Blogs from Yeppoon, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 4

Today I woke up pretty early to a sunny morning, but soon the clouds came in and the wind picked it up. Amanda seems to be in a coma, I don’t blame here, jet lag is exhausting. Expecially when you are coming from the other side of the world. Alvaro and I are going to work on going through the data he collected the other day on the water, and I might head to the beach for a walk. About the time Amanda got up, I decided to head out for my walk and she came with me. By this time the weather was real nice, so we headed down to the beach and got some gorgeous weather. There is a series of rocky outcroppings a bit farther on down the beach so we headed ... read more

The world cup final game was on at 4:30 this morning. Amanda was very excited as Holland battled Spain for the title. By the time I woke up though, the house was somber and I could tell by the lack of screaming and happy faces that Spain won. Daniele had to run some errands in Gladstone today, a town about 2 hours away. Amanda and I tagged along as I am getting pretty sick of the house. The ride was long as hell, but pretty in most aspects. I guess when people think of Australia, this wouldn’t be the scenery they would first describe. Long, flat fields of yellow grass filled with grazing cattle and horses with mountains on the horizon. Rockhampton and the surrounding towns are considered the beef capital of Australia, so that accounts ... read more

I woke up real early this morning and hopped in the shower. We had to drive to the airport, pick up Daniele then head back to Yeppoon and give a presetation. On the drive there Amanda and I chatted a bit, and she saw a bunch of kangaroos by the side of the road; my first time seeing them in the wild. We got Daniele, who by now is looking way too tired. This was his last time having to fly back to Uni, and all he has to do is mail out a few copies of his PhD on Monday and he is all set! After a few months, reviewers will send him comments and he can publish his PhD. We headed back to Yeppoon and went to the community development center for the presentation. ... read more

Today is July 4th and I am in Australia. Kinda of a weird thing. It will be strange thinking of everyone back home having cookouts and fireworks and spending a ton of time together while I am here in a country that probably few people have even heard of the reason behind the celebration in the US. Anyways, we were supposed to go out on the water today but I woke up at 9:30 to a gorgeous day and Daniele at work at his computer. Then I looked outside; windy as hell. It’s very rare that we see wind at our place, and we know that when we do it’s a bad day to go out on the water. At one point I went into the front yard to sit in the sun and saw ... read more

Daniele flew out to Uni on Wednesday and I spent Thursday and Friday working on the photo ID catalogue and the excel spread sheets. I got plenty of work done, but soon enough ran out of stuff to do. Laundry, reading etc. soon took over. Wednesday night and Thursday night I muttered threats to myself in bed as the next door neighbor dog barked until the wee hours of the night then woke me up around 5 the next mornings. It seems to be some sort of pit mix that think’s it needs to bark everytime a bug flies by. Needless to say, I am not impressed. Now we all know that I love dogs and animals in general more than I could put into words, but come on now. A little training won’t kill ... read more