Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho, it's off to work we go....

I took my second field trip of the semester to the town of Charters Towers this past Friday to visit a gold mine.
Let me just preface this post with the facts that A.) Charters Towers is in the middle of nowhere so the scenery is, well,.... in-the-middle-of-nowhere scenery. B.) These pictures could possibly be sleep inducing as they're mainly of rocks, landscapes, and processing plant machinery-fun stuff, right.
The ride there was gorgeous, I honestly felt like I could have been driving through the African savannah (saw some very nice looking termite mounds), and even though the scenery was pretty rural, it was a nice change from a more populated area.
Our day consisted of first logging drill cores, where we basically played geologists for an hour and analyzed samples of rocks that had been drilled up from the ground. We then visited a site where the mine keeps a massive pile of extra ore in case they have a bad day, if they do have a bad day, they can just draw from this pile and process it. We were able to get a car tour of the gold processing plant, but it wasn't safe enough for us to get out and walk around. Then we went to an old mining site and took in the amazing view from Towers Hill, and the day concluded with going to the Warrior Mine, where the actual underground mining takes place. Unfortunately, we weren't able to go underground since it's dangerous enough for the workers to be there.
In other news, I have less than 8 weeks, still can't get over how quickly time has flown! I'm actually getting very tired of classes; let me just say that I am VERY glad I chose not to go into the field of science; after doing practical/lab write-ups, field work, and research papers, I see ever so clearly why God called me into the field of education :) Don't get me wrong, I enjoy learning new things in the environmental science field, but I could never do it for a living. I'm gonna finish strong though, determined to finish all of my assignments and do well on my exams.
Travel plans are still looking good, but we moved the Mission Beach trip back to the weekend of the 15th, and I think I've added a second trip north to Cairns for the days I have free before I return to the states. Good stuff!

Warrior Mine

Equipment used at Warrior Mine

Entrance to Warrior Mine

Open Pit leading down to Warrior Mine entrance

Towers Hill

Towers Hill

Towers Hill

Processing Plant (note the numerous signs which were clear indicators of why we couldn't get an up close and personal tour)

Processing Plant (Cyanide is the major chemical hazard)

Processing Plant-pretty sure these are the leaching tanks, pretty massive

Processing Plant

Extra material

The amazing scenery of Charters Towers

Extra Material

Drill Core

Drill core logging site


The drill core set my group got to work on-it was actually a very boring section with only one rock type and easily recognizable veins

Monday, April 19, 2010

Music Memories

I was listening to K-Love today and heard the song, "Shout to the Lord"; it took me back to my childhood days ( I know that makes me sound like I'm ancient....), attending Talbot Bible Church in Easton, MD.
There are other songs I hear and get a wave of nostalgia, even certain artists take me back to the days spent riding around in our beat up blue Volvo.
Between me, Megan and Steven, our favorite cassette tape (yiiiiikes....) was "Songs from the Loft"; it was a worship project put together by Amy Grant and Gary Chapman, but it had a variety of artists on it including Michael W. Smith, Donna McElroy, Susan Ashton, Wes King, Amy Delaine, Kim Hill, and Michael James. I totally want to purchase it in CD form (it's available on Amazon.com if you are as interested as I am) and stock it away till I can pull it out for my kid's listening enjoyment. I would highly recommend it to parents :)
So we have "Songs from the Loft":
Other top tapes in our house growing up included anything Wee-Sing (Wee Sing Bible, Wee Sing Christmas, Wee Sing Silly Songs...):



We had a series of classical music tapes geared towards giving kids an intro to classical music; the titles included "Beethoven Lives Upstairs", Hallelujah Handel", "Tchaikovsky Discovers America", "The Magic Flute", "Mr. Bach Comes to Call", and one involving Vivaldi. We loved them all.


These all bring back many fond memories and I would highly recommend them if you work with kids or are around kids and are looking for some listening material!

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Maggie Island

Last Friday I visited Magnetic Island, about a 10-15 min. car ride and 15 min. ferry ride from JCU, for a 'Tourism and the Environment' field trip. I visited for a short time back during O Week, but enjoyed being able to visit multiple bays this time around. It was a hot day though and our bus decided it didn't want to move with 26 people aboard, once we got into the less visited areas of the island, so we got off and walked until a mechanic came and helped us out.
Didn't see too much wildlife other than a few rock wallabies, plenty of birds, and a golden orb spider that was beautiful and very large.
I took plenty of pics; I'm not pleased with my camera quality and the way pictures look once posted, they look better in Iphoto than on here, so I think I will upload most of the ones below onto facebook.
Lecture recess started yesterday and it began nicely for me-I worked, went to uni club, hung out with some people, went to a b-day party for a short bit tonight; nice to take a break from school and all the work that goes with it (especially when you hear 2, 8 page papers calling your name...I will have to go to an all day practical session on Thursday for a class and then travel about a hour west to Charters Towers for a mining field trip on Friday, should be interesting. My next next travel dates will hopefully be April 30th-May 3rd to Mission Beach, north of Townsville, for some sky diving and snorkeling. Fun stuff :)
Can't believe how quickly time is flying, I'm having loads of fun here and am going to miss it, but at the same time can't wait to see people back home!

Ferry Terminal at Nelly Bay

Probably my fav. pic. taken at Radical Bay (?)

I'll give you a prize if you can spot the rock wallaby in this one

Florence Bay

Arthur Bay lookout

Arthur Bay

The granite outcrops found all over the island are pretty impressive

Horseshoe Bay Lagoon






Can you spot the Rainbow Larkeet?

Picnic Bay, where the old ferry terminal used to be located until 2003




Gray Ash trees, their bases actually protect them from fire

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Today is a Good Day

James 4:13-14
Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. " Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."
We (me included) love those phrases like "I can't wait till it's Friday" or "Yay! We are halfway through the week" or "only 123 days until school's out!", and we get so busy planning for tomorrow or looking to the future, we forget about today.
It's so easy to just discard the day, dismiss it as just another manic Monday, but in these few verses, God is telling us instead of discarding and constantly planning for tomorrow, live for today.
You're only a mist that won't be hanging around on planet earth for long. Seize the day!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Sun Peeking Out

After only seeing peaks of sunshine over the weekend mixed with rain and cloudy skies, it was nice to see blue skies this afternoon and a cool sunset (pic doesn't do it justice).



I also spotted a wallaby on college the other day, you can barely see him scooting off in the pic.


On a last note, please please keep West Virginia in your prayers as they are dealing with this mine explosion; 25 miners were killed and 4 are still missing. Pray for medical personnel, mine safety commission personnel, and the families of those affected.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Food Talk

Ever wondered where hot cross buns came from?
I grew up hearing the kid's song "Hot cross buns, Hot cross buns, one 'ha penny, two 'ha penny..." but I've never actually had one before, so I was very excited that the dining hall served them for brekky on Fri. I think I've had 4 or 5 in the past 2 days.... they're delicious.
Supposedly they carry religious symbolism, but this article from BBC details that there are many theories as to where they originated: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8598312.stm
There have been some other new food items I've been eating here including:
- Milo = powdered drink mix made from malted barley and chocolate that you mix in with milk; not available in the U.S., but found in Asia, S. America, the UK, and is actually made by Nestle; good stuff.
- Chiko Roll = an "Australian savory snack" made from boned mutton, celery, cabbage, barley, rice, and carrots wrapped in egg flour and dough and then fried; pretty much like a big spring roll; I love them with soy sauce.
- Meat Pies = these have Australian and New Zealand origins; pretty much like mini chicken pot pies and they can have chicken, beef, potatoes or veggies inside; they come frozen in the dining hall but I find the beef ones pretty good eaten with french fries.
- Vegemite = I want to revise my previous opinions on vegemite; I, at first taste, hated the stuff, but recently tried it on toast with cheese melted on top, and it tastes heaps better. I've been told that I can start with cheese and hopefully be weaned off the cheese to plain vegemite by the time I leave; I have doubts about that....
- Butter Chicken = actually an Indian dish (the chefs cook with curry pretty frequently since there is a large Indian population here) that consists of chicken cooked in a tomato puree based sauce; tastes really good with rice.
- Sticky Date Pudding = my new favorite dessert by far; not sure where it gets its origins, maybe the UK? It has a cake like consistency with dates cooked in that pretty much melt into the cake, and then it's topped with a toffee type sauce; it's super sweet but delicious.
- Potato Cakes = These are so simple to make but I love them; again, not sure of their origins, thinking Europe and then some versions are common in Australia/New Zealand; they are pretty much just potato and flour, combined and fried; they are very dense and taste good with veggies and meat.
- Pavlova = this dessert originated in New Zealand but is popular in both AUS and NZ during holidays; it is a meringue type cake topped with cream and fruit; I'm not a huge fan of the consistency of meringue, but it was pretty good combined with the cream and fruit.
So I know I've made you all very hungry, and you will now go searching for these recipes; I am going to snag a sticky date pudding recipe from the mom of an Aussie friend, so I'll post that one when I get it.
Hope everyone has a fantastic Easter! We have a 4 day weekend that I am spending in Townsville, catching up on schoolwork, sleeping, working, hanging out with friends, and going to church.
Remember, as we celebrate Easter this weekend, we serve an amazing God who sent his only son to die for us so we could have life that never ends!