This weekend encompassed everything Australian: surfing, kangaroos, huge spiders, stingrays, hot men, alcohol, stars, and people from all over the world. That basically describes Australia.
But first, I have to talk about my week. Let's just say I did something very, very stupid, and then something kind of cool to compensated for it.
Tuesday night last week, I was sitting on my laptop, per usual, when I saw that the coordinator for my study abroad program, Australearn, posted that he had an extra ticket to the Tim McGraw that he was giving away for free. I was the first one to respond with a very enthusiastic "HELL YA", which is what I should have done, but instead I changed my mind because I thought I had too much homework. As soon as I realized how retarded I was, it was too late.. I gave up a free Tim McGraw concert to do homework. I later found out that apparently I just have to pass my classes... That means I need a 50% on my classes to get credit. Say hello to Surfer Bum Andrea!
Photography by CAY on our way to Manly
To compensate for this moment of pure idiocracy, I felt the need to do something very stupid and impulsive. I skipped all six hours of classes I had on Thursday (Technically, it was only five since one of my lectures was cancelled) to go to Manly for the day. Since it was so spur of the moment I had no one to go with, but I lucked out; Courtney has the similar YOLO(You only live once) philosophy like myself and felt compelled to screw her classes as well. We headed out to Manly around 10:30, and after a gorgeous ride on the ferry there where I was the star of "Photography by Cay", we arrived to the amazing Manly Beach. After some more photos, we grabbed some delicious nachos at this cute Mexican restaurant right on I guess what you would call the boardwalk before we headed back to Sydney. It was an awesome day.
Sydney Opera House!
Manly Beach
After planning my mid semester trip at the last minute on Friday, I had only 30 minutes, maybe even less to pack up for my weekend surf trip. I met Courtney, Verena, and Lauren at the bus stop where we met up, and headed down together to the Australian Surf Tours headquarters. We were lucky our bus ride was only 3.5 hours or so (the Mojo Surf Camp has a six hour long drive to Crescent Head), but it was late when we arrived, so they just had sausages for us for our late dinner. I actually ate a sausage, something I haven't done in YEARS!! I cannot even tell you when the last time was that I actually tried a sausage because I can tell you for a fact that I have never ate one before. We passed out at about 1:30 in the morning after Courtney talked my ear off for about half an hour before bed. Anyways, we feel asleep listening to the waves crash... It was the best sleep I've had in a while considering I was on a cot.
Cay dog's lovely face
I awoke to Courtney's lovely face and breakfast being made at the campsite. We were put into the first group, so instead of surfing, we went down to the bay where we fed these HUGE manta rays... I have never seen them be that big before, and boy, were they heavy! We finished off our big bag of fish, and headed back to camp to get ready for the first surf lesson, but before we did that we got to go play in the rock pools . I stupidly jumped into the pool which would have been fine had I jumped out far enough, but my left knee didn't make it... I SMOKED it on the rock below the surface (it pained me to surf for the rest of the weekend because of this!).
Courtney trying to grab the beach ball I threw to her in the rock pool
Courtney, Verena, Joao (our surf instructor), Lauren, and myself
Most of the day's lessons were introductory, beginner stuff, but we spend the sunset in the water surfing. I can honestly tell you that I could spend the rest of my days doing this... It was the best! I remember this feeling of happiness... It was as if everything was right in the world, and I was just happy and at peace with it.
We went down to the bay to take pictures at sunset... It was so beautiful!
The inlet near the beach we went to... the water was kind of gross and cold.
That night was interesting to say the least... We played the longest game of Never Have I Ever ever!!! And I learned heaps of stuff about people that I would've preferred to remain ignorant of. Overall, it was a fun night of drinking and getting to know ya stuff.
My snapped board
Sunday was our last day of surfing! We spent the morning just waking up, then headed out to the beach where we surfed earlier to lay out before we got our turn with the boards. Conditions were a little different than the other day, it was super windy, which made it impossible to catch decent waves! But, we were promised a better surf experience for that afternoon, and they were right! We went to the opposite side of the bay where were shielded from the wind a bit more, but the waves were ENORMOUS! At least 5 or 6 foot swell! I grabbed a board (more like they had to force the jackass American frat guy to give up his board so I could have my turn), and headed out there. I started out with the white wash which was still pretty powerful! Side note, it was down pouring the whole afternoon, thundering and lightening, the whole ten yards, and Sam, the camp's owner/main coach, wasn't the least bit concerned. After struggling with my board to get past the breakers, I hit one big wave... I made it under, but my board didn't and snapped! I felt so terrible, but it really could've happened to anyone.
Courtney and I finally caught some green waves, before we had to head back in to shower and change for the ride home. It was one of my favorite weekends thus far.
Here's a video from the drive back to Sydney from Bendalong with our crazy Portuguese drivers. I don't know how they drive in Portugal, but you best believe they scared the hell out of me when they were driving (worse tailgating I've ever seen).
Sorry it took me so long to publish this, I've been so busy with life here! More to come soon!
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