This past weekend, I traveled to a very popular destination in Australia called Byron Bay. It is located in New South Wales, the state directly below Queensland and took about two hours to get there by bus.Get your geography on below:

Remember a few locations: Main beach, cape byron lighthouse, and tallow beach

Located directly below Queensland, Byron Bay is in the north of NSW

In short, the weekend was awesome. It was full of fun activities and a lot of beach time: just what I needed after a tough week of school ;)

We arrived on Friday about 3 pm and Camilla and I hit the beach immediately, after I got a huge cheeseburger of course. We lounged for a few hours but then promptly had to head in to get ready for our night activities. The entire group (of over 100 students) was pre-drinking in the hostel before heading to the bars. The hostel had a BBQ so I ate a few "sausage sizzles" while enjoying some wine that came from a box (classy, I know). Because I am so smart AND love to party, I packed two ping pong balls in my makeup bag and that is when the night really got started. We played a few ferocious games of beer pong before our table was quickly overcome by foreigners asking too many questions that none of us wanted to deal with. That's when my brain hatched an idea: flip cup! We then continued to play too many rounds of flip cup with our new found chants from Fiji and everyone was so pumped up. We all left to go to a bar called Monkeys where we all danced our pants off until bar close.

I won't say exactly when we all went to sleep, mostly because my mother would make a face, but I will say that we did all get up at 5:15 am to begin our sunrise hike to the most easterly point of mainland Australia. Yep, that's right, we ALL WOKE UP at 5:15. It was pitch black and group of about 50 students hiked up to the cape byron light house to watch the sunrise.

And let me tell ya, it was totally worth it. I literally saw the sun peek out over the ocean as a little ball. There was nothing in its way, I stared at it and took pictures even though it hurt my eyeballs. It took quite sometime to see the fiery ball, but as soon as it peeked it only took about 30 seconds before the entire sun was on top of the ocean. It was quite incredible actually.

We then hiked a little bit more until we were standing on the most easterly point of mainland Australia. It makes you feel pretty small actually, just standing there on the point of a continent surrounded by ocean.

After marveling for some time, we then begin our decent which continued to be extremely scenic. And just think, all of this before 8:00 am! We made it back in time for breakfast and after that Camilla and I had to leave promptly for our surf lesson.

We arrived at the surf school a little before 10am to begin our two hour lesson. The instructor pointed out my gingerness right away but comforted me by removing his hat to reveal he was a fellow ging. I think it was a sign that most gingers have natural surfing talent. Anyway, they told us to leave everything at the school and only bring our towels. They also made us wear these green t-shirts so they could keep track of us in the water. After asking us to all pile into this large, white creeper van I began to wonder if we were actually going to learn to surf today or just get molested while wearing matching outfits...

The ginger, aka Marco (weird ginger name I know), loaded up the surf boards and we were off to the beach. There was 11 people in the class, all girls except for one guy, who was French. Marco pointed out that not many guys take surf lessons because they're too damn stubborn to actually learn something and would rather just rent a board and "teach" themselves. So all the ladies and the french dude carried our boards down to the beach and began what was an exhilarating two hours.

We spent about 20 minutes on the beach receiving intensive instructions on what to do in the water. Marco was very good at explaining what to do, and also very up front about pointing out your mistakes. There are six steps to getting up on the surf board, but I can't reveal them unless you pay for a lesson.... just kidding. I just really don't want to/can't remember them. Either way we ended up in the water and Marco helped each one of us individually which was great. When it was my turn he said "Alright ginger, get on the board" and then he gave me a quick push and shouted "stand up!" and sure enough, I stood up. It wasn't quite like pro surfer style, but it was still surfing nonetheless.

We continued the lesson with many more attempts, which were mostly successful. I only nose dived a couple times. At the end of the lesson I was totally beat, it is much more tiring than you think. We managed to take a decent group pic in our green shirts and then headed back to the school, where I was quickly persuaded into purchasing all of these awesome pictures they took. I figured they were worth it for my first surfing experience. Besides, it'll all be worth it when I go pro.

After all this excitement it was hard to believe it was only 12:30 pm. Camilla and I snagged some Domino's for lunch (by the way, it is not that same as in the U.S., it tastes more like Pizza Hut) and then we went to the beach. I covered (most) of my body in sunscreen and totally passed out. I was running on minimal sleep, there was an awesome breeze, and I trust Australians not to play tricks on my while I am baking in the sun. And baking I did. Camilla woke me up about 2 hours later to go get ice cream (what a pal) and then we went back and I slept some more. The next day I discovered a few places where I missed sunscreen, aka red blotches... but besides that I actually tanned pretty nicely. Goodbye white Wisconsin skin!

That night was filled with more flip cup, dancing, and pizza. We went to bed a bit earlier due to extreme tiredness and sun exposure. The next morning we decided to spend our last day doing something a little more active than lying on the beach all day. So three other guys and I hiked out to Tallow Beach. We walked along the beach, which was much more deserted than Main Beach until with got to the Teatree lake. It took us about an hour but it was totally worth it. The lake was situated about 100 ft from the ocean and was surrounded by dense forest.

Upon entering the water you can't really notice anything special about it, but about 2 feet in we began to notice why this was called "teatree" lake. The water looked like a teabag had been sitting it in all day. The water was actually reddish brown and after about a foot down you couldn't see a single thing.

It was really creepy at first because you didn't know how deep it was or what was underneath you. Crocodiles, snakes, eels... oh my! But then we saw a small child playing in the water and we though "if she can do it (naked) then we can do it too!" Besides, the croc would totally go for that snack before any of us. We swam in it for a while because the people said it was good for your skin and hair. After too many croc/getting eaten by something jokes I noticed a small green, hairy worm like thing swimming across the top of the water. That was just about all the wildlife we needed to get us out of that lake. Although I am not sure if I would ever swim there again, I am glad I did it, it was a pretty cool experience.

We trekked back to the hostel after a quick jaunt in the ocean. I took pictures on this weird beach tree thing: see below (yes Mom, I was worried about it breaking and cutting my face open like that mean oak, but I survived).

We arrived back in the city in time to grab a tasty lunch (cheeseburger!!!). We then boarded the bus and I don't think I have ever fallen asleep so fast. I slept the entire way home.



In summary, playing flip cup with wine gets you way more drunk than you expect, surfing is totally rad, ginger skin CAN tan (slowly but surely), and tea lakes are best left to naked children who don't care about parasites. AND Byron Bay is a must if you are ever in Australia.

If you are wondering what that "networked blog" box is on the right side of my blog, I will tell you. I decided to be all fancy and link my blog to Facebook. You can now follow me that way if it's more convenient. I think you just add the app "networkedblogs" on Facebook and then you can add my blog to follow. Plus then your Facebook picture will show up on my blog as a "follower". Pretty neat, I know. If this is all too much excitement and/or confusion for you, just keep following whatever way works best. Cheers!

This past week was Adam's 21st birthday and a lot of shenanigans went down. We all met up to pre game and have a b-day BBQ. It was really fun, and I made cupcakes! I hadn't baked in so long I think I did it more for myself than for Adam. Here we are celebrating:

To keep it short (since I know the adults don't really appreciate reading all about our debauchery), we continued the night with more drinking. Alex and I forced Adam to "chug" wine like it was beer, Adam said a variety of quote worthy statements such as "I don't normally like nose rings, but I want her", he also gave away a variety of secret nick-names we had for people, and lastly he woke up on a roof. Happy 21st Adam!

SO to Andrew for calling the parents at the exact time I was video chatting them. I mean it was a lot of technology: Andrew was on speaker phone and Dad was holding it up to the computer so we could talk. Maybe we should just video chat like normal people?? Glad to hear from you nonetheless!

SO to (my fabulous) BF Ben for inviting me to his fancy military ball in April. I must regretfully decline but still so sweet to receive the invite! Also, SO to him for being so patient with technology. I swear, I can video chat with everyone (my parents, Krystal, even Krystal's parents) just fine, but when it comes to a little boyfriend lovin something happens in the airwaves and we just can't catch a break. It does make for some enjoyable frozen faces and choppy stories though. Miss you tons!

SO to my best friend Krystal for buying her plane ticket to come visit me!!!! How many friends do you know that would fly a whole day into the future to another hemisphere to visit you?? Totally excited. Mostly excited because I get to see her and party with her, but also because she said she would pack nerds rope and 7-10 bottles of smirnoff. Best friend ever.

Lastly, SO to my totally cool and generous parents for being so supportive of me "spreading my wings." I am having a great time and I just want to let them know they are appreciated. With that, my trip to New Zealand is booked and I can't wait for all the John and Rita loans I am about to incur.

Lastly, lastly... SO to being an engineer so I can pay all this shit back. Cheers to living while I have the chance so that I can work 40 hours a week for the rest of my life to pay for social security which I will never see. Damn, I love America.

On Monday this week, Camilla invited us over to make sushi...and to eat it. I am not very "experienced" when it comes to this particular activity. I remember last summer I was forced to eat lunch and this sushi restaurant for work and I was so nervous that I just ordered deep fried vegetables every time. The other sales people thought I was crazy I'm sure. Anyway, Alex, Adam, and I ventured out to Camilla's house to give it the old college try. We made a back up plan to order Domino's for the bus ride home.

Camilla and our friend Danna (from Canada) had already bought everything and started preparing it by the time we got there. Danna made the first roll: it was rice, salmon (raw, naturally), and avocado. She spread the rice out, laid the fillings down and just rolled it up in a seaweed wrap thing. Then cut them up and it looked quite.... sushi-y. Check it out

These one's had sweet potato in the them, hence the orange

It was.... delicious! I am not lying, I enjoyed it very much. You mostly just taste rice and them some flavor depending on the filling you put in it. We had avocado, mango, sweet potato and cucumber. All very distinct, and especially fun to mix together. The coolest part was that we all got to try making it, and Camilla and Danna were very good teachers! (They apparently do this frequently) It really liked making it too.

Notice the intense focus

Below is a picture of me with my completed sushi roll. Kinda gross looking actually. Kinda perverted too... it totally reminded me of sex and the city the movie. Anyone else???

Yay for trying new things

So now I "love" sushi. We ate so much of it we totally forgot about our Domino's plan. Maybe when I return to the U.S. I can show all you common folk a fancier way to eat fish. You feel me SG??

Okay it's really not that big of a deal, I just wanted a dramatic post title. I haven't really had one since I spotted that great white shark. 

Since I've joined the waterski/wakeboard club I now go wakeboarding every Sunday afternoon. The first time I went was awesome. It had honestly been years since I went wakeboarding (Andrew is probably shaking his head in disappointment). Anyway, I got up right away and it all came back to me, just like riding a bike. I was trying to get comfortable on the board and stuff and the guys in the boat quickly realized this wasn't my first time. They then began to harass me to jump the wake. I was so nervous but I knew I had to do it or I would never hear the end of it (Australians are quite obnoxious in that sense). So I thought really hard about what my brother had tried to teach me years before and I just went for it. It wasn't bad either, I almost made it across the entire wake. 

With this new found confidence and surprising skill, I was excited to go back to wakeboarding the next Sunday. I was being cocky basically... not to mention the girl who went before me did nothing cool so naturally my confidence was boosted. I tried to jump right away and it wasn't bad, then came the next jump. This one was bad. I apparently came in and tried to jump too soon and the back of my board hit the lip of the wake as I was going up and basically flipped me forward onto my face. Yep, I hard core face planted into the water. I came up as the boat was circling to pick me up and just laid there for a while, you know that feeling: a mix between minor embarrassment but also actual pain. I had to get back into the boat to put the board on again because it was violently ripped off my feet and the guy just looks at me and goes "Oh, you're bleeding just a little bit" and then he screams to the driver "We drew blood!!" Not cool. I don't know how it happened but my mouth was totally bloody. After further inspection I realized it was coming from my lip right above my gums kinda. Essentially I hit the water so hard that my mouth burst open. Sooo they forced me to do another run to get over it and it did help, although I was so timid to jump again. 

Uhmm can't wait for next week?? Maybe I will just ski... or eat hotdogs on the dock. 

On Saturday night we decided, somewhat spontaneously, to go to a Queensland Reds Pro Rugby game. It was very exciting! Despite the rain, we travelled down to the city and bought tickets at the gate. Our seats were pretty high up but it was still a good view. Rugby is a very interesting sport, let me tell ya, and I knew absolutely nothing about it. Good thing I used my charm to make friends with the dudes next to me so they could explain everything. Here is a pic:

Here is what I got out of it. There are 14 people on each side, which is a lot. They can kick or throw the ball but they can only kick it forward whereas they can throw in both directions. They are trying to get it into the scoring area at the end of the field which is worth five points. Then they get to kick it between two field goal type things for two points. They can get three points for a penalty kick. It's unlimited tackles and once you're tackled you have to let go of the ball. Then the two teams fight over who gets it. People punch each other too. It's quite violent. I tried to keep up with game but really I just did a lot of this: 

Cheers! To the team... and to the beer

Ignore the hair. It was seriously pouring and my umbrella was stollen earlier that day. So lame. Anyway, it was a total blast and best of all, the Reds won!! Woooohooo