I Learned to Surf!

I just cut my bangs. On my own. Well, I did have some trusty advice from Sara (thanks!). For the most part you probably won't notice a difference in the photos, but what I did was added some thickness to the bangs and made the cut more of a rounded pyramid versus the previous cut of a from one side of my forehead to the other. They were getting too long any way. I'm happy with the (new-to-me) look.

Went to the Dunda Bar (aka the Down Under Bar) Wednesday night. It was Ladies' Night and Wet T-shirt Contest Night and Dirty Dancing Night, so, naturally, the entire flat was going. Iain and I weren't drinking that night, but we went out for an hour or so. (See link to the photos below.) It was a fun time. Inga's cousins were visiting from Sipan (not sure of the spelling, but it's some remote South Pacific island) and Goril (the girl, name is pronounced "gord-ill" - the r is a rolling r and sounds like a d - Norwegian names... hehe). Any way, Goril won the Dirty Dancing contest, haha - the photos Inga showed me! Goril was trashed by the time I got there, and she'd already left, but Matt, her husband was still around. Sara and I had to explain the true meaning behind Soulja Boy's Superman dance to Morten, hehe. Good fun, over all, though I'm not much of a Wednesday-night partier.

BIG NEWS: I learned to SURF yesterday! And I am REALLY SORE today, haha! Oh, man - it was complete fun! Inga and I trekked to QUT, a group of 20 of us bussed down to Currumbin Alley (about 30 minutes south of Surfer's Paradise in the Gold Coast). We did some safety and instruction lessons, then we were off to give it all a go. First of all let me say this: people you see surfing make it look like a piece of cake. People you see surfing for the first time make it look like that nasty dish Aunt Petunia always brings to Thanksgiving. It was really hard, fighting the waves to get in the back (behind the waves so you can ride them in), but if you can persist and just keep trying, it IS possible! Yay! I would say that I got 4 or 5 good rides yesterday. The instructor told me I was one of the best beginners there that day. Now that may not be saying much, but it was enough motivation to keep trudging into the waves and going again and again until my body was able to feel what it's like to really get up and surf. After my body felt the correct feeling of surfing, it was easy. I loved it. I don't even mind feeling so sore today, haha. Trying to put my hair in a pony tail was a challenge. I can't wait to "teach" Adam how to surf when he visits! As far as photos, I gave my camera to Zarina (the QUT trip advisor lady) who was "okay" with the camera. She stood really far away and obviously didn't figure out the zoom feature. Any way, I'm in a good number of the photos. Check 'em out!

Other new photos up: New Year's Eve & New Year's Day

Here's some randomness for ya: I was doing some homework on a bench on campus earlier this week. Some guy walked by and said hello. Then he told me about how a year ago a small bit of Fool's Gold (the movie with Kate Hudson and Matthew McConneghey (however his name is spelled)) was filmed on the QUT campus! He could have been just crazy, but I've no real reason to think he was making it up. I've not seen the film, so I don't know, but if you have seen the film and there's an older looking court-house like building, that just may be the one on the Garden's Point QUT campus!

Oh, guess what! John Pav - a guy I got to know a bit before I left for this trip and who is studying abroad down in Melbourne at Monash Uni) is visiting me in two short weekends! He booked his flight earlier today, and when he gets here I'm going to show him around Brisbane and we'll go on a trip to Stradbroke Island for a day! Yippee!

Tried some new lollies over the last week:
*Violet Crumble (Nestle's version of Cadbury's Crunchie bar)
*Bounty (a bit strange tasting version of a Mounds bar)
*Mars (I think the US has these but I'd never tried it - very tasty, just like a Snickers without the nuts - Snickers are so much better, though)

I'm about 3/4 done reading Brave New World. I'm really enjoying it! Huxley's ideas of how life would be if children were hatched instead of born (which, in this story, is a socially expelled way of life), how some people caught in the middle of both worlds (the futuristic and the "current") have to cope - I think there's more to that part of the story but I've not finished the book, so this is all I know so far. Any way, it's becoming a favorite book. Thank you to Adam for the inspiration to read it!

Iain recommended I read Deer Hunting with Jesus soon so we could discuss it. At first I was pretty set against it (weird for me since I never turn down a book), but he swayed me into interest. So I might read that book in a few reads' time. I think next I'm going to read a happy book... maybe Chocolat or Date with a Devil.

I've got quite a bit of slang for ya:
*mozzie - mosquito
*nong - idiot
*olds/oldies - parents
*petrolhead - car enthusiast
*Rafferty's Rules - having no rules
*sunnies - sunglasses
*tall poppy - a successful person rising above others (frowned upon, hence the notion to "cut down the tall poppies" so everyone is equal)
*unit - flat, condominium
*wog - illness, like the flu
*yakka - hard work
*zeds - sleep, "stack some zzz's" (z is pronounced "zed" here. likewise, h is pronounced "haytch")
*Aussie Salute - waving away annoying flies
*bathers - swimsuit
*crash hot - wonderful, the best
*Drizabone - brand of waterproof wax coating (dry-as-a-bone, Aussies smear syllables together a bit)

Well, that's enough for today. Hmm... maybe I can squeeze in another Easter Holiday post. I really should. Okay, I've talked myself into it. But first I have to study German for a bit. = )

-Amanda