Midterms haved managed to make me forgetful...

So, since it's been about 4 weeks too long, I suppose I should write something!

Honestly, the past few weeks have flown by, mostly due to schoolwork so not a lot of exciting stuff has happened.

Let's see...week 4, I submitted my first assignment for the semester (I can't believe it was that long ago already!). We had to write a literature review for my Biodiversity of Tropical Australia class, focusing on one research article about one Australian species, plant or animal. My animal was the Mahogany Glider, Petaurus gracilis, for the science enthusiasts out there. They are endangered in Australia because of habitat destruction and the paper focused on their ability to move from habitat to habitat despite it being fragmented due to deforestation. Here's a picture of one of the cuties below (no, I did not take this picture):

After the literature review was done, I went on the Pallarenda Beach trip for international students, put on by the International Student Center at JCU. It was a day full of laying in the sun, playing volleyball and numerous other "getting-to-know each other" games, and eating Lamingtons, which are a white cake dessert covered in chocolate and shredded coconut. I may or may not have already mentioned these in a previous post, but if I have, ignore it because they're so good!

Lamington:

yum, yum!


The following Monday, I had my first exam of the semester in Invertebrate Biology. I thought it went well at the time, and it did! I got an 84%, which translates back to an A at St. Lawrence somehow. It also is a 4.0 according to the registrar, so YAY!

2 days later, my Aquaculture of Tropical Species class and I went on a field trip to the North Queensland Captain Redclaw Farm, which is in Kelso about 20 minutes away from campus. We were there to take notes on redclaw culture techniques at the farm, and it was funny because the farm wasn't in operation any more! Trust me, it made it challenging to write the report I just finished on the field trip! It is now a cable skiing and Barramundi fishing farm, more for recreational purposes. Redclaw are a freshwater crayfish native to Queensland, by the way. Here's a redclaw:

This one is a picture of the farm that I took:

that thing sticking up in the middle is the cable ski- kind of like water skiing but on a cable/ zip line thing...I think...


The next thing on my schedule was another midterm, this time in Biodiversity. I felt that it was a very easy test, nothing special. I had my midterm in coral reef ecology too, about a week later. Whew!

Somewhere in there my friends and I went to a Cowboys game (they're the local rugby team):

Left to right (back row first): Kine, Andrea, Liz, Stefan, me, Steffen, and Ali :)


The weekend of September 1 was another cool event for George Roberts (my hall)! We had Bucks and Hens night, which is where there is a fake "bride" and "groom," and we attend their "bachelor" and "bachelorette" parties. The girls go to a club, and so do the guys, there's a bar tab, and there were supposed to be male strippers. I know what you're thinking: Kelcie in a strip club?! C'mon, you gotta live it up once in a while, and all my friends went! It was a cheap event for such a good time. :) I don't have any pictures of strippers, but I do have this picture of my friends and I:

Aren't we the cutest? :) Left to right: Jenna, me, Summer, Ajshe, Liz

One week later, we had the bird survey field trip for Biodiversity, where groups of 3-4 went around the campus and local area looking for as many bird species as we could. My group found about 24 species which was pretty good! Here are some of the birds we saw (again, not my pictures, they aren't as good):

Rainbow lorikeet

Australian white ibis

 

Sulfur-crested cockatoo

There were so many more, but I'll run out of room. I might do a collage of just pictures eventually, like I've done before :)

The past 3 weeks haven't been very eventful. I have 4 reports due on the same day next week, and a test that day as well. Needless to say, I've been a bit antisocial.

Tomorrow begins the first day of my most exciting field trip however: Orpheus Island!! We'll be there for Coral Reef Ecology for 4 days, helping the Master's students do their research on the coral reef! I'm so excited for this because I've wanted to see the Great Barrier Reef forever. I'm hoping to see some amazing things, like stingrays, sharks, eels, and sea turtles. There will be many many pictures of those later this week!


G'day for now. Cheers ;)