Crikey! The Australia Zoo Trip

On the last day of orientation, our program leaders fulfilled every American's dream and brought us to.... THE ZOO! We went to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo outside of Brisbane for a half-day of sun, fun, and roos. Let me just say it was AWESOME! The kangaroo enclosure is called "Roo Heaven" and lets you buy food to fed to the kangaroos. It's a huge grassy park and kangaroos are just lying all around, usually sunbathing, waiting for some camera-crazed tourist to feed them really dry food (some of it looked like popcorn kernels). But they were adorable! Some of them had baby roos in their pouches whose legs and face would stick out awkwardly. It really didn't look comfortable. And the inside of the pouch? Not so cute. Very organ-like. We got to see it up close and personal when a couple baby kangaroos came out of their pouches to play with us. Nevertheless, I still want one as a pet.

I also got to pet a koala, which was soft but not as soft as the kangaroos (especially the senior citizen roos!), but they were just as cute. They looked like little balls of fur, all curled up in the trees sleeping for the 18-20 hours a day that they sleep. Seriously, they are living the good life. Imagine sleeping, waking up and eating the eucalyptus thats right above your head, going back to sleep, having people fawn over you. Lucky blokes they are.

I watched a wildlife show that was mainly a birds and crocodiles show. The birds flew around the arena so low that they almost took my head off. The crocs were pretty scary - I hope I don't come across any on my bushwalks. At one point, the animal trainer was trying to get the croc to jump out of the water like it was attacking, but all the croc wanted to do was chill in the shaded area of the pool. It was pretty funny... until I realized that it was making the show go past noon and I might not get to see the wombats if it went on much longer. But no worries, wombats were seen and consequently, loved. They're cute little pig look-a-likes that just wobble around and try to dig out of their enclosure, much like my dog.

Just a side note about the zoo: the Irwin family is everywhere. Bindi's face was blown up and put on a sign or wall at every enclosure. The gift shop even carries Bindi Barbie dolls and Bindi tattoos. I know it's their zoo, and I respect them immensely, but it was still kind of creepy.

It was a really fun day trip, but instead of it getting me past the whole kangaroo/koala fascination (like the program leaders hoped), it just made it grow. Future life plan: buy a house in Australia with enough space to raise my own kangaroo and koala. And maybe even a wombat or two.