So Close!!

g'day! how ya goin? nah, i'm just kidding, but if i hung out w/more aussies that's prob what i'd say. i actually think it's kinda funny that i haven't picked up any aussie slang, but that's due to my limited aussie exposure. if anything i'd be picking up canandian slang...but they don't really have any, hahaha. so it's monday afternoon and i was going to meet up w/ashley to work on our possum report (very last final paper @ unsw!!), but she said there was no point cause she didn't get much done. so i thought i'd be a good little traveler and update my blog...instead of waiting for another month to go by! sorry, i've been so bad @ this :-\

anyway, like i said i only have ONE paper left now. the big one. the possum paper. and it sucks cause everyone else is done w/their papers and finals and so i'm stuck @ home writing still while everyone else is partyin. guess all the free time during the semester has finally caught up w/me. it's not that difficult of a paper, but the literature review is the worst. i have to look @ scientific journals and write a summary of how aussies are managing the brushtail possum population...which they're not. so it's a tad difficult to write about, ha! my paper is due nov 25th and i have a presentation do to (w/ashley) on the 21st, so like i said, i'm so close!! everyone is gearing up for our big turkey day celebration @ des' w/the flemming family turkey trot before hand. kate (girl in my program who actually lives in ballston!?! small world, i know) has a family tradition to go to a park before thanksgiving dinner and have a mile race. she thought it would be fun if we all participated this year and brought the trot to a global scale! of course most of us hate to running, but we get free shirts for joining in the healthy exercise, so hey, why not! i thought that maybe when i get back i'll start making my family do a turkey trot...what do you say guys? ;)

that just about covers my future plans for november, and that leaves the whole month of december for whatever i want! :-D free time here i come! i was going to use the month to travel the country, but didn't really think traveling to big cities on the coast alone was such a good idea, so i'll be staying close to home. you know, enjoying the beaches of australia in december while everyone else is freezing :-P jealous?? i booked my plane ticket to NZ and i will be leaving jan 6th just in time to get to wellington for the peace festival. my friend amanda (in my program, originally from welli) has invited us to a peace festival near her house. it's a 3 day concert w/overnight camping. i'm picturing a NZ version of woodstock. of course when i mentioned that to another kiwi going she said "what's woodstock?" lol, guess that was only a crazy american thing! there's a bunch of bands playing, but of course i've never heard of any of them. here's the website if you wanna check it out. and don't worry, i promise to be good :)

http://www.parihaka.com/Festival/2009/Festival

oh, speaking of december, i have sent this message to my parents to spread to the fam, but in case you're outta the loop: PLEASE DO NOT SEND XMAS PRESENTS TO MY ADDRESS HERE. my landlady is really bad abt packages and unless i'm here during the day to get them who knows how long it might be before i actually get them. PLEASE!! i know you guys love me, and miss me, but i'd REALLY prefer to get them when i get home, it will be like a super deluxe welcome home :-D

okay, with that outta the way, on to what i've been up to:
*halloween- i def think i had the BEST costume @ the party. however, no one really knew who i was!! :'( i know if i was home EVERYONE would get it, but being here people thought i was greek, or a princess!! check out the pics, and see for yourself. but i thought i was dead on. ps you know you love my torch ;) and pps. thanks to julie and mimi/papa for the halloween cards :-*

*bat phd work- i went out twice to help caragh (pronounced car-uh). it wasn't very exciting work, but hopefully her research will help out w/bat conservation. we drove around the western suburbs of sydney and set up insect traps and anabats. there were 2 types of insect traps, the 1st was a light trap (bucket with a funnel on top and a light sitting in on the top. when the bugs fly to the light they fall into the bucket) and the 2nd was a intercept trap (2 wooden stakes with cellophane between the and trays below, when the bugs fly around they run into the cellophane and fall into the trays. the trays have alcohol in them which kills the bugs). she'll later be using these bugs to identify what the bats are eating (turns out no research has really been done on sydney bats! so no one knows what they eat!). my job was to help pull the bugs out of the alcohol w/a paint brush and put them into collection jars. the anabats is a little microphone recorder which collects the sonar the bats emit while searching for bugs. you're able to graph the sound and use it to identify the species of bat (each bat species has it's own sonar pattern). i didn't get to see any of the graphs, but i'm sure they're neat. so while my part of the research was strictly field help, i know it was for the greater good of the bats. while all our work was during the day, and i saw no bats, i did get to see a WILD bearded dragon and some wild kangaroos!

*bandicooting-on sunday, i woke up @ 4:30am to go to north head, just north of the sydney harbor. snoop, one of des' assistants, does work w/trapping bandicoots there, and needed some help. so from 5am-12pm we collected bandicoots from 7 transects setup all over the head land heath. heath is VERY dense (see pics), but the bandicoots are soo cute, so it's okay :) they're trying to figure out how the bandicoot populations are affected by construction in the area and make sure their numbers don't drop more than they already have. we caught several bandicoots, as well as brushtail possums and black rats. the possums we released (although it was difficult to get them out of the traps...they're very stubborn), but the black rats we had to kill. they're non-natives and are kicking out the native bush rats which have no where else to go and thus their populations are declining. we gave them a lethal injection of a barbiturate, which slows their heart down until they die. we had to take the bodies with us so no wild animals would eat them, because the dosage was high enough to kill whatever ate them! so...that meant we had a bag full of dead rats in the back of the truck...gross/smelly! after checking/resetting all the traps, we enjoyed the view and had coffee/hot chocolate in manly. i'd never been to manly before but the park we sat in was very beautiful, and i hear the beach is great. so it's def on my list of places to explore in december :)

that's been abt it. went out few times for birthday celebrations and such. and in case i'm the only one who's learned this lesson, let me impart my wisdom on you: do NOT let irishmen buy you mystery shots...cause they might be gin...and a shot of gin is VERY gross. i repeat DO NOT TAKE SHOTS OF GIN...EVER! bleh! okay, wisdom over. so that's been my life in october...check out my pics and maybe i'll talk to everyone soon!! :-D