Melbourne Welcome: Day 2

The pub last night was pretty fun.  It was a small, comfortable place.  I couldn’t tell if they’d gotten us (maybe 30 or 40 of us) a special room or if we were just the only ones there.  I was drinking Carlton Drought, but at $6 a pint I couldn’t have too many.  I might look for a part time job to offset my beer consumption, which could be really nice considering minimum wage here is so high (upwards of $16).  We chatted and played some snooker pool for a couple hours, but most of us went home by 11:30 because today was going to be an early (but incredible) day.

They woke us up at 7 for beach day.  They bussed us about an hour outside of Melbourne (west, I think) to a beach with decent beginner waves where were met by a surfing outfitter.  I was in the first group to go, so we got in our wet suits and carried boards down to the beach.  After a quick jog and a stretch (believe it or not, surfing is a strenuous workout) we learned the basics of how to paddle and get up on the board—just a five-minute lesson—and headed into the water.  Just so we’re clear on this, SURFING IS SO MUCH FUN!  I got up on just my second wave.  I’m not sure if snowboarding helped or if I just have decent balance, but I was able to ride a bunch of waves successfully, more than most of the other kids who hadn’t surfed before.  The water was comfortable, especially with a wet suit. I was smiling the whole time.  I can’t wait to surf again, and I can’t believe I had never tried it until now.  So fun.

Touch beach rugby

The boardwalk, ominous clouds, and white surf

Ocean grove beach

Unfortunately, I din't have a picture of me actually surfing, so I'll have to go again to prove it.  Tough life.

The rest of the day we spent hanging out on the beach while the other groups surfed.  We had fish and chips for lunch, which was deliciously greasy.  The ketchup (no tartar sauce) tasted more earthy/spicy and less sweet than American Heinz.  We just hung out, talked, and played beach games for a few hours.  We moved up to the pier when the tide came in.  To be honest, the weather wasn’t great.  It was overcast most of the time, and rained a little bit.  I still managed to get sunburned, though (this whole ozone depletion thing is pretty intense in Australia, and you burn really quickly).  I’ll have to have another beach day when the weather is nicer.

We’re back at Queen’s College for dinner now.  Tonight the hosts are taking us on a bar crawl to see some of the good places to go in the city, which I’m looking forward to.  (There’s also an option of a movie, but who would pass up a bar crawl for that?)