Last Week :(

Soooo its now the last week I will be sharing with my almost all of my new friends! Its so sad because who knows if I will ever see these amazing people ever again! Most of them live all over Europe, South America, Asia...this kind of gives me an excuse of doing more global travel! (It is my goal to set foot on every continent sooo now I have some hook ups!)

This semester has been so amazing for me! It was like a new life really...nobody had any prejudgements to base you off! (besides sterotypes that came with your country of orgin haha)  It was great fun and really helped me to come out of my shy shell a bit. Meeting all these new people with different views, beliefs, languages, foods and whatever else has helped me to open my eyes and see just how big the  really is world. I considered myself pretty open minded  and educated on cultural differences prior to coming to the Land of Oz, but now after becoming close friends with people from all over the world has only made me open my eyes more to reality!

I really love all my friends here and its going to be sad to see them all go, but were going out in style with a bottle of champagne sent directly from my the winery owned by a family member of my French friend Anne-Segolene! Also had a goodbye barbie as one final dinner sizzlin' up some Aussie sausages and kanagroo!

Germans and New Caladonians

German and American (Michigan)



French, Swedish, Brazilian, Japanese & American (Florida)



French

Seal Swim!

Glory and I (interns) doing a Seal Swim!

Groucho and I

Bella! She's a beaut!

Amazing day! Today I did my regular duties at UnderWater World, but there was extra slots in the seal swim so myself and my new friend Glory (intern from Miami) got to take the places! It was freezing cold water, but it was just such and aweome experience! I got to play Tug of War with the seals which is fun because they are sooo strong they will just drag you around the pool. It you get them really riled up they will porpoise around the pool at super fast! Also they will float on their back for you to give them a massage with a high pressure hose. They love it!

It's really amazing how they can shoot across the water like torpedo. The muscles in thier flippers is extremely strong allowing them to balance all their weight on a single flipper! This strength is essential to propel them through the water at high speeds. They can reach speeds up to 28 kph (17 mph) and then blast out of the water and jump onto ledges up to 5 meters (16.5 feet) high to escape sharks like the Great White! Not only are they jumping that high, but full grown males can reach weights of up to 360 Kg (790 lbs)!!! The are such an amazing animal!

They are just so cute and playful, sharing very similar mannerisms as a dog. They are a very family oriented mammal that loves to play and keep entertained. In fact, learning new behaviors for the shows becomes a challenge and a type of entertainment for the seals. Its really rewarding for them because they get positive reinforcement with fish, squid and octopus! 

Career in Acting?!?

Groucho standing on one flipper
(he's about 600lbs)

I've always been shy and never been fond of being the center of attention, BUT it's official I'm starting a career in the show biz! That's right! Holly Burkhardt is the star of the show in UnderWater World's seal shows!

Okay sooo I may be exaggerating a bit, but it is pretty cool to do the seal show skit. Basically I am a planted guest in the crowd that get picked to feed a seal...I get picked and head on the stage. I pretend my name is Sam(a girl/guy name so it's consistent in all shows) and I am from New Zealand so they crack some Kiwi jokes. The seals and myself are ready I hold a octopus up high for the seal to jump out of the water and eat from my hand.

Everyone applaudes and I start to head off stage when she calls me back and asks if I want to do another one, but this time it's a young seal that is training...They make some jokes that I'll only lose a finger or 2. I agree, but i have to step up to a higher deck since this seal can jump higher...

Now this is where all my years of being clumsy come in handy! I trip and fall into the seal pool. Now this may sound easy, but thinking about tripping makes tripping really hard! But luckily I played bball for 11 years so I've acquired some good acting skills (all good bball plays are excellent actors/actresses to draw fouls, sad but true).

Once I'm in the pool the seal trainer frantically tells me to swim to the middle of the pool, where a floating island is, just in case the seals try to attack me...At this point a seal comes flying around me doing "bowing" out of the water...then Jaw's music play and the seal swims with 1 flipper in the air "sailing" too look like a shark circling me...

While all of this is happening I am secretly holding on to the floating island with 1 hand slipping off my shorts... then once the Jaw's music climaxes the seal dives under water and "pulls me under and attacks" ( in reality this me passing the shorts to the seal). Then they make a bunch of jokes about how the seal stole my shorts and then the seal jumps around me a few time and returns my short into my hands...

I get out and the show finishes up...but it's a lot of fun!

Sushi Party

Today my French and Japanese friends decided to host a sushi party at my apartment! I don't really like fish, but I was up to learning something new! So for the first time ever I made a sushi roll! I couldn't be taught by a better group because about 8 of the 14 people were Japanese! It was great fun! It was actually really funny too because the seaweed we used for the outside of the roll is the same as the kind we use in a lot of the fish foods at UnderWater World... They should advertise on it that its no just for humans because the clown fish love that stuff!

Inspiration!

My Seal Kiss from Teiko!

Today at UnderWater World I was working in the seal section of the aqaurium. He we do seal shows, kisses, and swims. Today was like any other day...i set up and gathered all the people around to recieve their seal kiss when suddenly I recognized one of the little kids waiting in line...

I was sooo excited, yet unsure if it was really him! The Crocodile Hunter's (Steve Irwin) son Robert. Steve and Terri's son is the cutest 7 year old boy with a very distinguishable face and long blonde hair. Constantly you see Australia Zoo advertising around the Sunshine Coast with the Irwin family's picture and i knew they lived nearby. I was just so sure it was him, but Terri (his mother) nor Bindi (his older sister) were nowhere to be seen, just a blonde women with a child about Robert's age. One of the other UWW staff turned to me and under her breath confirmed my suspicion simply by saying "he's famous."

Instantly I was thrilled that I had the honor to be in the presence of the son of my childhood hero and inspiration for becoming an enviromental student! I used to watch Crocodile Hunter nearly every night with my family and it had become my dream to follow his footsteps. And here I am in the same city working with animal conservation about to assist my hero's son for a big wet sloppy seal kiss! AWESOMEEEE!

We talked to Robert a bit too! He was so confident and comfortable with the seals! No doubt from his exposure to other animals. But when he spoke with us he was soooo polite and socialable! His father would be so proud of him....he's already just like him. Such compassion for animals is wonderful!

Ladies Oaks Day

Ladies Oaks Day is a large event for women at the Sunshine Coast horseraces. Its a day many women take off work and get all dressed up just for fun and go to the horseraces. And when I say dressed up they put on their goofiest outfits and ugliest hats! Such a British thing!

So a couple friends and I got dressed up and hit the races. The first thing I noticed was that the horses were running backwards! Not tail first, running around the track clockwise! Crazy Aussies! Second thing I noticed was that the best part about attending this event was playing candid camera! I secretly was taking pictures of all the ugly hats! I felt like I was at the Royal Wedding or something!

Anyway it was a good bit of fun to do some people watching and see a horserace for the first time in my life

Alwayzzzzz sick!

It seems like since before I arrived in Australia I have been sick. In reality I know it has been on and off, but I can't seem to shake my illnesses for very long. Looking on the upside I have learned a bit about Australian and medicine practices.

The first thing is Aussies don't believe in ibuprofen...they sell it, but discourage the use of it. You have to get it behind a pharmacist counter. Meanwhile, at home you can buy a mini "on-the-go" bottle next to the candy at the checkout line.

Second, just about the only thing you can buy without asking a pharmacist to get it behind the counter at the "chemist" (aka pharmacy) is vitamin c tabs, 30+ sunscreen, and $10 sunnies (aka sunglasses).

Third, regulation of supplements is extremely strict. The basics like fish oil and a couple vitamins are offered, but overall they require prescriptions. I typically take potassium sups because I frequently get muscle spasms especially if I workout at all. In the US of A these are a couple bucks sold at pretty much anywhere you can think of. Here they require a prescription as of 5ish years ago... and bananas are $12.50 per kilo because all the trees got wiped out in the cyclone up north...bummer