Swimming with Whale Sharks, a Hammerhead and Everything Else in the Indian Ocean

Posted on October 30, 2012 by sglaser

July 2010, Ningaloo Marine Park, Western Australia. The largest fish in the world is swimming at about three miles per hour, but it’s hard, even with fins, to keep up with the 20-foot-long behemoth. A huge happy looking fish with white polka dots sprinkled over its expansive back, the whale shark lumbers leisurely through the cloudy water.

Occasionally, it opens its mouth to feed on plankton. A large nonthreatening interior with a noticeable absence of razor sharp rows of teeth is revealed. In fact, it almost looks like white cushions line the inside of the whale shark’s billowing jaws.

This is crazy. I can’t believe I’m sauntering along in the Indian Ocean with a whale shark. And we are swimming in some very deep open water — 80 meters (262 feet) — to be exact. In fact, I can’t look down or around. I stare at my new friend, the whale shark, and kick hard.

I fall back as the whale shark slowly shifts. Once behind the massive fish, I see them: the same foreboding, angular tail and dorsal fin that have menaced and terrified people on the big screen and the Discovery Channel for years. The tail looks like a large iron boomerang steadily moving back and forth.

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Pulverizing the Itsy Bitsy Spider in Australia

Posted on October 23, 2012 by sglaser

Really tiny spider in Colorado
© Stephanie Glaser

“Mommmm! SPIDER! Mom, Come PLEASE!” My five-year-old daughter Kasey yells from the bathroom. Expecting to see a huge bulbous glossy black widow, I mach-5 it to the bathroom. “Where?!!” I’m looking for one to be dangling from the ceiling or clinging to the toilet. “Where, honey?”

Kasey points to the base of the bathtub at what looks like a tiny clump of newly sheared whiskers from Kurt’s Norelco shaver. It is a spider — a really miniscule spider. “Mom, KILL it!!” Kasey screams while she simultaneously holds my leg and peers down at the monster.

“I think we’ll let this guy go.” I reach down with a tissue to gently lift the little spider up and then I head (with Kasey still clinging to my leg) out to the back door to free him in our Colorado yard. “Mom don’t touch it!!!”

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Camping in the Thunderdome: “Good Night, Mad Max”

Posted on October 9, 2012 by sglaser

The sculpture appeared to be on loan from the “Sanford and Son” collection. Or, it could have been something ET rigged up to “phone home.” Chains, old school TV antennas, plastic baby dolls, a wokish thing, old computer keyboards, rusty tools and vehicle parts were strung together in a very random way. “Unique,” as an adjective, did not really cover it.

We looked around at more of the offerings of the free outdoor museum in Coober Pedy, South Australia, where the works were a mixture of plain old junk and art junk. The surroundings seemed to be part of the “art rubbish movement.” The theme’s main representatives were corrugated sheet metal and rust — which actually complimented the soil, the color of ground chili pepper. It was quite beautiful — in a “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” kind of way.

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Friday Funny Sign — Aged and Aged Quite Well, I Might Add

Posted on October 5, 2012 by sglaser

When I first saw this sign in Adelaide, Australia, it caught my attention since we don’t have signs like this identifying the elderly in the US, or at least I’ve never seen one. The funny thing to me is that the two figures have aged quite well, indeed!

They look quite spry — just as they did when they were school kids. Although the books must be too heavy for them now — or perhaps they read using their I-Phones or Kindles.

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The Friday Funny Sign — A Special Place for the Intoxicated?

Posted on September 28, 2012 by sglaser

Kurt and I spotted this during an Australian Rules Football game at Adelaide’s AMMI Stadium in Australia. I’m not sure if there’s any other connotation for “passing out” other than keeling over from too much drinking or perhaps “exhaustion.” I’m guessing “pass out” is another way to phrase “exit.” So Australians may not get a chuckle out of this photo.

However, I think it’s pretty funny to consider it as an area for people who are falling down drunk. Really, it’s quite considerate of AMMI to provide a dark, somewhat private area for “resting” and a large garbage/rubbish container in case a person needs to “toss their cookies” (or “toss their biscuits” in Australian.)

The Travel Oops Interview: The Great Blurrier Reef

Posted on September 27, 2012 by sglaser

Suzanne and Jason Miller.

Murky, gray water and zero visibility are not the conditions the postcards and the documentaries promise when they feature the Great Barrier Reef. However, the photographers behind the incredible images were probably not shooting during a typhoon.

Interestingly, while the surface of the ocean may be swirling and raging during a typhoon, underneath the water, a certain calm is maintained. Not that the sand isn’t churned up in a messy way. Consequently, Suzanne Miller and her husband, Jason, missed out on the electric colors, crystal blue waters and endless schools of vivid fish while on a dive off the coast of Cairns, Australia, in April 2010. Despite the fact they dove during a tropical storm, the Millers rank this dive high on their list of accomplishments. The dive also happens to be a great Travel Oops.

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Dropping the “F-Bomb” in Class

Posted on September 25, 2012 by sglaser

Heads Up: As you may have guessed from the title, this post contains a bit of profanity — and it’s the big one. I said it — a few times…in front of kids. These definitely were not the finest moments in my career as a teacher. I’m not really proud of what I did, but it definitely makes for a Travel Oops story.

Here I am…calm and collected.

Many teachers, at one time or another, have considered the potentially heavy consequences of dropping the “F-bomb” in class. On the other hand, you also consider the liberation of uttering the ultimate.

Teachers on the ledge may have an interior monologue that goes something like this: “What will actually break me? How will the kids react? How many parents will call? Will I be fired? Will my colleagues dismiss me or applaud my actions? Will it be as satisfying as I imagine?”

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The Friday Travel Ahh…

Posted on September 1, 2012 by sglaser

As anyone who travels knows, there are missteps, mishaps and misadventures, but then there are those perfect moments when we say: “Yeah, this is why I travel.” A Travel Ahh…

The many sides of Uluru

Most people will recognize the iconic scene of Uluru (Ayer’s Rock) from afar and its glowing aura that absorbs and reflects a sunset. However, when you visit Uluru, what is truly surprising are all the nooks and crannies and unexpected offerings of the monolith that you will see up close. When people say, “It’s just a big rock,” they, clearly, have no idea of its magnificence. There are so many wonderful stories about its creation and significance to the Pitjantjatjara. A magical, spiritual place, Uluru has many sides to its story.

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Avoid the Oops

Posted on August 31, 2012 by sglaser

Using Embarrassing, Inappropriate or Offensive Words

“I am very pregnant; I do not like beans.”

It’s easy to say the wrong thing when you’re in another country and dealing with a language barrier. Suzanne Miller, director of Nursing for St. Luke’s Wood River Hospital in Ketchum Idaho, knows this well.

While in college, Miller studied in Guadalajara, Mexico, where she had a mix-up with the Spanish word “embarazada,” which of course, sounds like embarrassed. However, it doesn’t mean embarrassed — at all.

“For two weeks, I didn’t eat my meals because they always included refried beans. Finally, my host mother asked me [in Spanish] “Do you not like my cooking?’ So then I said [in Spanish], ‘I’m so, so embarazada, because I don’t like beans.’ My roommate, Jen, was fluent in Spanish and told me, ‘You just told Señora that you are very, very pregnant.’ Senora was stunned at first but Jen eventually cleared it up.” — Suzanne Miller.

To avoid issues with communication, many US travelers head to the UK, Australia and New Zealand because these countries share the same language as the US. Or do they? Can you say the wrong thing in your native tongue when you are traveling in an English-speaking country? Absolutely! Slang varies from dialect to dialect.

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Don’t Mess with Magpies

Posted on August 24, 2012 by sglaser

A magpie flies over its rightful turf — the Alberton Oval, home of the SANFL Australian Rules Football Team, the Port Adelaide Magpies.

Magpies, it seems, are iconic and demonic at the same time. In the past, they have been viewed in Chinese culture as birds who bring good luck and joy. In many Western cultures, the magpie has had more sinister qualities and has even symbolized evil like its cousin the raven.

This good vs. evil framework works well in sports. Magpies are often mascots for athletic teams (e.g. the Australian Rules Football teams, Victoria’s Collingwood Magpies and the South Australia National Football League’s Port Adelaide Magpies just to name a few.) Scavengers and survivors, magpies are quite intelligent and definitely deserve a certain amount of respect.

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