WE BRING OUR OWN SUN: Living in Cairns

It has not yet been twenty four hours, however, Daniel and I feel comfortable in our new home. What everyone has told us is true, it's hot here. The weather is not too much for us, though it is a bit humid which we'll just have to get used to.

Originally this was only going to be a week long vacation for us. Surprise surprise we changed our minds and decided to live in another part of Australia. There is a University here with a beautiful campus and we'll make a decision in the next few months whether Daniel will go there or not. So when we purchased our round trip tickets, extra bags were not included in the price. When we showed up with almost everything we own here, the ticket agent was slightly shocked. She was as helpful as possible, and still, getting our bags on the plane with us cost more than the price of our combined seat tickets. Being spontaneous travellers does have its down sides! Being positive people does have its up sides! We knew there was no other choice so we let it go, gave each other a high five and focused on our new lives near the beach.

When I say that we're near the beach, I mean really near the beach. Glisten took us on a walk soon after we settled into our new room. It took no more than two minutes to reach the sand and see the ocean. Kicking off our shoes we put our feet in the water and I was amazed at the temperature. It was warm! The three of us took a long walk down the shore. Daniel and Glisten talked a lot about work while I looked for interesting shells and jellyfish. The season for jellyfish begins in November so we're going to have to do a lot of ocean swimming in the next two weeks. The beach does have a huge net that catches them so folks can still swim, but I did see a jellyfish on the sand yesterday, stepped over it, and listened while Glisten told us not to worry. There is an amazing creek up in the mountains close to where we live that she promises we can safely swim all year round.

Daniel and I are very excited to do some exploring. This really is a tropical place to live, and people the world over come to visit and see all the amazing offerings this land has. We're thankful to be here and plan to make the most of it.