The past couple of days have been amazing, although my first night in Cairns wasn't too much to brag about. The day started out really well though. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and I must have laid out in the sun for about 3 hours or so before going down into town to check out the night markets. Had a wonderful seafood dinner, then went back to my hostel to discover that the bathroom floor was completely flooded. I reported the incident to reception just as they were closing, and they said someone would be sent, but after about two hours or so, I returned to the room to find that the flooding had spread to cover approximately half the room. Luckily, my stuff was on the untouched half of the room & I quickly put everything on my bed, but it was still absolutely disgusting, and there were literally bits of shit on the floor, as well as toilet paper that had washed up from the toilet.

I didn't really know what to do b/c reception was closed, and I finally went to the bar & saw one of the guys who I was sharing the room with. We finally were able to contact maintenance who then came down and proceeded to clean things up, but it took them until about 2am to finish, and I ended up sleeping w/ all my belongings on my bed with me, which doesn't seem so bad, but I was lugging around enough stuff to last me through a month of travelling, so it definitely wasn't the most comfortable of situations.

The next morning, I woke up around 6am, was finally able to shower b/c our bathroom was fixed, and then caught a shuttle out to the marina where I was to go snorkelling for the day. Despite being a bit tired in the morning, I hadn't slept much the night before I arrived in Cairns either b/c I had an early flight out of Sydney) I had an amazing day out of the water!

Anyone who knows me must know the impact of that statement b/c I'm usually terrified of deep water and often get seasick several times throughout the course of a day. I do admit that I was initially really nervous about entering the water to snorkel, and for about the first 10 minutes or so I was literally panicking. In time though, I finally stuck my head into the water and was stunned by the coral and marine life I saw underneath. It was beyond words. I finally was able to get a bit more comfortable in the water and stayed there for a bit, and I even tried diving although I was too frightened and too cheap to actually pay the $55 for an actual dive (at first).

When everyone got back on the boat, I spoke with some people who had just gone diving, and then all said it was wonderful, so I thought, alright, I'll probably regret it if I don't, so here goes...

I went up to the instructor and said that I wanted to try it, so after lunch when we arrived to the second snorkelling location, they strapped me up to some scuba gear, and I dunked myself once again into the water. Because I'm not much of a swimmer, I literally clung to the instructor's arm for just about the whole 30 minutes that I was underwater, but omigod! That was such an incredible experience! I was swimming with schools of fish. Passing through corals that really did look like it came right out of the movie "Finding Nemo." Everything was so colorful & gorgeous, and I even fed a turtle with a piece of coral!

I was so glad that I went, and when I got back to the hostel, I ended up getting free accomodation & free dinner b/c they felt so bad about what happened the previous night. To top it off, New South Wales, killed Queensland in the State of Origin game, so I certainly went to bed happy last night.

This morning, I boarded the Oz Experience bus, and had so much fun! Our bus driver is absolutely hilarious... a woman named "Froggy," and she was dancing in the driver seat and cracking jokes the whole day. At one point during our trip, she even flashed a tractor as we passed by as part of a tractor game that she came up with.

We saw the Atherton Tablelands, which was gorgeous, despite the rain, and spent some time at a crocodile farm as well. I held a baby crocodile, and a snake around my neck. We saw a casowary bird and were feeding kangaroos. And we were also witness to the daily feeding of the crocodiles by the owners. Some of them were truly massive... over five meters long, and we were literally only a few feet away!

Tomorrow, I'll be headed to Airlie Beach, which will be the departure point for my sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands, which I'm really looking forward to. Even though it is a bit lonely and intimidating travelling such a giant country on my own, the people on the Oz Experience bus have been awesome, and I hope that the rest of the trip will continue as it has.

What happens when you meet the love of your life, and you have to break up because your lives exist on opposite sides of the world? I guess I knew beforehand, exactly what I was getting myself into, but I never imagined myself becoming so completely attached. After breaking up with Mike Monday night after my exams, I've just been a big ol' mess, have gone through an entire box of tissues, and I barely know what to do with myself. I know that this is the right decision because long distance relationships are notorious for not working out, but that doesn't make it any easier, and it certainly does not make me miss him any less

I've never really been one for relationships because to be honest, being single and flirting with boys is just so much fun, but when my friends dragged me out on Monday night after Mike left, i just had no energy whatsoever, and I couldn't even focus on having a good time because I was so upset. At the moment, I'm trying to divert all my energy into cleaning, packing, and organizing my east coast trip, but everything reminds me of all the good times that I had with Mike. Even when I'm crossing the street running errands, I keep thinking about how he would immediately step between me and oncoming traffic, or how he would grab me and pull me back to the curb when there was a car coming.

I've never been so attached to anyone before in my life, and I can't imagine ever feeling more strongly about anyone else in the world. I think my heart would literally burst if that happened. I just wish I didn't have to leave Australia. Mike says that he'll come visit me in the US after he graduates, and I just pray that nothing will happen between now and November to prevent us from being together. Is it crazy for me to say that I've met the man who I want to spend the rest of my life with, even though I've only known him for a little over a month? Maybe it's true that everyone has a soulmate. If so, I truly think that I've found mine, and I wish we weren't separated by the half the globe!

Wow, that was quite an exam experience. Not only was the my biochem lab final in the most obscure location possible (the Randwick Racecourses... yes, as in horse-racing), non of the professors had bothered mentioning how it is that students were expected to get there. So I made plans to meet up with a friend of mine (Amy) who lived fairly close to the Racecourses and had a much better idea of where to go than I did.  Mind you, this exam was to start at 8:45am, and the Racecourses make up an area that's about twice the size of our campus, plus I didn't know which entrance I was supposed to enter at!

Anyhow, I'd never been over to Amy's apt before, but I knew the general location of where it was. (Or so I thought.) While I was sitting on the bus though, we completely passed the street that I was supposed to go down in order to get to her  place, so I got off the bus at the next stop and had to backtrack a couple of blocks. Little did I know, I'd actually gotten off too early b/c the bus actually returns to that street, practically right in front of the racecourses. Regardless, it was approximately 8:35, and I had no idea how far I was to the racecourses. Eventually, I told Amy to go on ahead without me, managed to finally make my way to the exam and sat down just before nine, almost 15 min. late for an hour long exam.

The fact that I was ridiculously sick the day before and hardly did any studying did not help the fact at all. But at least, I now have the exam experience to beat all exam experiences. And the exam wasn't TOO bad, and I'll hopefully get over 50%... crossing my fingers.

Classes have ended a couple of weeks ago, and I'm currently 2 finals away from finishing my semester at UNSW. I have had such an incredible time studying abroad, and in a way, the past four months have felt more like a vacation than a period of extended academic pursuit. That's not to say that I didn't have any work to do. I certainly did, but miraculously, I remained mostly unstressed throughout the entire semester, save for maybe a small amount of nervousness about my memory research proposal or my biochem final, worth approx. 50% of my grade.

The key was though, that mixed into this period of going to classes, taking exams, and writing papers, I also travelled throughout the northern territory and Melbourne, worked about once a week in the Sydney Harbour area, which still remains (to me), one of the most gorgeous places in the world, played Touch Football, and did various other things through the compulsion of being in an entirely new place. After travelling down the east coast after finals are over, I can definitely say that I will have seen much more of Australia within a time frame of 5 months, than I have of the United States, within the past 15-odd years.

I think so many people end up being stuck in a rut, or end up under-appreciating things that are just in their backyard, simply because they've gotten used to taking it for granted. I for one, have definitely caught the traveller's bug, and hopefully, I won't drive myself to bankrupcy because of it.

I will be happy to return home in a little over a month, and I definitely do miss the comfort of being home and always having my family and friends around, but in going home, I must leave behind someone who has become very dear to me. I'm going to have such a hard time saying goodbye to Mike, and I never imagined that I could fall so hard for someone, not only within such a short period of time, but for someone who literally lives on the opposite side of the world. I guess I'll see what happens within the next week or so...

I almost dropped $60 today on a beach towel due to the convincing powers of a cute Australian salesperson. Fortunately, I came to my senses and got a $20 beach mat instead.

Today, I miraculously found my way to the heart of Sydney with the guidance of only a couple of bus maps. Anyone who's ever witnessed me trying to make sense of spoken directions will realize how impossible this task can be for me. Anyhow, I started off at Circular Quay, which I found out today was only a fancy name for a railroad station and the surrounding area. After walking around for a bit, my eyes lit up at the site of the famous and much-photographed Opera House. I didn't even know that it was in the same area! After taking some shots of the lovely structure, as well as the beach in the background, I proceeded towards the botanical gardens which in a way reminded me of Central Park in NY, but much smaller, prettier, and less busy.

Somehow, I found my way to the Rocks, which again, wasn't as far away as I originally thought it was. During my aimless stroll, I came across a street performer, a man who convinced two strangers of tying him up in steel chains and then wowed the crowd by escaping from the trap only to solicit donations afterwards. He was very good though, and very funny as well.

Also at the Rocks was a big market where they were selling everything from chili chocolate to stained-glass salt and pepper shakers. I definitely blew some money today on items that I didn't necessarily need, but it was a beautiful day with no time limits or restraints. Is a girl not to shop when amidst such a fine city?