WOAH! What a week! I've spent the last week or more out and about, so now that I have a bit of time, I'll begin to catch up posting about the adventures now, bit by bit so as to keep from being too boring.
Beginning with Thursday, March 10.
Thursday was a complicated day. In one of my classes, I realized that I had spent the past five weeks planning for the semester project incorrectly, so I had one weekend to catch up before a progress report was to be submitted. Of course, the weekend was already filled with plans, making it more like one night of solid working to catch up.
It also happened to be time to apply for on-campus housing for my next year back home, but when I tried to sign up for living in my old apartment with my friends, I came to the gross realization that something had gone terribly wrong. Despite all of the e-mailing and re-assuring I had gone through to be sure that we had done everything correctly to live with each other again, something had happened to my account and I lost my place in my old apartment, and am unable to even get back in the building because everything has filled up. I even went to the extent of calling the housing people at Tennessee, but nothing could be done by that point.
Needless to say, I was having a bad night, but then my housemates ran into my room to see if I wanted to go on a very late-night run to Macca's (a.k.a McDonalds), which would involve me driving, since the roads were empty. This was a perfect distraction-- I had been wanting to try my hand at driving on the left side of the road since I came here! Macca's is only about a five-minute drive, so nothing major. I thought that it would be really weird, especially driving a manual car and shifting gears with my left hand, but it was a piece of cake! Turning was the only kicker, making myself stay on the correct side of the road, but completely manageable! Upon returning home and eating my small bag of chips, I called it quits for the night and went to bed around 2:30 a.m. in order to wake up and catch a 7:30 a.m. bus to Bateman's Bay for the weekend.
In sitting down to my computer, I have just realized all of my pictures from the beach have mysteriously disappeared, which I find to be very sad/frustrating/annoying/perplexing. Anyway, a group of 15 of us rented a beach house for the weekend to celebrate a friend's birthday! Some folks got rides to the coast, but three of us just caught a bus and were going to get there early and check in, then wait for everyone else. Nikki, Ben and I arrived in Bateman's Bay around 10:30 and waited to find the check in place until 11:45 or so, being able to check in at 12:30. This is where the story gets embarrassing.
We just sort of showed up without really knowing what we were doing. Our friends had organized everything and told us that everything was walking distance and really close to the bus station, so we should have no worries. We had Googled around and sort of had an idea where to go, so we set off. We walked across the bridge of the bay and down the first road which seemed right. We knew we were looking for Clyde Road, so we asked a business, and the lady said it would be a "fair walk" further down the road and seemed to feel sorry for us, but we thought nothing of it. We set off walking, looking for the roundabout and church we were supposed to pass. We walked what we felt was a pretty "fair walk" and found the roundabout, then stopped in a veterinarian office to ask and see if we were on the right track.
Again, we were told it was yet a "fair walk" to Clyde Road, and we set off apprehensively, beginning to be slightly frustrated with the fact that everyone else was getting a car ride. Finally we found Clyde Road, but while we walked down the street, we felt very out of place. There was an entrance to a subdivision and a few nice houses, no real estate agency to get keys for our house. A nice-looking couple came driving down the road so we flagged them down to ask for directions, only to realize that we were looking for Clyde STREET, the main street in town that the bus had dropped us off on, a thirty-minute walk back. They took pity on our poor souls and told us to climb in and they drove us back to town, making them my heroes for the entire weekend.
After asking a few more people in town, we did find the office, which was literally where our bus had stopped. But it only gets worse. We checked in around 1:30 p.m., got our keys, and were told where to walk to get to the house... back across the bridge spanning the bay, a "fair walk" down the road, past a roundabout, turning at a vet office and at the end of that road is where we should find our house. We could have cried. But we did it. We got to the house, dropped our bags and slept until everyone else showed up, deciding to not tell anyone how dumb we had been.
Moral of the story: If you do not have a car, never just show up somewhere and expect to figure it out. It does not always work out as well as it does in your head. Also, if an Australian refers to something as a "fair walk," it holds a little more weight than back home. You should really evaluate whether you want/need to embark on such a trek.
That night we had a barbie and chilled out in our house, woke up and make pancakes and scrambled eggs, then hit the beach! The group consisted of Americans: Macey, Beth, Ruby, Nikki and myself, Canadians: Matt and TL, Brits: Ben and Amanda, Mexicans: Jose and Carlos, Viktor from Bulgaria via Washington D.C., Australians: Ben and John, then Jani, the birthday boy, from Finland. Jani has fallen in love with surfing, so we found a decent beach for him and hired some boards for the day. I had not gone to a surf camp or had lessons yet, so Jani, Matt, TL and Viktor gave me a crash course and we hit the waves!
Surfing is SOOOOOOO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!! Granted I was horrible, but I got up a few times, and it is the coolest thing ever! It mostly requires balance and upper-body strength, both of which I happen to lack, but I like to think I managed nicely. After a couple hours, I got to where I could not even pull myself up onto the board and when I did catch a wave, my arms were so tired that I could not push myself up, so I was forced to quit for the day-- when I got to shore, my arms were so weak I could hardly peel my wetsuit off. That night we all cleaned up and went out to eat at the Hog's Breath Cafe, then crashed.
The next morning I left to catch a bus to Sydney for the week, but everyone else stayed until Monday.
I got an e-mail from the organizers telling what everyone owes after rent and groceries were split 15 ways, and I was pleasantly surprised.
6-person house+groceries for a barbie, breakfast x2, snacks and PB&J sandwiches on the beach: $35
Surf board hire: $20
Bus ticket to the coast: $20
Forgetting all your worries, getting completely lost with friends in a small Australian coastal town, celebrating a birthday, having wetsuit tan lines, learning to surf and being so sore the next morning you can hardly move: absolutely priceless.
Beginning with Thursday, March 10.
Thursday was a complicated day. In one of my classes, I realized that I had spent the past five weeks planning for the semester project incorrectly, so I had one weekend to catch up before a progress report was to be submitted. Of course, the weekend was already filled with plans, making it more like one night of solid working to catch up.
It also happened to be time to apply for on-campus housing for my next year back home, but when I tried to sign up for living in my old apartment with my friends, I came to the gross realization that something had gone terribly wrong. Despite all of the e-mailing and re-assuring I had gone through to be sure that we had done everything correctly to live with each other again, something had happened to my account and I lost my place in my old apartment, and am unable to even get back in the building because everything has filled up. I even went to the extent of calling the housing people at Tennessee, but nothing could be done by that point.
Needless to say, I was having a bad night, but then my housemates ran into my room to see if I wanted to go on a very late-night run to Macca's (a.k.a McDonalds), which would involve me driving, since the roads were empty. This was a perfect distraction-- I had been wanting to try my hand at driving on the left side of the road since I came here! Macca's is only about a five-minute drive, so nothing major. I thought that it would be really weird, especially driving a manual car and shifting gears with my left hand, but it was a piece of cake! Turning was the only kicker, making myself stay on the correct side of the road, but completely manageable! Upon returning home and eating my small bag of chips, I called it quits for the night and went to bed around 2:30 a.m. in order to wake up and catch a 7:30 a.m. bus to Bateman's Bay for the weekend.
We just sort of showed up without really knowing what we were doing. Our friends had organized everything and told us that everything was walking distance and really close to the bus station, so we should have no worries. We had Googled around and sort of had an idea where to go, so we set off. We walked across the bridge of the bay and down the first road which seemed right. We knew we were looking for Clyde Road, so we asked a business, and the lady said it would be a "fair walk" further down the road and seemed to feel sorry for us, but we thought nothing of it. We set off walking, looking for the roundabout and church we were supposed to pass. We walked what we felt was a pretty "fair walk" and found the roundabout, then stopped in a veterinarian office to ask and see if we were on the right track.
Again, we were told it was yet a "fair walk" to Clyde Road, and we set off apprehensively, beginning to be slightly frustrated with the fact that everyone else was getting a car ride. Finally we found Clyde Road, but while we walked down the street, we felt very out of place. There was an entrance to a subdivision and a few nice houses, no real estate agency to get keys for our house. A nice-looking couple came driving down the road so we flagged them down to ask for directions, only to realize that we were looking for Clyde STREET, the main street in town that the bus had dropped us off on, a thirty-minute walk back. They took pity on our poor souls and told us to climb in and they drove us back to town, making them my heroes for the entire weekend.
After asking a few more people in town, we did find the office, which was literally where our bus had stopped. But it only gets worse. We checked in around 1:30 p.m., got our keys, and were told where to walk to get to the house... back across the bridge spanning the bay, a "fair walk" down the road, past a roundabout, turning at a vet office and at the end of that road is where we should find our house. We could have cried. But we did it. We got to the house, dropped our bags and slept until everyone else showed up, deciding to not tell anyone how dumb we had been.
Moral of the story: If you do not have a car, never just show up somewhere and expect to figure it out. It does not always work out as well as it does in your head. Also, if an Australian refers to something as a "fair walk," it holds a little more weight than back home. You should really evaluate whether you want/need to embark on such a trek.
That night we had a barbie and chilled out in our house, woke up and make pancakes and scrambled eggs, then hit the beach! The group consisted of Americans: Macey, Beth, Ruby, Nikki and myself, Canadians: Matt and TL, Brits: Ben and Amanda, Mexicans: Jose and Carlos, Viktor from Bulgaria via Washington D.C., Australians: Ben and John, then Jani, the birthday boy, from Finland. Jani has fallen in love with surfing, so we found a decent beach for him and hired some boards for the day. I had not gone to a surf camp or had lessons yet, so Jani, Matt, TL and Viktor gave me a crash course and we hit the waves!
Surfing is SOOOOOOO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!! Granted I was horrible, but I got up a few times, and it is the coolest thing ever! It mostly requires balance and upper-body strength, both of which I happen to lack, but I like to think I managed nicely. After a couple hours, I got to where I could not even pull myself up onto the board and when I did catch a wave, my arms were so tired that I could not push myself up, so I was forced to quit for the day-- when I got to shore, my arms were so weak I could hardly peel my wetsuit off. That night we all cleaned up and went out to eat at the Hog's Breath Cafe, then crashed.
The next morning I left to catch a bus to Sydney for the week, but everyone else stayed until Monday.
I got an e-mail from the organizers telling what everyone owes after rent and groceries were split 15 ways, and I was pleasantly surprised.
6-person house+groceries for a barbie, breakfast x2, snacks and PB&J sandwiches on the beach: $35
Surf board hire: $20
Bus ticket to the coast: $20
Forgetting all your worries, getting completely lost with friends in a small Australian coastal town, celebrating a birthday, having wetsuit tan lines, learning to surf and being so sore the next morning you can hardly move: absolutely priceless.
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