ANZAC weekend

Well it has been quite a busy week related to school work, so I'm trying to catch up on my blogging. Again. Last weekend (April 24th-25th) was ANZAC weekend in Australia (I'll explain what it stands for in a moment.) The first thing I did that weekend was go on a Christian Union girls retreat Friday night and Saturday. It was so much fun! We went down to Mornington Peninsula and stayed in a holiday house, which was really pretty. I rode down to Mornington with Amy, who I had previously met at the Christian Union fish and chips dinner, and we became friends after that, so it was fun to drive down there with someone I knew. We also had some fun conversations in the car :-). I was able to meet many girls from Deakin and Monash University, which is another University in Melbourne. The message for the weekend was about true beauty, which I thought was a really good message since so many girls struggle with their body image. Friday night we spent some time doing face masks and then playing sing star (karaoke) on the playstation. It was in the morning that the talks started to begin. In the morning we talked about the media/culture's view on beauty. Then we later talked about what the bible says about beauty, and how to incorporate that into our lives. Then in the afternoon we had some free time, and Amy, Alex, Bri, and I went into the town and got some coffee and shared a vanilla slice (yum!). Then we walked over to the beach area, where I took some pictures. It was pretty, but not really warm that day. That evening we had dinner before heading back to Deakin. It was definitely a fun retreat.

The next day I decided to go to the ANZAC ceremonies with Sarah. ANZAC stand for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp. ANZAC Day for Australians is pretty much like Memorial Day for Americans, but for Australians here it is a big deal, not just a reason to get together and BBQ. I got up at 4 a.m. so Sarah and I could make it to the 6 a.m. Dawn Service at the Shrine of Remembrance. It was a very touching ceremony, even if we didn't get to see any of it because there were so many people there. There were thousands of people! But we were able to hear everything. They definitely honor their war veterans. After the service was over he headed into the city to go get breakfast. So many places were busy! Apparently that was what everyone else from the service was doing. We ended up at McDonalds because the food there was cheap and we were actually able to find a seat. After breakfast we stuck around for the parade, which started around 9 a.m. It was a pretty big parade. They had sections feeding in from three different streets. It was an interesting parade to watch. They had lots of old cars and veterans and bands marching. Even though it was a very early morning, I'm glad I went. It was an interesting experience and a very fun weekend.

Another City Adventure

I'm a little bit behind on my blogs, so I need to catch up. On the 19th I went on another city adventure, this time with Sarah (from the house in front of me) and Lena, who is from Germany and Kelsey (from the house in front of me) met her in Alice Springs. The three of us had a good day in the city. We walked along the Yarra River and had some coffee by the river. After sitting on a bench talking and enjoying a view of the river we headed over to the information center. Even though I have been here for a couple of months I hadn't even been there yet! I didn't realize how big it was and how much stuff it had. It was pretty cool. After that we walked over to the church across the street and had a look inside. The church was St. Paul's Anglican Cathedral. It was very pretty inside. Then we ended up wandering into the state library. It was very big. There was also an exhibit called "shop til you drop". We walked around and looked at that, which was interesting. We also walked around and looked at a couple of the art galleries. I thought they were interesting because I felt like I was looking at a history of Melbourne through paintings. We then walked through Chinatown. We had lunch in a Greek restaurant. It was really good. I liked it because it tasted like authentic Greek food. It wasn't Americanized, which happens to food in America. We walked over towards the Melbourne Baths, which is a gym. It looked really nice from the outside. We also went to the Royal Arcade, which was a bunch of shops. After that we walked down an alley and looked at some graffiti art. I thought it was very interesting to look at. It was very creative. We then went into an opal store and learned a good amount about opals. One new thing I learned is that the majority of opals come from Australia. We also watched the guy shape, smooth, and shine a very small opal. It was a fun store to go into. I definitely enjoyed my day in the city.

Enviro Trip #2: Nest Box Monitoring

Over the weekend I went to Benella with the Enviro club to do nest box monitoring. I had a great time hanging out with some of my Australian friends. The whole point of the nest box monitoring was to go around and look into nest boxes that had been put up around the area to see if animals such as squirrel gliders or sugar gliders were living in them. We headed down there Friday night. We stayed in a boy scouts hall, which reminded me a bit of the Homeworks experience at home. There was a lot of people there. There were two other groups from different universities. I found out later that there were supposed to be over 100 people helping out that weekend. We were split up into different groups to go and look at the boxes. I was in a group with a few other Deakin Uni students. The first day definitely felt long. It wasn't until the 10th box before we found any animals. It was definitely a lot of walking and climbing ladders. And then it was frustrating when it was hard to find the nest boxes. But when we finally did see a sugar or squirrel glider they were really adorable! I got some good pictures. There also was a BBQ Saturday night, which was good. It was definitely a good experience to see some native Australian wildlife. I'm glad I went. I had a fun time.

Reef and Rainforest

For my Easter break I decided that I wanted to go to Cairns. I flew up on Saturday, to a rainy Cairns. I was really excited to see my mom and dad. We stayed at trinity beach, which was a little north of cairns. The first few days weren't too exciting, since it pretty much rained. We walked around Cairns, going into shops. We walked along the esplanade, in which there was a salt water lagoon, which was pretty cool. We also went into the night markets, which was pretty cool. They had some interesting stuff. I got some fruity wine made from lychee. I liked it, but it was very sweet. One day we also went into the mall in Cairns. We ate at the food court, which was packed. It was hard to get a seat. Mom and I also went to the rainforest dome in cairns. I thought it was interesting. None of the birds were caged, so they flew all around you. I really enjoyed it because I got to look at some native australian birds. There were also some koalas and rainforest wallabies there.

The major things that we did was go see the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef. Both were amazing. We went and saw the rainforest first. We went on the Billy Tea Safaris. The first thing that we did in the tour was go down the Daintree river. We saw a snake and a couple of crocodiles, and the crocodiles were a lot smaller than I was expecting. We then went to the rainforest itself and went on a boardwalk. We saw a cassowary, which is endangered. We also saw a spider and some lizards. The scenery itself was really pretty. At lunch we were able to feed some kangaroos and wallabies. After lunch we went to a creek. The water was really pretty. We relaxed there for a bit and ate some tropical fruit. A couple I really liked was dragonfruit and a custard fruit. After that we went to cape tribulation beach and were able to walk around. It was really pretty there too.

The exciting thing of the week was going to see the reef. I thought it was fantastic. We went with a boat called Seastar. The crew was really nice, and I thought it was good because it was a small group. There was only 30 people. I couldn't imagine going in a group larger than that. The first thing that we did was go to Michealmas Cay. We went on a snorkeling tour first. The coral there was pretty. It was amazing to see. I don't even know how to describe it. It's stuff I've seen on tv, but it was amazing to see in real life. Dad and I also did some introductory diving, which was cool. I was nervous at first about the diving, but it wasn't too difficult and I really enjoyed it. After that we had some lunch and headed off to Hastings Reef. There were so many fish there! I can't even remember all of the fish that we saw. Quite a few nemos, that's for sure. Dad and I went on a second dive. We saw lots of fish, and even got to feed some. We even swam between walls of coral. We were able to touch a sea slug and a giant clam, which was cool. We then went snorkeling again. I was surprised about how you saw different things snorkeling and diving. When we were snorkeling, we were among the shallow coral and were able to see lots of colorfish there too. I thought it was amazing. I had so much fun. It went by really fast.