Painball

  

     This past weekend I went paintballing for a friends birthday. She invited about 10 people to go to Adrenaline Plus paintball for a good time. It was indeed fun, but I forgot just how painful paintballs hitting you at 200mph can be. Being on the losing team the whole time didn't help things.

 A few action shots taken by out awesome referee.

I think this was right before I got shot in the face.

     While there, the referee had us play one game that was very... interesting. He lined up both teams facing each other about 30 feet apart. We weren't allowed to run or hide, but we could duck and try to dodge. He then told us that we had one shot each. Everyone was kind of apprehensive about this Civil War style game, but we all went along with it anyway. Each of us took our shots and each of us got shot and then he told us to do it again, except this time we had two shots. After the first round we were even more hesitant about continuing because we all knew just how painful it was to be hit at this distance. The ref told us that we could leave the game whenever we wanted, but no one did. We all chose to go on. A few people got out around 3 or 4 shots each. I stayed in the game up until we had 5 shots each. After that I had all the welts that I wanted and decided to sit out. The game kept going though. The 5 people left in remained in their lines until they each had 7 shots each. There were 2 girls and 3 guys in the game at this point. These stragglers were obviously the type of stubborn people that as kids would play bloody knuckles until the death if they had to just so they wouldn't have to admit defeat. It was rough just to watch this last round. At the end of it many of them used the excuse of not wanting to waste anymore bullets, but you could tell that they were all in agony.

     I've asked around to find out if this sort of game is ever played in the States and have gotten a no from everyone. It must be an Australian thing. 

Need a Light?

     Yes, this is me. I'm fire spinning with a 4 foot staff. If you look very close you can see that my face is extremely intense due to my acute concentration. I had never done fire spinning before, but I was very excited because it's something I've always wanted to do. Unfortunately, I paled in comparison to the owner of this staff.
     Sean, the owner, has been teaching me how to spin a staff for a couple days now. He did it for quite a while in a drumline for a marching band and is therefore very skilled at it. He was the one in his band that taught all the newcomers how to spin, so he is obviously a really good teacher and I'm learning pretty fast. He'd never actually done fire spinning either though. He got the idea for a photography project so that he could create some mind-blowing fire pictures and boy did he. The one you see above is one that he took, but there are much better ones which show him spinning.
     It's amazing the people you meet and the things you get to do when you travel.

Rain AND Shine

     It's been very wet around here lately, which is odd because its the dry season. Usually it never, or at least rarely, rains in the dry season here in North Queensland, Australia. About a week ago though, it poured. This word, "poured," is drastic understatement for what occurred here. There were literally sheets of water coming down from the sky that, in only one night, flooded Townsville. Now, I'm not talking a dangerously high flood or anything. I suppose that may have been a bit of an exaggeration, but after just that one night all of the creeks and streams that were once completely dried up were flowing with water again. The rainstorm managed to keep the flow of water in the creeks going for a about 5 days. After just one shower. That's pretty impressive.

     Recently, the air has been exceptionally humid in my opinion. No rain, just muggy. It's not even all that hot out, but by the time I get to class I am already sweating through my shirt. I've been told that this is nothing compared to what summer, the wet season, will be like. Apparently, it is several times hotter and you can bet on rain everyday. The advice given to me was to not stick around for summer and head south like everyone else will do to escape the miserable heat and rain. 
    
     ...I'm kind of curious to see what summer brings.

Penny for Your Thoughts?

     Being in a different country and all, the currency is obviously going to be a bit different. Well, I've found that I actually prefer the Australian money system better. Of course it's not the same because it looks different, which is one thing that I like about it, but it also has a different value system.

     For one, the notes here (they say notes, not bills) are much more colorful. Each value note has its own basic color, but within that there are also other colors. The ten dollar note, my favorite one, for example, is basically blue, but it also has yellows and greens in it. This gives a slightly Monopoly-ish, but very elegant look to the money. The sizes of notes change too. As the value of the note gets bigger and bigger, so does the size. This allows for easy organization. As well as the color and size differences, on each note there is a man on one side and a women on the other (excluding the five dollar note). I like this partly because it's a little less sexist, but mostly just because it's different.

     I have yet to come across a note that has been ripped and it's not because they take them out of circulation. It's because you can't rip them! I've tried and tried and it does not work. You can somewhat deform the part of the note that you attempt to rip, but that is about the most successful you will get without the use of scissors. No, I didn't cut my money in half!

     Do you remember all of those cool tricks you could do with American one dollar bills? Well you can't do them here because they don't have one dollar notes! They don't have one cent pieces either. Their lowest note and coin are both a value of five. I quite like this actually because you don't have to deal with those useless pennies that you have no idea what to do with. The only problem that you'd think of is that this lack of one cents would make things a trifle difficult when buying something that's not an even multiple of five. But, they've come up with a very simple solution to this: rounding. If something costs $5.43 then it just rounds up to $5.45 and it would also conveniently rounds down if it were $5.42. They do have one dollar and two dollar coins, which I was a bit apprehensive about at first because I was worried that I would lose them, but I've gotten used to it. To distinguish the dollar coins from the lesser ones they made the dollar coins gold and the smaller coins silver. The only thing that I don't understand is why the two dollar coin is smaller than the one dollar coin. Does that make sense to you?

     So, the value amounts of coins are 5, 10, 20, 50, $1, and $2. Each of them usually has an animal on its back. There is everything from an echidna, to a platypus, to the famous kangaroo. I think that's what really won me over.

     If I had the choice between American currency and Australian, I'd have to go with the Aussies on this one. The only downfall: it's worth less.

Paradise...

     These are just a few of the amazing sights that I saw on Magnetic Island this past weekend. It was paradise. The weather was beautiful and the sand was the softest I've ever felt. The sand reminded me of petting a chinchilla and they are REALLY soft (if you haven't ever pet one, look into it, it's incredible).

     The first three pictures that you see were taken from up on the top of an extremely tall mountain that I had decided I had to climb. The height provided a breathtaking view of pretty much the entire island. The arduous journey up the rocky slope gave me quite a few cuts and bruises, but it was well worth it. From the top I could see what all the hype was about. The untouched wilderness was stunning.

     I must go back. Firstly because I need to experience this blissful heaven once again. More importantly though, I did not get a chance to see all of the wild koalas that live on this island! There is actually a koala sanctuary on the island where you can go and hold them. I have been told that they can be rather mean, but I don't care. They're way too cute! I will have pictures of them up as soon as I return to "Maggie" Island Paradise.

Rugby

     This past weekend I got to experience my first rugby game. It was the North Queensland Cowboys versus the Newcastle Knights. I went into the stadium not knowing a single rugby rule and this unfortunate predicament was amplified by the fact that I thought I was going to an Australian football game, of which I thought I knew a few rules. So, up until about half-time I sat there trying to remember the rules to Australian football while also trying to figure out why they set up the goals in an entirely different way. Finally, at half-time I was told it was rugby and not football. This was actually kind of funny because I had spent quite a bit of time during the game trying to explain what rules I could recall about Aussie football to some friends of mine. Boy did I look smart!

     Nonetheless, it was an interesting event. The whole point of the game seemed to be to get the ball and then run straight into the opposing team's players to see if you could muscle your way through five guys at once. They didn't ever appear to ever succeed, but they sure were persistent! Along with this, the match was expectedly filled plenty of blood, limping, and serious neck injury. Though none of this incurred a penalty or managed to stop the game for more that a minute or two. I think someone being killed is the only grounds for a foul in Australian rugby.

     I brought my camera along with me, but I was only able to take this one good picture before my camera died and I realized that I had forgotten to bring extra batteries. 

  

SNAKE !

     This is a Carpet Python, says the sign. I saw the sign above posted near a small patch of open forest on my way to class today. Yup, there is a python on my campus. Personally I think it's awesome and I wish I had found it myself. It's not just me either. There were bunches of people gathering to get a glimpse of this beautifully large snake. Click on the photo of the sign to get a bigger view for reading.

     The reason that the python is simply lying still in the middle of our campus is because it has just eaten. Speculations based on the huge size of the lump in the snake are that it ate something such as a scrub turkey or possum. Right now its oversized stomach is debilitating its movement. It will have to stay where it is and finish digesting before it can go on anywhere else. This could take a couple of days because the meal is so large.

     Look at the change in size of the body as you follow along the snake to the left. This guy really got a mouthful!