Whew. It’s been quite a week. Let’s start out with lessons I’ve learned from Australia this week.
1. Always make sure the bus you board is going the right direction
2. Even if they tell you Gold Coast doesn’t have snakes, they lie
3. Never take the 3PM bus
4. Australians don’t sell bike locks anywhere you would expect them to be
5. Surfing is really hard
6. Always wear sunscreen
7. Kangaroos are surprisingly soft
8. Emus will chase you if you get too close
9. If you bump a kayak guide’s boat, you owe them a beer (therefore, be in their boat)
10 Yes, it’s English, but sometimes, you just have to nod and smile at what Aussie’s say
11 Australian television is weird
Since my last post, I went to Byron Bay for a 3-day adventure. It was so much fun! We first went to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary just south of Gold Coast. It is absolutely beautiful there. And there are some crazy strange Australian animals. I got to pet and feed some kangaroos (so soft and cute!), pet a koala (which have surprisingly course fur…and I’m waiting until my parents come to take photos since they cost some money and it was rainy aka not pretty picture time), I was also chased by an emu (apparently, they won’t hurt people, though) and in general, explore this sanctuary. I also saw what I hope will be my first and last saltwater crocodile. He was monstrous—definitely not a fan.
That night, we arrived at Backpacker’s Inn on the Beach in Byron Bay. It was a little hostel that we pretty much took over (there were 120 exchange students on this trip) for the next three days. We went to dinner at a place called Cheeky Monkey’s, which just confirmed by belief that most college party bars in any country keep the volume about 5 ‘clicks’ too loud. There was also issues with getting food for everyone and my ‘hospitality brain’ was going mental with the whole situation. I don’t think that I will be doing bar management when I finish at Rosen…at least not college bar. Haha.
The next day, we were given a time slot for surf lessons, but then free time the rest of the day with optional lunch times. It was still kind of rainy, but I just kept thinking, “I’m in Australia, dang it! I’m going out!” so I spent most of the morning exploring. Those of you who know where this is, Byron Bay is a little bit like Salida…or maybe New Smyrna. Then, it was time to surf.
I’ve always known that surfing takes work. Anything that looks that cool and that “easy” usually is harder than things that look harder (like how I find snowboarding harder than archery). But I didn’t expect to have the ocean kick my butt quite so hard. My biggest problem was remembering which foot went in front, which went in back. I kept trying to flip them and therefore, ended up falling into the water a lot. I could get the first three motions (basically you go from your stomach to upward facing dog to downward facing dog) but then when I needed to bring my front foot forward, I started to bring my back forward, then tried to switch, did a tap dance, and faceplanted into salty ocean water. However, right at the end of our time, I managed to stand up on my board for a few glorious seconds! I was so freaking proud of myself. My excitement may have been what threw me off the board that time, though.
That night we went to this awesome little pub called “The Owl and the Pussy Cat.” It is somewhere that is definitely not designed for 120 college kids to come to for drinking purposes, but it is somewhere I would love to go again with just a few people. ALSO, sorry for the sidetrack, but while waiting in line to get in, there was this guy who looked about the age of everyone in our group standing there. His shirt said, “It’s going to be LEGEN-wait for it-DARY.” I was so excited to see a HIMYM reference, I went up to him and told him we could be friends. He seemed surprised I knew what his shirt was from, but then asked if I was familiar with his dear friend, Lorenzo von Matterhorn. Turns out, this guy is from Innsbruck, Austria (where my friend Matt is studying) and wasn’t with our group at all. Whoops. He was nice, though. I ended up going home early, though, because I wanted to be wide-awake and ready for the next day: sea kayaking.
So, the next morning, bright and early, I left for my sea kayaking lesson. OH MY GOSH. I loved sea kayaking. It was incredibly fun. I ended up in a boat with one of the guides (Sam) and had the best time. Plus, in theory, every time someone bumped the boat, they owed us each a beer. No one paid up, which is probably a good thing since there would have been a lot of beer purchased. Anyway, kayaking has a bit different of a paddling motion than rafting, but courtesy of a summer of paddling the Arkansas with campers, I was pretty comfortable with it. Sam even kept saying that he was really impressed with how well I was paddling and that he could tell I had been on the water before. We saw a pod of dolphins a ways away, but then, 5 minutes later, we saw a dolphin and her baby about 50 yards away. Then they came swimming through our group of boats. It was incredible. I really wish I could have taken a photo, but unfortunately, my camera is not waterproof. The photos I have were taken by the company we went with. We also saw a few sea turtles. (Please feel free to insert any “I like turtles” references you can think of here.) The only downside was the absolutely awful sunburn I got on my legs. Luckily, it’s healed up by now. Thank you, good genetics. That afternoon, it was back to Gold Coast and into bed for a LONG nap.
I haven’t done a lot else since I got back other than get ready to start classes (Which is TOMORROW!—yes, I’m a geek,) and start planning for when my parents arrive. J I’m very excited. Let’s see…I have been to Surfer’s Paradise now (it’s ok…kinda typical beach area…reminds me a little of Miami) and there were apparently two black snakes there yesterday afternoon (which, according to a quick Google search, are some of the most poisonous in Australia…and that’s saying something with over 100 venomous snakes in the country, 8 of which are in the world’s top 10 most venomous). So…yeah, I didn’t need to know that. And everyone told me they were all “out west.” Lies. Total lies. And I have pretty much figured out the bus system here. I just need to remember to make sure that when there are busses with the same number, I look at where their destination is. I ended up going on an hour and a half long ride the other day because I went north instead of south. Whoops. J And the 3PM bus is awful. It’s filled to the brim with school kids and it’s insanely hot. So I won’t be doing that again.
Now on to my oddities of Australia (listed in the lessons learned, but now with an explanation). Firstly, I am borrowing a bike from Merle’s son, David. While that is really great and very nice of him, I do not want to lose the bike or have it stolen. Therefore, I went on a mission today to purchase a bike lock for it. I seriously looked for about 2 hours. No luck. Not in a sporting store, not in a fitness store, not in K-Mart and not in Target (also strange seeing American brands here). Merle said she’d take me to a hardware store and we could just buy a length of chain and a lock for it. That’s fine with me, but for a country that rides bikes A LOT, I was shocked to not find one anywhere. Secondly, I go to church with Merle every Sunday. It’s actually very similar to church back home, which is nice, but I’m still not totally used to the accents yet, and so when people talk to me and use their Aussie slang along with the accent, I sometimes get really lost. So, if I can, I just try and move on and nod and smile and then ask Merle about it in the car. And lastly, Australian television. I don’t watch it a lot here, but sometimes, when Merle is out and I’m home alone with Chloe (the cat), I’ll have it on for noise in the house. There are a fair number of American shows on (including “How I Met Your Mother”…that made me happy) as well as a number of Aussie sitcoms/game shows/soaps and then the typical news shows and other things like that. However, more often than you would expect, you find something strange…like “Home Alone 2” at 7PM on a Saturday night at the end February. Why? I don’t think anyone knows. It just happened. The shows also start at strange times, but I think they just have fewer ads than the US does.
Well, that’s all I have for now. Kinda long again, sorry, but I just wanted to share my experiences. Tomorrow I head to school to take some pretty awesome classes. I only go to class Tuesdays and Wednesdays and have two classes each day. Tuesdays I have Sport Event Operations followed by Destination Marketing and then on Wednesdays I have Sustainable Tourism followed by Tourism, Culture, and Society. I can’t wait! Hopefully, I will meet some awesome new people and will really enjoy my classes.
I hope everyone is well! I miss you all and hope you all get the chance to experience Australia one day…it’s amazing. Keep in touch! Love you all!
Leah
PS-There’s a brand here called “Colorado.” It makes me happy.
