Day 2 (AustraLearn Orientation) - Cairns, Queensland Australia

Today was packed full of activities. From what I can tell AustraLearn has broken up all the students studying in Australia into three big groups - one that came a few days before us, my group, and one that arrives tomorrow. In our big group we were broken up into two groups with different daily itineraries. My group, the green group, went to Rainforestation today. We watched Aborigines show us how to throw a spear, play the didgeridoo, and how to throw a boomerang - which we then each had an opportunity to throw. We proceeded to the Aqua Duck aka Army Duck, which is this American-made jeep that can drives on land and can also go in water - built and used in WWII. We got a tour of the plants and few wildlife animals around the area. After that we were able to get our picture taken with a koala. I was a little nervous about that because I didn't know if it was environmentally friendly to support keeping these animals from their natural habitat, but thankfully I found a sign that explained that the koalas are only held for 30mins a day, no more than 3 days in a row, and because they're not native to Queensland it was safe. That made me feel better.

After the koala holding we got to see some Aborigine men perform a variety of custom dances. Finally we were led to the sanctuary where kangaroos roamed freely and there were a bunch of other Australian native animals in cages that we could feed and observe. It was strange just walking around the area where kangaroos were just sitting and roaming. This entire adventure was fun, but I've been feeling awkward.Before I left for this grand walkabout, I had mentally prepared myself to be living among Aussies, and currently I've been with a bunch of Americans doing tourist things, being looked at and treated like a tourist. I found myself always bringing up the rear of our group and not taking massive amounts of pictures. Don't get me wrong this is a good time, and I'm meeting some pretty cool people, but I've prepared myself to be living here, not being a tourist, and meeting Aussies. There have also been many instances where my fellow American study abroad-ers have acted as stereotypical Americans, embarrassing me.

After Rainforestation we came back to the Hostel and chilled.I started to stress out because I still hadn't contacted me mum saying that I made it safely here.We were given a free 10 minute calling card but I was having trouble using it, so I converted it to 10 minutes of internet time (because you have to pay to use the internet here) and the internet was so slow that it took me 7 minutes to send a three sentence email.It was a pain in the ass.

Dinner was up to us, but everyone went to The Wool Shed - which is a pub/club. Once again, those who know me know that I'm not a big club person - but I'm in Australia, time to try new things! Our AustraLearn Leaders said the food was good and rightly priced, I disagreed. It was expensive and didn't really fill me up.F or the club part, The Wool Shed is known for dancing on the tables.It took people awhile to get boozed up, the music started to blare, soon enough the American college students do what they do best.I actually had a blast.I went with my new friend Sydney and Brodie - the only Australian we met at the hostel who's on holiday.He's cool, we talked for hours before hand comparing Australia and the US.

Food Tried Today:Ice Cream Fruit - you have to peel these green nut looking things and eat the meat around the seed/nut.They're supposed to taste like ice cream, which is right up my alley.I didn't think they tasted like ice cream, but they were sweet, I wasn't sure if I was eating them correctly though.

Sad Fact of the Day: Apparently at "Uni's" (universities) school pride is considered dorky and not shown. No one wears their schools clothing apparel, there are very few Uni sports teams, and attending the games isn't popular. Those of you who know me (and my closet) know that I have school pride and love wearing university apparel, half of the clothes I brought here are Central items. Psh! Maybe I'll start a new fade by showing LaTrobe school pride!

Interesting Fact of the Day: Apparently, like a year ago, it was Australian fashion to wear American University t-shirts