June 15- Great Barrier Reef

     Today was the day that we experienced something amazing. We visited one of the places many people wish to visit. On our way out to the reef we took a boat and it was very choppy. There were a lot of people getting sick over the edge of the boat. If we were on that boat for another 15 minutes I would of been blowing chunks to. Once we reached the reef we grabbed our scubba gear and hopped in. Literally right off the diving platform there was a school of fish, I could stick my hand out and grab one if I wanted to. The water was kind of chilly at first but your body definately got adjusted to it. At first I thought the coral was going to bleached like it was when I went snokeling in Hawaii, but it was the complete opposite. I was literally swimming and the coral was right under my stomach, if I made one wrong move I could of gotten a pretty bad scrape on my legs. Some people had this happen to them, you would see people coming out of the ocean with blood running down their legs. I kind of got freaked out when I was swimming cause I was so close to the coral that I did not know what was hiding in it and I didnt want a fish to bite me or something. I was not worried at all about jelly fish or sharks, I was kind of hoping to see a shark swimming around. The teachers were making jokes about how a fish was going to come and eat my belly button ring, I found it very amusing. After I was in the reef for a bit I got out and had some lunch. The lunch was buffet style but It was not buffet food at all. The food was so good especially the fruit. I had basically a whole pineapple to myself.  It was really cold once you got out of the water because of the wind. After lunch a low tide came through and it was really strange because some of the coral I was swimming on top of was sticking out of the water.So I decided to tan next to Miss Tomasello. The sun in australia is really strong compared to the sun in Chicago. It felt so nice to just layout and relax after such a crazy week or so. I then went on a glass bottom boat tour. I was not really fond of the tour because I felt like I could see the fish and coral better when I was in the water rather then through a glass boat. I think the purpose of the boat is to allow people who don't like swimming to try and experience the same thing I was able to. Overall the great barrier reef is something in life that I would love to do again. It is beautiful and it needs to be preserved and taken care of.