Ant Licker

The last four days have been spent on Orpheus Island. Its this little island 30 minutes off shore. No one is on the island except for the research center and the hollywood like resort. So for the most part it typically feels like a deserted island. On the first day we went for an exploration through the mangrove forest on the island. We climbed over, up and under the propped roots of the mangrove trees until we finally reached the watery shores of the ocean. It was like the most intense obstacle course/jungle gym of all time!

 Orpheus is an unusually unique island for it has a mangrove forest and a fringing coral reef. The two are rarely ever present on the same island location. We have been learning a lot about this during lecture. We also learned about crocs and sharks too this week. It was really interesting like how sharks actually have 7 senses when they track their prey. That's just plain crazy! I mean now I know that I don't want to mess with them.

Well now for the highlight of the trip to Orpheus Island. I would like to start by saying I licked an ant's butt and I liked it...a lot. In fact it tasted like lemons. How & why did I lick an ant you asked? Well I'll tell you. It all started during that field work adventure that I was talking about earlier through the mangrove forest. All of sudden Glen stopped and looked at a vine. Then the next thing we knew he had little green tree ants crawling up his arm. Glen then looked at us and said, "Who's ready to lick an ant's butt?" Naturally I decided to volunteer so did the rest of the class. I mean wouldn't you? How many times would you ever get to do that??? As a result after I finally caught one off Glen's arm (those little guys are fast) I licked it and WALAH lemons. YUMMMMMMMmmmm! I guess the aboriginals use to them for candy and to make flavored water. Nowadays people are using them for ice cream.

I liked these ants so much we actually decided to do our research on them. They are also known by the name of weaver ants because they weave nests from leaves and the silk of their larvae. We wanted to see if we increased the size of the colony within in the tank if they would build an additional nest to accommodate for the increased colony member size. At first they tried to add another leaf to one of the nests but because they are territorial no one would let them move in. There was a bit of aggression amongst the ants too. Eventually after the experiment they did build a nest which was pretty cool.

We also went snorkeling a lot and saw tons of fringing coral reef. We also saw some of the damage done to the coral reef by Cyclone Yasi. There were more beautiful fish everywhere. Then I swam ashore to one of the beaches and with the help of some of the guys knocked coconuts down from the tree with a giant log. Then I cracked mine open after much effort on a log and a rock. It was really difficult to get the green part of the coconut open. Cracking the brown part was easy though. Then I broke it open finally and drank the sweet coconut water as it drizzled down my chin. I then ate the flesh inside. At this point though I stabbed the coconut shell through my hand. I think I may be the only person in existence that was injured by a coconut. They were delicious. After the coconut fiasco we went snorkeling again over some GIANT and I mean giant clams. They were the biggest things I've ever seen.

During the trip I also saw lots of green tree frogs. In fact one lived in the frame of our door. I also found a viper and held it. It felt so cool having its muscles contract in my hands. Overall it was a fun time minus the attack of the ants and the spider the size of an orange.

Off to Cairns and the rainforest tomorrow.

Me with the Viper

Orpheus island

Coral from the Snorkeling Trip

Snorkeling Trip

Hanging at Heron

On Wednesday after a 2 hour and ten minute ferry ride, we arrived on Heron Island. Funny thing about Heron Island is there are NO herons on Heron Island. Let’s talk about a misnomer. We are here doing more research projects at the research station. For starters there is no internet or cell phone service here so we are all going cold turkey on this technology withdrawal. But we’ll manage to tough it out somehow. There’s always the turquoise water and pinkish, white sand to enjoy.

Although I mentioned earlier that there were no herons on Heron Island, I’m afraid that I might have mislead you that their were no birds. Now that would be lie. There were birds here and they are terrirtorally mean. One actually bit me trying to get my cookie. Another one actually stole my friend Kristens PB&J sandwich right out of her hand. They just literally come out of no where. One day we will escape these darn birds. I’m seriously thinking Hitchcock took a trip to Aussie and then was inspired to make The Birds. They are evil I tell you. Evil.

Anyways enough of that…the island is on a coral cay. It’s surrounded by the Great Barrier Reef. The vegetation here is very tropical almost like a rainforest. The sand itself like I mentioned before is white and has bits of pink coral mixed in. We spent a lot of the time on the beach here when we weren’t doing research projects. However we did end up going for more reef walks and did a great deal of field work in the ocean.

I ended up working in a group with Jessica and Anna for this group project. We decided to do a study on the location and abundance of various sea cucumber species based on sediment type and coral coverage. It basically ended up as us going into the ocean with our neoprene booties and measure out a 20 by 20 meter square with the transect down the middle. We then counted and recorded the number of sea cucumbers there. We also took a sediment sample and measure the coral coverage that was found across the transect. Overall doing this project was really fun. We even discovered a new species “Sticopus brillus” on Heron Island. It has a sudsy bubble defense when irritated instead of the usual cucumber use of cubanian tubulues. It also eats the detritus off plates instead of sediment. Similar to Holthoteria leucospilota it covers its skin in this detritus as a form of camouflage. And for those of you who haven’t figured it out yet we discovered this sea cucumber in Wendy’s sink in the kitchen.

Throughout our stay on Heron Island we went on a series of snorkeling expeditions. During these we saw so many different things like sea turtles, barracuda, sharks, manta ray and miraculously colored tropical fish. We even went for a night dive, which was pretty awesome. I was so nervous once I put on my wet suit though and realized that I had to go into the water! We tied pink glow sticks around our wrists with elastic bands so that we would stand out in the water. We saw so many amazing things. The rays were directly below us when we swam under the jetty. We also went snorkeling over by the wreck. I went inside it. It was just surreal.

I also had to opportunities to go diving on the island. This was pretty fantastic because we were diving right on the Great Barrier Reef. On the first dive I was a little bit rusty and had trouble controlling my buoyancy, but that second dive…WOW….it was like being on the set of Finding Nemo. Just too fabulous. I saw clownfish swimming in the anemone. A giant see turtle was only inches away looking at me. Then there were the dory fish, parrot fish, little blue neon fish and just so much more. Then after one of the dives when the boat pulled back into the harbor, turtle eggs were hatching: right in the middle of the day. This is something that almost never happens. So we went down to the sand and watched the turtles crawl out of their eggs then trek across the sand to the water. It was fun to help the turtles find their way to the water.

Overall Heron Island was both a beautiful and amazing experience. I can’t wait to find out what else this trip has in store for me.

Sand Sledding & Cliff Sliding

The last few days have been quiet fantastic since we had left Straddie. On Monday we went to Noosa National Park. Like most everything else here in Aussie it was simply stunning. I walked through many of the trails and I felt like I was going through a tropical rainforest. The plants and other fauna on either side of the path felt out of this world. I also noticed many of the plants we had been discussing in lecture there such as Casoptera (sort of like this Australian Pine Tree). There were more dolphins at this little look out called Dolphin Point. After walking for a while I headed over the to the beach where most of the group was. Then I went for a swim. The water was wonderfully warm. We ended up spending the night is the little town called Tin Can Bay. We walked to the convenient store that night and bought Tim Tams. They were totally delish. I had black forest flavor with little bits of fruit inside.

On Tuesday we kicked off the awesomeness by heading over to the harbor at Tin Can Bay. There we waited for a wild dolphin to swim into the harbor. The family of dolphins had been coming there since the 1950s when the community nursed an injured dolphin back to health. So there we waited, hoping we too would be able to witness this event. Eventually 20-year-old Mystic swam right up to the shore in the harbor. He was absolutely stunning. We all gazed in awe for a few moments, until the rangers invited the audience to step right into the water beside the beautiful, silvery dolphin. Then I got to feed the dolphin fish. It was a wonderful experience to be able to have the opportunity to feed a wild dolphin. He literally gobbled the fish right out of my hand. I guess they only feed the dolphin about a kilo of the 25+ kilos of food it will eat in one day that way it still remains independent. It’s pretty cool. The government is now discouraging such actions in other areas of Australia but they still allow the community of Tin Can Bay to feed the dolphins because of the history and tradition that rests behind it.

Afterwards we headed over to Rainbow Beach. It was beautiful with many different shades of colored sand. We made a trek through this path until we arrived at the sand dune. It was gianormous. It stretched about 100 meters off of the ground. We saw boogie boards along the side of it. Glen our instructor explained that people slide down the dunes similar to sledding in the States. So a group of us ran up the sand dune. It was quite a ways up and my legs were burning by the time I reached the top of the steep incline. Then I ended up rolling all the way down the side of the dune on my side. I tumbled for a while until I finally reached the bottom. I was unbelievably dizzy. Then we walked to the edge of a very tall cliff and looked over Rainbow Beach. To my surprise there was no staircase down. Instead in order to get to the beach we had to SLIDE down this 200-meter cliff. It was crazy. I got so much sand all over me and inside my clothes. It was totally an adrenaline rush.

Once we got down to the beach, the water was turquoise and the sand was multicolored. It was gorgeous. We then went for a swim and sun bathed a bit.  Then after a while Pete, Lauren, Kristen, Jordan, and I had gotten hungry and decided to head into the little township. We walked for about 30 minutes across the massive sandy beach and up a windy road until we finally reached the little town.

We ate at this cute little restaurant in town. I got fish & chips again with a passion fruit soda yum! Except we had to pay 30 cents for each packet of ketchup and those who know me know that they made quite the pretty penny that day. All in all the food was great though. Then we went to some cute little shops and bought post cards. Then I ended this awesomeness with Tiramisu & Nutella gelato. Best thing ever like legit!

 Yay for a fabulous adventure.

Later, mates!

Kickin' It Kangaroo Jack Style

Today we went over to Point Look out on Straddie. It was sooo gorgeous. Its about a 30 minute bus ride from the research center. We started by doing the gorge walk. We walked through this tropical trail and eventually ended up on these rocks that overlooked the ocean, along the way Glen pointed out lots of the cool little plants along the side of the paths. You could see a group of dolphins jumping through the water. I was so happy that I brought my binoculars. It was so stellar to be able to see so many dolphins just swimming around freely in the ocean.  We walked out really far and close to edge and took tons of photos. Shortly after though my camera died because I forgot to charge it last night. 

We started to walk up the path again and we saw 2 kangaroo just chilling up on the hill. It was very fabulous. I was so excited to see a kangaroo in the wild. Then it started to downpour so we ran into town where I got the most amazing coffee ever. It was called flat white coffee. It was sort of like a latte but different. Its something everyone needs to try. Delish!

Kangaroos!!!!!

View from the path of the Ocean

View from Point Look Out

Then I went and hung out with Kelly. We walked all over and climbed tons of rock structures. We saw so many chitons every where. They were so cool looking. I even saw a little baby one. Too cute! There were also two different gastropods. I really liked the blue pyramid one. It had a white and blue swirl on its shell. Gorgeous! 

View from the gorge

Jordan at the Gorge

Jessica and Jordan at the Gorge

Me at the Gorge

Anyways we found tons of awesome looking sea shells along the beach. I found red ones (my fav), purple ones, black ones, yellow, orange and blue. It was fantastic how much variety there was. We also went and checked out some of the tide pools. There were these little black fish with white stripes swimming in there.

All of a sudden while we were walking, Kelly, Doug and I saw another kangaroo. She was only about 10 feet away from us. She even had a Joey in her pouch. She was eating grass. You could actually hear her chomping away at it. Kelly & Doug took some awesome photos.

We then headed to the beach. On the way we saw yet ANOTHER kangaroo. This one was only about 6 feet away this time and he was itching like crazy. I was so excited to see my first ever itchy kangaroo. I kept wondering what on earth was making him so itchy. It was so funny we watched him for like 10 or 15 minutes and he just kept scratching non-stop. It was too funny. He would look right at us and practically pose for photos. He was a totally ham. Totally my favorite part of today. Kelly took a video of it. So I'll be sure to post that later.

Then we went body surfing in the ocean on Cylinder Beach. Its when you don't have a board and just swim with the waves so it picks your body off the water. It was tons of fun. I actually ended up going in the water with my tank top and capris because I didn't wear my tankini there. It was such a good time.

To end today I got tim tams and a magnum bar. Delish! 

Till tomorrow when we leave Straddie.

Dugong, I Choose You!

Yesterday was our fabulous hunt for the legendary dugong. Many of you may be wondering what is a dugong? Before this trip, whenever I heard the word dugong I thought of the ice monster from Pokemon. Turns out, it's not just a Pokemon. No duh, I guess.

It's actually sea cow with a dolphin tail. They are very difficult to find because they are on the endangered creature list. Morton Island (the island just north of Straddie) is one of the last Dugong hot spots. So we set out on a dugong hunt!

The Pokemon

Photo of a REAL dugong from Google

So I guess when some people (and by some people I mean marine biologists) go out to hunt for dugongs they actually have a guy stand on the back of the boat and tackle a dugong. It sounds pretty ridiculous to me. We didn't quite do that. Ned from the research center drove us to the harbor in his van where we got on the little boat. It felt and looked very legit to say the least. It looked like a boat that'd you head out on an expedition in. We sat on the inflated sides of the boat and hung on as we sped off across the vast ocean in search of the legendary Dugong. 

Lauren & Kristen
The sign we saw when we arrived at the boat launch.
The one rule, "Don't Fall Off the Boat!"

Lauren, Kristen, Jordan and Kelly on the Boat

Me on the Boat. Hunting for the Dugong.

30 minutes later we came across the dugong resting grounds and let the boat ease to a stop. And then just waited.... All of a sudden we could see a little snout pop up in the distance. We gasped. It was......a Dugong!  ALAS! Then more seemed to pop up one by one. There were 4-5 in all. We saw their tails too and the backs of their bodies. It was simply fascinating.

Then we drove the boat into shallow water. There we began to tail some giant sea turtles with the boat. Glen sent some of the students jumping off of the boat to tackle the sea turtle. It was hilarious as people flopped into the water missing the turtle. The turtle was SO fast. It would just speed away like it was nothing. No one was successful though. Just miss after miss. It was like a rodeo. No one could stay on those wild turtles. 

I got to drive the boat back to harbor which was wicked cool. I felt like I was driving a boat from some kind of spy movie. That about summed up the awesomeness which was yesterday.

Today we presented our projects. Then during tea time we say dolphins jumping in the ocean, which the sun setting in the background. It was AMAZING. Then we went for a walk and saw get this....3 koalas in one tree! I mean how cool? It was probably the most adorable thing that I've ever seen. I still can't get over it. I took tons of photos. Hey Alicia, I found Kenny!

Kenny the Koala

I don't know if I ever mentioned this before but I feel like I'm in the movie The Birds on this island.  I kept looking around expecting to see Tippi Hedren. The birds here are nuts! They keep screeching all day long and fly around in swarms. Then they swoop around in circles. It's like we are under attack by a swarm of mad birds.

We ended the day by watching flying foxes (a kind of bat) fly off into the night. I took a video of it. I'll show you all when I get back. We watched it from the graveyard which was quiet fitting. It added this extra spooky flair to it. Then we walked back through the graveyard at the dusk to the research center with the bats flying over the head. I felt like we were in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I was so ready to stake some vamps. haha. I know I'm a dork. What can I say? I even brought my Sunnydale Sweatshirt.

That about concludes the best day ever!

Till next time.

Fish Face

Why g'day mates!

Long time no see. Let me tell you that this story ends with me getting hit in the head with a fish. We've been out and about since we are arrived at Straddie AKA Stradbroke Island. We are staying at a research center. Yes a legit research station. In fact its SO legit it even has its own t-shirt.

Here we are doing some field work and research. My group and I chose to do ours on diversity and evenness of various fish populations between day and night. We are looking into other possible contributing factors such as visibility, thermohaline circulation and thermal vertical migration. It's been a good time so far but very hard work. We are doing our project by using netting and doing a drag sweep through the ocean water with a 50m net. That's pretty big! Basically in the sweep you catch fish in the netting and then put them in buckets. During this time you sort the fish out and make a tally of the different species you pull in and measure them. Afterwards you throw them back into the ocean. We found some pretty neat stuff like eels, cuttle fish, goat fish, blennies, and tons more.

We went out last night around 9:30. We need the netting thing again, except this time we pulled in over 1,000 fish!!!! When we were doing the sweep one of the girls said she saw a HUGE ray. We are going out to do this tonight so wish me luck. There were so many fish we couldn't even collect them all, we had to just start instantly throwing them back. DOINK! All of a sudden when I was shaking out the net in the ocean, I got hit square in the head with a fish. It was definitely something that could only happen to me and me alone. haha.

Photo by Kelly

Also we've been doing a lot of field work by just walking on the mud flats since we got here, looking at different organisms for instance during  the first day here we looked at the biodiversity of gastropods (snails) by collecting different samples along the shore of Moreton Bay. It was really fun. We even found a chiton, which is this 8 dorsal plated prehistorical organism. Its really cool looking. It was stuck really hard to the rock. Doug, one of the leaders, had to come get it off with a pocket knife.  Then looked at all 12 species more closely that night in lab. We've all had tons of fun lectures and we need lots of tidial walks were we found things like coral, sponges, sea daisies (tunicates), sea cucumbers, crabs, rays, star fish, etc. The list goes on forever!

Photo by Kelly

Photo by Kelly

Its been very busy and fun. I hope to continue to keep you all posted after I leave the island.

Photo by Kelly

Night mates!

Kayaking Down the Brisbane River

Today we went on this massive 2 hour kayaking adventure down the Brisbane River. It was a really good time. But so hard. My arms were killing me. Going into this, I had no idea how to kayak the most I ever did was the few times I went with my cousin Laura in Maine on Mousam Lake like when I was 12 which was nothing like today. The instructor was this awesome New Zealander. He helped me learn how to do it. I was plowing down the river at the end of the day. We played lots of crazy games like when we put the kayaks in a circle and ran around on top of them in a circle. We also did challenges like hand stands on the kayaks and standing straight up and paddling. We also had to work with a buddy to figure out how to put both our left feet in one boat and our right in the other. It was difficult but fantastic. I fell right in at that point and got my T. Swift shirt soaked. The water was so warm. I love it here in Australia. Its like never cold.

On the way back from this adventure we walked through the botanical gardens. They were so beautiful. There was tropical trees and plants on either side of the path. It looked and felt just like we were in the Rainforest. I loved it.

The path through the Botanical Gardens

View from the hill of the shoreline along the river

Afterwards we stopped at the Queensland Mall and hung out.

That's all for now. I'll keep you guys posted with more adventures.

Underwater World & Mooloolaba

5/22/11

Today we ventured to Underwater World in Mooloolaba. It’s basically this HUGE aquarium in a nut sell. There was tons of organisms in a touch tank with enchinoderms like sea stars and sea cumcumberes and other tank with sharks and rays. There was also this fish that runs on water which turns out is actually technically an amphibian. There was also a fish that spits at its prey. We played with it using a ring that belonged to one  of the girls in our group. I also saw a seal show. It was really fun and adorable.

We all went out to lunch after to this cute little fish and chips joint by the beach. It was SO delicious. It was actually wrapped in a paper bag just like in the movies. It had huge salt crystals on it too. You to pay $1 for ketchup and another $4.30 for a drink. I got raspberry mineral water. Essentially eating here is wicked expensive, yet so melt in your mouth delicious.

We all hung out on the beach after and jumped the waves. After we took for goofy photos.

Finally at the end of the day, I got to go on a shark dive! How awesome?! I didn’t even have a cage; we just went right in the tank with our gear on. The sharks swam all around me. One even swam head on in my direction and then brushed against my side. The whole adventure was such an adrenaline rush. We had to keep our hands in front of our bodies because waving them around attracts the sharks. I found out that they are fed when people make a similar motion so they would get confused.  It was such a great time. I had such an amazing experience. I even got a photo, certificate, & T-shirt to prove it if you don’t believe me. Photos will be added soon once I get them from some people.

To end this super stellar day, we had the most delicious pizza: pesto, pumpkin, roasted red pepper, artichoke, spinach and feta. Yum!!!

Till next time!

Welcome to Brisbane!

05/21/11 (lack of internet access made this post a bit delayed!!)

G’day Mates!

So far it’s the 1^st day in Australia and it’s simply fantastic. The plane ride itself here though felt like forever though, especially from Logan to LA. American Airlines is simply the worst I’m pretty sure. I liked Qantas though, which was the flight from LA to Brisbane. The food was great mmm…. Mahi-mahi. The seats were really comfy complete with their little tvs, headphones, blankets and pillows. I had window seats both times. Tough to get up and walk around, but what a view! I was gorgeous. I watched a bunch of tv shows like How I Met Your Mother simply because I don’t know what I do without Barney on my plane ride. Then I watched No Strings Attached, which was this new Ashton flick that was pretty terrible. So after doing 15 hours on the previously listen along with listening to Aussie music and watching the flight path on a monitor, we finally arrived in Australia!

So today 5:52 am on Saturday ( a day ahead on y’all) we arrived in Brisbane. Horary! We had a program orientation where we played Aussie Slang Bingo for minties, which are these Australian candies. Then we had a fabulous lunch of fruit and sandwiches. I ate this bizarre purple pomegranate looking fruit with yellow and green seeds inside. It was scrumptiously eccentric. It had a little mint spring on top. How cute?

Then I headed out with one of my new friends Melissa. We traveled all over Brisbane. Our teachers Glenn and Doug drew us a nifty little map.

So we walked around and found all sorts of amazing stuff like this science museum with free admission. There were two dinos out front which instantly drew me in and then there were even MORE dinos inside in a fossilized form of course! J There was a ton of stuff on Darwinism and zoology in general. I saw these great hands on exhibits about bat wings and exoskeletons. For the exoskeleton one you actually put your arm inside this mold of an exoskeleton and you had to try and move it up and down like you were walking. In the bat wing exhibit you put yourself in pseudo bat wings to simulate the propulsion of their wing flapping. It was a fantabulous museum.

We walked across 2 bridges: the Goodwill and the Victoria. We also trekked beneath this beautiful flower terrace walkway. It was so stunning. I saw this kind of bird there called an ibis, which I never saw before. There was also this mini beach along the path along with little patches of rainforest!!!!!

I saw a ferris wheel too. We walked along the river on the wharf. We also stopped by the Queensland Mall, which is basically like this collection of shops that resembles a miniature NYC.

We finished off our  jet lagged day at 8:57pm following a stuffing 5 course meal of Thai food. Not to shabby for our first day down under. Till next time!

3 Days till departure~

Hey everyone. My name is Jen and this is my stellarly fabulous travel blog. In 3 days I will be going "down under" to Australia for a short term study abroad course on Tropical Marine Ecology. I am honestly so excited. Like I cannot even contain it. 


I just started to pack and its literally like a bomb went off. I have not idea how I am going to fit everything inside of the suitcase and NOT exceed the weight limit. It will be challenge along with my on going battle to pack outfits that well, at least kind of match. A task that would be viewed as simple from the outside eye but here in the battle zone of my bedroom it continues to be a challenge.  We will just have to wait and see I guess. I'm very excited to get to use my "space pen" soon. More on that later though for those of you who have never heard this story 27 times.


In a few minutes my sisters Alicia and V are heading out with me to buy a few other last minute random things like ziploc bags for the trip. V will help me make sure everything matches for the most part I bet.


Anyways I'm very excited to fill you guys all on in my adventures snorkeling and diving Aussie. This is my first big trip since I went to Italy 4 years ago with my Latin Class. It's going to rock. 


Till next time when this Girl Meets World.