Sea Kayaking!!! American Burgers, and More Mysterious Men!

I guess this blog has turned into week by week recap of my life, so if you have any opposition to that, comment on my blog and let me know! =) It seems like a good amount. One because my stories are more interesting on a weekly basis, and two because I don't want to write it too often. So here is the last week, full of fun events!

(Penguin Island)

Sea Kayaking


All this week I was looking forward to our weekend adventure, Sea Kayaking to Penguin Island! This adventure combined some of the things I love the most, like the sea, kayaking, islands, and challenges!!! 


After waking up in time to leave at 8am, we took a sleepy 45 minutes drive to the coast near Rockingham. After some kayak training and packing of lunches, we took off into the ocean. Let me set the scene; As you can see from the photo, it was a cloudy and really windy. The combination of these factors made for some intense waves. So a large group on inexperienced kayakers, facing a head wind, and with lots of tall waves. Look out world.  


The kayaks were two person kayaks, so it was important to work together with you partner to get to Seal Island, the first stop on our trip. This lesson was lost on some of the less fortunate kayakers, who fell pray to the strong wind and waves that took the kayaks in the opposite direction and away from the island. Megan and I powered through the waves, and made it to the Island first. It was amazing! The waves were intense, and that just heightened my desire to power through them and do well and succeed. It was quite the thrill ride to be sure. The guides went back and led the errant kayaks by tying them to their boat, and pretty soon we were on our way to Penguin Island!

(Pelicans and Bird on the Island)

Before we could reach the island, we had to brave a narrow passage through huge rocks. As luck would have it, Megan and I were the first to depart. In front of us was Penguin island, far away, but withing range. On either side of us were huge rocks, each with their own little pool of smaller rocks at their base. The water would hit these smaller rocks, and create huge, treacherous, kayak destroying waves. We somehow manage to stay on a straight path between both hazards (thanks to good steering from Megan), and everything turned out alright. 


When we finally arrived at Penguin Island, there was much rejoicing. Tired and worn out, the group rested for a bit before taking a tour of the island. It was a beautiful island, lots of bird sanctuaries (cool pelicans and annoying seagulls), great beaches, and pretty awesome ancient rock formations. After the tour we ate a lunch of make-your-own sandwiches, (which was amazing!) and decided to head back to the mainland after some more adventuring. The ride back was cake, with the wind at our backs and the waves pushing us toward shore. After landing and loading up the kayaks, everyone was exhausted! The ride home was short, because I was sleeping the entire time. All in all, an amazing day kayaking and pushing the limits of what you should be doing in a stormy ocean. =)


American Food!!!


On Monday, Lacey, Megan, Kayley and I made community dinner for the group. And what was it? American Feast Night! I cooked some burgers on the barbeque, and we had an appetizer of cowboy caviar (a beans, corn, and gauc dip). Dessert was an amazing American Flag cake prepared by Lacey. It rocked my socks off, and was completely delicious. Making community dinner is one of my favorite things to do in Cleos, and this meal was especially good. I think it was the fullest that I have felt since coming to Australia. Good old classic American fatty food, can't beat it =)

Another Mysterious Man!!


This morning started off normally. I woke up at 7:10am and went on the run and swim with Tom Gannon. It's a great way to wake up, and the beach was beautiful. When I got home, Megan asked me why I had wandered into their room last night. I told her she was dreaming, but she said that around 6 am she saw me wander into their room, look around, and leave. Then, Alli added a new twist to the story. Apparently around 6:08am Alli woke to find a weird man hovering over her bed. He noticed she was awake and said, in and Australian Accent, "Sorry I'm late" (he meant lost), and then left. So apparently at 6:00am we had a weird man wandering around the building looking for the exit. Some say that it was me, sleepwalking. But how is that possible? No one has a perfect description of the man, except that he looked like me, was wearing clothes, and spoke in an Australian accent. Even Megan said she wasn't sure it was me, but just assumed it was. First of all, if I was sleepwalking, why did I put on clothes? Secondly, why would I speak in an accent? I'm positive it was not me, but only time will tell. What's with Cleos and having people wandering around at night? Men are weird. 


That's the update for the week! If something amazing happens I'll give a mid week post, but if not, check back in seven days!


Cheers from Australia =)

Wine, Chocolate, and St. Paddy's Day Fun!

St. Patrick's Day!


The people of Australia have a strong tradition of celebrating St. Patrick's Day through lots of drinking, much like the United States. This year, St. Paddy's day coincided with finishing a 10 page research paper that I had due for Australian History. What better reason to celebrate than an Irish Holiday and a job well done? Well, taking the advice to heart Megan and I headed out on the town looking for a good time. Everyone else was at a bar, but we decided it would be a better (and cheaper) option to simply buy a bottle of wine from the liquor store and go to a restaurant, order food and drink it there. Tragedy struck when neither the liquor store or the bottle shop were open. Not discouraged, we walked around town for a bit before deciding to make our way back to the Orient Bar. After a pitcher each, singing along the people doing karaoke sounded like a great idea! Next thing we knew, Ian (Our Resident Director's Friend) bought us more beer, and we were having even more fun! It all happened so fast! We spent the rest of the night dancing and singing with the crowd that had gathered at the Orient. Soon other Notre Dame students were there, and we were all having a great time! It was a night worthy of celebration, and I had an amazing time =)

Wine, Cheese and Chocolate Tour


This morning we left Fremantle around 9:30am for a tour of two wineries, a chocolate store, a brewery, and a coffee house in the Swan River Valley. The tour started out about 10am when they gave us about 45 minutes to sample about nine different wines. It was a free for all to fill up the tiny tasting glasses, but eventually I got to try all of the different wines. I'm not a huge fan of wine, but some of them were pretty tasty, including a sweet white wine and a strong "smoky" chilled red wine. From there we moved on to the second winery. They had wine, of course, but also cheese! And lots of it! From garlic and chive to guoda to some other awesome flavors, the cheese was definitely the highlight of the day! I probably ate too much, but I didn't really feel bad about it because it was soooo good!

We then moved from cheese to an awesome chocolate store. Right when you walked in they have a large bucket of chocolates to sample, and you could try almost anything that they were selling. I tried some caramel and a coffee chocolate, both of which were pretty good, and bought a cookies and cream chocolate (not that different from the US candy bar) and and Irish toffee chocolate, which was amazing! Having a stomach packed full of specialty cheese and quality chocolate is one of the best feelings ever. So it was an amazing day, and an even more wonderful weekend =)

Weekend Adventures/Who is This Guy In Our Tent?

School is actually getting somewhat serious at this point, so I apologize for the lack of blog updates. Anyway, there were definitely some interesting things that happened this weekend.

Rottnest Island

On Friday all 20 residents of Hotel Cleos (plus Taylor) camped overnight at Rottnest Island, a place that is the definition of an island paradise. It's only a 30 minute ferry ride outside of Fremantle, and it's definitely worth the the $60 round trip ticket. Settlement and vehicle traffic are severely limited (cars are not even allowed on the island), so the island is a haven of natural wonder. Also, it's the only place on earth where Quokkas live. The are basically huge marsupial (kangaroo hopping) rats. At first they are cute, but by the end they were a nuisance. My favorite part was easily the endless number of bays and inlets (like the one pictured above). After renting bikes we explored almost every one on Saturday in a 15 mile journey around the edge of the island.

The island is also famous for snorkeling, which I did for the first time in my life! At one point one of the girls came back from snorkeling and said she had only seen fish. In my mind, she saw fish!! I guess being a beginner makes you impressed by everything. Alissa and I explored one of the best snorkeling spots on the Island and saw massive coral reefs. They are so full of life! While snorkeling I saw an angel fish, a neon rainbow colored snail, some bright purple coral, and lots of other random sea wildlife. It was amazing. I did the whole thing without flippers, so it was quite the workout.

Camping was awesome! Friday night we barbequed sausages and hamburger, and Alissa's mom brought us marshmellows and graham crackers! (Both of which they do not have in Australia. Can you believe it?) So the dinner was great, dessert was better, and we were all having a great time. Of course, a group of 20 girls and 1 guy usually encounter more on an overnight camping trip than just nature and barbequing. True to that statement, we were camped right next to a huge bachelor party! The guys had brought a huge amount of alcohol and were in a great mood! Some of the girls joined them in their partying, but other than that the night went pretty smoothly.

Most of our group wandered out to the beach at night to talk and look at the starts (I've never seen so many) Eventually my tent went to bed, even though one of the girls who was sleeping with us was still partying. I didn't sleep well, and remember waking up and hearing the fourth person come back into the tent and feeling really squished. Next things I know, Leah was waking me up. Looking up at her, I heard "Kurt, a guy came into your tent and was trying to cuddle with Courtney. She left to get away and you really need to kick him out." I was still really groggy at this point and had no idea what she was talking about. I replied something like "A guy, where, what happened to Courtney?" Leah, not understanding my confusion replied, "She is outside the tent, and the guy is laying right next to you!"

What happened next was one of the most surreal moments of my life. I stopped looking at Leah and looked to my left, where to my complete and absolute surprise lay a man who I have never seen before in my life. For second my mind was confused. You know how you can be so sure of something being that you can't understand what's happening when that isn't true? Well that is what happened here. I was so sure that Courtney was next to me that I couldn't process what I was seeing. Finally coming to my senses, I went into action mode. I sat up, grabbed the guy by the shoulders, and started shaking him awake. When he came to (he was definitely drunk), I simply said "Dude, this isn't your tent. What are you thinking? You need to go over there (and pointed back to the bachelor tents)." Dazed and confused, he shook my hand and stumbled back to his tent. Drunk Bachelors=Not good judges of where to sleep. At least Leah woke me up so I could take care of it, Courtney just left the tent and was about to sleep in the bathroom! Gees. Still, Rottnest was amazing!

So that's what been happening in Australia. This week I have lot of work to do so I probably won't get back to blog writing until Sunday. I love you all, and I hope everything is going well.

Cheers from Australia =)