Good ole procrastination update!

Yeah, so I'm finishing up a short essay and decided to take a break and update. Of course.

The whole Cairns trip was great. The weather was great, even when there was an occasional sprinkle it was still warm and quickly cleared up. There was a lot of beach laying since we needed to keep costs down after the expensive reef trip. Which brings me to the next topic:

The Great Barrier Reef was amaaazing! I know I said that in the last post, but seriously, it was one of the best things ever. We went out twice and the first time I was reallly scared. Out there in the middle of the ocean seeing nothing but more water out on the horizons. There was definitely some mild hyperventilating going on, haha, as neither my sister nor I were ever really the ones to enjoy submerging our heads under water for some strange, unknown reason. But once I relaxed and just practiced breathing with the snorkel I was fine. If you tip your head too far down you do suck in a little water though. Haha. The first place was the most beautiful color wise. Exactly what you'd imagine - neon purple and vibrant red plants, neon blue fish.. everything neon really. The second place had a lot of caves and stuff that probably was cooler for the scubadivers, although it was still really cool from the top. Also near us was an island made entirely of sand. Just a huge sandbar that sticks out above the water. We didn't get to go check it out or anything, but that's all right because we were busy enough checking out the reef. The waves were crazzyyy. That's probably what was the scariest of it all. The supervisor woman said that some days the water is as flat as glass and she could let people go as far away as they wanted. But visibility was crap that day bc of the waves so she had to keep us in a bit tighter confines. Which was apparently a problem for Steve because after we were called to come back in there was one person way out far in the distance and she had to go out and get him and I was like crap, that's one of us. Haha. There was a professional photographer swimming around and while I'm usually reluctant to buy those types of pictures bc they're typically ridiculously expensive, the ones were priceless and Morgan and I each got two for a pretty good deal.

Other fun things: watching fire dancers on the sand, tango and making up our own dances at the lagoon, sunbathing in the 85 degree weather, random didgeridoo lesson (I can now circularly breath!), 10pm nights in, free massage for booking the hostel for five days, etc.

One bad thing: the huge bar downstairs owned by the hostel that was pumping until 3am. And then the screaming drunk people returning after that. But that was generally forgiven since I knew in advance it was going to be that kind of place. Cairns is pretty much the Mrytle Beach of Australia and Gilligan's where we stayed is literally the place for people my age.

Back in Melbourne, we've started our History of Indigenous Australia class. Reeeally cool. First half is from an archeology POV and the other half is regular historical POV. Some people are bored because archeology is mostly "bones and rocks" but I love it and find it relatively easy to apply concepts I've learned in my anthro classes. Back home arch and anth aren't really as separated fields as they are here.

Today we went on a nature walk in the school's reserve. There was a tree scared by aborigines taking the bark for a canoe. Pretty cooool. I also got to talk to one of the coordinators about her specialties. We have our main guy who is a professor and archeologist, and we have a woman who is an older doctoral student. She was also asking about the professors I've had in Ithaca for anthro to see if she's heard of any of them. Made me think of how talented they really are, as I was telling her about the studies some of them have done all over the world. Oo gets my blood pumping. I really love it.

Ok but I guess this is enough of a break. Time to wrap up this assignment I'm doing. See you all laterrrrr.