Oz Intro Week Begins...

So I've now been away from home a week today (or tonight depending on where in the world you're reading this). Yes I'm missing everyone already, yes I'm already sick of cooking for myself (love you mum!) and yes it's scary having to plan everything by myself (thank you dad!).

 However, ignoring all of that, on Monday morning I started my Oz Intro week. And my week since has gone a little like this:

Monday
Monday we got picked up by our guide/tour person/thingy-majiggy and got on a minibus to Sydney Harbour. After not being blown away by it the other day I wasn't expecting too much from this first day. We pulled up the other side of the Harbour and took a walk through the Botanical Gardens. Now fair enough, the gardens were pretty.....however I've seen nice places on my holidays! It wasn't a take your breath away place, it was more like a walk through the Forest Centre, but with more colourful plants and a path. We were walking past the Opera House to go on a speed boat type thing round the harbour. Now seeing as our guide is so lovely, he made sure I went at the front of the boat....where I got completely drenched!! But going round on this boat through the harbour was the first time I started to feel like I was actually in Australia. Whizzing through the water with the bridge one side and the Opera House the other was amazing. I didn't stop laughing the whole time!! Good job it was a hot day so I dried off quickly. After this we were free to do what we wanted. So back to the hostel we went to shower and sleep! After 3 nights of the worst room-mates ever I was so happy to be in a room where everyone was respectful and didn't want to scream at 4am!

Tuesday
Tuesday was the slow day of the week. The morning was spent doing all the necessary jobs; bank and medical card. So at least I have money now!! Then we went to the aquarium...it was alright, but a fish in a tank is a fish in a tank at the end of the day! Still, there was some cool things to do. I got to stroke a starfish, oh yeah! Get me!! After this we went for a night out. Which meant some paracetamol were needed first thing Wednesday morning!!

Wednesday.
Tuesday night I went and had a good time, but didn't drink too much because Wednesday was all about surfing! This was soooo much fun!! The instructors were typical surfer dudes (think Crush the turtle from Finding Nemo). We arrived at a secluded almost private beach and promptly got into our rather attractive wetsuits. So after a brief lesson and chat off we headed into the water. This is where things went a bit wrong! It seemed to take 1 step forward and 3 back to get to a decent surfing point, I was exhausted by the end of the lesson! However after quite a few falls into the water (and a lot of swallowed sea water) I managed to stand up!! Admittedly I fell off after a few seconds, but a stand is a stand. Then cam the miracle....I managed to stand up and ride a wave right back to the shore!! I felt amazing! Then we broke for lunch (the most important part of the day). After lunch I headed back into the water to try and stand up again. However after about 30mins of unsuccessful surfing, the board went nose first into the water, flipping me off into the water and jerking my back...not good. So that was the end of my surf experience. However I'm planning on doing a surf camp later in my trip. By the time we got back to the hostel we were all knackered. I skyped for a bit, cooked dinner, then fell asleep in my clothes!

Thursday
For some reason, even after a full nights sleep, I was knackered all day today. We went to Bondi for the first time. Before I came away, quite a few people said Bondi wasn't all it was cracked up to be, and I promptly ignored them. However after going there today I can see what they mean. It's a tiny stretch of sand in a horse-shoe shape. It's so small it would take all of 10 minutes to walk it. After an hour or so of sunbathing we got up and went on a coastal walk towards Coogee beach. The walk was lovely looking out over the sea. There was random artwork just casually chilling on the side of the cliffs....whatever floats your boat! The area was nice, but the whole place looked like a more sunnier version of Bournemouth! When we reached Coogee we had my first Oz BBQ!! It was lush! Sat on a park table overlooking an alcove of sea and sand. Then it was time to relax some more, look like you're playing volleyball (this involves standing about and running away from the ball) and just generally chat and chill. There wasn't enough room for all of us back on the buses so I had to wait for one of them to come back. I never thought I would have to deal with being cold in Australia, but what do you know?!?!?! Then me and another gal in my week have been sat here deciding what our game plan is for next week. So far we're going to Darwin for 6 weeks to work, then heading to Cairns for Xmas. Then after New Year we have all the time in the world to travel down the East coast. So Saturday we're going to book all our flights, hostels and trips.

 Here we go guys!!!

Miss y'all
Love me
xx