And we're off!

Hi everyone,
Well, Jon and I officially move out of our apartment tomorrow morning. It's been a stressful experience, trying to get out of the lease, get everything planned and packed and cleaned in a much shorter period of time than expected. We are staying in a hotel tomorrow night (just in case anything goes wrong with the inspection), and then we begin our drive down the coast...

In this! Our super-hip Toyota Yaris. It's pretty tiny, but it has a backseat, so no problem for holding luggage and all. Also it's stick-shift, which adds an interesting dimension to the whole driving on the left thing, but Jon is planning to do most of the driving. So that's good.

I should be able to at least post text from the road, and hopefully some pictures as well. Jon and I went on a photography tour of Cairns today (which basically meant I dragged him around town) while our apartment was being cleaned. I am finally learning how to really use my camera, and I am proud of the results!

There are all these amazing trees and flowers around Cairns (we are in the tropics, after all), so I have lots of great pictures. I liked this one for some reason. Probably because I finally learned how to focus my camera (sad). Also, I managed to take a decent-looking picture of Cairns!


You can hardly tell that it's a few inches of water away from being mudflats. Really, though, it is a pretty city and I'm glad I got a pretty picture. I am sorry to be leaving, but Tusa has called me to work twice total (once they cancelled on me, and once was two nights ago), so really, things just weren't making sense here. It's been a hard decision, and even now, I keep feeling like there's something else I could have done to make staying worthwhile. There's not. So, it was fun (especially before Christmas, when I had a steady job!), but now it's time for us to move on. I'll keep you updated from the road.

Major change of plans

Hi all!

Well, I know I have kind of implied that work has been slow, but to be honest, neither Jon nor I has worked a day since we've been here. We've been patient, looked for other opportunities... but really, things just aren't going well. So rather than work at the farmer's market or some restaurant, we, with the help of our amazing parents, have decided to move on.

Rather than just settling down in LA earlier than planned, we are going to continue our adventure in Asia. We will still travel for about a month around Australia as planned (just a little bit earlier), and then head up to Asia for about six weeks of travel before coming home.

The plan for Australia is to drive the East coast from Cairns to Sydney over about two weeks, stopping at beaches, theme parks, islands, waterfalls, and rum distilleries along the way. We will visit some friends in Melbourne and see the sights there, then head up to Ayer's Rock (Uluru) for a few days to experience the outback. After that we will spend a few more days in Sydney and then head up to Asia.

Nothing has been booked for Asia yet, but we are planning to see Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong and China (and there has been mention of Taiwan, Tibet, Okinawa, Osaka, Seoul, or Manila). Let me know if you've been to any of these places-- any advice would be awesome!

Okay, I will definitely keep everyone posted as things develop. It has been a crazy few days making all these decisions- this is not at all what I thought I would be doing, but I think it will be amazing, and a better use of our time than sitting around Cairns waiting for work. So... I will let you all know as the adventure continues!

My underwater camera-- in action!

We finally went diving! Dash (Jon's roommate from last year) was in town visiting (his cousin got married in Sydney, so he flew up to see us) and we all went out on Passions (a different dive company) (apparently I am in a parenthetical mood). We kept calling Tusa to try to go out on the boat, but it was booked solid-- which, unfortunately, doesn't mean I've been working. So for Dash's last day in town, we decided to just try for a different boat. We chose Passions because they actually sail-- it's a huge catamaran, which was lots of fun.



It's definitely not meant as a diving trip, Jon and I were the only certified divers on the boat, and Dash was one of five intro divers. It was nice and relaxing, and the diving was alright. It gave me a good opportunity to try out my camera, and since the three of us were the only people who wanted to do a second dive, we all got to dive together with a couple of staff members. Very relaxing and a lot of fun. We also went to Michaelmas Cay, which is a tiny, very pretty island.


It is also completely covered in birds.



So... diving pictures! I took like two hundred pictures, and a few of them were decent. Oh well, it was my first try.


This was the cutest tiny little cowfish, like the one I used to have. Too bad I couldn't get a picture of the front of it.

Juvenile damselfish like to live in corals for protection. I caught them in the act.


These batfish followed us around for like five minutes.


Butterfly fish tend to pair for life. Awwww.

I found Nemo.

This one is my favorite. I love my new camera/housing. Thanks Mom/Mimi and Granddaddy!


That's it. Guess I'm not feeling very verbal today. Enjoy the pictures!