Birds and Baking

Hey ya’ll.

Apologizes for the gap between blog posts – I’ve been at my host stay for the past week and haven’t had consistent access to Internet. I’ll be on homestay until next Sunday. So far it’s been an “interesting” experience: I have two other international students staying with me, so its been really cool to get to know them and learn about their cultures. Enrica is 17 from Italy, Laura is 17 and from Germany and there was another student named Minami (21) from Japan although she left Saturday. They’re all super friendly and it’s been really fun to hang out with them. My host mom, Rachelle (pronounced Rachel) is also nice. I have my own room here, which is really enjoyable, (albeit a bit weird at first). However I’m not entirely alone, one of the other SIT students is coincidentally staying next door with another host family (his host family and mine are best friends). My family and host sisters are very into cooking and baking so we've been having some really great home cooked meals. I brought a delicious chocolate cake recipe from home (thanks to the wonderful miss Sarah Pincus) and i managed to recreate it the other day. (Despite the fact that I accidentally set the oven to around 500 degrees, not realizing that the oven was in celsius and not fahrenheit. oops. you'll all be glad to know that I did not burn the house down.) 

Right before home stay began we spent the weekend in Cairns. Unfortunately that meant having a class on saturday. But, it consisted of snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef so we can't really complain. :) It was so amazing to be back in the water and back at the reef at that! The fish we saw were so beautiful and colorful! We saw parrotfish, anemone fish (aka "nemos"), even a white-tip reef shark! Unfortunately we are not allowed to dive here, but even snorkeling is such an incredible experience! All in all, a great day. 

But it hasn’t been all fun and games. While we’ve been on homestay we’ve been assigned a bird field study project which involves getting up at 6AM to bird watch in the local neighborhood. This wouldn’t have been so bad a couple of weeks ago when I was jetlagged and waking up at 6 anyways, but now it’s a bit more difficult. :P The aim of the project is to watch birds in both a suburban area and a more forested, natural area and then to compare the types and number of birds we see. I have enjoyed getting able to see some really beautiful and interesting birds although I’m definitely still struggling with identifying them and their calls, (which we’re supposed to be working on during this project as well). Here are some of the more beautiful birds I've been seeing. (Unfortunately these are not my pics) 

Rainbow Bee-Eater (Yes they actually do eat bees)

Yellow-Bellied Sun Bird

Rainbow Lorikeet

Everyone in the program is spread out at this time though we’re all around the Cairns area so we can still see each other during the weekends. (This weekend we all got together and went to the beach before going into town at night to celebrate one girl’s 22^nd birthday.) We also go into Cairns a few times a week to have lectures at the Reef Teach classroom, so it’s starting to feel like actual school again. (yes, complete with homework as well.)

Not the most interesting update, since most of my time has been spent either doing homework reading or trying to do research for a potential ISP. I’m choosing between a few options right now (although in the end I have a feeling it’s all going to boil down to whoever ends up emailing me back with an offer to come work with them). I am considering getting involved with a wildlife rehabilitation center somewhere in Queensland, possibly studying the role that rehabilitation plays in conservation. Or I might end up researching different behaviors in penguins down in southern Australia. My last option is work with an organization that is trying to help save an endangered speices of wallaby out in Perth, by assessing the population dynamics of an invasive species of fox. They trap and collar the foxes to gain a better idea of their population numbers. Then that gives the scientists a better gauge of whether the foxes are causing major damage to the wallaby population.

Again, at this point it's not as much what I would prefer to do as much as who ends up emailing me back, ha ha. I'll definitely keep you all posted as things change. We have another week of homestay and then we leave for our camping trip led by an aboriginal elder. 10 days in the cairns wilderness - I can't wait :) until then, g'day mates! 

Peace, love and chocolate cake. 

Katie