Jessica's Australian Adventures!

Make Kony Famous

Last day of classes and a little over 3 weeks left!

This semester has gone by so fast! I can’t believe this was the last day of class and the end of assignments! I’m leaving for Sydney tomorrow and spending 5 days in the big city! How exciting! Then I’ll be back in Cairns for exams and then off to New Zealand and then HOME!!!

It’s such a bittersweet feeling.

*Sorry I’ve been so bad with the blogs…. I’ve been so busy with school, I haven’t even had time to edit photos from Perth! Those will come soon! I promise!

Cheers!

My first experience of the WET SEASON in Tropical North Queensland in Cairns. It was so awesome and horrible at the same time. I love the rain, especially after a long period of high humidity and it’s just soothing hearing it.. And so much fun to jump it (it was so warm too)

But it’s not fun when you have to walk ten minutes in it to get to class….. and of course.. I didn’t have anything remotely water resistant. I’m just amazed to see people in class completely unaffected by it while I’m walking in looking like a sopping dog.

Perth is AMAZING!

I went on my trip to Perth and all I can say is I can’t wait to go back!

Here are a couple pano’s I’ve taken.

And my favorite :D

This is at Rottness Island.

More to come :)

Oh and did I mention it’s my birthday today :D

A day in the life of a zoo keeper :) (in training :D )

Here is an update (with pictures! ) of my days volunteering at the zoo.

Start my day by giving the rats and mice food and water.

Look at how wee they are! (“One day olds” I think.. they are still freshly pink!)

Then spraying down the green tree pythons.

I didn’t get any photos of me cleaning cages on the outside displays but who wants to see me clean windows and scoop poop?! Maybe next time folks :D

He’s kinda scary looking, but quite pretty.

Then cleaning out the black headed python enclosures.

And of course the occasional crocodile wrangling.. This is Gummy, we were moving him to another enclosure.

And this was after all the work! He is one heavy guy! Roughly 400 kg or almost 900 lbs. I wrapped up his feet with tape :) No pictures of that, since you know I was a little preoccupied. But I should have some soon. Hopefully next week. Such an amazing experience. If I ever decide to just run away I might end up going back to Australia and becoming a zoo keeper :)

Well that’s all for now! It’s a bit hard to get photos of myself while I’m doing things, I don’t want to pause and ask a zoo keeper to take one.. So I’ll see if I can get one of my friends to shadow me for a day. It’s quite exhilarating being able to interact with all these animals.. and I never thought I’d be working with reptiles, but it’s exciting and scary! No matter what others might think, I think some of them just look so cute and cuddly :) HA!

Tickets to Perth officially booked :)

Finally booked my tickets to Perth for spring break…. it’s 2 weeks away, I’m a little late but it’s ok since the tickets went down $10 in price! Whooo hooo.. ha I can have a meal now :)

I’m really excited for this trip since it’ll be my first time travelling to an actual big city in Australia! I love Cairns and all but it’s so tiny!

And I’m stoked to visit the place Heath Ledger is from (RIP) and to swim in the Indian Ocean. It’s on my list of things to do. I’m travelling with my awesome room mate and we’re going to spend a day in prison too :) Don’t worry everyone, I’m not going to get arrested it’s a famous prison here, prob our equivalent to Alcatraz but not nearly as famous.

I’m also going to be able to check another thing off my bucket list - Swim with dolphins! Along with see penguins that live in Australia! The smallest penguins in the world.