Alyssa Lai, 2011 North Queensland student blogger, writes Home is, indeed, where the heart is. It is a little bittersweet to be back in Florida when my heart is still most definitely in Australia. Since I’ve been back, the jet lag is been horrible and I’ve barely slept a wink (I think my body is secretly waging a war to keep…

Alyssa Lai, 2011 North Queensland student blogger, writes: G’day from Cairns! We’re in our final twelve hours in Australia, and the tearful goodbyes are going to begin soon. Since my last post, we finished our second day at the Great Barrier Reef. It was just as amazing as the first day. We saw a whole school of huge humphead parrotfish, a…

Alyssa Lai, 2011 North Queensland student blogger, writes: G’day from Port Douglas! It’s good to be back in civilization! We spent three days in Tyrconnell after we said a tearful goodbye to Yungaburra and On the Wallaby. Tyrconnell is basically in the middle of nowhere—the true Outback. And Outback it was—I actually spotted a kangaroo outside our tents, pictured left,…

Alyssa Lai, 2011 North Queensland student blogger, writes: We’re in Yungaburra still, and yesterday, we spent almost five hours hiking the steepest hills I have ever seen. We trudged through huge, muddy puddles, sticking to the sides of the trail, clinging for our dear lives to trees and bushes to avoid getting wet and muddy. (It didn’t work. Hence, the…

Alyssa Lai, 2011 North Queensland student blogger, writes: We’ve been on the move again! We left Magnetic Island, or Maggie Island as the locals call it, and drove about five hours to Yungaburra. We’re staying at this cute little backpackers lodge called On the Wallaby. On the way there, we stopped by Millaa Millaa Falls, pictured right, where the Herbal…

Alyssa Lai, 2011 North Queensland student blogger, writes: G’day, mates! (I still have to get used to being called ‘mate’ all the time!) We have spent the past four days on BEAUTIFUL Magnetic Island, pictured left. I still can’t describe how breathtaking the scenery is here. It’s definitely nothing you can find in the United States. There are several hiking…

Alyssa Lai, 2011 North Queensland student blogger, writes: Hello everyone! Finally after almost what feels like a whole week of traveling, we’ve arrived! Our journey was a little chaotic, but we made it! We were lucky enough to fly on the inaugural Qantas flight from the Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport to Brisbane, so we got to catch a little party,…

Alyssa Lai, 2011 North Queensland student blogger, writes: G’day, mates! Excitement and adrenaline are running so rampantly through my veins that I can hardly contain myself. Maybe it’s the pictures that I’ve seen of the amazing starry skies of the Outback, or the breathtaking aquatic world of the Great Barrier Reef, or maybe it’s simply the embarrassingly large number of…