Trip to Cairns - Day 4

23-7-2012    Monday    Sunny

        This was the second day in Cairns. And it was the first day to SCHOOL! I am interested in what schools are like in Australia since I arrived Sydney! I have  millions of questions in my mind of how the school life was like in Australia! I was so excited to see my school and experience my own school life in Cairns! Unexpectedly, we had lesson in a HOTEL today! In addition, we will be having lessons in the Sebel Hotel in the following nine days! At first, I thought we were going to learn hotel manners! Luckily, we are not! Today we just did a placement test to test which English level are we in so today was not a formal lesson. Tomorrow we will be given books and learning materials to start formal lessons!

The middle one is mine!

        In the afternoon, Ashley and I went to Cairns Central to have lunch. Since our host family prepared us packed lunch today so we did not buy lunch outside. But when I opened the lunch box, I was shocked at that moment! I had no fish, no vegetables, no rice, mo meat. What I have were a toast with peanut butter and strawberry jam and a fruit! Can you imagine when a salty jam goes with a sweet jam? That's a bit strange! But I know I am gonna have the same lunch in the following days. It is because Cairns is a tropical city. It's hot throughout the year. When people bring packed lunch, their food choices will only be a sandwich and a fruit. If they put meat such as ham or bacon, they will easily turn bad after a few hours under strong sunshine! Also perishable food should not be included in the lunch box either! Never mind, that's the point of join study tour! It's to learn, respect and adapt to foreign culture! I am happy that I learn new food knowledge today just from a packed lunch! 

        After the lunch, we walked around Cairns city with several local leaders, Dan,.Cary and Kate. We walked along an outdoor swimming pool at Esplanade. The pool water there was crystal clean and in light blue colour. When the sunshine was projected on it, it became even more attractive! I wanted jump into the swimming pool at that moment! Although it is just a swimming pool, but it's far different form the one in Hong Kong. The pool there is not in a rectangular shape, it has no shape as if it is a natural beach~ 

        

        we kept walking along the coast line. On the way, we saw a piece of massive grassland. Many people had sunbath on it! I also want to sit on that nice grassland or perhaps sleeping on it would be much better! And between the sea and the coast, there is a piece of wetland. But I did not see any mangroves on it...  What I saw was that the sea melted into the sky... I can't distinguish which part is the sea, which part is the sky... At the end the the coast stands a yacht club. It's huge and occupies large spaces! I hope I can embark on one of the yachts there and go to Greenland! It must be great! Finally, we arrived at a volleyball court. At first, no one was willing to play volleyball under such strong sunshine. After that, several Spanish boys came to challenge us so my teammates decided to join! They decided to battle with them. Unfortunately, it's a shame that our team lost due to the poor skills...

        A nice day ended! :)