Uni

I made it! Week one of academics at UQ (University of Queensland, also affectionately known as "Uni") is officially over (its Sunday). There wasn't much of a doubt before though there was still room for debate, but after this week I am completely and entirely unshakably convinced that I AM the luckiest girl in the world. Or at least one of the hemispheres (not sure which one... I'm a bit hemispherically confused at the moment...) First, I will launch into a description of UQ, and then that can lead into my incredible classes, followed by a tangent into University life. Sound good? Here goes.
The University of Queensland is centrally located in St. Lucia (pronounced Saint "Loosha") which is a suburb of the city Brisbane, which is pronounced "Brizbin", but affectionately known as Brizzy. As you may notice, Australians feel very affectionately about most things, and there isn't a single sentence an Aussie - thats another one!- says that doesn't have some kind of "Nick"- watch out! I just did it again!- Brisbane is the capital of the state of Queensland. Though roughly the size of the United States, Australia only has six states and one territory, making it SO MUCH EASIER to remember locations and capital names. But I mean really, who NEEDS 50 states anyway? Also, for no reason alone than fun, every one of Australia's capitals has a bay. Its a rule. This kind of stinks for Canberra, the very capital of Australia itself, which is no where near the ocean. But they just claimed the bay closest to them which is several hours away (I find that hilarious). Even better is the nicknames each of the states have, which Australia sneakily took from us. They only picked the best ones. Victoria, for example, is the "Garden State" and Queensland, my state, is called the "Sunshine State." Obviously if Australia had a big canyon they'd steal that one too, but the Grand Canyon State is just too good to steal.
Brizzy has another nickname, and one that describes it very well. Its often called the "River City" or "Australian Venice" because the whole city, which is very extensive, is built literally upon and all around the enormous Brisbane River, which is a beautiful green river that snakes from the ocean inland, giving the city its unique nicknames. In order to get from one place to another, the public transportation in the city (which is REALLY good by the way) is naturally by boat. Can I even begin to describe how much I love this? There are dodgy looking ferry boats that putt along and threaten to collapse at any moment (spilling the occupants into the river, which I forgot to mention is COMPLETELY infested with giant bull sharks. No one swims in it. Yipe!) But the most popular method is the CityCat, an electric (yay environmentally friendly!) flat double hulled speed machine. Standing at the bow of this boat as it silently glides along the beautiful Brisbane River (I forgot to mention that Brisbane's location happens to be a mangrove forest, and instead of chopping the stuff right down the city is built around the mangroves) past little wharfs and trees full of parrots and waving to the hundreds of sailboats that cruise along with the warm Australian wind in your face is the most amazing feeling in the world. I paid $2:50 yesterday just to spend the entire afternoon riding up and down the river. Ridiculous? Maybe, but if you knew how much fun it was you'd be doing it with me.
Woah- sorry. HUGE diversion. But it has a point. Now that you have a feeling for the area, you can picture the lush, diverse and enormous campus of UQ. The campus itself is its own little peninsula on the river, so on a jog from one end of campus to another (in my pajamas and bare feet covered in blue paint during orientation...?) you would find river on almost every side.
Like its own little Australian city (which it practically is- the university has several restaurants, a dentist, hairdresser, post office, market, and two kindergardens or "kindies") UQ is built around and through nature rather than just bulldozing over everything and covering it with a layer of vegemite to park on... As a result, the already big campus is enormous. It has two areas of wild mangroves, a "botanical garden" that more appropriately resembles the Congo, an enormous natural lake and several bamboo forests. Lots of trees and rolling lawns too. Everywhere you look there are plumeria trees with flowers of every imaginable color. I almost always have on in my hair.
Walking through campus is alot like going to the zoo. You are pretty much guaranteed every time to see rainbow lorikeets (brightly colored parrots) cockatoos, ibis, wild turkeys, giant "water dragons" or two- foot long black and yellow iguanas that sun on the footpath. My dorm room has an infestation of geckos, which is the cutest infestation ever. They turn white to camouflage with the walls, except this one time I saw a poor little guy who had fallen from the ceiling onto the blue and yellow striped carpet in the hall, and he just settled for a melancholy gray color. I rushed him outside and an hour later I checked on him and he was electric green. "Good on ya little mate!" So a typical school day for me is to wake up, eat breakfast, saunter through the jungles on safari to class, enjoy one fabulous class, read underneath a tree for an hour (or try not to watch the attractive gents playing Frisbee along the way), have another unbelievable class, eat the pack lunch my residential college makes for me (its too far away to make it back on time) under a different tree, get bitten by some ants, go to the last amazing class and take a new route through the bamboo wilderness where I will get chased by a turkey, then back to my dorm room, where everyone will be preparing to go to a bar even though its a Wednesday night, but it doesn't much matter because no one has any homework and class the next day starts at 10. What a life!
Now my classes (whew! This is quite the entry). I have four: Australia's Terrestrial Environment, Australia's Marine Environment, Marine Ecology, and Australian Indigenous Art History. The first two are the "softer" classes catering for the international students. They are in the middle of the week, and there is essentially nothing due. I have one assignment in Marine Environment for March: to write a single paragraph of the marine creature of my choice, site six different sources, turn it in on time, and receive 10% of my grade. Goodness. Hardly anyone in the class is an marine science student (the girl sitting next to me the first day didn't know what the Great Barrier Reef was. I almost smacked her) so I might do my professor a favor and not write about Flipper or Nemo, and choose bioluminesence or something instead. Give him a thrill.
Anyway, my other two classes are not conventional in the least. I am the only American in both of them, and I have been promised to be challenged in both of them too. Marine Ecology mainly focuses on paradigms in the marine world and understanding the links between all marine life and how it extends beyond the ocean, and learning to discern information for ourselves. Really cool!
Indigenous Art History is in its own universe, as it should be. Its a once a week class, so I've only had it once but I left it feeling a big dazed and disconnected from the physical world. We have been taught that to understand the art of the Aboriginals of this country, we have to unhinge everything we have ever been taught about our cultural norms and how to view art. Everything is different: their views of nature, conceptions of beauty, society, and of course the effects of the arrival of westerners. It was also made clear to us that we will most likely never see a piece of personally created aboriginal art. Everything sold commercially and in galleries on a canvass or carved from wood or stone has been done for "whitefellas." This doesn't mean its not real. There are messages being given to us through the art they choose us to see. Its up to us to learn to read these stories through art, and discern what these messages are. To top it off, the class ended with a guest lecture by a local tribal leader. He had the most fluid calming presence, and told us many stories about Aboriginal culture and about the Dreaming, or spirit world into which the physical world is interconnected. There were stories he had to cut short because he wasn't authorized to say. He told us that perhaps he got his job at UQ several years ago because he had the best resume, but he also knows that the night before he got the job he dreamed of the Snake Rocks that lie just off campus, and they asked him to come look after them. I am blown away as I write these words.

The only class I haven't yet discussed is Australia's Terrestrial Environment. Though its supposed to be a "soft class" and its not marine related, this week its been my favorite. I have nearly passed out with joy every time I go to class. We are taking two field trips: one to the Brisbane Forest park where I will see wild platypus swimming in the Brisbane river. the other is to the Australia zoo, where we will get to go into the exhibits and meet some animals, including a crocodile, and we have about a 70% chance of meeting either or both Terri Irwin and Bindi Sue. Crikey! My professor, a cheery, thin sun- baked man is a paleontologist, and we are spending the next few weeks going over prehistoric Australia, followed by its marine history. I don't know if any of you know this (hehe!) but I am fascinated by paleontology and LOVE love LOVE dinosaurs. I kind of like the ocean too I guess. On Thursday after everyone had settled down into their chairs he saunters in to class with a silly big grin on his face. Across his shoulder was the biggest dinosaur bone I have ever seen. Now this wasn't a plaster cast or reproduction bone either. This thing had once supported a several ton sauropod in the Cretaceous era. Even better: after class I got to TOUCH it. Oh my god, I am about to faint even now. I am acutely aware of how nerdy I am. To top it off however, at the end of class we were going through the dinosaurs that were unique to prehistoric Australia. Most of you know Edward, my darling favorite dinosaur friend who is home because his face is falling off and I couldn't risk the trip. Well I have spent lots of time researching what kind of dinosaur he is without any success. He is a product from the Discovery store, so he's not just some made up fakey dino. But I never found a match. Well the other day in class my professor pauses on a slide of a photograph of a jumble of bones. "This fella heah," He said showing us a slide of the skeleton of a Megaraptor "Is the latest dino' I've been diggin' up on the holidays. Its a rare kinda Raptor that grew to an enormous size, due to Australia's unique cloimate during the time, which affected the soize of 'is prey." He then flips the slide to show an reproduced image of the actual dinosaur. When he flipped that slide I gasped in surprise- because staring off of that screen at me was Edward. The circulation of my life is something I am forever discovering, and never endingly shocked by. Count on Edward, my lifetime friend and companion, being a Megaraptor. A little known raptor native only to Australia. Are some things fate? I wonder...

Thats all I have for now. I am the luckiest girl in the world. Thanks for reading.

Did you know: Australia is awesome?