Short Update

Well I figure I'll update this now to delay the monstrosity that will definitely occur after Tasmania. The past week in Byron has been great as usual, this town is just a blast and a half. We did the class thing on Monday (that sucked) and just went over some stuff for ISP (Independent Study Project) period and learned a bit about Sustainability. Good times. Went out with Nick on Tuesday afternoon/evening and tested out the waterproof ability of my camera by capturing my first surf session (pictures on facebook soon-ish). It was a great experience to have, wish the swell would have been bigger, but hopefully we can go out again our next time in Byron. I really want a picture of him all barreled, tucked up and stuff (my sorry attempt at surfer). Like this:

They get some pretty solid waves here in Byron from what I've seen and Nick even showed me some footage of him back home off the coast of Hatteras which surprised me that OBX got that serious of a swell. Well after the surfing experience we had field trips scheduled on Wednesday to an organic farm, a permaculture 'settlement', and an alternative energy company.

Listening to: Forever - Drake (keep repeating the Eminem section though...)

At the organic farm we learned a lot about how our culture is essentially going to implode on itself if we don't get our collective act together on the farming front. Pete made a lot of good points and the little amount of time I have spent on a farm in Arkansas gave me a reasonable amount of background knowledge to understand the concepts he was explaining and their difference to conventional farming. Had some organic bananas and this fruit juice whose name is escaping me right now but I think it involved the Davidson plum or something similar to that. Side note, my computer is continuously shocking me in the wrists while it is plugged in, thank you 240V. I have about 30 minutes to get out of the apartment so gonna save here and apologize if there is a drastic change in thought after this.

Well after the whirlwind of packing up I am now sitting in a room full of bags finishing this thing up. After the organic farm we headed to a place where a permaculture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture) settlement had been established. I for one had never heard of this (this is becoming a common theme), but it was quickly apparent what they were trying to do with the establishment. They try to essentially establish a small group living experience where they grow most if not all of their food on site, use composting toilets, passive solar heating, etc. It is a really neat concept that could easily be applied to a new development on some scale. I would definitely move to a "gated community" if they had garden areas designated for each lot and houses were designed with sustainability in mind so that the community could function as a whole instead of our extreme individualistic society in America.

After the trip to the permaculture site, we ventured to Rainbow Power Company. This trip was shortened by about an hour due to the fact that our bus was resting on the right front rim when we walked out from the permaculture site. Gus, Dave (bus driver), and myself tried in vain to get the front tire off with tools that looked better suited for an El Camino than a 21 passenger bus. We managed to bend one of the t bars and Gus ended up punching the ground once or twice. Long story short, Dave picks up cell phone and calls bus rental company while Peter started to shuttle us in groups of 4 to the power company about 3 km down the road. Once we all got there we met quite the character. His name eludes me right now, but he had some very informed points on the energy front and just the world as it stands. We all learned some frightening truths about the use of depleted Uranium (Gulf War Syndrome) in bombs deployed over Afghanistan and Iraq and the horrid effects on the residents of both countries and American troops. This correlates to why nuclear power should not even be considered, not to mention the half-life of Uranium is multiple billions of years. His solution, we have vast deserts in the African Sahara and Serengeti along with the northern Australian Outback. Why not tap into those natural resources and use concentrated mirror farms (Clive Cussler's Sahara and subsequent movie with Matthew Maconahay and Penelope Cruz) to focus the daylight sun energy and send it to countries around the world. He had figures that weren't unable to be verified on the spot by us but if they are true then there is no reason that this should not be looked into by the world as a whole. I forgot the exact number but I believe the theorized output from a solar farm was a Tera watt of electricity that could be sent in DC current and less than 5-10% of the power would be lost even in transatlantic transit. I'm all for it, they can get us away from fossil fuels and they look wicked cool. Why not?


Listening to: Incubus - 11am


Living with Molly and Phebe has been great, experienced vegetarian life for the week. Note to self: Never bash tofu again. The stuff you can do with just veggies is quite impressive, (Mom, I have eaten green and red peppers in food...repeatedly...and liked it. You can thank the girls later) so much so that I no longer immediately look away from the vegetarian options at restaurants or street vendors. Exactly 3 weeks in and I have learned/grown more than I think I would have in 3 months of classroom time. This experiential learning stuff is freakin' cool not to mention everyone on the trip is chilled out and laid back so that everyone is able to roll with the punches of traveling internationally with 25 students who have their lives crammed into 2 backpacks. Thanks to all the parents/grandparents reading this, your kids are awesome!

Listening to: Parkway Drive - Guns For Show, Knives For a Pro


We are about to jump on a train that departs Casino tonight (Thursday) at 7:30 pm and after a train switch at 6:30am, we get into Melbourne at 6:55pm on Friday. This should be fun. In Melbourne we are staying at a place called The Nunnery, also indicative of a good time. We do get to attend a Sustainability Festival all weekend which should (no sarcasm here folks) be really awesome. I think the concert on Saturday night is overshadowing my whole trip though. First it is free, second it is under the stars at Sidney Myer Bowl (very similar to Millennium Park in Chicago), third we get to bring our own dinner into the concert, and fourth/best of all, there is a performance of Dvorak Cello Concerto in B-Minor by one of the top cellists in Australia playing with the Melbourne Symphony. Needless to say, I am quite excited about this although I hope to meet up with some Australian Bureau of Meteorology folks at the festival to see if we could do some American/Aussie joint weather forecasting/observations for my ISP. Somewhere on the south of Tasmania at a weather observation station much like Mt. Washington Observatory would be a perfect month of study for me.

Why Meteorologists are deemed "odd".

Well that is just about all I have to spill right now. Hopefully I can get something cranked out in Sydney on the way back from Tasmania to update this thing. If only to post an uber-tourist shot of me waving like a raging idiot in front of the opera house. I wonder if we can climb the bridge there too? We can't do anything dangerous (read: my definition of fun) such as skydiving (okay, I can deal with that), flying in private planes (guess P-Diddy can't fly down and meet me so we can go island hopping), rock climbing (so far 3 for 3 in my hobbies), drive (don't worry, they drive on the wrong side of the road anyhow), or SCUBA dive (apparently even being a certified diver doesn't allow me to try to kill myself) trust me if I injure/mortally wound myself diving or anything previously mentioned, the last people myself (if still living) or my parents blame will be the program. If I am throwing myself into that type of danger, it is 100% my fault if something goes wrong. It is infuriating that in this "cover your ass" society we have set up, everyone spends more time trying to figure out what things can go wrong than doing something positive. Okay, I'm off my soapbox. Hope you enjoyed the update, hanging out in Byron for about 2 more hours then off on our little adventure down the east coast.

Cheers Mate!!

-zuey