Author Archives: Cali4beach

Just flew back to the US after 3 crazy weeks in Sydney with my friend Rose.

Despite the fact it was a 14 hour flight, it wasn’t too bad. Got maybe a hour of sleep and instead watched 4 movies: Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (in Swedish with English subtitles), Valentine’s Day, Leap Year and How to Train your dragon.

They were all pretty good for what they where. I also watched 30 mins of the new Clash of the Titans which was so terrible I had to watch something else.

My sister picked me up from the Airport but when she got out of the car to give me a hug, the car locked itself, still running mind you. So we had to wait over an hour to have a tow company come and open it. Total damage= $65 dollars out of my wallet because my sister didnt have any cash.

Once that incident was over, we rushed to In-n’ out burger for the necessary burger, fries and milkshake. So good!

Hung out at my sister friends Apt at the Marina for a few hours, then met up with a family friend whose known me since birth. Then my cousin eventually showed up after a play she went to see and we went back to her new apt in the Hollywood Hills!

Today was basically a sleep in sort of day to make up for barely sleeping the past day (s). We ended up going to Santa Monica with Christina’s friend for a nice lunch/dinner thing. I love how long the sun is out in CA because in Syd it got dark around 5pm and here it gets dark at 8pm. I know Syd is in the Winter right now, but still even in the summer, it seemed to get darker earlier compared to the US.

Things that are bothering me about the States:

1) Driving= now im used to driving on the left side, so when my sister keeps driving on the right it kind of freaks me out for a second. Hopefully that feeling will disappear soon and once I start driving.

2) the coins seem so small compared to the OZ ones. Not like this is a problem because I don’t really like their money, but still it seems strange.

3) Tax isn’t included in the prices of things! Seriously if it’s going to cost me $6.70 including tax, I rather know that straight away rather than figure that out at the end.

I hate the feeling you have when you are ready to do something but you can’t do it until a certain time.

For example I have a presentation to give at 11am, make up for the one I missed because of my accident, and I am so ready to give it now! I just want to get it over with because until I give it, I can’t start studying for my final tomorrow.

But now I have nothing really to do for 50 minutes and it is so boring! I’m in no-man’s land just waiting and wasting time that could be better spent.

Only 2 1/2 days left in Townsville! Too bad my exam tomorrow is at 5pm, because that means I have to spend all day studying because if I decide to do something else and I do poorly on my exam (60% of my grade, eeek!) then I will definitely regret it!

Bright news is I got an D+ (Distinction Plus!) on my Cinema paper! Woo hoo! It’s strange to have it be one of the few times in my life I will ever be happy for that grade!

Today I had my first exam at 8.15am and I woke up at 5.30am–after going to bed around 1am– because I was feeling paranoid I would oversleep.

The test went pretty okay and I even got to write an essay on a question I was hoping would be on the exam! Afterwards I met up in the computer lab with Marieke who was working on her final draft of her bachelor thesis. Once she finished that, we decided we wanted to get some lunch then go to the beach. We ran into my friend Cecelia who also wanted to join and we even managed to get my other two roommates (though flatmate might be a better term seeing as I do NOT share a room with anyone) Karolina and Vinod to come.

The sky was a clear blue and it warm but not too hot. (Reminded me of California actually!) The stingers have all migrated, so the stinger nets were taken down and we could enjoy just swimming in the ocean wherever we wanted. The tide was really low compared to the past months and the water was colder as well so I didn’t spend that much time swimming. It was really nice just to lie on the beach and watch skydivers floating in the air before they came to a landing on the beach right next to us (I would love to skydive over the ocean and land on the beach!!)

Then we got delicious gelato from Juliette’s cafe on the strand (Ferrero Rocher ice cream is beyond amazing!) and then we drove up Castle Hill to get a view of the entire town and surrounding area. It was very pretty to go see again (I had done a hike up when my friend Kristen visited me) and because today was Saturday there were two brides having wedding pictures taken. It was funny because one of the couples we had seen on the strand earlier when they had their marriage ceremony!

Then we came home and I made a stirfry (vegan!) with rice for Karolina and me because she ALWAYS is cooking or baking for me and it was time for me to do it! Then Karolina, Marieke and I watched “Moulin Rouge” which was directed/ written by Baz Lurhman (australian) who also did the same for the movie “Australia” and “Romeo & Juliet” with Claire Danes and Leonardo Di Caprio. Moulin Rouge was even filmed in Sydney which is pretty cool and must have been nice for Nicole Kidman to be close to family and friends. (Good random movie choice seeing as I havent really seen any Oz films since I’ve been here!)

So overall, a much better day than I thought it would be!

I’ve been so busy lately and have updated in a while! I have so much to post, but for now I just will talk about recent news.

I went up to Cairns and Cape Tribulation this past week with my friend Marieke as a pre-exam study break. However, on our horseback ride in Cape Trib I fell off my horse while cantering and landed straight on my tailbone (straining my back) and really hurting my knee.

I wasn’t able to go to the hospital about it until Sunday because Cape Trib is a protected rainforest with limited people up there and there are no doctors or hospitals nearby. Luckily, I didn’t break or fracture anything, but it really hurts to sit or walk (I’m limping around like a 90 year old with arthritis– I know what it feels like to be old and it sucks!)

So now I am hobbling around with crutches and trying to stay off my knee much as possible. I’m also trying to get ahold of my teacher because I was supposed to give a presentation on Monday but it hurt too much to travel on Sunday so I missed it. I’ve sent a few emails to her but have yet to hear a response so if I don’t get one by tomorrow morning I’m going to talk to someone else in the school about it.

I’m also only up in Townsville for 9 more days so I’m beginning to study for my two exams and figuring out how exactly I’m bringing back all the things I need to bring home (I hope it fits into my two suitcases). Still also working on changing my flight back from LAX to IAD because the dates I wanted to change it too are NOT available, so I’m not quite sure what to do.

So much for a “restful” pre-exam break! Incidentally, Cape Tribulation was thus named by Captain James Cook because he was shipwrecked on the reef up there for a day or two!

We had to check out of our hostel at 10 that morning because we were going to Brisbane after our surf lesson. We decided we wanted to hang out on the beach before our lesson and have another picnic, but before we did that, we had to check the oil in Marieke’s car.

Checking the oil on Marieke’s car was something that we should have done at the start of our trip if only we hadn’t been so rushed to leave. So when I pulled out the oil gauge, I expected it to be low, but it appeared as if it was completely empty! Marieke and I found out where the nearest service station was in town and went to it.

Service Stations in Australia are a lot different than in the US. When we got there (combo with a gas station) there was no line and the guy instantly was able to check our oil and coolant level. He told us that we were right; the oil was completely empty and he was surprised we had been able to drive as much as we did. He brought over two bottles of oil and filled the tank up with about 1 ½ bottles of oil. Then he added more water to the engine, even helped fill our tires to the correct air pressure. Air for tires is free in Australia, wish we could take that back to the US! I hate having to pay for air and then running around my car to fill the tires before the air stops running.

The nicest thing about all of the things the guy did for us was that we didn’t have to pay any service fees! The only thing we had to pay for was the 2 oil bottles which cost only $23 dollars. I was expecting we would have to pay for his help, like we would if we went to Jiffy Lube or someplace similar in the States.

After that episode, we went to the town beach (closer than Flat Rock) and had a nice picnic. It’s a good thing we went with the Mojo Van that day because we actually went to a different beach. This one was a lot closer to town but still was kind of abandoned. I wish I remember the name, but I have completely forgotten!

Huey was our main surf instructor for that day, which felt very full circle. He helped Marieke and I at the beginning when we really sucked, then he got to see us when we were awesome at catching waves. We even caught a green (unbroken) wave!

We also got to see a sea turtle nest on the beach which was being looked after by a beach ranger. By seeing, I mean we saw a big roped off area and a small hole in the ground. It was really interesting though because we got to learn about sea turtle nesting habits.

After the surf lesson, since we were parked right next to a tea tree oil lake, we got to go swimming in it for about 5 minutes. Tea Tree Oil is supposed to be really good for your skin and hair and because of the oil, the lake was colored a golden brown color. It reminded me of the camp I went to when I was 15 where we went kayaking down a river lined by I think it was Cypress (?) tree where the water was turned a similar color by secretion of the tree oil.

Tea Tree Oil Lake

After a refreshing swim, we headed back to Mojo office where Marieke and I ordered the photos that were taken of us when we surfed. Because the shop was about to close when we got there and since this was the only time we could get the pictures, they kept the shop opened for us for an extra half an hour. Our poor surf instructor Huey had to wait for us to select our pictures then burn the CD. Once we got everything and left the shop, Huey was going to skateboard home in the dark but we convinced him we should give him a ride.

It was pretty funny because he did not seem to trust Marieke driving at all, even though she’s a good driver! (When she isn’t trying to scare you haha!) We came back to the hostel we stayed at (Huey lived nearby) because Marieke and I planned on using the showers before we left for Brisbane. We ended up talking to Huey for half an hour about surfing, his travel plans to the US and other random things. Like I said earlier, he was a really fun instructor and seemed like he could have been a good friend if we weren’t leaving Byron Bay.

Finally he skateboarded off home, we showered and then we bid farewell to Byron bay. We wanted to grab a fast dinner, so we were looking for a McDonalds on the road (they don’t have one in Byron) but there was none to be found! I drove for forty-five minutes and there was NO sign for a food exit ANYWHERE. Surfing makes you really hungry, and at this point it was around 7pm, we hadn’t really eaten anything since 12pm and we were STARVING.

We decided to get off at an exit for a town that looked semi-big and potentially had a McDonalds. The end of the exit was a stop sign, which of course I stopped at. It was really dark and only light on the road came from our car’s headlights. Then to get on the road to town, I took a right and started driving.

I only drove for two seconds when I realized something was wrong and Marieke yelled “You’re on the wrong side!” Luckily, there was no one around so I quickly cut over to the left lane aka the “RIGHT” lane to drive.
For the most part, it’s really easy to drive on the left side of the road, because there are all these signs to keep left and you’re sitting on the right side of the car anyways. But sometimes, like that night, when you are kind of distracted by various things, it’s easy to slip into a “normal” driving mindset where you drive on the side you normally drive on. It’s almost happened to Marieke a few times as well, but we’ve always noticed and corrected it before she drove on the wrong side.
Anyways, after that exciting adventure, Marieke and I drove through the town to find out there was NOTHING there. Just a typical small town. So we drove to the next town, also nothing. We ended up asking a guy working at a gas station (the only place with the lights in the town) where the nearest McDonalds was and he gave us some directions.

After 20 more minutes of driving, we finally found the McDonalds. After a quick dinner, we got back on the Highway and within an hour we were in Brisbane at the hostel we stayed at before. This time we only had to follow one road off the highway to get to it, so we didn’t get lost like last time.

Kristen, my friend I met on Contiki in New Zealand, flew in that night and took a bus to the hostel. We were so excited to see each other that even though we were tired, we ended up talking for two hours straight while Marieke was passed out in the bunk above the bed we were sitting on. Finally, we both went to bed around 12ish because we had to wake up early the next morning.