Week 1. In which Australia is amazing.

    Ok, I’m finally sitting down to blog. I keep meaning to every night but keep getting distracted by random things, like rescuing a gecko from a friend’s room (still not sure if I was rescuing the gecko, or Emily…), or putting up pictures instead.
    So this one will be about my first week here. It was an orientation for the program I came here through. It was located in Cairns, which is a 4 hour drive north of here (for those of you who don’t know, I am on the northeast coast). Cairns is a rainforest, absolutely gorgeous! But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself, I was going to talk about the flight a bit first.
    The 14-hour flight was not as a bad as we were dreading. We ended up sleeping for the majority of it except for a little bit in the beginning and end. It was a great airline, decent food, and they gave us hot chocolate with a big marshmallow! We then had a stop in the Sydney airport, went through customs and all that, and then a 3 or 4 hour flight to Cairns. We got ice cream on that flight! Our first glimpse of Cairns was… I’m running out of adjectives to convey my experiences… gorgeous, unbelievable, etc, all apply. Green mountains, right up until blue green water, waves crashing, reef. Wow.
    We were pretty much rushed right into our first session almost straight off the plane. No time to shower, we just dropped our bags off in our rooms (at a hostel/resort. It was really nice, pool, clean, more resort then hostel), and went to dinner and a welcome session that we were all falling asleep during. Besides wanting to go to bed super early the first night, jet lag wasn’t really an issue for me. Kathy and I were up for 24 hours and then slept for the 14 hour flight so that pretty much got us on the right time zone. Anyway, I was so confused as to what time it was, I was ready to adapt to any schedule presented.
    The next morning we were off to the Rainforestation! We saw Aborigine demonstrations, dancing, spear throwing. We threw boomerangs (Kathy’s came back to hers, my throw was.. lets say less dismal then I expected). We saw didgeridoo playing. Basically termites hollow out a tree and the Aborigine cut it down, clear out all the termites, smooth it out and put beeswax on the mouth piece. It has this crazy deep sound when played correctly, but when played incorrectly (like all us tourists on our first couple of tries) its basically just the longest fart noise ever.
    The Rainforestation was also a wildlife park, so we held a koala bear, fed some wallabies and kangaroos, saw dingoes and crocs and weird birds, and held a python. We also tried green ant butt. There are these ants with a green abdomen, and when that abdomen is licked or eaten, there is a tangy taste that’s pretty good if you can get over how gross it is that there is an ant in your mouth. We also went on a DUCK tour where we discovered that even the plants want to hurt you in Australia. There are vines that attach themselves to you and grow every-which-way, and a stinging berry that when you brush against it you get its hairs embedded in you and they’re like needles burning for anywhere from a week to six months.
    The next day (Sunday), was “adventure day” where we broke off and went on different tours offered. Kathy and I went on one that drove us up north, stopping at various places. First stop: Rainforest Wildlife Habitat. It was a lot like the Rainforestation, but this one had wallabies with joeys! Next stop was Mossman gorge where we went on a little walk through the rainforest and ended up at the Mossman River where we went for a dip. A chilly dip. After lunch we went on a croc cruise in the Daintree River and saw wild crocodiles. On our way to Cape Tribulation we saw a wild cassowary! Cassowaries are big, black, flightless birds with a colorful crest on their head. They are capable of killing a human by kicking them with their big claws. They are very important to the rainforest because they spread many seeds, but they are quickly becoming endangered so it isn’t too common to see one in the wild.  The Cape Tribulation beach was wonderful. It was flanked by mangroves and wonderful mountains. There was soft coral reefs forming tidepools with all sorts of critter in there.
    Monday was community day. We helped plant and pot trees that were specifically picked to extend the cassowary habitat (loss and fragmentation of habitat is the main reason they’re becoming extinct). Later that day a small group of us went hiking through botanical gardens and up a hill with a view of Cairns.
    Tuesday we went to the Great Barrier Reef!! Unfortunately I had a cold so I couldn’t dive, but I was snorkeling as much as they allowed us in the water! I can’t even describe the reef to all you. It was beyond words. It was so peaceful being in there. I had so much fun seeing all these fish I recognized from interning at the aquarium. I also saw a sea turtle (a complete “woaaaaaah!” moment), he wasn’t very large, he was just floating around and then swam up to surface not too far from me. And of course I found a nudibranch!
    So that was my first week. Wednesday I rode the bus to Townsville, and settled into my dorm room.
    Miss you all! Thinking of my family all the time!