Merry Christmas from the other side of the world

So I've been at my new for a couple weeks now, and it's been awesome. Really really fun job, really great people that I'm working with. AND on top of all that, I get to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef.

My job has so far been everything that I initially thought it would be, with a few added responsibilities like running the barbecue for breakfast... aka cooking eggs and bacon for 80+ people. The first day I was on BBQ duty wasn't very pretty, but its getting better! My eggs are looking more and more edible by day! Lucky they get put into a bacon and egg sandwich so no one can really see them anyway! 

A few days ago, we had a family on the boat and the dad was in a wheelchair. He had been in a motorcycle accident 14 years ago and had broken his spine and become paralyzed from the waist down. Apparently he had asked a bunch of other boats in Cairns if they would take him and he was turned down because dive boats aren't really handicap accessible. Well, we got him on the boat, despite lack of ramps and all that other stuff and everyone was determined to make his day awesome. When we got to our first site, a reef called Hastings, a couple of our divemasters helped carry him down the stairs and got him in the water. I got him set up with a life ring so he could stay floating in the water and still look down and snorkel and led him around in the water. He was SO thrilled to be in the water, he told me he hadn't been in the water in 14 years... no other dive boats would take him so when he went out with his family, they would be able to go snorkeling and he would just hang out on the boat. It was such a great feeling knowing that we were able to give him that experience.

Well, getting ready to spend Christmas down in the southern hemisphere... gotta say, it doesn't really feel festive when its 90 degrees and humid! At least Florida cools down a little bit! I'll be spending my Christmas Eve and Christmas day working on the boat, but its really not so bad! There are far worse places to spend Christmas than the Great Barrier Reef! And after work on Christmas, my parents will be coming to town! Excellent Christmas gift! Can't wait to show them around this ridiculous/wonderful city that is Cairns.

Sending a big Happy Holidays to all my friends and family following this. I hope everyone has an amazing Christmas with lots of love and laughter. Thanks so much for all the love and support on my Australian adventure. I wouldn't have been able to do it without you! I'm sending along as much holiday cheer as I can possibly muster! 

Love and fishes! 

Gainfully Employed!!!!

A job! A job! A job! 

A magical wonderful super-duper JOB! 

So, I was wandering around the docks with my resume in hand a couple days ago, asking the dive boats directly if they needed any help (going to the offices proved unsuccessful). I talked to one boat and they said that their marine biologist was actually leaving in a couple weeks, how would I like to go back to the office in a little bit and talk about the job? 

Ummm... yes please? 

So long story short, I am now the marine biologist on  a boat that does snorkeling and diving day tours!!!!! My job is pretty awesome. I start out in the morning helping out in the kitchen, getting the boat ready for the day, little things along those lines. After the safety briefing, I take over and give a marine biology presentation... just basic stuff like, what a reef is, why they're beneficial, how they're made, what kind of fish are around, what to watch out for, and how you won't get eaten by great white sharks. At the first reef site, I'll be working the snorkel platform, helping snorkelers in and out of the water and leading snorkeling tours for people that can't swim or aren't very good at it (basically dragging them around in the water while they hold on to a life ring). In the afternoon, I lead marine bio snorkel tours, where I take people out, show them cool things and find neat creatures to pick up, like sea cucumbers and hermit crabs and harmless things like that. 

YAY I HAVE A JOB. AND I REALLY LIKE IT. I've been out for two days on the boat now... one training day, and today was my first day on my own (seriously some trial by fire action), but it was good! I think its going to be a really great fit for me right now and I can't be more excited about it. 

Now, with me on the water every day, hopefully I'll be shooting out some entertaining stories about crazy tourists, crazy creatures, and probably crazy crew members! 

Love and fishes! 

Heat, job hunting and bird attacks. The usual...

Hey guys!

So a little update on my life... not a whole lot new to report. I've just been hanging out in Cairns, looking for work, and meeting people! But a few interesting anecdotes of my life right now.

First of all, being from Florida, I thought heat was no big deal... I've survived two Miami summers, I can survive anything right? Ah, well, see, here's the thing... when I lived in Miami, my deal lovely roommate (cough Kara Wall cough) liked to keep our apartment at around 40 degrees Fahrenheit (I have to specify now, since everything here is Celsius) So after being in the miserable Miami heat all day, I would actually get cold in my apartment and find myself in sweatshirts or sweatpants after work.

Well.... now my apartment in Cairns doesn't have AC so it's roughly 90 - 92 degrees here every day, but instead of retreating to the peace of an air conditioned apartment, I wake up and its hot. It's not unbearable, I've got a fan and a good cross breeze through my window. I go to town and before I even make it a block, I'm drowning in sweat. It's been really great, looking for jobs. "Hi, I'm Amanda. Please don't mind that I'm currently melting, but I would really like you to hire me." Then I get home from job hunting and its still hot. Still not unbearable, but its really hard to cool down when there's no AC....

On the topic of job hunting... holy cow. I've never walked door to door passing out my resume, but MAN is that intimidating. You've really got to have some tough skin and get used to rejection. I think I've been to the copy/print store like 4 times this week, just to print out more resumes. I think there are about 30 or 40 resumes with my name on them floating about in Cairns. I've a got a couple of things that might work out, but I'm not going to tell you about them yet, because I don't want to jinx it ;)

One last bit of Australia related news... and it's terrifying. The birds here are starting to make nests and have babies... Most people would think "Oh cute, baby birds, how lovely. Cute fluffy adorable things". NOT IN AUSTRALIA. In general, every creature in this country can kill you. If you've been following this blog since the beginning, you remember the cassowaries (giant jungle birds with talons that can disembowel a man). There's also countless snakes and spiders that will kill you with one bite. AND then you have cone snails... nice little sea snails that are one of the most toxic things in the ocean. Awesome. So, all the aside, one would imagine that the birds would be pretty harmless. Little song birds couldn't be dangerous right?? WRONG. In less than a week I have been attacked by no less than two different birds. One was a really cool looking bird called a curlew with huge eyes and long legs.

This is a picture of a curlew from the first week I was here....

Anyway, I was coming home from Cairns Central, which is the mall that's very close to my house (I've been hanging out there a lot since it's air conditioned) and on the way home one of these birds comes at me, with its wings out and making this insane hissing sound. WHAT? I may or may not have screamed at it like a little girl. But this bird was persistent! It chased me for probably half a block. 

The second bird came 3 days later. I was walking back from my apartments office and this little tiny black bird, about the size of an apple, starts DIVE BOMBING me and pecking me in the head!!! Excuse me? What is happening here??? Again, chased me for a half a block, pecking me in the head three times! Come to find out, its breeding season for both of these birds and they must have had babies or a nest nearby. Well, props to their parenting skills... but damn... I'm so done with birds. 

That's about all I can share from my side of the globe... hopefully I'll have some good news in a few days but again... don't want to jinx it! Just send some good job-hunting vibes my way! :) 

Sending lots of love from Oz!