Under The Sea!

On Saturday we woke up bright and early and ventured down to the docks for a long and beautiful boat ride out to the Great Barrier Reef. Everyone did their best to soak up the sun before jumping into our super attractive stinger suits. We had the option to snorkel or scuba dive at both locations. I was originally planning on scuba diving, but I happened to mention that I tend to get tunnel vision quite often on my medical form and the dive instructors told me it wasn't safe for me to dive :( This has always been a big bucket list item of mine, so I was rather bummed, but I still got to snorkel!

The first site we went to was incredible. The reef was fairly deep, so there wasn't too much fear of kicking it with my flippers, and I stayed out almost the entire time we were stopped. We all coughed and gagged as we got the hang of our snorkels and drank a great deal of water in the process.

Thankfully, the water at the reef isn't nearly as salty as the Atlantic ocean, so I could handle the mouthfuls. We took funny pictures of each other underwater and started to explore the incredible water. I have never seen such blue water. It was breathtaking to see from the airplane, and now I was finally in it, experiencing it first hand.

The coral was also magnificent  It was so intricate and colorful and there was a plethora of beautiful animals hidden within it. There was a particular purple and green fish that I fell in love with and I would stop and watch it whenever it swam by. My favorite thing to do at the reef was to swim to a less (human) populated area, stick my head under, and stay as still as possible while I watched all the fish reemerge and go on their merry way.

The second part of the reef we visited was even more beautiful than the first, if it was even possible. I decided not to take my camera out the second time, because I wanted to focus all of my attention on soaking in the moment and engraining all of the wonderful images into my own memory. The giant clams were the sight to see at this location. We also took a glass bottom boat over to the tiny island and then snorkeled back to the boat at a very slow pace. I head from multiple people that there was a turtle sighting, but I was not one of the fortunate few, much to my own disappointment. We hopped back on the ship and embarked on our journey home. Although I didn't get to experience everything I wanted to out on the reef, I was told time and time again how lucky we were for our flawless weather, and I truly felt blessed for a near perfect day spent with great new friends, in the sunshine, and at one of the greatest wonders of the world.

That night we had dinner on our own, and our entire group went straight to grab cheap pizza at The Pier. We spent the rest of the night dancing at the local watering holes. I apparently shocked the other members of our group when I started to break out my dancing shoes and let loose during a few songs, including Single Ladies by Beyonce (I'm sure the video will show up one of these days). I also found out that the Columbus Macca's (McDonalds) is one of the only ones to start serving breakfast food late at night!

The following morning we had our final orientation session and were left with the rest of the day off. A few of us went over to the farmers market and sampled some of the best fruit I've ever tasted. I even enjoyed the mango, which has notoriously topped the charts of my "foods I hate and will not eat" list. I managed to find one of my new favorite fruits: mangosteen. I discovered the fruit while in Thailand and I fell in love with it. It was a bit difficult to peel, and not as good quality as the first time I had it, but I still loved it.

My "half day of adventure" was supposed to be skydiving, but when I arrived at our meeting point, they told me it had been delayed an hour. After waiting around for an hour they finally told us it had been cancelled. Although the weather was perfect in Cairns, there was too much rain at the jump site. Everyone was so disappointed. I had been trying to decide whether to skydive or not for weeks and I'd spent the last couple of days building up the courage and all day long getting excited, only to have it be a non event. Andrea, who was also supposed to jump, and I decided to lay by the pool for the rest of the day, which was a much needed break from the hectic life we'd been leading.

For dinner the entire group went to Cafe China which had incredible food served family style; it was just like being back in Singapore. After we ventured out again to Woolshed's for ladies night, and then Gilligan's where they were having a dance competition. I was in the bathroom when they began, but after a few suggestions from friends I jumped up on stage when I was distraught that no one was actually dancing to Beyonce, just timidly wiggling their hips. I had to do the Queen Bey proud and break out the moves. They disqualified me after the first round for not technically signing up, but it was totally worth it :)

On Monday we packed our bags and headed to the airport. It was hard to say goodbye to beautiful and wild Cairns, but it was time to get settled into our own rooms and explore all that Sydney has to offer.

Bethany

Time and Change Will Surely Show How Firm Thy Friendship OHIO

Koalas, Kangas, and Crocs- Oh my!

G'day from Oz!

I've now been here a week and life has finally calmed down enough to sit for 20 minutes and breathe! This past week has been a whirlwind of nonstop adventure; it feels like I've been here for weeks and known my new friends in my program for months.

My travel time from Cleveland to Cairns was about 30 hours. On the plane from CLE to LAX I met a recent graduate of The Ohio State University, who knew my roommate from this past semester, and was also on her way to Australia, and I could tell it was a good omen. Soon upon arriving in LA I realized Courtney, who graduated from a town 20 minutes from me, and who was in my abroad program, was also on the flight. Within the next 5 hours in LAX we met up with almost everyone in our program and thus began our insane journey together.

Upon arrival in Cairns we checked into our accommodations, Gilligan's, and attended our first orientation session before heading to the pier for dinner at Dundees. It was incredible to walk around in the sunshine, heat, and humidity, after just leaving cloudy and cold Cleveland a day before. The east coast kids were used to the humidity, but the west cost kids couldn't believe what it was doing to their hair; thus starting just one of many discussions when we realized how differently we had all grown up in our different states, even though we all come from the same country. That night everyone went to explore the city early, and most of us ended up at the bar at Gilligan's. It was a great place for our first night because there was a good mix of travelers and locals, and we met people from all over the world.

The next day (Friday the 15th) we had another session and then we were on our way to Rainforestation! After a very windy and motion sick inducing bus ride into the jungle, we boarded a vehicle that they told us rode on land and in the water, aka a DUCK BOAT. A few of you will understand how excited I was to see one, and they were made in the US so they drove on the "right" side! We had a very nice guide point out some very cool plants and talk to us about the rain forest. We then went and painted pictures of kanga's and crocs, just like the aborigines.

 While we were exploring our creative sides, we asked some of the aborigines who worked at Rainforestation to paint our faces and arms. After lunch we watched a dance performance by those same aborigines. Some of the people from our group (GlobalLinks) went onstage to learn one of the dances. They were all hilarious to watch and looked like they were having a blast!

We went on a short tour next and learned about didgeridoo's, spear throwing, and boomerangs.

Everyone took turns trying to throw a boomerang: mine was definitely not the farthest thrown, but it was one of the best to loop back around!

Finally we got to go see the animals! I held a snake and looked at all the interesting animals. They then took us over to feed the kangaroos! When the kanga bent down to nibble the pellets out of my hand I just about melted into a puddle of happiness.

They were adorable and so friendly! I also fed and pet a wallaby. We were taken over to meet the crocodiles, particularly Jack the Ripper. He was apparently given girlfriend after girlfriend and he kept killing them all until he killed 11 and they decided to isolate him. He was MASSIVE. Much longer and scarier looking than Big Al from Fripp Island. But the icing on the cake was holding a koala. We were told to hold our hands in a specific position and then we only got to hold it for a minute or two while they took the picture, but it was one of the best minutes of my life. I am in LOVE with koala's- they have been my favorite animal for as long as I can remember and it was a literal dream come true.

I'll have the second half of my time at Cairns up as soon as I can!

Bethany

Time and Change Will Surely Show How Firm Thy Friendship OHIO

Twas The Night Before Oz

"I like that @bethanyrlewis lives in the future because i already know its gonna be a good day"

"It's almost Tuesday here. The future is good. The future is exciting. And the future is going to be great for us. I love you"

I have the best friends in the world. 

19 hours from now I'll be settled in for my first flight en route to Australia. I've spent the past year and a half preparing for this. I've spent hours researching, applying, planning, and packing, and tonight I play the game of staying up as late as possible to offset my sleep cycle. So in the "what am I going to do for the next few hours" boredom I've decided to start this blog to chronicle my semester abroad. I'm not guaranteeing structured or frequent updates, but hopefully this will be a way to keep everyone back home (and my friends traveling around the world) a little more up to date. 

I could not be where I am today, about to go as far as possible from home without a soul I know, without some very important people. My family has supported me every inch of the way and has given me free reign to decide where, when, and how I was going to complete my dream of studying abroad. To them I am always thankful. My best friends have been everything to me. They have been there with calming words for moments of panic, cheers for ecstatic successes,   and encouragement after every block in the road, for years.  They pushed me to follow my dreams, and have been nudging me to keep going every time the feelings of fear seep through. They are eleven of the most incredible people I could've been blessed with, and leaving them behind is by far the most difficult part of this journey. 

Thankfully, I know they aren't going anywhere. Some of these beautiful people have been with me so long that I'm pretty sure they're stuck with me, whether they like it or not :) 

I'll be spending my first week in Cairns before settling into Sydney to take classes at Macquarie University.  Here goes one hell of an adventure. 

Bethany

"Time and Change Will Surely Show, How Firm Thy Friendship"