Surf's Up!

What a whirlwind of the last few days! Sunday, I found a church to attend down the road where I was greeted and welcomed with the wide, open arms of a small community. After the service, the man I sat next to offered to introduce me to "some of the young people" and after that I lost count of how many people I met. They kept introducing me as "Alanna, an exchange student from America" with a bit of emphasis on the America part. Everyone was so kind and welcoming, offering their phone numbers in case I ever needed a ride somewhere or just a home-cooked meal. I really appreciated their kindness, considering I had only been in the country for two days and knew next to no one. I actually ended up going to Torquay with two of the girls I met and their friends from high school. I got a chance to order my first (of many!) orders of fish and chips, and it was fantastic!

Monday, we had an international student orientation at the Waterfront campus. It was a short 20 minute bus ride followed by a short orientation about living in Australia in general. Every time he mentioned snakes, spiders, or other type of animal he followed it up with, "now whatever you see probably won't be dangerous, just don't touch it." After the meeting some other girls from the United States and I walked around the area and ate lunch before coming back to Waurn Ponds.

(The last two pictures on the bottom are some murals on the Waurn Ponds campus).

Yesterday and today brought the beach welcome trip in Lorne. After an hour bus ride yesterday, we had lunch and our group got down to business with: surfing. Surfing is something I've always wanted to learn how to do, and something I wish I could do on a regular basis. Going into it yesterday I was worried because I had built up this huge expectation that surfing was going to be the best thing ever when in reality, maybe it wouldn't be for me. Putting on the wet suits I felt like such a badass, and as I headed into the water after the mini-lesson my mind replaced the worries with excitement. The first few waves that came by, I had trouble getting the timing right. The instructors were in the water, holding onto boards and telling people exactly when to start paddling to make sure they were in the wave. After getting help with the timing a few times I started to manage it on my own, even getting up to a kneeling/half standing position. I am proud to say that by the end of the experience, I was able to fully stand for at least five waves, and definitely more. I loved it so so SO much!!! This will not be my last time surfing while I am abroad. That's for sure. Surfing was our big event of the day, with a lot of free time to walk around and explore the area. Lorne is a pretty small town with one main strips of shops facing the ocean. We ate dinner at a restaurant literally on the beach where I legally ordered a frozen margarita with dinner. This morning we went on a hike along the beach that turned into scrub/brush, and in the afternoon we did yoga.

There were about 300 of us total on the trip, all from Deakin's four campuses, and all international students. I met so many people from so many different countries. This week's beach welcome was a collection of great experiences to really welcome me to Australia and get me excited for the semester to come. I'm thinking of you guys in Iowa, getting more and more snow every day it seems like. Don't worry, I'm appreciating my sunny, 72 degree weather all the more. :)