Brissy Life

Since returning from Byron Bay the other week life has been fairly normal.  It has been nice to hang out with friends, meet new people, and do some exploring around Brisbane!

At the beginning of the semester I joined the beach volleyball club and am absolutely in love with it (as evidenced by the five hours of volleyball played last Tuesday!).  The friends I have already made are awesome and I seem to meet new people at each session.  Two Saturdays ago was the social fours tournament which was a full day of volleyball, sweat, sand, and socializing.  Designated as team captain, I put on my best mean face and did my best to get the team pumped up to make it past pool play and into the final tournament.  Well, despite my efforts and the blood, sweat, and tears left on the court by us all, we went 0-3.  Having written off any hopes of tournament play, we were absolutely shocked to find out we somehow got a second chance and made it to the tournament.  We kept up our stellar performance from the previous games and lost our chance at redemption…and didn’t get a third chance this time.  So much for the creation of a dream team, but we did have a great time!

That night we went downtown to experience some Aussie comedy, courtesy of Josh Thomas, with a group of people from our study abroad group.  Between the trek to the Brisbane Powerhouse taking longer than expected and underestimating how long it takes four girls to get ready in one bathroom (especially considering I had been playing volleyball all day in 80+ degree weather), we made it to the show minutes before it started.  Josh Thomas was hilarious and it was only made funnier by the people in the crowd who went a little too hard at happy hour earlier that evening.  If you are intrigued, check him out on iTunes!  An added bonus was spectacular views of downtown Brisbane from the CityCat river ferry on our way home.  Unfortunately I didn’t get any good pictures of the view, but believe me, it was magnificent.

The next day was St. Patty’s day and we decided to head to the beaches at Gold Coast to visit friends and soak up some sun.  That day was a scorcher, so we quite literally had to sprint through the sand and dive into the water to prevent burning the bottoms of our feet.  Just as we were getting comfortable after a walk along the beach, a wind storm blew in from nowhere.  You may think that a breeze would feel good while roasting on the beach.  But this was no breeze.  After about ten seconds of being pelted by grains of sand we realized it was not going to let up, not to mention the flying sand started to become a bit painful, so we grabbed our things and ran.  So much for a full day at the beach…

Instead we went a bit up the coast to Surfer’s Paradise.  The beautiful beach, restaurants, shops, and clubs make it one of the most popular and touristy beaches at the Gold Coast.  People celebrating St. Patty’s day made for some great entertainment as we took in the environment that is Surfer’s.  All in all, it was a successful day.  Although the greatest success was Jess and I sprinting down the street once we got back to Brisbane in order to catch the very last CityCat ferry of the night back to our apartment.  Somehow we have made a habit of running after ferries and buses, sometimes successfully and other times we are not so lucky.  It would be very nice if we could break this habit.

This is pretty much what we looked like.

On a less exciting note, this week I took on the task of writing my first research paper of the semester about the representation of the Aussie bloke in Australian popular culture.  Considering that I have not had to write a paper in at least a year, it was a bit of a daunting task.  But the fact that one of my references was an article titled, “Beer, Glorious Beer” made it much more tolerable.  So yes, despite all the awesome things I have done here in Australia, I can say that I am taking part in the “study” part of study abroad.

This past Sunday a group of us went to Stradbroke Island (aka Straddie), which is the second largest sand island in the world.  Nearby are the world’s largest and third largest sand islands, Frasier and Moreton Islands.  The day started at the lovely hour of 7 AM with a bus ride to the ferry that would take us to Straddie.  Once we arrived, we got a lesson from an Aboriginal man about the different types of boomerangs—the take home message was that boomerangs are weapons, NOT toys.  One girl from the group learned this first hand as she got hit in the stomach by a rogue boomerang during our throwing practice.  She was fine, but will probably have a bruise for a while to remind her of the day.  Whoops.  And no, in case you were wondering, the rogue boomerang was not mine.  But I did attempt to throw one...and once it kind of came back in my general direction!

After Boomerang 101 we got to paint our own boomerangs!  As a wannabe arts and crafts major, it was one of the highlights of the day.  We all took this very seriously, trying to create something that could pass as authentically Aboriginal and not look like the work of a small child.  I’d say it was a success!

Later in the day we made it to one of the most beautiful beaches I have seen.  Once again, pictures cannot capture how awesome this place is, but here are a few anyway.  Not a bad place to spend a couple hours with great friends!

Luckily for Jess and I, we got dropped off at uni after the Straddie adventure so we did not have to sprint to catch public transportation.  Win! 

Cheers!