People don't wear shoes here...
This morning (at 7:45am, even though I could have slept in as last as I want...) I woke up to this really strange tweet-tweeting and it was rather pretty, but in my half-awake state, the first thing that came to my mind was, "Would someone turn off their cell phone alarm already?" Then I woke up more and realized that sound was actual wildlife outside my window, these are the sounds I have to look forward to for the next four and a half months of my life. And this strange sense of calm came over me. Because the truth is, the last 24 hours have not been all that calm.
But let me back track, because Thursday was absolutely in the Top Three Best Days of My Life, and off-hand I can't really think of which others are in that list so it may in fact just be #1. So on Thursday, we woke up quite early, for a 6:15am brekkie and walked about a mile (or should I say, a little over a kilo? I'll get the hang of it soon...) and then once we got there and signed off on some papers we set out to sea on this big SCUBA diving boat with a company called Passions of Paradise (little plug for them, they are totally amazing, if you are ever in Cairns and want to go snorkeling or diving, they are your guys).
So the weather was absolutely amazing, sunny and about 28 degrees C. It took about an hour for us to get out to the Great Barrier Reef, in which time we sort of relaxed and sunbathed on the front of the boat. I took pictures. They went over the scuba-training course, how to breathe underwater, how to clear our mask, how to clear our mouthpiece if it fills with water, and all the hand signals. Anyone without a SCUBA license was required to go diving in a group of four other beginners and one instructor. So once we got there, we suited up in these stinger suits because jelly fish are fairly common and well that would just suck. So once we sat down in the seat where they strap on your oxygen tank, I started to get a little bit nervous. Like, holy crap I have to walk with this thing on? In flippers, no less? And then swim in it? With this uncomfortable mask on? Yikes. But I just figured that was normal first-timer stress so once we hopped in the water I was like, OK I can do this, no problem. You hold on to a rope as the instructor goes one by one over the various things with you and goes underwater to make sure you can handle it and don’t freak out. So I did that and I was fine and off we went. I rented out this underwater digital camera to take with me down there, so as soon as we started going down, I was all about the picture-taking. But the problem was I was totally not at all used to this feeling of breathing through my mouth only underwater. I haven’t really ever snorkeled, unless you count those kiddie snorkels you wear in the pool when you are 7 years old. So I’m snapping away, oh my gosh, how cool, and then BAM, I start breathing through my nose and my mask starts flooding with water and I do the little trick to get the water out by looking up and pushing on the top of my mask, and then I forget about my mouthpiece and that goes floating into the water. So I am a mess, so I rush to the surface like a big baby. And Glenn, the instructor, comes to help and I’m good, and then I do the exact same thing again two more times. So he sends me back to the boat and I feel like a total failure.
Then I went snorkeling, and that was when I started to get the hang of breathing underwater, through my mouth only. Even though it’s a lot different because you are so close to the surface and there is that comfort that you can come up for air at any moment, it still helped me to get the hang of the breathing. So I got back on the boat as we left for our second location, and that was when this other instructor Simon, or “Darling” as I was asked to call him (these Ozzies crack me up), told me to give it go in the afternoon, and he would take me and make sure my mask fit better and everything would be right. So I took his word for it, and tried at the second spot we got to, which was right near this tiny island with all these birds. And my second attempt went totally smoothly, I didn’t feel the urge to return to the surface at all, and I took some fantastic pictures. It was just this really indescribably wonderful thing to be down there. It was like, you do all this stuff in a regular day, go to the bank, go to work, drive a car, blah blah blah-and here is just this beautiful little world underwater where life goes on in this totally perfect way. It’s like when you think about the fact that the Earth is just this tiny speck in an endless universe, how trivial all our little problems are, only this is a whole other precious world within our world that most of us never take a second to consider in our daily lives. We saw sting rays and giant clams and some clownfish and various other colorful fish I didn’t even know what they were. And I took pictures and didn’t get all distracted and forget how to breathe, which was good. After about a 25-minute dive, we got back to the boat and then it was time to start heading home. Glenn asked me to help him steer the boat, because he was having a little trouble, so I did, and we ended up making pretty good time. Heh.
So that was basically the most exciting part of the trip. Friday we got on a 12:30pm flight to Brisbane, which was fine, and then landed, and took a bus to where I am living along with a bunch of other Australearn students in Sir Fred Schonell. The whole process of moving in was a tad annoying, since there is one elevator, 40 of us, and 100 or more of our enormous suitcases. Oh, and no one was there to let us in to the building, give us our room number, or our keys. That was problematic. However, eventually they came, sorted us out, and everything was right and we moved in. I have my own bedroom, which is really exciting because I have never had my own bedroom during the school year. There are seven of us living here within six bedrooms, and two bathrooms to share. The apartment is about a 15-minute walk to town, and 20-minute walk to campus, so they say, although we haven’t down the latter walk yet. Walking outside isn’t bad in the evening, but at this time of year, if you are lugging a few grocery bags, it could get pretty darn sweaty, but there’s also a pretty great public transit system in this city. The buses tend to fill up quickly at certain busier times of the day, but again, these will be little quirks we should get the hang of within the next month or so, just like any new place.
It rained a whole lot yesterday. Like between 3-4pm and then again for a couple hours at night. But I guess it’s a good thing since there’s such a water shortage in this country. People don’t really wear rain boots here. In fact, they don’t wear often wear shoes. Yeah. And by “not often” I mean like every 20 people or so you see on the street. Well maybe even that is an exaggeration, but there are quite a few people that go barefoot, and I'm talking like walking around in town, not just at the beach. We went to Subway yesterday and saw two barefooters in the span of about 10 minutes. Also another mind-boggler is how early shops close up. Like grocery stores and things like that. The grocery stores close about 9pm during the week and 5pm on the weekends. But, I must say, the locals thus far have been absolutely some of the friendliest people I have met in a city. Most people speak English, with the only exceptions being some Asians who are likely tourists. And people are just really open to talking to you, especially when you are in a small group of about three people. Otherwise, Australians will tend to avoid you, which is understandable.
Today is going to be all about getting unpacked and getting random things for the apartment. Like paper towels and dish soap and, oh maybe some laundry detergent so I can wash my only towel and maybe take a shower? And a cell phone perhaps? Monday is our first orientation meeting at UQ, and that will begin our journey as students in Australia.
But let me back track, because Thursday was absolutely in the Top Three Best Days of My Life, and off-hand I can't really think of which others are in that list so it may in fact just be #1. So on Thursday, we woke up quite early, for a 6:15am brekkie and walked about a mile (or should I say, a little over a kilo? I'll get the hang of it soon...) and then once we got there and signed off on some papers we set out to sea on this big SCUBA diving boat with a company called Passions of Paradise (little plug for them, they are totally amazing, if you are ever in Cairns and want to go snorkeling or diving, they are your guys).
So the weather was absolutely amazing, sunny and about 28 degrees C. It took about an hour for us to get out to the Great Barrier Reef, in which time we sort of relaxed and sunbathed on the front of the boat. I took pictures. They went over the scuba-training course, how to breathe underwater, how to clear our mask, how to clear our mouthpiece if it fills with water, and all the hand signals. Anyone without a SCUBA license was required to go diving in a group of four other beginners and one instructor. So once we got there, we suited up in these stinger suits because jelly fish are fairly common and well that would just suck. So once we sat down in the seat where they strap on your oxygen tank, I started to get a little bit nervous. Like, holy crap I have to walk with this thing on? In flippers, no less? And then swim in it? With this uncomfortable mask on? Yikes. But I just figured that was normal first-timer stress so once we hopped in the water I was like, OK I can do this, no problem. You hold on to a rope as the instructor goes one by one over the various things with you and goes underwater to make sure you can handle it and don’t freak out. So I did that and I was fine and off we went. I rented out this underwater digital camera to take with me down there, so as soon as we started going down, I was all about the picture-taking. But the problem was I was totally not at all used to this feeling of breathing through my mouth only underwater. I haven’t really ever snorkeled, unless you count those kiddie snorkels you wear in the pool when you are 7 years old. So I’m snapping away, oh my gosh, how cool, and then BAM, I start breathing through my nose and my mask starts flooding with water and I do the little trick to get the water out by looking up and pushing on the top of my mask, and then I forget about my mouthpiece and that goes floating into the water. So I am a mess, so I rush to the surface like a big baby. And Glenn, the instructor, comes to help and I’m good, and then I do the exact same thing again two more times. So he sends me back to the boat and I feel like a total failure.
Then I went snorkeling, and that was when I started to get the hang of breathing underwater, through my mouth only. Even though it’s a lot different because you are so close to the surface and there is that comfort that you can come up for air at any moment, it still helped me to get the hang of the breathing. So I got back on the boat as we left for our second location, and that was when this other instructor Simon, or “Darling” as I was asked to call him (these Ozzies crack me up), told me to give it go in the afternoon, and he would take me and make sure my mask fit better and everything would be right. So I took his word for it, and tried at the second spot we got to, which was right near this tiny island with all these birds. And my second attempt went totally smoothly, I didn’t feel the urge to return to the surface at all, and I took some fantastic pictures. It was just this really indescribably wonderful thing to be down there. It was like, you do all this stuff in a regular day, go to the bank, go to work, drive a car, blah blah blah-and here is just this beautiful little world underwater where life goes on in this totally perfect way. It’s like when you think about the fact that the Earth is just this tiny speck in an endless universe, how trivial all our little problems are, only this is a whole other precious world within our world that most of us never take a second to consider in our daily lives. We saw sting rays and giant clams and some clownfish and various other colorful fish I didn’t even know what they were. And I took pictures and didn’t get all distracted and forget how to breathe, which was good. After about a 25-minute dive, we got back to the boat and then it was time to start heading home. Glenn asked me to help him steer the boat, because he was having a little trouble, so I did, and we ended up making pretty good time. Heh.
So that was basically the most exciting part of the trip. Friday we got on a 12:30pm flight to Brisbane, which was fine, and then landed, and took a bus to where I am living along with a bunch of other Australearn students in Sir Fred Schonell. The whole process of moving in was a tad annoying, since there is one elevator, 40 of us, and 100 or more of our enormous suitcases. Oh, and no one was there to let us in to the building, give us our room number, or our keys. That was problematic. However, eventually they came, sorted us out, and everything was right and we moved in. I have my own bedroom, which is really exciting because I have never had my own bedroom during the school year. There are seven of us living here within six bedrooms, and two bathrooms to share. The apartment is about a 15-minute walk to town, and 20-minute walk to campus, so they say, although we haven’t down the latter walk yet. Walking outside isn’t bad in the evening, but at this time of year, if you are lugging a few grocery bags, it could get pretty darn sweaty, but there’s also a pretty great public transit system in this city. The buses tend to fill up quickly at certain busier times of the day, but again, these will be little quirks we should get the hang of within the next month or so, just like any new place.
It rained a whole lot yesterday. Like between 3-4pm and then again for a couple hours at night. But I guess it’s a good thing since there’s such a water shortage in this country. People don’t really wear rain boots here. In fact, they don’t wear often wear shoes. Yeah. And by “not often” I mean like every 20 people or so you see on the street. Well maybe even that is an exaggeration, but there are quite a few people that go barefoot, and I'm talking like walking around in town, not just at the beach. We went to Subway yesterday and saw two barefooters in the span of about 10 minutes. Also another mind-boggler is how early shops close up. Like grocery stores and things like that. The grocery stores close about 9pm during the week and 5pm on the weekends. But, I must say, the locals thus far have been absolutely some of the friendliest people I have met in a city. Most people speak English, with the only exceptions being some Asians who are likely tourists. And people are just really open to talking to you, especially when you are in a small group of about three people. Otherwise, Australians will tend to avoid you, which is understandable.
Today is going to be all about getting unpacked and getting random things for the apartment. Like paper towels and dish soap and, oh maybe some laundry detergent so I can wash my only towel and maybe take a shower? And a cell phone perhaps? Monday is our first orientation meeting at UQ, and that will begin our journey as students in Australia.