Spring Break in the Tropics
Wow...That was possibly the greatest spring break ever! So much stuff happened, so much stuff didn't happen, who can keep track? The week started out by all of us piling into our vans at the un-holy hour of 6 am to drive down to Cairns. By 8 30, my crew and I (Dana, Emese, Jenny, Kara) were sitting on a boat on our way out to the Great Barrier Reef to go snorkeling/diving for 2 days. How cool is that? The boat ride out to the reef was kinda choppy (Jenny and I were definitly puking), but once we got out to the reef, it was gorgeous! I mean, absolutly drop dead takes your breath away gorgeous. We promptly put on our snorkeling gear, and Jenny got her dive gear on, and off we went. I saw so much cool stuff, I can't even remember it all. Fish of every color you can imagine, and then some you can't imagine. The Reef is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. So cool. We got back on the boat to go to another reef site, and then transfer over to the boat that we were staying on for the night. More cool snorkeling, in which I saw White-tipped Reef Sharks (don't worry Mom, they were harmless), and this cool, multi-colored sponge. After transfering to the other boat, we went to another site, then got back on the boat to relax and enjoy the evening. We got to sit at real tables, and be served our dinner. So relaxing. Real food, on real plates, and no clean up.I sat on a boat on the Great Barrier Reef and watched the sun go down. Life doesn't get much better than that. After dinner, since only Jenny was doing the night dive, we all indulged in a little of the cocktail action. If you couldn't tell yet, I was really excited about this whole trip. The next morning the crew woke us up at 5 45 (so early, I know) to come see the sun come up. Also, so beautiful. Then, Kara and I did an intro dive. They basically tell you enough to keep you alive underwater, and then the instructor does the rest. Yumi, our very cool instructor, basically towed us around on the sea floor, showing us all this cool stuff! I saw a clown fish, or Nemo for all you non-marine people. Nemo! And, we saw a sea turtle! I might have to get dive certified now....
So on Tuesday night we got back into Cairns, and straight onto a bus bound for Mission Beach, to meet up with a lot of our friends. Mission Beach wasn't as cool as I had hoped. Probably cause I was tired, and it rained the whole damn time (mainly due to the cyclone we didn't know was brewing off the coast). It also sucked because I wanted to go riding, and apparently the only place in Mission Beach closed like a month ago. And, Jenny and I wanted to go skydiving, and we were so going to do it, but the weather was never good enough. Damn cyclone. I didn't even see a Cassowary, cause it was raining the whole time. But, I did have a nice, relaxing break. While everyone else was ambitious and active during the day, I read and relaxed, did a little souvenir shopping, blah blah blah. Lots of fun times at night though. Lots. Drunken fun on St.Patricks Day...enough to make you proud Fud. Let's just say that when we all woke up, I'm pretty sure we were still drunk.
We arrived back in Cairns on Friday, to basically disaster. After paying twice as much as we needed to take a crappy bus back to Cairns (apparently, it was the only bus that was running, due to the fact that all the roads were washed out. But when we got back to Cairns, we found out that the cheap bus was running, and we basically got screwed). Anyway, we got back to wait for 4 hours in the rain at the bus station for the interns to come get us and take us back. Let me just say, sitting in a bus station in the rain makes me never want to be homeless and have to live in one. The interns arrived at 5 30 to let us know that the three available roads back up to where we lived were either underwater, covered in mud or rock, or simply missing due to all the rain. What happened in the next day and a half was so frustrating that I don't even want to get into it again. Let's just say that it was horribly frustrating, and we feel that the interns didn't do a good job coordinating and looking after everybody. Arghhhh. But, Friday night did have some fun points. While Kara, Jenny and I were wandering around looking for food, we met some very nice Irish guys on a street corner, who we hung out with for the night. I know everyone is thinking that it probably isn't a good idea to hang out with guys you meet in a strange city on a street corner, but they actually turned out to be very cool, even though we think they're alcoholics.
We finally arrived back at the Centre on Saturday evening, tired, exhausted, wet and generally pissed off. But I was actually happy to be back. I realized when I was wandering around in the Cairns mall on Saturday morning waiting for the roads to re-open, that I didn't really like being in a mall again. I didn't like how just icky it was. Not even the words Sale, Books or Purses cheered me up. I was actually kinda disgusted by it all. I missed my open space, all the shades of green, all the noises that you hear when there is nothing else to hear. I was so happy to wake up in my cabin on Sunday morning to annoying bird calls, instead of the sounds of people (less happy about having to wake up early and go to a stupid lecture when they should have let us sleep in, even the though the interns got the day off...sorry, just bitching about stuff here. Never mind).
This week should be interesting. Nothing like easing back into things. We have our Rainforest Ecology field exercise this week, which entails us getting up at 5 30 am to go survey bird use in forest fragments. Even the birds around here aren't up that early. Wish me luck. Thanks to all my friends, at Hollins and around everywhere. You guys are the greatest! I miss you and can't wait to see you all again!!!
So on Tuesday night we got back into Cairns, and straight onto a bus bound for Mission Beach, to meet up with a lot of our friends. Mission Beach wasn't as cool as I had hoped. Probably cause I was tired, and it rained the whole damn time (mainly due to the cyclone we didn't know was brewing off the coast). It also sucked because I wanted to go riding, and apparently the only place in Mission Beach closed like a month ago. And, Jenny and I wanted to go skydiving, and we were so going to do it, but the weather was never good enough. Damn cyclone. I didn't even see a Cassowary, cause it was raining the whole time. But, I did have a nice, relaxing break. While everyone else was ambitious and active during the day, I read and relaxed, did a little souvenir shopping, blah blah blah. Lots of fun times at night though. Lots. Drunken fun on St.Patricks Day...enough to make you proud Fud. Let's just say that when we all woke up, I'm pretty sure we were still drunk.
We arrived back in Cairns on Friday, to basically disaster. After paying twice as much as we needed to take a crappy bus back to Cairns (apparently, it was the only bus that was running, due to the fact that all the roads were washed out. But when we got back to Cairns, we found out that the cheap bus was running, and we basically got screwed). Anyway, we got back to wait for 4 hours in the rain at the bus station for the interns to come get us and take us back. Let me just say, sitting in a bus station in the rain makes me never want to be homeless and have to live in one. The interns arrived at 5 30 to let us know that the three available roads back up to where we lived were either underwater, covered in mud or rock, or simply missing due to all the rain. What happened in the next day and a half was so frustrating that I don't even want to get into it again. Let's just say that it was horribly frustrating, and we feel that the interns didn't do a good job coordinating and looking after everybody. Arghhhh. But, Friday night did have some fun points. While Kara, Jenny and I were wandering around looking for food, we met some very nice Irish guys on a street corner, who we hung out with for the night. I know everyone is thinking that it probably isn't a good idea to hang out with guys you meet in a strange city on a street corner, but they actually turned out to be very cool, even though we think they're alcoholics.
We finally arrived back at the Centre on Saturday evening, tired, exhausted, wet and generally pissed off. But I was actually happy to be back. I realized when I was wandering around in the Cairns mall on Saturday morning waiting for the roads to re-open, that I didn't really like being in a mall again. I didn't like how just icky it was. Not even the words Sale, Books or Purses cheered me up. I was actually kinda disgusted by it all. I missed my open space, all the shades of green, all the noises that you hear when there is nothing else to hear. I was so happy to wake up in my cabin on Sunday morning to annoying bird calls, instead of the sounds of people (less happy about having to wake up early and go to a stupid lecture when they should have let us sleep in, even the though the interns got the day off...sorry, just bitching about stuff here. Never mind).
This week should be interesting. Nothing like easing back into things. We have our Rainforest Ecology field exercise this week, which entails us getting up at 5 30 am to go survey bird use in forest fragments. Even the birds around here aren't up that early. Wish me luck. Thanks to all my friends, at Hollins and around everywhere. You guys are the greatest! I miss you and can't wait to see you all again!!!