Adventures Down Under: October 2010

20/9/10

Recently turned 21. Figured I would blog about the last important birthday in my life. I can't believe I made it, never thought it was going to happen. Thanks to my parents for keeping me alive, healthy, and relatively sane my first 21 years. Thanks to all my friends, look forward to having a legal drink with each and everyone of you.

My birthday occurred just after midterms, so it was a duel celebration. We started at the bar on campus, at like noon. Then we had class for 2 hours, a moderately interesting coral reef lecture. After, me and some of the boys went over to the Regatta, a fancy bar next to the river. Had a few jugs. Then we each bought a bottle of wine, and drank it by the river. By that time, I had probably celebrated a bit too much. Yet, it was only 7 pm, and you only turn 21 once... So we went back to the bar on campus for karaoke. The rest of the class troops showed up for the celebration as well. For the record, I sang Party in the USA. Parents, sorry for the graphic details of my drinking exploits, but I want to remember what I did 20 years down the line. Now, the photographic record!

Presented a cake by my hero, my inspiration, my love, Professor John Hall. Truly a great moment in my life.

Starting at noon. Super Jugs!

Down by the river... Love this spot.

Found myself dancing with Shannon.

Party in the USA, with Becca Bonet( or Boner)

Happiness.

Yep. I am a rockstar.

27/09/10-4/10/10

This trip marks the transition of the abroad program towards a more marine oriented focus. To understand the spirit of the ocean, the class and I made a trip out to North Stradbroke Island to stay at Moreton Bay Research Station for 8 days. 8 days of living on the beach was completely necessary to really understand the ocean at Straddy... The research station is apart of the University of Queensland, and many Ph.D. students spend their time there conducting research. I stayed in a bunk room with 7 other people, it was a bro pad. The ocean was a 100 m walk away. Life was tough to say the least....

Moreton Bay Research Station

View from the station.

The first couple days were pretty casual, consisting of island exploration. We went to GOAT island and did some snorkling, and went out on research boats to go dugong, turtle, and dolphin watching. One of the first evenings, we went sein netting to check out fish diversity at Adams Beach close to the research station. We caught a ton of fish while enjoying a stunning sunset.

Sein Netting for fish.

Good people

On research boat, hunting dugong!

Adams Beach Sunset, courtesy Sean Liepmann

In terms of academia, we got split into groups of 5 and did research projects for the trip. My group and I compared the effect of human disturbance on beaches with respect to flashy fauna i.e. sea stars, anemones, urchins, etc. It was an interesting experiment, but we did not get any useful data. I hope to get a better result when I head out to Heron Island. We took our data in the mornings, walking around the beach. We also did a turtle necropsy, plankton and invert labs, and of course some chillin...

Snorkeling with Shane

Old ship wreck in the middle of our beach of study

Being real scientists during the turtle necropsy.

I like turtles.

This bad boy was majorly rotted. Imagine the stench, and then bask in it.

Enjoying the sunset.

Looking at some phytoplankton. I'll never forget that stuff.

Despite being involved school, free time was still relatively easy to come by. To occupy the time, one day we went sand boarding in the dunes, and frequented the local bar. Both were great fun...