Hello all,
Sorry for how long it's taken me to post a new blog. Days come and go pretty fast here. Time is flying by way too fast for my taste. So since we talked last a lot has happened including jumping out of airplanes, a tsunami that wasn't quite as exciting as expected, a pretty amazing field trip and the acquiring of one of the coolest jobs I could think of.
So lets start with the jumping out of airplanes. For my friend Kaitlin's 21st birthday she decided that it would be a go time to jump out of an airplane. I guess it's as good as time as any. I mean you've made it this long why not test it out and see if your really suppose to have made it this long. So of course being the loyal friend that I am I couldn't just let my friend go up there alone. So I took the plunge and I'm here to say it really is one of the things that you need to do before you die. It's such a weird combo of sheer terror and just absolute amazement at the world. I got some great pictures from the jump for you to check out.
After all that excitement I had to take a field trip with one of my classes. It was pretty awesome. We went to this beach that a tribe of Aboriginal people live on and they taught us how they gather and cook food from around the area. The guy that lived there taught us how to throw a spear to get fish and crab (yes I was a pro)and then took us into the mangroves to look for food. We collected periwinkles, mussels, and crabs. The mud was literally up to our knees and it was pretty tough to get around but we managed. We didn't get any fish but I had brought peanut butter and bread just in case. Once we gathered everything together we brought it back to the guides house and cooked it. The snail was actually really good but the mussel could have used something, not sure what but the needed something. We all sat around on the porch and our guide told us how they hunt and cool stories. It was up there in my top field trips, right after St. Augustine in 4th grade but it is a tight gap.
The last bit of really cool news I have for you guys is the fact that I am now working at the turtle rescue and rehabilitation center here in Cairns. I went to my professor after class one day and just asked if there were any projects that professors needed help on and if so could she get me in touch with them and it turns out that a professor here started a turtle center about 10 years ago and has been operating it with zero government funding. I got in touch with her and went to talk to her and now I go with her 2 days a week to help out with the turtles. It is amazing, there are 6 turtles currently in tanks there and they all had been rescued by Dr. Gilbert. There is not regulation here about ghost netting so what happens is the turtles get caught in the nets making it impossible for them to dive. The turtles get dehydrated and most the time end up dying unless someone reports seeing them so we can go pick them up. It is an awesome job even though I have to get up at 730 am.
So that's about it for now but I will try to update more often. Happy late St. Patrick's Day to everyone, I hope you had a good one. I will just upload some pictures from around Cairns so you can get a feel for where I am. I love you all!
Cheers,
Caitlin
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