I feel like it's been ages since I was in Brisbane, but amazingly it's only been about 2 months! Time seems to just fly by when you're busy having fun, I guess. I've packed in so much of this country in the period of a month that I feel incredibly lucky to have seen as much as I have. At the same time I'm a bit ashamed of being an American, because I haven't seen nearly as much of my own country! I seriously hope to remedy that once I get back home.

( Beware of a massively long postCollapse )

This entry still doesn't even really do my experiences justice. I wish I had the eloquence (and time) to make this a better post. I still have so many other amazing experiences I'd like to record down before they fade from memory, but for now this will have to do. Perhaps someday I'll go back and re-write this so it's a proper work.

This is just a post to reassure you guys that I haven't forgotten about journaling my Australian experience. The last two weeks have just been exceptionally busy and full of new experiences with not very much internet access. For example, I just got back from a backpacking trip in the very remote wilderness (we had to hike in all our water and pee in the bushes), so there was no chance of internet there. I assure you though, I have a ton of posts queued up to be posted, I just need to finish them all, haha.

Things to look forward to reading about:

Heron Island Research Station
Shelley Beach Camping Trip
Australian Homestay

And probably a few more, but I can't remember them right now. Lots of random thoughts occur to me as I'm traveling around and I want to explore some of them more in depth but I need the time. I'm at homestay for another week or so though, so I'll try to finish them all during this time!

March 25, 2012

I already wrote a bit about what happened the first day I got here. Basically we all had some bonding time and explored Brisbane proper a bit. I managed to learn everyone's name in the first day. Everyone is super nice and chill, probably on account of the fact that 9/16 people are from UCSC. I don't feel an immediate connection to anyone despite the fact that I actually don't dislike anyone either! But, we all share a passion for animals and marine bio, so there's no shortage of things to talk about.

I have to say, there is something to be said of being surrounded by people who love the same things you do. One of the guys here is actually pre-vet. We can all sit around and totally geek out about animals and fish and ecology without being judged. And now, I am free to make my "weird" observations, and they're not actually weird. When one of us sees something cool, we all go running over to check it out because we're all just as curious. Sometimes I feel like when I'm at school or at home I can't look at things too closely or people will think I'm weird. Or, they just don't understand why I would even bother looking. But now, it's not even a problem.
Actually, if anything, I feel pretty incompetent. Most of these people are marine bio majors and they have an extensive knowledge of EVERYTHING, from ocean chemistry to Latin names of flora and fauna. They all ask intelligent questions and I have no idea what they're talking about half the time. Not to mention everyone here is such an overachiever! They all work/volunteer in labs that are doing legitimate interesting research--and they're all actually conducting some of it. Some of them volunteer at the Monterey Bay Aquarium or the marine mammal center that's near Santa Cruz. All of them are SCUBA certified, because apparently a lot of their marine bio classes require it. One of the guys is actually a dive master, with 270 dives under his belt. HOLY CRAP! They can get certified through their school though. Why don't we have something like that? The other pre-vet guy goes to Berkeley and already has his >3000 hrs of vet experience. Even the other girl from SD (who is a Environmental Studies major) is crazy. She works 20+ hrs a week, has an internship, works in a lab, and has set up a research opportunity at UQ she can do while she's here. Another girl from Berkeley just got back from an internship in South Africa working with sharks and she'll be heading to Costa Rica once this program is done. EVERYONE HAS DONE SO MUCH COOL STUFF AND I'VE DONE NOTHING.

What am I doing with my life?

*Note: I wrote a lot of these posts awhile ago, but I'm only just posting them now.

March 23, 2012--

6:05p: I leave my family at the security gate. I won't see them for 8mo. Somehow I manage to do this without tears. It occurs to me how awkward I am at giving hugs. After going through I don't look back because I know I will cry.

6:10p: already thru security. They have a freakin' yoga lounge there. I consider going into it, but my flight boards at 6:15. Gotta get to my gate.

6:25p: I'm in the last boarding group and stand there, waiting with my backpacks on. Time to go to LA.

6:45(ish): I turn off my phone, so I don't know what time it is anymore. But my flight is supposed to leave around now. I vow not to fall asleep because I need to save my sleep for my long flight.

8:05p: we touch down in LA. I don't even remember taking off. Apparently I fell asleep. Damn. Now I gotta find the gate for my connecting flight. According to the website it's in another terminal. I hope I don't get lost.

8:10p: I asked a ticketing agent where I was supposed to go and she pointed me to a gate only 5 away from the one I came out of. And lo and behold, it's the right one. Well, that was easy. Now, to entertain myself for 3 hours.

8:15p: I'm all settled in and I realize there's no free wifi or cell service here. Or electrical outlets. What heck LAX?! You're a huge international airport! The only outlets are 4 "mobile charging stations" and those only have 4 outlets each.

8:25p: after walking the entire terminal I settle down in a gate that at least has cell phone service. I decide to take out my computer and try for wifi even though my phone won't connect. And what do you know?! I somehow connect to the Internet! Thank god. Now I can waste 3 hours on Facebook.

10:59p: somehow those 2.5 hrs pass by altogether too quickly. I say my unsatisfactory goodbyes to those I was chatting online with and then go to my gate.

11:05p: the plane starts boarding. Holy shit guys, I'm going to Australia

11:25p(ish): once again, I don't have my phone so I don't know exactly what time it is. Turns out my seat is on between 2 middle aged Australian guys who came to orange county for a week for business. It's awkward cause they know each other and I'm squished in between them. They're nice enough though and tell me a bit about Queensland and Melbourne. Apparently they also spent their last night in the States in Las Vegas and had a bit too much fun. There's nothing in Australia even remotely like it, they say. And, I learn the flight is only 13hrs! Hooray! The online ticket was wrong.

After 11:50p: the plane takes off. I l is it takes offsite because it takes forever. My neighbors tell me that it isn't too hard to adjust to Australian time, provided I dont sleep for the first 5-6hrs. I'm super tired, but that might be possible thanks to a messed up sleeping schedule from finals and a good selections of movies to watch.

Sometime later: "dinner" is served and I decide to watch "the artist" first since its a silent film. I've been wanting to see it for awhile and I figure I better watch it early, while I'm still awake enough to watch the silent film. I can hardly finish my dinner though because my body is rebelling against eating at such an abnormal hour. I force myself to finish though, b/c the next meal won't be served for 10 hours.

2:30a: the artist wasn't bad, although not as good as I thought it would be. The dog is adorable though! Just like my doggie. :) Drive is up next because I feel myself getting sleepy and I figure I need an action film to keep myself going.

3:00a: so... This movie is not an action film at all. But I like it. And I finally understand why people think Ryan gosling is hot. He's pretty cool in this movie. Didn't really like him in the notebook though.

4:00a: I get in trouble for writing this on my phone because the flight attendant thinks I'm texting. Whoops! Haha.

4:30a: I really liked Drive! I wish I could have heard it better though. But the earphone jack is 2-pronged and my earbuds are not, so sound only comes out one ear. Seriously getting sleepy but I decide to watch Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy instead of sleeping. I've been wanting to see this movie for awhile.

5:00a: I have no idea what's going on because every time I blink I fall asleep. I try to fight it, but to no avail.  Might as well give in then!

6:35a: the movie ends. I slept thru the whole thing. I will rewatch it when I wake up. Again. Why am I so hot?

9:39a: after a few fitful hours I sleep my neighbors get up to use the bathroom and I use the opportunity to do so too. I'm still tired, but they're not sleeping so I decide to listen to the radio. As I'm flipping they the channels I hear a lot of tall radio (don't bother to listen to what they're talking about) and one popular music channel. And then some cheesy love music, but the host is talking about John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Sukiyaki by () comes on. It was the one song he could karaoke in Japanese. It only reminds me of NSU banquet last year. I'm so sad  going to be missing this year's.

11:18a: I start Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy over again. It already makes much more sense. The guy next to me is looking out the window and while there's still nothing to see the sky is a dark dark blue instead of pitch black.

12:00p: they serve us breakfast. I get the hot breakfast even though I'm not really hungry and I know it's going to be those plastic scrambled eggs. The spinach is a green unrecognizable mush. But the dude next to me eats everything like there's no tomorrow. He did the same tying with dinner. By now my movie still doesn't make much more sense, but the Australian sky is beginning to lighten considerably. I can see clouds!

1:00p(ish): So yeah. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy didn't make any sense. I think it's cause I can barely hear their British accents through these earphones. I'm pretty tired and my knees are starting to feel oddly stuck in a bent position. I don't know how those large men on either side of me are doing it.

1:30p: The pilot tells us that we are beginning our descent. The sky is light enough now that I can make out shapes and find the contour of the land. I catch my first glimpse of Australia! I can't help but think that for the men next to me it's a homecoming, but for me it's something completely foreign.

1:50p: We land in Brisbane! It's the smoothest landing in a plane I've ever experienced. I was chatting with my neighbor and didn't even notice when the wheels touched down. The descent into the airport was amazing. I got some really good views of sandbars, mangroves, and the clear blue waters.

2:10p: I meet up with the guy who was sitting in front of me, who also happens to be on the program. There were also 2 other people on our flight and we meet up in the customs line. I have to drag my heavy baggage through and I'm feeling a little self-conscious about how much I brought. But then I'm reminded that I'm here for 5 more months than everyone else, and I only have a duffel bag more than they do.

2:15p: We make it through customs (I had to declare my Girl Scout cookies that I brought for my host family) and meet up with the rest of the group that has already arrived! We sit and wait around for another few hours for the rest of the people to get in. Everyone is super tired and hot (from dragging baggage around), but we're all excited and happy to be here. It's 7:15a local time in Brisbane.

My day isn't even close to ending because they want us to get used to the time change. I won't bore you with every little detail of everything we did, but I didn't go to sleep until around 11p. After most of the group arrived we took taxis back to a hostel called Brisbane Backpackers. We got our rooms, dropped off our stuff, and then got to know each other a bit while waiting for lunch to be served. We then headed into the city, escorted by one of our professors, John. He's the terrestrial ecology expert, with a focus on plants. Brisbane is such a cute city. We walked through the street market, there was a free museum, and then we wandered around the city proper. I bought myself a 3mo cell phone plan and exchanged some of my money for Australian tender. Their money is so pretty! Once we were done running errands we headed back to the hostel for dinner and sleep.

I'm writing this only a few days after the fact, but so much happened (and I was so sleep deprived) I probably have only captured a fraction of what actually happened. There are only 16 of us on the program (there's normally 30-40) so I think by the time this trip is over we'll all know each other pretty well. I can't wait to see what lies ahead!

So I realize I'm posting this practically 4 months after the fact, but I thought I should record it anyway. I generally don't make New Year's resolutions because I feel like one should always be striving to better themselves in all aspects and it shouldn't just be a thing you decide to do once a year. But this year I made a change and decided to set some goals for myself. They may seem a bit odd (and probably more than a bit selfish), but there are legitimate reasons why I chose these.

1) Say "No" more often and don't let yourself get taken advantage of.

Ever since I got to college it's become increasingly apparent to me that every man is out on his own. Literally. No one goes out of their way to help others, so why should I? After being involved with clubs for the past few years (to extremely frustrating results), I just don't think it's worth my time to be nice to people anymore. If they don't deserve it then they're not getting it. Last year especially I did a lot of things for a lot of people, and then never received any gratitude in return. I'm tired to holding people up, so now they gotta deal with their own shit. If it doesn't benefit me, then I won't do it. Simple as that. I'm busy enough as it is, so I don't want to worry about trying to finish other people's work too. This isn't to say that I've gone completely heartless and I've stopped helping people altogether. My friends and family are very important to me and I will do anything i can to support them. My "Say no" policy has been working pretty well I think, and although I was still suckered into quite a few things, it wasn't nearly as much as it could have been. And I'm happier now that I've taken the time to do stuff for me, and not others.

2) Journal more often.

I would really like this journal to be a cache of events for myself, even if it's only recording mundane things. Not too long ago I looked back at some of my old posts and I literally don't even remember writing them. But after reading them I can see what was affecting me at the time and how I felt. And I think I should remember these things. I know I've done a horrible job of journaling so far, but now that I'm studying abroad in Australia it's especially important that i can remember everything! This journal should be a treasure trove of thoughts, adventures, and feelings.

So there we have it! Internet doesn't work especially well here on Heron Island, so I will probably make multiple posts at once. And during the next 3 months we are taking several field trips out into the wilderness where there's no internet at all. But I will still journal it all!

Summer has passed. Another year of school has started. I'm nearly finished moving into my new on-campus apartment, and I love how snazzy and wonderful it feels to have a place I can call my own. Although the room is quite a bit smaller than the one I had last year in the dorms, there is plenty of living space added by the living room and kitchen areas, which I appreciate very much. Additionally, my room isn't cluttered by the massive amounts of junk that I own, due to the even more massive amount of storage place in this apartment. With a huge storage closet, and multiple cabinets of varying sizes, this place is awesome for hiding stuff! Needless to say, I rather love storage.

( Ok guys, we gotta rap the Pokemon!Collapse )

I foresee a good year ahead of me.

Hm, so despite the fact I said I would be posting here more often, and updating you what I had done this summer, I still have not. XD I'm sorry, but apparently, I need to get my priorities straight. Look forward to a rather long, rambling, and boring post sometime in the next few weeks. But knowing my track record, that might be sometime in the next few months.

Anyway, before I do a real update, I thought I would post this article here. I found it extremely interesting:

Outdoors and Out of Reach, Studying the Brain

I have to say, I really wouldn't mind embarking on a trip like this. Spending a week (or more), out in the wilderness, away from everything seems like it would be a nice change of pace. Despite the fact that I love my friends and honestly like to be involved in their lives, it all gets to be a bit too much sometimes. With websites that have constant streaming feeds of information, like Facebook and Twitter, it makes me feel overwhelmed. Do I really need to know that you "just woke up! Gonna make myself some yummy breakfast soon!"? I'm sorry, but, no!! Before the advent of social networking status messages, did people really tell each other this? I highly doubt it. So, I think there's no reason for it now.

For about the first half of the summer, I was pretty much absent from social networking sites. With so much other stuff going on, I practically forgot it existed, which was actually nice. But then, I realized that during the summer is the time to catch up with people, since I could actually have a chance of seeing some of them, now that I was back home, so I connected myself back into it. But, instead, I haven't actually seen anyone, and I've forced myself back into the bad habit of checking my Facebook news feed every few minutes. That isn't what I need! And like I said before, most of the updates are rather useless anyway. But I find myself strangely addicted to knowing exactly what is happening every minutes. Same thing goes for email. When email was the most popular method of communication, I had my email client open all the time. And I checked it like, every 5 minutes. So, like the article said, the internet does seem to have some addicting qualities. Also, I think that since I've gotten more "technologically savvy", I've gotten more ADD. I used to be able to sit down, and finish a project (like homework), in 1 sitting. Now, I'm off on the Internet every 5 minutes. I know it's horrible and does nothing for my productivity, but I can't seem to help myself! Maybe I need some intervention.

I guess I sort of felt like I wouldn't be spending much time on the Internet once I got back to school (which is entirely not true), so I would do it during the summer. Now, I'm sort of wishing I just stayed off. I need a break. But not really from LJ. I rather like it here.

And I'm off to check my Facebook again.

Thank you kalliel for making me do this. However, my desktop is woefully boring. Except for the picture, which is rather pretty, but obscured by my hard drive.

1. Anyone who looks at this entry has to post this meme and their current wallpaper on their LiveJournal.
2. Explain in five sentences why you're using that wallpaper!
3. Don't change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had on!



The picture of the sunset is beautiful. I love the ocean. I sort of miss being within walking distance of a beach. This wallpaper reminds me of the freedom of going where I want to go, when I want to go. I like the serenity of the waves.

Excuse me for sounding all oddly wistful and poetic, but it's pretty much the reason why I'm using this wallpaper.

Also, because I feel like need to show off, the UCSD Geisel Library vs. Inception fortress pic!!

I know I've gotten woefully behind on these entries (and I honestly had very good intentions about keeping up with it). Obviously, that hasn't happened, and I had quite a few entries backlogged to post. This is one of them, and.... it's an entry about spring break. XD That was only... 5 months ago. (wow, I really am behind!)

So much has happened in the past few months that I won't bore you with it all, but this entry just had to be posted. It took me like, 1.5 hrs to type it! It's a very long entry. Over 3000 words! Which of course means, you don't have to read the entire thing. It's way too long for any sane person to read. So, if you would like to be bored, please continue with the entry.

And now, the Me From 5 Months Ago:

March Movie Madness!

So, I spent a good deal of my spring break quite happily parked in front of a television, watching movies. Unlike other social people, I was actually quite happy about this. Honestly, my ideal break would be spent with friends, watching movies the entire time. Unfortunately, my movie selections weren't as nicely varied as what I watched during winter break. In my defense though, I was limited to what the CV library had. It was good enough for me though, because I'm so pitifully behind on movies that the library seemed like a gold mine. Anyway, like I did last break, I thought I would keep track of what I watched, and my thoughts/reactions to the movies.

( Memento, Hamlet 2, Young Frankenstein, and more!Collapse )

Currently, I think this thing is the greatest invention ever. Don't click on the link unless you have a lot of time on your hands though, because it's addicting.

The Awesomeness!


It's so freakin' awesome! I should probably tell you what it is, huh? Well, it's a really bad translator. You know how you use those internet translators, and they usually just come out with a bunch of gobbledy-gook that doesn't make sense because it translated it word for word? Well, here's a translator that does this on purpose, but it's even better! For example, I input:

Chuck Norris doesn't eat boneless chicken. He eats chickenless bones.

And got back:

3 translations later:
Chuck Norris does not eat chicken from the bone. Eating feet chickenless.

10 translations later:
"Norris never eat chicken bones. Restaurant chickenless feet."

25 translations later:
"Norris does not eat chicken feet. No chicken restaurants."

54 translations later:
"Norris does not eat chicken feet. Okay kind."

Isn't this great?!?!?!