It took
me forever to finally write again, due to many things. Mostly classes are ramping up and throwing
assignments at my ass, but I’m also trying to fit in as many Australian
experiences as I can. I recently
realized that I’m about halfway through my time here. It’s all going by so fast and I feel like I
need to take the time to appreciate this adventure whenever I’m not
studying! So I’ve done some cool things
over these past couple weeks!
The
weekend after we got back from Tasmania, I went with a group of people to hike
through Royal National Park to the famous Figure of Eight Pools up there. I’m really not sure why they’re famous,
because they’re just little pools in the rocks that happen to look like a
figure 8, but for some reason it’s a huge Instagram hotspot, so all the cool
kids are doing it, I guess.
The
pools were super cool, because the water in them was so clear you could see
right into them like little aquariums!
All of them were lined with all kinds of plants and sea life, so that
was my favorite part. They’re situated
on a huge, flat rock space, which looks really cool if it’s not overrun with
tourists.
We
somehow made it to the pools during low tide (though we thought we wouldn’t,)
so hiking to it actually wasn’t so hard.
This whole area is tidal, meaning it’s completely covered in water
during high tide. So it’s really cool,
but kind of risky if you’re staying there for a long time! (We didn’t.)
The
hike there is also amazing. Difficult,
but amazing. It involves a hike right up
a mountainside, the view of Burning Palms Beach from said mountain, then hiking
right down the other side.
On our
way out, we even hiked through several kilometers of jungle, which was super
cool. Australia has such diverse and
unique ecosystems, and I just love being in all of them!
During
the hike, we passed the time and numbed the pain of an uphill climb with all
kinds of little games and puzzles. We
asked and answered an infinite number of would-you-rather questions, went
though pretty much every movie/book/TV universe and imagined what it would be
like to live in it, and solved some lateral-thinking puzzles. (My favorite was the one about the
pheasant. Remind me to tell you when I
get back!) So it was a really long,
tiring, but fun day hike! In the
afternoon, we ended up at a Podunk rail station in the middle of the jungle
that looked really cool, and took the train back to Sydney from there. Australian public transport is so
awesome. I never feel lost or scared out
here, because I know there’s always a way home by bus or train! (I can’t quite say the same for the city of
Chicago…)
That
weekend, I also went to the Sydney Sea Life Aquarium with my Dutch friend
Yvonne! In all honesty, I don’t think
it lived up to what I’m used to at the Shedd, but it was pretty cool in its own
right. The
coolest part was the 4 different tunnel aquariums, where we walked under
sharks, sawfish, stingrays, and dugongs!
The
resident dugongs at this aquarium are their pride and joy. It was really neat to learn more about them,
and actually see one up close! Dugongs
are basically prettier versions of manatees, so it’s kind of weird to see such
a specific body type evolve in two very different ecosystems. (Ok, I’ll stop nerding about dugong evolution
now.)
Onto
the next adventure! Last Friday was the
annual House cruise party! Every year,
International House rents out a little boat, buys a lot of pizza and booze, and
takes us all out on Sydney Harbour to cruise around for a few hours, where we
eat, chat, and dance! Everyone got all
dressed up, and it was so much fun!
Of
course, the views were to die for. I
spent pretty much the whole time on the top deck, staring out at the city
lights and fantasizing about where I’m going to put my future house along the
Harbour. Yes, I’m
going to live in one of those houses on Sydney Harbor someday. I’m going to have a dock and a yacht that I
will take to the city with my beautiful pro surfer husband where we’ll eat
fancy dinners on the water. Stop
laughing, I’m going to be rich. (Disclaimer: Some of these pictures were taken from friends' Facebooks or Google, because my camera sucks at taking pictures in the dark. The video is mine, though!)
Speaking
of surfing, that brings me to my last recent adventure, which was
yesterday! I finally learned how to
surf! I went with two International
House friends to the beautiful Maroubra Beach for a 2 hour surfing lesson. It
was a rainy Monday afternoon, so nobody else was there! Just a private lesson for the 3 of us. The lesson included wetsuits and beginner
surfboards (that are absolutely HUGE,) and long story short we looked like
badasses.
We also
felt like badasses, heading out into the huge Maroubra waves on a particularly
rough day in the wind and the rain! (The
weather wasn’t actually that bad—it was very warm and I didn’t even notice it
was raining until the very end.) Our
instructor was also a very cute boy around our age so we had that going for us,
too.
As I
kind of expected, surfing is really hard!
As I didn’t really expect, I am not godawful at it! I actually was standing up on the board by
the end of the two hours! (I mean, not
for long, but I stood up, okay.) The
instructor made sure we only caught tiny baby waves, so it was really fun and
not terrifying, like I kind of thought it would be! The whole time we were also surrounded by
real surfers, who were catching these enormous 5 meter waves and getting
smacked off their boards by them. It
looked really fun, but also really scary!
I’m glad we were in the shallows.
So I
had a lot of fun trying to learn to surf, and I’d love to try it again
sometime. I heard a rumor that there’s
an orphan surfboard in the House with no known owner, so I might just have to
take that out for a spin sometime!
And
that catches us up to today, which wasn’t nearly as interesting. I took a zoology quiz, went to the grocery
store, and accidentally took a 2 hour nap in the middle of the day. Again.
I don’t know what it is about Australia that makes me so tired, but I
seem to nap a lot lately. It’s kind of
awesome.
I have
a full day of class tomorrow so goodnight everyone! Keep in touch!
No comments:
Post a Comment