I'm currently at my homestay house in Smithfield, an area of Cairns about a 30 minute bus ride from the main city. I'm living with my Aussie homestay father, Rodney, his Japanese wife, Natsuki, and Rodney's kids Lexie (13) and Will (10). They also have a cat named Scratchy and got an 8-week-old puppy my first week here who is still unnamed. The family is great! They picked me up from our hostel in Cairns last Sunday, and we went straight to a carnival for Father's Day (Father's Day here is in September rather than June at home). Immediately, Lexie bombarded me with questions about America, especially about American high schools, because she is in her first year of high school in Australia, which begins in grade 8. Will is quieter, but also a great kid. He especially likes when I watch him play video games. I've had so much fun getting to know the family - playing darts and backyard cricket, listening to Rodney's speeches (he sure can talk!), and eating delicious meals with them. Unfortunately, the kids went to their mom's house for my second week of homestay, and Natsuki left for Japan yesterday to visit her family, so now it's just me and Rodney.

Last week, I only had to go into the city twice for lectures, so I had plenty of time to play with the family and explore my neighborhood. I'm a 10 minute walk from the Smithfield Library, which is tiny, and a 20 minute walk from the Cairns campus of James Cook University (JCU, there's another campus in Townsville as well). I especially enjoyed walking along the footpath to JCU that's a reforestation area - very pretty!

For my birthday on Friday, my homestay family took me out to a delicious dinner at the Cairns Cascino. After a buffet dinner, there was a buffet dessert table, so over course I had to try everything chocolate, and then they brought out a special birthday plate for me with chocolate covered strawberries and "happy birthday" written in chocolate - it was so good, but I was so full!

Saturday was the Cairns Amateurs, a huge horse race that takes over the city once a year. I put on my only dress, and Natsuki lent me a pair of high heels and a hat - I fit right in with the other ridiculous outfits! I went with Rodney, Natsuki, and Rodney's co-worker, Jesse, who's my age. I spent some time wandering around with Jesse, who introduced me to all his mates. It was really nice to finally meet some Aussies my own age. They were really friendly and excited to meet an American. The horses themselves were beautiful, and Rodney convinced us all to bet $5 each in the last race. Of course, our four horses came in last, but it was still a great day. Sunday was a low-key day; I met up with two girls from my program living nearby, and we biked to the local beach for the afternoon - very relaxing. This week I only have two lectures in the city again, but plenty of reading and my first real project to do.

Our main project for our two week homestay is an ecological field project, in which we have to create an ecological question that we can answer with 8 hours of observation somewhere around our homestay. Fortunately, behind my homestay house is a large sugarcane field that has been cut down and now acts as home for a population of wallabies. However, the area is supposed to be developed over the next few years, and construction is already going on at the left edge of the field. When the construction is complete, the wallabies will have nowhere to go, so there's a bit of a scandal about what to do. Last year, some people proposed to relocate them, but the movement was not passed, so now the wallabies will be left to their own devises. So, I decided to study the wallabies and see how they interact with people. I'm testing to see if they can acclimate to human interactions, so everyday twice a day I walk out to the wallabies and see how close I can get. I don't think I'll see any major difference in just the 5 days that I have, but it's still a fun excuse to go play with the wallabies. And don't worry, they never let me get closer than about 20 m, so it's not dangerous. They're more scared of me than I am of them. It's a little tricky because they aren't out during the day when the sun is beating down, so I can only do my observations at dawn and dusk, leaving me with free days to do readings and explore. I've also got a bit of a cold, so it's been nice to take lots of naps and try to get better before we leave for our Aboriginal studies camping trip on Sunday!