The Day I Publicly Embarrassed Myself

There are probably some people who can say they were born to surf and can easily stand up the first time...I am not one of those people. I probably don't have the best balance in the world and I quickly learned that when I went to the Manly Surf School last Sunday with my friends. When you first get to the beach you put on a wetsuit and rash t-shirt to keep you warm since the water is pretty chilly. We then made our way down the beach to an area where all the surfboards were piled up. I picked a pretty blue surfboard (different than the one in the pic) and thought that if my surfboard was pretty it must make me a good surfer...I was wrong. The guides started off by showing you how to catch the wave and ride it in like a giant boogie board (which eventually that's all my board would do). After learning to ride a wave, we learned how to stand up and attempt to actually surf a wave.

The hardest part was probably getting the board to balance. You had to get your hands flat on the board and push up to get your knees to bend and eventually onto your feet. My hands kept going towards the edge of the board which caused the board to be uneven and pretty much impossible to stand up at that point. I was able to stand up about 3 times but that was pretty much it. So even though I was not that successful in my surfing expedition at least I can say I surfed in Australia!

My sad attempt at standing up ------------------>

Random Pics!

Here are a couple of pics that have not made it to the blog but I think y'all would enjoy!!

And my birthday is in 8 days!!

Royal Botantical Gardens

Last Saturday some friends and I decided to explore Sydney more and went to the Royal Botanic Gardens right next to the Sydney Opera House. Every time I go downtown it still feels so weird how accustomed I have come to always seeing the Opera House even though it is one of those places people always associate with Australia. The gardens were beautiful with so many different birds including wild cockatoos and a ton of beautiful flowers and interesting trees.

The best part about the gardens is that it is one of the only places where you can see both the opera house and the harbor bridge at the same time!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

And especially my mom and grandmas! 

Past Adventures

I'm starting to get really bad at keeping this up to date but school has started to pick back up and I've had to actually start focusing on school more. The past two weekends I've done a lot of things around the Sydney area. I went to another rugby game the Warratahs vs Chiefs and this was different from the last one because it was part of the Super Rugby League. They seemed to be more intense and from talking to a lot of Americans who play rugby at home it matched more of what Americans think rugby is about. It was really fun and always interesting to see a sport that is so dominant in this country yet we rarely think of it back at home.

That following Saturday after the rugby game I went to the local race horse track that is actually right across the street from my apartment. For about a month Sydney has Carnival which is less street carnival and more upscale horse races and gala events. They have three races three Saturdays in a row and I went to the second one. This may have been one of my favorite things I have done in Sydney so far because of how unique it was. You got to see a total of 9 races throughout the day and there was so much to do. Not only could you watch them warm up and race but also could go to the winner's circle and watch the flowers placed over the horse. Everyone in attendance had fancy dresses with elaborate hats just like the Kentucky Derby and was a great day for people watching.
    

Last weekend I was able to go to the Royal National Park which is the second oldest park in the world. We started the day with a canoe ride along one of the major river systems and then got to explore some of the national park. They took us to a beach there where we had a BBQ and I got to try kangaroo for the first time (I don't really like it). It had this weird taste that I can't really explain but it would not be my first choice. We got to stay at the beach for awhile and then we were taken to a field to practice throwing a boomerang. I learned that I can not throw a boomerang and it is a lot harder than it looks, but at least I got to say I attempted to throw one in Australia.

Overall I have had a couple of exciting weekends and this week made my travel plans for camping in the Outback in June and will also be going to Melbourne in June to see the Great Ocean Road and Philips's Island for the penguins.