Better Late Than Never -- My Adventures Down Under

Whitehaven Beach, The Whitsundays

         While traveling in Australia last summer I was busy having the time of my life, and taking advantage of all of the cool things there was to see and do. Updating this blog got put on the back burner. I barely had time to jot down notes in my travel journal between skydiving, sailing the Whitsunday Islands, shooting clay pigeons in the Outback, snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef and feeding wild dolphins. I had the best intentions in the world of updating this blog about my entire trip when I returned back to Chicago.
         However, the morning after I returned home I found out that one of my thirteen year old students, Darius Brown, was gunned down while playing basketball at a Chicago City park in broad daylight. What happened to Darius is an unspeakable tragedy, and I had a very difficult time dealing with it. Darius's death was the first time that gang violence personally touched my life. Needless to say I was in no mood to write about my trip. 
         Once I went back to work and night classes started my life got extremely hectic. Updating the blog never happened. However, now I have some free time and I am determined to document the trip so I can look back at it and have a  record of my adventures. Maybe some of you who come across this blog will plan a trip to Australia in the future. It is an insanely gorgeous and unique country. Even though Australia is on the other side of the world, and not the easiest place to travel to, it is definitely worth visiting! 
         Also, I absolutely love talking about Australia. I'm pretty sure my friends and family are sick of hearing about it by now. I try not to talk their ears off, but I do not always succeed. If you want more info about oz, are planning a trip there, or are just curious feel free to contact me even if we don't know each other well or at all. I will be putting only a small amount of pictures from my trip on this blog, if you are planning a trip to Australia or just want to see more pictures of this beautiful continent feel free to look at my albums:

• My Australian Adventure
• Livin' the Dream: Australia 2011
• Livin' the Dream: Australia 2011 Part 2
• Aussieland

Look for posts detailing the different places I visited over the next week!

BAS