Australia!

Cairns was absolutely amazing! Hot as heck, but beautiful...everyone I've met doing the same program are really cool and they're all from somewhere different...I'm the only one representing the state of Florida...can't do much better than me if I do say so myself. 

We all stayed at a hostel in Cairns called Gilligan's for 4 days...it was pretty sick...pool and bar connected and in walking distance to the marina.  I went snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef and actually saw some white tip sharks while we were swimming, probably the best moment of my life ever! Then the second day we went to the Rainforestation about a half hour away...got to hold some koalas and hang with the kangaroos...OH and they taught me how to throw a boomerang...totally getting one so I can be pro.  And there was the ridiculous croc there the size of montana that the people call Jack the Ripper because so far he has killed 10 of his mates...good guy, good guy. ANYWAYS, we got to see him during feeding...crazyness!

We went out to all the bars every night(one of which was called Shenanigans, once i saw the name I made it a goal to go there before we left Cairns, mission accomplished)...drinking is effing expensive in Australia...thats probably the only downfall...I'm not too happy about it. ANDDDD they dont have ladies night like they do back in Gville...oh well. If you wanna drink cheap, stick with the boxed wine...otherwise a six pack of their normal beer(Tooheys) is about 14AUD, laaaame.

Newcastle is pretty sick too. Definitely not as touristy as Cairns, but really fun. I'm gonna be here for the next 4 months so I better like it. My Uni is in the bushland (man, that sentence was some serious Aussie talk)...the mosquitos here are actually ridiculous, i'm not even exaggerating...I live in FL in a damn swamp and the mozzies (more lingo) here are 20 times worse...I have to put bug spray on EVERYDAY before i leave my room or I will be attacked.  My dorm room is amazing, HUGE. I have a freakin queen size bed, my own bathroom and kitchenette...my RAs are tight too, the first thing they did after we put our suitcases in our room was hand us a beer...and then we played volleyball...could I be more obsessed?

The beaches here are perfect...waves are ridiculous...i'm nervous about surfing, i may actually die.  Yesterday a couple of my RAs took me and a couple friends to "the beach"...after some serious 4 wheelin in the forest we finally get out of the car, walked a hundred feet or so out of the forest and all we saw was sand dunes.  I seriously thought I was in Aladdin, they were HUGEEEE! So of course we climbed them (led to a realization that i am majorly out of shape) and when we finally got to the top we could see the forest we came from one way and when you turned around all you could see was ocean...never seen anything like it...we were the only ones there too...I decided I want to move their when I'm old and don't want to be sociable anymore.

Anyways, a bunch of other stuff has been going on, but I'm way too lazy and impatient to write about it all right now since I've just had to write over a weeks worth of Australia time in 5 seconds...trying to put pics up, but facebook isn't working so look for tagged ones I guess. Talk to you all soon, love and miss everyone!

-Adriana