iSpace

As my fingers migrated to the map application on my ipod touch I wondered if Uluru (Ayers Rock) could be seen from space. I started out by searching Alice Springs and moving my finger to follow Stewart Highway to the south west. Turns out that, that was not the most practical way to Uluru.

Then I went back into the search bar and typed in Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park. Bingo. It brought me to the visitors center. A little scroll to the left and there it was. Uluru in all of it's "seen from above" majesty. Of course looking down on it from an ipod touch sitting in chapter room of my sorority house wasn't the same. Just seeing it though, seeing the roads that I travel on brought me right back to those hot April days spend riding around for 6 hours in a beat up van with an obnoxious tour guide.

You might be asking who in the world would travel 6 hours from the nearest "city" just look at a big rock. Well, when you are in a foreign country with so many wold wide recognized sites you just feel like you have to go. Not to mention that Uluru has some sort of magic that called me, as it does to many others. I couldn't quite explain it until I was standing right in front of Uluru, face to face with it. I don't know if it was the connection to my grandfather who had been in the same spot nearly 30 years ago and it was that I was following in his footsteps or the connection that the Aboriginal people have to Uluru but I couldn't take my eyes off of it.

Uluru is a magnificent place, geologically, historically and culturally. But it is just a big rock right? Wrong. It is really a monolith that has developed over millions of years. I am not very adapt as explaining the entire geological history, but if you are interested I have provided a link to the Uluru- Kata Tjuta National Park Website here:

http://www.environment.gov.au/parks/uluru/nature-science/geology.html

I will never forget the first time I saw it. We had been driving in the van for 6 hours listing to the tour guide blab on about things that she really didn't know much about. And it slowly came over the horizon. The rust orange in stark contrast against the bright blue sky. My heart had skipped a beat because I was so excited to finally see "the rock". However, we wouldn't be able to enjoy Uluru just yet.

If the torturous wait hadn't been enough we stopped to each lunch before we went to explore the park. The camp site we were staying at was interesting. I use the term camp site loosely because it was more like a patch of dirt to throw our swag down onto and some picnic benches.

In any case we finally got back in the van and as we were driving the 15 min from the park entrance to the viewing areas I could hardly contain my excitement. I must have looked like the stereotypical American Tourist snapping pictures at about a mile a minute. I didn't care that the european tour guide was judging me, I was about to get up close and personal with the largest monolith in the world.

Remember....

Unfortunately, since I am awful at writing things down, I hardly have a record of my 4 months in Aus. So instead of writing about it while I am there, because I can't (duh) I am going to write about events that I remember as they come to me so nothing slips away even further than it already has.

I remember not being able to get refills for free in Aus.
I remember the look the clouds had before a downpour that said "you had better get inside because I am going to drench you in a second".
I remember how nice the water felt in the campus pool.
I remember spending many late nights in the BAT labs.