A rooster as a pet! It cockadoodledoo's in the morning when I walk by on the way to work. Sean and I went into town to do some job searching and we got a picture of it on the way back. I guess the guy allows it wander around his yard for some fun time. Hilarity!
Here is another picture of the view on my daily walk to/from work:
In town there was a didgeridoo shop. I think that is one of those "only in Australia" pictures.
They have this lagoon pool close to the beach in town. Anyone can go in it and tons of families were playing in it. It's pretty neat that there is a huge pool that is free to the public.
We went to the beach on Valentine's day. That's another thing I'll probably ever do once!
The clouds were really cool. You can see the rain coming (or going, whatever it was doing).
Seano on the beach:
There were five, count 'em.. five! Kookaburra's sitting on the trees on the beach. They were being super loud. I think I'll miss that sound when I move from here, they sound so funny.
Other that that we just got back from a place called Kuranda, which is a village nestled in the rain forest by a huge waterfall. Well, during the rainy season it is a huge waterfall. It is extremely influenced by the rainy/dry seasons here, and the wet season still hasn't really started so the waterfall was just a trickle today.
Barron Falls:
And another view
That entire rocky area gets completely filled up once the rains have started. Click for rainy season falls!
The village of Kuranda is a bit of a tourist trap, but I really liked it. What can I say, I am a tourist!
They had really neat things there, I think if Sean and I are ever doing more than needing all the money we make for necessities, we could do a good bit of present shopping there. There was this leather koala wallet that I really wanted...
They also had a hot sauce stand, I'm excited to try the kind we bought! Mmmmm hot sauces. I miss my favourite hot sauces from home.
I saw a dinosaur and I had to have a picture of it of course...
The train station they had up there was nice looking.
Some rain forest flowers:
On the way back down the mountain we got a view of Cairns, it was so cool!
Sean and I both have jobs already, within a month of being here! Great success.
I'm working in a Tuck shop, which is Australian for school cafeteria. It's a pretty good job. My hours are Monday to Friday 9am-1pm. It is only 20 hours a week, but if I happen to find another job it will be super easy to work around.
I get all the food ready for the kids lunches, then they come and buy it from me. I work with one other lady and it gets hectic at times, as all the food has to be ready by a certain time but the work its self is pretty easy. The little kiddies are cute a lot of the time. I got made fun of by 3 of the girls 'cause I asked if they wanted ketchup on the burger.
"Do you want ketchup or BBQ sauce on that?"
"Ummm.. ketchup please!"
I turn around
"Ohmygod did you hear that?!"
"Did she just call it ketchup?"
"Yeah when I heard her say that I was like what!"
I came back and I said "Sorry... I forgot it's called tomato sauce here!"
Or there was the one girl who was asking me for mousse but with her accent I had no idea what she was saying!
Or when they ask me for a Milo cup... and I'm like "What?" That goes for about any brand name ice cream or types of drinks. It gets so confusing, although I'm starting to know pretty well the difference between a LOL and a popper. (Carbonated juice drink and a fruit box)
That isn't even touching the subject of the different coins. While my trainer was there I made a mistake between the 5 cent coin and the 10 cent coin.
"Hey I made a mistake and the till is 5 cents short right now."
"Oh?"
"Well the kid gave me a 5 cent coin and the 5 cents look like dimes to me and the 10 cents look like nickels, so I got confused!"
"Wait... what are you talking about? What the hell is a dime and nickel?!"
Also I'm pretty sure they're doubting my IQ by now when they ask me "Can you put some capsicum in the salad?" "Wait... what is a cap..si..cum?" (It's a sweet bell pepper)
It's pretty adventurous. And confusing.
I've been lucky enough to find a job closer than both the mall areas, it only takes me a half hour to walk there. It's closer than the closest shops! Although, last week was soooo hoooottttt... on my first day I was walking home in 37.4 degrees with sun shine and like 50% humidity. It was legitimately brutal. I don't think I could have done an hour walk in that. I felt like I was being cooked alive! If the walk was shady it wouldn't have been too bad, but it was mostly sunny. I was so focused on "one step in front of the other" that I didn't realise my new sandals were giving me blisters until I got home! I hopped directly into the shower with only cold water on and by the time the cold water went from my face to my feet it was warm.
This week has been nicer, it's been around 32 degrees. I can handle that no problem. It seems like winter time compared to that 37 degree walk! Even the cane toad roadkill are completely dry and crispy like potato chips. Ewww, gross mental image there.
But really, last week was hot. April said she's only been here with 35 degree weather, and last week had two days at 37 and three days at 36. The week before that we got a toonnneeee of rain and streams turned into much bigger streams. There is one tiny little waterfall that turned into a rushing waterfall into a full out stream, and now it is a trickle with a tiny puddle. The river we're beside was huge and flowing with full out trees in the middle of it, now it is still and you wonder how that was all water there.
The weather is super cool, but of course I'm a weather nerd...
We haven't adventured too much, April and Ricky went down south for a couple weeks so we've been on our own for a little bit. It has either been too hot or too rainy to do the trek into town/to a beach/walking anywhere.
But we did go to a place called Crystal Cascades!
Baby Junoooooo so cute!
Sean and I went into town to figure out the bus routes for his job, and we came across these few trees filled with flying foxes, which is Australian for bats! It was sooo neaaatt. All these bats hanging out downtown.
And now for some random pictures:
There are geckos everywhere all the time. One lives in the bathroom window and I think Sean accidentally closed the window on his tail, cause I looked when he closed the window and his tail was gone! His name then became "Mr. Notailgecko".
We got a few good rains and it was really windy one night. The next time it was sunny and we went out to go to the pool, it was disastrous! Two trees fell over, one right on top of the pools tarp, and one right in front of the path. It was sooo disappointing cause the next few days were the really hot days when you wanted to spend all day in the pool. It took them like over a week to re-open the pool.
This picture is fuzzy, but I still like it. I think it's cool. That river is the one that has became huge and shrunk again.
Its been good so far!
