Re-assimilation

School is back in full swing, complete with papers, projects, readings and a brand new job!  That's right, this chica got her very own big girl job!  Well, internship.  But a PAID internship, with a desk and a computer just for me.  I am interning with UT's Media Relations office, specifically working with the Ready for the World initiative on campus, working to make students more culturally aware before they go out to the real world.

I am pretty gosh-darn excited!  It's my first actual job, and it is right up my alley!  I mostly will be writing press releases and organizing events, you know, intern stuff, but I get to write about what I enjoy-- my first interview was with a girl who just got back from spending seven weeks in Uganda with Nourish International, and before I knew it, we had been talking for an entire hour.  I already did a press release for the university's study abroad fair and spotlights on the peer advisors working in the programs abroad office.  Everyone in the office seems really excited to have me on board-- this is going to be a great working experience!

Wanderlust

As of today, I have been home for six weeks, which is the longest I have stayed in one place all year.  The constant travel of this past semester was exhilarating and most likely had something to do with the planning of my next big adventure-- I am about to go to Haiti for three weeks!

My roommate at UT went on a mission trip to Port-au-Prince over spring break to work in medical clinics and left her heart there, so she invited me to go back with her for a stint this summer.  (My money is on her spending ALL of next summer there, if not staying forever.)  Anywho, the two of us are going through the Chadasha Foundation joining a couple of other girls to act as mission interns, helping to hold down the fort by working with children in orphanages, manning medical clinics and helping out mission teams that will come and go during our stay-- basically, doing what any good intern does:  some of everything, smiling all along the way.

God has really blessed us during our preparations!  All of our expenses were covered by generous donations and we are even bringing extra luggage so we can take heaps of school supplies, clothing and bedding for the kids that have nothing.  We fly out early Monday (the 18th) morning and will be there into August.

Just to make things more exciting, I was accepted as an Australian Student Ambassador, and will actually be flying from Haiti to Washington D.C. for orientation, before finally making my way back home on the 7th and moving back on campus the 11th for another semester to begin.  Whew.

My life has been and will be a whirlwind for the rest of my summer; I've taken a Spanish class in these last six weeks, along with working on my Dad's farm and being on the prowl for an internship this fall.  I signed up for my fall courses in a hostel at the Great Barrier Reef and I'll pay for tuition online from a missionary's guest house in Port-au-Prince.  I would say it's been a good year :)

Please keep us in your prayers, and if you are interested, I will be blogging about my Haitian exploits at http://stephaniemae-pslam46.blogspot.com/ .

Parting is such sweet sorrow

A lot has happened since my last post-- My roommate Nikki left on a Saturday, after which I left to go home with my neighbor, Jess, who lives in Jindabyne, at the foot of the Snowy Mountains.  Now that I have been home for a week, it is a bit difficult to recollect, but there was actually snow.  Snow!  In June!  Weird.

Above are my neighbors Ella and Jess^  

There were also emu running round on the roads, just to make it a bit more Australian.

I spent the night in Jindy, and woke up to frost and Jess' dad building a nice fire while her mum made bacon and eggs for us all.  Then we split and got back to Canberra for my last day there.  We all watched some movies and did some final re-arranging before going to sleep and checking out the next morning, after which were the worst goodbyes ever.  Hugs from everyone, then a line of friends waving goodbye from the balcony as Nicole and I drove off to Sydney.  

At this point, I had my two large suitcases stuffed to the Qantas maximum weight, along with my backpack stuffed to the brim and a messenger bag for good measure that I was lugging around.  Nicole dropped me off at the train station in Cambelltown, where she lives, and I managed to get all of my belongings on the train, and the connecting train that took me to Maquarie Uni, where I would stay my last nights in Oz.  Wow, I was exhausted.

June 8 began for me at 5 a.m. when I woke up for a shower and brekky.  Charlie went to the airport with me, helping to shoulder half of the load of my luggage.  We saw the sun rise as we walked to the station to catch a train to the international airport.  My flight took off at 10:30 a.m. and I waved goodbye to Sydney and Australia.  Until next time, friend.

We started flying east and soon enough, morning became dawn and dawn sank into night.  I peeked out of my window and saw the Southern Cross one last time before it disappeared along with the Southern Hemisphere.  Toward the very end of my flight, I raised the shade to see my second sunrise of the morning, 15 or so hours after the first.  I landed in LA at 6 a.m. June 8, exhausted since I never really slept on the 12-hour plane ride.

After bumming in LAX for a while, I got on my last plane from LA to Nashville at noon.
Fun Fact:  Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival was to start on June 9, so a flight from LA to Nashville was full of interesting folks!  I looked behind me while standing in line to board the plane, and saw a somewhat familiar face wearing Havainas (Australian brand of flip-flops).  I basically KNEW, but checked when I got home-- it was Tim Minchin!  I had watched him host the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in April!  I made awkward eye contact about three times.

Anyway, I landed in Nashville at 6:30 p.m., still having not slept since I woke up at 5 a.m. a bajillion hours earlier that morning.  I found my parents and fell asleep as soon at the car started moving for the hour and a half drive home.  Jet lag did terrible things to me, but I made it through and am now full-swing back in my usual summer routine of workworkwork.

*sniff*  I miss you, Australia.

On the home stretch

It's my last week in Oz, which is kinda sad.

We have been squeezing in all of the things that we have said we would do all semester, but never got around to doing-- visiting the Australian War Memorial, eating kangaroo, having a house barbecue, going to a tea room and looking for platapus in the wild, among other various things.  It's crazy how it all is about to come to an abrupt end.  Tomorrow is my last full day in Canberra, and I will turn in the keys to my apartment.  Saturday, my roommate flies home, and I will go home with one of my neighbors for a night, come back to Canberra for a night, then head to Sydney on Monday.  Wednesday morning I catch a plane, and begin the long trip back to Tennessee.

Right now, my bedroom walls are bare and my room is torn to pieces with piles of stuff everywhere-- things I'm packing for good, things I still need to use for the next week of roaming, things I'm leaving as rubbish and things I'm leaving in a friend's care to give to exchangers next semester.  It's sad to see it all get shoved back into luggage, but it will be good to be home again.  It will also be nice to pull the same trick I used in January and ditch this winter weather to dive into summer.  Sunshine will be nice, but a lot of very sad goodbyes have to happen between now and then.

Steak, Sausages and State of Origin!

With my time in Oz quickly coming to an end and my bank account being very empty, I have resorted to strictly cheap/free means of entertaining myself.  I just spent a very extended weekend in Sydney because I had no reason not to, including lots of cheap/free things, like wandering through Hyde Park and the Royal Botanic Gardens.  We took a trip to Paddy's Markets in Chinatown, where I bought a cheap messenger bag and generally enjoyed walking around and looking at what the shops had to offer.

Actually, there was a lot of general wandering since that tends to be a very free thing to do, and when you're wandering with a friend, it's a great was to pass time while still enjoying being in Australia.  Not that sitting around and watching movies is not a great free thing to do, too.  There has been a LOT of that, these days.  Another way to have memorable experiences is to miss your bus back home by just a couple minutes, with the next bus being four and a half hours later, although that does not come highly recommended.  I happened to manage such a feat, but since I really have nothing going on, it wasn't tragic, but just meant I got to wander a bit more.

Anyway, I got back (late-ish) Tuesday night, then Wednesday night was State of Origin, a National Rugby League game of Superbowl magnitude to League fans.  Rugby League is mostly followed by people in Queensland and New South Wales, so State of Origin is a three-game series where the two states face off, last night begin the first match.  Then, to make it a true Australian experience, we had steaks and sausages grilling for dinner.

I'm not the biggest sports enthusiast as it is, so my friends were obviously more excited about it that I was, but I did watch a lot of the game, and appreciated it.  I think I like rugby a bit more than American football-- the action is constant, none of the start and stop nonsense that usually makes me loose interest after the first quarter.  It was a fun evening with good friends :)

School's out for summer!... winter.... whatever

I had my last Australian class on Thursday and, by some lovely twist of fate, I have no final exams!  So last week I turned in a final paper and two final projects, then spent this weekend writing one more final paper to wrap it all up, and I just turned it in!  I am FREE!!!!!!!!

...now what?

My flight was booked for a bit after the end of finals, June 8, and my bank account is screaming for me to stop spending money, so it looks like I'll be passing away the time in Canberra.  There are plenty of things here that I never got around to doing, so it's definitely not a bad thing.

It is a bit strange--I remember the beginning of the semester when I filled out my schedule and May seemed so far away, but now I am finished with the University of Canberra.  It seems like such a short stint.  I have just a few more weeks here, and then I will be back in Tennessee for the summer.

May is here, and I feel like I should have spring fever and be itching to be outside, but instead I'm wearing sweaters and cuddling under blankets with hot tea watching movies.  The leaves are falling off the trees and shorts are never a good idea if you're walking out of the apartment... but at the same time, I'm seeing friends' pictures of frolicking in spring grass and camping, and I get confused at to what I'm supposed to be feeling.

I'm choosing to not look at my calendar any more because I don't want to know how few days I have left here, but when the time does come around, the cold is probably what will be getting me on the airplane.  And, of course, getting to see my family again.  I do love you guys.

Coming of Age in Australia

This week was my BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!  It is the last week of classes, so everyone is really feeling the pressure of impending deadlines and ferocious assessments, but my *wonderful* housemates and neighbors all took some time off to get together to celebrate my 21st :)  I'm not gonna lie, they're pretty much the best folks ever.  It's no secret that I've missed having Mexican restaurants on every corner that we default to about once a week, so they treated me by driving out about 20 minutes away to a decent Mexican joint.... OOOOOh it was good to have refried beans and enchiladas again!

This semester has really been amazing, and that has a lot to do with the fact that the people I live with are so great!  From the beginning, they have made my roommate (Nikki, another exchange student from North Carolina) and myself feel loved and like a part of the group.  There is NEVER a dull moment, and there is always someone around to help with procrastination, which is the most important thing for friends to do.

Here's the crew!  In the above picture is my housemate Alex, myself, roommate Nikki, neighbors Bri, Jess, Delfina, Jovi, housemates Amy and Edwin, neighbors Nicole and Ella, housemate Kyle and neighbor Aaron, with the picture being taken by another neighbor, Huw.  We're all in the same building and are in and out of each others' houses all the time.  Fun, fun times always abound.

Above are some of the guys, Aaron, Edwin, Huw and Alex.  They keep things interesting, that's for sure.

After a very satisfying dinner, we went back home for an Australian dessert-- Pavlova!  It's basically just meringue in cake form, which is ridiculously sugary and DELICIOUS!  The edges get crusty, which is the best part.  It was lovely.

Then, as if I do not consume altogether too much sugar as it is, I was given EVERY FLAVOR OF TIMTAMS!!!!  My friends know exactly how much of a fatty I am :)  I'm going to come back to Tennessee fat and happy and extremely depressed about having to leave all of these amazing friends.  They're the best! 

Groovin the MOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

In addition to it being Mothers' Day ( I <3 you Momma!!)  Last Sunday was the Groovin the Moo music festival in Canberra!!  Groovin the Moo is a travelling festival that goes around to a few rural-ish cities, bringing big names to folks outside of the major capitols, groovin the "moo," as in having to set up the stages next to cow paddocks (tehe).  Canberra somehow managed to get on the roster-- it's not THAT small of a city... but it's not huge.  And there WERE pastures surrounding the stages... but anyway.

The festival was actually held on campus, making it super convenient!  It was a beautiful autumn day, perfect for being out of doors listening to awesome music.  The shows started at 10:30 a.m. and went until 10:30 that evening, so it was definitely a day packed full with awesomeness.  

The lineup consisted of a lot of Australian bands, with a couple thrown in from the US, UK and one from Norway, including:  AC Slater, Architecture In Helsinki, Art Vs Science, The Aston Shuffle, Birds of Tokyo, Bliss n Eso, Cut Copy, Darwin Deez (USA), Datarock (NOR), Drapht, The Drums (USA), The Go! Team (UK), Gotye, Gyroscope, The Holidays, Horrorshow, House Of Pain (USA), The Jezabels, Nina Las Vegas (triple j), Sampology (AV/ DJ Set), Tim & Jean, UNKLE Live (UK), Washington and The Wombats (UK).

Yeah, so before I came to Australia, I had actually heard of none of the bands that were there, but my amazing housemates have been introducing me to the better ones over the course of the semester so that I was able to fully appreciate the concerts!  It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much fun!!!!!!!!!!!  The performances were split up over three stages, so there was always at least one, often two, shows going.   I was told that it sold out at 15,000 tickets, and then 500 more were sold on the day of the festival.  Needless to day, it was PACKED, but that's part of the festival atmosphere.

 

It was warm during the day, but it IS getting close to winter, so after the sun went down the temperatures crashed to a bit below freezing... but the later shows were packed and lively, so as long as you were squished into the crowd, it was warm and toasty.  DEFINITELY a great experience!!

   

Just for kicks, here are some of my favorite songs from my favorite bands of the festival! 

(except live is more along the lines of lasers and strobe lights enough to set anyone off into a fit of seizures)

Lord of the Rings, Sydney Opera House Style.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in January when I was in the state of limbo where all of my friends were back at school but I was sitting around at home waiting to catch a plane, I decided to look at what would be at the Sydney Opera House while I was on the continent.  It just so happened that there was something REALLY cool scheduled for my birthday weekend, so I got Charlie on board and we got tickets for something four months in advance (completely unlike the procrastinating, spontaneous college kids we are).

This weekend, the time finally came around to make the trip to Sydney for an Opera House date!  What was the amazing show worthy of such premeditation?  A showing of the film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.  The catch-- the music for the entire movie being performed live on stage by the Sydney Symphony, the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and the Sydney Children's Choir.  Needless to say, it was mind-blowing.

Here's the view from our seats on the very back row (since we're poor university students and all).  They told us that we couldn't take pictures, but I've never been that great at doing what is expected of me... so you get a sneaky peak.  Fun Fact: (according to Wikipedia) "The Sydney Opera House Grand Organ is the world's largest mechanical tracker-action pipe organ."  It was really big and I'm sure it sounds amazing-- another time.    

Now, I'm ruined.  Even with the best sound system, nothing will ever compare to watching the movie with the live musical performance.  It was especially awesome for Charlie because he just went to New Zealand and was able to see lots of places where the movie was filmed, but we can't all be that cool.  We had a *lovely* time :)

Melbourne *sigh*

After Saturday's day trip, we were finally able to go explore the city of Melbourne (pronounced "Mel'-bun).  Being that it was Easter Sunday, a few of us wanted to find a church to attend services, so we walked to St. Paul's Cathedral right off of Federation Square; the super-traditional Anglican service was a nice change in pace from what we've been used to attending here, not to mention being able to enjoy the *beautiful* interior.

After church, we hung out on the square to watch some comedy sketches done in conjunction with the International Comedy Festival, and then decided to wander around a bit.  Autumn is setting in and it was a nice, crisp sunny day, perfect for wandering.  We walked down to the Yarra River and followed it down toward the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the tennis courts where the Australian Open is held.

We found the Sunday markets and looked around for a bit then got ice cream and hung around a cute little park before meeting friends at the Eureka Tower to climb up to the skydeck on the 88th floor.

We timed it so that we could get to the top at dusk and watch the night fall, which worked out great.  The skydeck also offered "The Edge," where you can walk out on a clear floor that juts out over the city so that there is nothing but a sheet of glass between your feet and the ground 88 stories below.  Preeeeeetty awesome.

Monday was ANZAC Day (Australia New Zealand Army Corps), like Memorial Day in the US, and since the city was shut down for the parade, we watched for a while before wandering a bit more.

Because it was Easter Monday and ANZAC day at the same time, most everything was closed that day, so we just enjoyed seeing what there was to see.  Melbourne definitely has a lot of interesting street art here and there and in all of the dark corners, making even the dodgy-est of alleys a bit less dodgy.  We found our way to Lygon Street where we were told there are heaps of cute shops and cafes, and got lunch at a kebab joint and dessert at a reallyreally classy sweets shop.  Here, I learned the hard way that a "short black" is not a short cup of black coffee, but an espresso shot.  Oops.  It was still super yum!

Melbourne is a LOVELY city, and one long weekend was not at all long enough to do it justice.  The city itself feels really relaxed and friendly, and everyone is very stylish... I felt under-dressed the entire time I was there.  Almost every street has buildings with architecture that you would never see anywhere else-- the entire city is very artsy and interesting.  On a return visit, I would like to hit up some of the museums and galleries, for sure.  Because we had so little time, we did not stray too far away from our hostel- never going far enough to even have to use the trolley service, which is sort of sad.  

Going back to Canberra, we decided to take an overnight bus leaving at 8 p.m. and arriving at 4 a.m.... probably not the best idea we ever had.  It was heaps cheaper than flying, though, so we went for it.  Of course, it was too early to fall asleep when we go on board, and then actually sleeping was a feat in itself.  But after it was late enough for everyone to turn their reading lights off, it was nice to be able to look out the window at the stars as we drove through the empty bush.  Even if getting zero sleep was a bit of a downer, there was something nice about being on a slow overnight bus after a packed trip, having plenty of time to process everything that I got to do and see, with the Southern Cross sitting there in the sky reminding me how cool it is to be in Australia.

The Great Ocean Road

Easter brought with it a five-day weekend, so a group of us packed our bags and went to Melbourne!  We were out for the cheapest possible everything, so we flew down with Tiger Airways which was super dodgy (we got on and off the plane on the tarmac, and in Melbourne, the luggage claim looked more like a trailor) and stayed at the Greenhouse Backpacker which was super nice.  We arrived Friday night and caught a tour Saturday morning for the Great Ocean Road at a much earlier hour than any of us really wanted.                                                              

We were on a bus at 7:20 to make the three+ hour trip to the points of interest along the way.  We took the inland route to the furthest point of our journey, going through open countryside full of rolling hills covered in sheep and dairy cattle.  Victoria/South Australia are to Australia as Wisconsin/California are to the US-- cows, cows, cows.  As we got closer to the coast there was mostly bush, some of which had recently been burned back for environmental regulation, making for an interesting sight.

Our first stop was the impressive "London Bridge."  Earlier, the island part had been connected to the rest of the land with a second arc making it look like its namesake in England, but in 1990, part of the London Bridge fell down.  There were actually a man and woman on the far tip at the time of the collapse who had to call a helicopter to get back to land.   To make the story more interesting, the man had called in sick to work that day and the woman with him was not exactly the woman he was married to.  

 Next stop was Loch Ard Gorge, named from the Loch Ard, a ship that wrecked just off the coast from there with only two teenage survivors.  The erosion is so impressive- the wind and water have had its way with the coastline, and it blows my mind how the cliffs just go straight down.  Bits collapse every once and a while, but after a few years the rubble diminishes to sand and nothing remains.

     

Even more impressive are the Twelve Apostles, our next stop.  There are not actually twelve, more like eight, and there have only ever been ten, but it makes for a nice name.  These pillars are bits of the coastline that somehow managed to survive this long, now isolated off from the shore.  

We left the coast for a bit to drive inland to part of the local rain forest, which was beautiful, of course.  

Moving onward, we drove through the the town of Apollo Bay on Cape Otway, a cute little place situated among rolling hills where the Bass Strait and the Great Australian Bight meet, the closest to Antarctica that I'll get, for now at least ;)

Our tour made a pit stop at a small park/camp ground where we were able to stretch our legs, but all the while looking out for drop bears.  Constant vigilance!!  You never know when one will just come at you from their lofty perch.

Silliness aside, we got to see koalas!  There were just hanging out, munching on gum leaves, taking it easy.  You can see one of the little grey bundles in a tree below.  There were actually a few trees spotting the hillsides that were dead, and our guide blamed the koalas-- they eat heaps of leaves every day, so if a few attack a tree, it's a goner.  Koalas= vicious killing machines.

We finished up at a lighthouse lookout for sunset, making a lovely ending to a lovely day.  We had about seven hours or so clocked in on the road that day, which was rather exhausting but worth it!

What UC

Here's a video that some friends of mine put together for a video contest at the University of Canberra!  The theme was "What you see at UC." Yeah, the prompt is almost as corny at the video...

I was even recruited for parts of it :)   So watch it, laugh and watch it again, because if their video gets the most views of the competition, they get a prize!

Enjoy :)

Uni Life

After spending heaps of time travelling around, I've been thrust back into the reality that I am actually here to study at a university, not just play.  After my week in Cairns, I had to spend a week catching up on all of the things I had let fall by the wayside, which was basically all of my work.  Everything came together nicely in the end, so it was no big deal, but I have really started to realize how different it is to go to school in Canberra versus Tennessee.

Biggest difference:  instructors at the University of Canberra are only allowed to give you marks on three things.  THREE.  Sure, at home I've had classes where there are three exams and that is all you have, but this is every class.  One class I have works it out strategically, grading on class participation, a final research paper and giving an average grade on four small papers written over the course of the semester, making for a decent amount of work stretched over the semester.  Other classes don't quite work that way.  I have graphic design and web design classes that grade me on only three projects each, making for an awkward amount of time between assignments where there is nothing due for a while.  This means I seem to have lots of free time, even though I should be working on looming assignments.  Currently, I have only four assignments left before the term is completely over, and they are all due four weeks from now.  It is a difficult concept to get used to.

Grading scale:
High Distinction   85% - 100%
Distinction           75% - 84%
Credit                 65% - 74%
Pass                   50% - 64%
Fail                     0% – 49%
Ungraded pass   50% - 100%

The scale looks like it is super easy to pass classes here, but instructors grade much harder- I am usually an 'A' and high 'B' student, but the highest grade I have made on a real assignment here is an 85%.  High Distinctions are not given away quite like 'A's are at home, where it is difficult enough to get high grades.

It is a really strange mix of differences... I find myself feeling horrible about making a 75 on a paper I worked really hard on and try to tell myself that it really is a decent grade and to not worry.  Then at the same time, I have all of this free time that I could work on assignments and get ahead, but who really wants to write a paper a month before it is due?

But in all honesty, after spending all weekend at birthday parties in Sydney, spending all morning on Facebook and a large chunk of time writing this blog entry, I will probably continue to ignore impending assignments for the rest of the day.  No regrets.

Daintree Dreaming

Time for Part Two!
The day after our *amazing* day on the Great Barrier Reef, we spent a chill day hanging out in Cairns--we went to some shops, bought some souvenirs and chilled out at The Lagoon, a large (free!) public pool.  It was great to lounge around and do nothing for a while, which is what every good vacation should involve.  The Lagoon is located right on the edge of the boardwalk, so you can enjoy the pool while looking out at the ocean that you do not want to swim in because the coast of Cairns is all mud flats, not sandy beaches.  It's a nice area where everyone in the city goes to relax with open barbecues, free fitness classes and open space to play sports.  As we were dozing on our Australian flag beach towels, we realized there was an unending flock of large birds flying above us, but after we woke up and our eyes adjusted, we realized that the birds were actually bats.  Really big bats.  Seeing flying foxes like that definitely made me feel like I was in the tropics.  There had to be thousands of them!  There were certain trees in town just covered in bats just hanging out... a bit creepy until you get used to it.

We called it an early night so that we could get up for the next day's adventure:  a trip to the Daintree rain forest and Cape Tribulation!  Our tour took us from Cairns up the coast, stopping at a few points of interest along the way.  Stop number one was Mossman Gorge- our first look at a tropical rain forest!  It was absolutely beautiful!  We were able to wander around through trails for about an hour and see what there was to see.  Everything was SOOOOO beautiful!  Sometimes I felt like I was in Jurassic Park, and other times I felt like I was on the island from "Lost," but the entire time I was completely excited to know that I was in a tropical rain forest!

Here, basically, everything grows all over everything else.  Nothing is free-
standing or clean, it's all covered in green and fifteen other plants.

 

We moved further north after our walk, passing an area pictured above where our guide pointed out an island on the horizon off the coast of which, four or five years ago now, Steve Irwin had his fateful encounter with a ray.  Next, we visited a private zoo, home to many animals native to Australia like emus, kangaroos, wallabies, a cassowary, a large selection of birds and plenty of crocodiles!  After the zoo stop, we hit the road again until we came to another area to wander through the forest, then we stopped for lunch at Cape Tribulation Beach.  Unfortunately, we were not able to get in the water without stinger suits because of all the jellyfish... but it was still Very nice!  The beach seemed straight out of a  movie- the jungle spilled out right onto beautiful white sand, without a building in sight!

 At this point, I broke off from my travel buddies-- the trip was supposed to be a day tour, but I opted to spend the night at a lodge in Cape Tribulation and catch a ride home with the next day's tour.  One other girl from the tour stayed, so we got a room together and set off for adventures!  Michaela was a Swiss girl who had been studying English in Noosa and was my age, so we hit it off pretty well.  We found a small store to get some food, just in time for it to start raining like crazy.  We were sitting on the porch eating when a goat came from nowhere and jumped up the stairs, followed by a man running behind it to get out of the rain.  Later, we learned the man had raised the goat on a bottle and it pretty much thought it was a dog... Even later than that, we learned that the man is actually an ecologist who grew up in the area and has been a major part of making Cape Tribulation what it is today.  Thirty years ago, a large chunk of place was clear-cut.  He and a team came in to plant trees, and nature took over from there.  Now, the rain forest is thriving!  Animals moved in and vegetation has taken over, just the way it should be, crushing the myth that it takes hundreds of years for ecosystems to recover from clear cutting.  He is also fond of bats, but that's another story.

When the rain let up, Michaela and I went back to our room and met our other roommate for the night, Zoe, a young Taiwanese doctor from Melbourne.  It rained again and we sat around getting to know each other, then when it stopped again, we went for a stroll.  There was a boardwalk made for tourists to go through a mangrove swamp, so we sprayed on our 40% DEET bug spray and boldly faced the mozzies.

We walked around for about an hour, and every bit of the area was everything I hoped and dreamed that a rain forest would look like.  Then, all of a sudden the ocean appeared.  The three of us chilled out on the beach until time to find dinner.  All over were little balls of sand that crabs had rolled up and put in random designs and coconuts dotting the beach.

Michaela and I got dinner at crowded cafe that night, where two German couples ended up joining our table.  They had been travelling along the east coast for the past two weeks and we ended up chatting with them for over two hours before finding our way through the pitch black back to our cabin, attempting to dodge the cane toads and geckos on the path.  The next morning we woke up to a steady rain, but after it subsided, the day was rather lovely.  Below is the view from our front door--I believe that it was a field of tea. 

We had heard of a swimming hole that we could hike to, so we set off that morning with purpose.  Eventually we found the trail and managed to get down to the water.  I really have a hard time grasping the fact that things are actually this beautiful in real life.

 We met up with the tour group again that afternoon for our ride back down to Cairns, on the way stopping for a snack at the Daintree Ice Cream Company where they make ice cream from things grown on site.  The flavors for the day were Mango, Jakfruit, Wattle Seed and Macadamia Nut.  Wattle seed tasted similar to coffee, and Jakfruit seemed like a mix of bubblegum and banana.  Our final event for the tour was a cruise on the Daintree River, home to heaps of crocodiles!  We were able to see a few ranging from about a foot to four feet in length, but my friends the day before were able to see one that was about eight feet long!

The cruise was nice and relaxing, a perfect end to the day.  I was dropped off in time for another free meal with my friends, some of whom had gone deep-sea fishing that day.  The next day, we lazed around the lagoon again and got ready to head back home the next morning.  Overall, it was the best vacation ever.  I am SO blessed to have been able to see such amazing things and meet so many great people!  Now that I am back in Canberra, my housemates call me Pocahontas because of the awesome tan I got in Queensland, but now autumn has definitely set in, making for a stark contrast from the tropical north and leaving me bundled up in my room with fond memories of sunshine.