Surf Camp!!!!

Hey everybody! SO its Monday night here and I got back from “Surf Camp" last night around 8pm…I have been in classes all day and am BEYOND sore from surfing so im very very tired but I want to tell yall about my weekend..

SO on Friday night we left Sydney around 6pm on a bus and got to the (gorgeous) town of Gerroa around 9pm. 

Gerroa, New South Wales

When we got there we were all introduced to the staff (all gorgeous Australian surfers)..they all had names like Hayden and Shayno…names you would expect hot Australian surfers to have…

There was one common area where everyone hung out and played music/ate/drank etc. The only rule they gave us was “NO Jack Johnson”..which I thought was funny.

The main area

Napping in the sun

THEN we got put in our rooms… which is where it got interesting...

The rooms fit 6 people max and we slept in bunk beds. It was very cabin-esque. The rooming situation reminded me of "Gwen Valley"...a (nature?) camp mom forced Sophie and I to go to as young children where we had to pick our own food in order to eat. I hated it. We made our own beds upon arrival and hand-washed all our own dishes...so it wasn’t luxurious by any means. However, the porches did have great hammocks to hang out in. 

Relaxing in the hammock on the porch : )

The cabins smelled extremely weird/unfamiliar and the blankets had stains on them and there were bottles under the bed...AND we also had to put our stuff in trash bags so we wouldnt get bed bugs. Kingsley and Crobs, you would have gotten a taxi back to Sydney ASAP.

Ishtar and I roomed with 4 guys. Drew (our senior RA from San Fran) and Peter (newest bff) are on our program and super great. 

Peter and I in our wetsuits..

The other 2 guys were complete strangers, Jason and Elmer….who we met upon arrival....

The first night we were there, Ishtar and I shared the bottom bunk (both curled up in balls) because we were so terrified of Elmer and Jason killing us while we slept…we ended up surviving through the night. Barely. 

It was pretty awkward/hilarious though because when the lights went off in our cabin and everyone was silent Ishtar and I honestly couldn’t hold in our laughter for probably 15 min straight. I know the guys wanted to murder us (specifically Jason). 

Enter Jason. Jason was a middle-aged business man that came to learn how to surf by himself…he didn’t say a word all weekend and stayed up late on his computer doing work (??)..he was extremely creepy and I basically saw him naked and I am twitching even thinking about him. He was very scary and unfriendly.

Enter Elmer. Elmer (who was in his 30s) just moved to Sydney last month from Austria (he misses his longtime gf). He also came alone to surf camp…which I think is extremely weird and creepy but im letting it slide for Elmer (NOT weirdo creep Jason). Elmer also sported a signature brown-colored weenie-bikini that I will never EVER forget.

Elmer ended up being the STAR of the trip and by far the best surfer!! J He also taught Ishtar how to dance the traditional Austrian “Vienna Waltz” (below). I feel very bad for judging him and thinking he was a serial killer the first night...I was very wrong. He was so sweet and eager to make friends/learn to surf!!

Sweet Elmer enjoying a beer : )

Elmer teaching Ishtar how to Waltz : )

We woke up at 7am sharp for breakfast on Saturday morning and then got our wetsuits on (truly my least favorite invention on planet earth) and walked to the beach. 

My particular wetsuit was a huge issue. There was a hole in the crotch-area which made it VERY uncomfortable to walk (im going to spare you the details). Bottom line, I am still limping very badly because of this effing wetsuit. I would rather shave my head than put another one of those things on my body again.

The wetsuits (aka death). 

After pulling those babies on, we spilt up into groups of 8 and learned the basics/got our surfboards.

Lucky for me, I was in the group with the 2 hottest surf instructors you can imagine (Hayden and Christian). The sun was out and it was like 65 degrees all weekend (so lucky!!) and the water was cold at first but you got used to it pretty quickly. I really think I want to move to a small beach town in Australia for at least a few months sometime before I die. They don’t care about anything and just hang out and surf and look hot and smile. They arent very clean though..

Anyway, we were all (for the most part) surfing within the first 2 lessons, which was awesome! The waves were pretty small so it wasn’t that big of an accomplishment but it was soo much fun!!

Ishtar surfing on the 1st day!!
We had two 2-hour lessons a day and they were constantly taking videos and pictures in the water and would put them up on the screen while we ate lunch and dinner which was very entertaining!!

The instructors thought I had a funny accent and couldn’t get my name down so they just referred to me as “Carolina.” We quickly became best friends and I really (truly) did fall IN love with every single one of them. OMG I miss them so much. 

Ishtar and I with (L-->R) Matt, Shayno, Paul, Christian, mustache man and Hayden!! <3

On Saturday night everybody walked up a huge hill to go to the “Fisherman’s Bar” (dad, you would LOVE this bar) to drink and hang out and watch the sunset. A lot of the locals hung out there…The staff told us the first night “don’t be alarmed by the toothless fishermen/women if they want to dance with you…they are harmless!”

"Bevvies" at the bar over-looking the beach/mountains/sunset

Ishtar and Peter (making an awkward face)

It was SO gorgeous and I got tons of great pictures! You could see the beach we surfed on and the mountains behind it and huge bright green pastures with adorable cows hanging out all in one view…plus the sunset! It was soo great!

"7 mile beach" where we learned to surf!!

A baby cow I met!

All in all, it was a ton of fun! The sleeping quarters were a bit rough and I don’t like waiting in lines and I had to do that kind of a lot but I got over it. Oh, and the wetsuits…especially putting them back on when they were wet (Kingsley you would have died)….not a good time. Those are my only minor complaints though! : ) I loved surfing, fell in love with 4 guys and laughed a ton! And met Elmer. 

Ishtar and I are planning to go to a beach 45 min outside of Sydney (Cronulla) in about a month and stay in a hotel/hostel and rent surfboards for the weekend! So hopefully that will work out! 

I will keep you updated with my next adventure in the coming days! I am going to the Sydney zoo (with Pascal!!!!!) and a Rugby game later this week so I will make sure to update the blog with plenty of pictures! Miss you all!! 

Xoxo, Bess

Ps- Hope Irene didn’t hurt too bad?! : /

Convicts, Chocolate and Teapots

HEY EVERYONE!!

OK so this week has been soo busy but so much fun! I think I am finally starting to get over this jet lag?!

So, I joined the Sydney Uni gym this week! Woo! 97.4% of the reason for doing so was so Ishtar (my roommate) and I could meet the (male) students…However after 2 workouts the only thing that has come from my $130 membership fee is me not being able to move and lying in bed all morning…soo my plan has been really getting off to a rough start. I will let you know how that (hopefully) improves next week.

On Sunday, my uncle’s really good friend, John Francis, took me out to lunch with his son and his son’s girlfriend. I immediately fell in love. John Francis is the sweetest, most adorable Australian man I could have possibly imagined (you should have seen his shoes…I almost cried). He took me to the harbor to eat at the fish market…this really nice (weird) restaurant that has such a beautiful view of the harbor. His son and gf are THE nicest, coolest people and invited me to come over in a few weeks for dinner/to go out. Love them! The only problem with this outing is I despise seafood and it’s the one thing I hands down refuse (not matter the circumstance) to shove down my throat. Normally I can pretend/fake that I like what I am being served…but not seafood. So I got there and had no choice but to tell these 3 nice people (who all LOVE seafood…obviously) that I cant eat seafood or I will die(which I think I might). So I had some delicious chicken. They took me to the actual fish market afterwards and I saw the most insane animals being sliced open I have ever seen. HUGE bright fish, lobsters, octopus, blue crabs the size of a football…everything..it was gross/cool. I got a picture with John Francis and when he sends it to me I will post it. He also took me on a drive around Sydney and showed me all these cool places to go (and not to go). So that was a lot of fun and I am so glad I have someone to call if I need to!  

Monday we started classes…I honestly didn’t even think twice about the academic portion of this trip. Much to my surprise, there is a large portion. I am taking two classes (cant complain that much), “Mass Media in Australia” and “Australian culture and Society.” Luckily, I have no classes on Friday! The classes are sooo long though (3 and half hours) but pretty interesting and we get to watch a lot of films … which is superb and my doodling has already gotten soo much better.

In Mass Media we watched this short Australian animated film called “Harvie Krumpet” that won an Oscar. You HAVE to watch it. Its SO cute/hilarious!! You will love it even if you don’t have a heart.

Ahh and we watched this other thing…Henry you will like this (even though I am positive he doesn’t know this blog exists)…..

It was an episode of this show (their version of Saturday Night Live) where these 4 guys dressed up as Secret Service guys and drove a car with a guy dressed up as Bin Laden in the back into this huge world leaders meeting that was held in Sydney like 5 years ago… they basically got through all the security check points/less than 300 ft away from 40 top world leaders (including Bush) and everything with fake badges and a fake Bin Laden in the car…all to prove what a joke Australian security was. Anyway, it made major headlines here but it was hilarious. These people honestly are so relaxed…such a different lifestyle. With the exception of national security, I strongly encourage adopting it.

 

Wednesday we went on a tour of the old prisons were all the old convicts from London were sent in the 18th century. Ishtar pointed out that the old building reminded her of Anthropologie (the clothing store) haha so that might give yall a better visual.

They all slept in these cool hammocks...so that picture of me in a hammock does have some relevance. They had the weirdest sentences..like they would get life for "stealing linen" and then 7 years for "manslaughter? Very weird setup!? 

most unfair sentences ever!?

After the tour, Ishtar, Joe and I ended up walking all around downtown Sydney that afternoon and got ice cream and took some cool pics! Ishtar like forces me to take all these solo pics and im getting so natural at them! KK and Soph, im really glad yall arent here...you would make so much fun of me. 

Opera house!! woo

Hyde Park

Inner Harbor in front of the bridge

SO the food situation here has been interesting. First off, the grocery store that is closest to my apartment is in the basement of a mall about 5 blocks away. Ishtar and I went to get groceries (thinking it wasn’t going to be no problem) and it was truly one of the hardest (physically and kind of mentally) experiences of my life. After spending hours in the store trying not to barf at soups sold in plastic bags (SO sick) and milk not refrigerated I found my pasta, chocolate milk, coco pebbles (very different than my normal coco pebbles), hot dogs, etc. The self-check out appeared to be the best method of checking out at the time – WRONG- it ended up a complete disaster and thank god this man Shane helped us out. To get out of the store you have to take your CART of groceries UP THE ESCALTOR….(weirdest/worst concept ever).I couldn’t keep control of the cart and it basically flew out of my hands and omg I cant even tell you how bad it was. We then tried carrying our 20 bags of groceries back 5 blocks and literally over half the bags ended up busting on the street and it was a complete fail and everyone was staring and I wanted to die at the time. 

This picture doesnt even come close to describing the issues we had...

However, they have this place called “Max Brenners Chocolate Bar” here..they have them all over the world but it originated here so they are EVERYWHERE. It is truly like walking into Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.

There are pipes all over the ceilings and walls carrying all forms of liquid chocolate to huge churning pots of chocolate and massive chocolate fountains.

They serve EVERYTHING you could possibly imagine eating with chocolate on huge plates with a big bowl of melted chocolate to dip it in (I got strawberries the other day). They have all these chocolate-themed smoothies, coffees, teas, ice cream, etc. Then they have this huge “Chocolate Station” where you can buy any type/form of chocolate you could ever imagine. I mean it truly is a magical dream and I want to go into business with Max Brenner and I want to live there permanently. I am only allowing myself to go on Sundays though. ..woo!

Last night Ishtar and I went to this insane bar called ''World bar" and met up with this guy who was an exchange student at her school last year and we met a bunch of his friends (they all go to Sydney Uni) and it was SO much fun! So I am pumped we now have actual local friends outside our program! 
woo! There is one red head in the group that they call '"ranga"...like everyone calls him that because he has red hair like an orangatang (new nickname for Bridge?)! hahah he was seriously hilarious!! 

Ishtar with Ben, "Ranga", and Reece

 There were legit people from every country in the world there I think.

I also think it was a half-gay bar..a ton of the guys dress very metro here so its a pretty thin line...but I am pretty sure half these dudes were gay! They were all VERY nice and festive :) This bar is famous for these things called "teapots" that you buy and everyone was just carrying around their little teapots haha...which you fill with whatever kind of mixed drink you want and then you get three tiny shot glasses and just like share your "teapot" with your friends. Its sooo much fun! genius idea..

OK I still have so much to tell you but I have to pack because I am leaving in 2 hours to go to SURF CAMP!! Woooo!! The water is supposed to be kind of cold but apparently this beach is like to-die-for beautiful! SO I will tell you all about it and take tons of pictures!! And Pascal is coming! Couldn’t be more thrilled about that!! Have a great weekend! Miss you all! : )
Xo, Bess

 

 

FIRST WEEK IN SYDNEY!!

HEYY FRIENDS AND FAM!! : )

This is the first time I have had free time since I landed a few days ago so I thought I would start my blog!! woooo

Ok so I got here 3 (4? 5?) days ago and had a huge mishap within 20 milliseconds of getting off the plane. I know I exaggerate a lot but I swear this is what happened…

So my Qantas flight from LA to Sydney was cancelled and I was put on a “V Australia” flight instead. The flight was awesome and I watched Khloe and Lamar and Water for Elephants and it was a really great experience. Highly recommend that weird airline. Also the flight attendants looked like they jumped off the set of Mad Men (another highly recommended past time).

Anyway, I get to Sydney and get off the plane, grab my two HUGE overweight bags and I am looking for someone to pick me up and there is nobody. Like nobody waiting for me anywhere…(Sophie/Kingsley, you would have died). It was very scary and I felt horrible for myself. So after I have a (pretty long) panic attack in the bathroom with my two huge bags with me (so glad I will never see those strangers again), I decide to get in a cab and ask to be dropped off at “Sydney Uni.” They ask me which campus and I again freak out and just say, “the main one.”

Soooo 70$ later, I get dropped off (still with my two huge bags) in the MIDDLE of Sydney Uni which is in the MIDDLE of downtown Sydney (it would be like getting dropped off outside an NYU building in downtown NYC). I have no phone or anything…so long story short…I eventually find internet (on the 6^th floor of a random building…) and beg a stranger to let me use their login info to get on the internet to find my address…blah blah..a few hours later, I end up taking another cab to my apartment and (6am Sydney time, 8pm USA time) I arrive at my apartment. : ) I ended up being the first of 60 people in my program to get here because they had to stop in Fiji/NZ first..so I was actually pretty lucky!

So a few hours after that ordeal I met everyone downstairs for the first part of orientation! If any of you know me well, you know I HATE orientation stuff and bus rides with a bunch of people and crap like that but this orientation started out pretty well.. Got to know my 3 roommates and met some other really cool people! There are 60 people in my BU program and we are all living in one big apartment building in downtown Sydney that is brand new and pretty awesome! I would guess about 40/60 people actually go to BU/are from Boston and others are from random schools, like UNC. The two closest people to me (geographically….) are two Wake Forest dudes (one who was Aladdin at Disney World this summer…like that was his actual job..he is hilarious and the other one is Pauly D’s identical twin from Jersey Shore). Everyone (in my program) thinks I have a huge southern accent which is kind of funny/weird…you should hear their accents…

Anyway, orientation ends today (woo) and my 2 (woo) classes start on Monday. Last night we went on a Sydney Harbor cruise for dinner and “bevvies” which was pretty cool! We saw the Opera house and the bridge and everything..We had bad weather but I still got some great pics!

I am going to “Surf Camp” outside Sydney next weekend.. which I am SO excited about! You should see the instructors….o.m.g. The main instructor came out to the bars with us the other night and thought “all Americans watched Baywatch” and he also noticed that before we ask a question we go up to people and say, “Hey, I have a question..” haha which is kind of true?!  Anyway, he is insanely attractive and I can’t wait for next weekend!

I am trying to stay busy and get over this jet lag still…but I will keep yall updated with everything else I do! I have SO many fun things coming up! For example, the famous Sydney Zoo, camel riding on the beach, going to a show at the opera house, going to a rugby game, dune surfing, swimming with sharks (KINGSLEY!!), bungee jumping, a 4-day trip to Melbourne, scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef, sky diving, etc….so stay tuned for pics!! 

As much fun as I am having/as excited as I am, I still miss you all terribly!! Hope everything is great back home and I will try and update you at least once a week!! Xoxo, Bess