And the semester begins.... after surf camp that is! March 18th - 25th

Orientation is over and it is time to get cooking on some Australian academia! But first, surf camp! the beach is about 40 min away from where i'm staying in Lismore, and the town that occupies that beach is none other than Byron Bay! Byron Bay is a small kinda sorta hippy town, like the place you live when you're really rich and want to seem super hip and down to earth but you're actually really full of it, type of hippy town. I guess Thor lives there... I also saw Matt Damon there too. it is actually are really rad place with great live music. Surf camp was a blast. We first went on this 2 mile hike to a light house on the eastern most point on the Australian continent. I thought i'd be cool and do it all bare foot like the aussies, bad idea. my feet bled horrible and I walked down the trail at snail pace till I got to the beach and soaked my feet. so cool haha. Surf camp was 3.5 days and 2 nights out in Byron. first night was playing around town and having our first Aussie night life experience. Saw kick ass live music that first night. They were this 8 piece folk band and it was amazing, still have a beat to their finale in my head. The next morning we hit the surf boards where we had some teachers from the hostel we were staying at show us the grooves. the boards we used were like 11 feet long and Styrofoam. I didn't do too bad and got to stand up several times (the waves were super mild mind you). that day we also went paddle boarding in this estuarian lake. I used to think I had pretty good balance, but holy crap I was a spaz on those things and couldn't stay standing for the life of me. That night again was filled with live music and just getting to know people. We shot gunned a bunch of beers in an alley, by far the most American thing I did since being there. Got about 4 hours of sleep and did some sea kayaking at 6am. People were hurling the weather was so bad. but my god it was so cool. we had to paddle past the wave break, and it being such rough weather, made it feel like we were laying siege to Poseidon's palace. My kayak buddy Orion flew up and out of his seat when we hit that break haha. for the rest of the day it was volleyball and free time surfing where I tried to get the hang of it a bit more. And then, like that, the weekend was over, and the school work began.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Solo trip to Byron May 20th - 26th

Image
This week I had my final presentation on my painting project. The piece was built and painted from scratch. Being about 6' long and 3' tall it took a long time to complete it. But after sketching, priming, more sketching, painting, carving, painting, staining, and painting it was complete, and I dug it! Most my class and teacher really didn't like it as I thought they would hahaha. Guess white dudes can't be painting massive naked ladies cause they think it'd look cool. eh it was pretty bizarre hahaha i'll attach a pic and you can decide for yourself. Anywhooo once that was done I grabbed the surf board and bused my way to Byron Bay. I really wanted a solo adventure and to be a traveler where it'd get the chance to meet other people in hostels who are also traveling and picking brains. So first night in I went and saw some kick ass live music. It was actually two separate chicks touring together. Similar style, solo act while rocking guitar. They both sang b
Read more

Friends and adventures thus far! April 17th - 28th

Image
As the cliques crashed and receded like ocean waves I observed and danced to my own drum beat. Been gathering good friends and great times on this east Australian current. Emmet, Orion, Laura and I frequent the Byron surf and night life. As I have not gotten that great at surfing, but I have been getting better at not drowning as massive waves crash me to shore. The four of us have epic nights of metal shows, good beer, and sleeping on the beaches in Byron. Other wild ones I've been getting a long with are Moa and Samuel, the couple from Sweden, and Vhem, the amazing musician from Norway. On my birthday, the 17th them, their roommate Shannon, and several Japanese students bought me a cake and a nice bottle of rum where we ate the cake and watched Spirited away in the dorm's theatre room. I've also gotten very hooked on dungeons and dragons, and have developed quite the group from it. There are around 12 of us throughout college that gather and play together. My main group h
Read more

Solo trip to the Great Barrier Reef before heading back to the U.S. June 22 - June 27th

Image
After parents had left and school was over I decided to shoot up to northern Queensland for one last solo adventure. Before heading out my friend Mark and I hung out for the drive up to the Brisbane airport. We randomly stumbled upon this sort of carnival happening and decided to give it a visit. enjoyed carny food and watched a couple of bands play along with a gymnastic performance. the music was really good, especially this one girl named Hazel. She really hit the blues style well. Another band was actually from Washington state like myself, crazy. Finally got dropped off at the airport where I decided to stay the night before my 6 am flight. hoped on plane and shot north to the crazy tropical Cairns Australia. Cairns was absolutely beautiful. definitely the first place i'm going to when I go back to Australia, it was just the coolest area by far! So biodiverse with the rainforest and the sea full of massive crocs. Stayed at a hostel and made friends with people from Holland, Be
Read more