First Post

At the request of a couple of Loup City residents, I decided to start a blog. We shall she if anyone reads it or not. So much has happened since I got here. I guess I will start with the plane ride over.
I got into LAX with little time to spare and in the gigantic airport. The lady at the counter didn't think I could make it though security in time but I had half hour to spare when I got there. The plane ride itself actually wasn't that bad. I slept for 8 of the 13 hours. The rest of the time I tried to make friends with the east coast kids that were sitting on each side of me. There were tons of movies to watch. All the newest releases and some Australian movies even like Animal Kingdom. I recommend watching it. When we landed they herded us through customs like cattle sending us into different chutes. From there we took a plane to Brisbane which was 2 hours and another to Carnis which was also two hours with a couple of lay overs in between. It was a long day. When I got there they tried to give us a lecture of all the important things in Australia but kids were falling asleep so they decided to wait till the next day.
The next day we saw rain forest station. I got to pet a kangaroo, hug a kola and hold a snake. Pics can be found here http://picasaweb.google.com/104385918922478847724/Australia?authkey=Gv1sRgCMW11KeM9LvEfQ#. Overall it was a good day. We also got to see the dance of the aboriginal people, watch them play the didgeridoo, and saw them throw spears at targets.
The next day we were up early again to see the coral reef. Our group took a 2 hour boat ride to the middle of the ocean. It was the worst time to find out that I can get sea sick. I snorkeled at the first spot they showed us for two hours. I threw up right before lunch and then didn't have the stomach to eat anything. They took us to another spot, the boat rocking violently the entire time. Thankfully at this spot we could swim to the beach. I saw a couple sea turtles along the way. There was just this tiny island with thousands of birds on it. There was a little section roped off for humans to sit in and I composed myself there for a couple hours. It really is a shame cause during the snorkeling I did do I saw the most beautiful ocean life I could have ever imagined. I swam with schools of fish, saw a small shark, and observed the diversity of plants on the ocean floor.
That was really all we did. I was told we were going to do a community day which would have been really cool especially to help with all the flooding going on here but it never happened. I did go to a pub crawl and ended up spending $80 that night on drinks and covers. It is the most expensive time to live in Australia apparently.