Welcome to Cairns

Good Morning from Cairns, Australia!

I am apologizing for the delay of my blogging in advance. There is a lot going on here and I also don't have free wifi at the hotel, so I have limited time to get my blogging done! Once we got to the hotel a few of us decided to go explore the city for a little bit before we went to bed. We found some good night hangouts and saw a lot of intoxicated people, but after our explorations it was off to bed for a 8:30 wake up call to breakfast and on the bus to the Aboriginal Culture Park. I woke up this morning in the best mood I have been in all trip, and this last week in Cairns is going to be a blast! At the Aboriginal Culture Park we got to watch a dance show in the theater to learn their cultural dances. Lucky me I got called up to dance at one point. Don't worry there is video, but it's a little embarrassing because I am a terrible dancer. They also showed us some of their aboriginal instruments such as the digeridoo.

After that performance we got an instruction on how to throw boomerangs which I recorded, and then it was off to learn how to throw spears.

We each got a turn at both, and needless to say I wasn't an expert! Then we got a short presentation on various weapons and bush food they used to eat back in true aboriginal times. This park was very interesting and informative, and I have taken more pictures in the first couple hours in Cairns than I did in Canberra all week. We were able to enjoy lunch at the park, and then it was back to the hotel for a free afternoon! Davy, Mark, and myself looked into skydiving information for one of our freedays here although we haven't set plans yet. Maybe tomorrow... (sorry mom I should have told you not to read for a couple days!). Once we gathered some information on good things to do on our days off it was out to the pool. The original plan was to head to the beach, but by the time we would have made it there and back we would have been late for our group dinner at 6:30. The sun and the pool were beautiful! I was able to continue reading my book, The Lucky One, and I'm over halfway through. I may need a new one before I leave here. Once the sun started to go down we made a quick trip to the grocery store for some quick snacks for the hotel, and then it was time to get ready for dinner. We originally were going to do a group dinner, but with so many people it was hard to find a place to accommodate us all so we ended up breaking into smaller groups. After a very long, but delicious dinner everyone met in the hotel lobby for our first night out in Cairns. We went to a bar called P.J. Obriens, and it was an absolute blast. We were able to talk or dance or mingle with other people, so it made for a very interesting night. At one point the band played Sweet Home Alabama, and I was right at home! However, shortly after that song ended I had an entire drink spilled down my back, and was soaking wet for a good while. Probably my least favorite moment of the whole night. Overall I would say it was the most fun that we had as a group night out.

A late night to bed, and then it was an early morning to get up and SKYDIVE!