A cappella doesn't exist in Australia, or at least at UQ, which is LAME because Pentatonix was just touring here and their shows were sold out so obviously there is interest in it.
I would say it's probably because Aussies aren't musically inclined or can't sing, but like...ACDC, Jet, Angus and Julia Stone, INXS-all successful Aussie musicians. So WHY aren't there more students who want to get together and have riff offs like in Pitch Perfect because we all know that actually happens when you put a ton of a cappella kids together (!!!!??!?!?!!?!?!)
I sing around the house but I really do miss getting together with a bunch of people and learning a piece of music and having it sound really great and being so AMPED because voices can do cool things!
Plugging my old a cappella group....scope it yo:
...being honest I have spent a good amount of time this week watching videos of KH, especially the New York ones and the ones from this past spring...great study music, and some pretty hilarious entertainment because NONE OF US CAN DANCE. Oh Kol Hadov.
I also miss my ukulele which is weird because I don't really play it that often anymore, but it's just sitting collecting dust in the attic of the B&B and that makes me so sad! SOMEONE PLAY IT so it feels loved.
So this week was when I finally turned in my massive lab report on Tasmania, finished my paper on the central coast of California-ironic I had to come all the way to Australia to have the opportunity to write that-and started making a conference poster about sea otters. So even though I've had a massive amount of work to do lately, it's all super interesting and relllllatively enjoyable.
To celebrate #oneclasswednesday, Martha, Courtney and I went to this little "raw" cafe nearby where everything is organic and fresh and YUMMY. I had Mexican baked eggs with real salsa and it was a little taste of home mmm so good
Friday Reina, Bridget, Court and I ventured out of the city about an hour to Springbrook National Park. Google maps got us to the bottom of the mountain with a bus or two and the train, but then we were left to find a cab. Which of course don't come to the Middle of Nowhere, Queensland, regularly. We found a tiny general store where the guy was very entertained by 4 American girls trying to get up this massive mountain without car, and he called us a cab.
The cab driver had no idea where he was going and spoke very poor English but we managed to direct him up the windy road until we saw a sign for the park, and we jumped out on the side of the road ready to see some DAMN NATURE.
Buuuuuuuut we were still far away from the park itself.
So we wandered down the road for a ways, uphill uphill uphill, until we found the "visitor center," which was literally just a hut with a chair inside and some brochures and maps outside the door.
AND some fire trucks, guys directing what ever little traffic there was, and fire fighters lighting controlled fires around the eucalyptus along the trail. I GEEKED out. FIRE ECOLOGY IS SO COOL.
The fire marshal told us it was okay to continue, so we headed down and up and around this crazy trail for about half an hour...
....and then all of a sudden we popped back out on the road, dazed and confused.
Since there were no signs whatsoever we decided to head down the road, joking about hitch hiking to where ever the heck the real hike/parky part was, until all of a sudden we came up on this massive barking dog in the middle of the road that would not move until Reina threatened it with her walking stick.
So we kept walking, came up on a fudge shop, asked for directions to a waterfall we knew was nearby, bought some delicious fudge, and...kept walking.
We must have walked about 4 miles by this point, and very little of it was actually hiking. Most of it looked like this:
And some was through neighborhoods our residential areas.
until FINALLY we find the trail head for the Purling Brook Falls walk. We hiked another 4 miles here.
We descended all the way down to the bottom of that waterfall.
And found a cool pool.
And then had to climb all the way back up and out and onto the road.
We met some cool people and were really hoping someone would have room to give us a ride back down the mountain...but alas, everyone in Australia drives really tiny cars.
So...
we hitch hiked.
IT WASN'T SKETCHY THOUGH I SWEAR.
None of us had service to call the cab company, so we started walking back to the front of the park, sticking out our thumbs every time a car came by. One older man pulled up and asked us how far we needed to go, but said he didn't have room for us.
And then 5 minutes later, the same guy pulls up in a bigger car to give us a lift! It was so nice of him and totally unexpected. He gave us a ride to the front of the park and gave us directions, saying if we caught another car going down either side of the mountain we could get to a train station we recognized.
We stood at the fork in the road for about 5 minutes before an older couple pulled up and offered to give us a ride all the way to the train station! They were really sweet and told us about their lives, and they said part of their property on the mountain is dedicated to rainforest regeneration. So I geeked out again. PEOPLE ACTUALLY DOING THE STUFF I LEARN ABOUT?!?!?! WOAH.
They dropped us at the train station and we made it back to Brisbane no problem.
But how nice are Australian people? In the states if I saw people hitch hiking I'd be like ew no they're probably scary. But not here! It probably also helped that we were 4 girls...wandering through a national park...in the middle of the afternoon...
Still though. I've hitch hiked. Check that off the list.
Saturday I played in a one day frisbee tournament with a bunch of friends from the states. We were trying to get together a whole team of Americans, so we named our team Gratuitous Patriotism, but ended up adopting a few Aussies and a few European guys and a random old American man who's on teaching exchange and let me just say that I have never had so much fun playing ultimate. At home sometimes ultimate gets too competitive and dramatic and I am so relieved and happy to be out here just playing casually but still learning about the game and gaining new skills and meeting new people! Ultimate is a seriously amazing community of people, and I feel like people don't really understand what it's like until they're a part of it. Especially playing over here I have realized that I just like to play for fun, and though I really do want to be great at the game and be on the A team and do crazy amazing things like throw a chicken wing greatest, I don't need to be that person to feel like part of the community and make real friends and form real relationships through the sport.
That was a lot of run on sentences and sap....but it's so true. Half of me is bummed because Pie Queens won't be the same or look the same to me after this semester, but the other half of me is so pleased to have this experience and have my love for the game grow even while I'm overseas.
SAP SAP SAP SAPPY
but also have you SEEN frisbee boys?!?!?! Like c'mon froggles are so real...
Today is just going to be studying, studying, studying, because after this week we have mid-semester break and I will be gone for 10 whole days! The first part is a class research trip to Heron Island/the Great Barrier Reef and I am BEYOND excited. The second half is a trip with my friends to Sydney! I probably won't be able to blog from Heron, so expect a massive blog post in two weeks. Can't waaaaaaaaaait!!!!
ALSO the bush turkeys on campus have been going INSANE this week! They were like up in the trees and chasing each other around the quad and it's been crazy trying to get out of their way and just generally avoid them more than usual.
And then we found a facebook page that posts pictures with captions like the turkeys want to take over UQ and it's hilarious.
