Before I left home and while I've been here, my mom has been urging me to do everything I can because "you don't know if you'll be back." Although I think I've listened to her pretty well, I am 100 percent certain that I will be back, which makes the whole leaving thing a bit easier.

So, what have I been up to? (Sorry all these posts always include a play by play of my every move, but this blog is to help me remember everything too!) The day after I last posted, I FINALLY got around to trying Thai on King Street (and Thai in general ... I had never had it before). King Street (the main street in Newtown, which is the suburb right by campus) is home to dozens of Thai restaurants. Luckily, by waiting, I was able to go to the restaurant that seems to be everyone's favourite.

I spent all day Saturday and Sunday doing diving stuff, this time with a few other students. On Saturday, we went to La Perouse on Botany Bay and did two dives. We were diving around Bare Island, which contained the ruins of a 19th century fort. A few scenes from Mission Impossible II were filmed there, a scene where Tom Cruise is riding a motorcycle across a bridge and people are chasing him in a car? I don't know, this is what my instructor told us. Apparently the scene has him taking a few minutes to drive across this bridge which is, in reality, quite short.

We saw some more blue groupers, more cuttlefish, an octopus (which I touched), and weedy sea dragons. There are "fields" of spiny sea weed underwater, and these sea dragons (like a sea horse, but stretched out), blend right in. We got to pet a few of them and they were a lot harder than I had imagined them to be.

On Sunday we went back to Inscription Point for two more dives. Saw some more cuttlefish (Sydney is crawling with them), some stingy rays, a numb ray, another octopus, and some more weedy sea dragons. All of the dives I did with the course were shore dives, which means that we suit up in all the gear at the car, walk to the water (often down steps or over rocks), and then finally get into the water. This is a little annoying when you're getting in since you are carrying an extra 80ish pounds on your body, but the worst is getting out of the water. First of all, the actual getting out process is incredibly awkward. You've just spent about an hour being weightless, so gravity and those extra 80 pounds are killers. The surf is pushing you over, you're cutting your hands on the rocks and your fins never seem to want to come off easily.

By the time you finally get out of the water, you are exhausted and freezing (you lose body heat 25 times faster in water than in air) but still have that LONG walk back to the car...

That next week (June 2-5) I had several big assignments due and an exam, so I spent the whole week working. How depressing. I did go to a friend's house one day and watch an episode of Australia's Next Top Model, which was my first TV in months. Australia's NTM is VERY different from America's NTM.

So the evening of the 5th, Lisa Rosende ('09) and I headed to the airport to begin our Great Barrier Reef adventure. We left a cold, rainy Sydney and arrived a few hours later in warm Cairns. The next morning, I left early on a tour further north to Cape Tribulation. On the walk up we stopped at a wildlife park, went on a crocodile spotting cruise on the Daintree River and went for a walk through the Daintree Rainforest. We arrived at Cape Tribulation in the afternoon.

Cape Tribulation is a few hostels/hotels on the coast in the middle of nowhere. There is no electricity running to the area, so everything is run off generator and solar panel. They don't have electricity there because they are hoping to discourage development. What a fantastic idea.

The area is "where two World Heritage Sites meet," and is literally where the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef meet. After checking into my accommodation, which was a cabin in the middle of the rainforest, I walked to the beach. I walked along the beach and through the rainforest for a few hours and watched the sunset. Later in the evening I came back to the beach and got to enjoy a gorgeous star-filled sky. It's amazing how many stars you can see when there is no light pollution...

The next day I hopped on a boat and headed out to the reef to scuba dive and snorkel. We saw a sea turtle and a bunch of cool fish and coral. We went to two different locations at Mackay Reef and I did a dive and some snorkeling at each location. At the second location, I saw dozens of giant blue clams that were probably three feet across. The lips were bright blue and purple and green ... very pretty!

For those who don't know (because I didn't really before coming here) the reef doesn't look like much from the surface. When we looked out around us from the boat, all you see is water. If you look closely, you can see patches of darker water, which is where the reef is. At the places were I was, the reef was made up multiple bommies, which are giant masses of coral coming up from the ocean floor to about a meter or two below the water's surface. The top of the bommies were flat, colourful, and full of life.

After a full day of fun, we were back to the beach (we had to walk from the boat through the water to the beach since there are no marinas or docks at Cape Trib) and then headed back to Cairns where I met up with Lisa and her roommate, Vanessa. We hung around Cairns for a few hours, and then Lisa and I caught a bus to Airlie Beach. I can't get over how fantastic the overnight bus was! The drive to Airlie Beach was about 11 hours and I was probably asleep for 10.5 of them. Fantastic.

We got to Airlie Beach on Sunday morning, and, unfortunately, it was a bit rainy. The town is right on the beach and has one street a few blocks long with shops and hostels. There is also a swimming lagoon and a park area between the town and the ocean. The town is centered on the tourism industry and is the jumping off point for sailing trips around the Whitsunday Islands. The Whitsunday Islands are a gorgeous group of 74 islands. We somehow managed to entertain ourselves for the rest of the day and Monday morning.

Monday afternoon we embarked on our sailing adventure. Our vessel was a retired racing yacht and we shared it with 20-something 20-somethings. The sail to where we anchored that night (Hook Passage) was fast and very wet! The next day we were up for the sunrise and headed to Whitehaven Beach and spent some time on the beach. Then we were off to one of the islands for some scuba diving and snorkeling.

The next morning we were woken up at 4:30 when the engine started and then again an hour or so later when we started sailing in the open water for the outer reef. The surf was quite rough and I was literally hanging onto a beam on the ceiling and the mattress to keep from falling out of my bunk. We were at the reef early and got right in the water for some snorkeling and scuba diving. On my dive, I saw another turtle and a shark. The shark was a white-tipped reef shark and was seven or eight feet long. We, of course, saw an abundance of fish and coral. There were a bunch of Trevally and a Napoleon Wrasse (big fish) hanging around under the boat, so every time we finished snorkeling and wanted to climb the ladder back onto the boat we had to swim through them.

On our fourth and final day of sailing, we snorkeled at another island and the cruised back to Airlie Beach. Luckily it was now sunny, so we were able to lay around by the lagoon until flying home.

On Friday, one of my friends, Nicole, held a pasta dinner at her apartment for our group of friends. It was good fun and it was nice to see everyone together. In the beginning, we used to see each other all the time, but over time we all developed our own lives and made other friends. The next several days were spent studying and pretending to study for my exams on Tuesday. I am now officially finished with UNI and it feels great!!!

Today, I headed to Centennial Park and strolled around its many ponds for a few hours. There were birds everywhere and they all expected to be fed. I ended up walking through Paddington to the city and visited some of my favorite places and soaked up as much as I could.

And now, after that horrendously long recap, I am back where I started ... I only have three days left in Sydney. I have started with the goodbyes and it's awful. The first of the Americans at Johns are leaving tomorrow (Thursday) morning.

I'm not looking forward to readjusting when I get home - everyone says it is harder than adjusting to your study abroad country ... I'll let everyone know if that's true or not. So far, most of the other stuff people tell you about studying abroad has proven true. The emotional roller coaster the international education staff outlined for us at orientation is very real and accurate.

Thanks for reading all that ... I have tons of pictures to add, so hopefully I'll get to that tomorrow!