Made it!

There are pelicans everywhere!

So I arrived yesterday and attempted to write a little blog post in the afternoon - but after 37 hours with only a couple of hours of very uncomfortable aeroplane sleep I was not terribly compos mentis. What I managed was this:

Arrived in Sydney!

Exhausted! - No sleep on the plane - did watch 4 movies though! (score)

Picked up at the airport by Brian and Beverley with a SIGN (felt like a VVIP).
Have kept the sign.

Saw some pelicans on the drive up to Nelson Bay!

Trying to stay awake to beat jet lag..

Resulting in extremely crossed eyes, and slurred speech. Come on brain.. get a grip!

Had a shower (amazing after 2 days travelling).

Need to buy wellies and towel.

Can’t keep my eyes open.

I give up. SLEEP TIME.

Nearby beach

But now that I am a little more with it - after sleeping for 11 hours - I might be able to construct a slightly better arrival post..

The water in one area has a very
familiar colour.. the nearby tea trees
stain the water reddy-brown with
tannins

I arrived in Port Stephens yesterday afternoon and the whole place is beautiful! Beverley informed me that it was quite cold due to it being winter - it was 18 degrees and brilliant sunshine so I was quite amused that that counted as cold (although the forecast for next week back in England is for the temperature to be in the mid-30s!).

Kookaburra

I've spent the day today being introduced to the area and the wildlife, and have taken many touristy photos! We went a little round the coast and found some rockpools to explore (I'll probably have to do that again soon). Later in the day we drove round to the other side of the bay where I will be staying for the next couple of months, and I met my hosts: Doug & Jenny.

Tomorrow morning I start at the Fisheries Institute - I'm very excited to see where I'll be working for the next couple of months! But for now I seem to have hit another brick wall of tiredness so I should probably retire to bed. I think as well as the time difference the difference in length of the day is probably not helping me - at home at the moment it gets dark around 21.30, and here it gets dark at about 18.00. So at 6 my body decided it was midnight and demanded that I sleep immediately.

This seems to happen a lot

Some obligatory 'I'm in Australia' pictures..

Not posing

Oh you're taking a picture? I hadn't noticed..

Nearly there..

My plane arrived in Hong Kong more than an hour early! Which would be great, except that I now have a 7 hour wait before my next flight, which is 10 hours long. I am very tempted to go off and explore Hong Kong - it looks very exciting! But I'm just slightly too worried about getting lost and missing my flight. Also I am completely exhausted and could fall asleep anywhere, so it's probably best to stay put.

What an airport view!

Saying bye

Leaving for Australia is super exciting, but I'm really going to miss seeing all the excellent people from the shop in Reading where I began working in September. But hopefully we'll all meet up when I return - either in Reading or perhaps in London! Bye for now guys!

Onwards!

A few months ago I expressed an interest in a program organised by the Rotary Club - a New Generations Service Exchange (NGSE). This program involves the Rotary Club (a huge international organisation) attempting to find a vocational placement for a young individual who wants to pursue work in a specific field. The program is an excellent idea as it allows young people to gain experience in the vocation they wish to pursue (this is becoming increasingly important, especially for recent graduates), whilst also supporting the individual by searching for a host family for them to stay with during the placement.

I applied to the program quite late and wasn't really expecting to be accepted anywhere. But, thanks to some very fast-moving and dedicated Rotarians, my application was quickly sent off to see if any organisations might be able to offer me a placement.

After a great deal of intercontinental emailing, a fisheries research institute confirmed that they would be able to offer me work experience for 10 weeks! So, on Thursday 25th June I will be flying off to Sydney, Australia (total journey time of around 30 hours! I have bought flight socks for the first time ever)!

I will be staying in Nelson Bay in the NSW area of Australia, and working at the Port Stephens Fisheries Institute - where research being undertaken includes:
- Aquaculture Research
- Marine Ecosystems Research
- Fisheries Resource Assessment
- Aquatic Biosecurity Risk Management
- Invasive Plants and Animals
- Aquatic Habitat Rehabilitation
- Fisheries Operational Planning and Review

I am super excited to get out there, meet my hosts, and get back into doing science again!

Over the pond #1 & 2

In November (2014) and February (2015) I took trips across the Atlantic to see some of my American friends that I met first in South Africa in 2013! I went to North Carolina and New York and took many many pictures - only a few of which I'll put up on here because otherwise it becomes mostly a picture blog..

At some point in the future we will all have a proper reunion somewhere - i'm sure of it! I hope so anyway - I really miss all of these people and it's always great being able to catch up when we can.

This man comes and reads Harry Potter aloud
for hours at a time on Duke campus

(I'm not sure why the photos go into the format that they do.. I can't seem to make them arrange themselves sensibly.. sorry about that)

GRADUATION

In September 2014, after 3 years of messing about and living with all my friends hard work and long nights in the library, I graduated with a 2:1 BSc in Marine Biology & Oceanography!

Amazingly the weather held out - one of maybe 30 super sunny days without gale force wind that i've experienced in my years living in Plymouth!

The trio successfully completes university!

I recently found a diary from 1996 (when I was 3) in which my nursery recorded my daily exploits - amazing to think that i've gone from secret chalk eater to qualified marine biologist in 18 years!

Catching up

Hello!

Well it's been a while since I last posted on here - but I have been reliably informed that I have at least 2 faithful followers (thanks mum, nana) wanting to read more about my life. So in the little free time I have I thought i'd have a crack at catching this up to where I am right now.

So what have I been up to?

Well I can't quite believe it's been nearly 9 months since leaving Sherkin, and almost a year since finishing my undergrad degree! In that time I have had 3 jobs, been on a small Eurotrip, visited America twice, graduated, moved house, and begun planning what's next for me - I've been fairly busy!

I'm going to post a quick series of catch-up posts, beginning with..

Eurotrip (August 2014)

Almost immediately after leaving Sherkin I flew off to Croatia to meet my friends (Caz, Rach, Bimms, and Clara). We travelled around through Slovakia, Slovenia, Austria, Venice and Amsterdam. We only spent a few days in each place, and although I think I would prefer to have stayed much longer, we got a nice snapshot of each different area, and it was great to see my friends after 3 months of being away in Ireland.

There was much exploring and many shenanigans (and many pictures were taken)..

This is Hodor, our irritating gnome mascot,
with our carton wine in Venice. Classy Hodor.

Lovely weather for exploring in Amsterdam

Rach feeling at home in miniature Holland 

Hodor again at Lake Bled in Slovenia

Pit-stop in Austria!

Our home just outside of Venice!

Exploring camera modes

Feeling like explorers after clambering mountains (small hills) in
Slovenia

Caz kept a tiny diary of the happenings of the trip (re-reading it now is very amusing) - some samples:

At the hostel in Slovenia we had a small (alcohol fuelled) panic about what careers we were going to end up with (classic post-uni panic). We apparently decided to make a table listing our best and worst traits in order to think of ideal professions for ourselves..

Caz:
Best traits: Willing to do anything to help animals. Scientific writing ability.
Worst traits: Animals dislike her. Poor spelling.

Chaz:
Best traits: English. Weather hardy.
Worst traits: Incorrect use of semi-colons. Sock thief. Denies friendship with Caz.

Rach:
Best traits: Compact. Linguistics.
Worst traits: Sharing. Pronouncing things.

Bims:
Best traits: Maths. Good hair products.
Worst traits: Terrible at directions. Addicted to internet.

Clara:
Best traits: Big eyes. Good at finding things.
Worst traits: Things stick in eyes easily. Steals things.

Listening to music in Venice at night

I don't even know what is happening in this picture.

Dinosaur Caz emerges from her cave after hibernation

Another exert from the tiny diary: "STICK WARS (Caz is defeated). Clara steals some wishes. Caz eats a panini. Bims and Chaz trapped (in rainstorm). Unsuccessful attempt to steal a lily - failure (defeated by hoard of cyclists). Walk to castle Bled (huffing and puffing). Excellent view from top. Go exploring in the neighbouring caves and chance upon a GEOCATCH - steal tiny pig but leave a playing card, a cigarette, and tiny origami ball. Make some friends on journey back. Eat most garlicy pizza EVER. Forced to leave pizza place as strange man will NOT stop staring at caz. Thunderstorm and lightning very very frightening. All enjoy bar Bims who has an early night to counter-effect hangover/man-flu. Pack before bed. Stupidly early start."

After a long day's hard work visiting EVERY glass shop in
Murano

 A lovely time was had by all - minus the 18 hour bus from Amsterdam back to London (that was not pleasant). I would love to go again, take less stuff, and stay for longer in each place - and definitely visit a bit more of Eastern Europe! A foundation has been built for Eurotrip 2 (dates to be confirmed..)!