Accomodations and Getting Lost

The first day in Cairns was very neat, however, I was still trying to get everything situated with my stay. When Matt, one of our instructors for our course, picked us up from the airport, there was four people total from our class that I'd met. The first was obviously me. The second, Jeff, who flew around the world with me. Then there was Rachel, who is from Tennessee. Finally, there's Kenny, who is from New Jersey. Kenny had already been in Australia for quite some time on this excursion. He had just finished his last summer course and was ready to take another with us.

We arrived to our Student Lodge in Cairns, which is about 25 minutes outside of the city. It's nice because it's placed away from the tourist-y part of the city. Our town is called Smithfield. 

Looking at the accommodations of this place, I'd say I have it pretty good while staying here. I feel like I'm in Florida, except with better people.

Above is the room number I'm staying at. To the right is the opposite building of the Student Lodge. There is a courtyard connecting the buildings, where you usually find people hanging out late at night.

A few pictures of my room are posted below. We decided as a group to take some time to shower and get our things unpacked and that we would meet in the guy's room to decide where we were going first. (The guys were in the same room. Rachel and I had roommates.)

 

As a group, we then walked to the Uni to see how long it took and how far of a walk it was. Turns out, it really wasn't that far at all (a comfortable 10 minutes). You have to walk around the student lodge, onto the sidewalk, underneath the highway, through the backside of the campus. It's a fairly scenic walk as well, so I don't mind. 

 There is a casual meeting place, called the rock at the front of the Uni also. This is where we took our first picture as a group! I like the second one better of everyone except me, thought I'd post anyway!

We preceded to explore that night around town a bit...and failed miserably. Getting to the beach as a night destination was far from a success...but we did make it to a marina! This concludes my first day in Cairns. I can't wait to share every other day with you! Thanks so much for being interested :)