Skinner travels to Australia

Q: You went to Australia over the summer, right?
A: Yes, I did!
Q: Specifically where did you go?
A: We flew from L.A. to Sydney, Australia, then we traveled up the east coast to Brisbane. We spent some time on an island called Tagalooma, then we traveled farther up the east coast to Queensland. We spent some time in Karens which was the last leg of our trip, and then we flew back to L.A.
Q: Why did you go?
A: I went because I wanted to experience another culture. I want to see as much of the world as I can. I could die tomorrow and I don’t want to say I didn’t go. There are too many beautiful places in the world. I want to see at least a few of them.
Q: Who did you go with?
A: I went with a group called People to People Student Ambassadors. My best friend was also in the group, her name is Haley Heaton, and it was amazing to experience that with my best friend.
Q: How long did you stay?
A: We stayed for 20 days, but I wish we would have stayed for one more week.
Q: What were some of the highlights of your trip?
A: We went repelling off a cliff in the Blue Mountains in Sydney, and that was totally out of my comfort zone, but I loved it! In my normal life, that isn’t who I am, but when I was away, I felt I could be someone else who I wished I was. We also scuba dived and snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef, which was absolutely incredible, and completely breathtaking, really. We stayed with a host family for a few days in a town called Forster. It was amazing for me to stay with people who lead different lives than you, and it’s crazy to think that there are 7 billion people in the world and they all live different lives than you. It’s a touching experience that I hold close to my heart.
Q: What were some of the strangest things you experienced?
A: Everyone drove on the opposite side of the road, which took a while to get used to. It was also our summer time when I left and it was their winter time over there, which wasn’t much different since it was in the 70s most of the time. Also, it was so strange because the kangaroo there equate deer to us. They see kangaroo all the time on the side of the road. Also there were a lot of kids out because, since it has opposite seasons, they were all in school. Most all the schools there have uniforms as well.
Q: Did you see any spiders in Australia? I’ve heard that they are famous for huge ones!
A: Everyone warned us that there was going to be a ton of bugs and that everything wanted to kill us, but no, I did not see even one spider on my trip there. Plus, I held a koala!
Q: What is your favorite story from your visit?
A: When we went to go scuba dive and snorkel the Great Barrier Reef, to get out to the reef you have to go on a boat ride, one hour out. It was arguably the choppiest water I’ve ever been on. The only people who I think have felt worse are the members of Deadliest Catch. They told us to take Dramamine, the motion sickness medicine, because people were going to get sick. So I did and so did Haley, but a lot of kids were like, “No, I don’t get motion sick. I don’t need to take it.”
We get five minutes into the boat ride, and kids are dropping like flies, vomiting like a movie scene. Everyone was slowly going to the back of the boat, and they would vomit over the side. I was hunkered down with Haley and our friend and we were snuggling together like, “We are going to make it through this you guys, we will not vomit.” And one by one everybody would go back and leave us. They were vomiting, so the crew started handing out “just in case” bags and we were like, “No, no it’s okay, we are trying to keep our business together, please leave me alone.”
There was this one kid in front of us who was with our group, and we were alone up there at this point cause everybody else was vomiting. We hadn’t said anything to each other but we were silently in agreement that we were going to make this work, we are not going to vomit, we are going to stick this out. This kid that is with our group, you could see him start to turn white and sweat… and he vomited! I almost started to cry because I felt so emotional that everybody else was sick. But I never threw up, so it was all good, but it was hilarious. And then they fed us while we were out there and when we had to go back in… I think people forgot we had to go back in, because they just threw everything up again. It was gold.