License!

I got my NZ driver's license!!!! And it looks about a hundred thousand times better than my California one (sorry California...) I was so excited I was jumping up and down in the house! I'll add a photo as soon as I steal someone's camera or put batteries in my own... which ever comes first.

Yay! Yay! Happy Dance!

The River Kwai- Thailand

I was all on my own for a week in Thailand after Joey left. A whole week! I spent the days wandering the city, checking out different temples, meeting up with my friend Nan, getting my hair permanently straightened (!) and one day I took a trip to Kanchanaburi. Kanchanaburi is about four hours outside of Bangkok and is the location of the bridge over the River Kwai. I had heard of the River Kwai, I knew there was a movie about it, but other than that I just thought it would be an activity to kill some time.

I ate a very uncomfortable meal in silence for the next twenty minutes. Either looking out over the river (which was beautiful) or staring intently at the TV as though through sheer will power I could make myself understand the flowing Thai speech. Anything to avoid catching the eye of one of the three women seated in a corner of the restaurant and all there apparently to serve me. the lone customer. I don't know if customer is the right word as I never paid any money...
I was simply dropped off at a seemingly random lacation, a menu with our choices consisting of Pad Thai, Fried Rice, Spaghetti Bolognese (always on offer for some reason...) and cornflakes was placed in front of me alond with a bottle of water boldly labeled "Drinking water" which I found reassuring. Fortunately the driver arrived 20 min later as I was pushing the last of my food around my plate (while tempted to try the Bolognese I opted for the safer fried rice).

It was a truly strange morning, being ordered from place to place. And it would have been humorous if I was not so alone. I longed for someone to share the odd experience with but I was determined to have a good time. After all I was still on holiday!

The WWII museum did not have much to boast of except a memorable display of emaciated POW sculptures bloody and torn apart in gory detail. The bridge over the River Kwai was quite interesting to walk across. It is a railroad line that still conveys active trains conveying commuters from Bangkok (long commute!) I had some fun walking across the bridge between the train tracks and stopping on several platforms to take photos of the muggy but beautiful scenery. My enthusiasm for the bridge was somewhat dampened when I heard a story from a Tiger Temple volunteer abotu two tragic tourists. It was a Thai couple on holiday near the river who decided to walk across the bridge. As they were crossing, the commuter train entered the bridge and they did not get out of the way in time. Somehow they both ended up in the river. While the woman was fished out with no real problems, her husband had hit his head, either on the train or a rock below, and his body wasn't found for three weeks despite teams constantly searching the water.

Luckily for me I didn't have time to dwell on the Thai couples' misfortune as I was soon among the magnificent tigers of the Tiger Temple!!

More to come on the Tiger Temple but I'll leave you with some creepy museum photos and some shots of the bridge.

Aussie vs Kiwi

An everyday part of Kiwi life is to make fun of the Aussies (and vice versa) so in that spirit here are a few clips for you to enjoy!

I'm back...

... but I give no guarantees on how long I can keep up with the blog!

A quick update:
I'm living on the South Island of New Zealand in the adventure capitol of the world, Queenstown! I'm currently working at the YHA backpackers as front line staff while I apply for more relevant jobs in Wellington. My travel buddy Max is in Queenstown as well working at the Global Gossip internet cafe. We've been gone for almost ten months now! The time gone feels both shorter and longer in different ways...
I'm living with my boyfriend Joey in his house right outside of town. He's teaching me Portuguese and in return I'm teaching him academic English so he can take the IELTs exam which will allow him to study at university. He's also in the beginning stages of applying for New Zealand residency while also working two full time jobs. He's a bit of a nut :-)

More to come!

New Zealand

I made it to New Zealand! We left hot, humid Cairns still feeling uncertain about the outcome of the US Presidential Election and landed in beautiful, cool (it's raining!) Auckland with Obama as our 44th President! A very exciting way to land in a new country that will be our home for the next year or so. We arrived at our hostel a little after midnight and spent the next 15 minutes negotiating the unpredictable elevators and then crashed on the most comfortable bed I've slept on since high school. That may explain why I slept in until almost noon. I met a nice woman named Fiona from Scotland who is also in NZ on a working holiday visa. She's looking to get to the South Island as well so we may join forces for a road trip down. I bought a phone but I haven't figured out what the number is yet (?) so I'll post more on that later. Now we're relaxing at BUNAC headquarters with a group of other working-holidayers and enjoying free internet.

Fisherwoman

Yesterday one of the people that we are doing environmental work with, Jason, took Michaela and I out fishing. We went out on the Endeavor River on his small boat with his 2 year old daughter Indy. Indy stands for India, not Indiana Jones, I asked. We went out around 7:30 in the morning hoping to catch a glimpse of some crocodiles sunning on the banks but we were disappointed. Then we realized that many of the crocs in this river have been caught and transported to Cairns for x-ray because this is the same river where Arthur Booker was taken by a croc a few weeks ago (see my entry on that), meaning there aren't many crocs to be seen at the moment.

So we settled down for a couple hours of fishing on a shady part of the river. We weren't expecting to catch anything, we just wanted to have some fun, but instead we caught four fish of three different species! I pulled in the first fish of the day, it was an Estuary Cod (I believe we call them Grouper?) and then Jason pulled in three more. Two were Mangrove Jack and I didn't catch the name of the last one. I have now caught my first Australian fish! Jason took them all home to cook up but promised next time we would gut and cut them up on the boat so Michaela and I can try some as well. I wasn't real keen on gutting and de-scaling the fish here at Christina's house as I've never done it on my own before. All in all a very fun morning!

And if you were wondering what Indy was doing while we were fishing, wonder no longer. She was running around the boat popping the eyes in the fish we used as bait. It was a little disconcerting to see an adorable little girl poking the eyes out of fish but we soon warmed to it. The eyes make a satisfying squish when popped and squirt out black goo. It's kinda fun.

The Final Seven

While it would have been more dramatic to say “the final five”, I couldn’t actually bring myself to narrow it down that much. So here it is, my final seven choices for law school. And by final I don’t actually mean final. It really all depends on what my lsat score is. But this is as final as I can be at this moment in time. I’m happy with my selection. I think there’s a little something for everyone. We’ve got East and West. North and South. Rain and Sun. Urban and Rural. And they’re all damn good schools and I’ll be happy to join any one of them. So without further ado:

Washington U. St Louis

U Washington Seattle

U Colorado Boulder

Cornell

American U

Georgetown

U Texas Austin

Let me know what you think...

Aussie Books

I am now officially the proud owner of a Cooktown library member card! This card allows me access to the finest literature on offer here in Cooktown. I spent a happy twenty minutes browsing the shelves (it's a small library). About two minutes in, I realized that at some point in time, a generous donor must have bestowed upon the library his entire collection of Aussie western novels. Everywhere I turned there was a book titled "The Outback Odyssey of Wild Will" or "Cassidy's Killer Crocodiles".
There was also a (relatively) extensive section on local Cooktown history that I'll be sure to hit up at some point. Surprisingly, there isn't all that much on Captain Cook. I say surprisingly because in this town of 2,000 people and one main road there are no less than four monuments to Mr. Cook himself. And every year there is a full-on "Captain Cook meets the natives" re-enactment down at the, where else, Captain Cook memorial park.
In any event, I'm happy to have another connection to this little town. Here's to many good Aussie westerns in my future!

Cooktown Croc Attack

A man was taken by a crocodile last week at the Endeavor River just outside Cooktown where I'm living. It happened the day before Michaela and I left for Brisbane. I was caught up with studying so I didn't pay much attention at the time but it's been all over the news and it's all anyone is talking about up here. The following is an excerpt from an article about the tragic attack.

The family of a man who is believed to have been taken by a crocodile in far north Queensland say they are devastated but hoping for a miracle.

Arthur Booker, 62, from Logan, south of Brisbane, has not been seen since he went to check a crab pot at the Endeavour River Escape campsite near Cooktown, north of Cairns, about 8.30am (AEST) Tuesday.

...

Cairns Police District Inspector Ian Swan told AAP Wednesday's search found a second sandal belonging to Mr Booker 400 metres upstream.

Mr Booker's wristwatch was also found earlier.

The only other clues to his disappearance were a camera on the bank, the track marks of a crocodile and a snapped crab pot line.

"There are 15 people searching and the searching is in boats," Insp Swan said.

The Endeavour River Escape campsite's Terry Rayner identified a six-metre crocodile named Charlie as the key suspect.

"He lives there. That's his territory. He's the alpha male there," Mr Rayner said.

But Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service regional manager James Newman told ABC Radio two other large crocodiles were spotted in the area and search crews were exercising caution.

The University of Queensland's crocodile expert Professor Craig Franklin said crocodiles were ambush predators on the lookout for repeated patterns of activity from potential prey.

"They don't target humans. They're opportunistic feeders," Prof Franklin told AAP.

The owner of Cooktown's The Lure Shop, Russell Bowman, said Mr Booker had made the fatal mistake of returning to the same location twice, having set his crab pot and returning to retrieve it.

"It's one of the basic rules you apply, don't form habits," Mr Bowman said.

Here is a link to the entire story: http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/5050723/hopes-fade-suspected-croc-victim/

At the end of this article there is a reference to a croc attack in 2005 where a man was pulled out of his canoe. This happened on a part of the river where we camped in Lakefield national park. And while it is obviously tragic when someone is taken by a croc the man was also not being very smart. He and his wife were in canoes on the river (a very, very bad idea) where they were hoping to film some crocodiles. The story goes that in order to lure the crocodiles out so they could be filmed the couple was throwing chum into the water around their canoes. This, according to the locals, is unspeakably idiotic. It's just a step above tying rotting meat around your waist and going for a swim. In order to placate the family, park rangers were required to kill the crocodile that ate the man. Only they got the wrong crocodile. You want to know how they know this? A few days later a different crocodile pooped out his wrist watch.

In any case I have learned that crocodiles do not mess around and are not to be messed around with. It's safe to say I'll be staying out of the water.

First Impressions

It is wonderful! But very hot। I don't do well with the sun and on our first camping adventure I managed to burn myself in a zigzag zebra strip pattern all over my feet. It actually looks pretty cool. So we've been out to the aborginal camp and up to Lakefield national park (where Steve Irwin worked). We were testing water quality in the national park and had to be very cautious because there are HUGE, as in 18-20 feet long with wide jaws that will swallow you whole, crocodiles all over the park. We weren't allowed to stand near the waters edge for more than a few minutes and we always had someone on the lookout for floating "logs" or eyes peeping out of the water. At one of the spots we saw some eyes watching us so we rushed through our sampling and high tailed it back to the car where we grabbed some binoculars to check out our first crocodile sighting. It was a little disappointing though when we realized it was a baby crocodile and only two feet long or so at the most.

That morning we ate breakfast with an inquisitive wallaby that rummaged through our fire pit until he found the burnt remains of a veggie burger from the night before. Can't imagine it tasted all that good. He hung out with us for a while and got close enough that we could see where something had taken a bite out of his left ear.

As we were driving out to our camp site through the park we passed large stretches of land that had been burnt down by controlled fires. They tend to regulate the land like we do in California by using controlled blazes to prevent wildfires from spreading through unmanageable distances but these fires were too early in the season to have been started by rangers. They start burning at the beginning of the wet season when there is some moisture in the air. Right now we are in the dry season and everything is brittle and very flammable. We asked some rangers about it and they said the fires may have been started by pig hunters who illegally hunt the feral pigs in the park and use the illegal fires to flush them out. Or they could have been started by the traditional owners of the park, the indigenous people. Just last year ownership of the park was handed over to the aborigines and now a power-struggle has begun between the mostly white rangers who have the resources and experience of running the park and the traditional owners who have a connection to the land but don't have the resources to manage it or the memory of how it used to be used by their elders. It's a really interesting political situation and one that we can learn from in the states.

There have been so many new sights and sounds and experiences that I'm still sorting through them all and will post more soon. Right now I'm really enjoying one Aussie custom of having a "cuppa." Before starting your day you have a cuppa. If you go to a friend's house you have a cuppa. If you're feeling peckish or bored have a cuppa. If you're off-roading miles from civilization and stuck on a sand dune and must haul your car out of the sand you stop and have a cuppa first. Which leads me to my favorite Aussie experience so far: Off-roading. Flying around in the back is good fun but next time I want to drive!