Finally here in Brisbane, Australia!

Well, Sarah and I arrived May 29th after a LONG journey from America. We arrived in the early morning and went straight to our hostel. We decided to not let the jet lag get the most of us, so we ventured in to the city to start getting the things done we needed to to get our life started in a new country. We set up a bank account, got mobile phones, settled our visa, and learned the public transportation system that we would be using for the next 6 months. We ended up staying at the hostel for 3 nights, and after many hours of searching for an apartment we finally found one that ended up being right across the street from the hospital that we are working at, what a blessing!
We started moving in the day we found it, and by the first weekend we were here, we started to get settled in. That next Monday we started working, and endured a long first week of orientation. We soon learned that people were very friendly here, although it is more often than not, hard to understand and be understood. The following weekend we rented a car and went on a road trip up to the Sunshine Coast. We stopped by the Glasshouse Mountains on the way and ate at a cafe with wild kangaroos sunbathing in the field next to us. We then drove to Moloolaba and decided to get out and enjoy our first glance at the beautiful Australian beaches. We were then headed to Noosa, where we enjoyed a short hike into the Noosa National Park. With the help of others around, we spotted a koala sleeping in a tree right above us...this was very exciting! We watched the sunset on the beach and then headed to our hostel for the night. The next morning, we hung out on the beach and hiked the same Park, but from the south end. We were hiking along the beach, enjoying some spectacular views, until we happened upon a nude beach. We quickly turned around and headed back to the "normal beach". We did not head home until after seeing another spectacular sunset on the beach.

Last weekend, Amy, Sarah's sister, came in town for a week. We again went on a road trip, this time to Lamington National Park and stayed at O'Reilley's Rainforest Retreat for a night. We drove south of Brisbane, stopping at a vineyard for some wine tasting, of course. Then up the extremely windy road to the rainforest. We settled in to our mountain view room, and went on a nighttime hike to see glow-worms. Along the walk, we saw and heard many animals, including a platypus! The highlight was definitely seeing a wall of glowworms in the pitch dark rainforest. The next morning we found some birds that were eager to eat the sunflowers we had brought. Sarah and Amy weren't as excited as I was about the whole idea, I thought it was a blast having so many birds around me, sitting on my head and eating sunflower seeds right out of my hands. Luckily, they did not decide to leave me any presents behind. We were then off on a "tree-top walk" hike where we were able to climb up trees and see some awesome views, and then on to a hike to see a wonderful waterfall. I was surprised to learn that it doesn't actually rain as much as I had expected in the rainforests. It did rain that day we went hiking, but it hadn't rained for almost a week before then. Later that day we headed to the Gold Coast and Surfer's Paradise to stay for one night.