Surfing into Finals and a Sinus Infection

I'm actually kinda proud right now. I'm only a week behind in posting my activities here! This is pretty impressive considering my past track record with this stuff. Last weekend Dickinson took us on our last group trip to Byron Bay. Byron is basically a sweet surfer tourist town and it was a freaking blast! I had recovered from my sunburns for the most part and the weather was great all weekend after another week of ran. Ann wasn't able to come with us sadly because of some lame excuse like her parents were visiting or some likely story so instead we were treated to a lovely tour guide Gayle, working for Byron Bay Skydiving.

They picked us up good and early so after a short two hour drive we found ourselves in a great beach town. We then proceeded on a beach walk along the Bay up to the lighthouse which is supposedly the Easternmost part of Australia. Cool I suppose but really not overly exciting. We went to a brewery called the Buddha Brew for dinner (steak!) and to top it all off, the beer was actually really good! And since we were there during happy hour it was actually some of the cheapest beer I've got at a bar since we've gotten here. Win-win situation right there! Afterward we went to a pub called Cheeky Monkeys where we spent the night dancing on tables and other good fun.

The next morning we all pulled up and got ready to go surfing! We got to the beach wearing our wetsuits and carried our surfboards out and just stared at the waves. Side note: those surfboards are way heavier than I realised, I now understand why surf bums are so freaking jacked. Looking out at the waves I couldn't imagine actually getting up on one of those crazy things. But our instructors had us doing the silly "Jump Up" routine on the beach and next thing we knew we were heading out into the water. Tried a couple times to get up on my own with pretty epic failures ensuing. The instructors came around and helped us out by shoving us off and letting us know when was the right moment to get up. All of a sudden, I was surfing! In about three seconds, I went from being terrified of the smallest little waves to wanting to seek out bigger and sicker waves! This led to a good mix of larger crashes (my knees are still pretty skinned up from bouncing along the bottom) but also some really sweet rides. After what felt like an hour, it was time to pack up... Lame.

After lunch we then continued our fat camp training by going out on a sea kayak expedition to see whales and dolphins. Honestly, it wasn't all that fun though maybe it just paled in comparison to the surfing we had done just a few hours prior. We got out into the water and paddled like maniacs not quite sure what we were doing (we didn't know about the whales and dolphins) and then all of a sudden someone pointed and we could see dolphins jumping up in the waves mere meters away from us! They left after a couple minutes later though and it was back to just plain exercise. After another 30 hrs of paddling Megan and I were pretty tired of just floating out in the water and not seeing anything of much interest. Our wonderful tour guide had basically abandoned us so we decided to turn back in ourselves. About halfway back we hear some whistling and turn to see some frantic waving. Thinking they had spotted a whale or something we turned back only to find out that the guide was upset at us for leaving. Whoops. Surprise surprise though they were just turning back anyway. Reentry to the beach didn't go so well though... First wave came up and knocked us sideways and flipped us pretty quickly and we had to swim to shore. Apparently it helped fix Megan's seasickness so I suppose it had some benefit?

We went out to another place called Cocomangas which wasn't quite as cool as the first pub but still a good time for sure. The next morning some of the girls went out skydiving which I had been considering but it was simply way to expensive and I promised myself I would do it sometime in the next few years. We went all around the town that afternoon and enjoyed a nice barbie on the beach before we had to say our goodbyes to Byron.

The next week commenced studying or at least after a few days I managed to start studying :P I had two finals and a paper which as of now I have completely finished! However, over the weekend I started getting an increasingly painful toothache and was having some serious allergies. After finishing my last final this morning I went to the dentist and the doc on campus to have my fears confirmed, I had a lovely sinus infection. $100 later I now have antibiotics and nasal steroids to help me out but I'm looking forward to a fun couple flights tomorrow morning (or rather 8 hrs from now!) when Taylor and I fly to Alice Springs where we'll go on a backpacking tour around Uluru. We're super super excited for it. I can't remember the last time I went camping and now a few days out under the stars in the Australian Outback sounds amazing.

Getting up in a few hours to catch a ride to the airport and I'll be pretty much incommunicado for a good week at least. The final countdown is on and is ticking down fast. Uluru trip, back to Brizzie on Saturday for our Farewell dinner with Ann, flying out to Melbourne the next morning, back to Brisbane on Thursday and then flying back home on Sunday the 21st. Its insanity. and I need to stop thinking about it and just enjoy my last couple weeks here!

Here's some pics as always:

Pretty sure this lil guy speaks for himself

Not a great pic, but you get the idea

Pro on land

Taylor, Trevor, and myself

Lobster Status - Pt 2 The Day/Week of Recovery

So getting back from Heron was a bit of a bummer, we'd had a blast and it also meant that it was time to get back to school, woohoo! The first week flew by and we actually had our last class for Australian Marine Environments, apparently they realised that this was class that kids were basically taking for the cool trips and with them over, what was the point of further class? Anywho, like I said class was class but the big things I was looking forward to was a string of 3 good nights out, the usual Thursday night at a pub, King's Conclusion (themed Heaven and Hell), and lastly ICC Recovery.

Thursday night was a typical night out with the Cromwell folk. Dancing, drinking, ice cube fights broken up by security, all around good times ya know? Fuster and I hadn't initially planned on going to King's Conclusion because we'd assumed that it would be dominated by the all guy's colleges King's and Leo's. Then a couple of our friends informed us that this was the mentality of most of the other guys, thus producing a wonderful ratio of girls to guys. So we got tickets.

Good choice on our part, Conclusion was a blast! We dressed up as devils between the sheets (wore a bed sheet with devil horns) which not to brag too much was an awesome costume that required minimal effort. Can you guess who came up with the costume idea? :P In Heaven was a great band from St. John's while down in Hell lay the bar and a DJ bumping some dance tunes. Being the white boy that I am, I found myself much more at home rocking out in Heaven than on the dance floor in Hell. It started to rain a bit but by then most of us were having such a great time we didn't particularly care. The band ended their set before we were ready to go so we found our way back down to Hell which ended up being a good time as well. By the time they ran out of drinks and they started telling people to go home, the entire place was Mud City. Some crazy kids were literally slapping their shirts into the mud to make it splash for a good 5 minutes...

Got up earlyish the next morning to get ready for ICC Recovery which was themed Incredible Childhood Cartoon Heroes so Fuster and I went as Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble complete with plastic clubs. This was where the destruction of my epidermis begins. The weather for the past week had been cloudy/rainy so we weren't expecting Saturday to be any different. Wrong. It was gorgeous. Good thing right? Yes/No. Yeah for good weather, boo for stupid me forgetting sunscreen. Not til we had arrived at this golfcourse overlooking the Brisbane River and plopped down with our first beers did the thought occur to me that crap, I am screwed in this sun. Faced with inevitable sun burn I did the only thing I really could do, I pushed the thought aside and made sure I had a good time to make it worth it.

Apparently it is college tradition at Recovery events like these to put food coloring into your drink and then spit it on each other. The idea had naturally grossed us out when we first of it but we went in with the mentality that if someone should start doing it to us we'd of course have to return the favor. Enter the Dickinson females. Taylor and I were idly enjoying our drinks and some convo with some other Crommie folk when all of a sudden we were attacked by the Ninja Turtles! However, rather than their typical sais, bo staff, nunchuks, and katanas they came at us with colored goon! Sans any food coloring of our own the Flintstones duo was helpless against their onslaught.

Later though we managed to get our hands on some dye and then the battle was on. Next thing I know there is red, blue, and yellow beer and goon flying everywhere and we are covered head to toe in it. Moving past the slightly gross nature of the act, it was ridiculously fun! We ran into a couple of the other Dson guys and for the rest of the day sneak attacks occurred over and over again. Also available was a huge bounce castle with ginormous boxing gloves. Of course in order to maintain our manliness the guys had to duke it out. Thankfully with the aid of alcohol, large boxing gloves, and the general insanity of jumping around in a bouncy castle trying to box I was able to hold my own ground.

The entire event lasted about 6 hours and was an absolute blast. When we got back to Cromwell we promptly passed out and didn't wake up until 7:30. My first waking thought was oh man I am in soo much bloody pain. Taylor and I both got up and all I could do was stand there shaking muttering about how much pain I was in while all he could was stare at the lobster I had become. The pics I took of it didn't turn out particularly well and I can't say I'm too proud of the way I looked so I shant be putting them up.

I don't want to spend the rest of this post complaining about the pain caused by my own stupidity but just to put things in perspective, for the next four days my existence was basically made up of eating, sleeping, and watching South Park when I couldn't fall asleep. Though it made for a great excuse not to go to school! Within about a week, the pain was pretty much gone and I would ecstatically say to people, "Look what I can do!" whilst jumping around and waving my arms in circles. I was pretty darned happy to be able to move painfree let me tell you.
Anywho, enough writing, time for a couple pictures!

Me and my two ninja turtles, Megan and Maia at ICC Recovery

Fuster and I with a couple Crommie gals, Jamaica and Nacho at Conclusion