thu-sun
last year when i was learning australian flora and fauna and heard about those kind of field work they do i thought how nice it would be to do that kind of work. however when the opportunity came, it wasn't as exciting as i thought it would be. maybe it is because i don't know anyone else there. maybe it is because i have other pressing deadlines right after the trip.
anyway, it's really good to know the people who are doing this subject too. before the trip, i didn't know a single person in the subject. the first person who talked to me was jordan (same name as jordan!haha those who know him will understand what i'm talking about)looks like he's from somewhere near jordan river(he's a melbournian), and he greeted me with 'ni2 hao3!', much to my astonishment. turned out he has learnt chinese for 7years, spent a year in china studying the language and his mandarin is better than mine! personality wise he's so much like bowen, but more mature. haha hopefully bowen will become like that 3 years later.
the next person i talked to and was closest to throughout the trip was su-ann,born in msia but grew up in melbourne.looks like shari, mannerisms and character like waiye. all these resemblances are quite interesting. i was in the same cabin as her, with 5 other people: andrew, sarah, rommel, marchin, cassey. really thankful for how the cabin arrangements worked out. the people in my cabin were generally more peaceful than the other cabin i was supposed to be in.
to summarise the things we did, on thursday and friday we went out to different sites to analyse the plant richness etc. the weather was awesome! it was really sunny on both days. on friday we had lunch at a picnic area and i climbed up a mountain and the view was so nice! by the end of the second day all the species names were starting to haunt me, which was not very useful since we were not going to do the same thing on saturday. it was frustrating at first when we could not recognise any of them, so it was rather rewarding when we finally learnt to identify them.
on saturday we were supposed to work on the allocasuarina species but they changed to hakeas in the end to my disappointment as i was all prepared to differentiate the two species they informed us about in the field guide. anyway, it was raining really heavily that day so we had to work in the rain. because of that they brought us back to our cabins for lunch and so we can dry and warm ourselves while they discuss what we should do considering the weather. all of us were sitting in front of the fire dreading the moment when we had to go back to work in the rain again. thankfully, they decided to shift sunday's plans forward, which is to bring us to halls gap information centre where we could get some useful information for our assignment. on sunday it was raining still so we did a bit more data collection in the field in the rain again before leaving completely. it started hailing right after we finished so the timing was good. for the rest of the day we went around sightseeing at various places and reached melbourne around 6pm.
we were supposed to bring our own food or share among cabin mates. think everyone brought too much food in the end. there were quite a lot thrown out on the last day. what a waste! i brought too much food too - was supposed to make 3 sandwiches for lunch but only made one in the end. and ate double the amount i usually eat in a day. on the trip back, some of them were trying desperately to finish all the snacks they bought and were stuffing themselves with timtams, cheese biscuits, skittles etc. too much food! ah all the fuss.
the facilities at the accommodation were a surprise too! all of us were expecting some shaggy rooms, really basic facilities and the cold. i thought our rooms would be like dorms, with toilets in a separate building and common area/kitchen in another place. in fact, we were separated into 6 cabins, each of them self-contained with a living area (with tv, sofa and fireplace), kitchen (with stovetop, kettle, microwave, big fridge, table, chairs, cutleries, crockery, cups, toaster etc.), toilet, 2 rooms (with too many blankets and too many pillows). the whole place was done up in some retro style and it was really homely and cosy. in fact, it was warmer than the winter camp at lyrebird park! guess it's because the weather is warmer now too. so the really thick sleeping bag was actually too hot. ah all the fuss.
when i first read the field guide i thought they were such slave-drivers - we had to work at night too, to sort out the data we collected in the day. in the end it's nothing much at all - it's just handing over the data sheets to the camp leaders. so we actually had a lot of free time. most of us had more sleep than we would have had on normal days. i watched more tv than i have done in the past year (excluding in sg) - watched shrek, spiderman, what women want, wipeout. also managed to finish a book i've started on a long time ago.
it's really funny also how it's always the girls who tend to the firewood and fireplace, and the guys who tend to dinner and the kitchen. the girls generally sleep earlier and wake up earlier too. the guys always think girls take a long time to get ready but are always the last out of the cabin. hahaa.
overall i think it's a really good trip. met new friends. learnt new information. was an eyeopener. managed to go sightseeing. managed to get much rest/relaxation. cuts didn't get infected - healed pretty fast actually! managed to see emus and wallabies.
but now back to the city. back to the deadlines. argh. no more watching the sunrise, listening to nature waking up, rummaging through the bushes, experiencing first-hand the prickly nature of australian bushes. no more dressing like crap and braving the weather. no more idle nights sitting around relaxing and having an early night. ahh
i travel light and i hog toilets. i can't find much things to talk to people about. i'm the kind of person some people just shun and some people don't mind. not the kind people would love to hang around. not the life of the party at all. but the problem is i don't mind being a loner. or is that a problem at all? ah wells. i like talking to other loners.