Sept. 13 - Brisbane

I feel like starting with "Well, it has been a quiet week in Lake Woebegone" but then you might get the wrong impression.  It has been a busy week in Brisbane, full of classes either attended or taught!  I had to give my big energy lecture this week, and actually spent a lot of time getting it ready (in spite of the fact that I worked on it for a LOT of time in the US before we came.)  I think it was a case of the task expanding to fill all available time.  If you ever want to know how to power the whole world with wind, water, and solar, just ask....  Annie survived listening to me, and enjoyed the biology and Australian classes (I did too!)

Today (Friday here) we went on a field trip to St. Helena Island in Moreton Bay.  The island was a maximum security prison opened in the mid 1800s,, and as the guide said, Alcatraz was a walk in the park in comparison.  They really packed the prisoners into cells, made them work really hard, and would punish them with up to 28 days solitary confinement in dark, muddy holes in the ground.  The island itself was quite pretty (and windy!) and had tons of wallabys running around.  We saw
 lots of big blue jellyfish during the boat ride, so that was kind of fun, too.

Here are the jellyfish - more exciting in person!

One of our guides dressed as a prisoner.  He is in front of one of the buildings built by prisoners from rock quarried on the island.  He said the workmanship was good because in the Victorian age good workmanship was prized.

...... However the wallaby was not impressed!

Tomorrow Annie has us signed up to take a surfing lesson, then Monday morning we leave for a 5-day field trip with "limited" electricity, no phones and no internet.  Should be fun!  I'll try to post again before we leave.