The long trans-Pacific flight was alright, as far as long flights go. I met a bunch of other Australearn students -- there’s about 20 of us in all, from all over the country (Seattle to Jersey and everything in between) and all kinds of majors. I ended up sitting next to two other Australearn students, Architecture majors from California, who were headed to a year abroad at UTS; we chatted for a while before they went to sleep and I tried to follow suit. I dozed for a few hours, but ended up watching movies and tv for the rest of the flight (each seat had a small screen mounted on the back of the headrest in front of it, which made the long trip more bearable with an endless stream of on-demand movies, tv shows, radio stations, and CDs). I wasn’t able to read, as the “reading light” was extraordinarily bright and I didn’t want to disturb the entire sleeping cabin.
We eventually landed in Brisbane, where we picked up our luggage and went through customs, only to immediately check it again for the flight to Cairns. By now it was a bustling 7 am in Brisbane, and my internal clock was very confused, but I literally had miles to go before I slept…
On the plane, I ended up sitting next to a very nice Australian man (born and raised in Cairns) who made a living running a crocodile farm that supplies crocodile skin for Gucci purses. He was on his way back to Cairns after visiting family in LA, and was getting ready to go on an expedition to capture wild crocodiles for the farm -- one of two farms he ran, raising about 30,000 crocodiles in all. Needless to say, Australia is awesome. During the flight, he pointed out to us the Great Barrier Reef, which was visible from the plane:
This flight had so much to see out the window that (again) I got little reading done. As it turns out, I needlessly stuffed three thick books (Les Miserables, Can’t Buy Me Love, and This Is Your Brain On Music) into my carry-on…
Once we landed in Cairns, we met up with our Australearn contact, Andy (with the requisite thick Australian accent), and headed to our hotel. We then explored some of the town, going down to the waterfront, where, while the beach is mostly mud, there is a very nice pool and a boardwalk that one of the other guys and I were thinking about running tomorrow. We’ll see how that pans out, depending on how early the Australearn people intend to get going tomorrow morning. So far the plan is:
TONIGHT: get dinner, go to sleep (sounds good to me)
TOMORROW: go to rainforest and “hug a koala and/or python” (I think he’s serious)
FRIDAY: go snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef
I’ll try to put up new posts about these things as they happen, but the internet is proving hard to find, so I may not be able to post until I get to Sydney.
Right now I need to go to dinner… or at least that’s what I’m going to call meal number seven of this long period of being awake…
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