Market and Rest: Days 11 and 12

Hello everyone,

Writing this blog relatively late. Was pretty tired last night and wanted to sleep so I will discuss both my Saturday and my Sunday.

Yesterday was a long one. We started with an early breakfast and then headed down to the weekly market that happens on Hobart's main square called Salamanca, just like the place in Spain. The weekly market, called the Salamanca market, original I know, consist of all local retailers selling woodwork, jewelry, food, and well just about everything. I ended up purchasing a few gift for people back in the states and got about half a dozen apples from a local grower. Really cool stuff.

Salamanca Market (just a small piece)

After the market Phillippa, who we continues to be kind and take care of Nathan and me, took us to the Tasmania Museum of Art and Science. This was a great quick view into a great deal of the Tasman history. Phillippa also was able to explain some of her research to us in the Australian Antarctic Discovery area of the museum. She would kill me if she knew I was putting this up.

Phillippa describing her research on Macquarie Island

Phillippa further discussing her research

After the museum tour we grabbed a bite to eat and headed back into the city for a search for Kangaroo meat which Nathan says he is going to grill. Surprisingly most of the stereotypes Americans have for Australians have been proved to be a myth. They aren't much for shrimp on the barby, which the don't even call shrimp shrimp. They are prawns! Haha. None the less it was an amazing Saturday.

Today was a day of rest for me. Nathan did the same. Just did lunch and about to go to dinner. Hope everyone is having a great day. Learned an amazing amount this first week. Can't wait for week two.

Cheers all.

Shane

Fridays on the Island: Day 10

Hello all,

Writing this one a bit late because of a downed connection late last night. Currently doing laundry and well typing this up.

Yesterday was a slow morning for me. Woke up in the middle of the night with stomach pains and feeling, well, not so good. Probably something I ate. Anyway, this kinda caused me to sleep in, like big time. Once waking up and getting a shower I was off, around 9:30am, not too bad. It had rained the night before so it was a nice 61 degrees and fresh, hiking to campus.

Looking over the main bay

This best describes the warmth of the day

The day consisted of me reading papers and familiarizing myself with local vegetation around the area. After a day of that, Nathan and I headed to get something to eat at one of the pubs. We went out with a few of the graduate students from the Uni and got to see the night life of Hobart. Pretty fun stuff. Besides that not much else was on the agenda.

Today, we are going to the local art festival they have every weekend and then traveling down to the tessellated pavement south of Hobart. We may even get a chance to tour the local brewery here, which is also the oldest one in Australia, Cascade Brewery.

Have fun back home.

Cheers

Shane

Almost in the middle: Day 9

Hello all,

I say the specific title because Nathan had to do laundry tonight. I've got a couple of more days, I'm scheduled for Sunday unless something drastic happens, like I fall into a pool or pour morning tea on myself. The latter is much more likely to happen.

Anyway, today was extremely interesting. Went to a statistics class based on the program, "R". I got a great couple of ideas on how to interpret my data when I get back. My graduate professor will be very happy to hear about this. Besides this, I went to a lab and read some more papers. It all occurred at the Australian Antarctic Division (herein, AAD). I have learned so much about the Sub-Antarctic and Antarctic. It's phenomenal the ecological diversity on these outer islands that hover temperature around 0-4 degrees Celsius. It's also amazing to see the issues they are riddled with. Overpopulation with invasive species that effect everything from other animals in the food chain to the vegetation. Rabbits are actually being blamed for excessive landslides on one of the islands because of their destruction of one of the root dependent plants. Pretty amazing stuff. If you want to know more ask me and I'll forward your questions to the necessary parties. Look up Macquarie Island.

One interesting thing I did do, is perform a Tim-Tam Slam. Look that badboy up. It's this delicious chocolate biscuit that you use to suck up your hot tea or cocoa. It's pretty awesome, awesome enough to have its own wikipedia entry.

Well, I've got nothing else to really talk about besides today being very mild and quite beautiful.

Lesson Planning and Uni: Day 8

Hello all,

Today was a simple day, fun none the less. Remember I am in Australia, so if I said I was miserable, I know there are many people who would choke me, including some of my local friends here. Speaking of that, I keep meeting more and more people everyday. The guys at the pickled frog, Jimmy and Ema, are super nice and have really taken care of Nathan and me.

Jimmy and Ema

The town of Hobart is very welcoming. Today, I attended classes again, taught by Arko. I also worked on my final lesson plan that is due Friday. Done with that so that means I can relax and only worry about this journal, my professional research journal, and doing my day to day job at the Uni.

My school at the Uni

I've got some great pictures to show you all.

Proof that I'm actually studying at a place called UTAS

Here is me freezing my butt off walking to campus. I call it my mean Russian face.

Russian Face

Overall the day has been good but here is the most important picture. Our food. This was dinner tonight, also called chicken parma here. It's the Aussie Chicken Parmigiana. Pretty good, probably not that healthy but hey, I was good today.

Chicken Parma

Overall, everything is still beautiful. Nathan and I are going to do a little more traveling this weekend. We want to go to the wildlife sanctuary north of Hobart and down to Port Arthur and the tessellated pavement along the coast.

Cheers to all

Shane

Attending Aussie Classes: Day 7

Hello all,

I will actually be posting, well whenever I can. No more timetables. Today at the Uni was an adventure. I attended Arko's (seriously, he does not want me to call him Dr. Lucieer) spatial analysis class. We reviewed over basic statistics. Most of everything I hit last semester in my Geospatial analysis class. Seriously, same stuff...Duh, its science not a foreign language.

Had a meeting with Arko after his class and we discussed my research and why I'm actually in Australia, as today was my first day to actually meet him. He decided that it would be a great opportunity to work with my research and see what exactly I do over the next week.

After the meeting we separated and I continued to familiarize myself with the AAD (Australian Antarctic Division Data Center). Phillippa provided me with an address to get public data to share with Nathan and me for lesson plans and possible incorporation with personal research. I later attended the practical for the class I attended this morning. Went over spatial statistics using the landslide data. Pretty cool stuff. Just another fun day with ArcGIS.

Spent a great deal of the day reading and thinking up lesson plan activities for my NSF fellowship grant. Pretty dull day.

Also, just realized that the time it's telling you guys I'm posting is wrong. It is actually 5:11pm on a Tuesday right now?!

Shane

Actually Doing Work: Day 6

Here I am posting on this blog again, even though I'm breaking my rule I just set about only posting in the mornings. This post is a quick update for my INSPIRE folks letting them know that I am actually starting to do work. While it mostly consist of reading papers (No that's not facebook on my computer behind me..well maybe a little), I am really enjoying it so far.

Dr. Arko Lucieer, my research professor at UTAS will be in tomorrow. Today I am working with one of his graduate students, Phillippa (She is called Pip). She is really extremely sweet and is helping me find my niche here in the department. I am currently looking at her research at Macquarie Island, called Macca. She specializes in the ecology on the island using remote sensing to help her support her random sampling theory. Pretty great stuff. So great that I am actually planning on referencing some of the papers she has provided me for my own research.

Along with paper reading, it is great to see that they are into the same textbooks I use everyday in my research. Tonight we are headed to dinner with Pip. Our goal over the next two weeks is to get me up to speed on their statistical analysis and also a few digital elevation models. While I will be mostly studying the research here, I will apply it all to my research at home.

Shane

Hobart Welcomes Us: Day 6

Reporting from Hobart, Tasmania.

I must start by stating that I will be switching to writing my blogs in the morning. I will discuss what happened the day before as well as what the plans are for the current day.

After we landed in Hobart we were immediately asked if we needed a shuttle to our hotel. Did not even have to ask. Went to the Pickled Frog (http://www.thepickledfrog.com/) where we are staying. It's an older hostel. After checking in we headed to the downtown area which is about two blocks from the frog. This place is bad cold but very friendly. It's cheaper too. We went down to one of the pubs right down the street and had a 250g T-bone with a salad and chips (fries) for $10 bucks. You can't get that in the States.

While at the pub we met a local named Steve. Steve overheard us talking and asked where we were from. He told us that he spent about 15 years in the states as a carpenter/builder for the Wal-mart corporation. I knew he was legit when he could tell me street names in Jackson, MS. He told us about his travels and then it began the Australian versus US comparison.

While we talked about everything from politics to food, Nathan and I found out answers to many of our questions.

1. Aussies are terrified of firearms (they think we are crazy for arming up)

He elaborated that it is too late for the firearm issue though for us, because if guns were outlawed the good of society would be without arms against the evils of society. Therefore we are stuck with the second amendment forever.

2. Aussies think we are tough on Welfare

He informed us that most of the world thinks our welfare system is almost too tough. Here they support generation after generation without complaints. They're school of thought is that of, why have homeless and hungry begging and killing on the street when you can just bite the bullet and feed them and home them. The difference is that they don't have guns so that when people are on welfare they don't have a chance to kill.

3. America has amazing customer service

He told us that it is an approach based off of our companies that send out coupons. There is no such thing here in the Oz. If you don't shop at a certain grocery store, they don't care. People are going to get paid minimum wage (18.00) no matter what.

I'll elaborate more when I get back.

I've gotta head to the Uni.

Cheers mates

Shane