relaxin' on the beach and a rugby game - what a day!

Friday was a wonderful day! My friend and I explored the town a little on a nice jog and then a bunch of us headed to the beach and just hung out. Once we had baked in the sun for a bit (yes, mom, I was wearing sunscreen) we decided to hop in the ocean. My friend said she almost went into shock, i.e. it was extremely cold. We jumped around a little bit and then took refuge in our sun-baked towels!

That night we went to a league rugby game – the Wollongong Dragons vs. the Sydney Roosters. It was in a big stadium and they said they had a record breaking crowd – 19, 211 (or something around that number)! We sat on the “hill” which is a grassy hill like at the baseball games. We were pretty close to the field, which was really fun!

I really enjoyed the game. They have two 40-minute halves. And the best thing is that the clock never stops! So it is much faster paced than football. (No offense.) The game is fairly similar to football, but they can only pass the ball to the side or back. They don’t wear any pads, but they still get tackled. It was super fun! The Dragons won, 44 to 6! Go Dragons!

catchin' a wave

I woke up to a beautiful day on Thursday. It got even better when my friend, Snowy, an Australian originally from Sydney, came by and told me he was going surfing if I wanted to go too! Well, I couldn’t turn that down! I borrowed one of his friend’s big boards and we headed to the beach.

~FYI: I took a couple of hours of surfing lessons last summer in California with Lora and Scott. It was a blast! So that’s the extent of my surfing experience, but I was excited to try again.~

OK, back to the story…oh, I have to mention when we were walking one of our friends, Andrew, asked “Gonna catch a wave, eh?” I stared at him blankly, slowing processed the question, and then said, “Yes, I’m gonna try to surf.” So there’s some Australian lingo for ya, or surfer lingo at least.

So we get to the beach and it’s pretty flat. (Not many waves). But I got out there on a surf board, and I’m not gonna lie, I only really got up once for a little bit…but I’m gonna blame it on the poor wave selection. ;) I had such a blast though! And I rode a quite a few, I just didn’t stand all the way up on most of ‘em.

But I finally went surfing, and it was so much fun! I’ll just need more practice, like everything else! I can’t wait to get out there again!

underwater hockey

Underwater hockey…is that even possible? My roommate, Jessie, told me about this club she is in where they play underwater hockey. It sounded interesting so I went to my first practice last nite. It is very…different. It is literally hockey played underwater.

It was very cold and windy last nite, and the pool is outside! But it was heated and really wasn’t that bad. So we get there and have to grab our gear…which ended up not being an easy task. You have to grab a snorkeling mask, a funny looking thing with plastic circles on it which ended up being a cap that protects your ears, a rubberized glove to protect your hand, a small wooden stick, and huge flippers!

There were about 6 or 7 other new people and a couple of people who did it last session. By the way, the pool is a huge 50 m pool with different grades – we played in the 1.8 m deep level which now that I think about it…is about my height. So to play the game you breathe through the snorkeling mask and then dive down when you can get to the puck. It has the same concept as hockey where you push the puck to the other side’s goal…but it is very different I found out. It’s a challenge to hold your breath long enough to make any progress ‘cause by the time you get to the puck and move it a few feet – you need air! It was a blast, though! We practiced moving the puck and turning the first half an hour and then we played a scrimmage game for about 10 or 15 minutes and let me tell you…I was huffing and puffing by the end. It is pretty intense – especially when I was paired against a huge girl from the Netherlands who kept flippering me to death. (No not really, but she did know what she was doing while I, on the other hand, did not.) I just need more practice… can’t wait ‘till next week!

wanna see pictures?

yippee!!! i finally loaded my pictures on my kodak gallery account. to see my pictures go to www.ofoto.com

username: mle317@gmail.com
password: frozenpeas
(one of my favorite snacks...try it sometime!)
this will give you access to my account. just click on view photo albums and select the ablum you wanna see. to see all the pictures you can view them using a slideshow. that option is listed on the right side of the webpage. the website is very easy to use, but let me know if you have any questions! i hope you enjoy them!

random details about the week of july 18 - 24

i definitely have been slacking on keeping up the blog so far so i'll just give you some highlights from this last week.

i don't think i told you about my roommates yet. i have four australian roommates that couldn't be nicer! they are so helpful and have introduced me to all their australian friends. a couple of them surf and told me i can go with them sometime!

on wednesday they had a club fair at the uni. i really want to scuba dive and i think i'll join the club! i also want to play underwater hockey. i don't fully understand it, but i might go to a practice this week with my roommate. and they have a dance club that you can join and then take classes for really cheap at the rec. so i have some exciting possibilities!

on thursday a few friends and i went for a run along the beach and then did some exploring and picked up cool sea shells. one of the best discoveries was a swimming pool on the beach that looks all natural and is full with ocean water. i can't wait to swim in it!

this thursday nite i went to a thirsty merc concert at the unibar with all my roommates. it was super fun! (yes, my uni has a bar and they have live concerts every thursday!) thirsty merc is a fairly popular australian band. they play rock music, i'd say. they were very, very good! you know how i love concerts!

on friday my friends emma, amy, mj, and i went to sydney. we shopped and went to the harbor. then we went to a bar that we had heard good things about, but they wouldn't let us in with our flip flops! how discriminating! so we went to "cheers" instead. then we went to "the spanish club". my friend, mj, is from mexico city and she was so fun to watch there. she was definitely in her element there and we all had such a blast! oddly enough some of the dancing was similar to country swing dancing! so we had fun even in our flip flops.

on saturday we shopped at paddy's market which is huge and kinda reminded me of a flea market! i got lot's of touristy stuff! then we shopped at the malls downtown. (we made sure to get heels for going out that nite!) that evening we went to darling harbor which is where all the clubs are. everything is very expensive in sydney, but we had a good time club hopping!

happy first week of school...in july?!?

on july 18th i started school at the university of wollongong. now that just doesn't sound right...but then one must remember that i am in australia, and it is their spring semester right now. anywho, i went to classes on monday, tuesday, and wednesday - then i was done! these 4 day weekends are gonna be so tough to get used to. ;)

this first week was very introductory. we only went to lectures this week and did not have tutorials. we have tutorials for each class and you are required to go to them after this first week. they sound like the reci's that i had for chemistry. bascially, they are with a smaller section of the class and you actually participate in discussions and stuff rather than sitting and taking notes.

my classes all sound interesting and should be fun. i am taking philosophy - mind, body, and soul, contemporary writing in australia (super excited for that one!), american history after the 1920's (should also be neat to see their perspective!), and women in society (sounds like it will be very...empowering. ;) as you may have noticed i am just taking general classes that should transfer back easily.

this is kinda a boring blog, but i know some of you were interested in my actual "school work"!