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.