Two weekends ago we made it up to Cairns. It was really nice to get away from the “winter” of the Gold Coast—the chill in my bones from the 70 degree Gold Coast finally went away. Fortunately, we were able to thaw in tropical Cairns.
The closest I’ve ever been to the equator, Cairns was a small tourist town surrounded by the surprisingly sharp mountains of the rainforest. We stayed in Holloway Beach, a stones throw from “downtown” Cairns. Our hotel, though right on the beach, did NOT allow for swimming. Even with the netted-off 50 square foot area it was unsafe, for it was jellyfish season—jellyfish smaller than your thumbnail that kill you.
We met up with Jackie’s sister, mother and her friend in Cairns. After an awesome Green Curry Thai dinner, we got to bed early. The next morning we took the Skyrail Railroad up to Kuranda—a town up in the mountains of the rainforest. The railroad had a patchy past, as we were told by the tour guides, as many of the Irish workers who built it in the 1850’s died during construction. The mountaintop village of Kuranda was a bit anticlimactic, but our mode of transportation down back into Cairns was Gondola—sweeeeet! We were able to float above the upper level of the rainforest.
Back at the base of the mountain, we went to the Tjabuki Aboriginal Cultural Center. There, we were able to listen to a didgeridoo concert, learn about aboriginal creation stories, and throw boomerangs and spears (I don’t want to brag, but I SO would have been a hunter-gatherer. I’m a natural. But I am appx 1.7% Native American, so I’m sort of hardwired to excel at that…)
Continuing, the next day was our Passions of Paradise adventure into the Great Barrier Reef. Armed with our Kodak Underwater Cameras (I made $0.30 for saying that), we made our first dive into the Outer Barrier Reef, then a few hours and one tropical buffet lunch later, made our second dive into Michaelmas Cay on the Reef. Now I’m going to do my best to express this next thought in a delicate and lady-like way. Michaelmas Cay is an island on the Reef that is a National Park Bird Sanctuary. High bird concentration. One small island. Great Beard of Zeus, I inhaled water a few times rather than come up for air.
How to go about explaining the Reef… OK. So you’ve taken some (bad)acid and you’re watching Alice and Wonderland in High Definition… but really, the Reef was a trip. Electric blue and purple spiky coral, giant yellow mushroom-like coral—it’s like a CGI creation. The fish were just as fake looking. Never in my wildest kindergarten mind could I have Crayola colored these fish. Oh, and, yes, I saw Nemo fish ::fist pump::.
Then it was time to leave Cairns and return to Campus, which, with each week, seems to have gotten smaller. Our room seemed to shrink considerably, as well, as we had ourselves a visitor in room 3_40—one Caroline Perry...or from now on “Little C.” We got to work getting her addicted to Bubble Tea, and introducing her to our comrades—Lamie. Jamie and Little C particularly hit it off, though their fledgling friendship hit a snag in the form of a flat-out Battle Royale. At one point, while in a headlock, C threatened horrific things in a voice 7 decibels lower than her normal voice. Then her head spun. Then I hid in the bathroom with the door locked. Just kidding. I kept watching Gossip Girl; it soothes me. “Deroda, give me my loaf.”
Our obligatory return to campus was, tempered, however, with the news that Jackie and I had won the on-campus travel agency’s photo contest! Thus, we won a free $500.00 travel voucher. Our winning photo was taken in the water at Moreton Bay, looks like a Corona ad, and, again, was taken with a disposable Kodak Camera (I’m up to $0.60!) What do you do when you’ve already planned all of your trips and are given 500 to spend? You book one night for yourselves and Lamie in a 5-star suite in Conrad Jupiter’s casino and hotel. Because you’re lowlifes living the highlife, homeskillets.
Our week ended with the final undergraduate classes of my life. I can’t believe that the end of my college career is a mere three finals away.
Until I go back to grad school in a year.
Cultural Observations:
-Standard pack of Skittles flavors are as follows: Strawberry, Lemon, Orange, Green Apple and Blackberry. Jury’s still out on the grapalicious omission.
-Thank god I can download ‘Rock of Love Bus’ and “Gossip Girl’ on iTunes. Hulu, NBC—none of them stream outside the US. Why? Because Australian television consists mainly of American shows, but are 2-3 seasons behind. SPOLIER ALERT “Well Guess What Australia! Lauren and Heidi still aren’t friends!”
-There is still major racism in Australian society. In many ways, Aboriginal people in Australia have experienced the concentrated racism and prejudices that the States have historically divided among both Native American and African American populations. It is not good. It was only a year ago that Prime Minister Paul Rudd apologized to the ‘stolen generation,’ of Aboriginal people whose land was taken, children were taken by the state from their parents and excluded from the National census up until 1980. It is still very much a wide open wound.
Just For Fun…
“WOOOOOOO”
“WOOOOOOO”
::turn to the side::
“WOAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
(ahaha still laughing)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment