The Wandering Bandicoot travels to Thailand

About this blog: I'm on an adventure in Thailand. I packed my SCUBA gear, two changes of clothes, and some contact lenses. I've already lost my Thai phrasebook, made friends with a cleaning lady, and tried to board the wrong plane. This is going to be awesome :)

The plan: Become a Divemaster. Tame the wild tropical seas, take some beautiful photos, learn a new language, make friends. 

The execution: Well, let's break this down.

1. Flight fro SFO to Seoul to Singapore.

Every flight is measured by its movies and the volume of babies' cries. Luckily there were no wailing toddlers, so here's my movie summary:

• Moonrise Kingdom: 5/5. This movie is delightful, and I say that as a lukewarm fan of another Wes Anderson classic "The Life Aquatic." Dad, you have to watch this - I'm curious how you react to the portrayal of boy scouts. And rural Canada-esque island life.
• Beasts of the Southern Wild - 4/5. Well, I cried for the last 1/4 of the movie but that's not saying much, given how Olympic ads = waterworks. It definitely gets points for emotional pull. I respect it for being beautifully made and incredibly acted, but it's still not my type of movie.
• Rock of Ages - ???/5. Why does this movie exist? I love musicals but even the plane flight wasn't enough to keep me engaged. Maybe there were drugs in my plane food (or hater-ade in my tea), but I am still confused  about how they got funding, great talent, and any audience to watch this movie.

2. Singapore: The Epic 14 Hour Layover Marathon

I arrived at 1am, bought a SIM card, and headed downtown for a few hours of sleep at a cute little hotel. I then headed to the Gardens by the Bay, where there's a fantastic display of human ingenuity and unnecessary engineering. It was like Avatar, but real and x10. IT WAS AWESOME! Also hot. And humid.

When I got back to my hotel, I ran into the sweetest woman cleaning rooms. We got to talking and the next thing I know, she's wishing me safe travels and hoping that there will be attractive people in my dive class. THE BEST.

I met up with James and Yeong Hui, two friends that I met during my week-long program in Taiwan (Spring break 2008).  I also met with them in 2009 on my way to New Zealand, and we couldn't believe it's already been 3 years... how time flies. We walked around the Esplanade, Marine Bay Sands Hotel and Casino (which apparently has annual earnings on par with all of Las Vegas or Macau... rich Asian people are really, well, rich), and crossed the helix bridge. We also drank lots of iced teas and coffees. Did I mention it was hot and humid?

After an airport sendoff from Nim, another friend from the Taiwan Program, I confidently walked to the wrong gate and had to sprint across the airport. Run, silly girl on gap yah, run! I made it with time to spare and the flight to Phuket was uneventful. I sat next to a funny Australian couple on their 40th anniversary trip; they had just come from India. They should start a comedy routine with the way they interrupt, correct, and make faces at each other when the other isn't looking.

3. Made it to Thailand. I'll put up some photos soon. My bungalow is not on the beach, sadly, but it does come with an adorable dog-in-residence. I'm not sure if he has fleas but I'll probably learn the hard way, since he lies down and begs to be pet whenever I walk by. I have a comfy bed, fan, and porch that overlooks a small side street. Beware: roosters and chickens roam freely. The food is great! Welcome to paradise :)

Hola Baja!

Hola familia y amigos,

No yo he practicado mi español por muchos años. Por eso, voy a escribir este jornal en inglés, porque no tengo tiempo para practicar y aprender todas las palabras que necesitaré para describir la experiencia de estudiando en Baja.

Besos,
Liz

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This is mostly going to be a photo journal, since we don't have much time for actual blogging. And since I don't remember enough Spanish to do this justice, I'll just do it English for the folks back home! (And sorry if my intro butchers grammar, spelling, and convention. It's been awhile since I took Spanish).

LA PAZ:

We arrived in La Paz Monday afternoon and went immediately to Hotel Yeneka, which Gilly described as "a funky place with a stuffed monkey driving a car." It was AMAZING! I think the decorations were entirely collected in junkyards, alleys, and gutters, but it's really great. Here are some photos to get an idea of the decor:

Yes, it's actually a real stuffed monkey driving a real car. Bizarrrrreeee!
The courtyard was open so we got a great breeze, and this table had a few rays of morning sunshine. SUCH A BEAUTIFUL PLACE!

We sat under this canopy drinking beers and eating tamales for a midnight snack on the first night. A street vendor sold the best tamales I've ever had, hand's down. Ridiculous.
SO MANY KEYS!

We spent the night in La Paz before driving to Loreto about 4 hours up the coast.

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Loreto:

This is another beautiful beachfront town and we were about 1 block from the ocean. We walked along the coast drinking mango smoothies and it was gorgeous. So wonderful!

We drove to Mission San Javier, about 1.5 hours inland from Loreto. The landscape is so barren and desert-like that we were shocked to find an oasis spilling onto the road. Gilly surprised us, since he knew it was there, and we walked around it for over an hour just enjoying the refreshing feel of water on our feet and watching the little river creatures.


If you look at the sides of the hill, you can see the huge cactus just outside the range of the water. The land is so parched that it's amazing a river can exist. It must have something to do wit the composition of the rock.
Becca, Lauren L, y yo!

Mission San Javier:

The mission is small but beautiful. It's set against an epic backdrop of desert mountains. Daaaang!!

This tree was pretty awesome and comfortable to sit on!
My adopted adorable puppy. Awwwww =)
A view from the front of the mission.

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Santa Rosalia:

We just arrived here and will be spending 2 nights. We've been driving A LOT to see things along the coast so it will be nice to stay for a few days. I will update more later!

Melbourne

Melbourne is AMAZING! The weather here is SO MUCH BETTER than in Brisbane - I can wear jeans and sweatshirts, but I don't have to because it's just warm enough to still be comfy without them. I love it! This city is also adorable - it's a lot less crowded than Brisbane and our hostel is right in the middle of everything. I'm here with Coop right now, and Linda will be joining us later today in the same hostel. We're staying at Nomads, and luckily we ended up in the really nice one. There are two Nomads hostels in Melbourne, and apparently the other one is filthy and "not fit for humans" according to my shuttle driver. So yay for internet booking! Our beds are super creaky, but I guess that gives it some charm?

Coop and I arrived on different flights yesterday, so we met at the hostel. I flew with Virgin Blue, and their bathrooms were called "Virgin Loo." HAHA!
My flight came in earlier than hers, so I ended up hanging out in the hostel room with two of the guys until she arrived (we're in a 10-bed mixed dorm). I've discovered that I can't really understand Scottish accents, especially when the Scottish person is hungover and drinking an orange-juice juice box. Baahaha but it was really nice because both Ben (English) and Shaun(Scottish) have been in Melbourne for a couple days, so they had some suggestions of what to see. Shaun wanted to know why we had come to Melbourne instead of staying in California because California is so much better. That seems to be a common sentiment from people in Australia in general - they all want to know why we've left California to come to a lamer version. But then I explain about the whole coral reef, rainforest thing, and then it makes more sense!

Coop and I just walked around yesterday to orient ourselves, and we both fell in love with the city!

Trams (just like in SF):
They have really funky architecture here:

The mall's roof looks like a spire above the surrounding buildings:
I saw a guy playing the MELODICA on the street! Who knew that anyone besides Chris was even aware that Melodica's existed!
Chinatown has no bakeries. None. At least, we couldn't find any... they must have ninja bakeries here! But I hope to find at least one so I can get my fix =)
Pretty buildings:
We stopped by the Carlton South Garden and it was gorgeous! Huge trees, and the Royal Exhibition Building was also very beautiful:

All in all, I'm super impressed with this city and I'm excited to be here for a few more days! We're going to try to book a tour along the Great Ocean Road so we can see all the beautiful rock formations, and we're also going to St. Kilda beach to see the penguins. YAY! Expect more photos soon!

Bye-Bye Brisbane

Saturday was the final day of our program, and I still can't believe it's actually over. We spent most of the day just packing and cleaning our rooms, getting ready to radiate back out into the world. That night, we had our farewell dinner at a Thai restaurant in the West End. We got dressed up for one last time:

Ilan and Will were ready for "Dancey dance" time:
Bus ride:
FOOD!!! We had so much delicious Thai food, including fish with sweet chili sauce:

Hanging out in front of the wishing tree - we wrote thank you notes to all our teachers and staff and hung them on the tree!
Almost all our professors were there - most of them gave speeches of some sort, and we had an awesome slideshow from John Hall accompanied by his hilarious narration.

The slideshow (we had front row seats!):
John Hall is one of the best professors I've ever had. He's so inspiring and committed and passionate about sharing his knowledge with us - it was worth coming to Australia just to have had him as a teacher.


This has been the best 3 months of my life, no doubt about it. I've seen so much and learned about things I never even knew existed (SEA HARES!) - and I've traveled to places that I only ever dreamed about. Australia is a beautiful country full of wonderful, generous people, and I feel so blessed to have been part of this program. Life is SO GOOD. I'm now in Melbourne until I go home, so I still have a few more days to soak up the Australian sunshine - and I know I'll always remember every part of this incredible journey.

Last Days in Brizzie!

This week has gone by in a blur - Monday and Tuesday I listened to 46 research presentations from my classmates and gave a 15 minute presentation on the effect of algae on corals. Oh my.

Here's some of my graphs, just to prove that I've actually done research:


If you want to know more, just ask me! I'll email you my scientific paper and you can read all about it for yourself. Yeeeeeah.

So anyways, I finished my 20 page/ 5,000 word research paper on Wednesday (yesterday) and went to see ZOMBIELAND in downtown Brisbane with KL. It was SO FUNNY!! I actually liked it more than Shaun of the Dead. I felt so many emotions! Especially considering that it's just a zombie movie!
I am also SUPER excited for Holmes, which looks epic!

We also went on the Wheel of Brisbane, which is a ferris wheel that has a really nice narration of Brisbane's history.



Thursday (today) we went to Lamington National Park. It was gorgeous! John Hall, our forest ecology professor, offered to take a few extra field trips there since we couldn't go during the class. He gave us basically the same lecture he gives to his classes, and we ended up hiking about 15-16 km. It didn't feel like that far because the trail was pretty even and really well market. We saw some truly beautiful things!

Valley inside Lamington National Park:
HUGE TREES!
Strangler fig, taking over! You can see the roots trying to reach the ground.
Antarctic beech - this tree can live for literally thousands of years because the roots can sprout into trees.
Wet schlerophyll - eucalypts on the top, rainforest on the bottom.

Looking out onto flame-trees and beautiful eucalypts.SO PRETTY!
My girls at the top of Surprise Rock - KL, Coop, Tessaly, and Lauren:
More gorgeous scenery:
Waterfall!

We also stopped by a pie place on the way back for DELICIOUS MEAT PIES! Apparently he took us to one of the most famous pie places in Australia - it's been around since stagecoach times, and everyone in Queensland knows it. It really was quite tasty. I had a steak and mushroom pie with gravy... mmmmm that's good eating!

Tomorrow is our 2nd to last full day in Brisbane. Crazy! I can't believe this quarter has flown by so quickly - I'm going to try to make the most of the time we have left by enjoying the city and soaking in Aussie culture!

UQ

This week has been really low-key - it's literally dead week! We have no classes, so we're just researching and writing our final research papers. I learned how to use the program Statistica to run ANOVA one-way and repeated measures tests (they're even more complicated than they sound) so I feel very empowered. I managed to run all my data through Statistica to come to the conclusion that none of it is significant, but that's still a form of data so I feel like I can finally move forward and get on with my paper.

It's been pretty humid and hot here, so I've been spending lots of time in the library to stay in the air conditioning. It's actually a good incentive to get work done! It rained and thundered a couple days ago - summer in Australia is hot, raininy, and humid. Nice is small doses, but I'll be happy to get back to the Bay when it's time.

Back to researching! I'll leave you with this photo from our Bing Dinner at the Opera House - there was a thunderstorm happening while we were waiting to go in, and Joyce took this photo. It was INCREDIBLE!