Alyssa Lai, 2011 North Queensland student blogger, writes:

Alyssa Lai in Miami

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 times I’ve seen Finding Nemo, but I cannot wait to study abroad in Australia this summer.

From mid-May to mid-June, I’ll be traveling to North Queensland, Australia with fifteen other University of Florida girls, and rumor has it that some of the activities we’ll be doing are trekking through the Daintree Rainforest, the largest tropical rainforest in Australia, spending a night in the Outback, and we’ll even get the opportunity to feed wallabies and hold koalas. Did you know that there are over 1500 species of spiders in Australia? Hopefully we won’t run into too many of those while we’re there!

Of course, we’ll also be learning all about the Aboriginal culture, ecotourism, marine biology, and much more! I’m looking forward to submersing myself in Australian culture—the food, the lifestyle, the nature…but, not so much the long journey to get there. It’ll be an excruciating, drool-inducing fifteen-hour flight from Texas, and since their time is almost exactly opposite that of Florida’s, we’re talking about some major jet lag. Sounds exhausting, but I know it’ll be worth it!

Until then, I guess it would be smart to start figuring out how to pack everything in one suitcase. That’s traveling light for ya, huh?

That’s it for now, sheilas and blokes! Hopefully next time I’ll have lots of pictures and stories to share!

Hooroo! (Apparently this is how they sign off in Australia. I must check my sources first so as to not make a fool of myself once I’m there.)

Pictured left, Alyssa is aboard the Carnival Destiny passing by the Miami coastline.