Dec 28, 2009

Christmas here was good. It didn't seem like Christmas, just a nice relaxing day. We only had to work for about a half hour or so, just some tidying at about 11am, then we were off. That meant I got to sleep in till 10ish, which was awesome. After the cleaning Dani and I did some prepping for food. I made a fruit salad and she made apple crumble. Once that was all done we just sat out at the pool for a few hours. Most of the day was just Dani, Rob, and I. Joe had a few friends in town from Tully so he was with them most of the day getting drunk. Annika was with Tom, and Vinny was helping in the Kitchen and hanging with the DJ. I was sort of hoping we'd all be together all day so that was a little disappointing, but we did all manage to come together for our gift exchange. We each just bought cheap $10 gifts and drew out of a hat to get a gift. It was over pretty quick, but we had a good time while we were doing it. It was pretty Christmas-like. After the gifts we watched Home Alone. There were a few guests that joined us for that. Great Christmas movie. For lunch we were hoping to get our little "family" together and eat alone. Somehow we got roped into eating with the entire hostel, which pissed us off a little, but it wasn't too bad. We had ham and prawns, potatoes, salads and a few dips. It was pretty delicious. The DJ works at or owns the big bar around here, so he brought most of the food. After all of that and a little while visiting Dani Rob and I headed to the beach for a bonfire. We invited the entire hostel, but most people were too drunk or in their own little party to show up. I was happy with it being just the three of us. Annika, Tom, and Engin joined us a bit later. We managed to get down there early enough for there to be some daylight and we got back fairly early. Everyone left at the hostel was pretty drunk so we hung out with them for a bit and went to bed. Again, not very Christmas-y, but a great day.

Joe left on Saturday. It's sad that people are starting to leave. We filled his spot this afternoon. There's now a stranger sleeping in the other room in Joe's bed. So weird. It's going to happen a lot from now on I'm sure, but it'll take some getting used to. The managers Deb and Adam are leaving this week. I think their last day is Wednesday. Everyone is pretty sad to see them go. They are headed to the Gold Coast and have offered everyone jobs there when we make it down there, so this week won't be the last we see of them. We've met the new managers on Christmas. We're all a little nervous for them, but I'm trying to be optimistic. Bonus though is that Peta will be working here full time training them and she has suggested that I use that time to take some time off and head to Port Douglas for a few days. I was thinking maybe she'd have me go to Fraser Island or Whitsundays, but I have a week or so to plan it so I'll talk to her about it a little more and see what she says. She made a call this afternoon for me to skydive on Wednesday. I didn't hear how that worked out, but it's in the works. I'm going to talk to her about going to the reef this weekend as well! Should be a busy couple of weeks.

Dec 20, 2009

Went jet skiing this morning. I had asked Deb and Adam to organize it on Saturday but the manager of the company wasn't around, so we couldn't get a final okay until Sunday morning. I got the idea that it wasn't an easy excursion to schedule so I figured I wouldn't be able to get into it. I stayed up pretty late and was woken up at like 8am to get to the water taxi to take me over to the island. There were two other people from the hostel that booked the trip, so we all sort of hung together. The trip was awesome. Google Dunk Island... it's beautiful. It's super small with a resort, 9-hole golf course, little plane landing strip, and a mountain. I wish I had my camera on the jet ski so I could take pictures of the scenery. I had to ride the jet ski with the guide so he was driving like crazy trying to knock me off. He said once that I was doing really well at not falling off. I asked if he was TRYING to throw me off... he said no. The whole island is covered in rain forest and mountains. There were rocks and caves along the shore, it was beautiful. The water was very calm and sooooo blue and clear. There are lots of islands around Dunk too so, BEAUTIFUL. We stopped at a cove that was a sting ray mating ground or something. I saw three! The guide showed us what was on the other islands, resorts, houses, rain forests, etc. One of the islands, Bedarra Island, has a 7star resort on it (google it). According to the guide JT and Jessica Biel stayed there and did the jet ski tour! He goes, they rode on one of these jet skis. Silly, but, I rode on a jet ski that JT rode on lol! After the ride, when I DIDN'T fall off, the three of us went to another beach to snorkel. It's a short walk through the rainforest, then to a secluded beach. The walk was pretty cool. There were cliffs and trees and shade, it was nice. There were a lot of rocks on the beach but we got in our stinger suits and snorkel and swam around. Becky didn't really like fins, so it was basically me and Scott, but we saw two sea turtles and a decent amount of fun fish. It wasn't reef or colorful, but it was very relaxing. It made me excited for scuba diving! Can't wait! We went out and laid on the shore after that and fell asleep. It was quite perfect. We wandered back to the resort, got a drink, then came back home. Lovely day!

The other night I made kangaroo! I bought crocodile and kangaroo, croc is still in the freezer. The stoves SUCK here, so it took a LONG time to cook but it turned out pretty good. It tasted pretty much like steak, a red meat. They said to cook it fairly well done, not rare like a steak. I roasted some potatoes and had some left over salad. Beautiful meal lol. There is a bunch that I didn't cook, so I'll be making kangaroo for a few more days still. I'd like to have the croc, but I need to have the roo before it goes bad. I was told that there was an ant around here that if you lick its butt it tastes good. I thought I was being lied to and someone was just trying to make me lick an ant, but I had Rob try it first and then I tried. He cut off it's head and I licked it. Then it was my turn. It wasn't too terrible, very tart. After I tried it, I think two more people tried it. Kind of amazing that four people could lick a tiny ant and it still had a taste. That was interesting. I've been slowly learning how to roll cigarettes. Vinny lets me try every once in a while and everyone gives me tips every now and then, I'm not getting any better, but I've been learning. Maybe I'll be a pro one day.

Dec 17, 2009

So, Sunday ended up being a lazy day. I didn’t get to go to Dunk Island or diving. I slept in until like 1030 then made pancakes for everyone. Vinny found the wallabies for me to take pictures of, so I promised him breakfast. I didn’t have all of the ingredients or measuring utensils to make it properly from scratch so I had to wing it. It took a few tries, but it turned out decent. Everyone ate it even though I insisted I wasn’t expecting them to. I figured syrup would save the doughy pancakes, but turns out syrup here is disgusting! They don’t have maple syrup, and the other stuff, which I’ve never had before, is horrible. I was really grossed out. Sunday night we went out to the local bar, The Shrubbery. It’s a cute place. They have some drink specials and everyone goes so we had a good time.
We planned a huge picnic for Monday. Joe was going to take off work and we had the time planned so we could all make it for a few hours. Peta suggested a watering hole for swimming and we figured we could take the bus for a few hours, have a picnic and swim, then make it back before anyone had more work to do. Anyway, turns out Joe got caught not going to work so he had work. No one knew where the watering hole was and Peta wasn’t in. Only Rob, Dani, and I wanted to make the typical lunch, so we went to the store and bought food, made sandwiches. Annika couldn’t leave the bus and her boyfriend was around so she didn’t want to go. So basically, it was Rob, Dani, Engin, and I. Sven and Vinny went fishing at Bengil Bay, but they ended up meeting later. Instead of going to the strange watering hole, Deb suggested a rainforest walk, so we went there. She said that there was a creek with a rope swing, so we figured it’d be fun. The walk was really short and the water was really shallow, so it didn’t seem safe. We didn’t see much wildlife but we heard noises of animals and the trees were beautiful. Our lunch was very nice and relaxing, but not quite what we had initially expected. When we got back I had to get to work, but everyone was pretty disappointed in our trip, so they went to Alligator Alley, which is a deeper creek and doesn’t have any alligators. This time Joe and Annika could go, so everyone went but me. They came back and said it wasn’t that great so I felt better haha.
Tuesday I went to Cairns with Dez, one of the owners. He likes to take trips around to other hostels and meet the people that work there hoping that they will refer their guests to us if anyone asks. Cairns is the biggest town North of us and travelers usually fly into Cairns and go south to Sydney, or vice versa, and since we’re so close to Cairns, people head to Mission Beach pretty much straight from Cairns. Anyway, He asked that I come along, as I’d be the person taking the reservations from these people. We left at like 9am and the drive was about an hour and a half. It was a really pretty drive and Dez was good company, so we chatted about his skydiving career and his and Peta meeting and family stuff. He was really good about explaining what was around us. There were some mountains, cities, and crops, and he made sure to point them out and all of that. I saw a butt load of sugar cane and banana fields. It was a really pretty drive. Most was a two-lane road, which I found a little absurd when traveling such a long distance but it was nice. We made about 12 stops and different hostels and info stations and I was amazed at how friendly everyone was. I know at Lewis if people came in to talk to someone that didn’t have an appointment everyone was always busy or irritated to talk to them. Here, everyone was excited to talk to us and took the time to show us around and all of that. I guess because we’re hoping to get on their good side, they’d like to do the same. Circle of love or whatever. Either way, I did get to meet a lot of managers of the hostels and travel agencies, which is a huge deal if I ever need a job at any of those places. Mission Beach is pretty small, and our hostel is only one of three or four in the area, but people knew who we were and were really pleased with the hostel. I guess I always heard from the owners that we had a good place, but I never knew how anyone else felt. People were saying how they only send people to us all the time and they loved it when they were there. They could be lying, but they sounded genuine. Midway through the day we had lunch at a sushi place (I was so happy about that). I have never been to the places with the rotating belt with food on it. I just watched plate after plate of sushi pass in front of me and I could choose whatever I wanted! I had a seaweed salad roll, a tiger roll, and a salmon roll. Oh man, it was perfect. We stopped at a few other places and Dez had some buddies at a few so we had a drink (rather, he had a drink) and visited for a bit. We got back and I found that there was a poker competition planned for later that night. I don’t really play much cards but I figured oh well. There were about 20 people playing, so we had four groups of five, then the winners went on to the next round. I was one of the final two in the first round. Me and Jade were kind of going round and round so when we finally got down to about an equal amount of chips, we both just went all in and I lost. I was close to winning, it was a pretty close one. I hate poker, but I wanted to win the money, $40! I lost that last hand, but I was pretty proud of myself.
Anyway, random stories: I’ve decided that I don’t walk on the beach as much as I’d like, so I’m going to start taking an evening walk a few times a week. I’d love the company, but no one ever wants to go with so I’ll go alone. I NEVER have alone time, so it’d be nice to have some peace on the beach. I love that toilets here have two options for flushing, half flush and full flush. I didn’t know the difference and I was always scared to press the other button, but I asked someone, and I think that’s just brilliant!

Dec 11, 2009

Not too much more has happened lately. I don't think the reef is this weekend so I think I'll be jet skiing around Dunk Island on Sunday instead. I guess the scuba people are a little stingy about who they give trips to... understandable. It's been crazy hot today. I was just sitting at the desk and I was roasting hot and dripping sweat. The pool is pretty small so it heats up pretty quick. I'll probably go for a quick dip and lay out a bit, but it won't really cool me off, just make it so I'm not as sticky. I was super productive yesterday though. Like I said before, the room was TRASHED when I got here. I figured when I got to know everyone better I wouldn't mind cleaning up after them. That day was yesterday. During my break I had some time. I layed out at the pool for a bit, then showered, then cleaned the entire room basically. I went through the cupboards in the kitchen, washed all dishes in and out of those cupboards and rearranged them to be used. That's basically one cupboard with like 10 dishes in it, but it looks like an actual kitchen cupboard now. I wiped off the counter, stove and sink, and threw out the crap that was laying around it. There were drawers of peoples crap that I trashed leaving a cupboard and three drawers open to anyone who wants them. I swept the floor and kicked everyone's stuff to their area. When people started coming in noticing the cleaning, they started organizing their stuff a bit and tossing anything that's old as well. I think people come and go so frequently that no one knows who's is who's but everyone that's here has been and will be here for a few more weeks, so we can figure it out pretty easily now. I didn't clean to MAKE them clean, so I hope it didn't come off that way, but we did get a lot tidy. The bathroom has millions of shampoos and bottles laying everywhere, but that's a little more difficult to clean, but we started that process. I hosed down the little fan so we can use that, and I'm going to move a table and chair in here to we can actually use the tiny bit of space we have. I haven't really slept that great since I've been here and I thought maybe it was because the mattress is so thin. I found old mattresses and stacked the two on top of each other. Because of the huge dent in the middle, my mattress has the thickness of one mattress in the middle and two on the outer edges. I slept much better, but don't expect me to be able to roll around at all. There are two rooms in the employee quarters. I'm in the back room with A/C leaving the four people that sleep in the front as well as anyone using the kitchen without AC. I figured if we kept all outside doors and windows closed, we could leave the bedroom door open and AC the whole place. It's been working pretty well. By habit we've been closing our bedroom door, but it eventually gets opened again. I think that earned me some brownie points with the guys in the front lol. Anyway, that's a lot of info about cleaning but I was pretty excited about it...

Sven made a roast for dinner. He's quite the cooker and I think he enjoys it, so we throw him some money and he cooks for us. He made a lamb roast, roasted potatoes, green beans, and pumpkin. It was awesome, and a huge improvement from my PB&J that I've been eating regularly. Oh, and Europeans call it PB&Jam, so I've started calling it that, I'm pretty happy with myself. He made enough for 5 of us so we had a cute family meal that stuffed us all. After he made pancakes for desert. Not the same as American pancakes, but delicious either way. After dinner Annika told us that the 9th was her name day. We had no idea what a name day was, but when we looked it up, it turns out yesterday was Emily day! Still not positive what that means, but we bought some Rum and UDL to celebrate. Dani made some cocktails and I took a big shot. Party! We sat around for a little while chatting and figuring out what we wanted to do and decided a night swim was the best bet. We grabbed the hose and ball and played in the pool for a few hours. The sky was so clear so we could see a lot of stars. It's weird because they are different stars than I'm used to, so looking up at them made me sort of realize that I'm far from home. It was kind of weird. I'm swimming in a pool on a hot December night with a bunch of people from around the world, weird. At like 1:30 I decided sleeping was a good idea. I slept like a baby. Tonight's another bonfire at the beach. I'll try and get pics of people... put some faces to names.

Dec 7, 2009

White water rafting was yesterday. I chose the extreme package, which terrified me a bit. I've never been, and I had no idea what to expect, but I was told that there would be more flipping and more activities so I said what the hell and signed up for it. I was picked up around 8am by a guide/driver, Vinnie. He had said that Deb had told him to give me a "real extreme" experience so again, I'm completely mortified that he's going to kill me. We got to the river, got in our groups, had a bit of a delay with some girl on our bus, but then headed off. The river is controlled by a power company. I guess they use the water to generate power and rafters have to pay a levy to release water for us to raft through. That was pretty cool... almost like the movies when someone opens a door and water comes pouring in... but on a big river and your on a raft! Part of the "extreme" trip is that there are only six people on the boat instead of 8 so we had more work to do. There was a drop pretty quick after we started so we all hung on for dear life, but it got easier the further we went. The trip lasted pretty much all day. We started around 10 maybe and didn't finish until 4ish. The guide we had, Paul, was really cool. These guys run the same trip every day with inexperienced travelers, so they knew what to expect and how to prepare us for every rapid and every turn. After a few rapids I felt very safe and started to loosen up a bit. They had to do some waiting between rapids to wait for the other rafts, which could have been annoying, but the view was amazing. There were mountains and rainforest all over the place so there was never a dull moment. We rode through a waterfall so I was showered by a waterfall, something I've always wanted to do. We stopped at huge rocks that we got to jump off of. It was pretty intense. The first time I had to have a guide count to three for me, the next time it took me a good minute before I could force myself to do it, and the third time they told me it was important that I get a little running start to jump OUT and not down. That terrified me but that probably worked the best. I'm not used to jumping off high anything, so it was weird breathing on the way down and catching your breath before hitting the water. It was a huge rush. There was one big rapid that we went down. The guide told us to all get to the front of the boat, so we all thought it was going to be super steep and scary, but really, he just wanted us to tip when we got to the bottom. Once we were swimming, we rode the current along and had to meet him at one of the side banks. There was a small rock we could have jumped off of but the current was pretty strong and I couldn't catch the side of it to climb up. It was a lot shorter than the others, so I would have done that in a heartbeat. There was a few times he wanted to tip the raft but we sort of refused. For me, it wasn't the tipping I was worried about, it was getting back in the raft that was a pain in the ass. We thought we were pretty cool when we could keep the raft from tipping when Paul tried to get it to flip but eventually we were excited to flip and enjoyed the swimming. We flipped once and I got caught in a little current and ended up hitting my hip on a rock.. that sucked. So far, there is no bruise, but it sure feels like there should be. If one appears I'll take a pic of it and post it because it'll be a doozy. Another time we got to a point where there weren't boulders in the water, but molten rock, so it was a lot smoother so we got to get out and ride the level two rapid down the river IN THE WATER. It didn't look that scary, but I got pulled under more times than I would have liked. I'd get above water to gasp for air and then be pulled under again. The waves were pretty big so I couldn't see where I was going. They said that it was crucial that we make it back to the checkpoint and not past it or we'd hit the level five rapid and probably die so when I finally could see the raft I was so anxious to get to shore with water in my lungs that it wasn't that enjoyable. Pretty cool to say I did it and definitely a rush, but they gave us the option to run back and do it a second time and lets just say I wasn't too keen on that. One of the guys on the boat ran back and did it a second time but he said he hit a different line that time and had the same thing happen to him that happened to me. I wish I had a different line because that could have been really cool. I don't know how many rapids we went through, but it was quite a few. The guides sort of trapped us in a few so we had water rushing into our rafts while being stuck on a rock, pretty cool. They knew how to put on a pretty good show I thought. Because Vinnie wasn't my guide, he didn't get to mess with me like he wanted, but he was always close by so he swam over to me and pulled me in the water a few times, hit me with his paddle when he could, and splashed me every chance he got. Great! It was a really good time. I'm pretty sore this morning though. I couldn't sleep on my side where I hit the rock, my neck is pretty sore, and my arms are a little wobbly. Definitely worth it!

Dec 5, 2009

Just finished work and I'm waiting for things to calm down a bit before I head out. Saturdays are Free BBQ nights, so all of the guests are sitting outside and visiting. I've mainly been hanging out with the other workers but most of them are at their other jobs for the evening, so it's a little quiet. I think I've been catching on pretty quick with the work stuff, they seem to think so anyway. The supervisors are leaving in a month for new jobs so they are trying to get me pretty well trained before then I think. Yesterday Annika (another worker) drove me to North Mission Beach and showed me around the shops and cafes, and then we stopped at the stinger nets for a quick swim. There was a quick rain yesterday, and fairly cloudy, so we didn't stay too long, just long enough to be refreshed and then lay out and dry a bit. Later in the evening we watched Sven (guest) prepare chicken with marinara sauce and apple crumble, which took a few hours, and then we headed out to the beach for a bonfire. The weather was perfect! Nice ocean breeze and perfect temp. The boys had a tough time getting the fire to start and then a man showed up out of the blue, threw a few things on the fire and it started... it was pretty impressive. A bunch of the workers and heaps of guests headed out, it was really nice. There was a decent amount of drinking going on. I wasn't planning on drinking much but Joe insisted and it was free. I really wanted to make a sandcastle, so once I finished my third glass of wine I tried but the sand wouldn't slide out of the cup. That meant no more wine and no sandcastle :(. We made friends with a few new guests, took a short walk along the shore and chatted. It was pretty awesome. This morning I woke up a bit early and saw my dad online so I webchatted with him and Kev for a bit and headed to work. Lunch was webchatting with Mom, then the pool for a few hours. Today was pretty perfect. The weather has been pretty hot and humid, but today was just amazing. Mid 80s maybe and humidity low enough that I didn't sweat all day. My clothes on the line actually dried, which hasn't been happening lol. The hostel had a cricket match later in the afternoon. Sounded like a lot of rules and we only had a few people playing, but I got to see a little bit of a new game, so that was neat. Vinny called me over because here were kangaroos in the field next to the hostel. I got some pics, so those will be up on FB later. It was a momma and baby! They were staring at me for a bit while I clicked away all excited! Dinner was the free BBQ and now I'm sitting around for a bit. The girls wanted to start a Friends marathon so we may start that later tonight. Tomorrow morning I'm going white water rafting! I have to be up early, so no drinking now. I chose the EXTREME white water rafting, so I may die tomorrow in which case, it was nice knowing all of you. The city that has the rafting also has a big boot that I can climb up in... I really hope I get to see it.. it seems pretty awesome lol. I love stupid stuff like that haha!

I'm pretty much loving it here. I wish I could think of more AUSTRALIA stuff to describe... I think I said this already, but the bugs and birds all sound different so hearing noises at night and when I'm walking around. There aren't many AUSTRALIANS around, mainly tourists so a lot of people from England. I'm loving the accents. I have been having a hard time understanding people who call lol. Everyone is patient and a lot of people don't understand me, so it's give and take. There are a lot of bugs around. They aren't necessarily biting bugs, but crawly and crawly on me so no fun. I have the day off tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have time to post pics and give details of the white water rafting.

Dec 2, 2009

Okay, the internet is finally free, so I have lots of time. Actually, ten minutes because I'm about to go for a walk. Work started yesterday. It was a slow day, so they had me doing housekeeping, to learn the layout of the rooms and how things are done, etc. Afterward I was instructed to take a dip in the pool... pretty awesome job request. I sat in the office for some time and just observed. There is a lot to learn, different pricing for different rooms. The same room could have a million different costs and it's all entered pretty manually, so there's math involved on top of the stress of just doing it right. Either way, the people have been awesome and I think I'm going to really like it. The supervisors were out yesterday so the owner, Des, and his wife/manager, Peta, were here. They are way-cool. Des asked me to recruit people to a night cruise for the evening. I asked everyone but no one wanted to go so it was just the two of us. He had said that he wanted me to go this time so I could sell it to everyone the next time. The town is really small, so I get the idea that Des works with and knows a lot of business owners in town so there were a lot of adults that he knew going on the cruise. They were really cool people too so I had a ball with them. We got on the boat right at sunset so I could see the sunset right over the mountains on shore, it was beautiful. I took lots of pics, so when I get wifi I'll be able to use my computer to load pics somewhere. It was the first night of a full moon, so the moon lit up the sky once it became night. I wanted to see the southern cross really but it wasn't visible. Whenever I look at stars I look for the Big Dipper, but it's not visible here, so I needed something to find and I figured the Southern Cross was always visible... if it is, no one could find it. The boat picked up a group of workers at a resort on Dunk Island. I chatted up a few, but they were all buddies and had their own little thing going on so I didn't mess with them too much. I did talk to a cute boy for a good 20min or so, but once he got drunk he jus wanted to dance to the techno. Eveentually everyone started getting pretty drunk and dancing. Des wanted me to have a frew drinks, loosen me up a bit maybe. They have this drink, I don't remember what it was called, but it looked like Vodka and Sprite in a can. It was really good. I had a few of those so I was a little loosened up. It was sort of funny that the owner was trying to get the strange new girl drunk. I felt like I was on duty too, but he was really cool, so I wasn't that worried about it. He had actually offered me a beer while I was working, so that was neat. He said if I wanted to get hammered and make bad decisions that he'd be able to send the bus for us. There weren't any cute dancing lights so one of the guys I had met earlier decided he could be a human strobe light so he used his hands to create the illusion of a strobe haha. Awesome. We got back to shore around 930 and called a bus to come pick us up. While we waited I took a walk with one of the ladies Des had introduced me to. She was quite fun. The guys were all old and hammered so they were quite touchy and friendly; couldn't have asked for anything better.

This morning I had to work again. From the looks of it, I'll be working 6 days a week, with a pretty relaxed schedule. As of now, it's 3:45 and I was told to take a break and go for a walk. I've already had a break for cake and juice this morning, and a dip in the pool earlier this afternoon, so I'm already loving this. Not sure when she wants me back, but either way, pretty wonderful. Peta gave me a wonderful new drink called Bundaberg. It's a ginger beer. Not sure if it's actually beer, I don't think it is, but it's really good. Cute little bottle and quite refreshing. As far as work has gone, like I said, I'm slowly catching on, I think I'm doing pretty well. Credit cards are processed differently here so that alone has been weird. The currency has different coins and I'm not familiar with the bills, so that is something additional. It's all new, but they have been patient and aren't too concerned. During one of my breaks yesterday I did some unpacking in the room. I condensed my bags to one and found two cupboards to store my stuff in. So far, that's good. The room is a little messy, but my stuff is clean, so I'm fine with it.
Well, I'm going to check in at the desk and see if I have time for a decent walk.

Dec 1, 2009

As I had been telling everyone before, it never quite hit me that I was actually leaving the country for an extended period of time and I kept insisting that it was because the journey was going to be so long. That was wrong, but I’ll get into that in a bit. I had a flight from Richmond to Atlanta to LA, a 5-hour layover there, then to Brisbane to Cairns, a six-hour layover there until my 2hr bus ride to Mission Beach. I had to get my luggage three times and re-check it in and do a lot of waiting, not fun. Richmond to Atlanta was no biggie, but once I got to LA I had to get my luggage and re-check it in. I was directed to the wrong terminal, where I sat and waited for a good half hour before I noticed. Then, when I got to the right line to check in I had to wait at least an hour. It was a good thing I had as much time as I did. The V Australia check in counter was really cute. They had deep purple walls, music playing, and some sweet mood lighting. Instantly I thought it was going to be a pretty sweet flight. The line was a bit of a let down, but there were two Aussies on their way home from a three week holiday so I chatted them up quite a bit. Once I finally got through security and found my gate I had a few hours to kill so I found an outlet and charged my computer and watched some TV. On the plane I had an isle seat with no one next to me, so I was pretty comfy. The plane had awesome lighting along the top that changed colors for the first half hour or so of the flight. Once it was set, it was a nice blue that gave the whole plane a blueish glow, pretty sweet. The seats were really comfy, not the gross leather stuff I was used to. They had sort of a retro pattern, but it was modern and not outdated. The blanket was huge and really thick… awesome! Oh my gosh, and the food! I felt like an idiot because I took pictures, but the meals were so nice. I had Cajun chicken with roasted potatoes, a salad, a roll, and tiramisu for desert! Oh, they also had a slice of cheese and a wine glass if I wanted a complimentary glass of wine. Nice. I ate and went straight to sleep. I tossed a fair amount, but it wasn’t too bad. I woke up a bit before breakfast so I watched some TV and listened to some jams. Breakfast was French toast, fruit, yogurt, roll, and tea. Again, awesome! It wasn’t the BEST food in the world, but certainly better than any airline meal I’ve ever had. And it all came in cute containers that I wanted to steal. Cool thing was, they weren’t disposable so they were saving the world! K, so I had a three-hour layover in Brisbane. I went through customs super fast, they only had the dog sniff my bad and I was done. I sat in the terminal and read the rest of The Lost Symbols. Flight was a little late, but not too bad. Once I arrived in Cairns I had six hours or so to kill before the bus. The bus stop name was “Cairns Terminal” so I assumed that meant the airport but I found out that that was wrong. I took a airport shuttle into town and put my bags in a locker at the bus terminal and wandered the town. That was actually very difficult because I didn’t have coins and the lockers only took coins. I had to take two suitcases to the mall, find a store, and get coins. Turned out I couldn’t fit both bags into one locker so I had to cart around one for awhile until I was fed up and got more change to store the other.

The beach in Cairns was sort of a joke. It was drying up quite a bit, so there was just grass for a bunch of feet, pelicans in the smelly mud and no ocean for a ways out. There was however, a lagoon pool right at the coast. It looked like that was the place to go for some swimming and fun. I sat on the shore there and read my new book and then when I got bored I walked along the pier looking at all of the pretty sailboats and the view. The ocean is beautiful all in itself, but the islands and the coast were hilly and green so they were beautiful to see. I just sat at the end of the pier and admired it for a while. Then I walked back to town and paced the streets, nothing too thrilling. The bus came at 645pm, I loaded and found a seat next to a nice british boy who was headed back to the banana farm for work. He had been in Australia for about ten months and was planning on getting his second year visa, leaving to go to Thailand, Japan, Africa, South America, and then back. Amazing! He was nice, but tired so he fell asleep. My legs were restless after finally getting a chance to walk around, so I couldn’t sleep. Once I got to the bus stop in Mission Beach I wasn’t really sure where to go, so I started wandering! It was dark and deserted, so a little creepy, but the hostel was right down the street so I was fine. I found the night manager and he just brought me straight to a room. The desk was closed, so he didn’t check me in or make me pay or anything, sort of trusting. I changed and went straight to sleep at like 11pm.

The next morning I woke up at 6am. I had woken up a few times already but forced myself to go back to sleep. I didn’t have any food and the grocery stores weren’t open, and the front desk wasn’t open still so I couldn’t check in or get to wifi so I took a walk to the beach. It was a short walk, maybe five minutes or so, but it was quiet. The town here is really small. There’s a small shopping center right down the street with a gift shop, a tourism shop, pharmacy, two restaurants and a movie rental place. Right next door to that is the grocery store. As far as I can tell, that’s pretty much it for “town”. There are hostels and resorts along the beach in the other direction. Anyway, the walk was pretty hot, the whole city is pretty hot. Not many cars so I could hear the birds really well, kind of strange listening to a whole different set of birds that I’ve never heard before. I’m so used to hearing the same noises all the time but it was certainly different. The beach was completely empty. I think I saw one fisherman, and two people walking their dogs the entire two hours I was out there. I just walked the quiet shore. Besides the strip I was on, the shore was basically rainforest so as far as I could see on the shore were trees. There were a few islands off the coast, Dunk Island was the main one I suppose, and that’s just a beach and rainforest as well. So pretty! I took some pics and just walked listening to the little waves crashing. I walked from there to the grocery store, picked up some PB&J, cereal and milk. That’s probably what I’ll be living on for quite some time haha. I felt a little off, jet lag, so I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do. I went to check in and met Adam, one of the managers. I told him that I had been talking to Deb about cleaning and he offered me the front desk position that I had initially asked about. I was soooo thrilled! It’s a perfect job and I don’t have to look for another. He sort of wanted me to start right away but Deb insisted that because of the jet lag I should wait at least a day so I start in about an hour. The day was pretty lazy. I didn’t have a room yet, I had to wait for the last reception guy to leave and I had to check out of my room, so a nap wasn’t possible. I sat by the pool, walked along the beach again, and just read my book. I met some people while sitting at the pool and chatted them up about the difference between American and UK TV. Television, one of my favorite topics haha! They were going to get dinner so I finally got to get my stuff into my room. I want to do some nesting, but there isn’t much room. The employee dorms are basically 2 bedrooms with a kitchenette and a bathroom. I think I’ve met most of the employees, but I don’t remember all of the names. One girl is from Finland and I talked to her for quite some time, another is from Belgium I think. They are only here temporarily, and sleep in the front room. I get the back air-conditioned room with two other people. I met the guy, but haven’t met the girl yet. The whole place is pretty filthy; a lot of people with lots of little travel bottles and bags everywhere. There aren’t any dressers or closets, so I’m going to have to be creative about where I put my stuff. I found room in the bathroom for my stuff there, but I can’t go through my stuff now with everyone sleeping. My tidy-ness is making it a little difficult for me to NOT clean (thanks Mom). Once I get to know everyone a little better, I’ll be more apt to cleaning up after people. I spent the evening chatting up the British people. They made some food on the grill and sat at a picnic table for most of the evening. Once a movie was about to start at 8 or so, I went to bed. Jet lag wasn’t too bad; I was just a little tired all day. I wanted to do stuff all day, but figured relaxing and getting adjusted was probably a safe bet. I slept really well last night and woke up at 630ish so I got a lot of sleep. I’m hoping I’ll be good by tonight. Well, I’ve gotta get some breakfast in me, and get to work.