First Week in Townsville

Me touching a Grey Kangaroo at the Billabong Sanctuary!

Koala Bear!

The Strand (the beach in Townsville)

Feeding a Kangaroo!

I am here in Townsville! I apologize for not writing sooner but it's been kindof a crazy week... When I got here I didn't have accommodation figured out so the school arranged for me to stay in a hostel until I found permanent housing. The hostel is fun but it is stressful trying to find a place to live! A lot of students had arrived a couple days earlier than me and so most of the good places for rent (close to school, with other students, air-conditioned, etc) are taken. Nonetheless, there are lots of study abroad students in the same situation as I am staying at the hostel so it is actually kindof fun.. in between scouring the JCU website and gumtree.com.au (their version of craigslist) for a place to live, we've checked out the local Farmer's market on Sunday morning, had a barbeque on the beach and went out to the bars and clubs on  Flinder's street, the home of Townsville's nightlife. The only downside is having to walk or rely on public transportation to go, especially because it is crazy hot and humid. And unfortunately, you can't really swim in the ocean now because it's jellyfish season and there are two types of jellyfish in the water, the box jellyfish and the nearly invisible irukandji jellyfish, both of which can kill you instantly!!  They have set up a net around a small section of ocean for swimming but I still think I'd rather wait until April until they're gone... in the meantime there is a really nice public pool not that far from one of my new Swedish friends' house. There is also a river, but there are potentially killer saltwater crocodiles living in it so I'd rather not swim there either.. although the Aussies don't seem to be too worried because many of them take their boats out and go tubing on it. Actually there a loads of dangerous animals here, including 21 out of the 25 most venomous snakes in the world, which I learned yesterday at the Billabong Sanctuary, a sortof interactive zoo just outside Townsville. Despite all of those snakes and all the other weird and crazy Australian animals that are poisonous (including frogs, spiders, and even snails) our guide told us that  barely anyone dies from these animals. The animal responsible for the most human deaths per year in Australia is can you guess? The horse!! We were all very surprised by this. In addition to the dangerous animals at the Billabong Sanctuary we also got to see really, really cute ones. I got to feed kangaroos and even hold a koala, which are definitely my new favorite animal because they are probably the cutest animals in the whole entire world. I think it was literally the best 2 minutes of my life. They are just sooo adorable, I never wanted to let go of it. Anyways I have to go and organize my stuff for school, which starts tomorrow, but I will try and write again soon, once I figure out my housing situation!