Adventures as a Wannabe Aussie: The Rogue Fox and His Friends

This is a post mostly to tell you about our random Friday night, because I don't want to forget and it'll be a little to long to include with anything else.

So Friday we spent most of the day just hanging out and relaxing, catching up on sleep. Then in the evening, we had a Welcome to Res dinner where we got to meet all sorts of awesome Aussies. One of the girls sitting at our table even offered to let us stay in her house when we traveled! It started off with appetizers - crocodile and kangaroo. I tried the crocodile (not a fan...) and the kangaroo looked like a cross between a lil' smokie and dog poop, so I was too afraid to try it. There was also a man there with pythons and crocodiles that we were able to hold and pet. Not gonna lie, the python was absolutely terrifying. It would slither its way around my neck and I am not about that getting choked by a python life. The crocodile had its mouth taped shut so it was significantly less intimidating. Then I had some delicious chicken and potatoes while we learned about surf safety and such. After dinner we were kind of wandering around wondering what to do when we stumbled upon a bar, so we decided to give it a try, except they wouldn't accept our US driver's licenses as ID. A guy sitting on the patio said he'd buy our first round of drinks if we came back so we got our passports and went back immediately! It was kind of surprising when he actually bought all 6 of us drinks. We ended up making friends with the guy, who's name was Chad, his 'brother' Phil, and their friend Brock, who was showing us all his charming dance moves, featuring the rogue fox. Chad and I bonded over being 49ers fans. Apparently even Australians love the best team in American football! It was karaoke night so after a while, we finally forced Chad to sing for us. He got up and sang some song we'd never heard of and then he made the 6 of us get up and sing. Of course we chose Sweet Home Alabama as our song of choice. Typical Americans apparently. Had there been many people at this bar, I'm not sure it would have gone over well but since there were only a few, it was significantly less embarrassing that we didn't actually know all the words. The bar closed at 11 so we called it an early night and came back to sleep.

Today was Bond at the Beach day so we got on big shuttles and headed to a new beach. The waves were bigger than waves I've ever seen and because I'm so short, they pretty much take me under or wash me to shore every time. It's still fun though to lay in the sand and get out in the water a little bit. We're probably going to be taking surfing lessons soon so that should be interesting. The ocean is honestly one of the things I'm most afraid of. It turns out we all spent a little bit too much time in the sun and most of us fried. Luckily, mine is contained to just a few splotches on the backs of my legs and the tops of my hands. Some of the others were not so lucky. Once we realized we were turning into lobsters, we left the beach to get some lunch. Whoever has said there's no fake-ish Mexican food here was lying or misinformed. Maybe not as much as at home, but there was definitely a place to get burritos today. We got back to campus and spent the rest of the afternoon reapplying aloe repeatedly. Tonight then we went back to Surfer's Paradise to have a nice dinner. We ended up at a cute Irish pub and the food was so good. Now it's time to try and sleep off the sickness that the sunburn has brought. Hopefully we'll all be feeling well enough tomorrow to go do something exciting!

Here's some random extra pictures from throughout the week!