well i’m on my way…

Yep, that’s what I look like.  I layed out by the Cairns “lagoon” yesterday for a few hours.  I put the quotations around lagoon because it is in fact, a pool.  The entire time it was very overcast and rain clouds were threatening over the mountains but I still managed to get burnt.  As as many of you know, my skin is very adamant about burning before I can even think of getting a tan.  So in all my NYE pics I am the one who looks like an apple.  I even thought I’d lie out there today too, just as long as I continued to reapply sunscreen every 20 minutes…I could feel myself frying like bacon in a frying pan so I left.  I’m going out to the reef for some snorkeling tomorrow and will be getting a lot of sun then as well.

To me, Cairns seems nothing but a tourist town with souvineir shops everywhere and restaurants of every ethnicity possible.  There is a beachfront that is more like a marsh that houses crabs and crocs (not the shoes!) and the like.  It’s just a place to party and book reservations for reef trips and rainforest trips and skydiving and anything else pretty much imaginable.  That  being said, I’m not a huge fan.  But the hostel is nice and clean and I’ve met some great people. 

Last night I went out to celebrate the coming of 2009 with one of my roommates and her friends-all Dutch!  They were very nice and went out of their way to speak English-even amongst themselves-all night so I wouldn’t feel disincluded.  We had a cheap $10 meal at a pub and went to the bar that all the barcrawls were ending at.  There was a rooftop terrace where we could watch the fireworks and I felt very inlcluded with my new friends when I could agree that these fireworks were nothing compared to Amsterdam’s.  We ended up dancing the night away and went to bed with sore feet at 3.

Although I’m not hungover, I’m going to take it easy today.  The sun is not forgiving, not to mention the humidity and I want to have tons of energy for my snorkeling trip tomorrow! 

I hope you all have/had a safe and happy new year and that all your hopes for 2009 come true!  =)    

The humidity is suffocating in Cairns, where I landed just a few hours ago.  Flying into the area was goregous, the water was turquoise and islands were everywhere.  So many beaches, so little time!  But I guess swimming here isn’t advisable since there are dangerous things lurking in the waterways like crocs, jellyfish, and stingrays…

 I guess it was the 27th when I went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.  (This humidity has gotten to me.)It’s the world’s first and largest (which Australia boasts a lot of) rehabilitation place for Koalas and they house other animals as well.  Everyone (by this I mean animals) were all caged or in trees except for turkeys and lizards.  I had to ask someone what the turkeys were, and once I found out, I felt pretty stupid-that I should know what a turkey looks like.  When I ate meat, it was my favorite!  I did the tourist thing and paid the extra $15 Australian Dollars to hold a koala for a minute while they took my picture.  http://photo.koala.net/2712022970en.htm  He smelled like pine trees and was super soft!

The 28th I went to the Queensland Museum with my roommates from the hostel.  The museum had a fantastic animal exhibit and an even better exhibit on endangered species in Australia.  If anyone is ever in the area, I highly recommend it.  And it’s free!! 

Yesterday my roommates and I went to the Australia Zoo-Steve Irwin’s project.  It was AMAZING.  Although it didn’t have a huge variety of animals (only Australian animals and tropical animals like Asian elephants and tigers), it was certainly the best zoo I have ever been to.  There were so many hands-on animal shows, the animals were clearly well taken care of, their enclosures were huge and did not have the typical zoo feel where the animals are bored, stuck in a cage.  I got to pet a kangaroo and another koala!  It was so clean and you could feel Irwin’s presence throughout the place.  

I’m starting to get my sea legs again, and by that I’m feeling like myself again, going from place to place, meeting new people, leaving to meet more new people, and just doing my own thing.  

I was finally able to look at my grades from last semester today after about a week of trying:  Environmental Science-A;  Cultural Geography-A;  Spanish 2-A!!   Yay me!  I wish my community college was like CPS-where I can get paid for my grades…oh well.  I make my own money and boy, do I know how to spend it! 

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After the terrible snow storm last night I was afraid that I'd be grounded today...it looks like I'm leaving as planned!  *knock on wood* I have those "new boyfriend butterflies" in my stomach, not sure if I'm nervous or excited ... [Continue reading this entry]