First day of School

Well boys and girls its been a couple of days, but classes are starting up so I am losing my infinite hours of free time were reduced by about half, if even. But anyways lets go over the first day of class… I had my Australian life and Culture class for the first time. It wasn’t the most exciting class and I had a cold (which I think I have completely recovered from at this point) so I had a lot of trouble paying attention. But it was only a couple of hours so it wasn’t that bad and the first half the professor tried to get to know us better. After the lecture we all went back and prepared for our field trip to the rain forest!!! On the bus ride up to the forest I talked with one of our Australian professors (Lyn) for an hour or so. He and I talked about Australia and his thoughts on healthcare in Australia. Once we got there we had the pleasure of trying Crocodile, Kangaroo, and some Australian fish in a classic bush tucker meal. The kangaroo and the fish were both excellent but I wasn’t a big fan of the croc. We hung around at the camp (which was a publicly funded environmental education facility for children) for a while and then took a trip to the rain forest. The rain forest was pretty cool but the bus driver was on a schedule so we stopped at a couple spots for about 2 seconds then turned around and left. It was kind of annoying because I really wanted to explore the forest more, but such is life. We then headed back to the camp and explored the grounds. We ended up listening to the guy that owned to place talk about the camp and what they were doing with it for the children. Eventually we ended up at lake where the wild PLATYPUS resides. We waited there for about an hour or so and no dice. It was kind of a disappointing field trip all around, but we did get to throw around a boomerang, which was fun. But that was pretty much all that happened the first day of class, pretty lame but still a bad day in class in Australia is better than a good day of class in the states… There is talk however of going back to the rain forest so we can actually spend some time exploring and whatnot, which would be stellar because one of the sites that we stopped had an amazing view with people at the bottom of it (which would be fun to explore). I know this is only to Monday of last week but no worries because I don’t have class tomorrow and plan on getting caught up… so ya more tomorrow

DAY 4-7

This next post is covering the past four days because three of them were a whole lot of the same. Thursday through Sunday all I pretty much did every day was play on the beach. Activities include insane boogey boarding (the beaches here have some of the biggest waves which make you fly on a boogie board)), body surfing (same rules apply for boogie boarding here), and kissing dragons (more on that later). Some crazy stuff happened though while on the beach. I was playing Frisbee on the beach Thursday with Grant and there was a strong wind blowing south along the beach. I had a bad throw (most of them were because of the wind) which was carried by the wind and caused the it to start rolling down the beach. Well like the Energizer bunny, it just kept on going and going and going and going. The wind was preventing it from stopping, Grant followed it to see how long it would roll and eventually he got about 300 yards down the beach and just eventually stopped it. I am pretty sure we set a world record for the longest Frisbee role. On Friday a girl spotted a lizard called a spotted dragon seen below.

My initial thought was I have to kiss this thing. After about 10 minutes of building up enough courage I finally did it. I kissed three times on the back of the head, and then I think it thought we were moving to fast then sprinted back into the woods. I just wish it would call me so we could talk things over…. But anyways that was fun and terrifying at the same time and some people got a picture of it but haven’t posted it yet (Don’t worry Dad a washed my mouth out with soap and Listerine multiple times). Then Saturday night I decided to go to the pub and watch the big rugby game (Australia vs New Zealand). Once we got there we stayed for an about an hour and then decided it was to hot and crowded. After we left we got some ice cream from In the Pink, which was pretty good. Ice cream here is very different form America. Sunday we tried to find a church but there no luck so we decided to listen to sermon. After the sermon a bunch of people went to play out in the ocean one more time before class started up. I figured out how to body surf and tried skin boarding. All the activity caused me to be in the water much to long, which eventually led to the cold that I have right now (Its seeming to pass pretty quick though). That night we watched the Hangover (which is absolutely amazing, even the second time), and then called it a night.

Let me just say right now that this is probably the most relaxed I have ever been in my life, ITS AWESOME. I just lie in my bed, listen to music, and smile before I go to bed every night. All of this may change when classes start but I highly doubt that. I thank God everyday for giving me this opportunity and I am going to cherish it for the rest of my life. I am going to make it as memorable as possible.

DAY 3 (best day ever)

Well, the third day was probably the best day yet. It started out with AMAZING banana pancakes with Kurtis, Carrie, Danielle, and Grant. These pancakes are so outstanding Jack Johnson (who owns a house in Lennox Head) wrote a song about them called “Banana Pancakes”. They come smothered with ice cream and syrup and taste like heaven. Not to mention eating them while sitting outside staring at the gorgeous, vast Pacific Ocean. With full bellies we all returned to camp. This is when I decided that I was going to catch a snake that had been resting in the roof covering a grill near our cabinss. It took me about a half an hour to get it out of the roof into a tree and eventually into my caring arms. It was a pretty good feeling, but I was shaking with adrenaline because the snake was quite large. I put it back after showing everyone and decided to tag along with a couple of girls (Eleanor, Meagan, and Kelly) who wanted to take the bus into Byron.

Well due to some issues with the bus routes we decided that we would go wherever the bus took us. We got on the next bus and ended up in Ballina (the place where we went shopping for groceries). We got there and walked around and did some shopping until we ran into a Salvation Army. We decided to explore what was inside. What we discovered rocked our worlds, CHEAP CRAPPY WETSUITS. We all got one (I would later find out that mine was made for females, but whatever) and I also got a sweet swim cap all for just 16 Aussie bucks. My weatsuit was originally 20 but since there was a whole in the butt I got it for 15. Later I would learn that this hole would end up making me colder in the ocean. After this we headed back to the bus stop where we were informed that we missed the bus and would have to wait another hour for the next bus. But the bus driver we talked to was super nice and took us to another shopping area for free! We walked around that area for awhile in the Big W (aka Wallmart) and eventually at Hungry Jacks which is the American Equivalent of Burger King.

Eventually we made it back to camp and put on the wet suits and ran out to the cold beach. The Wet suits worked moderately well, but the water was still freezing. After we got out of the ocean you will never guess what we saw, JUMPING WHALES. They were absolutely gorgeous. After watching the whales for a half an hour we all went back and made some dinner. After dinners some people went out to the pub, but I opted to stay back and play some games with people. We ended up playing this really fun game where you try and hid quarters from the other team in your hands, and I have to say that I was pretty much the best team captain ever . After the games we tried to watch another movie but once again I ended up falling asleep and just went to bed after I woke up.

Day 2 (These will get shorter and less often I promise)

The second day I woke up early (which seems to be a habit here) and had a very cardboard like cereal called Wheat bix. It’s pretty much a square brick that you break up and put a boat load of sugar on to give it flavor. It’s high in fiber though so it’s good for my poops. After Breakfast, a small group decided to try and make it to the top of the Head (rock face mentioned earlier) before we went grocery shopping. We tried but we only made it half way before we had to turn around to catch the bus to the grocery. It was a nice three mile walk though. We made it back to camp and waited for the bus. The bus arrived and took us to a grocery store in Ballina called Woolsworth. We did some shopping and I ended up spending more than I wanted to on groceries, but hey it happens. I had a little scare with my credit card but it ended up working in the end. We then headed back to camp where another group was talking about going to the head. I decided I wanted to actually make it this time so I tagged along again. Before we left though, we were playing Frisbee in front of the cabins and a horrible accident occurred that left me damaged. The disc was thrown to me and stretched out to catch it. Unfortunately my timing was a bit off and it ended up glancing of my hand and into my eye. It was incredibly painful and ended up giving me MY FIRST BLACK EYE. Then Rusty (my roomy) tried to get fancy and ended up throwing the Frisbee on the roof. Well one thing led to another and eventually someone dared me to jump across the roofs, and I had to oblige them. After I recovered from the devastating blow and the death-defying leap we started our walk to the head. On the way we talked and had a grand old time. We got to the base and saw some people surfing on the number 7 spot and watched them for a while. They are all crazy I am convinced, because those waves could easily kill you. We also saw some dolphins off in the distance but they were pretty hard to make out. Anyway me made it to the top of the head, which had a BEAUTIFUL view. Anyway we had to leave pretty quick because we had an orientation meeting get to. The meeting was boring but necessary. After the meeting we tried to watch a movie (I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry) but I fell asleep and eventually called it a night.

DAY 1 BABY

Nothing much interesting happened on the plane rides, I got to start to know some people and there was a little turbulence that made me nervous but I survived. On the flight to New Zealand from LA I had a conversation with a banker from Australia sitting next to for about 30 mins about healthcare and much to my surprise he actually was all for it. That’s one of my many missions for this trip is to find out as much as I can about different good and bad aspects of “Universal” healthcare. From the way he was talking it sounds like they have a much better system here than they do in Scotland or Canada, but that’s another topic that this blog will not concern itself with. But 37 hours later we arrive in Australia!!!!

Let me just say this is probably the coolest place I have ever been to in my life. The wildlife here is just phenomenal. The calls that some of the birds here have are absolutely nuts. The beach that we have here has some of the craziest waves that I have ever seen as well. They are perfect for surfing wake boarding. OK but anyway I am getting side tracked again, try and stay focused.

But anyway after we got off the plane and got into our charter bus and I started to get incredibly excited. I was also exhausted and slept through most of the two hour bus ride. We got to our camp, and let me just say, this place is kickin. We have a pool, a lake, tennis course, high ropes course, indoor gym, a field, archery range, rock wall, weight room, and not to mention being about 100 yards away from the ocean. But we all got settled in to our cabins and explored the campgrounds. Once settled in we walked around the town (Lennox Head) and had a guided tour of it from our TA Kurtis Moss. Lennox Head is a neat little town that has an amazing rock face overlooking the ocean called the head. It is also home to the number 7 surfing spot in the world (huge waves I’ve seen them). After a couple hours of exploring we came back and had a tasty barbeque provided by some of the owners of the camp. After that we all went back to our cabins and called it a night and rested from our exhausting journey. OHHH I almost forgot, within the first couple of hours of being here, I was attacked by a bird. In the middle of our field there was the yellow faced bird sitting on its eggs and I got a little to close to it and it started flying at me, there is a video and its great. But that was day one.