Nocturnal Noodlings

Right then, here are some night-related shots. Here's a picture of a nocturnal bat that Jess, one of my professors, caught in a bat trap. We measured its forearm length, fed it some honey water, and then set it free. I got to keep one in my shirt (in its bag, of course) to keep it warm. They loose body heat really quickly when they aren't flying.

For this one, I saw the light coming from the moon coming through this tree and decided to take a long exposure. For some reason this picture looks great on my computer but really bad on the CRS's lab computer... really dark. Basically, if it looks bad to you, I'm sorry, but I really like this picture.
Same deal. This is a picture of the stars, but it looks completely black on my screen in the lab. Oh well. You can see MILLIONS of stars out here on a clear night. It's exactly like when I went out to the Canyonlands a couple of years back... really incredible. When you're away from light pollution, you really can see how ancient people found pictures and characters in the stars... there was just so much more to work with before the electric light came into play! Anyway, sorry if you can't see them. I tried.

More to come! Next: My adventures in Chillagoe!

Good times

The good times are still a-rollin' down in Queensland, that's fo-sho. We went to lake Barrine a while ago on an excellently beautiful day, and I got a pretty nice picture of a spiderweb (left). These things are absolutely everywhere... it's not uncommon for me to walk through six or seven each morning to get to the center from my cabin. It used to bother me a little, but now I just think "hey, it's just silk anyway". I got a pretty good panorama at the lake, but it was too large to upload (21 images... it's a monster).
Here's a palm with fruit that we saw at the lake. I like how one side has no fruit and the other side is just fruiting. It looks like a set of lungs.
Here's a nice picture of a cane toad. This one was about 8-10 inches long. They're everywhere.
Long exposure of me doodling around with some fire on a stick.
We decided to have a campfire, which was really nice. We played games and sang Beatles songs and had a great time. I like this one with people's feet in it... it's a long exposure, so Colin's feet look sort of crazy.


MORE TO COME!!

An oasis in a vast dry country.

Well, it's been a fruitful couple of days. I've had a lot of oppertunites to take some pretty good pictures, and I'm happy with the ones I've posted below. Enjoy them... I'm going to go take more.



Not sure what kind of butterfly this is, and it's sort of overexposed in areas, but I like the contrast.



Larvae of a Ulysses Butterfly.



A dragonfly. There are lots here... again, they don't like to sit still for photographers, so I got lucky this time.



A neat-looking flower... very weird.



Cathedral fig. This is the largest strangler fig in the area, and it's beautiful. Doug and Syb, two aboriginal people I've met here, told us that this used to be a courthouse and a place of punishment forbidden to children. They used to climb up to the top with picnics when they were young despite the rule.



A male Australian (Cairns) Birdwing. The females aren't very brightly colored. This is my first decent photo of a butterfly here. They regularly flutter around everywhere, but they never ever sit still for long. This one was flirting with me though, it kept flying away and then coming back to me; maybe it liked the colors I was wearing. By the way, this is another one of those insects here that's as big as your face... it's Australia's largest endemic species of butterfly.




A fungal reproductive body. It attracts flies, which spread spores to other areas that (hopefully) become another fungus somewhere else. I was lucky to find this one, these things tend to emerge and disappear within a couple of hours.




Ants herding aphids on the underside of leaves. For those of you who don't know, ants regularly herd aphids like humans herd cattle. They drink sugary sap from plants and then extrude droplets of honeydew for the ants to drink. In return, the ants give them protection from beetles, who love eating them. It's kind of like the mafia. This is a mutualism that has existed for millions of years.



Two very picturesque trees.



Very bright green lichen/moss stuff. I was a big fan.




Some funny little fruits. They look like miniature pumpkins. They were powdery and hard.






Me in the ping pong tournament. I won two rounds and made it to the finals, but Bonnie finally defeated me and I went down in a blaze of glory to "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go". It was awesome.




Curtain fig. This is a big ass tree.



Spectacled flying foxes. There were literally hundreds of them in this narrow patch of Mabi 5b forest we went to visit. They make quite a racket, and it was a hot day (as always) so they were flapping their wings a little to cool themselves down. These things are about half a meter tall.




A Rainbow Skink. It was playing dead in the middle of the path. I don't know if you can see the iridescence, but this thing was absolutely beautiful and amazingly good-natured.




An Australian King Parrot. Just showed up outside of the center while I was cooking my eggs for breakfast. There were actually a few of them, but my zoom lens isn't quite good enough for me to have any better shots than this. Pity. Looks like I'll need to drop some cash on a better lens in the future.






Panorama taken near the Yungaburra Market. Every fourth Saturday, there is a farmers market and crafts fair sort of thing.. I went to it yesterday and I got a bottle of delicious Davidson Plum wine (it's a sweet dessert wine... a proper gift for my host family). I also got a small jar of local honey, and a new hat. It's sort of like the Indiana Jones hat my dad likes to wear, only the top part is made of mesh so it doesn't fill up with sweat. I like it.. it works well (i.e. protects me from the sun and keeps me cool), and it's collapsable. It was a good day for market shopping.





Here's a panorama from some high point... we had a field lecture here about the different types of forest. If you look closely, you can see a lighter-colored forest in the foreground and a darker one in the background. The reason for this is that the mountains are causing orographic rainfall (moisture hits the mountain, rises, cools, condenses, and it rains) on the darker areas, so rainforest can grow there. It's really dense, so it's darker. The lighter areas don't get as much rain, so they're dry schlerical (sp?) forest.




My friend Nate getting ready for the ping pong tournament. Just look at that grin.




A very large carnivorous water beetle. Found in the grass outside of the center.




Self portrait. I still look the same.

My day

Dear everyone,

I had a good day today. Today I had three hours of lectures. The first was a socioeconomics lecture about agriculture and tourism in the Tablelands. The second was about plate techtonics and Australia's geological history. The third was a socioeconomics lecture about agriculture and tourism in the Tablelands. See a pattern? I do. I see a waste of two out of three hours. As you can probably tell, I don't think socioeconomics is all that interesting, but I guess it's important. I'd rather let other people worry about it though.

After a delicious lunch, we hopped into the SFS vans and went to Curtain Fig, which is a gigantic strangler fig (everyone says it's about 500 years old, but I think it's older). I got some pretty good pictures which will be posted later. For anyone who doesn't know, a strangler fig is a little tree that starts growing on the branch of another tree when a bird poops out a seed onto it. It's cute and cuddly, and lives for a little while that way on the tree limb, minding its own business and not really causing many problems. After a while, its roots begin to grow longer and longer until they reach the ground. At this point, the strangler fig starts growing much much faster and its limbs and roots begin to swarm the tree on which it lives. Eventually, the original tree is completely covered and eventually dies. Because the fig doesn't withdraw any nutrients from its host tree, it can't technically be called anything but a structural parasite. In any event, after around 500 years of these shenanigans, these things can get pretty impressive. Curtain fig actually overtook a tree which then fell over onto another tree, which the fig also eventually overtook. The result is a large, triangular structure with roots hanging down in the middle, forming a curtain. It's really beautiful. I also managed to get a pretty nice picture of a bird who evidently lives inside the fig.

The other day one of my friends found a three inch carnivorous water beetle on our lawn. It's a pretty fearsome looking thing.. I got a picture or two, which I will post later. I walk on that lawn barefoot all the time; I hope I don't get pinched by one of those things. We let it go into a small pool where there were hundreds of cane toad tadpoles. I've been watching them grow, and I'm hopefully going to be able to catch and photograph some toadlets.

How could I forget! Later in the day (today), we went to another area where there were flying foxes hanging from the trees. I took MANY pictures, so you'll eventually see at least one. These things are really big! Their wingspan is about a meter! While walking on the path, someone spotted a Rainbow Skink, which I also photographed (it's a small, iridescant lizard... the iridescance was impossible to capture though... it has to be seen directly). Then I had some ice cream. Yay.

GRR I have to go and write a cane toad paper now. And maybe I'll eat a bagel. Ok bye!

More pictures

This just happens to be my classroom. A view of the Atherton Tablelands.

A nice little plant.

Another nice plant. Very powdery leaves.

Pink leaves after a storm. They're pink to warn animals not to eat them yet... when they turn green they aren't poisonous anymore.

Here's the center. Just a teensy little ranch in the middle of the forest.

Some pictures... finally!

Some pretty leaves with droplets just after a rainstorm.

I was walking by a field and these cows literally charged me. They got so close I had to take a couple of pictures.

Rainforest tree with extremely large butresses. These things are really tall. They think they're for supporting the tree in the shallow soil, and also for trapping nutrients and water.

Big spider. Huge. Absolutly the biggest one I've ever seen. Literally the size of my face. And notice that the patch of white on the front part of its body looks exactly like a skull.

Cane toads, leeches and giant spiders

I'm still here! I've decided I'm going to upload pictures or die trying. I've had to scale them down to 50%, but they'll still look ok (I think). It's true what they say... there are a ton of cane toads in Queensland. Like a lot. I'm writing a paper about them right now based on a very poorly organized experiment, and it's not going so well. Right now I'm trying to correlate (poorly) cane toad size and where they've been caught... I guess we'll see how it turns out in the end. On the plus side of things, the food here is great. I've only just realized that if I had gone to another university, I wouldn't have the home cooked meals that Iris lovingly prepares for us daily. So good.

So. Leeches. Where do I begin? There are a ton. They are little black monsters that move like inchworms along the ground until they reach your shoe. They have sensors on their butt that they use to find you by tasting the carbon dioxide, pheromones and body heat you put out. They crawl up you until they can find a bare patch of skin. Often that'll be your foot or your leg, but you can get unlucky. Some of my friends have found them in underwear. My friend Caroline found one in her buttcrack today, and another girl had one attach to her EYE the other day. Not only was it ridiculously difficult to remove, it left a pool of blood in her eye, and she now doesn't go outside without putting on goggles. Freaky, eh? I actually haven't been bit by one in a few days... I'm lucky (knock on wood). Anyway, when they attach to you, they don't like to let go until they're full of blood, at which point they just drop off. Creepy.

Still here..

Well, I thought it was about time for another update. I'm still here, I'm still having a good time, but I think I'm starting to get a little nostalgic about home. The first two weeks were easy... making friends, exploring the grounds and the nearby towns, getting a handle on what the coursework is going to be like... but now that we're actually responsible for work and I've fully realized the length of time I'll be away from home, I've become slightly disenchanted. I'm also lonely here... for the first time in a very long time I'm not with anyone, which is really weird and uncomfortable for me. I'm not trying to complain or anything... all of these feelings will probably go away, but I feel sort of trapped here nonetheless.

I've made some plans for spring break... something to look forward to, for sure. Most of the kids here are going to Magnetic Island, which is very close by and relatively inexpensive. I plan to see some Koalas (none out here unfortunately), do a little snorkling on the reef, walk around, generally relax on the beach. Definitely a nice thought. Tomorrow I'll be doing some sort of activity with a local Aboriginal family.. not really quite sure what that will involve, but it might have something to do with bush medicine or bush tucker (basically medicine and food you can find in the forest). It should be interesting. On Sunday we're taking a trip through the waterfall circuit, which should afford me a couple of oppertunites for some photos... we shall see.

I've got a quiz coming up, along with a paper, a number of journal entries and a presentation. The academic aspect of this center is really quite interesting. Every week has its own unique schedule, which is weird. One day we might have five hours of lectures in the hot, stuffy classroom (indeed the only one at the center), another day we might just have to cut open a bunch of cane toads and analyze their stomach contents, and when I'm done with that I have free time for the rest of the day. Totally random. I never know what I'm doing next. We have meals three times a day, and for each day of the week there is a KP (kitchen patroll) team responsible for setting it up and cleaning up afterwards. We have to compulsively wash everything constantly because possums and rats probably climb all over everything when we're not here and pee on stuff... we might get lepto if we don't clean the tables and counters before every meal. On Fridays we have "Warrawork" (a play off of the center's name, "Warrawoo", which means "All are welcome), which is basically the slave hour where we have to clean the whole center and all of the bathrooms top to bottom. Thank god for Iris, our cook, who keeps us well fed. Nate, one of my new friends who is a great guitar player, is writing a song about her.

I can't really think of much else to write about. It's late, but I don't really feel like going to sleep because I know that I will just be thinking for hours about my life. I feel like everything is changing all around me. I'm totally confused about whether or not I'm making good decisions with regards to my career and everything... I just don't know what's going on anymore. I'm having fun, but I'm in a slump all of the sudden and I don't like it.

Oh well. Tomorrow is a new day. Maybe my new Aboriginal friends will tell me something that helps me to figure out my life.

Oh, by the way, I've been spelling things wrong left and right, I'm sure of it. I couldn't care less. I know there's a spell check. I don't care.

Australia

Hello hello, finally updating my blog. Well, I'm here, and I've been here for a week now. I've already seen more amazing things than I've thought possible, and hopefully I can write about the most interesting ones before this incredibly slow internet connection gives out.

So, the ride over was pretty long. After a harrowing moment of dismay about a delayed flight and a last minute switch, I made it into Los Angeles from San Francisco with plenty of time to spare. I made it over to the international Qantas terminal, where I began to meet the incredibly nice and awesome kids who are doing the program with me. After a few hours of waiting, we boarded the 14 hour flight and, shortly after crossing the international date line and completely skipping 3rd of Febuary, we arrived in Brisbane. Next was a shorter flight to Cairns (pronounced "Cannes"), and then a long and bumpy drive up into the mountains in three official SFS vans. Thus began a great adventure.

The Center for Rainforest Studies is a small ranch in the Queensland Tablelands, elevated above the extremely hot valleys and consequently much more wet. It is a fifteen minute drive from the CRS through forest to reach the Gillies Highway, a comically twisty road that leads down the mountain to civilization. Along the edges could be seen rusted out vehicles a la Lost, ones that had clearly plummeted off of the edge of the extremely dangerous road. We have a living room, computer lab, kitchen, front veranda, pingpong ball table, whatever. It's an intimate space where SFS kids generally spend most of their time, and it's nice. We sleep in 5 person cabins that are pretty large (8 person cabins for the girls), and everything is sort of cobwebby because of the incredible diversity of spiders here.

Speaking of insects and spiders, there are more here than anywhere else I've been. Enormous spiders as large as my palm can be found in the showers, giant Rhinocerous beetles are attracted to the lights at the center, and I saw a two-inch soldier ant. There are also a dazzling array of butterflies and moths, though they are very tricky to photograph. Among the most annoying of animal life are horseflies (called "march flies" here), very occasional mosquitoes, and incredibly abundant rainforest leeches. My current leech count is eight, though that number is very likely to grow quickly. As for larger animals, there are Pademaelons (small kangaroos), even smaller kangaroos whose name escape me, a wide variety of birds who sing each morning at dawn (the ones outside of my cabin sound like laser gun fights... not possible to sleep through), Sulfer Crested Parrots, snakes (poisonous and not), four foot Goannas (lizards), you name it. These are just things I've seen, mind you... there's plenty more out there. As for plant life, there are many trees with enormous leaves, under which leeches can usually be found. There are stinging nettles, stinging trees, Waitawhile Palms (they grow very long appendages with vicious hooks that ensnare you as you walk by, forcing you to "wait a while" and get them off), and many more.

So far we've learned about the geology of the area, the socioeconomic situation, and a little bit of rainforest ecology in our introductory sessions. Mostly we've been taking trips to various places to see the sights. We took a swim in Lake Eacham, an extinct volcanoe. We helped to reclaim a deforested area by planting a few hundred rainforest trees. Today, I took an extened hike to the Cathedral Fig, an enormous strangler fig that is five stories high and hundreds of years old. I have pictures which I will try to post soon. I'm having a great time meeting new people and not being in Connecticut (no offense Connecticut). Everyone is really nice and I've made a bunch of new friends.

The atmosphere around here is really good. We all help to serve meals and clean; everyone does chores... it's very co-op-y. Basically it's a lot like Earth House back at Wesleyan, and I'm very comfortable here. The humidity can be a bitch; basically everything feels like a nalgene has been spilled on it 24 hours a day... that includes my bed and my pillow. I'm getting used to it. But despite the fact that I've never been wetter, I'm really glad I can, and I don't regret it one bit. I think I'm going to grow here in ways I couldn't possibly have grown at a university in some city... I don't have a choice.

That's all for now. No pictures yet... they'd take hours to upload here unfortunately. I'll try to get some up as soon as possible, and when I get home in three months I'll post many, many more. I've never been in a better place for photography.

Today-my last full day in San Francisco

There it is.  The Golden Gate Bridge.  My sister and I went for a long walk today that ended here.  It wasn't exactly a picture-perfect day, but I think this photo turned out alright.

Tomorrow I leave San Francisco for Los Angeles at 8:00 PM, and then I leave Los Angeles for Australia at midnight.  I plan on sedating myself for the flight, so hopefully some of the 14 hours will pass while I'm unconscious.  I'm getting more uneasy about the trip and the people and places I'm leaving behind.  I won't say I'm not scared, because that wouldn't be true.  I've never been on a trip of this magnitude and duration alone before, and going to a place I've never been with people I've never met is sort of terrifying for me.  But anyone who knows me properly is aware that I worry entirely too much.  I've resigned myself to just allow whatever will happen to happen, because it is for the best.  I'm sad to leave behind familiar places and people I love.  Nevertheless, this is something I have been planning to do for such a long time, and it's far too late to turn back.  It's the chance of a lifetime.

I'll post again when I arrive.  Until then, good night and good luck.

Alcatraz Island

Once the "most secure building in the US",  Alcatraz Island is now a national park.  Who knew??  It's a premium tourist attraction for young and old.  Lots of interesting stuff, and an awesome audiotour (very high production value; narrated by actual inmates and prison guards who were in Alcatraz) and ferry comes included with the price of the ticket.  My sister took me in honor of my birthday (coming up on the 8th).  It was pretty cool, and I had a good time.

After that point, we went and ate some Kobe beef burgers at this fancy place on the waterfront.  For those of you who are unaware, Kobe beef is from Japanese cows that apparently live better than most people.  Believe me.  These cows get sake, beer, massages, you name it.  They're happy until the day they're slaughtered (I guess).  Anyway, they taste delicious.  I'm not anticipating very much beef in Australia, so I figure I might as well eat it one last time.

Right then.  You'll find pictures below.

A crumbling fence bordering the old prison yard.  The entire facility is basically like this.  The prisoners used to spend hours out here playing bridge with dominoes (somehow they figured out a way to do it... I don't even know how to play bridge with cards).

The water tower.  

Panorama of the view from the island.

The watchtower.  This is one of the first things you see as you get off the ferry.  I like the spiral staircase.

That building with no roof actually used to be a recreational area for the corrections officers and their families.  Most of the staff used to live on the island with their families, and countless dances and holiday events were held in that building.  There was even a bowling alley in there!  It burned down at some point though... so did the original staff housing.

There's my sister standing in front of the morgue.  About 50 or so bodies went in there for autopsies; some inmates died of old age, others of suicide, and some were murdered.

A typical prison cell.  They aren't much more than this.  The grating on the bottom left is what allowed the famous Alcatraz escape to occur.  Three men gradually widened this opening with broken spoons they had swiped from the dining hall over the course of a year.  One night, after carefully setting up dummy heads and bodies in their beds to fool the guards, they slipped through the concealed openings and climbed up a series of pipes until they reached the roof.  By the time the guards discovered their absence, they were long gone.  They were never seen again.  Some believe they made it to Mexico, others believe they drowned in the bay.  No one knows for sure where they ended up.

Two panoramas.

Here are a couple of panoramas.  First, the Pacific Ocean (a view from Ocean Beach).  Second, a view of Golden Gate Park.

My Walk through Golden Gate Park

Hello again from San Francisco!  So, I made it to Golden Gate Park to see what all the fuss is about.  So far as I could tell, the fuss is generally about it's size.  It's huge.  Like six miles long.  Jesus.  Anyway, I found my way to the flower conservatory (see pictures) which was nice.  Some of the rooms are crazy and climate-controlled and stuff... very cool.  A couple of times I had to dash out of the room to protect my camera from the computer-controlled mist showers they use to water the tropical plants every half hour or so.  The vast majority of the most beautiful flowers were orchids, though there were cool pitcher plants and stuff like that.  See for yourself!

Orchid.

Pitcher plant.  These things fill up with water and attract flies and other insects with a sugary sap just below the edge of the rim.  Millions of tiny hairs on the rim point down toward the water, and an insect that ventures too far within the plant cannot escape.  Some of these things grow so big that rats fall into them and drown.  Mmmm.

Really cool little white... thingies.  

Here's a plant that was outside.  Notice the bee on the bottom flower.

Orchid.

Not sure what this is... but I like it.

Orchids.

Orchids..(?)

The Flower Conservatory.