For the past week the group has been split up into different home-stays. I've been living with Rachel and David Sellars in the suburbs of Cairns. They have two little boys ages 3 and 1 and their 27 year old niece is also living with them at the moment. Over the past 5 years, the Sellars have hosted students every semester, so they know how to do it by now. They have a "welcome to Our Home" book, which Rachel made, complete with pictures of the family as well as house rules and helpful hints about how to get around the city. There is also a guest book in the shape of a little girl's face that I have to sign before I leave.
Being split up from the group was shocking at first, since we had been living on top of each other for a week, but I've adjusted now and find it nice to really be immersed in Australian culture (Dave made me toast with butter and vegemite the other night and it was actually quite good!). Living in a stranger's home was awkward for the first few days, but I've come to feel more comfortable around them and actually am slowly learning to tolerate (and sometimes even like) small children.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays the group meets at the Reef Teach classroom downtown for lectures and afternoon excursions. When we are not in class, we have a bird-watching project that we do at our home-stays. Being at Reef Teach is a nice break from the toddlers and also serves as a time for us to share stories about our host families and make plans for the weekend, since it is hard to communicate when we are split up--most of us don't have phones and internet is not always readily available. Yesterday, all 12 of us met at Palm Cove beach in the afternoon and had a barbecue. After freshening up at our houses, we met up downtown for dinner and drinks.
We went to a bar that was fairly empty, but believe it or not we happened to meet three kids from Omaha! Turns out they went to Creighton Prep and we know a lot of the same people. It's a small world, after all!
After our group left the Rino Bar, we visited a few nearby destinations, but couldn't resist going back to the Wool Shed-- it was calling our names. The Wool Shed is widely known throughout Queensland as THE bar for backpackers in Cairns. You rarely meet a native Aussie at the Wool Shed; it's filled with Irishmen, Germans, Scots, and people from all other parts of the world who are traveling throughout the country. Since we aren't staying at the Greenhouse Hostel, we weren't able to score free entry passes. Luckily, I spotted our German friend whom we met at the hostel last weekend. She had already been inside and had her hand stamped. We each took turns pressing the backs of our hands on her stamped hand so that it looked like we had been inside the bar already. We walked straight to the front of the line and the bouncer, seeing our "stamped" hands, let us in.
At the end of the night Erin, Julie, Amanda, and myself left the bar and ran (literally) to catch a bus home.
No comments:
Post a Comment