Hardcore jellyfish

Hello,

I hope everyone is having a good day.

So, first the test results: they came back frustratingly (at the time) negative. you know when you are sick and someone says "oh, you may have something something." and you look up the symptoms and maybe have 4 out of the 10; and thats stretching it. well, i looked up giardia online at webmd.com and i had 9 out of the ten. i'm only (happily) missing one thing, and some of them are pretty unique symptoms. the final red flag was one of the friends i was traveling with in fiji was also sick for days and also had to see a doctor. the reason why i was frustrated was that if it wasn't giardia, and my medication didn't work, i didn't want to go 8 more months with my eyes on a constant lookout for the bathroom. the doctor did say that sometimes you have to take the test three times before anything shows up and that i should finish taking the medicine. if its not better, then i would need to see a specialist--not a fan of that option.

for now, i've got one more day of medicine left and i feel much much better. the mornings are still not quite normal, but the rest of the day is perfect. come sunday, i will be one normal individual.

i met my dad, and uncles family (wife, son, son's girlfriend, son's friend, and loki the family dog) in brisbane and had a nice time. they are the greatest people and it sucked to not stay there longer. i'd have to say that i'm pretty lucky i flew in on monday instead of sunday. had i flown in on sunday, my dad and i would have booked the monday night train to cairns. that train crashed. we flew instead--since the bus would have taken days and the rails haven't re-opened yet.

yesterday we went to the great barrier reef for some snorkeling and lounging. we met holly and sara, a rad mother/daughter group, that really made the two hours on the boat getting out there and back enjoyable. at the reef we had to wear these weird lycra suits, apparently getting stung by "stingers" is not the greatest feeling in the world (its some kind of hardcore jellyfish).

I'll be hanging out with my dad in cairns until sunday. then he flys back to brisbane and i'll bus down to whitsundays for a 3 day/2 night boat ride thing. after that its fraser island for a 3 day/2 night adventure 4wd truck thing. then japan...

have a good day

your friend
chad