So this was the blog that I used for when I was in Australia. I'm going to re-invent it a little for use here in Alaska. However, I can't promise I'll be very good at updating it.

Time has flown by and I've already been in Fairbanks for three weeks. I've been busy getting accquainted with the town, people, and the project I'll be working on. So let me break it down for you:

Fairbanks:

I'm currently living in an apartment with three other girl in the section of town that is oriented to college students. I'm a quick walk away to restaurants, a quirky bookstore, and ice cream (very important). And I'm a short bike ride from the farmer's market, fair grounds, and an awesome bird refuge called Creamer's field. Downtown and some other places are a bus ride away. My new alarm clock is the train that runs right by my apartment. It runs throughout the day, but is particularly noticeable at 4am and 8am. I can see the train from my bedroom window. Sometimes it's carrying coal and other times it carrying passengers. I am close enough to the train to sit at my desk and see the faces of the tourists pressed up against the train's windows. While I'm only a mile away from the building I work in, the University is on top of a big hill (I mean really big). I've been biking and walking and I hope in a few weeks to have walked off all the breakfast sandwiches I ate during my last semester of undergrad. However, biking home in the evening down this huge hill, with a full view of the Alaska Range makes the morning trudge uphill worth it.

The Work:

I'm quickly trying to understand just exactly I've gotten myself into. And here is the main gist: Alaska is trying to find new energy sources and a Dam has been proposed on the Susitna River. Now, this dam would be one of the largest in the country (think Hoover Dam big) and would dam a river basin that stretches just south of Fairbanks all the way to Anchorage. It's a highly political and controversial dam. However, prior to building the dam, the Alaska Energy Authority is conducting an extensive study on the impacts of the dam. Here is a list of all 40+ projects http://www.susitna-watanahydro.org/study-plan/

Of these projects, my group (3 of us) is only working on the River Productivity Study and Fish Distribution and Abundance. The study is skewed to focus mainly on Salmon (there are 6 kinds in the Susitna). We are helping out with fish crews who are going to be measuring, weighing, aging, and seeing what the fish ate. In order to see what a fish eats, you have to pump it's stomach, a process known as fish lavage. The majority of my time here so far has been making lavage kits for out in the field. We are also going to be collecting algae, macroinvertebrates (insect) and organic matter from the study sites. On Sunday, we are traveling 5 hours south of Fairbanks to Talkeetna to spend two weeks doing field work. This week we've been busy getting supplies together (sleeping bags, waders, boots, etc) and trying to work out the logistics of this huge study plan. Besides the three of us from the university, we are also coordinating with two teams of environmental consultants, and the phone calls, planning, and logistics is VERY complicated. I'm glad to be the research tech doing work like ducting taping and labeling instead of trying to figure out how to transport a boat via helicopter (yes, this might actually happen).

While I'm a bit nervous about our first field excursion, I'm excited to get out of Fairbanks and see more of the great state of Alaska. I've already learned so much, and can't wait to learn even more!


-Suz

Here's a view from the University.

Goodbyes are Hard to Say

Today is my last day here with my friends on the Sunshine Coast. I'm headed off tomorrow morning for Melbourne and Tasmania. I was hoping to spend my last day at the Hippy Festival/Market soaking up the sun on the beach. However, it appeared to be another rainy day here on the inaccurately named "Sunshine" Coast. It hasn't really hit me yet that I won't be seeing these people again and that my time here is really over. I'm going to miss all the wonderful friends I've made here. It's going to be strange going back home and I am anxious and excited for the events that are going to occur in the next two weeks.

That's right, In two weeks to the day, I will back home in the U.S.A. Yesterday, I had a bit of a panic moment when I called the airlines about something out of place in my itinerary and was informed that I did not have a flight scheduled for December 4th. Luckily, Liz came to the rescue and had better luck navigating through the tricky web of customer service. However it does turn out that I will be arriving on Sunday December 5th, 12 hours later than expected. Those 12 hours will be spent twiddling my thumbs in the Los Angeles airport. So perhaps some of you (I have no idea who reads this blog) will be getting phone calls from a sleep deprived, travel weary, bored Suzanne on Saturday December 4th. But 42 hours after stepping out of my apartment in Australia, I will be back in the Promised Land.

But this past week I've spent studying for my exams, which went as well as exams usually go, I think I should be getting decent marks. Yesterday, I made thanksgiving dinner for some friends, while we had chicken instead of turkey, and cranberries were no where to be found, the meal was complete with stuffing, corn, and homemade pumpkin pies.

The picture is of the wild tomatoes Ida and I harvested the other day. I noticed some wild tomatoes plants the second day I arrived in Australia. I tried one, and hoped it wasn't some strange poisonous Australia look a like. When I survived, I decided to check back on them. In the past month they have really reached their peak and there are tomatoes everywhere!

See you all soon!
Lots of love,
-Suz

The Outback

I just spent five days in the Outback and it was unbelievable.
My favorite place so far in Australia.
I saw perenties, shooting stars, rainbows, flowers, waterholes, cave paintings, lizards, salt lakes, fossilized limpits, Uluru, Kata Tjuta, Kings canyon, it was all amazing and I learned so much.

Now I have 9 days to study for exams, begin to pack, and say goodbye to all my beautiful friends here.

On the 22nd I head off to Melbourne and Tasmania and soon enough I'll be on that incredibly long flight home!

See you all soon!

-Suz

One month!

I have so very little time left here on the Sunshine Coast. So I'm trying not to think about it.

This week is my last week of classes! Crazy!
I have a week off, then finals, and then two weeks of travel/packing before I head home on December 4th.

I was looking forward to home since September, but now that its actually approaching I wish I could stay longer!

And the photo is from whale watching! We saw a mother and a calf humpback whale, but I didn't get a good shot of them.

I send my love!
-Suz

Hippies, Surfing, & Biking.

Last Sunday Ida, Viola and I headed to Peregian Beach for a market, which had a lot of used clothes and crafts, then we headed to the adjacent beach for a few hours, and after the market local bands played all afternoon. We sat in the sun and watched the numerous hippies listening to some good free music.

Then Monday, after a failed attempt at doing work in the library, I headed to the beach, again.

Wednesday, my Forest, Carbon, & Climate class went on a field trip to Beerwah State forest where there is a 40 year old experiment on prescribed forest burning, so we hugged some trees to measure their DBH (Diameter at Breast Height) measured some dead sticks on the ground. And determined the mass of carbon (in tonnes per year per hectare) the forest was able to sequester. The picture is of a grass tree flower. Grass trees need fire to reproduce, and are considered to be "special" From what I understand, the aboriginals made spears out of these.

Friday, I went in the morning to learn how to surf! Wasn't very successful, but the waves were really big, and it was hard enough just to fighting the waves, let along trying to get on a board. Then I spent the rest of the day on the beach (why not?)

Saturday, Me and Ida headed for Caloundra where we were hoping to swim across to Bribie Island. We biked for two hours (about 9 miles there) and up some pretty decent hills. However, when we got there we discovered that the beach dropped off way to fast (45 degree slope) and the current was extremely strong. So strong the lifegaurd rescue boat was having trouble going against the current. Also, if you swam hard enough, you just stayed in the same spot. But this also meant, you could go in the water at one end of the beach, and float on your back to the other and, get out and do it all over again. So we didn't get to Bribie Island, but we still had fun. And I made it the nine miles home with the help of Ida tossing me ginger biscuits every now and again.

Now, I'm off to a morning swim in the pool (a new morning ritual for Elke, Maike, Viola, Anika & I)
Who knows where the rest of the day will hold!

Lots of Love,
-Suz

Feels Like September

Its been raining here a lot the past two weeks. There's insane images of flooding in Brisbane on the news and the flooding was even on the news in Germany.

But the past two days the rain has cleared and there hasn't been a cloud in the sky. After 100% humidity, the humidity is now very low, and there's a cold wind blowing and it feels like a Pennsylvanian September here (only a month off, eh?)

But what have I been up to these past few weeks?
- Australia Zoo
- Climbing a Glasshouse Mountain (Mt. Ngungun)
- Going to the Beach
- Going to the Eumundi Markets
- Writing assignments
- Baking banana bread, carrot cakes, chocolate zucchini cakes, chocolate chip cookies, white chocolate and macadamia cookies, empanadas, and bread.

Its down to crunch time with schoolwork an the semester is over in a couple weeks. After the semester break, time has seemed to double in its speed and I before I know it I'm going to be home. I've only got 7 more weeks left here in Australia.

Miss and love you all!
Cheers,
-Suz

The List

"There's never enough time,
Never enough time,
We don't have all the hands we need.
There's not enough you's and me's to be,
All the places we want to.

Never enough time, never enough time.
To siphon these anxieties on to do lists and fidgets
and things and things and things..."
- Defiance Ohio

Parents

I have the best parents.
I love them lots.
- Suz

Australian Wildlife Feild Trip

The second week of my semester break I went on a field trip with my Australian Wildlife class to Barambah Environmental Centre in Wrattan National Park

There we spent 5 days and 4 nights Camera Trapping, Small Mammal Trapping, Birdwatching, and Spotlighting.

We saw lots of wildlife including a Koala and it was nice to be with a bunch of biology nerds who take pictures of mushrooms like I do.

We also got fed very well! We ate a big breakfast at 8 followed by morning tea of biscuits or something of the sort at 10:30 lunch at 12:30, afternoon tea of biscuits again between 2 and 3 and dinner at 6:30! I ate enough for two weeks!

The picture is of a red bellied snake, which as a very poisonous. It was only a little one that was meandering through the camp.

-Suz

Cairns

Me and my friends Anika and Viola went to Cairns of the midsemester break to see the Great Barrier Reef and Cairns.

The first two days we spent around the city of Cairns.

On Tuesday we went snorkeling in the great barrier reef.

Wednesday I went on a tour and saw two fantastic waterfalls, including the one picture above which is also featured in Herbal Essence commercials, hence the emphasis on the hair. I also saw a platypus and finally tried lamgintons.

Thursday we went to Kuranda, a village in the rainforest, or better known as a tourist trap. Quite disappointing, except for a awesome little flying fox sanctuary.

Friday we went the a farmers market and saw lots and lots of fresh tropical fruit and I tried a Star Apple.

Saturday, we hunted and gathered for food with an aboriginal guide and went on a unsuccessful crocodile hunting cruise on the daintree river.

I didn't get into the Daintree Rainforest like I would have liked. Its tough to get around when you don't have a car and can't rent one.

All in All, I liked Cairns and getting out of Sippy Downs

"Going to the woods, is going home" - John Muir

I've been homesick this past week. Not too bad, but homesick nonetheless.

I went for a trip into Buderim, A town the bus often goes through to get to Mooloolaba (The Beach!). Anyway, I heard there was a waterfall and rainforest there

Using my sense of direction (which despite what many of you might think, is actually rather good) and found the Buderim Forest Park with a very nice waterfall. I took a nice walk, but by the end it was overcast and really really muggy. I felt back home in Lancaster on those nasty August days.

By the time I made it to town, it was beginning to rain. So I did some windowshopping, got an iced chocolate and headed back to uni.

However the walk from the bus stop back to my Apartment I got soaked! And when I went to open my door I discovered that over the course of my morning my key had bent really badly and was unusable. Luckily, they had a spare of the office.

What a great morning!

Today also marks the begining of the Midsemester Break, and I'm of to Cairns for a week with my friends Anika and Viola.

Lots of Love,
-Suz

Sick

I've got laryngitis, which is partly (or mainly) my fault for trying to do to much.
But I climbed Tibrogargan, one of the Glass House Mountains, Which I found out are the remnants of a eroded volcano. It was basically a wall of rock all the way up, and and I mainly slid on my butt the way back down. An Amazing climb! I have never done anything like it but it left me exhausted.

Life

The past couple of weeks have simply been a blur of hanging out with people, classes, and the mundane things of life.

While that might not sound so exotic or exciting for a semester in a foreign country, I'm enjoying it thoroughly. :-D

However, speaking of exotic and exciting, I went on a trip a couple weekends ago to Noosa National Park, where we stumbled upon a nude beach, and a koala.

As Always,
I send my Love,
-Suz

Half Birthday

I happened to notice that to day is my half birthday.

I have yet to do a lot of traveling (I need to work on that!) But I'm really enjoying this new life of mine. I've met lots of beautiful people and am eating delicious food.

Today I went and bought a bike! Which brings a wonderful sense of freedom and adventure with it.

First Week of Classes + Fraser Island

This week was the first week of classes!

The classes so far seem really interesting. My Introduction to Indigenous Australia is my largest class, requires the most books and readings, and seems like its going to be really depressing material that is covered. My other classes however are smaller and very interactive. So far I know some of the people in my classes and there are a couple people who seem to be in several of my classes. In my Forests, Carbon, and Climate class there are two other people from Millersville. The class only has about 30 people, so 10% of the class is MU study abroad students. Crazy! Tutorials start this coming week, which means I'll need to start really focusing on school.

This weekend I went to Fraser Island, the world largest sand island. A group of us international students were picked up at USC in big 4WD bus/truck things that then took us over the island. We saw artic terns, dingos, satinay trees (that were 1000 years old and only found on fraser island), a shipwreck, beautiful lakes, wildflowers, and humpback whales from afar. It was a beautiful weekend and I got a chance to meet some more amazing people.

-Suz

Odds and Ends

Here a few observations:

1) Here the letter "Z" is pronounced like zed rather than zee

2) Alcohol is extremely expensive compared to the rest of the world but the Australians like to drink, so for the poor college student the common option is what they call "Goon" which is boxed wine. The most disturbing thing about it is that it says on the box made with the aid of nuts, milk, Eggs, and last but most unnerving of all FISH!

3) I tried to bake the past two days, and its difficult translating from the U.S. measurement system into the metric system. And at first I thought food prices were insanely high until I realized that a kilo is 2.2lbs. However, I made a rather large error when baking yesterday. I forgot that the temperature dial on the stove was in Celsius not Fahrenheit and I nearly ruined the bread I tried to make. In general its taking a bit to get used to the metric system.

4)I tried my first Tim Tam this weekend! Tim Tams are two chocolate wafers, with a chocolate filling then dipped in chocolate. I also tried a Tim Tam Slam as a fellow American refereed to it and I heard is the correct way to eat a Tim Tam. The procedure is to bite off the top and the bottom of the Tim Tam, then sucking on one end dip the Tim Tam into a hot drink. The Tim Tam works as a straw drawing the liquid while simultaneously melting into a molten mess.

5)There is no $1 bills. The smallest paper money is $5 giving a change a whole new meaning. Also the two dollar coins are very small which makes me nervous about losing them. There are no pennies, but things will be 1.99, but at the cash register you round up meaning it actually costs $2. But if your total would be 5.97 you would round down to 5.95 and get 5 cents back. The money is also infinitely prettier.

6)America needs to join the rest of the world in Football, Banking, Metric System, and an infinite number of things where we are just the odd ones out.

Settling In

It's been a week since I've arrived in the sunshine coast and so far I've been doing a lot of uninteresting things like buying food, setting up a bank account, figuring out the joys of prepaid cell phones.

Orientation or "O" week started Monday, but most of the sessions relevant to me were on Monday and Tuesday, so the rest of this week I've been taking it easy. Right now I've been meeting a lot of international students like myself. Mostly Germans (there are a 150 Germans here!) and fellow Americans. I'm excited for classes to start and to meet more aussies.

Highlights of the Week
- Winning a Starbucks French Coffee Press at a Trivia Night
- Being a "model" for USC
- Going to Mooloolaba with fellow Americans
- The Unicentral (my apartment complex) Welcome Party

Yesterday I took a bus trip with the school to Kondalilla Falls National Park and to Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve. The Kondalilla Falls is a 100m (300+ft) waterfall! It was really cool to be in a rainforest. I was hoping to see a Koala but instead saw alot of bush turkeys. Sadly, I think I also broke my camera. At the top of the falls is a tiny waterfall that feeds into a large (and very deep) pool. I was down by the water, sticking my feet in the pool, and when i got up, my camera fell out of my hands into the pool. At first I thought I had lost it completely but luckily i was able to lie down, stick my entire arm in the freezing water and retrieve my soaked camera. Right now I have my camera in a bag of rice (It supposedly helps absorb the water). It probably won't work, but I'm going on a fool's hope. I think I need to invest in a waterproof camera.

At Mary Cairncross, there was a nice path that pointed out some of the native plants like the strangler fig which envelopes other trees till it becomes a gigantic tree itself. I spotted three wallabies and heard lots of unusual bird calls.

Its a lot warmer here than it was in New Zealand, but it still gets surprisingly chilly in the afternoons, I've been drinking a lot of tea to warm my insides!

-Suz

New Zealand (and Australia)

I have safely arrived in Australia, but before I talk about that I need to talk about New Zealand.

Me and my sister Liz left July 4th and headed to Los Angeles, where we boarded Air New Zealand and headed for Auckland New Zealand. After the twelve hour flight we landed in New Zealand around seven in the morning on Tuesday July 6. From there we took a bus into the city. We had just gotten off the bus and were trying to cross a street and it said 6 seconds to cross. I said "WE CAN MAKE IT!" Liz started running across, and well then I started to run too. But as I did the wheels of my luggage lost contact with the wet slick pavement and I found myself unable to run and carry luggage at the same time. When I attempted to regain contact between the wheels of my bag and the ground, I tripped myself. As I went down, my laptop slipped off the top of my wheeler bag. I fell on my left side, my left arm reaching out, and my laptop went under me and on the slick pavement served as a bodyboard that sent my sliding. I landed there, my arm outstretched, crying "LIZ LIZ HELP HELP!" By this time the six seconds were long gone and the cars (and people) were staring at this drama in the intersection. We couldn't help but laughing as we picked up my scattered belongings and continued down the road. We checked into our room at the Nomad's Fat Camel, and interesting backpacking hostel. We attempted to stay awake the rest of the day to get on New Zealand time, which meant we wandered around Auckland like Zombies. We managed to stay up till 7 when we got a free meal from Nomad's of bangers and mash. Then after being awake fore more than 40 hours we went to sleep.

On Wednesday July 7th we took a bus from Auckland to Wellington, where we stayed in a 8-share room in the famous (or infamous) Waterloo Hotel. We both decided that sharing a room with six other strangers (most of which we didn't see but just heard them snoring) was not really our cup of tea.

On Thursday we took a bumpy ferry ride across Cook Strait and landed in Picton where we were met by my mom's cousin Mitch and his wife Deb. We had lunch with their daughter Shannon and her two kids Giovanna and Noah. From we spent the night at Mitch and Deb's and on Friday went to Arapawa Island! There we stayed with Mary, my mom's cousin. We took a walk around the island where we saw the Arapawa goats!

The cold night at Arapawa was eased by our new found friend: The Hottie. Also known as the Hot Water Bottle, while we had heard of such a thing, we had never really used them before to keep warm at night. We both agree its something we are going to have use when winter comes around to the states.

After spending the weekend down in the Marlborough Sounds, we head to Christchurch with Pam, our second cousin! First we stopped off in Kaikoura where we saw fur seals. In christchurch we took a Gondola ride and saw some breathtaking views of the Southern Alps. We made smores at the Sign of the Bellbird. On our last night in Christchurch we went to Willowbank Wildlife Reserve where we got to see some native (and introduced) New Zealand wildlife. The highlight of course being the kiwi bird! Very strange creatures! We also learned a bit about Moari Culture.
On thursday we take a lovely train ride back to Picton, though i was so tired I slept through most of it. And there we made our way back up to Auckland the same way we came, not the most efficient route but it suited us just fine.

From Auckland I had only a three hour flight to Brisbane where I caught a ride to my apartment adjacent to The University and I am now getting settled!

So far 2 of my three roommates have moved in. The one is from Germany, the other I haven't seen much of yet, and the third is Australian and will be arriving in a couple of days.

Tomorrow Orientation starts and I'm excited to see more of this new and vast country and get to meet new people!

-Suz

HAPPY AMURIKA DAY! (and goodbye)

I leave today for New Zealand and Australia!
Right now I'm pretty chill. I was really nervous about two weeks ago, but now I'm just ready to get this adventure started.
I'm also pretty tired which I'm hoping will allow me to sleep on the long flights ahead.

I'm going to miss everyone in Lancaster and the rest of the states.

I'm going to try to update this, but there are so many forms of communication I might not get around to this one.

Take Care!

Happy 4th of July!

-Suz

Registered!

All of my paperwork for Australia is pretty much done now.
I've got my visa.
Its just working out the banking. Loans, power of attorney, opening a bank in Australia, currency exchanges... that kind of stuff.

Also! I'm registered for the four classes I wanted to take!
I'm taking...

Introduction to Indigenous Australia
Forests, Carbon, and Climate (has a two day field trip!)
Australia Wildlife (has a four day field trip!)
Rural and Regional Sustainability

And I have no classes Mondays or Thursdays! So I have three day weekend and a break in the middle of the school week (after a very busy day on Wednesday with classes from 10 to 6 with no break! Yikes!)