Wowowow Hey friends!
It feels like a hot second since I've posted, but it feels like a months worth of activities have happened that I want to share!
Like I had said before, the itinerary is absolutely incredible and the opportunities we are getting are a ONCE IN A LIFETIME!!!
Let's start right by where I left off last time!
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| STILL SCREAMING INTERNALLY!!! |
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| KOALA <333 |
However, the main reason for going was to see their venom labs as part of the venom biology course we are taking. It was absolutely amazing! They work solely with snakes, working to extract the venom and then working to create anti-venoms. It was so crazy!! (I'm going to be running out of synonyms because there are truly no words to explain how mind blown I've been the last week.)
The man who was presenting to us showed us the 4th, 3rd and 2nd most dangerous snakes in the world!!! He also showed us the proper techniques of extracting venom!
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| Old beds of the convicts! |
Friday we had morning lectures again and spent the afternoon in the Hyde Park Barracks. We learned about Australian's origins as a penal colony and also learned some interesting world history and how the US fit into Australia's origins. We toured the barracks where some of the first convicts lived and we even got to lay in a replica of their original hammock beds!
The weekend was spent at THE BLUE MOUNTAINS!!! It was only a few hours outside Sydney and is it's own world! The purpose of this trip was to do with our biogeography course! I have been all over my snapchat and some of my friends are asking if I'm even in school. These adventures have been so wonderful, but they are still educational. We have been learning all about the biogeography and history of Australia, from the tectonics to the climate, the biota's fauna and flora. The other excursions have all had to do with the aboriginal's culture and history.At the Blue Mountains we got to take a roller coaster car down the crazy steep part of the mountain as well as take a tram going across the valley!!! It was GORGEOUS. I love the mountains and it was absolutely breath taking. The mountains were carved out millions of years ago as the Great Dividing Range from when the marine tectonic plate submerged under the continental tectonic plate of Aus. (Eyy that AP Environment Science coming through)
(We also spent the whole weekend in the mountains at the #1 ranked hostel! It was super nice!)
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| (off google, the picture I took was only it's tail) |
When we were exploring we also saw the Lyre Bird!!! It's a notoriously shy bird that is responsible for "shaping the land" as they kick around the leaf litter and carve out the valley. It's the bird on the emblem Blue Mountains logo.
Funny enough, our tour guide running this program from Australia (Nat) said last year they only saw one. This year we have about 10 more students and we ended up seeing a total of 6!!! We saw some more today on our walk through the bush and rainforest! We did a hike down their "grand canyon" between the Blue Mountains. It was straight down and then straight up through the different layers of biomes starting with the "bush" full of acacia, gum trees and eucalyptus. Under that layer the rainforest begins with giant ferns and tree ferns, beautiful mosses and leafy greens.
...But let me rewind back to Sunday. We went on another hike through the Jeanolin caves! These caves were so mind blowing! I was personally a HUGE fan because we are going to another set of caves in Tazy that are apparently FILLED with spiders. These caves were just filled with beautiful rock formations and crystal clear water! It was again, SO INCREDIBLY BREATHTAKING. These formations have been around almost since the Cambrian Explosion, we know this thanks to some Porifera fossils!It has been an amazing week and I can't even put into words how incredible it has been. People have said that LC has one of the most amazing overseas program, and I know it was a huge selling point to a lot of my friends when they were prospees (perspective students) and I can totally understand why. It's been a bit pricey to get here, but it is worth every single cent. The experiences we are having are literally a once in a lifetime and even if I made it to Australia on my own later we are doing so many tours that I wouldn't pay for. In addition, we also get VIP behind the scenes and all access tours! It has been AMAZING. There are really no words to explain how much we've been able to do and how wonderful the opportunities have been.
I didn't add my email last time! But, if you have any questions, would like to reach out, or just say hi you can reach me at: ksaylor@lclark.edu
That's a lot, but that's all for now, cheers!
Kate