Hi there. I'm Karis (which I'm nearly positive you already know) and in a little less than a month I'll be going to Cairns, Australia for about four months on a study abroad program. My program is from SIT World Learning and it's called Rainforest, Reef, and Cultural Ecology. I know I'm starting this off a bit early, but I just got my schedule and I'm getting very excited/terrified and I thought starting this blog would help. So, here are the basic questions answered:
This is where Cairns is:
It looks like this:
It looks like this:
It's situated between the Wet Tropics Bioregion and the Great Barrier Reef, both of which I'll be studying while I'm there.
Before the program starts my mom is coming down with me about a week early. We're stopping in San Francisco where I will hopefully get to see Rookie and Caitlin, and then going to Sydney and Melbourne as well as maybe some other places that aren't Cairns for about a week. My schedule (so far) looks like this:
January 17
Arrive San Francisco
January 20-29
Sydney/Melbourne/Elsewhere Australia with my mom
January 29
Arrive Cairns
Jan. 30 – Feb. 6
Orientation; Cairns and Atherton Tablelands
Feb. 7 – Feb. 20
Environmental Field Study Seminar with concurrent homestay; Cairns and environs
Feb.21 – Feb. 28
Aboriginal Studies Camping Trip
March 1- March 5
Continued Seminars; Cairns
March 6 – March 28
Continued Natural and Cultural Ecology Seminar and Environmental Field Study Seminar; Atherton Tablelands, Atherton Tablelands Lowland Rainforest, and Lizard Island
March 29 – April 4
Completion of Seminars and exam, Independent Study Project preparation; Cairns
April 4 – May 9
Independent Study Project period
May 9 –May 13
ISP presentations and program evaluation
May 13
End of scheduled program
May 14
Home to Minnesota
I don't actually know how often I'll have time or internet through all that, but the plan is to update this pretty frequently with posts and pictures to let you all know what I'm up to down under.
