Rottnest

This past weekend was the big trip to Rottnest Island, or Rotto in the local tongue. Rotto is an island located about a 40 min ferry ride from Fremantle, and it's an amazing place - hardly any cars so the roads are great for biking, amazing beaches (I think 63 in total), snorkeling, swimming, etc, etc. Twelve of us went and split the cost of a villa, which ended up being really nice if a bit cramped - it was right on the beach, had a barbecue and a full kitchen, and a tv so the Australians could watch the semifinals of the AFL playoffs (it's going to be St Kilda vs Collingwood in the Grand Final on Saturday night, if anyone's following at home). We all got bikes (I brought mine over on the ferry, everyone else rented them over there) and on Saturday rode out to the lighthouse in the middle of the island, then Sunday rode all the way around stopping at various beaches to snorkel/swim/relax.

First and foremost, though, Rottnest is the land of the quokka, mini-kangaroos that are rare on the mainland but incredibly adbundant on Rotto, to the point of being a major pest - they come into stores and restaurants, and we witnessed one lady literally trying to push one out of a Subway with a broom but the thing wouldn't budge. Mostly for visitors, though, they're friendly and incredibly cute.


Exhibit A


I mean friendly!

In addition to the quokkas, there was a lot of other cool wildlife - seabirds, a few bish and colorful fish, a few cool-looking crabs, and a decent-sized bobtail (shingleback skink) that was sitting in the middle of the road until I caught it and moved it to a safer location on the roadside.




And that's basically my life updated now. Turned in my first big assignment, a history research paper, yesterday, and tomorrow I leave for my big semester break roadtrip. Won't be able to update much, if at all, when I'm on the road, but I'll have plenty to write about when I get back on October 3rd (is it really almost October now? geez). We (myself, Noam, and our buddy Longkuan from Singapore) will be driving up the Western Australian coast from Perth to Exmouth, with stops along the way at Lancelin, Geraldton, Kalbarri, Shark Bay, and Ningaloo Reef. To see a map of our itinerary, go here.

Catch you all on the flip side.
Rottnest also has some beautiful bays, and the snorkeling was a lot of fun even if I didn't see a ton of fish.

Bollywood Dancing and Bush Nightwalking

Last Wednesday night, as I wrote about earlier, was Currie's international night. The theme for the night was subcontinent (i.e. India/Bollywood) but we kicked things off with a sort of parade of nations, where I somehow got chosen to represent the good old USA. We got our names called, marched up to the front of the stage, waved to the crowd, and then lined up so at the end there was a mini-UN up on stage and everyone feels good about internationalism and diversity and whatever. I really had no idea what American national attire was, so I ended up going with a cowboy outfit, which I have only really bad picture of and I will not be sharing that with you all. If a better picture turns up, I'll post it. When I walked up, I just tipped my hat to the crowd, but by far the best salutation of anyone was when Junya, our representative from Japan, went up to the stage. Instead of just waving and walking away, he waved then whipped out a camera and took a picture of the crowd. Got to love a little tongue-in-cheek humor.

I also participated in the big dance performance of the night, where we did four dances to bits of Bollywood songs. Unfortunately I haven't seen many pictures up, and we're still waiting on the video, but for the moment this is the best I have. Should be easy to spot me:

Friday evening my Wildlife Conservation & Management had a field trip to Karakamia Sanctuary, which is a reserve about an hour southwest of Perth. We were there to do a nightwalk and spotlight for marsupials, so I didn't get too many good pictures, but it was a lot of fun.

Main paddock at Karakamia (Cur-ak-uh-my-uh, name comes from Aboriginal word for black cockatoo)

We saw a ton of these tammar wallabies. I like this picture cuz it sort of looks like the wallaby's doing the Heisman pose, if you stretch your imagination a little...

Wedge-tailed eagle nest. Didn't actually see any eagles, but in addition to the wallabies we also saw brush-tailed bettongs, brush tailed possums, western gray kangaroos, brown bandicoots, and a giant wolf spider (which had a really awesome emerald green eyeshine).

WILDflowers

Hey everybody, sorry it's been so long since I've posted on this thing. Too much to do, too little time to blog about it. I leave to go on my semester break trip tomorrow, so I figure I should update you all on my past week and a half before I leave (and when I get back there will be LOTS to blog about).

Anyways, to start things off, last Tuesday my friend Ilena, who's a botany major (and frankly a bit of a plant nerd) graciously took a group of us through King's Park on a wildflower talk. It's spring here so most of the flowers are in full bloom, so it made for some pretty awesome pictures:


Red-and-green kangaroo paw, a plant you see all over around here but is actually found only in Western Australia, it's their official state plant or something of that nature


Sundew - doesn't look like too much but was maybe my favorite of the whole tour because it's carnivorous! Those sticky fronds attract and then trap insects, close around them and digest them. Pretty sweet.


Don't remember the name of this one but it's some kind of orchid


The flowering stalks of the grass tree dry up when they're done flowering and then they're really easy to break off, so they make for awesome spear-looking walking sticks that make me feel powerful and angry (at least that's what I'm going for with this face, it also looks a little constipated).

Murder Mystery Night...and Russell Goes Bollywood

Another not terribly eventful week here in Perth. Last Wednesday was intercollege athletics (track & field). I didn't compete in the races, but I went as a spectator and Currie Hall did very well, winning all the races I saw. After the races we had a tav show, where there was music and dancing at the Guild Tavern (lucky for me I didn't have early class on Thursday!)

Friday was the big event of the week, our Murder Mystery dinner. This was just something I just signed up for on a whim but it turned out to be really fun. Essentially how it worked was each person participating had a character within a 1920's gangster speakeasy. Each person had their own secrets to keep hidden and secret motives to be carried out using whatever means necessary. A little while in we all drew randomly from a box of cards to either get a blank card or a weapon card - if you want to commit a murder, you had to have a weapon card.

My first character was Al Capone - not the Al Capone of historic fame but within the context of the murder mystery universe a "bouncer"/hitman for Don "Big Jim" Ravioli in Chicago who had secret designs to take over the Chicago operation. Alas, it didn't work out too well for me - I got murdered by the in-disguise leader of a rival gang which I had killed three members of the night before. I came back as a second character, the corrupt mayor of Chicago, and managed to make a shady deal or two before the game ended. The ultimate success story of the evening was Matt and Noam (Matt on the far right, Noam with the card in his hat), who managed to pull off two big murders and set themselves up nicely to take over in Chicago - Matt was a mob boss from New York and Noam was his enforcer posing as an itinerant gambler.

The whole crew after the game ended. Thanks to Noam for the photo.

Saturday we have interhouse tug of war, in which C House failed miserably (but we got participation credit which means we win the overall interhouse competition title; supposedly there will be a reward forthcoming). Played some basketball and relaxed for most of the afternoon, then we had a C House floor outing to an all-you-can-eat pasta/pizza restaurant in Fremantle, which was quite enjoyable but we didn't get back until about 11.

Sunday I woke up to the pleasant news that Husky football picked up its first win of the season (and I was pleasantly surprised to learn today that the Seahawks won as well, and apparently the Storm are leading the WNBA finals). Went for a run but then had to buckle down and get to work, which occupied me for the rest of the day. Pretty much the same stuff today, homework and class.

I do have some exciting news for the days ahead, though: Currie Hall has International Night on Wednesday evening, and the theme this year is the Subcontinent, which means there will be a Bollywood dance production which I most assuredly will be a part of. We just wrapped up practice for this evening, and we're getting pretty good - there will be video evidence. I also am supposedly representing the USA in the opening ceremonies or whatever we do to kick off the evening. I'm supposed to be wearing traditional American clothing - I honestly have no idea what that's supposed to be but I can only assume it's a little easier than garb for some other countries. Suggestions are welcome.

(Wednesday night I'll basically be the guy in the middle here)

Planning also continues in earnest for the big semester break trip, which is now less than two weeks away. I'm also going to be part of an excursion to Rottnest Island, which is off the coast of Perth, this weekend. Should give me some more exciting stuff to blog about.

More Pictures From Saturday

Walked back along the Swan River and over the Narrows Bridge, and got these shots, among others:


Perth City Skyline


Perth and Australian pelican in the foreground


Thought it was kind of cool to see pelicans just chilling on top of the lampposts


Banksia flower

Zoo, Slap Betting, and My First Assignment

Pretty uneventful past week. Everybody is a little busier as we get further into the semester and so there's a little less going on. I did have my first real assignment in Australia due on Friday, a set of questions for my vertebrate zoology class. So that's one more milestone down. I think I did fairly well.

There wasn't a whole lot going on Saturday, but it was pretty nice weather and I didn't have a lot of work to do so in the afternoon I decided to head over to the zoo yet again. It was a decent day for animal viewing, although it was a bit crowded due to it being the weekend and warm outside. I managed to get a few decent pictures:




Radiated Tortoise


Sacred Kingfisher


Blue-and-Gold Macaw

After my zoo visit, I decided to take a walk through South Perth (the city where the zoo is located; it's literally about 200 yards across the river from downtown Perth but is it's own city) heading back to the busport. I managed to get quite a few good pictures, especially of the pelicans and other birds that were around. Perth has done a really nice job of preserving some ponds and trees right next to the city center, and I took a stroll through that area before I caught the bus back.

Saturday night was a lot of fun; a group of guys got together and we played poker for a few hours. I didn't win, but I didn't finish last either. After that, the Australia vs South Africa rugby game was on and a big group of people got together to watch that. Having never followed rugby at all before, I was largely at a loss to understand what was going on a lot of the time (a lot of elements are really similar to football, but the ball kept switching hands for reasons I didn't understand and the penalties were a total mystery). It was a good game - they were playing at altitude in Bloemfontein, South Africa, and Australia went up early, then gave the lead back but scored on the last play of the game to win by 2.

The outcome of the game, however, was made a whole lot more exciting by the fact that two guys from Currie, an Australian and a South African, had a slap bet on the outcome. What this means is that the guy whose team won gets to slap the loser once, as hard as he likes, at any time in the next week (if anyone out there is familiar with How I Met Your Mother, it's the same thing as they do on the show). Rudy hasn't been slapped yet, but we're all keeping an eye out to see it when it happens.

Fairly relaxed day today. It was beautiful weather, so in the morning I went for a run through King's Park with Matt, then after lunch hung out with some people on the quad lawn in the sun. Naturally, it being opening weekend of football season and all I had to check scores and I was pretty ticked to see that the Huskies lost, but at least we didn't get blown out so I guess there's hope for the rest of the season. But still, really - shut out in the second half? Had some homework to do, then dinner, and now I'm here. Should be a good week ahead, I'll have more later. Keep it real in the Northwest (and by golly beat Syracuse next week).