Feb 07

On Thursday morning, I woke up at 6am to eat breakfast and get ready to go to the Cairns airport. By the way, the bread here is sooooo delicious. I don't know what it is, but the bread is just so big and sooo good. I've been having toast for breakfast heaps (Aussie slang for a lot...people even respond "not heaps" when you ask what's up?? hah) Well, about 50 of us from our group are studying at the University (or Uni) of Newcastle, and all of us had a lot of luggage. The luggage wouldn't all fit on the plane going to Brisbane (we had a layover there before we could fly to Newcastle), so 52 pieces of luggage got left at the airport in Cairns. Fortunatly, I was able to get my luggage after about 24 hours (yesterday). Anyways, after we found out our luggage was left, we had to stand in line for an hour to give them our addresses at the Uni. We also had to go through security and were "randomly selected" to get double-checked. However, our flights went really well. After arriving in Newcastle, we had to take a bus 30 minutes to get to the Uni. Our bus broke down for about 15 minutes, because it was too heavy to drive. All in all, it was just a horrible airport experience. However, our flights went really well. Kathryn and I are rooming together in Barahineban, aka Bara. It is super nice, we have our own kitchen and bathroom in our room. Yet, we needed to go grocery shopping for sheets, kitchen supplies, shelving, etc.

I will write about our grocery/shopping experience, busses/driving, our room, and our first weekend at the Uni tommorrow. =)

Later mates.

On Wednesday, I went to the zoo and the Aboriginal Park in Cairns. We stayed at the zoo for about 2 hours, and were able to see all of the Aussie animals. Some were really cool, like the wallabee and the wambat. I also saw a bunch of snakes, crocs, and kangaroos. Yet, my favorite part was being able to hold a koala. =) After the zoo, we went to the Aboriginal Park called Tjapukai. We saw a dance show, and one of the Aboriginees made a fire out of a stick and a stone. They also showed us how to throw a bomarang, but since it had been raining we were not able to go out into the field to try because it was flooded. We also learned how to play didgeridoos, and got to practice. I wasn't very good, but it was a lot of fun.
On Thursday, we took a boat cruise to the Great Barrier Reef/ Bird Cove. There were two cyclones spotted off the coast of Cairns that day, so it was really rainy and the boat was very rocky. A lot of people got sea sick, but I didn't. YAY! It took about 2 hours (40 miles or so) to get to the reef. We docked by Bird Cove and we were then able to swim to the beach and go snorkeling. I snokeled for about 2 hours and saw a bunch of fish, a sting ray, and a lot of gorgeous sea life. After snorkeling, I layed on the boat for a while and put tons of sunscreen on, but still got sunburnt. It wasn't raining at all while we were on the boat; it was super sunny and pleasant. On the way back, the boat hit a bunch of waves. I was sitting in the front on this net and go soaking...everybody got really wet from the waves. The coolest thing was that on the way back, a bunch of dolphins (about 20 or more) were swimming with the boat in front. It seemed like they were putting on a show for us. They were jumping and just staying right in front of the boat for about 20 minutes before they swam away. It was a pretty awesome sight. After we got back, a bunch of us went to dinner at Hog's Breath cafe. I had chicken tenders (the restaurant was compared to an Applebees by an Australian) and they were delicious. After dinner, we walked around the town and explored. I went to bed early, as we had to wake up at 6am to catch a flight to Newcastle.

Up next...my trip to Newcastle and the first few days. =)

Hey Everyone!

I arrived in Cairns, Australia, yesterday around 2pm. The flights weren't as bad as I thought they would be. I listened to my IPOD and slept most of the time. The hardest part of flying was trying to carry all my luggage by myself. It was a pretty big workout. My orientation group of about 80 people were picked up from the airport and transferred to Gilligan's backpackers hotel about 10 minutes away. You can walk to the beach/ocean, which we will be heading tomorrow for a trip to the Great Barrier Reef on a Catamaran Sailbot. But today....we get to go to the zoo and feed a kangaroo and pet a koala, along with seeing all of Australia's other crazy animals. Then we are eating lunch and going to a Aboriginal Park. Hmmm...what else? It's really humid here and kind of rainy, but much nicer than snowy Chicago. I'm off to eat breakfast before we head out for the day.

Oh, and last night I did the world's smallest bungy jump. haha.

Later gators,
Amy