Mojosurf Surf Camp!

Week 6: 3/9-3/15

School was fun as usual, but nothing especially interesting to report here. I spent most of the week anticipating our weekend surf trip to Crescent Head (a beach about 5 hours North of Sydney) organized by a company called Mojosurf (I mentioned reserving my spot on the bus during the Cairns Introduction in my fourth post). The bus left Friday from a backpackers near UniLodge at 6pm and arrived in Crescent Head on time around 11pm. I met a lot of new people again and made some more new friends. The girl I sat next to (Gabbi from Connecticut) was really nice and made for some good conversation and company during the ride. She goes to the University of Sydney, and as it turned out, so did a majority of the students on the bus. Her good friend, Whitney, was a few seats ahead of us and was also very nice. During the trip, I discovered that she also goes to the University of Minnesota and in fact was nearly best friends with a girl named Emma Thomas, who was a girl I had taken my scuba certification classes with before coming to Australia, and even drove with me to our actual certification dives. It’s corny to say, but it definitely is a small world…she was one of just two acquaintances I had from Minnesota that I knew would be in Australia, and she had actually been in Sydney a few weeks prior, but goes to school at a University in Cairnes. These two girls I met are planning on visiting her in a month or two and I plan on joining them if I can afford it. I met a couple other guys who are also friends of theirs by the names of Jeff (Boston) and Evan (Wisconsin) who I spent most of my time with at camp and found out also lived in UniLodge on the same floor as me. Anyways, during the ride we made two stops – once about two hours in for food at a McDonald’s and again at about four hours in at a tiny pub and bottle shop in a little rural community of about 100 people, where we purchased all of our alcohol for the weekend. It was hilarious, because the town obviously anticipates the arrival of this bus every weekend. When we pulled up, everyone standing outside stood up and cheered. Our Australian driver, Morgan (who was also one of the guys running the camp), warned the girls to stick together when exiting the bus, as “some of these blokes have only seen their sister.” After this, we spent the remainder of the ride partying (safely…Morgan managed to abstain from it himself) and playing drinking games until we arrived at the site, which consisted of a couple lodging cabins, a bathroom facility, and a kitchen canopy where we had our (all-you-can-eat) meals. We spent the first evening either at the beach or around one of the two camp fires. This place is way out in ‘the Bush’ so the ocean view was absolutely beautiful – we could see all the stars and the reflection of the bright moon off the water lit up the shoreline. The beach is huge and there are no major communities anywhere nearby, so even during the day the beach was largely unoccupied. The night ended pretty late for most of us and the morning came exceptionally early, but the excitement of the day got me out of bed without much delay. We all congregated in the canopy for breakfast and a brief introductory lesson covering the basics of surfing, including terminology and information regarding the rules of the camp. We then got in line to get our wetsuits which we would be using for the next two days. Each suit had a nickname written on the chest that the employees of the camp had chosen (mine was ‘Mattress’). It was a short walk to the beach, but a long walk to the “North Side” where we would be surfing (about 20 minutes). We got our boards (some large foam starter boards), split up into groups, and got taught how to lie on our boards, paddle, and stand up. We didn’t waste much time before hopping into the water and catching some waves. It was a very interesting experience – the only two boards sports I have tried are snowboarding and wakeboarding, but it wasn’t very similar to either, because you put a lot more weight on your front foot. I actually stood up on about my third try when the instructor pushed me into the wave (rather than peddling into it, which is what you do when catching your own wave). After that, I slowly got the hang of it and was able to get up on my own about every third or fourth time. We went back and grabbed some lunch before another round at the “South Side” this time that was actually perpendicular to the North Side somehow. The waves were bigger on this side and I had a lot of fun trying my hand at some bigger waves catching a couple. By the time we were done for the day, I was thoroughly exhausted and hungry for dinner. When we got back, we all cleaned our wetsuits again and took ourselves a short shower (the camp was on a water restriction limit, so we had to make them short). While dinner was being prepared, some of us gathered around the fire and played a game taught to us by Christina on the way up called “21”. We would take turns going around our circle, counting to 21, one at a time. Every time we reached 21 we would cheers and whoever said 21 would make a new rule for the counting (e.g. someone might make the rule that instead of saying 5, you must give the person to your right a high-five). Every mistake in counting would result in the punishment of a skull (or drink from your beverage) and starting over. As the game progressed, it would become more and more difficult, but everybody had fun playing until dinner was ready. Our meal consisted of steaks, burgers, sausages, salad, and baked potatoes. The evening was full of more fun around the fires and along the beach.
It was another early morning Sunday with even more sand gracing my sheets than the previous sunup. I was a little more hesitant to get out of bed today and feeling a lot less comfortable and clean. I was eager to get another run of surfing in however, so after packing our bags and another quick breaky, we were instructed to head back to the North Shore at our own leisure. The bus back home left at 1pm leaving us with only about 3 hours or so to surf. This was more than enough time, as my hip began to feel a bit strained, and my wetsuit was starting to chafe the back of my knees something awful – I saw a slight improvement and am excited to try surfing again at least once more before going home. The bus left right on time and I think most of us were ready to leave and see our showers and beds again. A majority of the ride home was spent sleeping, but I managed to get my weekly reading done for Social Theory as well. We got dropped off back at Wake-Up Backpackers where we were picked up and encouraged to all meet at the adjoining bar (SideBar) to party and celebrate one of the participants 21st birthday, but I was perfectly happy calling in a weekend and catching up on my rest before the start of a new week. All-in-all I would have to say it has been one of my favorite activities and weekends since arriving in Australia.

Mardi Gras

Week 5: 3/2-3/8

It was a long week of class followed by an interesting weekend. I am in the midst of planning a fall break trip which could potentially include stops at both Thailand and New Zealand. Mathematical Statistics is proving to be my most difficult course – since I never took an Introduction to Statistics, I am a little behind on terminology and some of the basics. Additionally, our lecturer is fond of speaking in equations and symbols, and neglecting to use real-world examples, so I am currently at a loss. Thursday involved our weekly Ultimate Frisbee practice, where I worked on my lackluster forehand toss. There are surprisingly more girls than boys in the club, but it remains fairly competitive and fun. It’s a very laid back and honest game – a lot of the rules rely on somebody admitting to illegal contact or maneuvers. As we did the previous week, the group met for dinner at Lansdowne. I tried out the fish and chips this time and was satisfied with my $6 purchase. That night was the annual UTS “Las Vegas Party”. There’s a bar connected to a building on our campus called “The Loft” that played host. I can’t recall if I have mentioned there being a bar connected to our classroom buildings before, but I find it quite amazing – drinking is a very large part of Australian culture. Another fact I don’t believe I commented on was the language. Australians love to swear and rarely find it offensive – even during our orientation, some of the professors that would speak often swore. Television here doesn’t ‘bleep’ out swearing and there is even occasional nudity on evening programming. Anyways, the “Las Vegas” party didn’t seem to have much to do with Las Vegas at all other than the costumes people attempted to construct, which more or less resembled a brothel than anything else. I wore my super cool white pants and button-up linen shirt. After a few drinks here, we made our way to Sidebar by UniLodge and basically danced for three hours or so before going home.
On Friday, Megan and Tina (two of Luke Vincent’s friends from back home in Massachusetts) arrived, and a few of us took them on a walk around the city, which occupied a majority of our day. We made our illustrious return to Darling Harbour at a club bar called Cargo that night. As with most of these places, it was overcrowded and uncomfortable, so we eventually made an early departure. This also happened to be Mardi Gras week, which is a major, internationally recognized festival that happens every year in Sydney and is also the largest gay festival in the world. I misinformed you in a previous post when I stated that some of our friends went to (which, what I thought at the time was part of) Mardi Gras – it was just some random gay pride celebration in the park across the street. The actual Mardi Gras was much more insane. Saturday night was the big parade that went through the downtown CBD with thousands of people lining the streets. All sorts of floats and gay rights groups marched with loud music and bright lights. We spent about an hour there before leaving, after we got tired of standing in mobs of people with a horrible view. Instead, we went to Scruffy Murphy’s to get some dinner and finished the night off back at Sidebar. Sunday was spent completing reading and homework assignments – I won’t bore you with the details.

Manly Beach + "A Midsummer Night's Dream" + Blog Update

Days 26-30: 2/26-3/2

After a long day of class, I decided to sleep in and get some rest before our first ultimate Frisbee practice, which started at 4pm. We played for about 2 hours at Wentsworth Park, which is right down the street from UniLodge. We had never really walked in this direction prior to now and discovered a drycleaners along the way – it’s also a Laundromat and Laundromats here do alterations and provide virtually all clothing services. After practice, everyone in Ultimate Frisbee met back at Lansdowne for some dinner and I got a $6 grilled chicken breast with mashed potatoes, which was pretty good considering the price. It was a calm night – we watched about half of “Slumdog Millionaire” and fell asleep.
Friday began at 9:30am when Chuck and I got up and got set for a trip to Manly Beach. We took the bus and met the Canadians at Circular Quay by 11am where we took a 20 minute ferry ride across the harbor to the North side at Manly Wharf. The beach was terrific – it is far less crowded and trafficked than Bondi and the water was much warmer. There’s a pretty little shopping center between the wharf and the beach full of little cafes, restaurants, convenience stores, and beach shops. We grabbed lunch at the Subway and some gelato on the way home. The night began at UniLodge where we had a few drinks while waiting for everybody to show up. Once everybody had arrived, we took a 30 minute walk to a bar on University of Sydney campus called Marley Bar. It was a fun, more casual place, which was nice for a change. We ended up leaving at around 1am to find a place downtown called The Ivy. This is a more upscale club and some of the people with us had white tennis shoes and subsequently weren’t allowed in (they’re very anal about dress codes here – hats aren’t allowed most places which bothers me because I wear a hat most of the time). I wasn’t too disappointed we weren’t let in since it wasn’t really my scene anyways. We instead went to a place called Side Bar which is much closer to UniLodge. I was happy because I had a coupon for a free drink. At about 3am, I called it a night and went home.
By the next morning, I was pretty worn out, and didn’t leave my bed until Luke came knocking on my door. He announced that people were interested in taking another trip to Bondi Beach, and it was a beautiful day, so we got set and left. The perfect weather didn’t make for the best day at Bondi, as the beach was extremely packed, but we made the most of it and stayed until dusk. We showered up and hung out for a while and discussed going to a pub about 20 minutes away (by foot) called 3 Wise Monkeys. The whole group of us agreed, but despite this, when Lauren received a phone call from another friend five minutes later offering free alcohol, she immediately diverted everybody to another room that was heading to Side Bar. Luke, Chuck, and I remained and kept with the initial plan. Of course, about 15 minutes after we got there, I received a call from Lauren who decided to show up with the others (not including the people from the other room). Before the night was over we had made another stop at a smaller pub called “Cheers” across the street. I was a little fed up with being asked to take my hat off (especially at this little place) and was warned about four times by the same lady. I was hoping I’d just be asked to leave, but we ended up just going on our own.

By the time I was up and organized, Luke again stopped by room; this time to inform me they were going to a burrito shop by Marley Bar called Guzman y Gomez. I have felt severely deprived of Chipotle and was excited to give this place a try. I was a little disappointed in the size of my quesadillas, but thought Lauren’s burrito looked tasty, so I bought one to bring home with me. The group today consisted of Chuck, Luke, Emily, Lauren, and I. The initial pack of ours has slowly been splitting over the past few weeks. Essentially everyone in UniLodge sticks together and ditto for the ‘Gumalies’ as we call them (except for a small swap of Tessa, who’s next door to me, and Emily). So in summation, the groups are as follows: Gumalies = Christina, Liz, Jenna, Tessa, and Chris(?); UniLodge = Me, Luke Vincent, Chuck, Lauren, Emily, and Julia. We’ve accumulated many mutual friends and a few relationships still exist between our groups so we still see quite a bit of each other anyways. After lunch, we stopped at the Blockbuster across the street from UniLodge and rented an Australian based television ‘mock’umentary called “Summer Heights High”. We nearly finished the entire season before we took a break for dinner at Broadway Café. We came back, finished the last three episodes, and called it a night. Monday is opera day – “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is playing at the opera house. I took my first real run outside today and found a decent route finally, so hopefully I’ll make a habit of it rather than dole in the monotony of the treadmill. I had one class from 3-5pm, got home, changed, and we left. The opera was not exactly what I was expecting – on main stage was an orchestra and different members of it performed an abridged version, with intermittent interludes and songs. Our tickets cost us AUD$35, which was a great deal, but our seats were in the very last row (our backs were literally against the wall). The theater isn’t that large though, so it wasn’t too bad. The other problem was that I hadn’t read any of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” yet, so it took a while to understand what was going on in addition to adapting to the dialects. After the intermission and reading the program guide, I had a much better grasp and began enjoying it much more. It wasn’t anything amazing, but a great experience nonetheless. We got home, I wrote this blog, did (will do) a bit of homework readings, and went to bed.
I would also like to take this opportunity to announce that I will begin to limit the amount of material I post on my blog, as I will not be nearly as active or engaged in daily events as I was before the start of classes. I wanted to make an effort to record as much I could to start the trip, and feel I have accomplished this by writing entries for my first 30 days. So from now on, I will be posting weekly, and only mentioning the interesting details, rather than where I ate for dinner. I’m missing all of you back home and thank you for reading!