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!