Tonight might have been my most adventuresome night in Australia. I ate seafood. Here I am about to eat my first octopus. It was very chewy but wasn't terrible. I also had calamari, shrimp-with the eyeballs, and mackerel. It was all pretty good. I haven't had much protein since I have been here because I think the beef is disgusting and the chicken is always served cold (HELLO-has anybody in Australia ever taken microbiology before, cold chicken! I would rather eat an octopus) Working backwards, we went to the rainforest before dinner and hiked a pretty tough trail and then we same in the water falls where there was a natural slide from the rocks. You would get in and the current would pull you down a little stream and down the huge rock slide. It was amazing! Me and my girls had so much fun trying to go down holding hands. Then earlier this morning we went to the Botanical Gardens. It was beautiful! The plants were amazing. I wasn't sure how we could top our experience at the reef but this was just as fun and so incredible to see the different ecosystems here. My students are behaving perfectly and having such a good time most of them are going to be at about 8:30 b/c we are moving so quickly through the day and it is SOOOOO hot. It is 92 degrees but the humidity makes it feel like 108. Tomorrow we are headed for the Outback! I am so excited about sleeping under the stars, I wish my dad could see the stars they are going to be amazing. I will not be able to get Internet for a few days until we are back in Cairns so this will be my last post till Thursday.

My plate of food and I ate every bite!

THese giant guys are everywhere!

This is where we went swimming.

Plants at the botanical gardens.

Ginger

Another type of ginger.

baby pineapple

Australia Post #2

I took all these pictures with my mom's digital camera. I can not believe how good they turned out. The picture above is a parrot fish. The picture below is a jelly tentacle. I got so close to him.

Oh my goodness! The Great Barrier Reef is the most beautiful place in the entire world! YEsterday conditions were perfect. It was about 89 degrees and clear skies. The water was crystal clear and was about 80 degrees. We went on a day cruise with a company called Cruise Magic. We cruised out to reef which took over an hour. The view on the boat was amazing and no one got sea sick, thank goodness! On our way there we had a Biology class were we learned about the reef ecosystem. The Biologist on board described all the fish to look out for. My favorite was the parrot fish, they are called that because of their colors. My other fav was the butterfly and clown fish because they find a mate and are monogamous for life- made me miss Stephen though. So when we got there we rented wet suits (that was attractive-let me tell you!) and got our snorkel gear and jumped right in. We had to wear wet suits because the ozone is much thinner here and you burn in seconds and also it is jelly season so the suits protected us against stings. Snorkeling is like riding a bike if you have done it before you just know how to do it. I took this for granted and was shocked by the number of students who were not good at it and did not know what they were doing. THey kept swallowing sea water and alot of them gave up after 30 min or so. So I was so amazed by the coral. IT was so beautiful. There were so many different kinds and different colors. I went underwater and I don't think I came back up for a solid 2 hours because when I did come back up there was noone snorkeling except me and one other person. They had the area we could snorkel marked off and had life guards watching other wise I might have swam off into the deep blue without knowing it. So I realized that it was lunch time and went in to eat. I had some Delicious Cuos Cuos (shout out Theodore!) and some fruit that was amazing and then I checked on my kids and went back out. Then after another hour of snorkeling I went on the advanced snorkeling adventure with 7 of my students. They took us out on a boat to wall (just like in Nemo) where the reef ended so we could see large schools of fish which attract large predators (SHARKS!) We saw a white tip shark that was about 2 meters in lenght, he swam right by us. He was so cute and I was not afraid of him. We also saw giant jelly fish and Gill from nemo (a moorish idol) and nemo himself. I did not get to see a giant sea turtle but we did ride the EAC (eastern Australian current) which was really strong. I am kind of sore today from my 5 hours of snorkeling. Yesterday was so amazing, God is so creative!
Today we are going to the Daintree Rainforest to take a canopy tour and then to swim at the waterfalls.

I would like to take this time to thank the inventor of Skype he is my BFF. I have been able to talk to my kids and Stephen twice. It is so good to see them and hear there voices. I miss you guys!

Australia Post 1

Katie and a Kangaroo!

This guy walked right up to me. To bad he wasn't attacted to me because I didn't get to see his feathers

A dingo- they walk them like dogs on leashes all over the wildlife center.

Me and a cockatoo

For those of you who do not know, I am in AUstralia with 29 teenagers. We aer on a Biology field trip to Cairns Asutralia for the next 7 days. SO everyone say a prayer for Stephen who graciouslyt stayed behind to take care of Mitchy and Maggie Kate- also ignore my typos I am in a hurry because I ahve to pay for internet.

We arrived to Australia this morning at 10:00 Sunday (Auzzie time) which is about 6:00 PM Saturday night your time. THe flight was long but not terrible. The seats were very comfrtable and we had 80 movies to choose from on our own TV. I watch New Moon twice, The Blindside, and Most of the Lovely Bones. We all have great looking cankles now becasue of the swelling from the plane ride. Right when we got to Australia- remember no has showered in at least 30 hours we hoped on our chartered bus and headed to the Cairns Wildlife Center. IT was amazing. It was very small but had the most amazing animals. THis is me and Pipper the Koala. He was so soft and he cuddle withyou like a baby. I cried a little lbecuase it made me miss Maggie Kate.

THen we went got to feed Kangaroos and hug them. Kangaroos are my favorite animal so this was a great treat for me. THey ate out of your hand adn were so cuddle, the would just come up to you and put their head in your lap. We then went to see the croccodile show where Steve Irwin wannabe showed us how they feed the crocs. I am going to try and post video but my connection is not great here. After we left the Wildlife Village we went to our hotels to take much needed showers. Then we loaded up to go to an AUstralian Grocergy store.. It was intresting to see the blend of american and Australian products. I did pick up a pack of Wiggles training nappies (AKA pull ups) for mitchell. He is going to be so excited because he still loves the wiggles so much. We had to go to the store because Auzzies dont like people to cook their breakfast when they are on Holiday so there is no breakfast at the hotel. We then went to eat dinner at a pizza place where the kids ate and ate. SO far my assessment on the food is that it is weird. I am not a fan so far. We shall see. So now we are back at the hotel I have slept 3 hours over the past 36 hours so as soon as curfew hits and I check rooms I am off to bed. Tomorrow we will be takinga day cruise to the Great Barrier Reef for a day of snorkling and diving for those who are certified. I will try and post the next 3 nights before we head to the outback to go camping where there will probably be no internet service. THanks for checking in, Family: I miss you more than words can say. See you tomorrow.