So Much to Say...

Wow...it's been an eventful week! On Tuesday, Steph and I walked around LA and saw the Chinese Theater and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was pretty neat seeing all the stars with so many names...we never made it to the end of the walk because it was soooo long! After that we went to the airport and started meeting other people from the AustraLearn group. We passed the time waiting for that late night flight by playing Catch Phrase. We must have been quite a sight at the airport. The flight was long but tolerable. After we arrived in Brisbane we had a short flight to Cairns which is absolutely amazing!

In Cairns we met up with our AustraLearn leaders and we went to our rooms in the hostel we stayed in. We had an information meeting and then went to dinner at the local brewery with everyone. The next day we went to Rainforestation where we got to feed and pet animals like kangaroos and wallabies. It was amazing! We also took a tour of the rainforest and watched aboriginal dancers who then taught us how to play the didgeridoo and throw boomerangs! (I wasn't very good at either). We then had the rest of the day free and some of us went to the Esplanade where we were right by the water and had a gorgeous view of the mountains and the boats coming in from tours on the Great Barrier Reef. The whole place was beautiful!

We spent the next day on Passions of Paradise, a boat where two of our leaders work doing scuba dives and snorkeling on the Reef. We all got to snorkel and dive to see all the coral and the fish. Steph even saw a turtle at one point! I was really jealous. I took some photos underwater and hope they turn out well, so those will be put up for everyone to see! After spending the day on the water, we had dinner with the group and one last information session. Then some of us went back to the Esplanade and the lagoon. We got 50cent ice cream from the McDonald's there and watched two guys twirling fire around. It was neat because we got to Cairns at the very end of the festival they were having so there were all kinds of neat things and people around to see.

We left this morning for Brisbane and the flight wasn't bad. Then after some frustration with the bus rides to the Gold Coast and someone accidentally taking my bag to their accomodations on campus and then me having to go get it, I finally made it to my apartment! It is so cute and the whole complex looks so nice. It's bigger than my apartment in Fredericksburg. It's also just a very short walk to campus (which is beautiful from the 10 minutes I've seen).

I'll probably do some more unpacking and then there is a barbeque on campus this evening where other students from the school will be as well. It's such a relief to be in the place where I can settle in for the next four months and stop having to live out of suitcases. I'm excited for this upcoming week of events so I'll let you all know how everything goes! I'll be posting pictures on Facebook and possibly another photo site for everyone to see as well. :)