Just finished my first week in Australia, and it's been really great so far. Class from 9:30-3:30 every day, but after that I usually go for a hike or run in these beautiful mountains we have behind JCU. There are these really nice mountain bike trails. It's a strenuous run, but worth it for the views and wallabies.
There are some really amazing birds here. Cockatoos, kookaburras, lorakeets, australian magpies, a brahminy kite, some turkeys, and also some bird called a curlew. The first time we heard it though, some jcu kids told us people call it a rape bird because its call sounds like a woman screaming. They made sure to tell us that the bird wasn't actually getting raped...
Friday night, we went to this restaurant called Rhino Bar. They had "memphis ribs" on their menu, so of course I had to try them. Surprisingly, they were some of the best ribs I've had in a while.
Saturday we went to this restaurant we'd seen the night before that was an asian grill kind of place. Both of these restaurants are in this area by a marina, and the restaurants are nice and get crowded, so they often don't have room unless you made a reservation. We really wanted to eat at this asian place though, and they told us they thought they could seat us in about 20 min. We ended up waiting like 2 hours, but they gave us free drinks which came to close to $100 dollars for our group. It was some awesome food, too.
Visited the aquarium today. Some beautiful corals and fish, but not a particularly large aquarium.
Planning on diving the reef next weekend!!