It's raining in the rainforest

Today I woke up to the first sound of bad weather in Australia. Rain. It rains in Australia!?!? This was the beginning of my first bad day. I proceeded to drop all of my makeup in the toilet and then burned a section of my hair off with my straightener, which could have completely been avoided since it got wet from the rain about 2 minutes later. Anyway, we all got up and listened to the most intriguing and interesting lecture we've had so far. Alternative medicine--thats all I have to say about that lecture. Afterwards, we had a rainforest walk scheduled so we allowed ourselves to fall victim to groundskeeper Phil's driving. On a side note, every Australian I've been in the car with since I've been drives like a maniac...and I'm from New Jersey so you know that's serious. After we all recovered from numerous motion sicknesses (seriously, it was that bad), we began our journey through the rainforest with our guide named Hans! It was really something else. The rainforest was beautiful. There were trees and plants and views that you would never see on the Northern Hemisphere. Apparently the best day to be at the rainforest is when it's raining because you can see all the rainforest colors. Hans lied. You know what comes out of the woodwork when it rains? Leaches. Yes, these blood sucking creatures ruined our rainforest experience. We had just gotten to the original rainforest (the plants and trees that started it all) when the attack began. It started with Laney. We had all forgotten that these things existed until Laney had one on her ankle and then we all looked down. Screaming, jumping around, slapping our legs, and ripping off our shoes followed. A few of us just tried to keep walking (they only crawl on you if you keep standing still) but some of us were a bit more freaked out than the rest so we had to turn around and walk back. We walked back a different way on a boardwalk, where the leaches couldn't get us. It was just as beautiful though. We stopped to watch for a platypus but he didn't come :( Just knowing we were in a rainforest was a feeling all in itself and we all got plenty of great pictures. After we were done, we picked our leaches off, thanked Hans and braced ourselves for the ride back with Phil where the leach attack was still in full effect. Those things are sneaky. You think you've conquered the war but really there are numerous battles left to fight. They followed us all the way back to Lennox Head where Megan found two more on her feet. On the way home we stopped to see a waterfall which was amazing because the lookout point looked down on the rainforest too. Again, another breathtaking view. We all got back on the bus and stopped again at the Macadamia Nut Castle (i know, we thought the same thing). So we picked up some nuts and got on our way again. It was a long and eventful day. It seemed like we would never make it home, but we did and we're finally all leach free, but the rain is still coming down. Despite the rain, my burnt hair, motion sickness, and leaches, me and Australia are still getting along. I'm loving it here :)