Little Friends

                I’m finally getting into the swing of routine, with classes, meals, homework and the like.  Today’s update is pretty short, but I wanted to share something really cute that happened today.

                I’m making it a habit to walk to and from Coogee beach every night after dinner, which is a 3km walk each way up and down a huge hill.  Today I brought some snacks with me because dinner was kind of unsatisfactory, so I ended up hanging out at a relatively empty corner of the beach and feeding the seagulls with some of the corn chips I had.  Yes, I am that crazy bird lady at the beach.  All the time.

                While I was hanging around, two little boys appeared from behind me and started chasing the seagulls around.  They seemed to be having a lot of fun, so I offered them some chips to feed the birds with.  The kids nearly ran me right out of chips by asking for more every 5 seconds—and how could I say no?

                In the meantime, another little girl who was sitting with her family down the beach joined the group and politely informed me that feeding the seagulls is bad because it makes them nasty to other people.  While I agree with that sentiment, I still offered her some chips too, and she gladly threw them to the birds. 

                Once we were out of chips, the three of them showed off their best seagull-chasing techniques to get them all away.  It involved a lot of yelling, jumping, and sand.  Sand everywhere.  In the process of showing off their jumps, they somehow decided to have a jumping contest, which then turned into a race across the beach.  They must have run back and forth over the same 100 yard stretch at least 4 times before they asked me to join in the race.  I thought I would have to let them win, but I was kind of unpleasantly surprised to find that they beat me while I was trying to jog full speed on the sand.  Looks like I need to work on my speed a bit!

                Being kids, these guys somehow never ran out of energy, and I completely lost track of the number of races we had back and forth across the sand.  We spent the better part of 2 hours running and doing jumping jacks and making up songs and chasing seagulls and doing all kinds of little kid things that just cleanse the soul after a long time spent being an adult.  I even talked with the parents of both families—a Latino man with the two boys and a British couple with the girl, both of whom lived nearby. Like probably everyone else in this country, they were all really nice, and very interested in where I was from and what I was doing in Australia.

                I ended up hanging out with the parents of the girl for awhile, talking to them about myths and facts of dingoes (yes, I’m still a nerd,) while listening to their little girl talk my ear off about everything from her acting career to her sleeping positions.  The sun had set by the time we parted ways, and all the lights were lit down the street.  I definitely hadn’t planned on staying for so long, but it was the best little adventure that I never expected.

                In other news, I also videocalled one of my best friends from home today, which helped me feel a lot less homesick and a lot less far away from everyone.  It’s amazing that I’ve been here for 3 weeks already.  With my more local friends, I also finalized a 9-day trip to Tasmania over the upcoming break!  More information will be coming on that as we get closer, but I’m really excited!  I’m going with some of my better friends in the House, so it will be a really cool trip.

                That’s all for now!  Goodnight!