Sunday 22 August 2010

Busy Week -The Zoo!


I have added pictures now :) xxx

Hello!
It seems like its been ages since I wrote. I have been so busy though. I'm writing this at uni so won't be able to put any pictures up atm, but maybe tonight. The pictures are so good :D

On wednesday I went to Australia zoo -that's the Steve Irwin zoo. It was different to how I thought -but I guess I was just imagining Edinburgh zoo here... It's a lot smaller than Edinburgh zoo but it's much more interactive. I can't figure out which I like more, but if they were combined that would be the most AMAZING zoo!

So, we got there and got our free adventure passes (meaning we can go back anytime until the end of the year for free, it's something to do with the 40th anniversary), then headed straight for the kangaroos. We saw some alligators on the way and then I got completely distracted by the wombats- They are so, so cute! I really want one for a pet, but I think they frown upon you taking them. One of them even had a little safari jacket on -I think he must have been a it chillie. They are just like fat teddy bears and seem to just wander round the pen or have a little sleep all day.


Mr Wombat in his safari jacket.

We saw the snakes as well, but they weren't very interesting and I'm not really a big fan of snakes.

To get to the kangaroos we had to go through the tropical bird aviary. There were parrots and pretty pidgeons and little birds there. The pidgeons were much pretty than the ones we have at home -they've got purple andf green bits. And then when we came out of the enclosure there was an animal keeper moving a baby crocodile into another enclosure -so I've touched a crocodile! And i didn't die or even get bitten.

We then found the kangaroos, but you don't just look at them, you get to go into the enclosure and feed them and stroke them! They are so much softer than I thought, just like really big rabbits. But we couldn't see anywhere to buy any food, so we couldn't feed them then. The kangaroo enclosure led into the koala enclosure -where you also walk in amongst the animals. There was a koala sleeping up one of the first trees we saw. I was very excited about this, and then we walked around the corner and it got even better! There were loads of koalas on stands and you were allowed to stroke them! They were also very soft. We came back here again later in the day and one of the koalas had a joey on their back! You weren't allowed to stroke it though as the mother would probably attack you. So, so, so cute though!


Stroking the kangaroos

Mummy and Baby Koala


After this we headed to another enclosure to go to a koala talk, and then had lunch. Then we went to the crocoseum for a show. The crocoseum is a stadium with water in the centre which connects to some of the crocodiles enclosures. First of all there were snakes (one went swimming in the pond) and then loads of birds flying around -they would come right over your heads! While we were there one lady from the entertainments team was auditioning to become part of the bird showing team. Her birds were supposed to land on people from the audience but when she let them go they all flew away out of the stadium and she had to chase after them! I felt sorry for her that her audition went wrong, and Ryan thought I was stupid because it's part of the show. I think he's definately wrong though. After that all the people came out of the enclosure and all the gates had to be locked so that a crocodile could come out. He swims up from his enclosure as the water is all linked. 2 crocodile keepers then were making him get out of the water to chase some food. There was a lot of stamping and splashing water involved in doing this as the crocodile is supposed to move towards the vibrations. He wasn't too keen on coming out but when he did he moves pretty quick! I wouldn't have wanted to be in there. I will try and put a video of it up when I get home.



We looked at loads of crocs after that then got the zoo train to 'Asia' where I FED AN ELEPHANT!!!! You just go and pick some food out of the bucket and you can feed the elephants. They are all standing by the fence and just suck it up from your hand with their trunk. I think that may have been the best part of the day! I got to feed 2 elephants because it wasn't very busy when we were there :D.


Feeding an elephant!!

We also saw some tigers in Asia and they had keepers just sat in the cage with them! There were red pandas as well. We then went back to the koala enclosure where we saw the joey, then through another kangaroo enclosure. I had bought some food earlier in the day so we got to feed the kangaroos then! They eat really slow so the food lasts for ages. Sometimes they would hold onto your hands to get the food. One time 2 kangaroos came over at the same time and I didn't know what to do so I just held out the food in the middle and one started eating it. The other tried to eat some as well though and the 1st kangaroo did not like that..I may have started a small fight :s. While we were there, there was a small child chasing a kangaroo and he kept hopping away from her every time she got to him and tried to stroke him. It was quite funny :).

We then saw the rest of the animals like the dingoes, lizards, some more koalas and more crocodiles before going home. And I bought Australia zoo top trumps in the gift shop!

We went to the valley on the way home for dinner where we ate really good fish & chips and steak & chips for only $5.

It was such a good day!

I think this post is a bit long so I will write about the rest of my week later. Hope you're all having fun, miss you xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thursday 5 August 2010

Lessons




I've seen loads of lizards lately. This one was at South Bank. Me and Ryan also went to the city botanical gardens and saw 7! I was very pleased as I had been looking forward to seeing lizards. We also saw 2 little ones in the front garden and a tiny one on the living room wall!


I started lessons last week and they all seem quite good. The learning style is pretty different from at home though, it seems a lot more group work and communication based and fewer labs. Also the courses are open to pretty much anyone at the uni so although they go into detail they also spend some time reiterating the basics. Although I'm finding this quite helpful as obviously I havn't taken the same courses that the standard student in my class would have. My microbes and human health module seems really similar to content that I've already done at Edinburgh so far, but I figure it may focus on things I havn't done yet later in the term. But so far it has been mainly revision. My physiology and pathophysiology course seems the most difficult, and goes into a lot more detail on really specific areas than what I did last year. At the moment where doing the angiotensin and renin system and its mainly based on recent research papers, with a lot of graphs and figures involved- not my fave! My biomedical science course is quite strange as it is supposed to be the "capstone" course for biomed majors. This means that it is supposed to help with the expected graduate atributes other than knowledge of the subject area. There's no exam for this course but we have to do 3 group projects then individual essays based on ethics, communication and data handling. This one is mainly tutorial based and the lectures occur for a few weeks and then we have a few weeks off from them. My other course is Australia's terrestrial environment which I am taking mainly for the field trips. At the moment we are learning about the history of australia's plant and animal life, so have had lectures on things such as dinosaurs and other extinct animals.

In other news, I have managed to get a job. It's working for the uni social science research department and involves phoning people up and questioning on whatever research study is going on at the time. Examples of topics are the publics' view of police or on racism, so might be interesting. I think I'm going to get hung up on a lot :s The pay is very good though, it's over $24 which is like £14-15 in the UK! I have my training tomorrow then can start doing shifts so I will let you know how it goes.



We went to surfer's paradise on Sunday. I sunbathed and swam in the sea and then went to a hot tub party at Hollie's (from Burtons). It was a good, good day!


An unattractive pic of me and Louisa in the hot tub!

Surfer's paradise is really built up and there are loads of skyscrapers right by the beach, which seems a little wierd when you're sat on the beach! The sea wasn't too cold at all and it was definately warm enough to sunbathe. I'm not very brown yet though. Ryan is a bit brown, but not enough to be jealous of yet. And he gets to be outside all day so its okay. He is planning to move to Surfer's Paradise because it's so good, and it is also conveniently close to Brisbane, only an hour and a bit on the train.



Ryan burried me in the sand at South Bank, he made me tall :)
I also got buried at Surfer's Paradise but Ryan and Guy made me into something a bit different...


Miss you all lots!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Monday 2 August 2010

For Jamie!

Vanilla coke and Mountain Dew!


Fruit Loops


LOVE YOU JAMIE XXX



Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...