So.Much.To.Discuss!

Holy cow, I have a ton to blog about today!  I have about 3 weeks worth of excitement, oodles of photos, and tons of updates on my life abroad.

First of all, it's flippin' hot here and I'm dying.  Actually, no.  I'm melting.

Cairns has begun to experience the buildup to the ever ominous wet season.  A period, (from what I've gathered from everyone's tellings), is a time of wet, hot, sticky, icky, grody living.  With a dash of sun every once in a while, and the potential hope of a flood that results in days off work, and kayaking down the street...hmmm...

With the recent 70+ humidity days, and 85-88 degree F weather, the zoo, (and existence) has practically been a sweat bath from start to finish.  I can assure you that I look GREAT every single day. Bleck. And yet, I still love it here!  When I'm not melting.

Momma white and brother recently left this past friday, and I truly miss them tons! :( It was a difficult goodbye that's for sure, but the time that I had here with them was AMAZING, and we were able to do so much!

(Mom even brought me a care package of all my favorite things!)

  

And Jason enjoyed his FIRST LEGAL BEER.

While the fam was here we went to the beach, Cape Tribulation, the Daintree Rainforest, a couple of local waterfalls, the tablelands, more beaches, the zoo, the Great Barrier Reef, and several other places! Annnddd we ate and drank. A lot.  I think I put on 5 lbs in a week alone.

Oh well.  I'll just sweat it all off here.  HA.

Anywho, I have many many many photos of the fun me and the fam bam had, and of the beautiful Cairns they were able to experience!

One of the first days that the fam was here, I took them to the zoo. YAY!  Have to say, my fellow coworkers provided mom and Ja, with the VIP tour, for sure!

Koala Family Photo!

Mom loooovveeedd the koalas.

 And the Kangaroos.

Jason loved his reptiles, and was able to see a large variety of the reptiles at the zoo.
He was pretty happy with the Reticulated Python.

And Iggy.  My handsome man.

Mom and Ja were even able to pole-feed a couple of the crocodiles

So cute!

And hold a couple of the baby alligators.

And, of course, I introduced them to Theo.

On another day, we went up to Port Douglas, Cape Tribulation, and the Daintree Rainforest.  Port Douglas has some gorgeous beaches, and after some fun in the sun, we drove an hour north and went on a crocodile cruise on the Daintree River.  The first time the fam has ever seen wild crocodiles.

The oceanside drive on the way up!

We're such a cute fam.

Port Douglas

Arrived at our crocodile excursion destination and this is what we see.
Uhm, ewww.

And we see these.

On the boat cruise!

Croc sighting! 2-3 year old Estuarine Crocodile.

Another day was spent enjoying the beach down at Etty Bay, which is about an hour south of Cairns. The road to Etty Bay is notorious for Cassowary sightings and we were fortunate enough to see some! My first wild Cassowary sighting as well!

Momma Cassowary...

...and chick!

Down at Etty Bay.  Beautiful waters.

Perhaps my most favorite of days with the family, was our day out at the Great Barrier Reef.  Words cannot describe how wonderful the reef is, and how happy I was to share it's beauty with the fam!

Love snorkeling!
Except when I misjudge how deep in the water I am, and I end up inhaling the ocean.
I'm the picture of grace and sophistication.

Terrible underwater camera does NOT show how pretty the reef is.

Preparing for my first dive with the brother and a fellow diver from Germany! 

Back to the surface and incredibly happy!

I truly have soooo many more photos of the adventures me and my family had while I was here, but if you keep up on facebook, then you've seen the majority.  As I said before, it was absolutely amazing having my mom and brother here, and I could not have wished for a better time with them.

In other news, the zoo has welcomed a new animal by the name of Sari.  Sari is a young Binturong who is easily one of the coolest looking mammals I've ever seen.  Although, I have not been able to feed/handle him myself, I have still been close enough to appreciate how awesome he is!

 

Sadly, I only have about a month left of my internship here at Cairns Tropical Zoo.  I will be spending the next couple of weeks in the Mammal Department and will then spend my remaining two weeks in Reptiles.  I truly cannot believe how quickly time has gone here and how close I am to finishing my internship!

Which brings me to my other news!

I am in serious consideration of staying here in Cairns for an additional year before returning home to the States.  I absolutely love it here and the people I've met, and am not sure if I'm ready to come back yet!  It's a big decision to make, and I'm nowhere near sure of what I'll do, but I have started looking into the process of applying for a 12 month Work and Holiday Visa.  I've been putting a lot of thought into taking an extra year to work and make some money to pay off loans, (and hopefully travel a bit more), before embarking on the path of veterinary medicine.  Applying for a work visa in Australia is an expensive and slightly scary process, but is so incredibly exciting as well!

It will, of course, be very hard to live so far away from family and close friends, but it may just create a reason for you all to come visit me! I can assure you that if I stay, anyone is absolutely welcome to visit :)

Besides that momentous decision making process, I am full of excitement for next week's Sydney and Stereosonic trip! I leave wednesday and will be experiencing the big city and all of it's wonderfulness! I will be gone for a full week and hope to do all of the touristy Sydney things, (i.e. the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, etc), in addition to Stereo and a variety of other things.

For those who don't know what Stereosonic is, it's a huge music festival that, (this year), lasts for two days.  Main headliners are: David Guetta, Skrillex, Alesso, Nero, Afrojack, Calvin Harris, Krewella, Zedd, Stafford Brothers, and many others.  Obviously, I'M SO EXCITED.

All in all, life is superb and great, and so full of opportunities for me and I truly couldn't be more grateful.  I'm not sure where these next few months will take me, but I do know that I couldn't be any happier with life at the moment.

Miss you all and until next time,
Cheers!

Cuddly animals, tasty goodies, Halloween, and exciting visitors!

I really can't think of a creative title for this blog post today.  Not that any of my titles have been extravagantly creative, but part of me just wanted to leave the "Post Title" Title that's already there.  But I didn't.  What you get instead is my half-assed attempt at something ingenious.  I know.  It's still terrible. 

The last couple of weeks have been fabulous at the zoo, I've started interning in the mammal department and have been gaining all kinds of experience with exotic and native mammalian and marsupial species.  I have had the opportunity to work with kangaroos, wallabies, pademelons, lemurs, Cotton-Top Tamarins, wombats, Dingos, a variety of other species, and of course Koalas.

Now, prepare yourself for the onslaught of photos! Yesssss!

Cotton-Top Tamarin. Enjoying some Peanuts, dog biscuits, mealworms, and raisins.

Tiny little monkeys!

Sugar Gliders stuffing their faces.
All 3 attempting to eat out of the bowl at the same time.

Almost impossible to get photos of these guys NOT moving.
But, I managed to get a couple.  This guy is a Mahogany Glider.   Little cutie.

Now, we will have plenty of photos of the Koooaaalllaaaa.  Cairns Tropical Zoo has around 30 Koalas. Some of which are used for photo sessions that allow visitors to cuddle a koala and get a souvenir photo.

Koalas are very sleepy animals and can sleep up to 18-20 hours a day, so catching them awake and alert is fairly uncommon.  Koalas sleep so much due to the fact that their diets consist of solely Eucalyptus, a very low energy food.

Humphrey. 14 month old Joey.

Busta

Kai-Too.  Big boy Koala. And that nose! 

Male koalas have a scent gland on their chest that secretes a special "koala cologne", that the ladies love.
However, us humans are not quite so keen on male koala smell.

These next two little guys are Asian Short-Clawed Otters.  Curly and Larry.  Very intelligent, curious, and vocal, these otters are certainly a handful.

Larry.  The fatter of the two otters, as he likes to steal Curly's food.
He even has little otter fat rolls!

The next set of photos I have are of some of the Macropods that are present at the zoo. Macropods are a group of marsupials that consists of kangaroos, tree-kangaroos, wallabies, pademelons, bettongs, and several others.

Eastern Grey Kangaroos:

Eastern Grey's are a fairly good sized kangaroo, but are nothing compared to the Red Kangaroos which are easily double the Grey's size.  Red Roo's liver farther down south in Australia, and so the largest kangaroos I've seen so far, are these Eastern Grey's.  Fascinating animals though, and after working with them for the past couple of weeks, I have learned several things.

1)  They truly are bizarre, with their giant feet and rear legs, and tiny t-rex arms.

2)  Several marsupials, including kangaroos, pademelons, and wallabies, will "throw" their joey's if stressed or fleeing a predator.  The tossed out baby acts as a diversion/distraction, so that they may escape and run to safety.  #TerribleMomOfTheYearAward

3) Kangaroos are exceptionally fast and will easily bound away from you and out of reach.  I learned this first hand when given the difficult task to apply an anti-parasitic topical ointment to the kangaroos. I've certainly applied medication to uncooperative cats and dogs, but trying to "tail" a roo, (literally, grabbing the tail of a kangaroo and holding on), and give medication, is a very difficult job.

Action shot: Petting a Kangaroo.

Swamp Wallaby:

Munching on some corn.
Swamp Wallabies may be the cutest of the wallabies I've seen.

Agile Wallaby:

These wallabies are found in huge mobs, (I kid you not that's what a group of wallabies is called), in the fields along Captain Cook Highway here in Cairns.  These guys are the equivalent of Southern Oregon's deer herds.  Found in hundreds and almost always being hit by cars


3 month old Agile Wallaby Joey that was thrown from her mothers pouch and found by a friend of the zoo.
Now being hand-raised by one of the gals in the office.

Pademelon:

Now.  You've already seen several photos of mister Theo.  The adorable Pademelon, but there are indeed others within the zoo.  Annnddd I have couple of Theo as well. Stinkin' adorable little thing.

Marvin.  Another Pademelon who is several years old.  Seemingly cute, but demonstrates some, uhm "unwanted advances".  I unfortunately was a victim.


Never thought I would have blood drawn by a Pademelon... almost pathetic.

Marvin does like his fruit though.
An easy distraction from unwanted advances.

Theo. Again being adorable.

Overeager Theo.

Bandicoot:

One of the strangest marsupials I've seen at the zoo.  It's a marsupial, rat, mouse, thing.  Not sure exactly.  Her name is Bonnie, and she is actually quite ferocious, as many people have told stories of bites and bandicoot attacks upon entering her enclosure.  Why are the seemingly cute animals so vicious.  At least you know with Crocodiles, that they'll bite. Sheesh.

Ring-tailed Tree Possum:

Not the best of photos, but Ruby was cozy comfy in her box, and this was the best I could do!

Common Wombat:

This is miss Pebbles.  I've posted a photo of her before, but after getting this photo of her cute face, I couldn't help but post it here.

So very happy with her lunch.

Moving on from marsupials, we now have the Dingos! Lucky and Frazier.

Lucky.

Frazier.  So incredibly handsome.  And look at those big brown eyes.
Dingos obviously still have the knack for "puppy-dog eyes".

Frazier, enjoying his new straw bedding, after making a huge tear in the bag I brought in and spreading it all over his enclosure.    Naughty puppy.
He made up for it later though by giving me surprise lick attacks as I cleaned out his pond.

So there you have it! Several pictures of the majority of the animals I get to work with on a daily basis!

I really miss fall.  I miss football.  I miss sweaters, and boots, and scarves, and yoga pants, and pumpkin! Holy gaaawwdd, I miss pumpkin stuff. Pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin spice coffee, (from Trader Joes, THE best out there),  pumpkin lattes from Dutch Bros and Starbucks, and everything else pumpkiney. It's spring/summer here in Australia and so no fall for me. My favorite season.  It's tragic, really.  Don't get me wrong, I'm loving Australia, but there's just something about fall in Oregon that I really am missing here in Aussie Land.  Can't exactly strut outside in jeans, boots, and a scarf, with a pumpkin latte in my hand, when it's 85+ degrees out and 60% humidity.   Plus Australian's don't do pumpkin like we do. Booooo.

Anywho, because I miss fall so much, I decided to stay F-it to it not being fall, and baked my traditional fall goodies anyway.  Then I made my Aussie friends try Pumpkin, American-style. (Aussie's do pumpkin as a savory type schpeel, so soup, roasted, etc.  They were all slightly hesitant, but lovveed it as soon as they tried it. Yeeesss!)

Pumpkin Roll.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread. Yum, yum, yum.

Halloween was a couple of days ago, as we all know, and is undeniably one of my favorite holidays. Who doesn't love costumes and candy??  However, Australian's aren't as big on Halloween as many Americans are and there are certainly not many huge, costume parties like I'm used to attending at Oregon State. (Man, I miss college sometimes!)  BUT.  I convinced some friends to do a halloween party, (albeit no costumes :(.  I did wear black, orange, and a flashing ghost necklace around all day. Obviously had to.) and so the decorations, and pumpkin carving began!!!  

Pumpkins carved by Matt, Ryan, and Aaron.
For Aaron, Alex, and Matt.  This was their very first halloween pumpkin carving experience.
They had deprived childhoods.

#HalloweenSelfie. (Flashing Ghost Necklace! So exciting.)

In other VERY VERY VEEERRYYY exciting news! My mother and brother arrive in Cairns in mere HOURS.  It's so incredibly exciting!! I miss them tons and cannot wait to see them for the first time since July!  We have so many fun and exciting activities to do!!  And baby brother can go to a bar!! Legal drinking with the brother.  Only great things can happen after that.

Wow, this blog post was a long one, but full of fabulous pictures, so I don't really care.  I'm going to be fairly off the grid these next couple of weeks as the fam bam is here, but I'm sure my next post will consist of lots of family photos here in Australia.

Miss all my friends and family back home and wish that you all could fly over and visit me!   Who knows, maybe I'll stay and you'll have no choice, but to have to. Hehee

Until next time!
Cheers!