28 July - Botanical Gardens

Today I woke up at 6 am from my cough and couldnt go back to sleep.  I had a class at 9 am but it only lasted for a total of ten minutes.  A wasted walk to campus if you ask me... and even more tragically, in those ten minutes I managed to leave my camelback water bottle on the floor of the lecture hall.  It has yet to be recovered. :(  But after class I met Marisa and Jessica at the "Bean Scene" on a little strip of shops about 5 minutes from our dorm.  After coffee Marisa and I went grocery shopping at the local "Coles" AND I bought a roll of butcher paper from a little news stand on the corner.  More on that later.  But we also bought a baguette of French bread and some Australian Brie.

This became lunch after we made our way downtown to the Botanical Gardens.  They were really beautiful and actually very diverse.  There was a mangrove stand on the bank of the river that we got to walk through and these really pretty orange flowers. (see picture :) ) There was also a group of school children in adorable uniforms complete with sun hats!  I took a few pictures of them too.  But on our way back to campus we took some artsy photos and then met Tara back on campus.

I had secretly (or not so secretly) saved some of the baguette for the walk back to the dorms.  We had to walk past our lakes and I wanted to feed the birds.  I got one of the crazy red headed birds and three different ducks to eat from my hand.  All the rest were scaredy cats and didnt get any of the wonderful bread.

But tonight was also our first formal dinner.  Funniest/weirdest experience of my life.  I wore a Harry Potter robe and met in the dining hall with my mates all dressed the same.  Our tables were set for three courses and had nice linens and everything.  Once we were all sitting around at our tables a procession of our principal (clearly Dumbledore) followed by our dean (a white haired lady... McGonagall obviously) and then all the wing leaders (prefects...).  The student dean (head boy) spoke before dinner.  And we only sat after they sat down.  Then we ate a mediocre meal with a crappy dessert and had to wait for all of the "head table" people to disperse before we could sit back down or walk out.  I honestly was waiting for the girls in blue capes and the crazy russian boys to storm through the main doors and challenge us all to a battle for the cup.  I do regret to report that there were no floating candles nor mail delivered by owl... but Ill keep you updated!

Oh and the butcher paper... I hung it up the whole way around my room and went to town with my crayons on a mural.  I despise the color the walls are painted here so I am fixing that.  Ill keep you updated on that too. (Suggestions on names for the birds are welcome...)

27 July - First Day of Uni

So today was the first day of classes and Im still tragically sick.  I went to my first class which is entitled "Australians at War" it is a history course based mostly in the idea that war has had a large impact on Australian society (which is kind of an interesting assertion because most people dont think of Australia as a warring nation).  But it sounds very very interesting and I really like the professor.  The lecture meets once a week and then we have tutorial sessions which are really just smaller discussion groups.  

My next class was Coral Reefs and I had that in a building way across campus.  I am friends with another girl taking the class so that was fun.  We really didnt do too much in that session but I have it again at 9am tomorrow.

After classes we sort of just hung around on the "great court" and had pizza for lunch.  I bought more cold medicine, and the reader for my history class.  I know... very exciting shopping.  Regardless today was fun and we watched Finding Nemo after dinner.  OH and I drew a really cool whale/mermaid/coral poster on the inside of a wrapping paper thingy for Marissa to hang on her wall.  Maybe Ill take a picture of it tomorrow for you  :)  G'night from downunda!

26 July - Really a whole week...

I cannot believe I havent updated this in a week.  Its been pretty busy but still... writing about a whole week is a daunting task now.

Early in the week I went on a few exploratory run/jog/walks with some of the girls that have been living in Emmanuel College.  We made it around about half the city without public transportation and found a few cool new spots.  There is a neat fruit stand about halfway between our school and the downtown section, and an awesome memorial park that overlooks the whole city near another ferry stop.  But mostly we just settled in and went shopping in some of the main business districts.  

On Tuesday we tried one of the local bars called the Royal Exchange (RE for short).  It was a Tuesday and not many people were back to school so we sort of quadrupled the attendance by walking in.  But it was a nice laid back place with a few travelers hanging around.  We made friends with some New Zealanders and they told us the hot ski spots to hit up for spring break.

Wednesday we went to the second "college spot" we were told about.  The Regatta is an old hotel right on the river and the place itself is pretty cool but NOT my scene at all.  Way too many people, way too loud, way too disgusting really.  Plus I am completely sure that its a total rip off.  A friend bought a single drink for $16.

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Thursday I went to bed early.  I was sooo tired that there was no way I was doing anything.  During the day had been one of our exploratory walk sessions and I was beat.  Im pretty sure I was out by 6PM

Friday was a pretty lazy day too.  I met a few more of my college-mates. (one was from NZ another from New South Wales AU) Mostly I just read my book on a blanket in the quad because the sun was absolutely perfect.  Then in the evening a few of us went over to the kids at the Sir Fred apartment and watched some aussie footie before we went out for the night.  A few Australian kids took us to a club downtown but not everyone could get in.  It was also ridiculously cold out that night so Jess Marissa and I stopped for pizza and then took a cab home!

Saturday everyone that went to Cairns (plus Jess) went to an AFL (australian rules football) match between the Brisbane Lions and the North Melbourne Kangaroos.  The stadium is called the Wallongabba "Gabba" for short.  It was an awesome time even if we didnt know all the rules!  Brisbane won by quite alot and their star player, Brown (Brownie as they call him affectionately) kicked his 400th career goal.  Im pretty sure Ill be able to follow AFL if for nothing more than "Brownie".  But I got a really cool Lions scarf that looks like the Gryfindor (sp?) scarf in Harry Potter.  Add that with my robes and all I need is a wand!

THEN this morning we woke up at 6:30 to catch a cab to a pickup point for our shuttle to our whale watching tour.  Yes it was that convoluted.  But we drove up to Redcliffe just north of Brisbane for this tour on the "Eye Spy" with "Capt Kerry".  Really nice boat, really nice crew, really nice scenery.  I had an incredible time.  We saw three different pods of Humpbacks that were very interested in why we were floating on their ocean.  They hung out with us for most of the day.  They would play around and breach and put on a show, and as we would turn to leave they would do something spectacular to make us stay around longer!  It was pretty amusing.  Plus we saw a mommy whale and her newborn calf!  Dolphins came and played in the mix too.  All in all a pretty awesome day.  But as we were leaving the boat to go back to the shuttle to Brisbane the crew invited me and the three girls I was with to the local pub.  So we went.  It was a good time and we got to have dinner and talk to the crew a bit.  It was cool to hang out with an authentic aussie gathering.

Anyhow Im going to upload a few picture and go to bed.  Im sick and I have class in the morning so I need all the sleep I can get!

July 20 - Brisbane, QLD

The past few days have been sort of crazy.  I moved into my college (dorm) and orientation week started today.  Ive been sleeping alot, trying to catch up after the last few JAM PACKED days.  Its my effort against becoming ill.  But the food here at Emmanuel College leaves something to be desired.  Ive already gone to the grocery to buy some Ritz and peanut butter.  Thankfully the food in the city is more than respectable and Im really enjoying trying new restaurants (only downside is its expensive!).  But I made a trek into the city on one of the CityCats, their high speed ferries yesterday.  There was a music festival in South Bank, which is like the river walk section of town with lots of shops and trees and such.  That was alot of fun to see the city.  On the way back we went to KMart for some essentials.  MOST EXPENSIVE KMART EVER.  But I needed a hair dryer so I could take a shower!  The dorm rooms are designed to stay very cool for the summer months so there is no heating or air conditioning systems.  That means that now, in the dead of winter, they are frigid.  I wasnt brave enough to take a shower and have wet hair knowing that it wouldnt be dry for hours.  So I saved my first showering experience for this morning... but more on that later.

In the evening we all went to see Harry Potter at a movie theater in Indooroopilly.  Yeah try to say that word to a local and not get laughed at.  Im still working on it.  I enjoyed the movie, but the busses we took to get their stopped running at 9:30pm.  So at 11:30pm we were looking for cabs in the suburbs of Brisbane.  Luckily we found them and it was one of the cheapest cab fares of my life... nothing like Washington DC.

This morning I attempted a shower.  Queensland is under level 5 (apparently this is high?) water restrictions because this place has some serious water shortage issues.  Signs in the bathroom say 4 minute showers, mind you... it takes 3 minutes for water to become a bearable temperature!  Then the lights go out because they are on a 4 minute timer which is outside the shower.  So sopping wet you must peak out of the shower and press the button again for light.  It will take time to get a hang of this!

July 18 - Brisbane, Australia

We had to wake up again early this morning.  I cant wait to sleep in tomorrow.  At the airport I had the best muffin of my life, pineapple-coconut.  Security is way more lax in Australian airports.  No liquid restrictions AND you can keep your shoes on.  After we got to our college (dorms) we went out for lunch at this cute seafood place nearby.  I had cod and chips but a little bit of culture shock, I had to pay for my tomato sauce (ketchup).  After that everyone went shopping for essentials at KMart but I took a nap.  I was exhausted.  AND ITS COLD HERE.  There arent any heating units in the dorm rooms and I am freezing.  Im so glad I brought my own blanket.  As I type my nose is absolutely freezing!  The next few days will be interesting.  I registered for classes today and have finally caught up on my journaling.  Time to explore the city.

July 17 - Michaelmas Cay, Great Barrier Reef

Today was beyond words.  INCREDIBLE.  One of the best days ever. Period.

After breakfast we walked down to the marina where we boarded a huge catamaran called the Passions of Paradise.  The back was entirely set up for scuba rigs and the front was just nets to hang out in.  Unfortunately it is about this time that the battery in my camera decided to die.  Just my luck.  But regardless we had a great ride out to the reef, which took about 2 hours.  I spotted humpback whales off the starboard bow about an hour into it and we stopped to watch them play for a while.  Once we got to the reef we were divided into groups.  I was in the certified group which only had 5 people diving in it.  They tendered the certified group out to a little shoal called Banana Bomie and we dove off the back of a small glass bottomed boat.  The water was incredibly warm at 75 degrees Fahrenheit and it was significantly warmer being in the water than the air.  We went down to about 15 meters and dove through some very cool coral tunnels and swim throughs.  In one you could look up as you passed through and see a cathedral up to the sky with fish swimming in circles.  It was pretty spectacular.  Just on the other side of a tunnel was a huge Green Sea Turtle.  She was just having a snack on some algae around the reef and hung out with us a while.

After that dive we went on shore at the cay and saw all the birds nesting on the far side of the beach.  Blue Footed Boobies fly the whole way from the Galapagos to nest on this specific spit of land.  Pretty cool!  After some time warming up on the beach we snorkeled back to the boat for lunch.

The next dive was a Paradise Reef and was incredible.  I enjoyed this one more.  Maybe because I was more comfortable, or maybe just because only two of us dove this one.  It was much deeper than the first dive and looked like the drop off from Finding Nemo.  We saw perfect little clown fish families and some pelagic fish like barracuda.  We also saw a White Tipped Reef Shark, but he was very uninterested in us.

On the way back to port the weather got pretty rough and alot of people got sick, but we hung out on the front nets and got pounded by waves.  By far the most fun Ive had in a long time.  The past few days have been awesome but Im so tired Im not sure I could take another day of it.  Id love to get to dive again, maybe on the Gold Coast.  Oh and the captain of the boat complimented my sunglasses and said he had just lost his pair of Maui Jims to the sea.

Jul 16 - Cairns, QLD

Today we had to wake up at 6:50am! for "breky" (breakfast).  At our table Tara and Sean tried vegemite and swore up and down they wouldnt wish that experience on their worst enemy.  After, we had a short little information session where I signed up for a weekend learn-to-surf trip.  Then we all loaded up into a coach bus that drove us up the coast in into the mountains to the rainforest.  All I can say about the drive, beyond it being beautiful, was that it was really really twisty.

We got to hang out with some kangaroos at the top in a nature reserve.  They were sooo sweet and just wanted to lay around and be pet.  I held a Costal Carpet Python around my neck!  She was remarkably friendly as well, much to my surprise.  Next we got to hold koalas... which is only okay if they are domesticated ones.  Apparently in the wild they will rip you to shreds before you even know what hit you.  Later we took a ducky tour on one of those truck/boats through the rainforest which was pretty cool.  Plus we got to meet aboriginal people who taught us to play a didjeridoo and throw boomerangs.

Dinner was at the bar/saloon called the Woolshed which had a line out the door and around the block to get in.  We got a steak, salad, potato, and beer for $10.  I guess that explains the line.  We didn't stay too long, because the next day was the dive trip!

July 15 - First Day in Cairns, QLD

Some of these are going to be post dated, because I JUST got my internet in my dorm room...

But the first day in Cairns was awesome.  Our flight from Sydney was pretty short and we all got to sit together in the back so it was fun.  The people that run our program picked us up at the airport and took us to our hotel and then straight to dinner.  We ate at a local place called the Blue Sky Brewery.  Tara and I split a "jug", their word for pitcher, of the Blue Sky Pilsner with dinner.  Then we had a little info session that I nearly fell asleep in before we went back to the hotel.  Tara and I watched a local grudge match of "footy" (rugby) between the Queensland team and the New South Wales team before we went to bed for the night.

Hours and Hours Later...

Im finally in Sydney!  Australia is beautifully sunny today and I left the airport with a few new friends during our seven hour layover.  The flight wasnt TOO bad.  We got two nice meals on the plane and I sat next to a very well behaved 7 year old boy so there was lots of leg room.  For some reason Qantas Airlines seemed to be understaffed this morning and we had to wait in a line about an hour.  While standing in the line though I spotted a girl with an AustraLearn luggage tag and an University of Kentucky shirt!  It was Tara, Amy's sorority sister from school.  Small world.  But regardless we decided to quest out into the city to see the Opera House.  The birds here are crazy and their are cockatiels flying in the trees just like a pet store!  Also we saw VERY huge bats and lots of people wearing ski hats because they think its cold!  Ill post a few pictures and write more later but we are getting on a flight for Cairns!