it. We got back late in the afternoon, so we just packed up and left for the airport to head back to Brisbane.
Now I'm here procrastinating more about the fact that I haven't done a lick of stuyding and exams are in a week and a half. Cross your fingers and hope that I'll pass!
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Friday, October 12, 2007
Museums and Surfer's Paradise
Last Friday Mollie, Lindsay and I went to the Brisbane art gallery and were able to view a couple of installations before the museum closed for the day. There was a great exhibit with metal spheres floating around in a pond in the middle of the museum floor, which you were allowed to touch to change the path of each bath. There was also a great 10-year working self-portrait installation and some interesting ceramics and statues from Asia.
Saturday we went to Surfer's Paradise, a beach about 2 hours from our apartment by train and bus. We and the boys stayed there in a hostel called "Backpacker's Paradise." Unfortunately, the weather was not very nice and we got stuck in a minor sandstorm. Mollie was one of the victims:
Also, I know that Marcy was interested in seeing pictures from Fiji. If anyone else wants to see some of those, they are at the following URL:
http://duke.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2076213&l=ad4b8&id=1310576
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Ten of the Most Wonderful Days
Day 1: The Voyage to Fiji
Mollie, Katleyn, Lindsay and I left at around 8:00AM for our 10:15AM flight. Lindsay and I were functioning on about three or four hours of sleep after going out the Wednesday night before and we were not happy people. We arrived to the airport and met Laz, Toby, Mike and Doug at check-in with plenty of time. After relinquishing ourselves of our luggage, we dropped about 40 pounds of weight each and immediately regained it by stuffing ourselves with fast food for breakfast.
After arriving in Sydney for our connection we had to rush through to the International Terminal and got to the gate with only ten minutes before scheduled boarding. Fortunately for us, nothing actually happens on time in Australia and we had plenty of time to go to the Duty Free to buy alcohol for the trip.
We landed in Fiji at about 7:00PM and took a bus to our first hostel called “Nomads Skylodge.” There we met our tour guide, Pete. Now, if you think that the operating company would like to choose an upstanding, responsible human being to entrust with the lives of twenty-seven college students, you would be wrong. Pete’s bar tab averaged about $130.00 a night and though he did buy other people drinks now and again, the damage was largely his own. So this was where we met Pete. Pete proceeded to comment on everyone’s most intimate physical insecurities throughout the trip, i.e. my boobs, Katelyn’s butt, Lindsay’s height. Needless to say, after meeting him we were not impressed, but you will be glad to know that our opinions changed.
Day 2: Bula, Beach, Barbeque and Boarding Down Sand Dunes
“Bula!” That means “Hello” in Fijian and everyone we passed on our bus ride greeted us as we drove over to our first destination. We began our second day by going into the town of Nadi. There we purchased sarongs to wear to a Cava ceremony later in the day.
Afterwards, we went to one of the top 25 beaches in the world to spend our morning playing on the beach. Some of us, including myself, decided to horseback ride on the beach. The guide assigned to my horse was really creepy though and had some strange and unwelcome points of conversation, but later I found out that they were all that way so I’m pretty sure that they just want to find nice American wives to get them out of Fiji. We had a nice beach barbeque and then packed up to go into a Fijian village.
At the Fijian village we toured one of the houses and got to participate in a Cava ceremony. Cava is a drink derived from the root of a plant and tastes like dirt, but it makes your mouth numb and it’s basically what Fijians drink rather than alcohol. Drinking Cava is a sign of friendship and well wishes so we drank it when we met the village leaders. Later we found out that it’s derived from a relative of Meth, but no big deal, I’m still alive.
To wrap up the day we went sand boarding down a huge sand dune. Basically you just jump on a boogie board and go face first down a huge hill until you stop naturally or run into a big brambly bush. Of course I ran into the brambles and still have scraps all over my legs.
We checked into our new hostel called “Mango Bay Resort,” which was definitely a step up from Skylodge. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to share in the great first meal because this was the night that I began my fast for Yom Kippur.
Day 3: The Ten-Kilometer Hike Without Food
This was by far the most physically demanding day of the tour. We hiked ten miles through the Fijian Rainforest. The hike was phenomenal. The first third was mainly uphill and in the open until we reached the path in the rainforest where we were protected by the canopy. All of the ground in this part of the trek was a deep red offered an amazing contrast to the green of the flora around us. After about four kilometers we finally reached the rainforest where we hiked up and down, through small streams, and over logs. The sounds of the animals were like an orchestra of calls. Once we reached the end of the main part of the rainforest we had to trek through a stream. We couldn’t see the bottom at all so everyone was falling all over and trying to make sure that their cameras weren’t lost in the process. We left the stream to “the beginning of the end,” which was a downhill climb assisted by a railing of rope, which probably saved my life about ten times all in all. My group was of the first to finish, so we spent our down time trekking up another stream into a source where we heard the rushing of a waterfall. Sitting under the flow was amazing and we hung around there for a while until the rest finished the trek and reconvened to get lunch.
After lunch, which was an activity that I did not partake in, went tubing down the river at the end of our trek. Mollie and I tried to play a game of “Blob” in the tubes, but our plan was pretty miserable and ended up in Mollie and I attached to each other, not moving anywhere. We had fun anyways and once we got to the beach for our landing, we jumped into two boats to take us to a cliff for jumping into another waterfall basin. It really wasn’t high at all but our Fijian guide scaled the cliff wall and jumped off of a ledge about three or four times as high as ours, and that was pretty sweet. Once we got home from this adventure it was about dinnertime, which I could not have been happier for and I got to eat a very much-wanted Break Fast and see a Fijian performing troop do there native songs and dances.
Day 4: Arrival at Manta Ray Bay
The next morning, which started very early, we had to be on our tour bus by 6:00AM. We drove two hours over to a port where we would depart from to visit the Yasawa Islands off of the main island. The first resort we visited was named “Manta Ray Bay” and this was possibly my favorite two days of the trip. This may have been because the food was phenomenal and both nights we got to dance in the pouring rain.
The first day we arrived off of the boat around 1:00PM and ate our first of many amazing meals on the island. After lunch, we played a group game of volleyball, and the rest of the people on the group came to realize how truly uncoordinated I am and how easily I fall over for no reason.
After I was sufficiently hot from beach volleyball, I went for a snorkel and a couple of the others in the group went for a kayak across to another beach. The snorkeling was amazing and it was easy enough to swim out to reefs right off of the beach and see plenty of marine life. There were a ton of blue sea stars and enormous coral heads. I finished my snorkel at about the same time that the kayakers were coming back so I intercepted Mollie on her paddle back so that I could try and drag her kayak over to the reefs and show her the coral. We ended up trying to get two people on the kayak at a time after she had finished her snorkel. I got in first, and when we were trying to get her and keep the boat balanced, we obviously flipped the bat right over. The kayaks were ocean kayaks so they weren’t as much fun to flip as the river ones and it was way too easy to get water out of the boat. Before dinner Mollie and I went for a run down the short beach and passed coconuts back and forth as a joke while the last volleyball game was ending.
That night it was pouring rain. Since the part of the bar where the dance floor is was uncovered, everyone was soaking wet and dancing in the rain. Afterwards, we went down to the beach to try to play volleyball and soccer, which didn’t turn out so well, but was fun in any case.
Day 5: Manta Ray Bay
On day two at Manta Ray Bay we played more beach volleyball and snorkeled a bunch more. Katelyn and I signed up for scuba diving in the afternoon and I taught her how to do headstands on the beach. When the afternoon came around, the weather didn’t suggest that the conditions underwater would be very good for visibility so we postponed our dive trip until the next morning. Instead, Katelyn and I had a long conversation conversation on the beach and dug some holes in the sand.
That night we got to see another Fijian dance performance and, again, the rain poured off and on all night long. We all danced in the rain again and tried to play volleyball, but somehow after mostly everyone had gone to sleep I decided that kayaking across to the other beach in the middle of the night with two other group members was a great idea (and it was). Our tour guide was not very happy though and sat on the beach and waited on the beach the entire time we were gone for us to come back. Afterward our nighttime kayak, which was one of the most calming and beautiful experiences ever, the three of us sat in hammocks and stargazed, which can be slightly difficult in the southern hemisphere where most of the constellations are different from those of the northern hemisphere; however, we still saw Orion and I think we could also still spot Taurus, though I could easily be wrong.
Day 6: Coral Dive and Departure From Manta Ray to the Wanataki Cruise
Katelyn and I did a 9:00AM dive the next morning, mostly consisting of the normal tropical fish and coral, which was great itself. It was interesting to see the discrepancy between the coral formations in the shallow water snorkeling in the bay and the deeper water formations along the bottom of the seabed in the scuba dive excursion. We just hung out on the beach for the rest of the morning and packed for our next accommodation, overnight on the Wanataki cruise ship.
We left for the cruise ship in the early afternoon. The ship was large and lime green. It had one large room full of bunk beds, a male and female bathroom facility and a deck where the occupants ate and drank. It was not one would describe as a typical cruise ship, but more of a very large houseboat. There were kayaks and snorkeling off the back of the boat and we were allowed to jump off the deck on the side of the boat. After about two jumps, I had my fill of wedgies and showered before dinner. We had some seasickness/drunkenness that night, which I had the pleasure of taking care of after dinner. Otherwise the night was great and at the end of the night the crew caught a reef shark off the side of the boat. I was not very happy about this and decided that I needed to go to sleep afterwards.
Day 7: Off the Boat and Onto the Shores of Beachcomber
They just did not want to let us sleep that morning. They sounded the breakfast alarms at like 7:45AM and made sure everyone was up. I got breakfast and went back to sleep for the rest of the morning. I lay on the deck for a while until we disembarked the boat after lunch. We got back onto the transport vessel that we took over to Manta Ray Bay and took the boat over to a new island called “Beachcomber Resort.” Beachcomber is the so-called “party island” of Fiji. We stayed in a 104-person dormitory. Since we didn’t arrive at the resort until about 5:00PM, our first there mainly consisted of cleaning ourselves of the filth from the boat where no one had a proper shower.
At night we saw yet again another Fijian Dance Troop, which was quite enough for the trip. The bar at Beachcomber was particularly fun because it was on the beach and the ground was sand so no one wore shoes.
Day 8: Laid Back Beachcomber
I think all I did the first full day at Beachcomber’s was lie on my butt. I missed breakfast and unsuccessfully tried to run around the island, which happens to only take six minutes to walk around. I also snorkeled a bit more here, but the visibility and the coral was not even close to comparable to Manta Ray Bay.
That night we had crab racing in the bar. Everyone bid on crabs named after countries all over the world and the owner of the winning three crabs collected the prize money, which amounted to almost $600.00. However, no one really knew what he or she was bidding on when they were bidding and it turned out that they were racing hermit crabs. Later on that night when we were dancing, we learned the “Bula Dance,” “Bula” means “Hello” in Fijian and the dance is a lot like the Fijian version of the “Macarana.”
Day 9: Last Full Day in the Yasawas
I again took it easy on the beach most of the day. I played a little bit of volleyball and finished my book, The Lovely Bones, in the morning. In the afternoon I went sailing on a catamaran with Katelyn who sails quite a bit and is on the Duke Sailing Team. It was an amazing end to our last full day on the island and very relaxing. We just talked a lot about life, Duke, being in Australia, and how thankful we were for our vacation.
The final entertainment was hula dancers and fire dancers. It was pretty extreme. We played our final game of beach volleyball and had our last night in the Yasawas.
Day 10: Shark Dive and the Last Day of Beachcombers
The people from Duke who were scuba certified (Katelyn, Mike and I) took a later ferry back than the rest of the group so that we could do a shark dive in the morning. We saw four sharks and a sea turtle. The sharks were on the small end of medium-sized. They were black, white, and grey-tipped Reef Sharks, the same type that we caught off of the Wanataki cruise a few days earlier. It was breath taking to look into their eyes and know that they saw us swimming along side of them. There was a point that two were circling under a rock overhang and one darted out towards some of the scuba divers. It was one of the most amazing things to see them change speeds and scare the life out of some divers; you really came to appreciate their presence.
We spent the rest of the day lounging until our 5:00PM ferry beck to the main island, where we reunited with the group at Skylodge for the last night. Our tour guide wrapped up the tour with awards and remarks and we had our final dinner together. We hung out together for the rest of the night, which turned out to be a little dramatic but closed the tour well.
Day 11: Farewell to Fiji
We slept for about two hours and got up for our 8:15AM flight to say farewell to Fiji.
Mollie, Katleyn, Lindsay and I left at around 8:00AM for our 10:15AM flight. Lindsay and I were functioning on about three or four hours of sleep after going out the Wednesday night before and we were not happy people. We arrived to the airport and met Laz, Toby, Mike and Doug at check-in with plenty of time. After relinquishing ourselves of our luggage, we dropped about 40 pounds of weight each and immediately regained it by stuffing ourselves with fast food for breakfast.
After arriving in Sydney for our connection we had to rush through to the International Terminal and got to the gate with only ten minutes before scheduled boarding. Fortunately for us, nothing actually happens on time in Australia and we had plenty of time to go to the Duty Free to buy alcohol for the trip.
We landed in Fiji at about 7:00PM and took a bus to our first hostel called “Nomads Skylodge.” There we met our tour guide, Pete. Now, if you think that the operating company would like to choose an upstanding, responsible human being to entrust with the lives of twenty-seven college students, you would be wrong. Pete’s bar tab averaged about $130.00 a night and though he did buy other people drinks now and again, the damage was largely his own. So this was where we met Pete. Pete proceeded to comment on everyone’s most intimate physical insecurities throughout the trip, i.e. my boobs, Katelyn’s butt, Lindsay’s height. Needless to say, after meeting him we were not impressed, but you will be glad to know that our opinions changed.
Day 2: Bula, Beach, Barbeque and Boarding Down Sand Dunes
“Bula!” That means “Hello” in Fijian and everyone we passed on our bus ride greeted us as we drove over to our first destination. We began our second day by going into the town of Nadi. There we purchased sarongs to wear to a Cava ceremony later in the day.
Afterwards, we went to one of the top 25 beaches in the world to spend our morning playing on the beach. Some of us, including myself, decided to horseback ride on the beach. The guide assigned to my horse was really creepy though and had some strange and unwelcome points of conversation, but later I found out that they were all that way so I’m pretty sure that they just want to find nice American wives to get them out of Fiji. We had a nice beach barbeque and then packed up to go into a Fijian village.
At the Fijian village we toured one of the houses and got to participate in a Cava ceremony. Cava is a drink derived from the root of a plant and tastes like dirt, but it makes your mouth numb and it’s basically what Fijians drink rather than alcohol. Drinking Cava is a sign of friendship and well wishes so we drank it when we met the village leaders. Later we found out that it’s derived from a relative of Meth, but no big deal, I’m still alive.
To wrap up the day we went sand boarding down a huge sand dune. Basically you just jump on a boogie board and go face first down a huge hill until you stop naturally or run into a big brambly bush. Of course I ran into the brambles and still have scraps all over my legs.
We checked into our new hostel called “Mango Bay Resort,” which was definitely a step up from Skylodge. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to share in the great first meal because this was the night that I began my fast for Yom Kippur.
Day 3: The Ten-Kilometer Hike Without Food
This was by far the most physically demanding day of the tour. We hiked ten miles through the Fijian Rainforest. The hike was phenomenal. The first third was mainly uphill and in the open until we reached the path in the rainforest where we were protected by the canopy. All of the ground in this part of the trek was a deep red offered an amazing contrast to the green of the flora around us. After about four kilometers we finally reached the rainforest where we hiked up and down, through small streams, and over logs. The sounds of the animals were like an orchestra of calls. Once we reached the end of the main part of the rainforest we had to trek through a stream. We couldn’t see the bottom at all so everyone was falling all over and trying to make sure that their cameras weren’t lost in the process. We left the stream to “the beginning of the end,” which was a downhill climb assisted by a railing of rope, which probably saved my life about ten times all in all. My group was of the first to finish, so we spent our down time trekking up another stream into a source where we heard the rushing of a waterfall. Sitting under the flow was amazing and we hung around there for a while until the rest finished the trek and reconvened to get lunch.
After lunch, which was an activity that I did not partake in, went tubing down the river at the end of our trek. Mollie and I tried to play a game of “Blob” in the tubes, but our plan was pretty miserable and ended up in Mollie and I attached to each other, not moving anywhere. We had fun anyways and once we got to the beach for our landing, we jumped into two boats to take us to a cliff for jumping into another waterfall basin. It really wasn’t high at all but our Fijian guide scaled the cliff wall and jumped off of a ledge about three or four times as high as ours, and that was pretty sweet. Once we got home from this adventure it was about dinnertime, which I could not have been happier for and I got to eat a very much-wanted Break Fast and see a Fijian performing troop do there native songs and dances.
Day 4: Arrival at Manta Ray Bay
The next morning, which started very early, we had to be on our tour bus by 6:00AM. We drove two hours over to a port where we would depart from to visit the Yasawa Islands off of the main island. The first resort we visited was named “Manta Ray Bay” and this was possibly my favorite two days of the trip. This may have been because the food was phenomenal and both nights we got to dance in the pouring rain.
The first day we arrived off of the boat around 1:00PM and ate our first of many amazing meals on the island. After lunch, we played a group game of volleyball, and the rest of the people on the group came to realize how truly uncoordinated I am and how easily I fall over for no reason.
After I was sufficiently hot from beach volleyball, I went for a snorkel and a couple of the others in the group went for a kayak across to another beach. The snorkeling was amazing and it was easy enough to swim out to reefs right off of the beach and see plenty of marine life. There were a ton of blue sea stars and enormous coral heads. I finished my snorkel at about the same time that the kayakers were coming back so I intercepted Mollie on her paddle back so that I could try and drag her kayak over to the reefs and show her the coral. We ended up trying to get two people on the kayak at a time after she had finished her snorkel. I got in first, and when we were trying to get her and keep the boat balanced, we obviously flipped the bat right over. The kayaks were ocean kayaks so they weren’t as much fun to flip as the river ones and it was way too easy to get water out of the boat. Before dinner Mollie and I went for a run down the short beach and passed coconuts back and forth as a joke while the last volleyball game was ending.
That night it was pouring rain. Since the part of the bar where the dance floor is was uncovered, everyone was soaking wet and dancing in the rain. Afterwards, we went down to the beach to try to play volleyball and soccer, which didn’t turn out so well, but was fun in any case.
Day 5: Manta Ray Bay
On day two at Manta Ray Bay we played more beach volleyball and snorkeled a bunch more. Katelyn and I signed up for scuba diving in the afternoon and I taught her how to do headstands on the beach. When the afternoon came around, the weather didn’t suggest that the conditions underwater would be very good for visibility so we postponed our dive trip until the next morning. Instead, Katelyn and I had a long conversation conversation on the beach and dug some holes in the sand.
That night we got to see another Fijian dance performance and, again, the rain poured off and on all night long. We all danced in the rain again and tried to play volleyball, but somehow after mostly everyone had gone to sleep I decided that kayaking across to the other beach in the middle of the night with two other group members was a great idea (and it was). Our tour guide was not very happy though and sat on the beach and waited on the beach the entire time we were gone for us to come back. Afterward our nighttime kayak, which was one of the most calming and beautiful experiences ever, the three of us sat in hammocks and stargazed, which can be slightly difficult in the southern hemisphere where most of the constellations are different from those of the northern hemisphere; however, we still saw Orion and I think we could also still spot Taurus, though I could easily be wrong.
Day 6: Coral Dive and Departure From Manta Ray to the Wanataki Cruise
Katelyn and I did a 9:00AM dive the next morning, mostly consisting of the normal tropical fish and coral, which was great itself. It was interesting to see the discrepancy between the coral formations in the shallow water snorkeling in the bay and the deeper water formations along the bottom of the seabed in the scuba dive excursion. We just hung out on the beach for the rest of the morning and packed for our next accommodation, overnight on the Wanataki cruise ship.
We left for the cruise ship in the early afternoon. The ship was large and lime green. It had one large room full of bunk beds, a male and female bathroom facility and a deck where the occupants ate and drank. It was not one would describe as a typical cruise ship, but more of a very large houseboat. There were kayaks and snorkeling off the back of the boat and we were allowed to jump off the deck on the side of the boat. After about two jumps, I had my fill of wedgies and showered before dinner. We had some seasickness/drunkenness that night, which I had the pleasure of taking care of after dinner. Otherwise the night was great and at the end of the night the crew caught a reef shark off the side of the boat. I was not very happy about this and decided that I needed to go to sleep afterwards.
Day 7: Off the Boat and Onto the Shores of Beachcomber
They just did not want to let us sleep that morning. They sounded the breakfast alarms at like 7:45AM and made sure everyone was up. I got breakfast and went back to sleep for the rest of the morning. I lay on the deck for a while until we disembarked the boat after lunch. We got back onto the transport vessel that we took over to Manta Ray Bay and took the boat over to a new island called “Beachcomber Resort.” Beachcomber is the so-called “party island” of Fiji. We stayed in a 104-person dormitory. Since we didn’t arrive at the resort until about 5:00PM, our first there mainly consisted of cleaning ourselves of the filth from the boat where no one had a proper shower.
At night we saw yet again another Fijian Dance Troop, which was quite enough for the trip. The bar at Beachcomber was particularly fun because it was on the beach and the ground was sand so no one wore shoes.
Day 8: Laid Back Beachcomber
I think all I did the first full day at Beachcomber’s was lie on my butt. I missed breakfast and unsuccessfully tried to run around the island, which happens to only take six minutes to walk around. I also snorkeled a bit more here, but the visibility and the coral was not even close to comparable to Manta Ray Bay.
That night we had crab racing in the bar. Everyone bid on crabs named after countries all over the world and the owner of the winning three crabs collected the prize money, which amounted to almost $600.00. However, no one really knew what he or she was bidding on when they were bidding and it turned out that they were racing hermit crabs. Later on that night when we were dancing, we learned the “Bula Dance,” “Bula” means “Hello” in Fijian and the dance is a lot like the Fijian version of the “Macarana.”
Day 9: Last Full Day in the Yasawas
I again took it easy on the beach most of the day. I played a little bit of volleyball and finished my book, The Lovely Bones, in the morning. In the afternoon I went sailing on a catamaran with Katelyn who sails quite a bit and is on the Duke Sailing Team. It was an amazing end to our last full day on the island and very relaxing. We just talked a lot about life, Duke, being in Australia, and how thankful we were for our vacation.
The final entertainment was hula dancers and fire dancers. It was pretty extreme. We played our final game of beach volleyball and had our last night in the Yasawas.
Day 10: Shark Dive and the Last Day of Beachcombers
The people from Duke who were scuba certified (Katelyn, Mike and I) took a later ferry back than the rest of the group so that we could do a shark dive in the morning. We saw four sharks and a sea turtle. The sharks were on the small end of medium-sized. They were black, white, and grey-tipped Reef Sharks, the same type that we caught off of the Wanataki cruise a few days earlier. It was breath taking to look into their eyes and know that they saw us swimming along side of them. There was a point that two were circling under a rock overhang and one darted out towards some of the scuba divers. It was one of the most amazing things to see them change speeds and scare the life out of some divers; you really came to appreciate their presence.
We spent the rest of the day lounging until our 5:00PM ferry beck to the main island, where we reunited with the group at Skylodge for the last night. Our tour guide wrapped up the tour with awards and remarks and we had our final dinner together. We hung out together for the rest of the night, which turned out to be a little dramatic but closed the tour well.
Day 11: Farewell to Fiji
We slept for about two hours and got up for our 8:15AM flight to say farewell to Fiji.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Fiji in Four
We're going to Fiji in four days, so right about now I'm just trying to finish up all of my work before mid-semester break. Since we started in July and end in November, we're just about halfway through, so if it seems like weird timing compared to US schools, it is.
I finished my scuba ceritfication yesterday, so I'll be all ready to go without an instructor on our break. The dives yesterday were not as good as my dives last weekend. Last weekend I saw a bunch of sea turtles, a flathead, and Wobygong shark. This weekend, the conditions were not half as good but it was still a fun day on the boat. Mike, one of the Duke boys who is already ceritifed, came along with me and another Duke boy, Grant, was starting his certification dives.
My exams are going okay, I've taken two and I have two projects to turn in. I haven't gotten any grades back though and their testing system is very different from the States. I had a multiple choice test in my Catchment Hydrology class last week, which was bizarre considering I had to construct graphs and do engineering problems for just about every question. Unfortunately, that means zero partial credit, so we'll see how the grades turn out.
Happy Rosh Hashanah to everyone (a little late)! I will be in Fiji on Yom Kippur so that will make for an interesting day of fasting. I probably won't be able to get to a phone so consider this my wishes for the best towards the end of the holidays.
Again, questions courtesy of Aunt Francesca:
Is Australia like here but with an accent? Yes, but it's also much more relaxed and much sunnier!
Do you feel as if your getting a good idea of what the country is like or still too many Duke students? I don't think there are too many Duke students. In general, the Duke kids here are pretty independent so we all do our own things. I just haven't become very close friends with too many Australians yet, but I certainly have met a lot.
Are you out partying a lot and being a crazy child? Debateable.
I haven't taken any pictures since Cairns (too much studying). I'll try to work on that in Fiji.
Miss you all!
XOXO
I finished my scuba ceritfication yesterday, so I'll be all ready to go without an instructor on our break. The dives yesterday were not as good as my dives last weekend. Last weekend I saw a bunch of sea turtles, a flathead, and Wobygong shark. This weekend, the conditions were not half as good but it was still a fun day on the boat. Mike, one of the Duke boys who is already ceritifed, came along with me and another Duke boy, Grant, was starting his certification dives.
My exams are going okay, I've taken two and I have two projects to turn in. I haven't gotten any grades back though and their testing system is very different from the States. I had a multiple choice test in my Catchment Hydrology class last week, which was bizarre considering I had to construct graphs and do engineering problems for just about every question. Unfortunately, that means zero partial credit, so we'll see how the grades turn out.
Happy Rosh Hashanah to everyone (a little late)! I will be in Fiji on Yom Kippur so that will make for an interesting day of fasting. I probably won't be able to get to a phone so consider this my wishes for the best towards the end of the holidays.
Again, questions courtesy of Aunt Francesca:
Is Australia like here but with an accent? Yes, but it's also much more relaxed and much sunnier!
Do you feel as if your getting a good idea of what the country is like or still too many Duke students? I don't think there are too many Duke students. In general, the Duke kids here are pretty independent so we all do our own things. I just haven't become very close friends with too many Australians yet, but I certainly have met a lot.
Are you out partying a lot and being a crazy child? Debateable.
I haven't taken any pictures since Cairns (too much studying). I'll try to work on that in Fiji.
Miss you all!
XOXO
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Cairns
I missed two days of school last week because we left Thursday night for Cairns and I skipped on Wednesday to go to the beach. The big event was Cairns where we went to scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef and see the Daintree Rainforest. Mollie, Katelyn, Tad and I went together and spent Friday on the beach and exploring the city, Saturday on the scuba boat, and Sunday on the rainforest tour.
Our Hostile Room
Mollie on the Scuba Boat
The Group in the Rainforest
View from the Interior of the Rainforest
Crocodiles We Saw on the River Cruise
Also, we had dinner at this amazing steak house with on of the other Duke boy's mom and grandparents who came to visit. The group consisted of the four boys who stayed in our apartment while they were still looking for housing (their picture is in an earlier post) and the four of the girls in my group. It was great to have a big nice dinner with everyone and meet his parents. Unfortunately, Lindsay's parents came while we were in Cairns, so we didn't get to meet her parents but I think she had a good weekend with them anyways.
I have my first test tomorrow in Thermodynamics. We'll see how it goes, but considering that I should be studying right now, I'm not expecting anything fantastic. It seems like everyone suddenly got a lot of work for before our trip to Fiji, I suppose that's because it's "Mid-Semester Exams" according to Australians. I'm hoping to finish my scuba certification this weekend, but I doubt I'll have too many interesting stories until I get back from Fiji.
Our Hostile Room
Mollie on the Scuba Boat
The Group in the Rainforest
View from the Interior of the Rainforest
Crocodiles We Saw on the River Cruise
Also, we had dinner at this amazing steak house with on of the other Duke boy's mom and grandparents who came to visit. The group consisted of the four boys who stayed in our apartment while they were still looking for housing (their picture is in an earlier post) and the four of the girls in my group. It was great to have a big nice dinner with everyone and meet his parents. Unfortunately, Lindsay's parents came while we were in Cairns, so we didn't get to meet her parents but I think she had a good weekend with them anyways.
I have my first test tomorrow in Thermodynamics. We'll see how it goes, but considering that I should be studying right now, I'm not expecting anything fantastic. It seems like everyone suddenly got a lot of work for before our trip to Fiji, I suppose that's because it's "Mid-Semester Exams" according to Australians. I'm hoping to finish my scuba certification this weekend, but I doubt I'll have too many interesting stories until I get back from Fiji.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Work?
Unfortunately my open-water dive training sessions this weekend were postponed due to weather conditions so I won't be certified when I'm in Cairns. I should definitely have my certification for Fiji though so I will just have to do an introductory dive and some snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. Instead this weekend I just hung out with the girls that I'm living with (the weather was pretty crumby), so we just had a nice relaxed weekend and went out at night.
Since Aunt Francesca sent me some questions, I'll answer those for everyone:
Have you met a lot of locals or mainly college students?
One thing I do regret is that I came to a university dominated by exchange students. There are 40 people here from Duke alone, which makes the incentive to meet people a little bit harder. At the same time, I have met a bunch of Germans and Dutch people in my scuba class, there are a bunch of Germans that we have met in our apartments, there are other Americans that I have met who have come from other universities and programs, but, in general, I have only really made friends with a handful of Australians through meeting people out or at things like ski club. Since you all know I'm pretty independent, I hope that when I'm alone in New Zealand I will be able to meet loads of people.
What are you going to be studying once school starts? Will you travel on the weekends?
School has started. It actually started July 23, I'm just not to concerned with it right now. I do all of my work, but it's just not very hard yet. Don't quote me when my grades come back though. So, yes, I will be traveling on the weekends.. and some weekdays for that matter. Right now I'm studying:
Catchment Hydrology
Soil Mechanics
Thermodynamics
Coral Reefs
We toook a field trip to a catchment the other day to study how to design for floods, which was an interesting experience. We basically walked for a half mile through the rain in a ditch that collects storm runoff so that we could calculate the flow capacity using formulas that have never been explained to us... it was pretty cool! Anyways, I did write a twelve page paper on the Bahamas for Coral Reefs, so that counts as real work, right?
Anyhow, since I'm skipping Friday this week and Monday next week to go to the Barrier Reef, I'm thinking that I should maybe go do some work or something. Hope all is well!
Lauren
Since Aunt Francesca sent me some questions, I'll answer those for everyone:
Have you met a lot of locals or mainly college students?
One thing I do regret is that I came to a university dominated by exchange students. There are 40 people here from Duke alone, which makes the incentive to meet people a little bit harder. At the same time, I have met a bunch of Germans and Dutch people in my scuba class, there are a bunch of Germans that we have met in our apartments, there are other Americans that I have met who have come from other universities and programs, but, in general, I have only really made friends with a handful of Australians through meeting people out or at things like ski club. Since you all know I'm pretty independent, I hope that when I'm alone in New Zealand I will be able to meet loads of people.
What are you going to be studying once school starts? Will you travel on the weekends?
School has started. It actually started July 23, I'm just not to concerned with it right now. I do all of my work, but it's just not very hard yet. Don't quote me when my grades come back though. So, yes, I will be traveling on the weekends.. and some weekdays for that matter. Right now I'm studying:
Catchment Hydrology
Soil Mechanics
Thermodynamics
Coral Reefs
We toook a field trip to a catchment the other day to study how to design for floods, which was an interesting experience. We basically walked for a half mile through the rain in a ditch that collects storm runoff so that we could calculate the flow capacity using formulas that have never been explained to us... it was pretty cool! Anyways, I did write a twelve page paper on the Bahamas for Coral Reefs, so that counts as real work, right?
Anyhow, since I'm skipping Friday this week and Monday next week to go to the Barrier Reef, I'm thinking that I should maybe go do some work or something. Hope all is well!
Lauren
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Scuba
This wekend I did my lecture series and pool training for my scuba certification. Next weekend I'll be going on dives both on Saturday and Sunday for my open water requirements, which will mean that I will be a certified open water scuba diver by next Sunday.
Byron Bay was fun last weekend and we took a ridiculous tour called "Jim's Alternative Adventures," which was basically a bus ride with amazing music the whole time. On Sunday we just went and sat out at the beach all day.
Wednesday this week was a public holiday called "Ekka Day." Everyone got dressed up and went to the hourse races. It was like a mid-week Preakness, but it definitely wasn't quite as intense. Instead of the infield, the college student just congregate around the tracks and wander in circles.
Byron Bay was fun last weekend and we took a ridiculous tour called "Jim's Alternative Adventures," which was basically a bus ride with amazing music the whole time. On Sunday we just went and sat out at the beach all day.
Wednesday this week was a public holiday called "Ekka Day." Everyone got dressed up and went to the hourse races. It was like a mid-week Preakness, but it definitely wasn't quite as intense. Instead of the infield, the college student just congregate around the tracks and wander in circles.
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