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 by a few Academic Advisors - Tony, originally from CT, is our main AA; Jack, from Australia, is our rainforest specialist and ISP (Independent Study Project) advisor, and one more whom we haven't yet met. We will be based in Cairns, but have excursions throughout the semester doing field work. Our orientation trip will be held traveling around the area outside of Carins (the back-o'-Cairns), including Port Douglas (where Steve Irwin died), the Atherton Tablelands, and Yarrabah (Aboriginal land). We then have a 2 week homestay in the Cairns area, when we will be going to daily lectures in the city. Then we begin our excursions - an aboriginal camping trip, researching in the rainforest, and researching on the Great Barrier Reef. The last month will be spent performing our own Independent Study Projects (ISPs), where we have to find a topic to study, find someone to help us, and find a place to live. We then have a few days to present our ISPs and conclude the program. That will be in early December, but as many of you know, my family and I are headed to Sydney and New Zealand before returning home in early January. Hopefully I'll be able to maintain this blog throughout all of these trips!

Currently, we're staying at the Northern Greenhouse hostel (see http://www.friendlygroup.com.au/northern_home.asp), which is a very nice hostel in the middle of Cairns. We have rooms with 3 bunk beds each, but each room only has 4 students, so it's spacious. Ours rooms have private bathrooms and kitchenettes as well as balconies. There is a main hang out lounge/patio, a large kitchen shared by the whole hostel, an outdoor saltwater pool, and a big screen TV (which I have not yet found but saw on the website). I think we're being a little spoiled, but it will be nice to retreat back here between excursions - showers will be well earned, for example.

We've really only been here for about 30 hours, but it seems we have already done a lot. Yesterday we were able to explore the city to find lunch. Only a block from our hostel we found a tree filled with tons of huge bats (flying foxes) that screeched like crazy! We knew we were not in the US anymore…After lunch, Tony took us all to the esplanade by the Cairns bay to play beach volleyball, ultimate Frisbee, and swim in the lagoon. All that running around really helped with the jetlag because I think we all could've slept the day away. Today we woke up at 6 am to go for a walk up Mt. Whitfield, a short trail 2 miles from our hostel. The group divided into two - I was with Jack, who led my group up the hill, while stopping periodically to discuss vegetation and some animals (mostly birds). We have seen tons of new species of everything, but at this point it's all so new that I don't think I've remembered very much. And unfortunately, we have not yet seen kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, etc yet, but they say they're coming!

This afternoon we were given some free time, so we ventured off into Cairns to run errands, in particular, finding our local Woolworths (grocery / convenient store). Later, we stopped by the classroom where we'll be having lectures, which is the one place I've found that has free WiFi, but I'm not sure how much time we'll actually spend there. Tonight, the group made a huge pasta dinner at the hostel, which was significantly cheaper than our first dinner out, but quite an adventure to try to cook spaghetti for 15 with only tiny pasta pots!

Overall, things in Australia seem to be fairly similar to the US. Obviously, the language is the same, although Aussies do have the accent. However, we've been traveling in large groups a lot, so I feel like I haven't interacted with many Aussies yet. Some things are very much like home - the radio that plays on the lounge outside my room plays mostly American music. But some things are not - the traffic is on the wrong side of the street, which I'm only now starting to get the hang of.

Well, this has become a long first post from Australia, but we already have some homework to do before we leave for our orientation trip tomorrow, so I'd best go do that!