Meeting the Twelve Apostels - Victorian style

G'day folks!

Once again I'd like to share a few pictures with you, this time around from the Great Ocean Road (GOR). The GOR is an over 200km long coast strip situated west of Melbourne, which has been listed as an Australian National Heritage. Many interesting rock formations adorn this continent border, including a group of limestone stacks known as The Twelve Apostels. These rocks were not always so popular amongst sightseers because they were originally known as Sow and Piglets. Soon after being renamed with a much more myth-enshrouded name involving the disciples of a certain god's son popularity of the sight grew drastically. Nowadays the twelve apostels represent one of the geological highlights of the state.

There is an interesting story about a three tourists who once were walking across a natural bridge which existed between two of these apostels. As luck would have it, just as the group crossed the bridge to the outlying limestone formation the bridge collapsed behind them leaving the tourists trapped. A driver who was passing by the place called for help. The only way to save the isolated married couple and the single man was to evacuate them via helicopter. The nearest available gyroplane belonged to a TV news crew who did not want this opportunity of action news slip by. So when they picked up the three stranded tourists naturally they wanted to interview them. Oddly enough the people behaved very camera shy and reluctant to allow interviews. The reason for this was revealed later. As it turned out, none of them were supposed to be out there that day. The single man was supposed to be at work but had taken the day off being reported as sick. As for the couple, although married, they were not married with each other. Naturally national publicity was the least thing these three people had hoped for that fateful day. Talk about karma!

Catch y'all later!

Jan

Snow in August!

Greetings dear reader,

first off I'd like to apologize for the blatant lack of new entries, but on the bright side I've got a couple of things saved up to share with you guys (this being the first).
As you most assuredly are well aware, it is currently winter in Australia and now and then snow falls in higher altitudes within the state of Victoria. So as a birthday treat I allowed myself a tobogganing trip to Lake Mountain, a small skiing resort close to Melbourne. The resort is situated near Marysvville, a small town which was badly hurt during the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009. Only one building, the bakery (picture) survived the flames.
The trip was university-organized, and there were about 30 fellow international students (and one family with child) indulging in the sledding. Unfortunately there was no fresh snow, so most of the sliding happened on icy remnants of artificial snowmaking, but it was a joyous experience none the less. The sleighs are not your typical wood-made christmas-type childhood sleighs (which were very popular when I was a kid), but instead more like flat plastic slide boards.

Although tobogganing is fun, it does not quite capture the same thrill of actual skiing which is why I might return next winter for some proper downhill activity (provided I saved enough money to afford the ridiculously high lift pass prices). That's it for now folks, catch you later!

Cheers
Jan

God save the ... holidays!

G'day everyone! Although technically the Queen of England's date of birth is on April 26, every second Monday in June each year within Australia (except for Western Australia and Queensland)has celebrated as a holiday in compliment to her majestys' birthday since 1788 (and for 111 years of independence). Furthermore this year Qu. Elizabeth II celebrated her Diamond Jubilee as monarch just one week before June 11th.

Fortunately this year's long June weekend had some really nice weather on Monday, which is a rare sight during winter in Melbourne (generally a very cloudy sky). The result — pictures:

Top left to bottom right: (1) Swanston Street in Melbourne Central with tram (usually loaded with people during rush hour), (2) Yarra river (viewing westward), (3) Part of Melbourne Skyline (looking NE), (4) St. Pauls Cathedral, (5) Flinders Street (train) Station, (6) State library of Victoria.

In other news the first poll is done and seeing as there is a general desire for a'couple more infos, I'll try my best posting some more in the near future. Hope you're all well. Have an awesome weekend!
Cheers
Jan

1st glide

Heya!

just a quick supplement to the Outer Banks trip. Enjoy. ;)

-Jan

P.S.: World Cup 2010 finally started, yay!

Of Montreal in town

Hello people,

This week I went to an alternative band concert in a club called Cat's Craddle, which is famous in North Carolina for hosting indipendent rock concerts (only alternative would be in Raleigh, capital city of NC). So that day it was Of Montreal who were performing, and man they did perform! It wasn't just music, they had some stage acts as well while playing music! For those of you who are not afraid of new styles of music this is definately something to look into, although I must admit hearing them life is about 1 thousand times better than on youtube or likewise. ;)
Anyway Of Montreal is kind of an dadaistic Indie-Popband form Athens (Georgia). They've been performing since 1997 and perform in this area almost once every year. After the show we even got the chance to talk to a few band members (and some fans, who like to dress up just like the band does).

Alright, I'll see you guys later!

-Jan

The dream of flying ...

Imagine ...

you are tugged into a triangular shaped piece of nylon and aluminum, you grab two handles attached to the sides of your co-pilot and lift off from the earth's surface, dragged by a small airplane. You shoot up 2000 feet (about 700m) into the blue sky, and then ... the string between you and the airplane is cut and you start to drift gently in the air ... it's an overwhelming feeling of joy. But let me start this story a day before.

Last weekend it was finally time for Herbert and me to go to the Outer Banks, which is a group of small islands in front of North Carolina's Atlantic coast. We got there and were greeted by sunshine. First we went to the Wright Brothers National Memorial, the birthplace of human's flight history. It was this very area in 1902 and 1903 were Wilbur and Orville Wright successfully tested their air vehicle, managing to both lift off and to land a motorized aircraft for the first time.

We stayed at a campground overnight, enjoying the beach, playing some basketball (i got my ass kicked big time!) and watched the stars at night. The next day it was finally time for us to raise inthe the air just like the Wright Brothers 100 years ago, only slighty different: HANG GLIDING! So we went up the coastline to catch the tandem flights (see intro).
It was most enjoyable. Definately someting that you should try out when you get the chance to. Next, we headed south to arrive on time for the beginners lessons at the sand dunes, just like the Wright Brothers did (one of the reasons they chose the Outer Banks was because falling on soft sand does not hurt much ;D). Time flew and before we knew we it we were back on the road towards Chapel Hill.
What an amazing weekend. But now a lot of writing needs to be done as the deadline is drawing frightingly close.

Anyways that's it and I hope to hear form you guys soon! (Enjoy the weekend, seems Jena's finally fortunate to experience some decent days of mild temperatures.)

-Jan

All kinds of stuff

Hello people,

how are you guys doing? It's been a while since my last entry. I apologize for getting a little bit sloppy in keeping you updated. Mainly it's because Iam really busy writing report and doing lab stuff right now, as well as runnning samples on the mass spec (really takes a lot of time just for some data, i'm telling you!) So what exiting things happened over the last few days?Well, lectures are over now and there was a HUGE graduation celebration at Drew's place (my advisor) with lots of food, beer and interesting conversations. On the photo photo on the right you can see the charming baby blue gradutations costumes people were to match UNC colors when they graduate (freshly baked geology bachelors!).
So Mitchell Hall (geology department) has been quite empty, which is quite nice for working. However there is summer school going on (this spanish teacher who has lectures right next the office I work in has kind of an annoying voice).
Besides work, my roommate Herbert and I were hanging out on Franklin Street a couple of times. Once we went to a comedy night in one of the bars called Jack Sprat Café which was a lot of fun. They also have an Irish pub there which is really awesome.
Last sunday we went for a some hiking to Eno River State Park, which is only a couple of miles away from Chapel Hill.

Long time ago Indians of the Eno, Shakori, and Occoneechee tribes, lived along the river when the first European explorers passed through. And somewhere around Durham there is a village where you can still find Native American people!
Alright, that is it for now I gotta do some more writing (it's a pain, but it must be done).

Love ya!

-Jan

The flavour of Germany

Hi Folks,

this Friday Herbert and I invited some people over to our place for the Combined German Food and Movie Night (fancy title, huh?). We had some potatoe salad (my first time trying to make one) and I was pleased to see that our guests liked it. :D Due to lack of Vienna sausages we had use hotdog-imposters and of course (!) mustard (an absolute must for a German potatoe salad *g*).
To complete the evening we watched a movie somewhat relating to my home country: Inglorious Basterds. It's a film by Quentin Tarentino, who is well known for his unique film plots and screenplay arrangements. His films tend to polarize people into one group loving his creation and another one that can absolutely get nothing out of his works. Since the German Nazi's were being protrayed as evil villians who would get what was coming to them at the end of the movie the audience felt quite pleased. Interestingly enough the actors were actually speaking German (with an American accent), which I think was interesting to watch.At the weekend nothing too much exciting happend, except that I went out with Herbert and a couple of his friends saturday night to watch a box fight in Raleigh. Always fun to meet new people during these occasions. Unfortunately I thereby missed the opportunity for a pool party but I guess there will be plenty more occasions for this!

That's it for the time being, I should really return to work now, only six weeks left!

-Jan

Way to go Heels!

Heya!

Yesterday Herbert and I went to check out one of the most American sport you'll find, just because it's hardly played anywhere else (besides China I guess). ;) I'm talking about baseball! It was a novelty for both of us. The UNC Taar Heels faced the team from High Point University (somewhere westcoastish I believe). And of course we had some hotdogs and cotton candy to get into the baseball mood! ;D Our seats were really nice as well, very focal. The game lasted more than 3 hours, but it was fun!
For those of you who have absolutely no clue about the game (like me before watching it): Basically 10 turns, called Innings are played, in which each team gets to throw (pitcher) and to bat (batter). The aim is to hit the baseball deep into the enemies field, ensuring they don't catch it right away so the batter can start running towards one of the 4 base points. As soon as he passes all four of them he completed a run, scoring one point for the team.
It was a really close match, not decided until the very last inning. The Tar Heels managed to secure the 2:2 tie, and it was their turn to try scoring. These are the final moments:

Always nice when the team you are cheering for wins, especially when victory was not achieved so easily. ;)
So that's that. Hope I could carry at least some of the baseball spirit to you guys back there in good ol' Germany. Have a good one!

-Jan

It's the Beer Olympics!

Hey folks,

once again the time has come for brave souls of the UNC geological science department to gather around and compete in a devastating tournament of struggle, emotions, fun, and a hell lot of beer! Yes, the annual Beer Olympics have come! The event started Saturday 3 pm and only god knows when it finally ended. ;)
According to tradition teams of two persons each, dressed up as representative figures of a certain country would battle against each other in American standard drinking games such as Beer Pong, Beer Ball, and Can fliping. Besides a long table, the key instrument for the first two sports is a table tennis ball which is thrown by hand to hit an object on the opponents side and if successful, trying to drink as much as possible in order to win the game. I was astouned how serious the players were about this: "It's not a game Jan, this is war!"


The following nations competed in the drinking contest: Australia, Iceland, France, Scotland, New Jersey and Africa, although technically speaking not all of them are actual countries! There were two more teams to compete for the dress award, namely Pangaea and Greece. A jury composed of 3 non participating individuals were deciding the winners for the dress contest, while the drinking pretty much was decided by the capabilites of the competing teams. The video enlosed shows you 2 teams fighting in the final game for a medal (medals turned out to be small liquor bottles).

Everyone was really into it and there was also a non drinking game where you tried to hit the opponents wooden board with little sacks. Very enjoyable! After the games we met in one of the organizors apartment nearby for some dinner and to relax a bit. ;)

So far about my weekend, have a good start into the upcoming workweek!

-Jan