Tonight, as I was walking halfway through the city of Cairns with my huge backpack, rolling suitcase, a German guy named Sasha, and a 5 liter box of wine, it finally hit me. I’m in Australia.
Alright, stop. Rewind. (Or hammer time, whichever you prefer).
I guess I should first and foremost explain what I’m doing here. I know that blogs and I don’t have a very reliable history together, as I never actually finished my blog from Semester at Sea. Yes, I realize that, and I also realize that I may not finish blogging about my time in Australia. That’s just the way things are. Why am I starting my blog back up? I don’t know. Maybe so I can kind of have someone to talk to. Anyway, the point is I’m starting this up again.
I also realize that the people (very few people) who read my blog last year may not be up to date on my life and therefore not know that I’m living in Australia this summer. I don’t know if they send out emails or anything telling people that I’ve finally updated my blog, but if so, then welcome back! After Semester at Sea I decided it would be a good idea to study abroad again, but not for a whole semester. One thing led to another, and now I’m doing an internship this summer with the CSIRO, which is a government agency in Canberra, the capital of Australia. I have no idea what I’m going to be doing there, but I guess I’ll know soon enough.
So, those of you who know me know that I’m pretty cheap. In my cheapness, I thought it would be a good idea to buy flights independently and save some money. Well there was a little mix up along the way and I got a ticket to Cairns 2 days earlier than everyone else participating in my program. So I was flying into Cairns on the 26th, but nobody else would arrive until the 28th, I didn’t think this would be much of a problem though. I’d just fly into Cairns and kind of play it all by ear. And yesterday when I flew in, that was still my game plan.
So, as the plane was landing into Cairns yesterday, I had no idea what I was going to do. I didn’t have any reservations with hotels or hostels, and I didn’t know how I was going to get around the city with all my bags. Well, as I was trying to get a ticket for the bus into the city, I see two girls and one was wearing, of all things, a Chapman sweatshirt. Funny how the world works. I introduced myself, and they already knew me (I guess that makes me a bad person). Well, they already booked a hostel in the city, and I decided to tag along for a little while.
As we were going to the hostel, this German guy starts to follow us around. It ends up that his name is Sasha and he’s been travelling for a few weeks and plans on staying in Australia for a few months. I end up getting a double room with him in a nearby hostel because we couldn’t find anything else. We got some vouchers from the hostel we were staying at for some free food and went out that night to claim them. On the way back to the hostel, Sasha was really intent on getting some wine to bring back to the girls. We found a liquor store and tried to find some wine. Being who I am, I tried to find the best deal. There was a 4 liter box of wine that was about half as much money as all the others, which I thought was a pretty good deal. I told Sasha, and he told me in his German accent, “You seem to have forgotten about the aspect of quality.” I felt pretty stupid after that. We ended up getting something else, but it didn’t really matter because we were all so tired that by the time we got back to the hostel the girls were already asleep, and we ended up falling asleep at 9 pm and not even opening the wine.
The next day came and we checked out of the hostel because it wasn’t that nice. We went out to find another place but left our luggage in the girls’ hostel so we didn’t have to lug it around the city. I tried to get some money out of the ATM because the cash supply I brought from America was getting low, but it wouldn’t recognize my pin number. I can’t get any cash right now. Perfect. Well, we found another place and the four of us took a bus up to the town of Kuranda, in the nearby jungle. The bus driver was pretty nice and was telling us all about Cairns and the nearby area. I asked him if he had any advice for me when I go to Canberra, and all he told me was “It’s bloody freezing there.” I guess I’ll take that advice to heart.
The jungle was great, although I have to say I’m a little disappointed in the weather up here. They call this area the sunshine state, but it’s been raining ever since I arrived. We hiked to a waterfall while we were up there, and in a weird way I have to say that it reminded me of Iguassu. I went to Iguassu towards the beginning of semester at sea, and this is pretty close to the beginning of my Australian experience. If this relation is any indication, then I should be shaving my head and kissing a fish in about a week. We took the famous skyline cable car down the mountain, which is about 7 km long. It was something else. Upon arriving back we got Chinese food from the night market, which has a GREAT food system. You just buy a plate and you put all the food you can on the plate. The more skilled you are at stacking food, the more you can eat. I think it would be an awesome system to implement in America.
So we walked back to the girls’ hostel, got our things, and Sasha and I started to trek halfway across the city of Cairns (with our wine) to get to our new hostel. And here I am with 10 Australian cents to my name, sitting in the hostel common room with Sasha, Tim (a South Korean with a lisp who is sharing our room), sipping on our wine and watching Step Brothers on a projector. And Sasha says hello! I meet up with the rest of the Australearn participants tomorrow, and then the program officially begins. We’ll see how it goes!
