Cairns Botanical Gardens/Orientation

Tried to post this yesterday but the internet stopped working:

 

Here are the pictures I promised! This morning we took a hike through the Cairns Botanical Gardens. I was expecting planted, organized rows of organisms, but instead we were hiking through an actual rainforest conveniently located in the middle of Cairns. To be honest the beginning was slightly frustrating: all uphill, and my camera would not behave which meant that some great shots ended up as blurs. Luckily I did get some decently clear pictures on the second half of the hike. Maybe it was endorphins kicking in, or the settling in of the fact that I was actually, finally in a real rainforest, but the way down was much more enjoyable (and easier downhill). While on our hike we saw green ants, and our instructor dared us to lick its butt because it supposedly tastes tangy! A couple people actually did it, turns out its more sour than tangy haha!  We also saw our first Wallaby on the way back, unfortunately it ran away before we could get pictures though. After our hike we ended up in a picnic area where our home stay coordinator had brought us delicious brunch, consisting of local fruit and scones. I ended up trying passion fruit for the first time, decided it’s not my favorite but it’s definitely not bad. After that we had short meetings with a couple of our group instructors, and had the rest of the day free. The rest of the day was pretty relaxing, and after dinner we explored some different parts of downtown Cairns. Unfortunatly I am having trouble uploading photos from the hike, but they're all on my facebook album so check it out! 

 

Here's what I wanted to post for today:

 

This morning we decided to go to a Father's Day street celebration (yes, Father's Day is on September 2nd here) which was pretty fun. There was an entire street blocked off where there were tents with vendors everywhere, and other random entertainment, like the entertaining women dressed up like synchronized swimmers from the 80's who wanted nothing more than to pose in pictures with us. About half of the vendors were selling plants because it was at the botanical gardens we were at yesterday, but the other half were locals selling their craft. There was also food, music, and a petting zoo. After that we had a very long orientation lecture, mostly safety information we are required to go over. The hostel we are staying at provides free BBQ on Sundays, which was surprisingly good since it was free hostel food. This week we are doing an orientation excursion to Port Douglass and the Tablelands, and just as an fyi I will not have internet again until Friday night. Sorry this is post is kind of lacking in interesting content, but I didn't want to wait until I got back on Friday by which time I'm sure I will have forgotten everything. See facebook for pictures of the Father's day celebration today!