I'm currently at my homestay house in Smithfield, an area of Cairns about a 30 minute bus ride from the main city. I'm living with my Aussie homestay father, Rodney, his Japanese wife, Natsuki, and Rodney's kids Lexie (13) and Will (10). They also have a cat named Scratchy and got an 8-week-old puppy my first week here who is still unnamed. The family is great! They picked me up from our hostel in Cairns last Sunday, and we went straight to a carnival for Father'...

I've finally returned from my week-long orientation trip, and we've already done so much - I feel like I've been here forever! Monday, we left Cairns, stopping at the Tjapukai Dance Theatre and the SkyRail on our way North to Port Douglas. The Tjapukai Dance Theatre is an aboriginal cultural center, where we saw a video on the history of the aborigines (with the English invading and killing the people), a performance on the creation stories of the aborigines, and...

G'day from Cairns! After 24 hours in the air and a few crazy moments at the airport (running between flights because of delays, going through customs when we weren't supposed to, thinking we had all lost our bags…), we safely arrived in Cairns (pronounced "cans"), Australia, where I will be based for my fall semester. My program, Natural and Cultural Ecology run by SIT, consists of 15 students (8 girls + 7 boys)from universities across the US, led b...

Hi all! I leave for Australia tomorrow, so I wanted to get my blog up and running before I leave home. I'll be using this blog to pass on stories from my trip as well as share pictures, so make sure to check it all out. The next time I write, I'll be on the other side of the world!