Birthdays, goofiness, and conversations about America

Hey!
I hope everyone is doing well and having a good August! Especially everyone in NC- hope you're surviving the humidity. :) Here, the weather is great. Cold at night, but not too bad during the day. I keep forgetting its winter here!

The biggest news I have since my last email is that I went to surf camp for a weekend!! It was so much fun. Seriously, I loved it. We left Friday night and went to this state/national park called Seven Mile Beach, in this tiny little town called Gerroa or something like that. The beach was really beautiful and there was almost no one else there. Our group had about 50-60 international college students, most from Sydney Uni and a couple from Canberra. The most common countries represented among us are always the US, followed by Germany. Seriously, there are a lot of Germans here. Of the US contingent most are from California, but there's always a few from NC (more than any other state, I think).

We got up early on Saturday and went out for our first surf lesson. They handed out wet suits because the water averages about 15 degrees Celsius in the winter, and because we were all beginners we had giant boards (fondly known as ferries). My board was 8 feet long, and wide enough that I couldn't easily carry it under my arm like you normally see surfers do. Haha. But the bigger the board, the easier it is to ride, so I was okay with it.

We split into groups of about 20 people and had 2 surf instructors per group. All of them were really cool, typical surfer dudes. Ours, Mitch and Chaps (short for Chaplin), were really fun. Mitch looked like he was about 17 (he was 20, but everyone thought he looked 15-17). The first thing they taught us was whether we are goofy or natural. I, of course, am goofy. All it means is which foot you lead with, but the overwhelming majority is natural. And apparently it has nothing to do with being right- or left-handed. So I was one of two kids in our group who were goofy.

Also, I remembered to introduce myself as Ace!! Usually I don't, but on that trip were a couple people from the orientation trip that call me Ace, and in my group there was another Emma. You may laugh (my main group of friends here laugh every time I introduce myself as Ace), but everyone remembered my name, including the instructors. So it works. :)
Anyway, we had three 2-hour surfing sessions over the course of the weekend. In each one they'd teach us stuff on the beach, then let us loose in the waves. They'd be there to help us, give us tips, or even hold the board and help us time it. The first session they taught us the basics of standing up, biting it, you know. In the afternoon they taught us how to stay with the wave/change our speed, and the next morning they taught us how to turn the board.

Of course the first session almost no one is consistently successful at riding. The second wave I attempted I caught, but not very long, and I didn't do it consistently until the end of the second session. We were on baby waves that had already broken, but it doesn't take much to be able to ride it. It was so much fun, even when you fell. At some points Mitch and Chaps would borrow our boards to show us how to do something, or just go show off for a bit. Mitch caught one wave with the board facing backwards, then halfway through it he managed to get it to flip right-way around. It was ridiculous.

The last session (Sunday morning) Chaps took those of us that wanted out past the breakers to catch unbroken waves. These were BIG, and you had to paddle through them to get out there. That part was the hardest- I like to swim, and my arms were hurting after doing that twice. Probably having a smaller board would pay off at that point. :) People rarely caught unbroken waves without Chaps or Mitch setting them up, because the timing is really different than with broken waves. But when you do, its incredible. I caught one really good one, and majorly wiped out on a couple others when I tried to time it myself. So much fun.

Surprisingly there were no major injuries on the trip. Other than running into each other sometimes (having 60 novice surfers fighting the rip means that we end up close together no matter how far the instructors spread us out), there were no major issues other than some sweet bruises. Naturally, I did jam my toe really bad on the trip, but not while surfing- I was just running around on the beach. I know, I'm very talented.

In our downtime, we were pretty low key- surfing is exhausting. We threw the frisbee (well, the Americans taught everyone else), walked around the town (only two stores in the whole thing, and one restaurant-type thing), or helped sort photos. One of the instructors took photos of us the whole time with a really nice camera, and then proceeded to sort them by person. We had numbers on our wet suits so that made it a little easier for him, but he managed to sort the almost 6000 photos he took with only a little help from us in identifying who was who. That night we went to the restaurant. We were told it was a pub, but it was really this giant open restaurant that had a sort of community-center feel. Apparently the whole town came out on Saturday nights- there was a live band of 40-something guys playing covers, and a dance floor with people over 65 and under 10. It was so great. :)

That's about all I've got for the surf trip. It was amazing, I loved it. I'm definitely planning on doing a lot more of that while I'm here, and anyone back in the states who can surf, I'd love to go with you when I get home!! This coming weekend another friend is going, so after she gets back we're going to surf together.

Other than surfing, things here are starting to normalize: I have class, cook, hang out with friends. You know, the normal college stuff. My schedule is a little lopsided but good. This is my normal week:

Mon 11-1, 2-6
Tues 11-12
Wed 9-10, 12-1, 2-5
Thurs 2-3
Fri none! :)

Here classes are not on regular daily schedules. For example, my history class meets at 11 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 9 and 3. They're kind of random time slots. But its nice because I don't have class on Friday at all!! Love it. Also there's not really any homework. There are readings, but in most classes there aren't any assignments or even midterms. There's usually 1 or 2 papers due during the semester, plus you have to lead your tutorial one week (small group from class for more discussion-based learning, like recitations). Then there's usually a final paper/project, sometimes in place of a final exam. It's a pretty good deal. I've got a 1000 word movie review due next Monday that I'm going to write on Strictly Ballroom, which was a pretty good movie.

Really the only other thing worth telling is the ridiculous amount of birthdays going on recently. In addition to my dad's, which was Saturday (Happy birthday! I won't tell how old you are here...), I've had four friends have birthdays in the past week. We'll do dinner, or go out, or in the case of my housemate have a party here. That was fun- almost all german kids. And they tease the Americans for sticking together.

On the subject of being American, there are three main conversations topics everyone hits once they find out you're from the US. In no particular order, they always ask about obesity, talk politics, and the drinking age. Without fail, the first two always come up, especially with adults or guys. Girls not quite as much, but guys ALWAYS bring these things up. One guy even told me that he was impressed to find that I was from the States and not 400 pounds. Thanks. :)

I think that's about everything! I don't have any plans this weekend, but I'm sure fun will be had. :) The following weekend some friends and I are hoping to go out to the Blue Mountains for a couple days. The joy of having 3 day weekends is that we can do a fair bit of traveling.

For those of you who have joined up on the listserv after I've already sent some, I'm copying all my (long) emails into a blog: emmasdownunder.blogspot.com. Feel free to check it out! And if you know of anyone who wants to get on this listserv, let me know and I'll add them!As far as photos go, so far I'm just posting some on facebook (surfing pictures are up!).

I miss you all! Thanks so much for your emails and prayers. For all of you who are starting to realize that school starts soon, good luck! I'll miss Chapel Hill this fall. And not to worry, I'll be back in time to distract you from exams. :)

Love from down under,
Emma