The whole group of us, about 70+ students that are studying through the AustraLearn program at Griffith University in Gold Coast, are staying at Serpents which is a backpackers hostel in Cairns, Australia. The program consists of a bunch of activities pre-planned by the AustraLearn folks. Its been interesting here although its really hard to live in a dorm with 6 girls when each of us has 3 or more pieces of luggage....living out of a suitcase is not fun. Cairns reminds me a lot of Hawaii...very tropical and EXTREMELY humid. The weather changes a lot, usually really sunny and changing to overcast and rainy. The rain is warm and not too bad but the humidity is just not my favorite thing. But we're all drinking TONS of water and enjoying the heat.
I'm already obsessed with this country. Although I'm not in Gold Coast yet, I love the culture and lifestyle that Australians live. Everything is very laidback and no problem. People are super nice and just really mellow to be around. I've realized that the U.S. is a very complicated place and a lot of the things we do are more complex than they should be. Very refreshing to be surrounded by a 'no worries' mentality. They often say "work to live, not live to work" which I totally love.
On Wednesday, the day after we flew in and our first whole day in Australia, we took charter buses up a mountain to this tropical zoo called Rainforestation. It was really neat because we got an introduction to the indigenous Australian culture. We learned how to throw a boomerang, how to throw a spear, and how to play a didgeridoo (basically an Aussie instrument made out of a long bamboo shaft that makes really cool noises when you blow into it). We also got to feed and pet kangaroos, watch a huge alligator get fed, and hold a koala bear. It was a fun day but very hot.
Thursday was our adventure day and I had signed up for an activity prior to getting to Australia. My guy friends from CU and I all went on the 1/2 day ATV and 1/2 day white water rafting adventure. The first part was ATVing and it was SOOOOO fun. We were driven up to a ranch that had 1,200 square acres of wilderness to explore. The instructor was really cool and super fun so he led us through huge trenches and mud puddles and off of jumps. We each got to ride our own 4-wheel ATV bike and it was a really great time. The second half of the day was supposed to be white-water rafting but because it rained too hard the day before, the company canceled it. It was kind of a bummer but the 3 hours ATV-ing was really exhausting so I didn't mind relaxing.
Today, Friday, was Community Day so we drove up to a wilderness reserve in the tropics. The nursery gave us gloves and gardening tools and we got to pot seeds and plants for growth. The purpose of this day was to teach us about taking care of the environment as Australians are very 'green' and consciencious of the ecosystem. One of the birds here is endangered because the trees that they eat are all being eaten by other animals and so the birds don't get what they need to survive. So we planted 5 trees to help keep this species from dying out. It was really cool to give back to a community that is so new to all of us.
I'm really excited about tomorrow. We get to go out on a huge boat and experience the Great Barrier Reef. We get to snorkel and dive and just do the whole Reef experience which will be awesome. And later in the day, we're going to just cruise around and relax. I hope the weather is nice because it will be so much fun.
I think everyone, including myself, is excited to just get to the Gold Coast because right now we have an agenda and I think most people want to explore the country on their own. We leave Cairns on Sunday so it will be awesome to finally get to our apartments, move in, and start fully engulfing the Aussie experience.
For now, I'm sitting at an internet cafe, enjoying the heat. More when I hit the 'Goldie'.
Peace :)
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