Orientation - Day 4

The university had decided that we had had enough DIFFICULT serious orientation stuff to fill our brain for the time being, and decided that all of Thursday was going to be devoted to going to the Australia Zoo! The Australia Zoo is extremely famous, and widely visited because it was the home of the late Steve Irwin. It had previously been named The Reptile Park, but when other non-reptile animals were added they changed it to a more appropriate name. We were VERY fortunate because it was the warmest that it has been since I've been in Brisbane that day, 27 degrees C! (about 80 degrees F!) This, being my third "zoo" since I've been in Australia, wasn't in as great of wonderment as the others, but I enjoyed it and did some NEW things nonetheless! Like... petting a baby crocodile and fed an elephant! Besides the usual Australian animals, kangaroos, koalas, dingos, tasmanian devils, wombats, echidnas, cassowaries, this park also featured tigers, elephants and other Asian animals. But what I found most amazing were the massive crocodiles they home. We also went to a show in the Crocoseum where a zoo keeper tempted a crocodile to snap at him several times. Apparently that was the part of the show that Steve usd to do. Overall, the zoo was very very fun, and left me quite exhausted afterward! Tina surprised me by stopping at a local politician and getting me a free Australian flag and information about the Australian flag, emblem, flowers, and anthem. We ate supper with Grandma, Trevor's mother, and enjoyed a board thereafter. Both of which I enjoyed greatly. Tina and Trevor have asked that I cook them something Minnesotan while I am here and the first thing I thought of was Tater-Tot Hotdish. They had never heard of it, or even tater-tots for that matter! They apparently call them potato gems or potato jewels. We also discoverd that there are several things that are the same word, but because of our dialect we pronounce differently - like the word route, tomato, roof, etc. Silly little cultural differences!

Orientation - Day 4

Beerwah, Australia