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 They had sort of a retro pattern, but it was modern and not outdated.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.