The first night sleep in an actual bed was really weird. We all kept waking up at weird hours like 2:30 or 3 in the morning thinking it was time to wake up…which is about noon our time. Our bodies were just all out of wack. We got up around 6am to catch a taxi to go Scuba Diving and Snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. I can honestly say that this was the coolest thing that I have ever done!! We pile on this boat called Passion of Paradise (haha) with about 50 other people, it’s rainy season in Cairns so it was cloudy and a little rainy but they said once we get out to the Reef usually the sky clears up and it’s just fine…which it did exactly that! The instructors and guides on the boat were exactly the type of people who you would expect to be scuba diving instructors, really tan, really goofy, and easy going. When it’s the rainy season it also means that it is jelly fish season (aaaah!! I know right?!!) So we had these sweeeet blue water suits, intact with a hood and finger covers. We did not fail to take some sweet pictures with those…no worries ;) To start off we went snorkeling and it was great! It got us familiar with our face in the water and breathing. I think it really helped us get used to the water..it was a good warm up for scuba diving. We saw a bunch of beautiful fish and the reef itself was indescribable. Imagine every fish in Finding Nemo times 100! I’m pretty sure the most terrifying thing were the jelly fish…when we saw one of those we squirmed away faster than anyone’s business! I convinced Shar that it would be a good idea to go scuba diving...I was surprisingly calm after snorkeling I think that really helped. Shar was a little more nervous but we both did really good and got an amazing experience. They give you a brief about it and go over the basics. Basically don’t ever hold your breath was the main thing you get out of it haha! It was just me and Shar in a group with our instructor who was constantly giving hand signals. The funny part was that giving the OK sign meant “I’m doing good” and the thumbs up sign means “get me out of here I wanna go up to the surface” so that was a little interesting when you accidently give the thumbs up sign because you think something is cool or you like it. Our scuba instructor looked similar to the guy from the movie Along Came Polly! No joke it was hilarious and I was the only one who has seen that movie!! Anyways all went well we touched the inside of the ginormous clam about the size of a coffee table it felt really squishy and cool! We also saw a plethora of fish, jelly fish, star fish, sting ray, and just all the pretty things along the reef! We went to a second spot on the reef that they called Paradise Reef. We thought we saw amazing things at the first stop…this second stop was exactly how the name describes it. Paradise. The colors just seemed to be more bright there for some reason. Our friends Caty and Rachel were scuba certified but myself, Shar, Matt and Princess weren’t. It just so happens that princess cannot swim and this second part of the reef we were at was basically in the middle of the ocean. But Shar and I weren’t going to let her leave without getting into the water to see such beautiful fish! She put up quite a fight but after about 15 minutes of debating and giving her “a few minutes” she entered the water with a life vest, floating tube and our AustraLearn guide Jay. Needless to say after she was in she couldn’t stop thanking us that we convinced her! She loved it and didn’t even freak out when we saw a shark!—I actually had a mini heart attack after I saw it lingering around..I swear it made eye contact with me. I definitely swam away and loving that I could say I saw a shark…but a couple seconds was enough for me ;) It wasn’t the sunniest of days so I can’t say I got my first sweet sunburn but there’s always time for that! It was a two hour drive back to land. We were allowed to just go about anywhere on the boat…the deck was the best where we could see the sweet views of the mountains/hills. When we looked down at the water we were passing by 100s of jelly fish! I would hate to be the person who falls overboard. Apparently the ones we saw on our way back weren’t poisonous but I don’t want to be the person to test that out! Later that night we ate dinner and had “session” to learn the Aussie way of life and headed out for the night. The people we met through AustraLearn are awesome and I’m kinda bummed out we have to leave. I guess there are usually over 150 people from AustraLearn who come and stay at the “resort” and go scuba diving…there was only 7 of us ha so compared to other groups it was really really small. I’m still super jet lagged it’s insane! We head for Adelaide at 4am tomorrow woohoo!!
50 other people, it’s rainy season in Cairns so it was cloudy and a little
rainy but they said once we get out to the Reef usually the sky clears up and it’s just fine…which it did exactly that! The instructors and guides on the boat were exactly the type of people who you would expect to be scuba diving instructors, really tan, really goofy, and easy going. When it’s the rainy season it also means that it is jelly fish season (aaaah!! I know right?!!) So we had these sweeeet blue water suits, intact with a hood and finger covers. We did not fail to take some sweet pictures with those…no worries ;) To start off we went snorkeling and it was great! It 
got us familiar with our face in the water and breathing. I t
hink it really helped us get used to the water..it was a good warm up for scuba diving. We saw a bunch of beautiful fish and the reef itself was indescribable. Imagine every fish in 
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