Catch up!

Tuesday, July 16th

We left Cairns around 9 am and were departing for a 4-hour bus ride to James Cook University in Townsville Australia. Throughout this bus ride, we passed breath-taking views. The scenery was just beautiful. We stopped for a quick lunch, and it just happened to be at the most stunning place ever. For lunch, I had ham, cheese and tomato on a croissant, which was so good.

Once we finally got to our University (Uni as the Australians say), we all got dropped off at our different dorms. I am in University Hall, which is the best dorm. All of the dorms compete against each other and compete to be the best dorm. Sara, Becca, Siena, Andrew, Emily and others are in my dorm too so its awesome that we are all always together. I am in a single room that is actually pretty big for a single. Each dorm has a balcony attached, and included a gorgeous view of campus. I finally unpacked everything and felt so relieved to not be living out of a suitcase anymore.

Wednesday-Friday, July 17^th-19^th

On these days, we just walked around to try to get a feel for campus. Our campus is really big, but so nice. We took a bus into town and walked around town for many hours. We walked up and down the strand, which is the promenade of the beach and just fell in love. Everything about Australia is amazing. There are palm trees everything, a beautiful beach with crystal clear water, and the friendliest people.

Along the beach, there is a restaurant bar called Longboards, where we hung out for a couple hours. This is where we met about 10 US Marines, and talked to them for 2 or so hours. They were very interesting to talk to. The stories that they were telling us were very touching. One of the guys I talked to has been in the Marines for 13 years, and for 3 years he was a drill instructor. He told us how he has to physically, emotionally, and mentally break down the people he is training. He also stated that the whole entire 3 months of training, he never once calls them a Marine. When it is finally time for them to graduate, he hands them a pin, and says, “Congratulations, you are a United States Marine” and he explained how emotional and touching this is. Many of the Marines began to cry. Hearing all of these stories definitely helped convince me that I want to be an Occupational Therapist for injured soldiers. They give so much up for our country, the least I could do is give back to them.

Overall, these days were great and so relaxing!