Our first weekend here, I headed to surf camp in Gerroa! We took a two-hour bus ride down south to Seven Mile Beach and stayed at camp in small cabins. They run a good deal down there - we had a total of three surf sessions, two on Saturday and one on Sunday, all meals provided for, and a trip to a local pub on our second night.
The beautiful Seven Mile Beach:
After our second session, we had an amazing sunset on the beach:
You really tell in these pictures, but my friends Carly, Emma, and I got chased by a kangaroo on the beach after dropping off our surfboards. We were walking back down the beach, taking pictures of the sunset when we spotted a kangaroo in the distance. Amazed, we ran a little closer to get a better picture. It stayed still for a few minutes (which was so cool) then turned back around to start walking back towards the camp. After a few moments, we turned around to see if it was still there only to find it bounding towards us (you can’t make this stuff up). Petrified, we booked it back down the beach. Ironically, we were the only ones still there because we were had taken so long taking pictures of the sunset (shocking, I know). Although there are no good pictures of the roo, I did happen to get a video of us running towards it, and you can somewhat see it towards the end. Note - I am running towards it, so the beginning is a pretty shaky, so I recommend maybe skipping to around 30 seconds in (and turning your volume way down, our live reactions to it hopping are pretty loud). Very cool, but honestly pretty frightening all in all.
A blurry picture we managed to get after lots of zooming:
After our eventful afternoon, we had a big group dinner and went down to the local pub for a few drinks. We severely outnumbered the other ten or so people in the pub at the time, but they seemed excited to see some new faces in their small town, every-day local spot.
The fact we were up for sunrise after a full day of surfing was exhausting, but absolutely beautiful.
By Sunday afternoon, we were all exhausted and ready to head back to Sydney. They had overbooked the buses for the way home so our cabin was assigned to take the train the way home. It was a pretty scenic journey to Wollongong then up to Sydney, following the coast the rest of the time. It was great to see more of the country outside of Sydney!
After we got back, we had an after part event at Side Bar for all the members of surf camp with free drinks and snacks, so naturally myself and my new friends attended. After our night of free-loading, I finally went back to the apartment and had a proper movie and popcorn night with all eight of our roommates for the first time. I’d say it was a successful first weekend in Australia :)
After spending a weekend enjoying the simple life, I feel I have a new, open perspective to the possibilities after college. The instructors were really cool and chill and really inspired me to pursue a career in something I love. These seven instructors all live together, in a small cabin in a tiny country town 7 days a week, using local camp ground showers and bathrooms everyday, yet were absolutely loving life. They get paid every-day to teach people how to do what they love and spend their free time at the beach chilling and seeking out new surf-spots. Most of the instructors are international working on six month visas and had all congregated at surf camp after taking a lesson there and falling in love with it. Many of them didn't have plans for what they were going to do after their visa was up, but until then were soaking up every experience and truly living in the moment, with limited access to wifi and cell service. Although this particular lifestyle may not be for me, it reminded me that not every career path needs to be as linear as schools in America seem to instill in students since elementary school.
There is something to be said for a simple lifestyle. There are plenty of other options and paths to take, both before and after college, and not every journey has to go straight from school to work. Despite what we are constantly told, it may not necessarily be a bad thing to explore different options outside of the conventional path. Studying abroad for a second time, I feel I have already learned so much more since arriving here thanks to all of these new experiences. Not every path will take you straight to the “real world” after academia, and that may not be a bad thing. I hope to expand upon this thought as the semester goes on, but an interesting topic that I have been considering since arriving here.
Next up, the first full week here, without classes!