Australia Begins

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AHOY MATES!

Alas I have arrived on the other side of the planet. It was a long time coming and an even longer plane ride! But the wait was worth it...as now I am living leisurely in tropical weather with LAra. I arrived about 4 days ago...and have done a few cool things so far. First off though, I guess I will kind of explain the setup. I am staying with LAra in here campus dorms. She is going to James Cook University nearby. She has been in class for awhile and is fast approaching finals. The tricky part is that I am technically not allowed to stay in here room. The management is very tight with the budget and such..so they would much prefer me to shell out some dough. Of course being the cheapo i am, we are trying our best to keep me under wraps. I have spoken to a few other boyfriends who have come before me, all who have been caught, and have learned from their mistakes. So we have a sly network of food transport and hidden passage ways to keep me secret and alive.
Anywho...so lara has tons of friends here. Upon arriving I met truckloads of them and am having troubles remembering names. We went on an extensive bike ride to a nice secluded lake area. The next day we rode up to "Trinity Beach". It is supposedly a crappy beach, but it was quite beautiful for a newbie like myself. The main bad part is that it is still jellyfish season...so with all this huge ocean, we could only swim in a netted off area. I suppose we could defy the warning(other people were) but lara said one touch of these jellies and it is fatal. So I think i will just avoid death for now. Anyway, mountains and beautiful landscapes of green and orange all over the place. The next day I took the bus into the city of Carins itself. by the by, Cairns is in whats called the tropical far north of Queensland...which is on the west coast. It is the sort of launching point for lots of high adventure beach type activity. but yes....it is a sort of typical resort kinda town. I got all my hair chopped off(way too hot for my big mop), got a cheap guitar to serenade lara with, and looked into getting certified to Dive. It looks pretty cool. It starts with some theory and pool training days...and then you do 9 dives on the Great barrier reef...including some night dives. Everyone i talk to says this is totally amazing and i have to do it. So i will likely be doing that with one of lara's friends...and then lara will join us a bit later...as she is already certified.
Speaking of lara, she has been great. we have had a pretty smooth transition. There was definatly some adjustments to be made, as she just spent 4 months becoming close to a whole group of friends...and then suddenly i show up and i dont know anybody and am living with her and sharing our spaces...not to mention she is buried in stress and schoolwork. But we are doing an effective job of arranging ourselves to keep all important life elements in check. I went to one of her chemistry classes yesterday. Good God! It felt like another language. quite humbling, i sorta felt like a dodo. All and all though, things are great..and they will only get better as lara gets out of school.

it is greeat to read your posts...I definitly miss yall. This will be the longest we have all been seperated...as we are normally such a tight nit group. Tom, way to rock the JC so hard. You should get Janna to take a pic of you working.( i am taking pics, and will eventually find a way to get them up, i may try to post them to my webpage in boston.) if you can get any hoochy mama or mullet pics, that would be hot too. Liza, did you get that Job-e-job? if not, are you going to bomb them?(i read that you US fools are under high security threat again...punks!) Ryan, it definatly must suck to be schoolin yo-self during the fine and dandy spring/summer months. Glad chi-town is treating you so right though. and yes! study A.I.! how freakin cool.

ok. time for me to vanish back into my anti-digital life. kisses and rock signs to you alll. CHeers!
-bRAD

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