The beginning of yet another beautiful day Down Under! I
woke up around 8:00 to eat some breakfast and have devo with Brittany before a
short group meeting began at 9:15am, immediately followed by my meeting to
discuss thesis research at 9:30am. Needless to say, my morning started off much
quicker than previous days!
My discussion with Professor Hein concerning my thesis went
quite well. He was excited about the possibility of getting the chance to visit
a 6 star building here in Brisbane, though we both agreed that the chances of
getting a tour with only a day and a half left (and no prior planning) was
pretty slim. I had already located several buildings in other cities that we
will be traveling to during our time abroad, so we spent some time mulling over
options and further understanding not only the topic of innovative energy
systems, but also ways that I can present the topic in written form. Overall,
the meeting lasted about thirty minutes and I left excited about upcoming
opportunities!
I spent the next bit of my morning calling my mom and dad
(it was early evening of the previous day in Texas) to do some catching up over
the past several days’ activities. My dad (who has worked off and on in the oil
and gas industry during his professional career) and I ended up talking about
the pros and cons of adding sustainable energy design to buildings and cities
throughout the United States. This conversation helped to give me various
questions to ask while I am here in Australia concerning the impact constructing
buildings with clean, renewable energy has on different areas of the economy
(most notably the consumer’s dollar).
After talking with my folks, I returned to the room and
talked with Reel and Jay about our thesis topics. We are each performing research
that in some way concerns sustainable building design. (Reel is looking at
different types of innovative water recycling techniques while Jay is
researching how the performance of the sustainable features are monitored in
sustainable buildings here in Australia.) Altogether, the three of us will be
teaming up on case studies (each looking at the building in the aforementioned
areas) and hopefully end up with some top-notch research papers by April 20th!
We spent a good 30-45 minutes researching our options
together for building visits here in Brisbane before we had to meet as a full
group again at 1:15pm. We were hoping to contact someone to plan a visit to one
of the three 6-star buildings, but there was very little contact information
available for the three buildings we needed. In the end, we decided the best
plan would be to simply drop by one of the buildings tomorrow morning (our last
day in Brisbane) and see if a facilities manager or some other building
operator might have a few free minutes to show us around their building. For
the time being (and remainder of the day), we were headed to visit another
Brisbane attraction – the koala reserve!
The group left the hotel around 1:15pm and embarked on a
fairly lengthy bus journey out to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. This was probably
the least enjoyable bus ride to date (for me at least) during our time abroad,
as the bus driver enjoyed a steady combination of hard gas, immediate let-up on
the gas, and hard brake over hilly and bumpy roads. All of these elements
affected the acceleration of the bus, which in turn affected my internal
inertia and balance of stomach fluids and left me feeling rather queasy. When
we finally arrived at the sanctuary, I was thoroughly relieved to get off and
get some water at the small café outside the entrance.
Before going inside the sanctuary, I was not quite sure what
to expect. I knew that they let you hold the koalas (for a fee), but other than
that I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The place turned out to be a
sanctuary not only for koalas (though there were TONS of koalas), but also for
several types of interesting birds, reptiles, mammals, and kangaroos! The
trainers at the sanctuary host many live shows with all the different animals,
but we were not there at a proper time to see any of these shows. However, I
did pay to hold a koala and also paid for a small bag of kangaroo food. Both of
these purchases are by far the best I have made in Australia to date. The
following are a conglomerate of pictures taken throughout my time at the
sanctuary:
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| The Koalas aren't dead, though they completely relax when they sleep. |
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| Me holding Fin the Koala Bear!! |
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| I touched the Emu, though it seemed a bit edgy. |
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| Dingo! |
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| Kookaburra |
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| Tasmanian Devil - "The Tassie" |
Pictures are wonderful tools that work well to convey
experiences, but I feel that video evidence is needed to properly retell my
adventures with the kangaroos. Thanks to Professor Hein for the camera work
while I fed the kangaroos! (Click the link below)
Overall I felt like the visit to the Lone Pine Koala
Sanctuary was a huge success. I almost purchased a small didgeridoo in the gift
shop (it would have easily fit inside my suitcase), but because it was so
small, it had little volume for resonating sound and therefore was practically
useless as a musical instrument and more for display purposes only. I was also
tempted to buy a genuine kangaroo leather Australian hat, but Anoop was able to
purchase a similar style for a few dollars cheaper elsewhere, so I refrained
from buying souvenirs. Professional photograph of me holding a koala in hand, I
boarded the bus back towards Woolloongabba. This bus had a different person in
the driver’s seat, though he must have learned how to drive at the same
institution as the driver who brought us to the sanctuary, because the ride
back to downtown Brisbane was complete déjà vu of the early afternoon ride out
to the sanctuary.
Upon returning back to the hotel, I laid down on my bed to
take a quick 30-minute power nap before a group of us were planning to leave in
search of some Mexican food. Rejuvenated by the nap, I set off with the group
to find Tuckeria’s Fresh Mexican Food. We eventually found the establishment
(just outside of the “China Town” area – of course!), and after some debate decided
to stay and eat. We thought it was going to be a nice sit-down restaurant, but
it ended up being similar to Moe’s, except it was completely authentic Mexican
food without “Southwest” flare and the seating was entirely outside. The place
was quite packed and they had some difficulty handling the large number of
orders, but we ended up having a nice meal sitting outside as the cooler
(relative to the 95 degree afternoon weather) evening air settled.
After dinner we walked down the street a few blocks to a
place that was having a trivia night outdoors. We were too late to join in the
game, but we enjoyed listening and half-participating in the fun. A few members
of our group bought some drinks while I went in search of a Dr. Pepper. There
was pretty much only one convenient store within sight, so I went over to see
if they carried Dr. Pepper. Lo and behold – they did! After spending a few
seconds disgusted by the dominance of Coke products, I found a single row
entitled, “American Drinks,” which held not only Dr. Pepper bottled in Plano,
TX, but also Cherry Dr. Pepper and A&W root beer and cream soda. The
“American Drinks” were on sale 2 for $5, so I got a DP and a cream soda and
headed back to join the group at trivia.
We spent the next couple of hours hanging out and enjoying
each other’s company and watching some very weird people around us before
deciding to head back to the hotel. We didn’t really know where we were
relative to Woolloongabba, but thankfully Brisbane has an extensive bus system
that will take you most places in the city as long as you know the correct bus
number. Without too much difficulty, we found a street with buses and after a
10-minute bus ride, we were back at the hotel.
I went up to the room to set my camera down and shower; but
before going to bed, I walked down the street a few blocks and got some bottled
water (I felt slightly dehydrated after the soda). I walked back to the hotel
and pretty much went right to sleep, foregoing the possibility of doing any
more work. Today had been a really fun and adventurous day, what with the
experience of holding a koala and feeding a kangaroo, and I was excited to see
how tomorrow – our last full day in Brisbane – would unfold!
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