Wipe Out

Friday, May 25, 2012

                My second day of work, it was interesting to say the least.  I get up fine in the mornings but I was starting to feel sick come Wednesday night and by Friday I was feeling it in my throat. I got to school fine, a little close on time but it was just because my second bus was running behind.  At school are three other interns.  Dorte is from Denmark and she has been there since February.  Emy is from Holland and she leaves this week.  Victoria is from Germany and Friday was her last day.  So since Emy and Victoria were leaving around the same time we had a massive food party before school started.  Victoria made this huge black forest cake, which I was told is a German thing.  I don’t like fruit in cakes really and the jelly sauce that comes along with that stuff, so I kind of forced it down. But Emy made these tiny drop cookies, they too were a Netherlands kind of thing. But the rest of the staff brought pastries from their favorite bakeries and breakfast quiche and scrambled eggs.  It was all so much food and my lunch was basically me snacking away at everything there.  I had a blueberry pastry that was so so good along with everything else I tried.  The day with the kids went well.  I had to bring my bag full of towels and clothes for the weekend to school cause straight from school I had to go into the city to where I was getting picked up for the weekend up north.

                I got to take a train into the city from Bondi which was a nice change because taking the bus over and over is getting old already.  There were 11 people from purdue who were doing the surfing trip and three other men who were from Switzerland who are backpacking for 3 months. They had just been in South Africa and after Australia are going to New Zealand.  They were my age but for some reason they looked like they were about 15. I didn’t ever talk to them but they just smoked cigarettes a lot and talked among themselves.  But we left Sydney at 5:30pm and the traffic getting out of the city was just insane. We hadn’t even gone a block in ten minutes.  Our driver – Jake played his music, what I guessed was surfer music since I didn’t recognize any of it but that could just be because I don’t know any Australian artists.  It was a 6 hour drive along the coast to Crescent head.  It was long but we stopped every 2 hours.  We watched step brothers and iron man, there was a probably 22 inch TV hanging up in the front of the van.  It was a semi scary drive because for a good 30 minutes we were driving on a dirt road that was throwing us around in the van and none of us knew the guy besides just meeting him.  We later joked that we all thought he was going to pull us over and kill us and leave us out there and no one was going to find us since it was out in the middle of nowhere and none of us had reception.  When we were leaving the city he taught us how to properly ask people how they are – you say how you going but it gets all mumbled together. And when we met people on the camp grounds they have such an even stronger accent than those in the city, making it that much harder to understand.  But we got there all fine around midnight.  As soon as I got out of the van I was freezing, I thought being six hours north I would have been warmer, nope.  All I brought to Australia was a sweater and a leather jacket and I only brought the sweater up north.  We set up a bonfire and all sat around the fire and were introduced to the other surf instructors.  They include Sam who was the cook, Rhys, Niclas, Dan, and then Jake who had driven us.  We went to bed late because we were into the talking and the heat from the fire.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

                We had been told 7 were going to be the earliest we were going to be woken up.  The guys got up and went and checked on the waves early around 6 to study them and then we were woken up at 8.  Breakfast was given to us which was nice, I had tea and some cereal and then a peanut butter and jelly.  I couldn’t give up the chance to have one since I haven’t had once since I’ve been in the states.  It tasted different but it was still good.  During breakfast we sat outside and learned about surfing.  We learned about rips and how to deal with them.   It was funny Rhys spent so much time talking about how dangerous they were and where to find them and definitely put some scare into us.  Then preceding that went on to say that we were going to use the rips to get out into the ocean.  We all just looked at each other like he was crazy.  Following that we just learned some basic rules.  He told us it’s not the getting up part that’s hard it’s the paddling out which I didn’t believe him at all.  After our learning session we all got in our swim suits and froze outside waiting for our wet suits.  Once we got in them we got our boards and make the hike over to the beach.

 It was about a 5 minute walk to the beach but half of it was up hill and the boards are fairly heavy.  My forearms got sore quick from carrying the board.  Once we got there we got in a circle and learned the proper way to stand up on the board.  It’s three quick movements that you definitely need to be flexible for.  Not having done much exercise or stretching my groin was tight after.   I was super excited and cold but ready to get into the water.  I found out quick that Rhys was right, paddling out is so hard! The waves were coming in about every 7 seconds so as you’re paddling you just get hit by this massive wave and the whole staying on your board but making yourself keep paddling out was so exhausting.  The waves don’t look big in many of my pictures but I promise you they were.  I would never get in that water to just swim without a board or some other kind of flotation device.  The waves were really strong and half the time I was hit with a wave it knocked my board straight into me and hit me somewhere on my body.  The actual timing of when to get up on your board is another hard thing to get down.  How most of the day worked was you paddled out and when an instructor was ready he held the board and waited for a wave.  I’m then told to start paddling and then they count to 3 and on 3 you’re supposed to stand up and right before 3 they give a big push on the board forward.  It’s hard to get up if you weren’t paddling fast enough so that’s why they push at the last second.  It’s odd you feel as though you’re paddling so hard away from the wave to get speed but at the same time you’re barely moving because the wave is sucking you in.  All to say my first wave was a good one, I almost got up.  But my second wave I stood up! It’s a very addicting sport.  In the morning session I had two amazing waves that I got up and stood there as the wave pushed me to shore.  The feeling is definitely an adrenal rush.  I felt bad, a bunch of us were paddling out and a girl from my school was in front of me when a huge wave came and she was taken back and her back went straight into the nose of my board.  I can only imagine how bad that had to hurt and for the rest of the morning session she sat on her board or on the beach.  It wasn’t until the afternoon when I had some bad falls.  But we got lunch first, made the hike back and had some sandwiches.  Once I finally and everyone got the energy we headed back to the beach.  Come afternoon the waves had changed so we had to paddle out farther to where they were forming. 

My first wave in the afternoon was the best one I had all weekend.  It’s such a great feeling and then the one after that I took on the wave by myself and got up with no push.  I had a pretty bad fall with the whole salt water up my nose and getting tossed and turned under with the waves and my leg rope tangling up my body.  After that I sat on my board out in the water for a while.  There was one large massive wave that everyone was about to get up on and I was planning on it too.  It looked massive so I started paddling out and started to get up and I was up for about 5 seconds before I saw Rhys in front of me.  I thought I was going to hit him so I just lost balance and then I was under the water and I felt a tug on my leg rope and realized my board wasn’t attached to me anymore.  A wave had taken my board out towards shore so I had to swim out to it.  It’s amazing how much the waves change the depth of the sand.  Where we catch the waves the water is shallow but then go towards shore and it gets really deep.  Of course where my board floated to was where it was deep.  I am pretty afraid of open water and not knowing what’s underneath me.  So as I was swimming not having anything to hold on to I freaked a lot and just tried swimming faster ha. I was extremely relieved once I finally got to my board which felt forever because waves kept pushing it further away from me.  After breaking the cord off my board I didn’t get much more waves.  I had to get a new board and then it took me over 5 minutes to paddle out past the waves.  By the time I got out there I was exhausted and frustrated that it’s so hard to get through them. 

The sun started going down and we all had to head back to camp.  Surfing is exhausting and then knowing you have to walk back with the board isn’t fun either.  We finally got a shower which was such a treat but they had to be quick because the camp didn’t have that much hot water.   After showering we had dinner which was delish.  Sam made steak, sausage, potatoes, and salad.  It was happy to get food in me to hopefully give me some energy back after losing so much out in the water.  we sat around the fire for the rest of the night.  As soon as that sun goes down it gets freezing out.  I didn’t manage to leave the fire much because I got cold quick.  I ended the night earlier than others but was in bed before 12. 

Sunday, May 27, 2012

                Second day of surfing.  We woke up at 8 again so I got some sleep in but come Sunday morning is when my cold moved to my head, I now had a stuffy nose and couldn’t breathe through it. Yet we all got up, a little slower than yesterday and made our way out to eat breakfast.  We were all stiff but still excited to try it out again.  The whole paddling thing again is just so frustrating but once you get out there it’s so much better.  We only had a morning session of surfing and for some time the other girls and I took pictures finally.  I don’t know if I would jump at another experience to go surfing but it was so much fun.  It’s such a great feeling to catch a good wave, but it takes so long to get a good wave and the energy expenditure is outrageous.  It’s amazing also what all the instructors know about the waves and how they come in and the correct places to be.  We headed back to camp carrying those heavy boards once again but for the last time and had lunch.  We finally left by 1pm and made the long drive back.  On the way home I tried Hungry Jack which has a very similar logo to burger king.  I had a chicken sandwich; it was fine, tasted like fast food that’s for sure.  I was absolutely miserable on the drive home with my nose and had no tissues, it was torture.  But finally come 7pm I was home.  I was in bed by 9 and the only reason I didn’t go to bed earlier was because I had to do a load of laundry. 

Monday, May 28, 2012

                Let’s see Monday was my first day back to work from the weekend obviously.  I woke up probably the worst I had been yet.  I packed my purse full of tissues for my trip to school.  I still got up fine I was just sluggish.  My first bus is supposed to leave my stop at 7:40am however it came early so by the time I got to the junction I was able to make an earlier bus.  I decided to stop at a café then before school.  I walked to a circled corner where there is about 4 different cafes.  I went to the closest one and extremely happy with the place.  I believe it’s called the sun café.  They have a little walk up window where you can order and my hot chocolate was delish.  I got to work at 8:15 and I sat in the staff room until the bell rang at 9.  I’m starting to recognize more of the kids and remember their behaviors.  My two teachers – Leila and Imp are there on Thursdays and Fridays, and then on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesdays my two teachers are Lelia and Leah.  I had yet to met Leah however she didn’t come to class on Monday so it was Lelia and a causal teacher.  One of the boys didn’t show up either so the load wasn’t as heavy.  It was a good day, nothing horrible went on, one of my boys spent most of the day asleep.  He didn’t want to wake up and didn’t eat anything all day.  We got to make beef stroganoff for the kids.  Only one of the boys was able to help, the rest stayed in the class.  But those who don’t have any dietary restrictions they enjoyed it.  I had some myself and it was good, we had rice with it and it was made with a packet.  In the afternoon we went into the hall and had dance time which went well.  I came home I was able to get on skype since Jeremy was awake in the middle of the night and was able to speak to him and then I went straight to bed without doing much at all. 

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

                So I woke up feeling much better, yesterday I went through three different tissue boxes in three classrooms.  Today I didn’t have as much as a runny nose, more just stuffed but still annoying.  I was a little better about getting around in the morning, but still was tired.  My first bus cam early again which is nice but still a little uneasy for me because I’m afraid to miss it.  Yesterday as I was leaving my apartment I was so tempted to just get a taxi to take me to school however it’s so expensive and I would feel bad about it.  The thought of it was nice though ha.  Since my bus was early again I was able to stop by my café and get a drink.  The man who makes the drinks looks like jack Johnson.  It’s unbelievable.  I don’t know if it’s just in my mind being close to a beach and constantly seeing people walk with their surf boards through Bondi. 

                Today was incredibly stressful.  Neither of the teachers in my class were there today so I had two casual teachers who knew less about the students than me.  Being around the boys for 3 days I had learned a lot but to be the one in the room who knows the most was overwhelming.  Plus I was on duty during tea time so I didn’t get a break until 1pm.  Come lunch I spent most of my time with my head on arm.  One of my boys is usually such a help and is never a problem, but today was a rough day for him.  He doesn’t like when anyone does anything wrong and I think not having a regular teacher there threw him off.  It was a long day for him and for me too.  I came home and got in bed right away and took an hour nap.  Im not sure how I got out and manage to write this all.

Places that have similar names as home

- cold rock (coldstone)

- spaghetti & co (noodles & co)

-wave chips (sun chips)

-sizing for women, a small is size 8 and goes up by 2 for tops

-sunnies = sunglasses