Bittersweet scooter

I officially handed the scoot over to its new owner today. Despite all the rainy and crappy rides, and times it just wouldn't turn on, I will miss it dearly.

Highlights of my scooter ownership (in no particular order):

- sunset rides!
- swearing and telling someone off for not using their turn signal, and realizing that their window is open and they can actually hear me. Oops!
- maintaining my tan at traffic lights
- parking whereever i want!
- semi-drunken scooter rides on warm nights
- $4/week for gas
- the danger factor and exhiliration

Things I will not miss (and reasons I look forward to having a car again):

- no cup holder
- no music
- RAIN!
- bugs in my eyes (after my "safety" glasses broke)
- feeling like a windshield with dead bugs all over me on particularly buggy nights.
- getting sunburnt at traffic lights
- only being able to buy 2 bags of groceries, and having to not buy certain things (like frozen pizza) because the box is too big
- constant fear of getting into an accident


As I drove to the city to turn the scoot over to the new girl today, it was a great ride. I got green at almost every single traffic light and there wasn't alot of traffic either. And it was cloudy, so no burning sun on my shoulders. A perfect ride I might say. Kinda made me a little sad to give it up. But it's good too, because that means I am one step closer to being done, leaving, and returning home! :-)

Here's to kickass scooters! I hope I get a chance to drive one again someday!!

I'm still here...

It's been a while, so I thought I would give a little update. Unfortunately no fun pictures, because, well, I haven't done anything super fun lately! I've been SUPER busy finishing my thesis. I handed in a big draft of the first couple of chapters on Friday. Now I'm busy coding and analyzing the data from the survey. Sounds fun, huh?? I've also been busy trying to sell the scooter so I could buy my plane ticket home. I was getting worried, because noone was calling, but I finally found a girl, who like me, really wants a scoot to get around town. So it has a nice new home :-) And I bought my plane ticket. Yay! For those keeping track, I will be leaving Townsville at about 5am on June 13th, and arriving in Denver at 5pm the same day. After 30 hours of travelling. I'll then be in Boulder until the 17th house-hunting, job-hunting, hopefully job-interviewing, dancing my ass off to the motet, celebrating being a Master (hehe), and trying to see as many of my lovely friends as possible! And maybe relaxing a bit in there too ;-)

Monday I hand in my final draft of my thesis to my advisor for final comment. Then I have a presentation later that week, and then I kinda have a week off! *phew!* Then final corrections, then I'm done! I think it sounds alot easier than it's going to be, but at least I'm almost done!!

And for the record, I hate research, and never want to do a PhD! At least grad school taught me something! ;-)

Skype

I know Skype isn't that big in the States, but I used it recently to talk to a friend in Germany and it was really fun. Especially with the webcam! So if anyone wants to talk for free, get on skype and search for my gmail. I'll try to leave it running more often, but if I'm not signed in just email me or find me on some other IM program. I'm pretty much always on my computer these days... and I love friendly distractions!!

Ben's 26th Birthday

Wednesday was Bennyboy's Birthday!! woohoo! He planned a night out at Bistro 1, a yummy restaurant in town, but we changed the reservation and surprised him and took him sailing first! The Townsville Yacht club does a social race every Wednesday and some of the boats need the extra weight so they let passengers come ride for free. It's about a two hour sunset cruise which is pretty nice! Because there were 5 of us, we got a bigger boat and got to ride on this super nice catamaran. Then we went to dinner and surprised Ben again with his favorite dessert - pavlova! It's like a cake made out of sugary merengue, topped with lemon cream and fruit. Super tasty! Ben was pretty psyched about it too. ;-) Over all, not a bad night!

Our flash catamaran

"My heart will go on....."

We also got to see the full moon rise!!

Master of the art of the self-digital-portrait ;-)

I could get used to the sailing life...

hehe Ben's so excited!

We had to relight the cake. oopps.

Scott's unmanly spoon.

Tired!

Day 7, Friday, April 27th:

After dropping off the girl that got sick, we steamed back out to some more inshore reefs called Opal Reefs and did 3 quick dives. Down and dirty! Nothing too exciting on these dives, but a couple were drift dives and those are always fun. Just float along with the current.

After the dives we just relaxed and hung out for the boat ride back to Port. It was kind of sad to say good bye to everyone! You become close pretty fast when you are stuck on a boat together for a week! We also played with the iSight in my new macbook that takes fun distorted pictures. Always a good time. :-) After we got back on shore, I had to interview a couple people for my thesis and I was pretty tired and out of it. Good thing I recorded them! And by the time I got to my hostel... I got a bit lost on my walk there...How you get lost in Port Douglas I don't know, but I did.... Yeah, so I was exhausted and couldn't even get out of bed! David, Adam, and Adam's travel buddy Ben came and hung out in my room for a bit since I couldn't move, until I got so delirious that I think I scared them away. haha. Next day, had brekkie with Ben and Adam, and then took the LONG bus ride back to T'ville. And now I'm back to writing the thesis.... fun time. I am however, almost done! I took my last exam on Monday! woohoo!

Man boobs?


No. Strong man! haha

Not feeling so well today....

Not just nautilus... We discovered a new species of fish as well!!

Silent Spring

Day 6, Thursday, April 26th:

Only did 2 of 4 scheduled dives today. A girl got decompression sickness and so we had to go back to Port to get her to a hospital and pressure chamber. Both dives today were at Rachel Carson reef, formerly Northern Escape reef. Rachel Carson is the author of Silent Spring and I wonder if the renamed the reef after her because of the condition that it's in. It was pretty non-exciting. The only fun thing we saw on either dive was a school of about six bumphead parrotfish. These fish are huge... up to 3ft long with big beaks, yes beaks, and a huge bump on their head. Pretty cool looking to see underwater. But other than that there was alot of algae and dead coral. Overall I would say that the GBR is not as spectacular as I thought it was going to be. At least parts of it anyways. Visibility was not so great (10-15m vs. 30m at Osprey Reef out in the sea) because of runoff and siltation from the land. As well as the algae. So all I gotta say is if you're into diving and want to dive the Great Barrier Reef, do it SOON! God knows what it will look like in ten years...

Rachel Carson reef was cool in one respect though... it was very labyrinth like, and was oneof the first dives David and I went without a guide, and got absolutly totally lost, even when we tried not to. Ah well. At least we found the boat eventually!

Bumphead parrotfish

Giant clam

I have no idea what this is, but it's pretty strange looking...


After dinner we celebrated one of the French guy's birthday. They even brought champagne for everyone!! Yum!