Day 9: Atop Shark Infested Waters

What a great night's sleep! Finally sleeping in an air conditioned room for the first time since arriving in Australia, I slept like a rock. We didn't meet until 9:30, which meant an even longer rest than usual! I woke up around 8:30 and Reel and I took turns showering and using the kitchen to scramble up some eggs. My breakfast consisted of 3 eggs, 2 pieces of toast, and a glass of orange juice. Not a huge breakfast, but plenty to tide me over until lunch.

Today Captain Anoop took us on a city boat ride down the Brisbane River. He took off at a blistering pace (he forewarned us we would be walking faster today) so that we would make the 10:30am dock time. We made it to the boat in plenty of time. Most of the students, professor Hein, and Karen Rogers (who I failed to mentioned joined our journey yesterday upon arrival in Brisbane) took seats on the top deck while Anoop and a couple of others took a seat inside the lower cabin. I wanted to get some great shots, so I chose the top deck to avoid having a window glare in my pictures.

Before departing, the crew served all the guests on board an array of donuts and pastries with coffee, of which I took a jelly donut and a coffee with plenty of cream and sugar. Before long though we were off, motoring down the river. We had two jolly fellows guiding the boat and they took turns telling us the history of buildings and the river. For the most part they were interesting. They welcomed any questions we had about what we were seeing, but told us that they would most likely make something up if they didn't know the true answer. They sure did have some creative stories! Here is a look at the sights while we traveled down the river:

Perhaps the most alarming fact about the Brisbane River is that it is indeed a saltwater river. Which, unfortunately, means that fairly frequently bull sharks can be seen swimming in the river. The crew happily informed us that the M.V. Neptune had never lost a passenger, which made everyone feel only slightly better. Anyway, the trip down the river and back ended just before noon and we were free for the rest of the day. Everyone had a temporary structures assignment due about Sydney, so we grabbed a quick bite of lunch downtown (I tried a couple of styles of pasta) and caught a bus back to our hotel in Woolloongabba.

I took a quick power nap, then proceeded to McDonald's (called "maccas" here) to use their WiFi and meet up with everyone else to knock out the assignment. A couple of hours later, it was done! Though the McDonald's internet was incredibly slow, so we had to wait to submit our papers until we found a stronger internet connection.

Around 7:00pm the group met up again with Hein, Anoop, and Karen to head down to a brewery for dinner. I missed the memo about dinner and so I literally finished up dinner right before heading downstairs to meet the group. I hung out at the brewery watching some cricket (Trying to learn how it works!) and chewing the cud with some other folks before heading back to the hotel. On the way back to the Hotel, I called Brittany to do devo (30 minutes early by accident...). After we finished (she was just beginning the day I was ending, ironically enough) I headed back upstairs to do some blogging, but ended up going back to McDonald's to do the posting. Exhausted, I finally got to bed pretty late (thank goodness I took a nap!). Of course tomorrow would be an early morning, as we were going to hike another mountain. No matter, I'm up for it!

Day 8: A Land fit for a Queen

The eighth day Down Under began with another plane flight. This time, however, we were embarking only on a 1 hour, 30 minute journey north to Brisbane. We crossed a time zone though and gained an hour mid-flight. All in all we only lost 30 minutes of the day!

Let me back track a bit and give a quick anecdote of my Jet Star experience...

We left Wesley College and went out to Broadway Street to catch taxis to the airport. Anoop and Hein got in a separate taxi, while the remainder of the group of students fit into 3 taxis. The drive to the airport was only potentially life threatening once, maybe twice. By taxi standards I felt like we had a wonderful experience! We pulled up outside the Jet Star terminal and walked right in. After surveying the situation inside the airport, we quickly determined that the long line of 200 people or so (no exaggeration here folks) was the line we needed to enter to check into our flight. I needed to check my backpack, so I had to go drop it off before going through security. After quite some time, I made it to the counter only to get hit in the face with an A$80 checked bag fee because my ticket had not included any checked baggage. (Where is Southwest when you need them?!) I would also like to point out that the flight only cost $59. Anyway I had little choice in paying the fee, but I had to go stand in another line so that they could make the credit transaction. This mind-numbing process eventually ended and I made it through security without further difficulty. (You don't even have to take off your shoes here!) Our gate was gate 55, which was a short walk from security. On the way to the gate, I saw my first ever Jet Star plane with the motto "All day, every day, low fares" LIES! At the very least, misleading. It should read more like "Low fares, but we'll get your money anyway, every day." At least the flight was short.

We flew into Brisbane and took a taxi to our hotel in Woolloongabba. (Fun word to say!) I have learned since my arrival that it was named this by the Aboriginals because it was a swamp land. Our place here is quite nice. There are two people to a room with separate beds. We have a small efficiency kitchen, washer, dryer, and separate bathrooms to boot! The key system here is weird though, as I have 3 keys to get from the front door of the establishment to my room.

It is almost impossible not to notice signs posted everywhere in the elevator and all over the kitchen of a number of actions that will result in fines. Among the intolerables include a smoke alarm going off for more than 3 minutes. Doing this automatically calls the fire brigade and bills your account A$500, no questions asked. Bringing a single glass bottle in the pool area results in a fine upwards of A$1,027 as the entire pool will have to be decontaminated. Also, if you are in need of internet, be prepared to pay Jet Star prices. Just 24 hours of access or 100mb, whichever comes first, costs A$27.50. If you would like to purchase a weeks worth of access or 1GB, whichever comes first, it will cost you A$75. Needless to say we are in constant need of internet on our journey down under and so I am currently posted up at a 24-hour McDonald's McCafe using their free WiFi. It works great as long as none of the other 14 folks need to use it. Oh wait, they do...

Our first walk around Brisbane led us down a lovely, cool path alongside the Brisbane River that runs right through the heart of the city. This pathway is quite possibly one of the best samples of environmental design work. The pathway utilizes both the salty river breeze (Yep, it's a saltwater river) and numerous plants and trees to lower the air temperature 15-20 degrees Fahrenheit. As we walked down the path, I was struck by the large number of people using the space. Hundreds of people were everywhere running, walking, riding bikes (they ring their bell if you're in their way, which we were constantly), sunning, reading, doing sit-ups, and enjoying the city pool. My first impression of the people here is that they love to pursue healthy lifestyles! Here are a couple of pictures alongside the river:

We walked along the South Bank for a good ways and came up to a large ferris wheel. Intrigued, Anoop bought us tickets and we went around and around 4 times with a narration of the sights. Here are some of the photos I took from a "bird's eye" view of the city:

After the feris wheel, a small group of us walked over a pedestrian bridge to the botanical gardens, while the remainder of the students went back to the hotel to grill out for dinner. I wanted to see the sights while it was still daylight, so I chose the botanical gardens, which were gorgeous, though not as picturesque as the gardens in Sydney. I did enjoy the large bamboo trees though!

For dinner a group of us ate at a Japanese restaurant, Aroma Garden, though I ordered Indian food for the first time. I got Chicken Tikka, which came out bright reddish-orange and tasted exactly like grilled chicken. (No spice or extra flavor was detectable by my taste buds!) However, my stomach recognized the foreign ingredients and it took a coke to settle my stomach after the meal. Here's a picture of the meal:

After we ate, we hopped on the 110 bus to Woolloongabba to get some work done before bedtime. Bedtime came quickly for me, though I was quite happy to have a long rest!

Reflections of Sydney, NSW, Australia

The purpose of this particular blog entry is to satisfy the requirements of the blog that I feel I have not fulfilled in previous entries. For Sydney, previous blog entries have provided pictures and commentary on portions of the built and natural environment and my conversation with John, a native of Sydney for the past 20 years. At this time, I would like to take some time to further reflect on these items and include elements of the local culture and a short conversation I overheard with Aborigine.

Lets start with the built environment.

The first glimpse of the built environment I experienced not just of Sydney, but also Australia was from the small window of an airplane. I suppose this is almost always the case for Americans coming to Australia unless travel is done by way of ship. Looking out over the rooftops of houses and buildings, I noticed a dominant reddish-orange-brown color. Once on the ground, I discovered that this is a type of clay tile roofing similar to that used in Spanish architecture, though the style of the individual tiles is different here in Australia. Here is a picture of the phenomena:

Once on the ground, I was able to properly observe the architecture and buildings. Wow. The Sydney skyline is such a wonderful sight to behold! From the countless skyscrapers all around (at times difficult to distinguish which side of the Harbor is downtown) to the iconic Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge, it is absolutely beautiful. Once out of the downtown area, the shops and streets have a quaintness about them that looks as though it has European influence.

Along the lines of my thesis topic, I saw a few solar panels, though it was unclear as to what the panels were providing power for. In the newspaper I glanced through at the Museum of Sydney, I saw an article where a group is beginning to research tidal energy and how Australia can begin to utilize this new technology. Apart from these instances though I did not outwardly observe clean energy strategies for buildings. Perhaps a job site visit would have led to finding more methods, though the group was unable to procure any field trips to a job site. One last note on clean energy, though not a building, involves the extensive bus system. The hundreds of buses the city uses all run on natural gas!

The layout of the city has a nice balance of buildings and park areas where you can take a lovely afternoon stroll amidst towering shade trees and green fields dotted with beautiful plants. Usually these parks are centered around a lake or pond which makes for a delightfully relaxing and cool atmosphere. One of these places was located just on the outskirts of the University of Sydney Campus. Here is a look:

On to the local culture!

A significant number of Asian peoples occupy Sydney. However, a good number of Caucasians are also present and just walking down the street you may pass 20-30 people on one block and have the privilege of possibly hearing 4 or more different languages. Needless to say, walking down the street in Sydney can be a very interesting experience and at times, I was probably the only one who could speak English. This is an odd feeling - a mixture of awe and also isolation due to lack of ability to communicate. On the whole though most people speak English, each person with a slightly different dialect - no doubt influenced by their first language.

As many people may be aware, Britain claimed Australia and established it as a penal colony several centuries ago. However, the British were not the first human inhabitants of Australia. The Aborigines were the first people group to populate the continent, though they were no technological match to the British and have since taken a backseat (by force in the beginning according to history). In my travels around the city of Sydney I came across this people group on two occasions. The first instance occurred the first day. Although I did not speak with them, I saw a group of them posted up at Circular Quay playing a didgeridoo, taking pictures, and selling CD's. This in and of itself was not how I pictured this people group, though their loin clothing and body painting absolutely followed their traditional culture. Our journey through the Blue Mountains began at Echo Point where I also met an Aboriginal boy who was with several other Aboriginal men who performed shows. At the time we arrived, a show of how to play a didgeridoo was just ending. I caught the last bit in which the Aborigine playing the didgeridoo explained that you should play with as little tension in your throat as possible, as tension in the throat can cause damage to a man's adam's apple. (Ironically enough it was a female who had asked this question.) I was struck at the wonderfully clear Australian English accent the Aborigine man had, though I am not quite sure what dialect I expected them to have.

For the Journey Down Under course at Auburn University, we are supposed to have a video for each city we visit. A good deal of freedom is given towards this video, so I had some fun with mine. I hope everyone enjoys a comprehensive recap video from Sydney, NSW, Australia:

Sydney Recap Video

On the whole, I thoroughly enjoyed Sydney. It was an experience of a lifetime and only the beginning of my trek around Australia. Now to Brisbane!

Day 7: Crikey Mate, Look at the Size of That One There!

Start time: 8:00am.
Destination: Taronga Zoo.
Mission: Find a living Kangaroo and Koala

Another beautiful day! We started the day at our normal time and rode a bus down to Circular Quay, then a ferry almost directly across the Harbour to the Taronga Zoo.

I spent my ferry ride attempting to capture the winning photo in the Auburn Abroad photo contest using the AU logo. I got a couple of great shots (to be seen at a later date), though it remains to be seen if I indeed took the winner!

We entered the zoo and waited on Anoop to purchase a group ticket for us to use, while a few folks bought a more substantial breakfast at the zoo cafe. Once the tickets were purchased, it was off to see the animals!

First up - Crocs! Not all that exciting though, as they were still asleep. However, I was not about to be the one to wake them!
Second up - KOALAS! Also asleep, but here are some pictures!

We continued on to through the reptile cages and saw a wide variety of snakes that I hope I never encounter again. We moved on to African animals and saw the usual giraffes, lions (which we learned sleep up to 20-21 hours a day), tigers, and elephants. Two tiger cubs had been born at the zoo in August and viewing hours had been limited each day, though we were in luck, as we were there between 10-1. It was about a 15 minute wait to see them (No less than 15,000 people had come to the zoo yesterday to see the cubs) and our time there was regulated by zookeepers.) The elephants were big and smelly (among other things), but the trainers had managed to teach them how to properly act like a dog, including handshaking, backing up, turning, and rolling over. (In fact it was just about to bark and start chasing boats in the Harbour! Only joking of course!) It was actually kind of neat to watch the trainer and the elephant. The elephant did pretty much whatever the trainer asked as long as the trainer kept the food coming regularly.

We continued through the zoo (a fairly moderate-large sized zoo), still in search of those stubborn kangaroos! We found another platypus, wild turkeys that would eat whatever you threw at them, and even komodo dragons (a giant reptile looking slug walrus. Minus tusks though, so make that a seal).

Then, after many joyous hours we ventured into the right section of the Australian Walkabout and found those silly kangaroos! I must say, they were quite lazy. I never saw one hop though, as they were posted up (more laying down) in the shade pretending to sleep. Anyway, I was ecstatic to have seen them close up. If that encounter wasn't enough, they actually had an enclosed area where you walked around a path and (were it not for every single type of kangaroo being asleep) the roos could come up to you. The only thing awake in the pen was a giant emu, which looked hungry, so we didn't linger for too terribly long. Here's a look at the roos and emus:

Satisfied that we had seen enough of the animals, we grabbed some lunch and met Professor Hein back at the entrance to the zoo at our predetermined time of 1pm. (Anoop had left earlier in the morning to go over to the Opera House to secure us tickets for an architectural tour when we come back to Sydney at the end of January. He was successful in this endeavor!)

We exited the zoo through a skylift that gave brief, but breathtaking views of the city, then ferried back over to Circular Quay. From there we took a bus back to Wesley College and I wasted no time in taking a glorious 2 hour nap before a scheduled meeting at 4pm with Hein and Anoop.

The meeting went well. After the meeting, each Building Science student was divided up between the two professors for thesis work and individual meetings to discuss thesis topics commenced.

I will be working with Professor Hein and after a great talk on a stone bench under a shade tree, we finally nailed down a topic that I am pretty excited about studying. I will be researching the innovative ways that buildings are being designed and built to satisfy the energy saving points in the Green Star Rating System used in Australia and New Zealand. For those not familiar with Green Star, it is the rating system used to determine the sustainable qualities of buildings in this part of the world. There are a possible 6 stars that a building can earn. This rating system serves the same purpose that the LEED Rating System serves in the United States.

After the chat with Professor Hein, I took a shower and got ready to out for dinner. (Last night in Sydney!) The group ended up mulling over several options, but we finally settled in at a Welco cafe near the University campus. I ordered a smoked salmon fettuccine, which turned out to be an excellent choice! We sat around for a couple of hours chewing the cud before everyone left to head to a bar. I walked with the group to the bar, but went back towards campus after arrival, as bars are not really my cup of tea. I picked up a Dr. Pepper along the way home and enjoyed a nice evening walk through the park on my way back to the dorm room.

I spent considerable time blogging and attempting to upload pictures (without success unfortunately) before packing up my bags in preparation for the flight to Brisbane. Just before bed, Brittany and I were able to do a late night/early morning Devo over the phone just before she went to breakfast and began the day at the Passion Conference in Atlanta. Shortly after we ended our conversation, I fell asleep, looking forward to taking on the challenges of a new city!

Day 6: Photo of the Day

Still having trouble uploading pics... coming soon

Day 6: Up Over Down Under: The Blue Mountains

Early morning starts are not my forte. Some people who have known me for a few years might also know that my definition of "early" can mean a wide range of early morning hours. Today, the definition can be understood as a 6:30 downbeat. Though instead of having to be at the band field with my drum setup and ready to go at 6:30, I just had to be ready to leave at 6:30. I was running about 2 minutes behind, so I had to run about 2 city blocks to catch up with the group walking to Redfern train station. (I was awake after that!) 

Today's travel arrangements included a walk to Redfern train station, ride a train 2 stops to Central, then hop onto Platform 12 and catch a 2 hour train ride west to Katoomba. Destination: Blue Mountains. Though my early jog woke me up at the time, a wait at the station and the following ride to Central reminded me that I was tired. It did not take long on the train ride to Katoomba for me to fall fast asleep. This uncomfortable bliss lasted only a short while before the train stopped at some station and picked up new passengers. I didn't feel the train stop, but I did wake up when the seat in front of me (which had a foot rest attached that I was using) moved. Now when I say that it "moved" I mean that the two people who just got on the train decided that they needed to face the opposite direction that the seat, whose foot rest I was using fast asleep, currently faced. Instead of just sitting down in the seat, they pressed a lever and moved the back of the seat so that they could sit facing me. Now my intention here is not to complain (I wasn't exactly comfortable to begin with), but merely to point out that I now had knee-knocking buddies whose age was advanced. It was all I could do not to burst out laughing at the way they chose to sit facing me with no leg room. I lost count how many times we bumped knees before some other bloke got off the train, after which I moved to the newly opened solo seat!

In the solo seat, I didn't have to worry about anyone sitting down to face opposite me, so I used the foot rest there proudly and the window to fall back asleep. Some time later, Anoop came and tapped me on the shoulder to give me the five minute Katoomba warning. We rolled in to Katoomba around mid-morning and took a few minutes to grab a proper meal before setting off on our hiking journey through the Blue Mountains. I chose a Subway sandwich, blue Powerade Isotonic (a slightly weaker version of Powerade in America that actually tastes better in my opinion), water, and a cappuccino to get a little caffeine. Properly nourished, the group set off down a street in the direction of Echo Point where we would begin our walkabout.

1,829.6  miles later, we made it Perth and were on the train headed back to Sydney after the most abysmal and terrifying march/swim through the jungle and snake infested waters. On the whole, we only lost Professor Hein to a passing party bus and 3 students (including myself) managed to save Anoop from going over the edge of a waterfall. The remaining 12 students went on an Aboriginal walkabout near Alice Springs trying to find a mythical train station near 3 sisters and should show up in Cairns within a matter of months using the sonar birds as their guide. The upshot is that part of this story is true. The exact details and recounts of the fateful trek will forever be lost in the Australian bush, destined to become stories that might get 3 inches at the bottom of page 8 in the local Katoomba newspaper, as is typical of Australian disasters.

Actually I decided to tell you that story because no matter what words I use to describe our trip (it was actually around 8-10 miles), I am confident I would fail miserably. (It was that epic.) Thus, I decided to intentionally fail at recounting the story. To properly relay this incredible story of survival onto readers, I am going to use a series of pictures. Readers might also enjoy the side note that myself, Anoop, Patrick, and Ben had a delightfully refreshing drink out of the waterfall, only to read later that the water contained bad bacteria. So, if any of us stop blogging, please send flowers. Enjoy!

Once we arrived back in Sydney, I went out in search of a temporary structures case study to use for Sydney and within about 5 minutes I found an excellent specimen - a massive construction trailer resting on steel columns, beams, and joists 12 feet in the air over a small, cramped parking lot across the street from Wesley College at the Uni. (Australians shorten the word "university" into simply "uni.") Thankful to have found something so close, I took several pictures to incorporate context, detail, and scale then headed back to the room to blog and post more pictures to facebook.

I started out blogging in the dorm room, but I moved to the breakfast room so that I would not fall asleep before I finished everything. This is important for pretty much one reason. It enabled me (while walking back to the dorm room about 11pm) the exhilarating feeling of accidentally punting a bush tailed opossum about 3 feet into a wall in the second floor hallway. Welcome to Australia.

Shortly thereafter I skyped with Brittany for a few minutes while we did our devotional and then it was off to bed, awaiting an eight o’clock start time and a trip to the Taronga Zoo!