This week has been a real roller coaster. It’s been a mix of being sad for leaving this great city behind as well as being excited for the new adventures to come. I’ve spent almost every day doing my lasts with all my friends as I won’t be seeing everyone again after spring break. Since this week was going to be a final goodbye for some people, we decided to hold a small “family day” as a closing event to celebrate all the time we’ve spent together over the course of the term. We went to go watch a movie by the poer that unfortunately got cut short by the rain. Thankfully I had an umbrella and was able to get us from the outdoor movie theater to the train stop. From there, we stoped to take in the beautiful pier view that we would never see again. It felt like a full circle moment since we ended up in the same location we stopped for pictures at the beginning of our program.
Fast forward to the weekend, the start of spring break. The trip started way earlier than I thought it did. I was used to meeting up with the group at 9:00 am so the 6:00 am meet up time was very unexpected. I planned to stay up late to pack and then sleep a bit but was so disappointed when I realized that our meet up time was very early in the morning. This resulted in me only getting about 2 hours of sleep which really wasn’t a great start to the break. I got some sleep on the plane which helped me feel rested but certainly didn’t prepare me for the heat waiting for me getting off the plane. I was told Cairns was going to be hot but I isn’t expect it to be as hot as back home. The heat felt a lot similar to the heat that I feel back home during the summer and this time this wasn’t a great reminder.
We started off the spring break with a bang. We started our morning very early and very confused. We misheard the tour guide and thought breakfast would be served so we spent an hour trying to find the room. However once we started our trip we found out that breakfast wasn’t served that first day. Despite not starting our day with a full stomach, we definitely made the most out of our day. We started the day with take a scenic boat ride to the Great barrier reef. It was very relaxing and soothing that I ended up falling asleep on the boat ride to our first location. I have gone snorkeling before but nothing would prepare me for this experience.
I had mixed feelings about this experience because it was very beautiful but at the same time it opened my eyes to many of the different environmental issues occurring in the world. While there were some great coral sites to see, I also saw a lot of coral that was bleached. It was a bit sad to think about how we are damaging the ocean and those effects were very visible in the ocean. While I did enjoy myself for the next three sessions, the reality of the coral reef was in the back of my mind. In the last session, we were encouraged to follow one of the safety leaders as she carried out some research and routine check up of our sites health. Through this informal tour, I learned about the many reasons the coral beef came to be as it is. I learned about both the human and environmental causes for why different parts of the aquatic ecosystem is growing, deteriorating, and even adapting.
Our having some fun in the water, we stayed behind at the docks to explore the marina. We decided to check out the night market and browse at the many different shops there. I was able to find some last minute gifts for my friends as well as get some delicious food. One memorable thing from the night market was my fresh juice that its sugar came directly from a sugar cane. It was really interesting to see how each cane was pressed to get its sugar juice that was later used in juice.
Overall, this experience was definitely memorable and really nice. What wasn’t nice is my sinus infection in one ear, that resulted from taking in too much water. I have gone out to get medicine in hopes it will soon get better, so I’m not too worried yet. However, it has certainly made the rest of this trip very muffled but it hasn’t stopped me from diving back into the water.