home to the snow

I've been home in Massachusetts for almost a week now! It's pretty funny writing this here in the states. This semester was pretty amazing. I loved living with 29 other students, 2 of the profs, 1 intern, 1 student affairs manager, 1 centre director & his wife, 1 cook, 1 maintenance guy, and the family of one prof (wife + 2 kids). We all did get to know each other very well. It was so nice not needing a cell phone or really a planner either, since we all did the same stuff. The last bit of program time was all DR (directed research) writeup, presentation, & posters. It turned out pretty well! It was pretty cool seeing what everyone else had spent so much time on. We had a great talent show/white elephant gift exchange (aka yankee swap) one of the last nights & a "magical mystery tour" the 2nd to last day (while the profs graded everything)-- random surprise trip to fun places run by the intern/student affairs manager. I got to do a gondola ride with some others from the town of Kuranda to the city of Cairns! pretty cool to be riding above the rainforest. After the program, I went off to Sydney for a few days with some people! It was great. A nice way to transition from SFS in the isolated rainforest w/30 students to home in a town in the snow. We stayed in a hostel, wandered around a lot, saw the beautiful opera house, etc. etc. This was a pretty amazing semester. The average day had a field lecture in a random new place, every day we walked by brush turkeys & bandicoots around the centre. We often saw pademelons & pythons, there were some vicious trees ("stinging trees" when you still feel the sting months later, "wait-a-whiles" w/ thorns galore, etc.), and most Aus people had such a relaxed attitude. I definitely love the "smoko" aka snacktime around 10am w/ delicious coffee, cakes, and sometimes even sandwiches. Also the terms "toilet" (there's no bath..) and "nibblies" (snacks) are pretty great. I did really like doing field research, too.. maybe that will go somewhere. It is pretty nice to be back in cold New England in the middle of an insane snowstorm right now. I love the cold snow. I do miss it a bit, though. It's going to be an interesting shift going from SFS in the rainforest to Trinity in Hartford getting very little sleep, getting in much better shape (crew), changing academics to microscopic bio & non-science classes, and not living with everyone. I am definitely excited to get back to Trin, but this semester was pretty unique and incredible.

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving! It was pretty funny celebrating Thanksgiving here in Australia. Since we're 30 American students (well, one from Czec Republic who goes to Smith) here with the program, we had a great turkey dinner! We invited the families that we stayed with for the homestay weekend a few weeks ago, dressed up, put out tablecloths & candles, and had an excellent Thanksgiving meal. It was pretty funny explaining it to the Australian families. The past few days, a ton of people had been getting recipes online and cooking a lot in the kitchen. I think people made pumpkin pie out of the smaller white/yellow pumpkins, b/c those are the kinds that they have here in Australia & the kind we got for halloween. Everything tasted great, though! I'll just say we ate a lot. As we all should on Thanksgiving. funny funny. It was really interesting hearing what is "American" food. The prof from Germany said that she had eaten turkey, stuffing, etc. before, but never before with cranberry sauce. They even gave us a tape of an old football game that a bunch of people watched after dinner. It was a great Thanksgiving celebration. Otherwise, we've all been doing a ton of writeup stuff this past week. Lots of data analysis, research, & writing. fun times. riight. It is pretty interesting to see real results coming out, though. I can't believe that we're all leaving in two weeks. It's going to be pretty crazy going from Australian rainforest to New England snow.

pictures & Daintree

Hello! Sorry it's taken me so long to show some pictures, but here they are! This past weekend has been nice and relaxing at the centre, so I've had some time to upload a lot more.

the first couple weeks:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2003444&l=2af67&id=1246290095
the trip out to Chillagoe-- outback!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2003498&l=c649c&id=1246290095
the hike up the Pyramid
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2003518&l=630ce&id=1246290095
last couple weeks, including trip to Daintree!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2003640&l=317a5&id=1246290095

Yeah, so last week we spent a few days in Daintree-- north of Cairns on Cape Tribulation for 3 days. It's where one of the profs normally lives, so where her husband lives now, and it was mostly great developed rainforest dominated w/ palms. It looked just like the picture at the top of this w/ the flowing water, ferns, & palms. We stayed in a hostel with cabins & bunkbeds throughout the rainforest, and it was gorgeous. Since the main centre we stay at has mostly regrowth (it wasn't there 20 years ago), it's not as developed as the Daintree area. It was a nice van ride to get there with some great music and naptime. After we arrived, we set up our stuff in the cabins, and went off to the beach! The crocodiles/jellyfish are too dangerous there, so we couldn't jump in the water. Pretty crazy. It was so nice to be on the sandy beach, though. We played some beach cricket! One of the profs & the head of the centre are both from Australia originally, so they love cricket. It was hilarious. Pretty slow paced.. kind of like bowling mixed with baseball. You can't bend your arm when you "bowl" (pitch, basically), when you hit it's more of a defense trying to keep your sticks from being hit.. fun. Really slow if you're not the bowler/hitter/runner/catcher, though. hilarious. Otherwise, the trip was filled with lots of field lectures (mangrove forest, reservation w/cassowary walks--but no one saw any, history/politics of the area, & one couple's revegetated area). It was great. We saw some gorgeous views/forests. One night, a bunch of us went to the beach for a nightwalk/look at the sky, & we actually saw stuff! We saw a tiny (~1m) crocodile on the shore! so cool. It had it's mouth open, and we got close enough to see its stripes. We also saw some white crabs, leaping fish, etc. Anyway, it was a great trip. It was so nice to get off the centre and see a new area. A beautiful area. After we got back (last thurs night), we've had 2 papers due (saturday morning & evening), and we have 3 finals tomorrow/tuesday. It was kind of nice on the trip b/c it forced us to not worry about these assingments/tests, since we couldn't work on them. Things aren't seeming too bad, though. Today was a nice relaxing day with plenty of studying at the centre. I should probably get back to work. I can't believe there are only 3 & a half weeks left.

DR's

Things are pretty good still. I really don't want to do the paper right now for the socio-econ class on climate change... so I think I'll write in this a bit. This week has been all DR's (directed research). Most days this week have had bright and early 5am bird walks and late night light-traps for bugs & bat observations. I am so happy that it's friday today, though- lecture tomorrow morning and Cairns weekend! I'm planning to do a intro scuba thing on Sunday on the great barrier reef. I can't wait. I'm also excited to get to a city. This week has felt more like my typical amount of sleep/ time organization at Trinity. Except, instead of morning practice, it's morning bird walks. So, it's not too bad for me. The introduction for the DR was due today, so that's nice to be done with. I am glad that she assigned the deadline fairly early, so it can actually be used how an intro should be-- before all the results/analysis are done. It was so nice- yesterday was just an early morning bird walk and then the rest of the day was spent at the centre just going through info. I had a regular dinner here with most of the other students-- not our dinner in tupperware in the field w/ the other herbivory students like the rest of this week. Things have still been pretty good, though! We've had some hilarous/delirious van rides back to the centre late at night. A couple days ago we got to watch the election on tv! We went to the building where the staff on site sleep (except 2 staff who have individual houses on side-- families, etc.), and they have a tv w/ channels, so we saw the election around noon. yay Obama! It didn't really feel real- I wonder if it's because it wasn't late at night, I'm not in the states, I'm isolated in the rainforest, etc. It is really interesting how much the Australians care about the election. It does really have global effects. It was great talking to my homestay family last weekend (so nice to be with an old couple in a real house!) about politics, etc. The Australian economy is plummeting thanks to the USA. It makes it great for me with exchange rates, but not too good for the country overall. It was really cool to see the election announced by outsiders on tv. So, overall, things are pretty good! Lots of work, but fun weekend coming up (i hope), and still pretty interesting stuff. Ok, I should probably get back to work, as this paper is due tomorrow.

spring break! etc

It's been a while... oops. Things are going really well, though! We had midterms 2 weeks ago, so that was an oh so fun week. It wasn't too bad-- much better than the midterm/final weeks at Trin, but still not too fun. We've gotten 2 out of the 3 back, and they went really well! yay. Last week we had off Saturday through Wednesday! so 5-day spring break. It was actually a semi-real spring break for me with no crew. funny funny. I went on a big road trip in 2 hilarious hippie vans with 7 other people. So much fun. Some students were taking flights to see friends, etc. around Australia, so the 8 of us went in the earliest van to Cairns around 3:30am, and we arrived to see the gorgeous sunrise on the beach. I really do love the ocean. It was so nice. The water here is pretty warm, too! We got an excellent "breaky" of waffles, and then dropped off some others at the airport, & went off to the Wicked rent-a-van place. The vans had great art all over them and fun quotes written on the back. Definite hippie vans. Three seats in the front, the back was one big flat area that could have mattresses put out, it had a sink in the trunk... good stuff. It was so much fun to just drive through new areas in Australia. The first day we went all the way from Cairns to the Whitsundays & spent the night in a parking lot (after seeing a bit of the town). pretty funny. It is definitely a tourist town, but great all the same. The next day we explored the Whitsundays (gorgeous beaches), lay in the sun, looked in the shops, planned for the next day, out to fun dinner, etc. at night. We moved that night's sleep to a different beach's (empty) parking lot in the same area, and I slept outside in my sleeping bag on the field. The next day, we did a big boat ride! It was a small ferry that took us out to some of the islands over some great wavy water. The first stop we went snorkeling, and that was so cool. My first time snorkeling for real, and the life underwater was so beautiful. So many colors, a ton of coral, the fish were huge! The second stop was at Whitehaven Beach, and it is a paradise beach. White (singing!) sand, warm water, pretty empty of people, blue water... incredible. The third stop was on an island and we did a little bushwalk. It reminded us of a lot of the field lectures that we've done- pretty funny. There were some gorgeous views, though. The tour guide was fun, too. That night, we left the Whitsundays, & drove up to a new town to explore a bit. Ayr. It was pretty empty & desolate. We followed road signs pointing toward the water, so we drove down some long side roads for a while. When we got to the end of the road, there were croc warning signs... so we didn't sleep too close to the water. pretty funny. We drove back up the road a bit and broke out the tents that we brought. Camping out on the side of the road next to the huge farm. Fun times. The next day, we drove up to Townsville! 18 of the SFS students spent the whole time on Magnetic Island (an island off the coast of Townsville) so we met up with them for the last night. Townsville itself was a fun town. They had a huge teenage jungle gym, and that was pretty hilarious. Otherwise, gorgeous ocean, good lunch, etc. It was really fun to go to the island and see the other students. I do think that this break from each other made us realize how close we've become. Next morning, off early to catch the ferry & drive back to Cairns! We stopped at some fun places (pretty lookout, mango/gelato place, fresh fried fish lunch...) Funny thing- at the lookout, after the first van drove off, we in the 2nd van tried to turn on the van... but it didn't work so well. It stalled out and we had to jump start it with some other random nice tourists. Yay hippie vans. Back to Cairns! Cairns is a really great city. Mountains, ocean, and city all in one. We returned our vans & walked with all our stuff to the park area (stores/restaurants/SFS pickup area). There were a ton of fun shops, some great food... It was so nice to just sit in the field near the ocean as the sun set. Then back to the centre!

Since break, we've started the DR's (directed research). I'm in Siggy's (the spacy german rainforest ecology prof) group, and I'm doing one about insect herbivory on regrowth (replanted rainforest) areas related to leaf density. Two other students are also doing herbivory stuff, and then 3 more are doing bird surveying at the centre, and 3 more are studying tree kangaroos. Siggy is in charge of all 3, and we all help out with each other's data collection. We went to one place on friday where a woman has a tamed tree kangaroo! She takes in marsupial joeys who are left orphans due to roadkill, etc, raises them, & releases them once they get old enough. She had a big bag filled with babies in cloth pouches in her kitchen, and they were so tiny & fuzzy. I'm not normally a big pet person, but these possums & tree kangaroos were so cute. We walked through her property, and she found the bigger (adolescent) tree kangaroo and it hopped on her shoulder. So cool! A huge and exotic pet. She brought her into the house, fed her some nuts, & we pet her/observed her. Otherwise, we've just been collecting a lot of data. This coming week is a lecture week, and I'm kind of glad to get a break from brainless leaf-counting. We just got back from the Yungaburra Folk Festival! It was great- we could volunteer for 8 hours and get free passes to see all the music. There was some really great music & I bought a couple cd's. So, things are great! Excellent break, interesting material, & great people.

python!

ps- I just saw a huge scrub python! I was in the main centre w/ a bunch of people, and we heard that people saw one on the path up to the cabins, so we ran up there and saw a huge (~5 meters) snake slithering alongside the path! As we approached (slowly), it slithered away & coiled up in the brush on the side. so cool. Doing hw, and then run outside and see a huge python. Gotta love it.

outback

We got back from the outback trip yesterday! It was so cool. We left on tuesday morning & arrived in a tiny town around lunchtime. As we drove, the scenery changed from tropical rainforest to dry savannah. We drove by some kangaroos, a ton of eucalypt trees, etc. It was a bumpy road in our 3 vans. We got to the first place- the town of Chillagoe- and we went to the campsite. It was really hot & dry-- much hotter than the centre in the rainforest. There was a tiny above-ground pool there, & most of us jumped in to cool off after setting up tents. Different birds, plants, etc. were there, and that was fun to see. We had some field lectures wandering around the area. It used to be a huge mining area, and now used for tourism. The next day we went into some huge underground caves. so much fun. exploring underground- so many secret passageways. In the first cave we went through some tunnels to get to the opening, so it got completely dark w/out flashlights. We saw some bats & even sat still in the darkness for a few minutes. It was completely silent. No birds, no cars, no heaters whirring... silence. It wasn't as hot as the outside & was so peaceful. The second cave had openings at the top, so you could see it all a lot better w/out flashlights, and that was nice too. Huge opening on the inside. It was so crazy to think that we were inside a mountain. After the caves (& lunch & swimming in the river) we drove to the next site in the outback we were staying. The site of one tribe led by Uncle Tom. We arrived there after a bumpy road, and met all the people there. It's the Aussie schools' break right now, so a bunch of boys were there- ranging from elementary school through high school. Maybe 10 of them? We set up camp, made dinner (bbq! excellent.), they set up 2 fires & then did dances. The didgeridoo was played & the rest of them did dances. Most of them were animal dances. The didgeridoo player did a bit for us that was kind of a little skit- a guy walking down the road, cars passing, hearing animals... & he did the sounds so well using the didgeridoo! very fun. Then they opened the mic up to anyone, so one prof's wife played her flute for a bit, a couple people sang, we had a couple do gymnastic flips... it was really fun. Then we sat around the fires for a long time. I really do love staring into fires. We played ghost & some funny word games after chatting for a while. Sleep outside under the stars- no tent for me that night. so nice. The next morning we had bfast, packed up, & heard from Uncle Tom about how he got this land back from the government for the tribe, certain cultural practices, etc. We were told about the boomerangs, knocking sticks (what's the term... some percussion thing), & we could buy them. Then they taught us how to throw boomerangs & hunting spears. It was funny... I was pretty bad. It would take practice. Uncle Tom then took us for a tour around the property & it was so hot. very hot. Lunch, drive back to the centre (after a stop in a town- Mareeba), shower/unpack/etc. Now a bunch of academic stuff is due soon. Bird quiz tomorrow, paper due tuesday, presentation due monday, etc. Hopefully it won't be too bad, though. Sunday we're planning on doing a day hike! I'm excited. I should probably get back to studying the birds for the quiz tomorrow... fun times.

rambling... fun times

Hello all! Things are pretty great right now. We just finished a couple hours around a fire talking with a couple Aboriginal people. They told us about their history- how their grandfather was smart & went along with the government rules in order to maneuver a way to stay on the land, & how they lived double lives growing up. Also just how they would run around barefoot & play in the bush. It really makes me think about all the Native Americans... Australia had kind of a similar time with English settlers. It also definitely makes me appreciate nature, again. We really are so small in relation to everything else. The stars are pretty gorgeous here. Here we can see the milky way & some new constellations- it's so nice to see so many stars. It's been great learning about all the rainforest stuff too. This morning we had a bird walk before breakfast where we walked around w/ a prof & she identified a bunch of random bird calls that we heard. They'll be a quiz on a bunch in a little over a week. I do really like actually going out there & learning stuff through real experience. So much better than listening to recordings or reading textbooks (although that happens here too a bit). Otherwise today, we had 3 lectures this morning- one on Rainforest Ecology, & 2 on the socio-econ course. The econ lectures show the hard balance between saving the environment and saving the economy- since being environmentally friendly isn't better money-wise. It is a constant battle between nature and immediate monetary gain. I'm just pretty glad right now that I don't have to be the one in power to judge where the thin balance is. All afternoon was spent writing up the second big field-research report. It's on the water quality stuff in rivers around here (interpreted however we want using other info..). Yesterday was designated all off, so we could write the report (after the rainforest ecology huge writeup being due tuesday morning. These have been some crazy past few days). Yesterday was actually really great. I went for a run with a bunch of people around that same lake from before (Lake Barrie) & it was gorgeous again. I love real running as opposed to treadmills or any machines. Upon getting back to the site, there was no class to rush to, so I actually did a little weights/pullups craziness. There is a pullup bar, a little monkey-bar ladder, some weights, etc. It's funny how many people here row at their schools, so I did some with one girl. (We have the same funny ratio with people who never had cable tv.) I do think that this time off makes me appreciate real collegiate athletics. Such satisfaction and pride. It makes me feel absolutely fine about piling my plate high with yummy food. :) Then all afternoon was trying to figure out what to do for the report. fun times. It's not too bad though, since we all have the same assignments at the same time, so we all had to work all afternoon. This week has been a lot of academic stuff. Last weekend was really fun though. The bars around here can send buses to pick us up, so that's been pretty funny. We walk down the hilly dirt road to the main road, get on a school bus, & get taken to a little bar in one of the small towns around here. The first weekend we tried one in Atherton (the bigger town) and a huge rugby game was on, so that was pretty funny... except it wasn't set up very well- just a place to sit around the bar in a relatively small room. The next day (a week & a half ago sunday) we saw a real game of Aussie Football! I was expecting soccer, the "football" overseas, but it was so much better than that. The score got really high (over 100), & it seemed like a mix between basketball (ball has to touch the ground every few steps), football (tackle, score through goalposts), hockey (FAST, fights break out), soccer (passing/dribbling down the field), etc. etc. Last weekend was great too. The place had a pool table, some real live music being played (really just one man singing/playing the melody while the real song played in the background), a porch area, a funny throw-the-ring-on-the-hook thing set up, some nice people that run something that we'll probably be working with later (past SFS students have).... & also we all knew each other a lot better, so that was fun. I don't know about this weekend yet though, since things are pretty expensive. I do understand why things are now, since what we've learned in the econ class. This is pretty long. I did feel like just rambling though, after the fire tonight. I couldn't go back to work. I'll do that tomorrow. So, yeah- things are great! We were reminded yesterday (and none of us remembered) that we're going to the outback next week w/ tents, etc! Chillagoe. I'm so excited. As is everyone else. It's going to be so nice, especially compared with this crazy work week. I do think that this semester of exciting exotic stuff makes me appreciate certain things about USA/New England. It's funny how the participants here are pretty spread out all over the states. We have a map up with everyone's homes, and we have some from Hawaii, California, Washington, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Vermont, Mass, NY... all over. Anyway, it's getting late. This is a lot of rambling, but oh well. Time for bed soon.

night wanderings

So, things are in full swing. They're pretty good! The last 2 nights we've done night walks to look at the night life. Pretty crazy. We had 3 different locations (old growth, new growth, open field), and three different times (7:30-9:30pm, 11-1am, 3-5am). We split the cabins up to do the different times, so 1/3 of us did a shift and split up within the areas. The first night (tues night) was pretty cool! I was in the old growth group with the early shift, so I definitely lucked out w/ the full night sleep. We wandered around the old growth rainforest with a professor, and we saw some great things. A dragon lizard, a ton of spiders/webs, crickets, bandicoot, etc. Bandicoots are pretty common around here! (small marsupials) Last night I had the 3-5am open field shift, and that was pretty crazy. It was basically all empty. We did see a couple bats, though, and that was cool. It wasn't too bad being up then, b/c I got to bed really early & we got to sleep in a bit after. So, I'm actually pretty awake right now. yay. We went through all the gathered info this morning, & we've had free time since. It's been nice. The class scheduled for this afternoon was moved to after dinner, so it's great having this time. We have some pool, ping pong, etc. fun times. Yesterday during some free time some of us went to a nearby lake for a great swim. It felt so nice- jump in water, lie on the grass... It's actually been pretty consistently sunny the past week! so nice. I'm sure that I'll start working on the paper that's due Saturday morning for the socio-econ course pretty soon. It shouldn't be too bad. So, yeah- things are good! I do like being with everyone on a site like this with no need for cell phones or email. It's going to be funny getting back to the USA. Here we all eat together, hang out in the same general area, etc. good stuff. Ok, I should probably start the paper... but perhaps just procrastinate a bit more.

the "real" semester starts

So, classes have started! We've had some "typical" days here, but they are not like regular Trinity days at all. Pretty great. Yesterday, I got up pretty early & got in a van to go to a nearby lake for an early run. It was gorgeous. 5k running through the rainforest with occasional views of the lake. I chased a brush turkey for a while, & that was a good way to keep up the pace when the exhaustion started creeping in. (I must say- Australian brush turkeys are much slower than the guinnea fowl Dolores from Merrowvista '07.) A quick shower, & then we got breakfast here. The food is actually pretty good! There is excellent toast, cereal, a grill that we can make eggs on, etc. All of us (30 participants plus 8 staff) eat together, and it works well. We rotate who sets up/cleans up depending on the day of the week. After breakfast, we have 3 periods of class. Today, they were all done by the Rainforest Ecology prof. We had a couple lectures (rocks/soil/tectonics), & then did a bit of field stuff. We went up the road to study the soil around here, so we played with some mud. On the way back, we ran into one of the groups who had found one of the most poisonous snakes in Australia (top 5 I think? Red Bellied Black Snake, or so we think). It was asleep, & the prof put a mouse by it and poked it with a stick, but it didn't really do anything. Pretty exciting, though, knowing what's out there. We got some lunch here (after hearing a hilarious song about Australia- kind of "Proud to be an American"-esque), & then got in the vans. We drove around to a ton of places seeing real mountains/valleys/marshes/etc that show what the prof talked about this morning. I do really like actually doing things to learn it. The small lectures & amount of activity that happens with this program is great. We drove around to a lot of beautiful places- rainforest parks, sheep/farm hills, crop plains, volcanic lakes, etc. We ended up at a great park and had a bbq dinner! excellent hamburgers. We played on the playground there, ran around, frisbee, etc. Back to the center, write a (short) paper for the econ class (environmental policy & socio-economic values), & now time to relax. The paper was on a trip that we did a few days ago when we all split up and went to nearby towns. We learned about the history of the towns, how they deal with environmental stuff (forced to stop logging, etc), & basically just talked to random people on the street. good stuff. These classes are pretty interesting, the people are great, and today even turned out to be sunny! It has been pretty wet. Apparently it's supposed to get better soon, though... as in, it is the dry season now. Ok, time to reread the paper & off to bed soon!

we made it!

So, I happen to be in Australia right now! After over 30 hours of traveling, I am at the SFS (school for field studies) place in the rainforest. We moved into the cabins, got a safety talk about snakes, leeches, etc (crazy crazy), got some yummy dinner, & now we have some relaxing time before bed. The computer connection is relatively slow, but it works. The flights over went pretty well! I ended up seeing a fellow SFS student in Logan airport, & that was nice to have a travel partner. We got to Los Angeles & then met up with many more SFS students. It was pretty funny b/c there were so many of us taking over the airport very late at night. Nice long flight to Australia- movies, naps, yummy food, Australian ginger beer! It was nice and relaxing. Customs was incredibly easy, too. I do love that this is a peaceful, happy, exotic country. Then a flight up to Cairns from Brisbane and a van ride on twisty roads through mountains and forest took us here. There were some gorgeous views while driving. We got to the end of the driveway, & they told us to get out of the vans & walk up to the cabins. We were literally walking through the rainforest (well... a dirt road in the rainforest). I have yet to see a wallaby, but I have heard plenty of crazy birds and seen some exotic plants. Like.. plants that can sting you. pretty insane. This program is a lot like a camp. 30 of us participants (with 22 girls and only 8 guys... oh well) all living together, learning together, eating together, etc. The professors introduced themselves tonight and they seem good. We won't be starting the real classes for a bit, since we still have to learn how everything works around here. It's going really well! I am pretty exhausted, but things are good. It is nice to be meeting so many new fun people who also want to study the crazy nature of Australia.

Hello everyone!

So, I'll be leaving on Saturday for the semester in Australia! exciting. This should be a good way to keep in touch with everyone instead of writing basically the same thing in emails to different people (especially with the limited/slow internet access). So, definitely comment or email back! Letters and/or postcards are welcome too. I'm sure I will send some postcards (although they'll take a while to get across the Pacific).

My address will be:

Deede Dixon
SFS Center for Rainforest Studies
P.O. Box 141 Yungaburra
Queensland, 4884 Australia

three more days.... I can't believe it.