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.