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Published: March 5th 2007
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The Oceanic
This hotel is about 100 years old and is famous because it is so close to the beach. Buildings are not built so close anymore due to erosion issues. I finally arrived in Melbourne, Australia after 15.5 hours on an airplane as well as an additional two hour emergency landing in Brisbane to refuel because of weather conditions. It was so painful to be in Brisbane, to be in Australia, and still be stuck on that airplane. All the students were restlessly walking up and down the aisles and trying to catch glimpses out the window since the majority of us would be studying in that very city. What a tease! We eventually made it to the Melbourne airport only to be ushered onto buses to drive two hours to the coast where we would be spending our first four days of orientation. We stayed in a small town called Sorrento, what I was told is considered the "Hamptons" of Melbourne, in an old seaside hotel called the Oceanic. However, no rest for the weary. In order to keep us from succumbing to jet-lag, our orientation leaders had our day all planned out for us.
As soon as we dropped our bags we had to get back on the bus to drive out to the Mornington Peninsula National Park where we went bushwalking and saw wild Kangaroos. Amazing! We saw
many different "mobs" and did our best to sneak up on them for good photo ops. We were also introduced to eucalyptus trees, drooping she-oaks, as well as Australia's national plant, the Waddle. Mimosas bloom on this tree, giving Australia its national colors of green and gold! During our walk we also had to be sure to keep an eye out for some of the world's deadliest snakes. Hard to do when you're trying to stalk kangaroos, take their picture, and avoid their droppings! Granted, snake watch took priority.
After dinner we took a nightwalk to the beach to catch the last bit of sunset. Then we were able to see Orion upside down as well as the Southern Cross! I was very excited to be fulfilling my childhood dream of star-gazing without light pollution in Australia!
The next couple days were filled with just as many activities dotted with briefings on how to deal with homesickness, set up a bank account, and how to decipher Australian slang. Because of weather we got gipped out of a day spent sea kayaking but instead got a scuba lesson in a pool. I got placed in the "asthma" group that had to
stay in the shallow end and learned that I'll have to visit a dive doctor before I can take a real dive. Luckily, we still got a few lessons though. I quickly found out that even though the scuba tanks are heavy, they are also surprisingly bouyant so I had a very hard time reaching the bottom of the pool. Yes, even in the shallow end. To fix this, my instructor put weights in my vest but only on one side so I spent the rest of the afternoon swimming lopsided in the pool! I'm going to think seriously about taking a real dive because we had to go through an "obstacle course" that required doing a straight dive down a narrow well. As you went deeper you could feel the drop in temperature and I suddenly got claustrophobic and it was too cold. I was also surprised at how difficult it is to breathe naturally when you're thinking so hard about it - I felt like I was taking Lamaz. But atleast I found this out before floating at the edge of the continental shelf!
After our lesson we hiked to a nearby beach and got to walk out
on a shelf that is usually underwater. We were told that in the past six years that Arcadia has had orientation in Sorrento the tide has never been so low so we were really getting to experience something. The entire shelf was covered in Neptune's Necklace, a type of seaweed that is very thick and has pockets of water in it, so it looks like a beaded necklace. As you made your way across it, it felt like you were walking on carpet! There were also numerous billabongs in the shelf, or deep pools of water. In these pools was another type of seaweed that is extremely large and looks like something straight out of a horror movie. Our guide explained to us that the seaweed is so strong from having to resist the current that NASA uses it to make the glue that secures the tiles to the space shuttles. I thought that was a pretty interesting fact.
On our last day in Sorrento we took a bay cruise to watch the sunset over the water. It was so beautiful, everyone was taking hundreds of pictures to caputer it at every stage. We also went by a platform set
Beach at Sorrento
I got up to try to see the sunrise on the beach but unfortunately it was rising on the bayside. up in the water to house seals. There were tons of them lazing about, barking, picking fights and jumping into the water. It was pretty neat to see, but they smelled horrible so we weren't too disappointed when we pulled away. For dinner they served us classic fish and chips, except our fish was actually shark and along with our chips we had calamari. I don't think these four days were a bad way to kick-off my time in Australia!
Be sure to check out my video clip of the seals! You can find it on the left hand side of your screen at the beginning of this entry.
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Scott
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From my desk in Hatfield (boo!)
Wow....Orion upside down in clear unpolluted skys - my dream too (still unfulfilled) Living vicariously through you will have to do for now. Awesome blog entries, Leelee - keep it up.