I thought I'd be able to wear shorts the whole time I was here but I've had to give in to jeans. Despite the decreasing temperature, lots of people still wear bare feet, and I will continue to wear flip flops.
Something I've just started noticing a lot more recently is that rhetorical questions/statements are ended with 'hey'. (Like canadians with 'eh'). Ex: "That test was hard, hey." "You going out tonight hey?"
Thursday April 30
Brian and I Ieft around 5 to get to Sydney for our flight at 8. Flying from Sydney to Cairns is the almost same distance as flying to Las Vegas from Philly. I keep forgetting how big Australia is.
I got seat 1D (lol). By the time we got to Gilligan's, our hostel, it was midnight. Gilligan's was HUGE. And loud. It's a big party hostel, which I was kind of aware of but I had no idea just how intense/loud/clubby it was. We walked around to check it out for a bit then went to bed.
Friday May 1
I might as well have not bothered going to sleep. About 20 minutes after falling asleep, our roommates came back. Personally, I try to be courteous in hostels when other people are sleeping, and try to be quiet. These people weren't trying to be quiet at all, but I assumed they would go to sleep soon and it would be fine. NO. It was a group of 3 Germans, and they conversed in German for a while after getting back. Then one of them started getting mad and yelling. His friends telling him to shush only made him yell more. It was actually kind of scary. And I couldn't understand anything they were saying aside from the English curse words…. and NEIN! which they yelled a lot. They went out on our balcony and continued screaming. Security came in (thank god) to tell them off TWICE, but they kept yelling after security left. They FINALLY went to bed at 5:30. Then I still couldn't sleep because the sixth person in the room (who had somehow slept through the entire thing) was snoring so loudly. Woke up at 6:15.
We packed up all of our stuff and asked to be switched to another room, which was empty except for one girl! Fabulous. Got picked up by Tusa Dive and taken to the marina, where we boarded our dive boat. It was an hour and a half ride out to the Great Barrier Reef. I enjoyed the sun and pretty blue water out on the bow for a bit and then took a nap. The first spot we went to was part of Flynn Reef, called Little Tracey's. It was so cool!! We saw a Black Tip Reef shark, as well as these cute little squids and lots of other fish! My tour guide dove down and rubbed a giant clam and it snapped shut! The coral was much more colorful and varied than I've ever seen snorkeling before. It was so much fun, the water was a perfect temperature, I was loving life. We went back in for lunch and then moved to the second location, 3 sisters on Milln Reef. The coral came up a lot higher at some spots, and I was scared I would kick it by accident! But being so close was so interesting, I felt like I was in Finding Nemo. I really wanted to dive down in the little canyons between corals, but then I was also scared of what would be down there. While everyone was taking off their gear, I sat on the back platform in the water, and it was perfect, I could've stayed there for ages. When we got back, Brian and I walked around Cairns to find food, and just sat for a while people watching and enjoying the pleasant weather. Went to bed early. As it turns out, 3 more Germans had moved into this room during the day, and when they came back to the room 3 times during the night they were also very loud and obnoxious…. though not yelling.
Saturday May 2
Today, I thought we would be hiking up rivers to waterfalls and hiking through the rainforest. But, we spend a lot of soggy time on a bus driving around Wooroonooran National Park and the Atherton Tablelands, making a couple stops. We went to Babinda Boulders and Josephine Falls, which were both very pretty. Josephine Falls had a slippery rock slide with a cool swimming hole that we stayed at for a while. Got lunch at a B&B, then went to Millaa Millaa Falls (the most photographed waterfall in Australia), and Lake Eacham which is a volcanic crater lake. The last stop was to see platypuses but there were none around.
Fun fact: male platypuses are the only venomous mammals.
Sunday May 3
Today was our earliest day, as we had a long bus ride to Tully River where we would be white water rafting. We did the 'XTREME' rafting as per Brian's wishes (and then he chickened out on half of the 'extreme' activities). I, however, LOVED it. It was SO much fun, and much nicer than rafting in freezing cold New Zealand where I didn't even want to touch the water. The water was low, so we did a lot of weaving through huge boulders, tilting the raft. The additional extreme activities involved swimming, swimming down rapids, cliff jumping, flipping the boat, really fast rock slides that send you spinning deep underwater, water jets that shot you under the boat, and going through waterfalls. I had an absolute blast.
I tried to book a half day snorkeling trip for tomorrow, because I had so much fun the other day, but it was all sold out. I wish I was staying here longer!
Monday May 4
We didn't have any plans for today, so we took the bus to Trinity Beach, which was almost deserted and very pretty. It was wonderful. The jellyfish were so bad that you had to swim in a jelly net. The water was warm and calm. Left at 2:30 and we just barely made it to the airport in time to check in for our flight. The two hour train ride from Sydney is a killer when you're coming back from a trip. We got back to chilly Wollongong at 11.
Tuesday May 5
I was looking up flights to Bali and the cheapest/good ones are Malaysia Air which freaks me out a lot.
Wednesday May 6
I thought my planet earth class was going to be like "rocks for jocks." But we have tests where we have to identify different types of rocks, and it is really hard!
Thursday May 7
It's cold.
Friday May 8
Went out for sushi with my friends then to see Pitch Perfect 2. It came out yesterday here but doesn't come out until the 15th in the states! Ha. It was really funny. I thought it was random that aside from mainly taking place in the US, Copenhagen and Australia were the two other places that were in it a lot (they compete in Copenhagen and Fat Amy is Australian)… both places Katie and I studied abroad.
Saturday May 9
Woke up at 6 for the 6:30 sunrise with Alana, Dave and Melissa. Alana has never seen the sunrise before…good thing it was a good one.
Went for a lovely 5 mile run to the lighthouse with Alana, which may not seem like a lot for some people but I think that's probably the longest I've run since crew lol. Then we ran to the beach and into the ocean. It was a little too freezing cold to be refreshing.
At midnight I was staring at the Dad Vails website refreshing it over and over for times… Katie's boat got 1st in semi finals!
Sunday May 10
Woke up with news that Katie got bronze in finals! Yay! Her second year on the medal dock…I'm sad I missed it and kind of wish I was there rowing too. But I will definitely be in attendance next year when she completes her set with a gold:)
I got a lot of homework done this weekend, and actually got ahead on some studying and group projects!
There is a lizard in my unit, that none of my Australian roommates think it is a big deal. The lizard is not that big but still freaks me out. I don't want to wake up and find a lizard on my pillow next to me.
Melissa and I are leaving Wednesday night to go to Melbourne to see Philpp and Daniel from our New Zealand trip, and Sara is coming from the Gold Coast as well!! And then my fam is coming to visit after that! I'm so excited!!!
In one of my previous blogs I said Melbourne was pronounced Melburn. That's wrong, but that's how I still pronounce it so I don't feel as dumb as saying Mel-born, because thats completely wrong. Aussies say it Mel-bn. But it sounds silly when I try to say it like that.
:)
Something I've just started noticing a lot more recently is that rhetorical questions/statements are ended with 'hey'. (Like canadians with 'eh'). Ex: "That test was hard, hey." "You going out tonight hey?"
Thursday April 30
Brian and I Ieft around 5 to get to Sydney for our flight at 8. Flying from Sydney to Cairns is the almost same distance as flying to Las Vegas from Philly. I keep forgetting how big Australia is.
I got seat 1D (lol). By the time we got to Gilligan's, our hostel, it was midnight. Gilligan's was HUGE. And loud. It's a big party hostel, which I was kind of aware of but I had no idea just how intense/loud/clubby it was. We walked around to check it out for a bit then went to bed.
Friday May 1
I might as well have not bothered going to sleep. About 20 minutes after falling asleep, our roommates came back. Personally, I try to be courteous in hostels when other people are sleeping, and try to be quiet. These people weren't trying to be quiet at all, but I assumed they would go to sleep soon and it would be fine. NO. It was a group of 3 Germans, and they conversed in German for a while after getting back. Then one of them started getting mad and yelling. His friends telling him to shush only made him yell more. It was actually kind of scary. And I couldn't understand anything they were saying aside from the English curse words…. and NEIN! which they yelled a lot. They went out on our balcony and continued screaming. Security came in (thank god) to tell them off TWICE, but they kept yelling after security left. They FINALLY went to bed at 5:30. Then I still couldn't sleep because the sixth person in the room (who had somehow slept through the entire thing) was snoring so loudly. Woke up at 6:15.
We packed up all of our stuff and asked to be switched to another room, which was empty except for one girl! Fabulous. Got picked up by Tusa Dive and taken to the marina, where we boarded our dive boat. It was an hour and a half ride out to the Great Barrier Reef. I enjoyed the sun and pretty blue water out on the bow for a bit and then took a nap. The first spot we went to was part of Flynn Reef, called Little Tracey's. It was so cool!! We saw a Black Tip Reef shark, as well as these cute little squids and lots of other fish! My tour guide dove down and rubbed a giant clam and it snapped shut! The coral was much more colorful and varied than I've ever seen snorkeling before. It was so much fun, the water was a perfect temperature, I was loving life. We went back in for lunch and then moved to the second location, 3 sisters on Milln Reef. The coral came up a lot higher at some spots, and I was scared I would kick it by accident! But being so close was so interesting, I felt like I was in Finding Nemo. I really wanted to dive down in the little canyons between corals, but then I was also scared of what would be down there. While everyone was taking off their gear, I sat on the back platform in the water, and it was perfect, I could've stayed there for ages. When we got back, Brian and I walked around Cairns to find food, and just sat for a while people watching and enjoying the pleasant weather. Went to bed early. As it turns out, 3 more Germans had moved into this room during the day, and when they came back to the room 3 times during the night they were also very loud and obnoxious…. though not yelling.
Saturday May 2
Today, I thought we would be hiking up rivers to waterfalls and hiking through the rainforest. But, we spend a lot of soggy time on a bus driving around Wooroonooran National Park and the Atherton Tablelands, making a couple stops. We went to Babinda Boulders and Josephine Falls, which were both very pretty. Josephine Falls had a slippery rock slide with a cool swimming hole that we stayed at for a while. Got lunch at a B&B, then went to Millaa Millaa Falls (the most photographed waterfall in Australia), and Lake Eacham which is a volcanic crater lake. The last stop was to see platypuses but there were none around.
Fun fact: male platypuses are the only venomous mammals.
Sunday May 3
Today was our earliest day, as we had a long bus ride to Tully River where we would be white water rafting. We did the 'XTREME' rafting as per Brian's wishes (and then he chickened out on half of the 'extreme' activities). I, however, LOVED it. It was SO much fun, and much nicer than rafting in freezing cold New Zealand where I didn't even want to touch the water. The water was low, so we did a lot of weaving through huge boulders, tilting the raft. The additional extreme activities involved swimming, swimming down rapids, cliff jumping, flipping the boat, really fast rock slides that send you spinning deep underwater, water jets that shot you under the boat, and going through waterfalls. I had an absolute blast.
I tried to book a half day snorkeling trip for tomorrow, because I had so much fun the other day, but it was all sold out. I wish I was staying here longer!
Monday May 4
We didn't have any plans for today, so we took the bus to Trinity Beach, which was almost deserted and very pretty. It was wonderful. The jellyfish were so bad that you had to swim in a jelly net. The water was warm and calm. Left at 2:30 and we just barely made it to the airport in time to check in for our flight. The two hour train ride from Sydney is a killer when you're coming back from a trip. We got back to chilly Wollongong at 11.
Tuesday May 5
I was looking up flights to Bali and the cheapest/good ones are Malaysia Air which freaks me out a lot.
Wednesday May 6
I thought my planet earth class was going to be like "rocks for jocks." But we have tests where we have to identify different types of rocks, and it is really hard!
Thursday May 7
It's cold.
Friday May 8
Went out for sushi with my friends then to see Pitch Perfect 2. It came out yesterday here but doesn't come out until the 15th in the states! Ha. It was really funny. I thought it was random that aside from mainly taking place in the US, Copenhagen and Australia were the two other places that were in it a lot (they compete in Copenhagen and Fat Amy is Australian)… both places Katie and I studied abroad.
Saturday May 9
Woke up at 6 for the 6:30 sunrise with Alana, Dave and Melissa. Alana has never seen the sunrise before…good thing it was a good one.
Went for a lovely 5 mile run to the lighthouse with Alana, which may not seem like a lot for some people but I think that's probably the longest I've run since crew lol. Then we ran to the beach and into the ocean. It was a little too freezing cold to be refreshing.
At midnight I was staring at the Dad Vails website refreshing it over and over for times… Katie's boat got 1st in semi finals!
Sunday May 10
Woke up with news that Katie got bronze in finals! Yay! Her second year on the medal dock…I'm sad I missed it and kind of wish I was there rowing too. But I will definitely be in attendance next year when she completes her set with a gold:)
I got a lot of homework done this weekend, and actually got ahead on some studying and group projects!
There is a lizard in my unit, that none of my Australian roommates think it is a big deal. The lizard is not that big but still freaks me out. I don't want to wake up and find a lizard on my pillow next to me.
Melissa and I are leaving Wednesday night to go to Melbourne to see Philpp and Daniel from our New Zealand trip, and Sara is coming from the Gold Coast as well!! And then my fam is coming to visit after that! I'm so excited!!!
In one of my previous blogs I said Melbourne was pronounced Melburn. That's wrong, but that's how I still pronounce it so I don't feel as dumb as saying Mel-born, because thats completely wrong. Aussies say it Mel-bn. But it sounds silly when I try to say it like that.
:)