Eleventh Hour Alphabet

*Note: This was supposed to have been posted before I flew out of Portland on Tuesday, but the internet was being silly and didn't let me. So here it is now.*

A is for Australia. Duh :)
B is for big bags: two 49 lb. ones to check, and then my hiking backpack and tote bag to carry on the plane.
C is for Cairns (pronounced "can" or "Cannes" like the film festival in France, hence the title of this blog is kinda a pun).
D is for Daintree Rainforest, the 1200 square miles of super diverse, tropical plants, mammals, birds, and reptiles that is just north of where I will be staying.
E is for EXCITED, because I am SUPER STOKED about everything!
F is for flora and fauna. 80% of all that lives in Australia, plant and animal, exists nowhere else. Bitchin.
G is for Great Barrier Reef, where I will (hopefully) be scuba diving (somewhat) shortly after my arrival (within a few weeks, perhaps?).
H is for hugs, because of all the wonderful ones I've gotten from my awesome friends and family the past few days :)
I is for In a Sunburned Country which is an excellent and hilarious travel novel (by Bill Bryson) about Australia that I got as a gift and have read twice already. I highly recommend it.
J is for jet lag. Cairns is 18 hours ahead of the Pacific Time Zone. Jeez.
K is for kangaroos, which are apparently quite common to just see around, kind of like squirrels are here (and by "here" I mean Oregon/Washington).
L is for learning. I am taking super awesome classes and I'm stoked to learn stuff outside of class too!
M is for meeting lots of new people!
N is for nervous, because I am also nervous about this. But an excited nervous.
O is for Oz, the land down undah.
P is for public transportation, which is apparently rather good in Cairns. I will be using it a lot.
Q is for Queensland, the state Cairns is in (and it is roughly the size of all of Western Europe put together).
R is for red. Which my skin will NOT be, because I'm bring 8 tubes of SPF 55 and I will wear it EVERY DAY ALL THE TIME
S is for showering, because that's the first thing I will do when I get to my place of residence.
T is for tree kangaroos. They are quite rare, but super cute, and I really want to see one.
U is for upside down and under. I wonder if their maps are upside down (to us) and if their toilets flush the other way....
V is for vegetarianism of mine. Which may go out the window depending on food choices there. We shall see.
W is for wine in a box. Apparently, it is often the drink of choice. *shrug*
X is for X-country/continent flight (I know it is a cop out, but really, what good words are there for X?)
Y is for yummy fresh local produce that I have been encouraged to try whenever I go to the market.
Z is for Zealand, New (another cop out, I know) where I would really like to visit, while I'm in that neck of the woods. Relatively speaking.

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Song of the day: Leaving on a Jet Plane by John Denver