Day 1

After enduring a grueling 36-hour trip—including five airports, four planes, and one bus ride—I have made it to Australia! I left home at 9:30am on Tuesday and arrived at the Cairns Footprints Student Lodge around 1pm on Thursday. I met some lovely people from various places and walks of life: a Navy officer coming for a large 'practice run' on a ship, a mining engineer moving with his family for work, and a pair of American grandparents coming to see their daughter's new baby with her Australian husband. I also had a very old man come up to me and ask if my water bottle was 600mL—it was actually 500mL, he was a bit disappointed and I have no idea why.

This is the same type of plane they flew in Inception!  And

just like the people in that movie, I managed to sleep for

almost the entire 12 hours!  The guy sitting next to me was

pretty impressed.  We also got a great seat at the VERY back

and because the plane tapers inwards, there were only two

seats in the row, leaving plenty of room on the side!  Yay!

Flying with Qantas was kind of like Christmas.  We got food every few hours, and not some measly bag of peanuts either.  No sir, we got full meals that were actually pretty tasty.  Dinner was roasted Mahi Mahi with a honey glaze sauce, steamed veggies, rice, and a little key lime pie bowl.  For breakfast I got a scrambled-egg-on-English-muffin with sausage, mushrooms, and spinach, along with a little bit of fruit, a yogurt, a muffin, and juice.  And for snacks we got little Harry & David mint chocolate bars!  Yumyumyumyum.  They also had cute little drawings on their safety cards (which I always read because if we crash I want to live):

No furbies, eh?  Did those things even have an off switch?  Were

they ever popular in Australia?  Are they still popular?

I WANT TO KNOW.

Customs did not go especially well. I had two pocket knives in my checked luggage that were confiscated. Apparently there was a bout of knife crime a few years ago and now any knife that can be opened with one hand is illegal. The customs folks were all very nice though, and humorous, which was good because between all my food and illegal knives I spent about half an hour with them. (I got to keep all my food though, so I guess that's something to be thankful for.) They also took my scissors out of my carry-on later. Oh well.

The setting is gorgeous.  The town is called Smithfield, which is a little bit outside of Cairns.  Smithfield is small, dominated by a highway, and surrounded by huge mountains.  The mountains are all covered in trees and the whole place looks very rainforesty.  I'll take more photos tomorrow!

I have settled into my new room pretty well, considering I did it all in half a day. I feel like I've accomplished quite a lot today, actually. I got my student ID card, changed one of my course enrolments (and yes, that word is spelled with only one 'l' here, isn't that strange?), went to K-mart, and found a new running buddy! But one thing at a time.

My new class schedule is four classes:
1. Venemous Australian Animals (cool!)
2. Ecology and the Indigenous Australian People (this one has three field trips!)

3. Biodiversity of Tropical Australia (also cool! And possibly with field trips!)
4. Japanese 2a (will be super easy!)

Because I took so many biology/ecology classes in Bonaire, most of the classes at James Cook had names that were too similar for me to get credit. I ended up taking the Japanese class just to fill up space. Should be pretty easy though! I'm excited!

I arrived with three other students, two girls and a boy, Will. He and I met up coincidentally on the way to the International Student Center, and ended up going to the mall too. On the way we met some other girls, three Americans and a Norwegian whose name I cannot pronounce. The mall is 2km away (that's a little over a mile) and it was quite a walk back with all our purchases.

The Australian minimum wage is apparently somewhere in the range of $18, and when I went to the mall I understood why. Everything is CRAZY expensive here. A box of cereal costs $8, body wash (called 'shower milk' here) is around $10, and shampoos and conditioners about $13. A 60-day box of multivitamins costs $35, and don't even get me started on the sunblock prices. There is usually only one brand of a product, so that's what you're stuck with. It seems very strange to me, since I thought there would be a lot more variety, with Australia being a huge country and all. Clothing and phones seem to be about the same prices, but food and household needs are at least double what they cost in the USA.

My bed and desk.

The common area (which is currently all mine).

The bathroom.  Not shown is the toilet,

which is through a door on the left.  The

showerhead is movable and awesome!

Pretty big for a mini-fridge, right?  We've also got a microwave

and a water boiler.

My housing is actually better than I expected. The place is very clean and the only bugs I've found so far are some ants in one corner. I have a small wardrobe but no drawers, so I'm going to have to carry them back from wherever I buy them, which will be quite a hike. (I'd be more willing to consider hitch-hiking if I still had my knives!) I'm VERY glad that I brought my own sheets and pillow, the ones they gave us are atrocious. I will have two roommates but neither are here yet, so tonight I went running around with Will. It's winter here so it got dark very early, but we had a pretty nice run. It was great to get some exercise after spending all that time cooped up in pressurized metal tubes!

I've added hooks to things!  And my clothes hamper matches

my bedding!  (My grandmother taught me to appreciate things like

good bedding and matchy-matchiness.)

I need more drawers!!!  That hole in the

wall is where an airco unit COULD go,

if I paid more.  But now I get a cool new

bookshelf instead, good trade, maybe?

I love this organizer.  It is awesome.  I

also love that purse.  It's also awesome,

because it reminds me of Indiana Jones.

I have pre-orientation at 9am tomorrow, so I'm off to bed!  (My biological clock has adjusted perfectly!)