My Address

I just realized that the address I gave below has a little error. The correct address is:

236 River Terrace
Unit 41
Kangaroo Point
QLD, 4169
Australia

Home Sweet Home!

Hi Everyone -

I've been wanting to update this blog all weekend long, but it's been too hot to do ANYTHING here! Remember what I said earlier about the drought? Well, apparently the weather has begun to revert to the usual summer weather that the Aussies are used to. The high on Saturday was 97, and it was hot. The heat here is the same as it is in Virginia, but when you take a step into the sun it hits you like a sack of bricks! I'm amazed that I haven't gotten burned yet, perhaps it's because I've gotten really good at slathering on sunscreen every morning before I do anything. I had a little chat with an Aussie yesterday, and he told me that you can always tell the Queenslanders from the visitors because the Queenslanders all have hatch marks all over their chests and backs - from where the cancer has been cut out! Yikes.

Anyway, this weekend I moved in to my new room at John's apartment. He still seems really nice, so hopefully we can coexist peacefully. He is dating a girl who is doing her PhD in nutrition, so she's also on my campus. She seems really nice too. The two of them made me dinner tonight! The apartment is set up like a townhouse - two bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs, and a living area/kitchen (and 1/2 bath) downstairs. It faces the city, so I have a pretty good view from the porch (see video!). I have to walk about 10 minutes to get to the Woolloongabba Bus Station, where I can catch a bus to anywhere. It will probably take me about 45 minutes to get to Herston from here, but I'll find out for sure when I try it tomorrow for the first time!

View Larger Map

The map above shows my new home, Brisbane! My apartment is located right across from the Botanic Gardens in Kangaroo Point. The area just south of KP is called Woolloongabba - and it's where 'The Gabba' is located. This is the Brisbane Cricket Stadium, I can see the lights from my bedroom window! I'll have to hop a bus to South Bank in order to get to my campus in Herston, which is just to the left of the Royal Children's Hospital (in pink).

The CBD (Central Business District, or downtown area) is nice and compact, but still feels like a big city. Everything here feels like it was constructed with a purpose, which I love. I think it's a well-planned city. All of the streets here are named after members of the royal family. Streets that run east-west are females starting with Alice, then Margaret, Mary, Charlotte, Elizabeth, Queen, Adelaide, and Ann. Streets that run north-south are male: William, George, Albert, and Edward. Queen Street is smack in the middle of the city and is pedestrian-only for two long blocks. This is where the major retail stores are - there are two HUGE indoor malls and any shop that you need you'd be able to find here. Queen Street Mall is also the location of several restaurants (including Wagamama!) and pubs.

Across from the CBD to the west is South Bank, the area that I've talked about before. This place is so nice! I love going over and walking along the waterfront. The South Bank Parklands (in green on the map) are a lovely stretch of shaded walking paths (including the arboretum with the pink flowers). There are also several great restaurants here, and a large open air market is held here on the weekends. The river path curves around to Kangaroo Point, where it takes you past the cliffs here. The apartment building that I live in sits right at the top of the Kangaroo Point Cliffs, which are about 65 feet tall and drop straight down. This is a popular spot for rock climbing and abseiling, and I'm hoping to meet up with the rock climbing club from UQ next week and do some climbing here. The cliffs are lit up at night, which looks really neat.

I have been really impressed with the transport in Brisbane so far. I guess coming from Charlottesville, anything will impress me! The buses are all very timely, and they're pretty new vehicles as well. The larger bus stations here all have electronic boards that tell you what buses are coming next and when they'll arrive. The Victoria Bridge runs directly from South Bank into the CBD, and some of the buses head to the Queen Street Mall Station from here. This station is huge, and is directly under the pedestrian mall. You can pop in to the department stores on either side and go down two stories to catch a bus underground. It's incredibly efficient!

Anyway, my first day of classes is tomorrow - I have Intro to Epidemiology. I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes!

O Week

Hey everyone! It’s the middle of my second week here and I thought I’d give everyone an update on all of the UQ orientation stuff I’ve been doing. I made my way over to the St. Lucia campus on Monday for the official international student welcome session. It was held in a huge auditorium filled with all kinds of different people who were so excited to be there – it was a neat atmosphere to be in. We learned lots of little tidbits about UQ and Australia like the fact that it’s easier to get sunburned here not only because of the hole in the ozone layer, but also because there is less pollution in the atmosphere to soak up the UV rays. Australian currency is plastic so that it can stand getting wet. It’s compulsory to vote in Australian elections, and if you don’t you’ll be fined $50. Some of the development of the HPV vaccine now marketed as Gardasil happened at UQ, and in Australia it’s approved for use on boys as well as girls. Almost 90% of the entire Australian population can be found living in five of the major cities (Perth, Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane). There are over 2000 international students studying at UQ this semester, representing more than 117 countries! We went through a roll-call by country, and go to see how many students had traveled here from each place. There were countries I hadn’t even heard of like the Republic of Mauritius. The bulk of the students came from China and the US, but there were people from all over – Sweden, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, Mongolia, Mozambique, Iraq, Fiji, etc etc. It was really pretty impressive.

Tuesday was my orientation day at the SPH. For those of you who don’t know, I’m undertaking a Masters degree in Public Health, which is taught at the UQ School of Population Health based on the Herston campus. Herston is a small suburb of Brisbane and is about 15-20 minutes from the main St. Lucia campus by car. The University operates within the Royal Brisbane Hospital, Royal Children's Hospital, Royal Women's Hospital and Queensland Radium Institute, all located here within a few blocks span. It’s a lot like the UVa hospital complex! I met my incoming class of about 25 people, also from very different backgrounds. There are 3 physicians; two guys interested in indigenous health, and one younger guy, Caesar, who is from India. To my surprise (and excitement!) there are several young women here to do an MPH – one girl from Sydney, a girl from Canada, a dentist from India, a medical student from Denmark, and a 2007 UVa grad and Richmond native! There are also several health professionals with nursing and therapy backgrounds, and a few other international students that I didn’t have the chance to meet. Greg Fowler, the academic teaching programs manager, spoke to us for a few hours to start off. The program itself seems like a fantastic opportunity – Alan Lopez, the school’s head, is very well-respected in the field and is currently involved in several globally-based research projects. I am really excited about it! We met our Martha (UVa people will get this), a lady named Laurelle who is really amusing and knows the scoop on everything! Classes start on Monday and now I am really, really jazzed about starting up.

In other news, I’ve also secured myself some housing for the next six months. I was ready to jump off a cliff about it last week – on Valentine’s Day I viewed the most spectacular place! It was a 3 bedroom apartment owned by an Aussie who works in India and is frequently gone 3 weeks out of the month. The apartment was brand-new, furnished, and had a wrap-around terrace/patio that was almost the size of the apartment itself (and had two gas grills!). Ah! Along with him I’d be sharing it with his little brother and his little brother’s girlfriend. I jumped at it and was over the moon until he called to let me know that his little brother had decided that he wanted both of the free rooms, so I couldn’t have it. I was gutted about it for days! I’ve decided to move in with a guy named John, who is a 28 year old fellow from Seattle. His apartment was the first one I looked at, and is still the best option now that I can’t live in the palace of my dreams. He seems nice as can be (although I’ll find out the truth soon enough!), and has a great apartment. It’s right on the cliffs at Kangaroo Point facing the city (I’ll make sure I post pictures of my view), and is in a complex with a pool and tennis court. It’ll be about an hour to commute to my classes via bus, but the location is really perfect for me so I’m very happy. My new address will be:

236 River Terrace
Unit 41
Kangaroo Point
QLD 4196
Australia

All care packages, notes, and visitors will be accepted with pleasure!!!

Some Videos!

A quick video of some of the munching action I witnessed. Koalas live almost entirely on eucalyptus leaves which are low in protein, high in indigestible substances, and contain compounds that are toxic to most species. The koala has a very low metabolic rate for a mammal and rests motionless for about 18 to 20 hours a day, sleeping most of that time. Most of the koalas I saw were sleeping the afternoon away! It is so funny to see how they prop themselves up on skinny little branches and totally konk out.

This is one of the kangaroos that I had been entertaining, until this lady tromped up and stole him away from me! There must have been 50 or 60 wallabees and small kangaroos in this enclosure, along with several ducks and a couple emus.

This little guy is an Australian Wood Duck - he waddled right up to me and made the funniest noise! I really wanted him to do it again for the camera, but he refused. It sounded like a very high-pitched, drawn out "whaaaaaa?"

This is just a quick video of the rainbow lorikeets feeding at Lone Pine. These are the 'parrots' that I've been referring to so much! The are cute little guys.

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

Here are the pictures that everyone has been waiting to see! This weekend I had the opportunity to travel over to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary to see all the weird Australian animals. Lone Pine was established in 1927 and is the world's oldest and largest koala sanctuary. They care for over 130 of the little bears. I'll have everyone know that I spent $47 on a gold pass card, which gets me discounts for an entire year including 15% off tickets for my guests, and free kangaroo food! Yet another reason to come visit! Of course the main attraction at Lone Pine is the opportunity to 'cuddle a koala', which I took advantage of. I was impressed with how they run this operation - they have a very specific protocol in place and it's obvious that they go to great lengths to prevent stressing the animals. The pictures are $15 a pop, but they'll also take as many as you'd like with your digital camera. It was so neat! The bears are as fuzzy and cute as they look (although mine too the opportunity to poo on me a little!), and I was really surprised at how strong the eucalyptus that they're always munching on smells.Lone Pine also has a vast collection of other Australian animals, including a big field full of kangaroos and wallabees that you can meander through with a bag of food. Most of them weren't very interested, check out my friend who just lazed around while I hand-fed him!

this wallabee was so tiny and cute!

the flying foxes (the bats that are all over at night)kookaburra a sleeping baby (he was SO cute!)

a very tired wombat

and of course more river dragons (this one was especially large)

I'll try to stick some videos up soon!

City Botanical Gardens

Took a walk through the Botanical Gardens again this weekend, and found this mummy ducky and her little babies. I realized moments later that I was surrounded by little ducklings!

This is for Liz, Jeff, and Jenny - I found the perfect spot for Boundless!! This little marina is next to the Botanic Gardens (on the right).

A Few More Pictures...

the parrots are kind of hard to see in the video below, so here is a picture - they are so pretty!

I took this picture yesterday in South Bank. There are lots of little shops and restaurants, and these white ibis birds patrol the areas begging for food. This one was strolling right by a Subway that's just to the left. I watched one jump up on table and look a guy straight in the face yesterday hoping to get a piece of his sandwich!

What I love seeing everyday!

Hello from the State Library!

A Few Pictures...

I managed to take a few pictures today and yesterday after/before the rain started again:

An Eastern Water Dragon - they are all over the edges of the Brisbane River and are about 2 feet long from top to bottom.

The view of the city from Kangaroo Point - the Botanic Gardens are all the green on the left.

Another view of the arboretum that winds its way along Southbank. The lighting makes it look especially cool at night.
The State Library of Queensland, where I'm posting all this from!

Some flowers just outside the library:

Rain, Rain, Rain

I'm sitting here typing from a computer terminal in Bunk, and my feet are sopping wet! Today I woke up to a steady rain and cloudy skies. I've failed to mention in my previous posts that the reason the river looks so dirty in my pics is because of the recent rains. All of Queensland has been experiencing a drought for the last 5 years, and it seems that this year has become the exception. Apparently the current weather is more what they're used to here - it hasn't stopped raining since Christmas (although it's the first completely rainy day I've experienced!). All of the Aussies are elated.

I decided that today would be the day that I'd trudge over to the St. Lucia campus and attend a few orientation sessions to get ahead of Orientation Week that starts on Monday. I hopped on to the CityCat, the Brisbane River transport boats, and made my way over to UQ. It's very efficient and is another transport option that's easy to figure out. I attended my sessions and took a quick look around St. Lucia (I'll post pictures soon). The campus is huge, and the student body is a bit larger than I had thought - around 35,000. I got some special treatment because my classes will be held on the campus at Herston, which is on the other side of the city from St. Lucia. The lady conducting orientation sat down with me afterwards and had maps with the bus routes I should take and everything. She told me that my program will be really neat and that it always pulls a very diverse group of people. I'm excited! My specific orientation session is all day in Herston on Tuesday next week.

I made my way back to Bunk and was completely soaked by the time I got to my room. After taking some time to change and call a few people I ventured back out into an area called Fortitude Valley. This is a neat kind of hipster neighborhood with lots of bars and shops. I popped into a bookstore and got my hands on a book about wildlife in Brisbane, so I'm happy to report that the parrots I saw are indeed parrots, and that weird bird pictured below is called a white ibis. I'll try to post more pics of the wildlife including the ground turkeys, geckos, weird tree marsupial things (obviously I haven't identified this creature yet!), and lizards that I've seen lately.

More soon....

Surfer's Paradise

Hello again everyone!

I'm typing this time from the State Library (utilizing the free wireless instead of paying $10/hour at Bunk!). It's Monday afternoon here and I bet most of you are sound asleep in bed! I'm just starting to get the time difference right. Not much has happened since my last post - more of the same wandering around mostly! On Sunday my new friend Julia, a French girl who is in my room at Bunk, invited me to tag along with her French friends to the Gold Coast. We met at Central Station downtown and took the train to Nerang, then hopped a bus to Surfer's Paradise.

Julia (in the pink) and her friends on the train

Surfer's is really the Daytona Beach of Australia, I think.

Today I'm just trying to figure out accommodation, and plan on attending a few orientation sessions at the St. Lucia UQ campus tomorrow. At some point this week, I'm going to travel over to the Lone Pine Koala Reserve, so I'll be sure to post pictures of that! Before I forget, I mean to post this in my last entry. I took this in the Botanic Gardens, which are snuggled south of the CBD and bordered by the river. Walking along the path I look up, and suddenly see these HUGE spider webs each stretching around 3 or 4 feet across. The spiders in the picture were probably the size of my hand. Freaky!

Hello!

Hi everyone! Welcome to my page...I'll try to be good about posting pictures from my trip here.

I arrived in Brisbane yesterday and had a really fantastic day! The flight was long, but not half as bad as I was anticipating. The excitement didn't hit me till I walked off the plane and realized that I wasn't in Kansas anymore. When I came through customs I was greeted by a plump old Australian lady who called me 'love', drove me to my hostel, and made it a point to warn me about how horrible all Asian drivers are (among other things). It's hot here. I think the temperature was around 90 degrees and humid - a lot like the summer in Virginia.


I got to Bunk Backpackers, and couldn't check in to my room till 1PM, so I dropped my bags there and struck off to wander around the city. It's so nice! Brisbane is definitely a city, but it's very easy to get a feel of the layout. One of the first places I stopped was a Woolworth's to get some snacks to have in my room. I was walking around thinking 'geeze everything IS expensive!' and then I realized that of course, all the prices are in dollars per kilogram. I can't wait to master this system again! The tree to the left is a massive thing smack in the middle of the city - those are roots dangling down from the branches.

I came back to my hostel to lug my stuff upstairs and take the most amazing shower I've ever taken (second only to the one I took after being on Aunt Liz & Uncle Jeff's sailboat for four days!). I also met two of the girls staying in my room (it's a 4 bed dorm). Jenny is from England and works the graveyard shift, so she's always here during the day sleeping (she's here snoozing away right now actually). The other, Julia, is a French girl who is here to study at QUT and seems really nice. The room (and hostel in general) is pretty nice. We have our own bathroom, and the beds are decent. The only downside is that there is a pool/bar/restaurant adjacent to the hostel that blasts techno music late into the night (and apparently the afternoons, as I am listening to it right now).

After my shower, I felt great and decided to do more exploring. I walked down by the riverfront, across from Kangaroo point where there are sharp cliffs that people rock climb on. I spent quite some time milling around the Queen Street Mall - a huge shopping area downtown - and got some stuff done like setting up my cell phone. I decided to go explore Southbank (across the river from the CBD) and headed in that direction, only to be completely drenched (and I mean soaked entirely) by one of the sudden downpours that is apparently pretty common this time of year. Lesson #1 - always carry and umbrella, and never attempt to run across a bridge if you see a wall of rain coming your direction. The picture is the city from Southbank immediately following that downpour!

After returning to the hostel for a change I hopped on a bus to Southbank and walked down to a little market that happens each weekend. I love it! Southbank is so nice, there is a wonderful arboretum path covered by trees and lined with vines with pink flowers (in picture). I was walking along enjoying the scent of the flowers and started hearing these occasional screeching noises. I glanced upward and realized that in addition to the flowers I was also surrounded by HUGE bats. I mean huge - they are probably 1 or 1 1/2 feet long. Things like this have been happening to me constantly since I got here, and I love it! I turn around and instantly see something that is so completely unusual that you can hardly believe it. There are also these funny birds that are pretty good-sized and have these weird, curved, tube-like beaks (see picture). They are absolutely everywhere - like squirrels in Virginia. I actually stayed awake until about 11PM last night wandering around, and didn't feel tired until just before I slipped in bed.

This morning I was up at 8 and left the hostel again to walk around. I went down by the river again and this time walked a little farther south to the Botanical Gardens. They are really neat! Saw lots of cool trees and flowers - and again turned around to realize that one tree was full of squawking parrots! I walked across a pedestrian bridge over the river and to Southbank again, where a regatta was happening. I guess it's also Chinese New Year, so there was a little celebration of that going on as well. What I also really like about this place is that there are lots of people here - 1.9 million - but I find myself alone (or mostly alone) pretty frequently. It doesn't have a crowded feel, which is really nice. I circled back around to Queen Street and now I'm back at Bunk planning to take a little nap so that I can venture out some tonight. When Monday rolls around I'll head over to the UQ St. Lucia campus and attend a few of their orientation sessions and hopefully start my search for apartments.