Byron Bay

I think it might be impossible to not fall in love with the culture and people of Australia. I do not remember the last time I felt this free and uninhibited in my life. The past three and a half weeks have been beyond anything of my wildest dreams and I cannot wait for to see what the next four months have in store for me, I just hope the time doesn’t pass too quickly.

            The first week of classes at UQ passed in a blur for me but everything seems pretty interesting and exciting! I had originally signed up for an Imperial Rome history course, but after about ten minutes into the first lecture I realized I was way over my head. The prof used many Latin words interchangeably with English and many of the students were nodding along and keep up with the prof easily. That class was definitely a higher-level history class and I got out of it as quickly as possible. Instead I will be taking Medieval History and there are actually a few students from my USC that are in my lecture as well, so at least I know I’ll be able to have more success in this class!

            The first weekend after classes I had a pretty quiet weekend in, well sort of. Friday night Allie, Christian and I went out to dinner with Christian’s friend Hyunjin and her roommate Alicia. We went to this AWESOME Asian bistro place in Fortitude Valley, aka the Valley, and then we headed out for a few drinks afterwards. We stopped at this cool bar called Our Place where they made drinks and served them in teapots! We had a nice relaxing Friday night thankfully.

Drinking out of teapots at Our Place!

            Saturday Mr. Loxton, I mean Steve, took me to an indoor rock-climbing place in the Valley called Rock Sports. We had an awesome time climbing and it was such a workout! I was sore for at least three days after. I sent in an application for a job so hopefully they will contact me soon.

            Last week was the first full schedule of classes with all the tutorials and practicals along with the lectures. Tutorials are basically discussion sections so I have one for Medieval History and one for Philosophy. Practicals are similar to labs and they are required for my Environmental Management class and my Palaeoceanography class.  My tut for Philosophy turned out to be very interesting, there were about twenty of us and the prof went around the room and asked up questions like, “Do you think we are dreaming in reality or are we awake?” Hearing what other students answered and how they defended their answers was intriguing and I really am opening up to this subject!

            Quest, the international club that I will probably mention in every single blog for the next four months, had their weekly pub night at the Bowls Club. This club is like an outdoor country club type place with wonderful drink specials. I went with Brian from California and Davide from Switzerland and we met with a lot of new people in Quest. It was a great night!

BYRON BAY
            

Friday morning I began the best 48 hours I have spent so far here in Australia. Quest hosted a trip to Byron Bay, about two hours south of Brisbane, and we had the time of our lives! We left Friday morning at 11 am and arrived in Byron around 2 pm. The time change was a little off because Brisbane is in Queensland and Byron Bay is in New South Whales.
We arrived at our hostel called the Backpacker’s Inn and settled in for the weekend. I stayed in a four bedroom with Allie, Hyunjin and Lauren (who is also from Canada, they are everywhere over here I guess!). Once we got all situated our group went immediately in search of food.

            For the weekend I had a great ‘crew’ that consisted of three Americans, five Canadians and a German. I could not have found a better group to spend the weekend with.

Our room at the Backpacker's Inn

            After eating some really wonderful burgers we headed straight to the beach. Unfortunately, it was cloudy most of Friday but the sun peaked out a few times during the afternoon. Rain or shine, I was going swimming immediately and I did! The water was chilly but there were tons of surfers everywhere I looked. Byron bay is a huge surf destination because high and low tide cycle through almost twice a day. It was really cool hanging out and watching the surfers!

            Phil, from Canada, is in the Australian Football League (AFL) club with my roommate Christian and he brought along an AFL ball. They are closer in size to a rugby ball than an American football. We tossed that around on the beach for a while and I began to get a hang of the sport, well of course after I got hit in the face once or twice. This should come as no surprise to anyone that knows me back home; I am a magnet for the odd injury here and there.

            After the beach we went to a BBQ back at the hostel, oh and by the way our hostel was less than 100m from the beach. AWESOME. Cheeky Monkey’s was the name of the local pub we all went to that evening. Everyone was standing on big picnic type tables dancing and the locals were so friendly! On more than one occasion as I would walk by a table one of my guy friends would grab me under the arms and lift me up on the table to dance with everyone. Needless to say we all had a great time.

Saturday was an all day beach day. We all rented surfboards for the afternoon and decided we would give it a go. It’s a lot harder than those Australian guys make it look. A few times I was able to get in a half way standing/kneeling position before I would topple over. I didn’t mind too much because at least I tried!

The current was a lot stronger than I thought it was. Allie and I ended up being pulled out by a rip tide. I spent the next ten minutes feeling as if I was fighting for my life, and I was. The surfboard was still tied to my ankle but I couldn’t get a hold on it because of how strong the waves were hitting me and pulling me under. The waves were relentlessly coming one after another! At what felt like the brink of exhaustion I cried out for help from a nearby surfer. Thankfully he came to my aide and helped me onto my board so I could ride a wave back in. The wave I ended up catching felt like it must have been 5 m tall (15 feet) and I was terrified. The wave took me all the way into the beach and I collapsed in the sand for a few minutes trying to regain some morsel of composer. I looked back into the surf to wave to my guardian angle but I couldn’t find him anywhere. Looking back, I get chills and I thank God for that nice man who helped me. I was done surfing for the day after that.

Lauren and I went for a long walk down the beach and talked about everything from boys to religion. Being in Australia with all these new and interesting people have opened my perspective. I can feel myself already changing and learning from all the wonderful people I have surrounded myself with.

Unfortunately, Australia is known for its killer sunshine and I definitely got burned but only in the random places where I missed some sunscreen. That night we went to a pub called Woody’s and had a great time dancing the night away! There was a bachelor’s party being held at the same bar and they were all dressed in costumes! Iron Man was the Groom and Bumblebee from Transformers was the best man. They were a hoot!

The Bachelor's party and some crazy Australian guy!

Waking up Sunday morning was miserable because I spent all of Saturday night shivering and in pain from my sunburn. We checked out of our hostel and walked around Byron for a while and got lunch. A couple of our friends wanted to walk up to the lighthouse but I was too miserably burned to be in the sun that long. So I headed back to the hostel for a nap with my other two badly burned friends.

I was sad to leave Byron bay Sunday afternoon. I had fallen in love with the small beach town and all the memories I made there. Weirdly enough, walking back into my house in St. Lucia felt kind of like home. I made a yummy garlic chicken dinner (slowly picking up this cooking thing) and did some late night homework before I passed out.

Real homework and class are this week but thankfully Quest is pulling through again because we are going to Wet and Wild waterpark for the weekend! I don’t think the fun will ever stop for me. Cheers for now!