Wow, where to begin? So since the last time I wrote, I have:
- taken a weekend trip to Byron Bay, a small, beautiful surfing town and the Easternmost point of Australia
- taken a day to explore Sydney by myself (I got a little lost but with me, that’s to be expected)
- gone to Pancakes on the Rocks! (a famous restaurant in the city)
- seen Tim McGraw and Faith Hill in concert and actually TOUCHED HIS HAND
- begun to cook almost everyday and learned the Chipotle guacamole recipe from my friend who used to work there (seem trivial? Go to Chipotle on M Street and you’ll realize it’s not)
- touched a koala, kangaroo, and wombat at Featherdale Wildlife Reserve!
All day trips and exciting events aside, I’ve truly taken the past few weeks to get settled into a good routine here in Coogee. I now actually know where all of my classes are, have spent a decent amount of time in the library, which, I have to say, is about fifty times nicer than Lau – it has ten floors, huge MSB-like booths, and plush leather seats where kids are constantly relaxing. It initially took me by surprise how many kids were just sleeping in the library, but I also have had to adjust to the fact that the majority of students at UNSW commute from home to school everyday, almost as much as four hours away! If I were them I’d be passed out in a cubicle too.
Although my trip to Byron Bay is a bit too detailed to quickly recap (I needed about ten pages in my journal for it), a few highlights include some of the best sushi I’ve ever had, a trip to Nimbin, the Amsterdam of Australia, swimming in a waterfall, an intense concentration of hippies in our hostel (which also provided us with insanely good smoothies and eggs in the morning), and sharing a sea kayak with an instructor named Dougie who informed me that when the aliens come to Earth, they’ll pick the smartest creatures (the whales). Oh, and there was also the twelve-hour bus ride there and back–on the way home I’m pretty sure I may have teared up at one point because of the discomfort of the seat, smell of smoke emitting from the guy next to me combining with the smell of the bus bathroom, and the incredible heat to which the bus driver seemed to be well-adjusted. But it was seriously all worth it when you get to see incredible things like the Byron Bay lighthouse at sunset and the most intense amount of dreadlocked people I have (and will) ever see in Nimbin.
Although that’s the only long trip I’ve taken so far, I’ve got a few others coming up that I am truly SO excited for. For one, my spring break starts in a week, and I’ll be traveling to Cairns and snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef. Also in the works are possible trips to Fraser Island, Whitsundays (both supposedly beautiful beaches, with the sand on Whitsundays being so pristine you can clean household items with it), the Blue Mountains, Hunter Valley (a great winemaking area of Australia), and potentially the Outback! My mom will also be visiting in early June, which will be awesome. As cliche as it sounds, time truly does fly by here, and I’m doing my best to take advantage of all the amazing opportunities I’ve been given while I’m here. And to learn some Australian slang–heaps of it. I’ll update more after I finish my test tomorrow!
