Surf Camp
At the beginning of the year, I looked up prices for a one day surf camp up at Lancelin beach. It was expensive, but I realized that if I didn't learn to surf in Australia, I would really regret it. Best decision I have ever made. In hindsight, I wish I would have payed more to stay overnight and attend the two day surf camp. Regardless, on Saturday morning we rucked up at about 6am, met the bus at the train station, and rode for about North two hours to Lancelin beach. If you have ever been to Florence, it is kind of an Australia version of that, with huge dunes and nice waves for surfing. I somehow managed to get my wetsuit on, (those things are ridiculous), and was completely pumped as we headed out to the beach with our surfboards. I went through a brief surfing lesson, and then went out into the waves to test my skills. Lets just say at first, it wasn't going so well. I could get my feet on the board, but fell over backwards into the waves as soon as I tried to stand up. Eventually, with some help from the instructors and after being pummeled by the water a countless number of times, I finally stood up, balanced, and rode a wave into the beach. We surfed for five hours, broken in the middle by an hour lunch break, and I was laughing and having fun the whole time. If you have ever tried running through water, or swimming for a long time, or getting thrown against the ground a lot, combine those things and you will have some of idea what is like for your body. At least at first, it takes it out of you, and I was so sore the next day. But was it worth it, and did I have a blast? Absolutely!
About to stand up (hopefully)
Taste of India at Holy Spirit Chapel
So every Sunday at 6pm I try to go to church, but last Sunday was especially great. During the mass, a church leader gave an awesome speech about working in missions overseas, and it was inspiring and full of personal stories. After mass we had a social, where the Priest had cooked a delicious homemade meal of Indian food with a helping family. It was so good! I didn't really think I like Indian food, but it was awesome. Even better, there were so many leftovers that we were able to take home a huge bowl of rice, curries, and other things. It provided a delicious lunch and dinner for the next couple of days =)
Dance Competition
This week our Inter-hall competition was a Dance-off. Led by the genius choreography of Courtney Helmer, we practiced for two hours Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to master our dance and try to beat all of the other halls. It was really fun, and the end product turned out to be a mix between interpretive dance and gymnastics, with Megan Foltz rapping in between. Good stuff. Port Lodge ended up taking home first place, with us second, but their dance wasn't original, and not that impressive, so we all know who the real winners were =)
Singing Songs, Archaeology and Volunteering
I had a busy, full weekend. Friday night we stayed in and recorded songs for Nic for Mother's day. I know that she isn't a Mom, but she takes care of us, and we call her Mom, so we figured that she deserved it. We recorded a remake of Sweet Caroline called Sweet Momma Nic, Don't Stop Believing by Journey, and about four other popular songs. Singing isn't exactly something that I like being recorded doing, but with the girls there everything worked out. Kudos to Megan for directing everything, and I think Nic really loved the CD. Maybe I'll put some of the songs online somewhere, especially the one from Juno (Part time lover and a full time friend) that we remade.
The next morning I woke up early to go on an archaeology trip with Shane Burke, our Australian history professor. We went to the site of a settlement of Australians in 1830, basically the first white people in Western Australia who fled Britain after the battle of Waterloo, and excavated their old home sites. I learned two things while digging and sorting artifacts. First of all, archaeology is pretty cool, and we found buttons, pieces of plate, old lead shots for a shotgun, and lots of miscellaneous things. Second of all, archaeology also kind of sucks. The finding is great, but the sorting and putting into little bags, and all of the paperwork that goes on (the ugly underbelly of archaeology as I would call it), it's really that great. Nevertheless, it was a great day, and we went to a bar with Shane afterward and had a great time.
That brings me to today. Can you believe it, live updates of my life? I'm surprised that I'm actually that on top of it, or at least displaying a semblance of that. Anyway today I participated in a environmental clean-up in South Fremantle. I wasn't really excited about going, just because I kind of got roped into it by someone in film class, but I actually had a very good time. It was a very deserving area to clean, the food they gave us was amazing, and I met some cool Australian and American people. And, at the end there was a crazy flash mob dance on the Perth waterfront. All in all, a fun weekend full of a wide range of activities.
I love you all, and cheers from Australia =)