Culture shock?

Well, I think the honeymoon phase is starting to wear off. I don't know how many of you know about culture shock, but it usually goes something like this:
honeymoon phase: where everything is wonderful and all the little differences are seen as 'quaint', you can't get enough of the culture and you just want to get out there and see everything there is to see.
deterioration: Suddenly the quaint little differences aren't so fun anymore. Things start to irritate you and you find yourself getting angry over the little things or for no reason at all. Homesickness sets in. Some people get really depressed or want to go home.
Adjustment: Eventually you get past the deterioration phase and start to integrate yourself with the culture and feel happy and adjusted again.
Reverse culture shock: When you get home you sometimes go through culture shock in reverse as you adapt back to life at home.

So, while I don't think it's necessarilyculture shock for me, I think the newness is wearing off. I'm sort of realized that this isn't going to be 5 months of nothing but fun and the best times ever. Don't get me wrong, it will still be mostly that, but there's going to be a lot of hard work and probably some difficult times mixed in. Also, I'm starting to feel the reality that everyone from home is really far away and it's strange to read away messages and see everyone's life going on with you missing. Sort of surreal I guess. So yeah, not really upset that I'min Australia, because I mean, come on, I'm in AUSTRALIA, but the reality is slowly sinking in. It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out. I'm going to try and meet up with the Australearn kids this week oncampus and catch up... I think that will help to see some familiar faces and hear some familiar accents. :-) I'll keep everyone posted.
Yesterday was good though. I was definitely feeling out of it, just very disconnected, not necessarily upset... Lauren went to a friend's wedding and I just messed around at home. Then her parents and I went out to the Telstra tower. It's really cool, it actually stands just above the ANU so it's always been the landmark I've looked for in Canberra to get my bearings. It stands about 195 meters above Canberra, for a total of about 900 meters above sea level (Canberra's already really high above sea level). It's one of the main communication towers in Canberra, but also has two viewing galleries and a revolving restaurant. Kayelene, Lauren's mom, is afraid of heights so she stayed on the ground floor, while Lance, Lauren's dad, and I went to up the enclosed viewing gallery. I wasn't sure how I'd do with this because ever since a visit to Chichen Itza plus the stupid 'Eiffel tower' at Kings Dominion I haven't done so well with heights either. But it was so cool! You can see 360 degrees of the city and there's barely any pollution here so you can see for miles and miles! Then I felt brave so we went up to the open gallery, which was freeeeezing and the wind was blowing so fiercely. But I was able to walk right to the edge and really get a good look at the city. You can't really appreciate the beauty of Canberra unless you've seen it, but its gorgeous, even at night.
After the tower we went back down Black Mountain and drove around Lake Burley Griffin to look at the Conservation Point Centre and the High Court and Carillion all by night. There's an American monument type thing (I can't remember what its purpose is) around the lake that the Aussies call "Chook on a stick" because its an eagle sitting on a pole. Hahaha, gotta love Aussie humour ;-)
After this we went to Goodberry's for ice cream. They have something called 'concretes' which are like Blizzardsfrom Dairy Queen except much better and you can pickand choose your toppings! Yum... best news of all- we have a couple of these in the states. I think they're in Chapel Hill, N.C.,but they're quite good!
I've been trying to get some travel plans together for the rest of the time. So far we're looking at Hobart (Tasmania), Adelaide (for her brother's wedding), Sydney for Easter Weekend, Melbourne and possibly the Gold Coast (in Queensland). It's so difficult to try and organize everything, but we really need to get a jump on it to take advantage of good flight prices.

Okay, well I think that's everything I have to report. Hope to hear from some of you soon!
Lo

BTW~ I think all the pictures from the orientation and 80% of the Fadden pics are now online. My camera batteries died so I have to go get new ones before more will be up ;-)

I am so tired...

Getting up at 6:45 sucks. I've decided this. I wake up every morning to the sun shining on the beautiful Australian landscape and gorgeous exotic cockatoos and gallahs sqawking away... which would all be lovely if it weren't before seven. But seeing as how it is... I hate it. I am not meant to be a morning person!
Okay, done whinging... for now ;-) It's now Thursday around 11:30. Let me back track through yesterday really quickly. Wednesdays, so far, i only have Nervous Systems. This class is going to kill me. I thought I'd really like it, and I stll might, but it is so techincally difficult. I've always laughed when my friends have said they have classes that make their heads feel like they're exploding- now I know the feeling. Yesterday, mind you the SECOND day of class, we jumped inwith a guest lecturer talking about... action potentials, ion channels, Nernst neuroscience equations- what? Luckily it was only a 50 minute lecture otherwise my brain may have exploded. After classes Lauren and I went to Woden to do some quick shopping. I bought some candles and glassware to go with them... although I'm still missing my Pier One first bloom ones!!! Then we spent a little time trying to clean Lauren's car. It's a little scary, but I have a feeling it will be one of those endearing old cars once we get it all cleaned up. After tea we made her mom sit and watch two episodes of the OC with us- even though she won't admit it- Lauren's hooked. YES! Another convert! Although we both agree the actings a little shoddy and the a bit predictable, who cares, Brian McKenzie is hot. Ohohoh! We saw "I Love Seth" shirts at one of the stores in Woden- how awesome is that!
This morning I was up early again for a class at 9. I rode the bus all by myself :-) I feel like a 6 year old saying that, but thats okay. That's the only good thing about taking the bus- it gives me another 45 minutes to wake up while I just sit there. My class this morning was again Nervous Systems and TWO HOURS this time. yuck. All about ion channels and intracellular recording devices, which was kind of cool until he started discussing equations, at which point I tuned out completely. I feel as though I skipped class for a month or something because he kept saying "this should all be a review, I wont spend much time on this" and I'm like "whoa there buddy, I have ZERO clue what you're talking about". So this class should be fun!!!!!!!!!
The rest of the day will hopefully be spent chilling out as I am beyond tired. Tonight we're babysitting again, and this time we have... THE NOTEBOOK to watch :-) I am so excited about that! My mom sent me a HUGE and overly generous care package with gummi bears and oreos and reese's pieces + the notebook. It's amazing how much you miss some of the food from home. She also sent chocolate covered pretzels which the Aussies absolutely loved, although it took some convincing to get them to try it.
Okay, I'm off to meet Lauren, but first I wanted to say again:
Thank you to everyone's who emailed. I have heard from some unexpected people and I really can't explain how amazing it is to hear from them. Keeping in touch with people from home is my escape from the sometimes scariness of being in a new country. Although I'm trying hard to be a full-fledged Aussie this semester, you're all still in my mind! Thank you again!

First day of Uni!

Well, I've done it- I've become one of those people I hate, people who have personal webdiaries and then never update them. My apologies!!
Okay. first day of school (btw~ You don't say you're going to school, you say you're going to uni. School is 1-12 grades ;-))! I had typed all this up earlier and lost it while at Uni, so this might be a shorter abridged version. First, let me catch up withwhat I've been doing since I last posted on Thursday.
Thursday

Babysat for the friend's of Lauren's. They live in Isaacs, a suburb about 10 minutes from Lauren. What a wonderful family. Their house is adorable, with the biggest backyard I've ever seen- it wraps around 3/4 of the house with amazing cubbyhouses and trampolines and gardens. Perfect place to grow up! The kids were fantastic too. The girl is about 10, and the boy is about 13. Ryan just started learning about cells in school so he and I had a good chat about different parts of the cell. Sad thing is (Sara, you'll appreciate this) he knew almost as much as I did. But the best thing about the night was their dog... A golden retriever!!!! So at least I got my dog fix ;-) After the kids went to bed, Lauren and I watched Ned Kelly. If you ever get the chance to rent it, do. It never came out in theatres in the US, but it has Heath Ledger, Orlando Bloom, Naomi Watts and Geoffrey Rush in it. If you dont know, Ned Kelly is Australia's equivalent of Billy the Kid, etc. He was an outlaw back in the 1870s who killed a fair number of people and stole a lot of money from banks. He and his brothers rampaged the country side of Victoria until they were caught. This is very typical of Australia- even though he wasn't really a good guy, they've made him a national icon and hero. Next time you go to the Outback Steakhouse, look at the paintings. They often have replicas of Sid Nolan's Ned Kelly series. Click here and here for examples. He's famous for the self made armour that he wore at the Glenrowan seige. That's what's pictures in all the paintings, is his helmet. It's a really good movie.
Friday
Friday was a bit slower. It's was Mr. Sander's birthday. Lauren worked in the evening, and so after dropping her off at the mall where she works (Tuggeranong, pronounced Tog-er-nong) we went to the other shopping centre (Woden) to look for wedding outfits. Lauren's brother David is getting married in Adelaide in April. We just did a quick breeze through shopping trip, so she could point out which stores were worth going into, etc. I saw a lot of things I liked though, so thats a good sign! Then we met up with Lauren's dad and had subway for 'tea'. (Aussie lesson ofthe day: Breakfast= brekky, dinner=tea, coffee/biscuits(that is, cookies) before bed= supper). Then it was off to her parent's bible study. While this isn't usually my 'thing' I wanted to go to meet some of the people involved because I had met them in 2002 and also because they will be at the wedding. It was really fun actually, even though I was the youngin'. Everyone was incredibly friendly! One of the members is from South America and had just gotten back from 5 weeks in Hong Kong. I'm not 100%sure what he does for a living, but you should have heard the story he told about his trip! Basically he was supposed to be securing $750,000USD worth of gold for a smelting company in Hong Kong. His supplier in Africa basically disappeared after extracting almost $100,000 of his personal money in "taxes" etc. It sounds like the plot of the next Hollywood movie. We all just sat in disbelief. I didn't know people really had lives like that!
Saturday
We went to Old Parliament house for afternoon tea. Really yummy, bad service. Later that night we went to a BBQ at Lauren's friend Tonya's house. I had met all these people before, but there was still a little anxiety. It's hard being the outsider in a group that big. Tonya's house is amazing though. It's hard to describe, but really, it's the coolest decorating I've ever seen! And she's an amazing cook, it was such good food.
Sunday
Lauren worked again, so her parents and I went to the US embassy to try and register me. The embassies are all so cool looking, they are all built to look like a building from their home country. Our embassy is a big brick colonial mansion complete with over a dozen fireplaces and surrounded by a huge fence. I'm sure they thought we were crazies because we kept circling the property trying to find someone to ask about registering. But no one was around, only the security personel. The embassy is where President Bush stayed when he visited Canberra a couple months ago (side note, if you want to hear a funny story about W's visit to Canberra, ask me ;-) ). After this unsuccessful trip we went to the National Gallery of Australia. This was so amazing. We had a private tour of the gallery because no one else showed up for the tour. The guide really tailored her program to me and explained a lot about Aboriginal art. I'd never been able to really "see" art before, although I could appreciate it, but this visit really opened my eyes. I still don't like most of the abstract/modernism paintings, but some of them, especially the aboriginal pieces were just fascinating. If you want to know more, ask me. I've been learning a lot about Aboriginal history, because evidently the Aussies treated them much as we treated our native americans, maybe even worse. It's a very sad period of history, but very important to Australia.
Monday
Okay! Finally caught up! I need to be better about this! Monday started bright and early at 6:45. My body hated me instantly. We caught the bus at 8:04 into Civic. It's all a bit confusing, as to which bus to take, but I'm slowly starting to get it. I was SO nervous on the bus, felt like a little kid on the first day of school. We got to civic around 8:45, and had about a 10 minute walk over to the far end of campus for a 9:05 Australian Wildlife class. I think I will really love this class- and a bonus- my friend Brian from Australearn is in it! Whew! It's so nice to see a familiar face! Already though I have a huge essay due, and a proposal for it due in two weeks. Grrrrr. So much for the holidays! After Wildlife I walked with Lauren to Manning Clark (a big building with 6 lecture theatres in it) for her Biological Basis of Behaviour class (VT kids:read Psych nervous systems and behaviour). She has it with Anna and Katie from Australearn, so it was nice to talk to them even though I felt like a random in there. After this we had a little break, and then Lauren had Administrative Law and I had Physiology of the Nervous System. I've basically taken this class when I took the Psych nervous systems class last semester, but I'm getting credit for it for Bio now, so I won't complain. It looks like a lot of material though! But I think it will be good. The lecturer is from Eastern Europe though, so that ought to be itneresting trying to understand her. At least we'll be in the same boat. A side note about Lauren's program. In Australia they don't have to go law school after undergrad. When Lauren graduates in 2007 she'll be able to practice law after she passes her bars. So she's basically in law school right now and it appears to be a killer course!!! Poor girl! After I finished I had an hour or so to spare because Lauren's class is 2 hours, so i went to Chifley Library to check email. Thiru, Lauren's boyfriend, found me there and we hung out while we waited for Lauren. So, that was mainly day 1- we got a ride home with Thiru and avoided the bus ;-) I was a tired "little vegemite" that night (Again, Aussie- if you want to feel like an Australian, try a vegemite sandwich- they sell it in the stores in the peanut butter aisle! Yum!)
Today
Again, early morning. Lauren loves me tons and tons and came with me even though she didnt have a class until 3. I had a 2 hour developmental psych class at 9:05. This may sound killer, but it's the only time the lecture meets for the week so its bearable. Also, Anna and Katie are in that class with me so it won't be too too bad. Again a big essay assignment- that makes three so far! I talked to Katie a little after the lecture- it felt SO nice to catch up with an American. I hadn't been able to talk to her since the orientation besides saying hello yesterday. After this I went to my 12 o'clock Wildlife class. The lecture went SO fast through all the material, but luckily it was mostly a review of stuff we covered in evolutionary bio at home. Brian and I had a chat afterwards. He's from Laramie Wyoming and he's so funny! He's really adaptingwell to the Aussie lifestyle, but we were whinging (whining) about some of the little things, like how they will ONLY walk on the left side of the path, whether or not it's clear. Afterthis I met up with Lauren and Thiru and we sat in Union Court in the sun. Literally 25 minutes later we all had a nice sunburn to show for it. They weren't kidding when they said its the skin cancer capital of Australia. Yikes! I have gotten SO tan in two weeks, it's almost ridiculous. I'll need to be better about using some sunscreen;-)
Okay kids, I'm sure I left out a TON, but I've been typing for over an hour and my fingers are breaking off. Plus Tabitha (the cat) is curled up on my bed and making it look quite inviting! Tomorrow I only have an 11 o'clock lecture (Physiology, I believe, but don't quote me on this!).
Thanks to everyone for all the emails- you have no idea how much it makes my day!!!!

3 days left of freedom...

Well school starts on Monday. That is going to be such a rude awakening, considering I've had over 2 months off. At least it'll be somethign to do, and there's not as much pressure this semester as past. The Australian grading system is different than ours. Instead of having As, Bs etc, they have: High Distinction, Distinction, Credit, Pass, and Fail.I only have to get credits (the equivalent of a C) in order to get credit back at Tech. However, their system is also different in that isntead of having 4 tests in every like class like most of us do, they will very often only have 1 or 2 assessments PER CLASS. Lauren's had a couple exams worth 95 or 100% of her grade! That is terrifying to me, so we'll see how it goes.
Yesterday was fun though. We're trying to fit as much relaxation in as we can. In the afternoon we went to Market Day at Uni which is where all the clubs and societies have their stands and you can sign up. I joined the psych society and opened a bank account. Super exciting, lol. Anyway, after that we came back home and relaxed some and then went and got Chinese food. It's definitely a little different here, but it was still really good. Their Honey Chicken tastes exactly like it does at PF Changs. Yum! We took our food to Fadden Pines (a local park) and had a picnic on top of the playground. It was really fun and the weather was beautiful if not a little cold, but then these obnoxious little kids started running around. Now, normal parents would have told their kids to stop running and kicking over our food but this lovely mother (who spent most of her time talking about cigarettes and cursing) told her kids "Keep playing, it's not a restaurant". What! Duh, but come on lady, common sense! It was funny though, we just laughed at her.
Anyways, after we finished we went and played on the playground like 6 year olds. It was a lot of fun, I hadn't been on swings in quite awhile! After this we came home and watched 3 episodes of sex and the city. We've been on a bit of a marathon run of that show, because neither Lauren nor I watched it while it was on its first run.
Other good news- they're only about 6 weeks behind on the O.C.!!! I've been trying to convince Lauren to watch it, but I haven't gotten her hooked quite yet- we're only on episode three though, so we'll give it some time.
Okay, well I should be off, we're babysitting later tonight and I eventually should get dressed andliving! Tomorrow Lauren's working and its her dad's birthday, Saturday we're going to lunch for her dad's bday, and other than that just enjoying the last moments of summer! Hope to hear from you all soon! Love you and miss you!

Lo
(ps make sure you post your names on the anonymous notes so I know who you are :-) )

More pictures

Just a quick post. Not too much to report at this point, but I wanted to post some new pictures (some from the 2002 visit) while I had the chance! Love you all!

Lo

New pictures

First day of ANU

Today was international orientation today. By which I mean Lauren and I went late and skipped all the stuff she could tell me. I met up with Stephanie and Anna there though, it was nice to see some familiar faces!!!We sat through a couple of sessions, then went and grabbed "lunch" (sandwiches, kinda), then realized there was no where to sit and split. We went into the bookstore and found what books we needed. One of mine is $230!!!!!!! It's only recommended tho, so I'm not sure if I'll buy it yet or not. Then Lauren showed me where my classes were (all fairly close which is nice) and a couple of their libraries. I didn't take any pictures today, but i will shortly so you can get an idea of the campus. The atmosphere is very similar to VTs, very relaxed and the campus is simply beautiful! It's nice to feel relaxed on such foreign soil.
After this we walked to Civic, which is what the city centre is called. We walked around some of the shops and looked for vday gifts for her boyfriend, Thiru. I'm going to have to get used to walking tons again after 6 weeks of being really lazy, haha!
Then it was back to enrollin classes. We were supposed to do it tomorrow but the lines were really short so we just did today.I'll be taking:

• Australian Wildlife (biol)
• Physiology of the Nervous System (biol)
• Developmental Psych (psych, with Anna and Katie)
• Social Psych (with Lauren)

So not too bad of a courseload! Australian students generally only take 3-4 subjects, so this is a full course load. I'm really excited about starting classes, which I'm sure will only last about 3 minutes, but at least it will all be different! After enolling we were walking back to the carpark and ran into some guy who asked if we were international students. He had a question and then I asked him where he was from (he was obviously American) and he said... Virginia. Of all places, lol, small world afterall! And where in Virginia? Oh yeah- UVA! Stupid Wahoos! ;-) It was nice to talk to someone from VA though, comforting to know I'm not the only one over here!
Tonight we're having a barbecue with some of the Sander's neighbours, so I ought to go get ready for that! Love and miss you all! Oh, and a couple more pictures posted, so check out: 4 more pictures

One more thing.... PICTURES!

Hey guys, here's a link to the first batch of pictures. It's taking awhile to upload so be patient with me! Love you all! Click here!

Canberra at last!

Hello everyone! I apologize for the delay in updates!
okay, first things first: Thank you to all who have emailed me! I love nothing more than finding big long updates in my inbox. It will definitely make the adjustment so much easier to know I'm not forgotten! I promise I will get back to you, it may take me a couple of days though, as internet access is not as easy as home.
Next- contact information!Finally!

home:
Lauren Seymour
c/o Lauren Sanders
2 Gilday Place
Fadden
ACT 2904
Australia

phone: 011-61-2-6291-9907 (in effect now!) I recommend if you love me enough to call, use a phone card ($20 from target for about 250 minutes or so... a very good deal! Look for the international one). Just remember that this is the family line, and we're 16 hours ahead of Virginia.
mobile: 011-61-4-1663-5777 (this is just mine, call ANYTIME, seriously!)
I do have instant messenger here (still anmlcracker) but at Uni (school) I'll be using Windows Messenger under the name Anmlcracker@aol.com. If you haven't already, download the latest version and add me to your contact list so we can chat!

Okay, I think thats all the housekeeping. Letters cost about 80 cents USD to send to Australia and packages a fair bit to send by air (so keep them as light as possible if you send anything to spare your wallet). I'd love care packages- feeling a little isolated on the other side of the world! I'm asking anyone who has the time (which I know is sparse, no worries!) to send any pictures they have ... of what, I don't really care- just things to remind me of home- so VT, Richmond, NoVa, DC, whatever, seriously. Ihave a huge (and empty!) bulletin board in my room that I'm going to put whatever anyone sends on. I know it sounds silly, but it really helps make that ache of missing everyone at home just a little bit smaller!

Okay- now! What have I been up to? Well...
Monday we had a final orientation session at Cairns. It was hot as hell and soooo humid. We had to check out of our hostel rooms by 8:00 so we had to put all of our luggage in a big locked room. Which if you can imagine 40 peoples huge overseas bags in one midsized hotel room = CHAOS. We listened to a bit about the Australian education system, and then the Uniwireless guy came and distributed our prepaid cell phones. Let me just tell you- if you thought our cell phone providers at home were difficult- HA! This is the most confusing system ever. It's all prepaid, but there's all sorts of restrictions and conditions, and this that and the other. Anyways, i have a mobile now, so feel free to call it whenever. It's weird how naked you feel without it for a couple of days, but we all agreed it was nice to have uninterrupted conversations for awhile.
After the lectures we watched the superbowl a bit (GO PATRIOTS!) and then it was time to bring down all that luggage. Our counselor Robyn had a fairly brilliant idea. Instead of trying to find our individual luggage, we just made a big conveyer belt around the hostel and grabbed whatever was handed to us. Then we boarded the bus, all nice and hot and gross, for the Cairns airport. There we had to wait awhile for our luggage to arrive from thehostel and then we hastily checked in and boarded our Virgin Blue flight for Brisbane.
Everyone was fairly nervous- finally what we had been waiting all these months for was happening! We all went on a group flight to Brisbane where half the kids departed for University of Queensland. The rest of us grabbed some food and waited for our flight to Canberra. Oh, btw- it's pronounced Can-bra, not Can-bear-a. Just some Aussie (ozzy, not aussssie) lingo for you. We boarded that flight and then it was another 2 hours to Canberra. Let me just tell you also, that virgin blue attendants are snippy! When we arrived at the gate in Canberra, we all took off our seatbelts almost as soon as arrived and one of them said "thank you everyone for waiting for the fasten seatbelt sign to be turned off". Yikes!
Okay, so finally, Canberra. The weather walking from the plane to the gate (tiny airport) was DELIGHTFUL. Of course as I'm walking into the terminal I'm already starting to cry and cran my head looking for Lauren. First I see her dad with his camera (he takes pictures of everything) and then I saw gorgeous Lauren and ran up, absolutely sobbing. We looked like a bunch of crazies I'm sure. Oh well, it's been such a journey to get to that point, that nothing felt better than that hug! Then we grabbed my huge luggage and went off to Fadden.
Since then its been nice to just unpack, do some laundry and chill out. My feet werefairly destroyed from the walk in Cairns that night, so they've had some healing to do. I'll post more details tmorrow about what I've been doing in Canberra, and hopefully some pictures of the house too, so you can get a clearer idea of where I am.
Tomorrow I have a bunch of orientation things to do, and hopefully some enrolling in classes. It would be nice to know what I'm taking next semester.
Thanks again for all the emails and comments (make sure you put your name so I know who from!) . To all who saw me freaking out before I left.. just know that I am so happy here. All that stress and unhappiness from home has evaporated and I am just on top of the world! Of course,I miss you all, but you'll still be there for me when I come home happier and I can't wait to see you all!!!!!

Great Barrier Reef...

What a beautiful day!

They said it was the best snorkeling/scuba in the world and they weren't kidding!
Today started very early... breakfast at 6:45, bus to town at 7:15, on the catamaran by 7:30. the boat and crew were awesome- the front of the boat had huge nets that we could lie down in, and plenty of space to walk around and lay out in the hot Queensland sun. It was a 2 hour ride from town to the reef. You definitely don't want to swim in the water near Cairns because its full of very mean little jelly fish ( Irukandji) whose sting is fatal. So you have to travel out to the reef (hence why its the barrier reef) to get to the crystal clear waters and all the beautiful corals. The ride was beautiful (pictures to follow at a later date), and all the hills surrounding Cairns with the rainforests were simply gorgeous.
We finally arrived at the reef around 11:00. After a brief introduction, we divided up into groups- snorkelers and scuba. I decided to snorkel, mainly because it was $60AUD for 30 minutes, and you could see all the same things snorkeling. So, we had to hire 'stinger suits' (mainly lycra wet suits) because there's still a risk of running into nasty poisonous jellyfish out in the reefs. Very unattractive, I can assure you. Several of us took a tour in the glass bottom boat they brought along with the catamaran so we could learn about the Australian flora and fauna before jumping in. Then finally it was into the water! It felt so nice after several days of being ridiculously hot. Colleen, Stephanie and I stuck together and swam all around the reefs. We were only in the water for about 45 minutes, but we saw plenty.... brain coral, fire coral ( you dotn want to touch this!), finger coral, spaghetti coral, spider shells, starfish, butterfly fish, unicorn fish, sea cucumbers, clown fish (or as our guide called them... NEMO!!), and many many many others. After that we went back onto to boat for lunch and a bit of relaxation and then went to the second spot for the day (upolo cay, I believe).
This spot was even prettier with those crystal aquamarine waters you see in National Geographic and all that... we went back into the water, and Colleen and I swam around. The current was much much stronger, but it was worth the extra effort. The corals were more vibrant here, and we saw 3 blue spotted lagoon rays! Soooo beautiful! We also saw some gorgeous parrot fish and many other types of coral. After this we hopped back onto the boat for 'tea' (cookies [biscuits] and tea/coffee) and the relaxing 2 hour ride back to Cairns. All and all, simply wonderful. Took many underwater pictures, so I'll post those once I get settled.
Tomorrow- up early, then packing, breakfast, orientation meeting, mobile phone time, then off to the airport. For those of you keeping score at home.. here are the flights for tomorrow:

Cairns to Brisbane : Virgin blue flight 874 (departing 2:30 arrive 4:35)
Brisbane to Canberra: Virgin blue flight 564 (departing 6:00 pm, arrive 8:50 pm)

Then its off to begin the adventure in Canberra!

Love you all! More to come later!
Lo

Guess what? I'm in Australia!!!

Finally made it to Australia. After months and months of planning, I'm finally here! Want to hear about the journey? okay, here goes....
February 2- left Washington D.C. Very nice airport employee gave me two passes so that my parents could come with me and see me off from the gate. On the shuttle bus over we sat next to another guy who was also going on the same flight to Australia, with the same study abroad program. Nice guy, very nervous about the flight. The actual flight from IAD to LAX wasn't bad... especially considering that I sat next to an adorable Australian surfer, who was returning to Australia as well from a 5 week surfing trip to Brazil. He was from outside Sydney, and we spent most of the plane ride talking. I think I may have actually pissed off the older guy in front of us from laughing too hard. Oh well.
Anyways, next was LAX, which sucked. Alex (the Australearn boy) and I said good bye to Matt (surfer guy) and went to find our terminal. Took us awhile, then we went and found food in the international terminal. Went back to the Qantas terminal and sat around awhile with a bunch of other Australearn kids waiting to check in. It was nice to be able to meet some new people before the flight . Then a group of 6 of us went and had dinner at Chilis, then everyone made their tearful goodbye phone calls while we waiting to board the flight. FINALLY at around 10:30 pm we boarded the Qantas 747 (painted with aboriginal art!!) and settled in for the 14:20 hour flight. I had an aisle seat, which was nice, and sat next to a very nice Australian girl, also from Sydney. She was returning from Las Vegas where she has spent two weeks studying at the LVI dental institute. The flight really went by quite quickly, if you can believe it. I slept for over half of it, and watched movies/friends episodes for the rest of the time. Qantas planes are very nice, you have your own TV monitor and remote, so you can watch whatever you want!
Okay, then we finally landed in Sydney, a little late and had to hurry through security to make our connecting flight to Cairns. The flight to Cairns was nice, I had no one next to me, so that was wonderful!!! I slept for most of the plane ride, and woke up in beautiful, sunny, albeit very hot Cairns!!!!
so grand total: 3 planes, 22 hours, 3 airports, 4 bottles of water, and 4 inflight movies later I am finally in Australia!
Cairns is beautiful, very tropical. If you're trying to find it on the map, look at the top right, near the great barrier reef. The people here are fantastic. I've met a lot of great people, and the 6 of us who are goign to ANU have formed a very laid back, easy going group. It's great! The first day we arrived (yesterday, the 4th) was a very long day. We got to Australia at 8 am, and somehow I managed to stay awake until almost 10:00 pm. We were transported to our hostel (the Serpent- very nice, not what I expected from a hostel!!) and unfortunately my bags didnt make it to Cairns. They couldnt fit 40 bags onto the flight, so mine arrived a little later at the hostel. Which was crap, because it was 33 degrees Celsius here and I was in jeans and a t-shirt. But we had a couple orientation sessions, then some of us walked along the bay a bit, then had dinner and then took a shower and crashed out!
Today was up at 6:30, which sounds early but when you're jet lagged, it wasnt too bad (3:30 pm VT time!). Had a sketchy breakfast, another orientation session, then went to the Cairns tropical zoo. that was a lot of fun, but way too hot. We went around and had our picture taken with a koala and watched the croc feeding show. Saw some other Aussie animals (kookaburras, wombats, dingos, etc) and then had about enough of the heat and went to the gift shop to cool down. Then after that it was off to the Aboriginal park where we saw a dance performance and learned how to throw a boomerang and a spear. Needless to say, I was crap at the boomerang, but the spear throwing was fun. Again, way too hot, so its nice to be sitting in the internet lounge in the AC! Next.. who knows, maybe goign into cairns a little later and getting something to eat.

tomorrow's plan: early morning breakfast, then all day on the Great barrier reef! I cant tell you how excited I am about this!!! We get to snorkel and scuba if we want. I'll post more tomorrow.

If you read this, please leave a comment so I can get an idea of who's checking it! I would love to hear from everyone! My email box was depressingly empty!

Love and miss you all!!!!!!
Lo