November 2014 – kyliecurtislivingdownunder

So I have some trips and experiences that I want to write about, but I realise that they don’t have much in common. This post is going to be a conglomeration of a few short blurbs about these times because I don’t think I have enough to write about each to warrant a full post for each.

Jourama Falls

Kate, Alex, Emily, Rob and I took a day trip to Jourama falls, which is about 20 minutes north Crystal Creek. We headed out early Saturday morning all packed for a swim with our towels, sunscreen, and hats (classic Cancer Council Queensland slogan slip, slop, slap in action – slip on protective clothing, slop on some sunscreen, and slap on a hat). A quick stop at Woolies to stock up on some burgers, sausages, and snacks and we were off. We got to the falls around 10:30am and started off walking down the path the get to the falls. Some rock scrambling ensued, but eventually we reached some quality pools along the stream to swim in. Rob, experienced Queenslander that he is, made sure to bring a football and Frisbee to keep us entertained. The water was so refreshing, first cool water I’d felt in a while, with the strand water feeling slightly like bath water in temperature. Of course we found some large rocks, and deep pools, to jump off of and into. I swear I think I would get used to jumping off of huge rocks, but I still hesitate every time. The crucial step that I have learned to skip is the thinking part. If you don’t think about the fact that you are leaping off of a safe and stable rock out into the empty air and into a pool you know rationally is deep enough, but irrationally fear that you will bash your brains out on hidden rocks within its murky depths—then you can do it no problem. So the obvious move is to just do it (NIKE). Somehow this crazy rock jumping is very enjoyable to me. The rush of adrenaline, the pride that I can do something really stupid but still survive to jump another day, all makes it worth it in the end. Anyways, after throwing around the pigskin (can you tell I miss my ‘Murica yet?), swimming around like fish, getting freaked out by sticks that we think are eels, actually getting freaked out by eels, and lying in the sun we decided to go cook up some lunch. We headed back to the car, and on the way saw a goanna, one of the large Australian lizards similar to monitor lizards elsewhere in the world. After this awesome encounter, we got into the car, headed a few minutes up the road to a picnic table, and then got out and cooked a delicious lunch. After lunch we drove down the road back towards Townsville and hit the Frosty Mango, home of the most amazing ice cream I have ever had (not necessarily world famous, but Kylie famous). Then we drove back to Townsville, listening to good tunes, talking, and laughing the whole way.

Once home I had to help set up for the barbeque my fellow housemates and I decided to throw for our Frisbee friends. Shout out to Drake for fronting for all of the provisions. I know that he ended up paying a bit more than his share. Set up was quick and easy, and I think the house was the cleanest it ever was, or has been, that day. The party was a great success, with a lot of awesome food, fun games, swimming in the pool, etc. Many laughs were shared, too much food was eaten, and I just had a grand time.

Halloween!

The favourite holiday with so many movies, episodes of your favourite TV show, epic stories, great pictures, and creative costumes. It honestly was a little of a letdown here in Australia. Halloween is apparently more of an American holiday. Most of the costumes were not very creative, or the person did not fully commit. I fall into both categories, but as a poor college/study abroad student, I am not too guilty. In addition, it would have been wasted effort since no one else put forth the effort. Regardless, I went as Swiper the Fox from Dora the Explorer, and Emily was my Dora. We went to the Uni bar to start our night, said hello to some friends, and grabbed a few drinks. We did not stay too long, because Flinder’s street awaited. We made it into town around 11:00 and went to the Mad Cow. We danced for a couple hours, which was quite a lot of fun, but then headed over to the Cry where our friend Hayden DJs. It was pretty empty so we basically had the dance floor to ourselves. What ensued was the worst (or best) white girl dancing you’ve (n)ever seen. We were able to request some songs, and belt them out at the top of our lungs, without any need for embarrassment. After a great night, Hayden gave us a ride to McDonald’s and then home. It was a great, semi-eventful Halloween night. I was a little sad to miss my 2^nd HallowGreens night back at St. Mary’s. At this point I will only have had 2 out of the 4 during my college days (last year I had RA duty) so I will have to go all out next year to make up for it.

Paluma Trip

One of my subjects this semester was Biodiversity of Tropical Australia. I wanted to make sure I took advantage of the unique courses offered here and this seemed like a great one to choose. We spent the semester learning about the wildlife here in Australia, the different orders, families, and species. It honestly was much more work and memorization than I expected, but I am still glad that I took the course. One of the components of the class was a field trip to Paluma, the local rainforest just an hour north from Townsville. We left on the Friday before the last week of classes and returned Sunday night. It was honestly pretty bad timing due to the large volume of work I had due the next week, but I guess it couldn’t be helped. We spent the trip on night spotlighting walks, day nature walks, categorizing plants and animals we saw or heard, and eating delicious meals and snacks made by the kitchen staff. My favourite activity was our walk when we went looking for bats. We heard all sorts of squeaks, although some were at frequencies that our puny pathetic human ears could not even begin to decipher (they literally went over our heads *buddum tsssst*). One of the coolest organisms I saw was a leaf-tailed gecko. Our guide for the outing, Conrad, was seriously one of the coolest people I have ever met, on par with Jeff Corwin (who I am obsessed with, and just kind of want to be). He hopped right into the forest and within ten minutes had found one of the cryptic geckos as if he was looking for an elephant in a kiddie pool (seriously he made it look easy). The gecko looked like a little dragon without wings, and with a really broad leaf-like tail, hence the name. It was an expensive trip, $250, and the assignments during the trip only account for 7% of our grade, but it was pretty awesome all-in-all.

That’s all for now folks. I have taken 2/3 exams at this point and this last one is going to be the hardest. Hopefully I survive it mostly unscathed. I can’t wait for freedom! Still open to any donations at my GoFundMe account (http://www.gofundme.com/kangaroocurtis) especially with cleaning expenses for my room rental coming up and the trip home! Thanks for reading!

The Homesick America-and-Australia-Lover Who is Constantly on an Emotional Rollercoaster,

Kylie Curtis

Wednesday cont.

We arrived in Sydney around 5pm. Alex and I were lucky to be on the left side of the plane which actually turned out to be the right choice. As our flight descended we had an amazing view of the Sydney Opera house from above. We took a half hour cab ride with the most atrociously mannered cab driver I have ever met (although I’ve never taken a cab in NYC) and arrived at our hostel the Blue Parrot. It was very hard to see, with only a 4 foot gateway and small sign hanging down. Our very rude cab driver growled at us to hurry up and get our stuff, and we left the cab with a sigh of relief. The street we were staying on was quite cute with a small park and fountain down the road, shops and cafes all along the street sides, and some fairly nice restaurants. We walked through the gate, down a long ally inbetween buildings and then through a door into the hostel. Once inside the place seemed much larger and although it was narrow, it was long and extended back fairly far. The hostel had a cozy feeling, with very kind workers who took the time to make sure they knew our faces and names. Out back was a relatively large patio with chairs and hammocks. We went upstairs to our four person room with two bunk beds. There were three bathrooms and probably about 6 rooms in total each holding 4-8 people. After settling in, we all changed for dinner and decided to take a walk through the city towards the harbour. Our friend Kenny was also in Sydney, so a few texts later and it was decided that we would meet up in the harbour to grab some dinner. After about a 45 minute walk, we finally made it and let me tell you, the view was absolutely stunning. Yachts lined the sides; lamps lit the bridge, harbor and opera house. I cannot even tell you which sight was more beautiful: the bridge or the opera house. Not 5 minutes later, Kenny showed up and after some pictures with one of the best backgrounds a tourist could hope for, we scoured the harbour side looking for a relatively cheap bite to eat. Cheap, however, was obviously an optimistic hope and we ended up walking quite a while out of our way, and far from the harbour, to hit a bar with a great burger deal. So with some great beer and tasty burgers we sat down and enjoyed a nice, relaxing meal. Some of our friends from JCU were currently in the area for Australia’s big college sport tournament. All types of sports are played throughout the week and teams come from all over the country. Our friends were on the JCU Ultimate Frisbee team, and I really wish we could have seen one of their games. After dinner we took another half hour trek to the Cockle Bay Wharf. We hit up a Lindt’s chocolate shop where I got a couple amazingly decadent truffles and everyone else got some other form of delicious chocolate. We then headed towards the club that our JCU friends were supposed to be at, but after waiting ages in line and getting in, we found our friends nowhere in sight. We went back outside and happened to see a large (6’8” tall), familiar friend, my housemate Drake. He was there with the Frisbee team, and we lucked out in finding them just by chance. Then ensued another long journey, hopping from bar to bar until we settled down at a fairly empty one, got some drinks and proceeded to have a great night talking and laughing and later dancing until it was time to catch a cab ride back to the hostel and say goodbye to our friends.

Thursday

Bondi beach! Home of the Bondi Rescue lifeguards and one of the top tourist destinations around Sydney. After a train ride and subsequent bus ride, we made it to the beautiful Bondi beach. Sitting in a cove with light soft sand and azure blue waves crashing in, Bondi is one of the most beautiful places I have been. Rocky cliffs line the cove with houses and walkways built into the sides. We spent the entire day laying out and swimming (only once or twice, the water is freezing and the waves unforgiving). I probably applied sunscreen 4 or 5 times to avoid sunburn from the hot Australia sun. A lot of our time was also spent attempting to get Alex a picture with the Bondi rescue squad, which was largely unsuccessful until the last hour we were there. A couple of lifeguards were driving by on their beach buggy and we ran over making camera motions with our hands. They pulled to the side and we snapped a few awesome pics of Alex with them (and the hugest grin on her face). After we tired of the beach, we went up and grabbed a delicious dinner at the only restaurant on the beach. Then we decided to go for a walk along the cliffside and caught a few more amazing pictures of the beach from the ocean side view. After our walk we caught a bus back to the train station, hopped on a train and headed home. That night we watched the Mary Kate and Ashley “Our Lips Are Sealed” movie where they go to Australia. It was perfect, because we had basically visited every place they had in the movie, although unfortunately for us, we didn’t have any Australian friends invite us to a yacht party like in the movie. After a day out in the sun, and a nice movie to wind down the night, we hit the hay.

Friday

The next morning we went on a breakfast journey. One of my good friends from home, Ellie, had sent me a buzzfeed post earlier in the semester with great places in Sydney to get breakfast. After scouring the list, I had found two places in walking distance and we set out determined to get a delicious Australian meal. We opted for the Café Giulia out of the two choices because it had a much more eggs and bacon kind of feel to it. After a delicious plate of eggs, wild mushrooms, roasted tomatoes and rye toast I was stuffed. My friends had the fetta omelettes and apparently they were amazing. A nice warm cappuccino rounded out my meal, and we all left walking a little more slowly than we had on arrival. On the way back to the hostel we hit the other breakfast joint on the list, but this one was a bakery. The smells were heavenly, so I ducked in and ordered a chocolate filled croissant to-go. Then we walked to the Sydney harbour once more, where my friends peeled off to catch the ferry to the Taronga zoo and I headed for the Sydney Bridge. I decided to try to save some money by skipping the zoo, and I actually had quite the awesome day walking around Sydney. I walked across the bridge and along the opposite side of the harbour to get the front view of the opera house. I sat for quite a while and ate my croissant while watching boats travel through the channel. After I tired of this, I walked through the shops in the area and settled down at a bar with a nice view of the harbour and had a couple of delicious ales. With my time almost up before my friends returned from the zoo, I walked back over the bridge, jamming to my iPod and getting a stunning view of the harbour from above. I got to the harbour just as Alex, Kate and Ji were arriving. We walked back to the hostel and changed for another night out meeting our JCU Frisbee friends. We caught dinner at the famous Harry’s Café de Wheels, where plenty of stars (Colonel Sanders included!) had visited and taken a photo to be hung on the side of the cart. After this we took a train into the city to meet our friends at their hostel. They were living up their last night in Sydney and not too long after we all headed to a nearby bar/club where we danced all night and had an epic time. Another cab ride home sent us straight to bed, knowing we’d have to be up and ready to catch our shuttle to the airport the next morning.

Saturday

We caught a quick breakfast (bagels this time! You’d understand my excitement if you hadn’t had bagels in months) and took a walk to a park with an amazing view of the Sydney harbour. We were told it was a must see, and if we had ever seen anyone with an Instagram picture of themselves with the opera house, this was where it was taken. It was very beautiful but we couldn’t stay long because we had to be back to catch the shuttle. After an amazing week in Melbourne and Sydney we were headed home. A quick flight to Brisbane, a seven hour layover, and another short flight and we were home from our vacation. It was absolutely amazing and I wished that I could have spent a few more days in each city, but I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to go and to spend it with my awesome friends Alex, Kate, and Ji. What an adventure!

I’d say we met all five goals: