Thursday.

Yesterday was Australia day, and what a great day it was to be living in Australia. Pretty much their equivalent to our 4th of July. Of course Bond would hold classes on such a great national holiday, but despite that I woke up around 5:30 AM, had a great surf sesh right out in front on my apartment at Main beach with a few buds, and then headed off to my single class at Uni. A day full of Aussie pride; flags, clothes and everything else that had Australia written on it flooded the streets, people moving among them like waves. I spent my afternoon sipping beers on the beach and enjoying the sunshine. The Aussies really know how to live it up over here.

After a late arvo snack of some fish and chips, I headed to a local barbie celebration. Being one of two Americans there (my roommate Vic being the other), we were greeted with plenty enthusiastic yells of "Americancos!!". That being said, we received a warm welcome in and shared plenty of conversations, smiles, good laughs and plenty of beer (a little Jager too). It was a great time and I met some awesome people. An experience I'll never forget. After a nice chicken kebab, I headed home to wake up for my 8 AM, and the 7 hours straight of class to follow.

I made it through my day today. Success. Started working on an edit in my film editing class and drew a vector graphic drawing (Vector graphics formats are complementary to raster graphics, which is the representation of images as an array of pixels, as is typically used for the representation of photographic images-wikipedia) on Adobe illustrator of the ebay logo....definitely got my school work done. After grabbing some fresh fruit from the local "Fresh Bar, " I had an arvo surf. My luck...I got stung on the knee by a blue bottle. They weren't kidding when they said it hurt....my knee burned for a good 5-10 minutes and I exited the water with a nice big welt. Still feels uncomfortable at the moment and that was hours ago...those little bastards. Anyway, I went out for dinner with my roommate Andrew, and my Australian friend Kat. We ate at a Tai restaurant (really good, and maybe a 5 minute walk from the back of my apartment...5 minutes at the absolute most) and got a few drinks at this bar called Onyx. Kat knew the bartender and he hooked it up with some rum mixed drinks called "Cuba Libras" (not really sure whats in it; Bacardi rum, a little mint, some cola, a lime...maybe, don't take my word for it,  or thats what I think they're called....always a little difficult deciphering that Australian accent....none the less, it was probably one of the best mixed drinks I've ever had.

I'm now settled back in my apartment. Headed back to Straddie (Stradbroke Island) tomorrow. The waves are supposed to be real good. My last session there was crazy. Chest to head high, A-frames everywhere you look, a lot of people, but plenty of waves to go around. The only way to get over there is either via a paddle across the channel, buzzing with boats of all shapes and sizes, large swells, and oh yes, the numerous sharks swimming through it in search of fish carcasses being pitched over the side of the boat, OR, you can hop in the water for a measly second and climb up on the surf taxi. Boom. 5 minutes later, and $6 poorer, I'm out of the channel around the jetty and parked 50 yards off the beach. Off the boat I went, where I grabbed my board and paddled my way into the lineup. Never touched the beach once, but it was the best surf experience I think I may have ever had. Theres huge tubes on the beach, the sand pumps, throwing millions of pounds of sand from the channel, a constant man-made accretion to the beach. Other than that, nothing more then the constant buzz of nature coming from the land, the sun was shining, and the waves were firing....I found paradise. I expect nothing less from tomorrow, and I have no doubts I'm going to be let down.

Thinking of all you getting snowed in back home. SUCKS TO BE YOU!

ha...(just because I can). Enjoy pictures from yesterdays nonsense.

Main beach.

Happy Australia day.

PRIDE.

Australians...enjoying themselves. 

The local BWS...beer, wine, spirits...drive-thru. 

So happy they're flipping...literally.  

Take it alllllll in.