Sorry for the wait, I finally got wifi across the street in the hotel we hold our meetings in (it barely works from my bed if I lay in the right position!) This will probably be my longest entry so I can explain my first few days here… but I have arrived!!! First thing I noticed was definitely the temperature. A little different than back home I've heard… Anyway, I found my group easily because they all looked like lost Americans, so I fit right in! I didn't end up sitting with them on the flight because I traded my seat for a window seat. Definitely didn't want to sit in the middle for the fourteen-hour flight, even if it was next to everyone in the group! The flight wasn't bad at all and actually was over before I knew it after the movies and sleeping with meals and snacks in between! We had a five-hour layover in Brisbane before flying to Cairns, so we all talked and got to know each other. Flying over the Great Barrier Reef was amazing because we got to see some of the hundreds of reef systems that make it up (one is pictured above!)

Once we met up with our leaders, Janye and Allison, in Cairns, we caught our bus (which was over an hour late) and headed to our hostel, Gilligans Travels. It's way nicer than I would expect a hostel to be and it has a club downstairs. It's known around Australia as the "party hostel" because mostly young adults stay there. We got put into rooms with 4/5 people from the group, and I've really grown close with the ones in mine! We've explored the town around us quite a bit and we basically know our way around just in time to leave tomorrow! There are many hills and it's very green here, gorgeous landscape as expected!

On our first full day, Tuesday, we woke up bright an early to get breakfast which was provided by ISA, I tried vegemite (not too bad on toast if put on very very lightly with some butter too), then headed to Rainforestation Nature Park to hold koalas, feed kangaroos, watch a traditional aboriginal performance, and go on a duckboat tour. Pictures are to come in the near future! (Probably tomorrow or Friday when I have the chance to upload them from my camera and phone) Holding the koala was so much fun because it was very relaxed and not heavy at all! I also held a snake (some type of constrictor without the venom inside of it) and it tried to wrap itself around my head and I freaked out in front of everyone because I don't deal with snakes to begin with and it was practically trying to kill me! I got a few selfies with kangaroos that were hanigng out in the sun and laying on the grass in the park which was aweosme because they were very laid back! After the aboriginal performance, we learned to throw a boomerang, play the didgeridoo, and make aboriginal artwork on canvases; we went on the duckboat tour through the rainforest at the park. I loved every minute of it!

Now today I finally got to do something that's been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember, snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef! There was an option to dive, but after explaining my medical conditions, I was told that I was not allowed to participate. I was upset at first, but I wasn't going to let that ruin the excitement I had to still snorkel and swim in the reef! There were so many vibrant colors and different fish I saw everywhere I looked and it was more beautiful than I could've ever imagined! We spent the entire day out on the boat and it was very relaxing and hot! It was a two-hour trip there and back and we left at 8 in the morning and returned around 5:30 in the evening. It was so hot and the sun is so powerful in Australia that it's necessary to wear 50+ sunscreen at all times and keep reapplying more as the day goes on. We were told it takes only 15 minutes to sunburn with the sun intensity today, so we all put a ton of it everywhere. I only got a little rosy in my face and my legs, but thankfully it was nothing painful and it'll most likely turn in to a tan tomorrow!

Everyone is very laid back and sarcastic here, so I think I'll like the poeple a lot because they're just like me! Jet lag hasn't really occured except for being tired today from being on the boat in the hot sun, but I just think the weather made us all want to just lay out and fall asleep in the sun! We head to Melbourne tomorrow to finally move into our appartments and I couldn't be more excited to get settled, and not live out of my suitcases! Shockingly enough, I believe I packed the lightest out of all the girls in the group, which I definitely thought I would've been one of the worst! Tomorrow we get to meet our roommates, who will most likely be other international students or even other Australian students! They made it random so we would branch out and meet more people and I'm very thankful! Now my rant about my first days in Cairns is over and I will post about Melbourne sometime this weekend!

Cheers!