Less Than a Month Left

I think I've had a post with the same title before...but it was a month before I left the states...now it's the other way around. I can't believe that a month from today I will be back home in Vermont. As I've said before, I'm very excited about the thought of seeing everyone again...but I get a little upset when I think about having to say goodbye to everyone here. It was different when I said "bye" to people at home because I knew that I would see them in 5 months...but my new friends are from all around the world and although we can still keep in contact I may not ever see them again. I plan to travel a lot throughout the course of my life though, so maybe I will meet up with some of them again one day. I'm sure I will see the ones that live in the United States ...but it's still sad to say goodbye. What a depressing topic! Anyways...
My 21st birthday is a week from today! I am still thinking of something fun to do for it. Traditionally people go out and get smashed on their 21st birthdays...but I don't really want to do that. Me, Dana, and Katie all have June birthdays so we are just going to all go out one night during our last weekend here together to celebrate. A lot of people are going away for the study break coming up but I can't go anywhere too far because I have an oral exam in the middle of the week. I might do something adventurous for my birthday though since a lot of my friends here will be away...I don't just want to study in my room all day! I was looking at some cheap crocodile mangrove tour thingys near Cairns..so maybe I'll do something like that. Who knows. Well whatever I do I will make a post about it since I haven't really had an big adventures lately to tell about....well, everyday here is an adventure for me. I've been spending the majority of my weekend afternoons at the beach..and today they took down the stinger nets so you can swim anywhere along the beach! It was a little intimidating at first since the water is still a bit murky and crocs/sharks are still around even though the jellyfish season is coming to an end.

Cairns Tropical Zoo

This weekend was one of the most fun-filled ones since we got back from mid-semester break. I rented one of the school's digital SLR cameras to work on my photography assignment, but I also have been going on a lot of hikes to take some photos. I went on a long hike a few days ago on the trails behind the university. I didn't really see any other people so it was really cool and felt like an adventure. It's never a good idea to hike by yourself though...especially in a country with so many dangerous animals (and plants!). I didn't touch anything though..and it was nice to be alone because I saw a lot of wildlife since no one was talking and I could stop and take photos without holding people up.
Today (Saturday), a few of us got up early and took the bus to Palm Cove and spent the early afternoon there. It felt so nice to just de-stress from the week and lie out in the sun while listening to the waves hit the shore. We're lucky up here in the wet tropics this time of year since it is really cold further south in Sydney in Melbourne. The weather here is pretty much perfect now. When I first arrived in Cairns the heat was nearly unbearable and you couldn't walk anywhere or wear anything without sweating profusely. But now, while it's still very hot in the sun during the day, it isn't as humid and is comfortable. It even gets a little chilly at night sometimes....nothing compared to what I'm used to in Vermont...but chilly enough for a long-sleeved shirt or even a sweatshirt.
After Palm Cove, a few of us had won tickets to the Cairns Tropical Zoo during orientation week, so we headed there. I had already been to 3 other zoos, so it was a lot like the other 3 I had been to, but it was still fun and I saw a lot of cool animals. My favorites were probably the red pandas because I had never seen them before and they were adorable. This zoo, like all of the others, had a walk-through kangaroo exhibit which was a lot of fun because they are very domesticated so you can feed and pet them. It's always kind of a bummer to see animals so complacent and in captivity...kangaroos are very over-populated in Australia though. I won't go into detail with my views on zoos and animal ethics type stuff...anyways...yeah, it has been a fun weekend.
It's hard to believe I come home in just a little over a month! I'm looking forward to it, but at the same time I'm a little upset by it. I'm so glad that I have had this opportunity and I really think that I've made the best of my time here....but I'll be sad to see it come to an end. Who knows when I will be back here or if I will ever see most of these people that I've met and become close with over the past 5 months ever again. I'm sure I will meet up with the people that live in the US on the east coast and Canada every so often...and if I end up coming back to Australia for graduate school I will see my Aussie friends...but it'll be a lot harder to see the ones from Europe and Asia. This is such an expensive country to study abroad in though so I really need to go home and start working again. It's not as bad for the Aussies because minimum wage is higher (...a great deal higher at that), but since it's getting closer to the end of the semester I literally have no money left. I wish I had a little more to go on some little excursions between my exams...but I am not too upset about that because I've pretty much gotten to do a lot of the things that I wanted to. The thing that I most wanted to do about 6 or 7 months ago was to go cage-diving with a great white shark...and I also wanted to get certified in diving..but since I'm planning on coming back it's not an issue that I haven't done those. They are quite pricey so I will definitely have to have a job when I come back.
Well, I'm not planning on doing anything too exciting in the weeks to come...but I shall try to write a few more entries before I leave on June 28th....12 hours after my last exam. Hope that everyone is enjoying the summer so far!

Undara Field Trip

The field trip this weekend was a lot of fun and we got to see some environments very different from those around Cairns. We left at 6:45am on Saturday and our first stop was at Yungaburra where we waited at a platypus-viewing platform. Unfortunately, we didn't see much though. After that we went up to the Atherton tablelands to Lake Eacham, which is a freshwater crater lake. There we worked on our field trip report assignment and had a talk about freshwater fauna. We had a variety of other stops along the way to places such as Malanda and Mt Hypipamee (which had beautiful waterfalls and a big crater) and by the time we reached Undara we had been in the bus for nearly 5 hours. The landscape was beautiful and very different from the tropical rainforest I'm used to. The sand is very red and the habitat is mostly classified as savannah but Undara is also known as Queensland's "accessible outback." That night we were given head lanterns and went on a night bush walk in hopes of seeing some animals but we only saw a lot of spiders...including the red-back, which is one of the most venomous spiders here in Australia. Earlier that evening we had seen some wild kangaroos though....including one with a joey in her pouch! The next morning I went on a bush-hike to Atkinson's lookout which was only about 1.5 hours round trip, but the view from the lookout was amazing because you could see half a dozen dormant volcanoes.

Happy Labour Day!

We had today (May 5th) off for labour day....Queensland's labour day. I guess in the states we would spell it as "labor" but in Australia they put the "u" in words like colour and "s" in words like specialised. I really shouldn't be writing a blog right now because I have a big essay due on Friday, but just thought I'd write a short one. Only 4 weeks left of classes (which is kind of stressful since the final exams and projects are worth so much) and 8 weeks until I leave to go back to the states. Hard to believe that I've nearly been here for 3 months now. It's going by too quickly! I will be away this weekend on a field trip with my biodiversity class to Undara (4 hours west of Cairns), which is pretty much an outback habitat. I'll write a more informative/interesting blog when I get back from that!

I'm Back!!!

I just got back last night from my Brisbane trip with Katie and Dana. I had so much fun and it was a very relaxing week. We really felt like we were on vacation because all of our accommodations were very classy (well, compared to the backpacker hostels that we would be staying at if we had planned the whole trip ourselves). It felt really great to finally be able to visit Steve Irwin's zoo (Australia Zoo in Beerwah, QLD) and I enjoyed seeing all of his beloved crocodiles and other animals. Most of the animals at the zoo had been rescued and Steve had designed the animals' enclosures himself. I really liked how there was such a strong emphasis on wildlife conservation at the zoo. It is huge and there are hundreds of animals including Tasmanian devils, tigers, Asian elephants, dingoes, wombats, koalas, kookaburras, tropical birds/birds of prey, otters, camels, kangaroos, wallabies, komodo dragons, perenties, snakes, foxes, tortoises, turtles, lizards, cassowaries, saltwater crocs, and there was even an estimated 140-year old freshwater crocodile. I took lots of photos and I posted a lot of them to my photo site to make sure to check out those!
Fraser Island was gorgeous and although it was a bit chilly at night since we were quite a ways south of Cairns, the days were still sunny and warm. We stayed at the Kingfisher Bay Resort which was nice and we felt pretty isolated since there isn't much on Fraser Island besides forests, sand dunes, freshwater lakes, and picture-perfect coasts. Fraser Island is also known for its dingo population. We spent all day Friday hiking (we were trying to go see Lake Mackenzie) but it was a bit further than we had anticipated which was disappointing but we still got to see some spectacular views.
We spent the majority of Saturday at the Brisbane airport because we had a 7-hour layover, but it gave me time to fill out postcards and such. Next time I'm at the Brisbane airport I will be waiting for a flight home to the states! It's sad that I only have 2 months left, but I will be very anxious to see my family and friends again and also to enjoy a Vermont summer before heading back to SMC for my final year of college (undergrad college anyways).