Easter Weekend Eggstravaganza

Well I just returned from my fun-filled 5-day weekend in Cairns (pronounced "cans"), which is about a 5 hour car ride north of Townsville.  I departed Thursday afternoon with 6 other mates, although we met up with half of uni that was staying in Cairns for the weekend, most of them in our same hostel.
We stayed at Giligans hostel which is one of the more popular ones because it's based in the center of the city and has a good night-life that goes along with it.  We had an 8-person room and some of our other friends were sharing another 8-person room right across the hall from us.  16+ uni kids staying in a confined space, it's a wonder we didn't get kicked out, but we definitely all managed to have a good time!
Good Friday some of my friends went Skydiving while the rest of us took a self-tour of the city.  It's a very tourist city with many souvenir shops and activities to do like skydiving, white-water rafting, reef tours, ATV rides, bungee jumping and heaps more.  

 Saturday I spend the afternoon with a couple mates up in Kuranda where the rain forest is!  It was also a tourist town filled with small shops and markets.  After we had a small picnic and the beginning of the trail we hiked through the trees and vines ending up at a huge waterfall.  It was definitely worth the twisty turny roads we had to embark on both up and down the mountain to get there and back. 
Saturday Night we bought tickets to the "Ultimate Party" which may have been an understatement... We started at Giligans with a BBQ and a couple games, which of course I had to participate in! And it was definitely worth it! I stood on stage while a girl took a piece of bubblegum and moved it up one pant leg, down the other then blew the biggest bubble with it.  All I had to do was stand there, I couldn't help her at all.  And for that I won a day trip to the Great Barrier Reef worth $129.  Which means I'll have to go back to Cairns sometime in the next 7 weeks!  After that we went on a party bus to 4 other clubs and had a wonderful time with discounted drink prices and HEAPS of pizza.  At first I wasn't sure there was going to be enough, so I grabbed pizza by the handfuls.  Little did I know a half hour later they would STILL be serving pizza, and I would STILL be eating it.  Easily one of greatest nights since I've been in Australia. 

Rain forest waterfall

WE LOVE PIZZA!!!

Sunday Ryan had an inline hockey tournament and was playing for 3rd place so I went to watch his game with a couple other friends.  They lost, but it was interesting watching an inline game vs. an ice hockey game.  I think I'll stick with ice hockey.
The friends that I went up to Cairns with left on Monday morning, but I decided to stay and get a lift back with the other friends staying across the hall.  The rest of the weekend was spent sleeping, eating, drinking and dancing.  We left Tuesday morning and started our long tiring journey back to the Ville.  We stopped at Crystal Creek to jump off rocks into the river, and slide down the rock slides.  I would show you what I'm talking about and the beauty of this river, except my camera died by the end of our 5 day adventure. No worries though, I will definitely be back to show you what it's all about.  
Now it's back to uni and the joy of essay writing.  I have 1 essay due in a week, 2 more due in 3 weeks. In between there I have a couple quizzes, one final for my indigenous class and more things to see and adventures to go on! Cheers to you all and Happy Easter, hope you're having a great spring!

"Spring" Break/ Lecture Recess

Well this week we had off from class for lecture recess. Those back home would refer to it as spring break, but they don't really have spring here. But we did just move into their other season recently, the DRY SEASON!!! This whole week has been beautifully sunny and nice temps around 75-80 degrees with less humidity!

Magnetic Island
Yesterday I took the day and went out to Magnetic Island which is just off the coast of Townsville, about a 20min ferry ride, by myself for a day of exploration.  I went to Bunglaow Bay Koala Sanctuary where I got to hold a Koala, a baby crocodile, some lizards and a snake, and after that I went on a Fort Walk where I got to see old WWII defense buildings.  They were set up by the Australian and American forces to protect Australia from any attacks by the Japanese. The walk is also famous for the wild koala's that are seen in the trees.  I got back on the ferry back to Townsville at about 6pm, just in time to see the sunset over the ocean. It was an amazing day.

Time Flies By
Well it's hard to believe but I've already been in Australia for 10 weeks! But what's even harder to believe is that I have another 9 weeks left here! However this is how the rest of my semester looks:
Full week of class
2 day week
3 day week
3 full weeks
1 week off
2 weeks of exams
Head for Home
So needless to say I'm going to do everything I can in the next 9 weeks because they're going to FLY by.  Over Easter weekend I think I'm going up to the city of Cairns (pronounced "cans") with a couple friends. The number one goal up there is to get out on the reef.  I heard the viability is supposed to be less than ideal because of the cyclone, but it would still be worth seeing.
Other than that I have 3 big essays to write and prepare for my final exams which are going to be more essays.  I've only taken 3 multiple choice quizzes since I've been here which is much different from back home.  The rest have been essay form, or short answer. 

Other than that there isn't much else going on here.  I will definitely update after my trip to Cairns because I'm 100% positive there will be some good stories coming out of that trip! :) Until then have a wonderful week and Happy Easter!

You're word of the day is: Goon
This might be better known back home as boxed wine.  For some reason they call it "goon" here, and I think I've figured out the why.  Because if you drink too much of it, you look like a goon!  It's the cheapest kind of alcohol here and you can use it in a variety of different ways.  "Goon punch" is quite a popular use of it.  My fellow college friends would better know goon punch as jungle juice.  Basically it's goon mixed with you're choice of juice.  Most use some type of orange juice, and you can also mix in some vodka to your liking.  My advice: Keep Away from Goon