Now that I'm back in civilization, I thought I'd write out an entry. I've just spent the last week camping out and surfing. It was really awesome. I've got some photos that I'll try and upload later.

I got picked up in Sydney on Monday morning, and we drove out to Point Plomer, which is a national park in the middle of nowhere. Sixteen of us were camping there, and we started surfing right away.

On Wednesday we moved to another park, but this one had some crazy spelling with lots of y's and a's, and I'm not even going to attempt it here. I met my goal of standing up on Thursday, which was super exciting.



By Friday afternoon, I was more desperate for a hot shower than I've ever been in my life. Fortunately we got dropped off here at the Arts Factory Hostel about 6ish on Friday. This place is awesome. Its like a hippie village, and the hostel has a pool! Plus its only about 10 minutes from the beach.

Today we hit the beach, and I'm doing some much needed laundry (it rained while we were camping. My towel has been wet for three days in a row), and maybe going for a swim in the poool later on. Also, tonight we'll be meeting up with our surf instructors for dinner and drinks, and to view the movie they shot of us. They filmed us all week, and then we can buy the dvd for $50. I wasn't going to get it at first, but I decided to go for it, since I didn't get a chance to take too many videos.



Anyways, I'm here in Byron Bay for at least a week (its a pretty cool town, and I can see myself staying here for longer). After that I'm off to Brisbane, so if anybody's going to be there in a week or two, let me know!

Okay, so I have not been up to a whole lot this week. The weather has been some serious crapola. Basically, hanging around reading, chatting, walking around during the day, and drinking and clubbing at night. I'm trying to cut out wine in a box.

The one nice day that we had a bunch of us went to one of the beaches at Bondi, which was great. Gorgeous! Too bad its mostly been raining.

But tomorrow I'm off on my surfing trip up to Byron Bay. I think after the trip I'll stay there in Byron for the week. After that I've decided to buy myself a car from one of those guaranteed by back places (they're really popular here). That way I can take a while to make the drive down south to Adelaide. Its a nice way along the coast, and if I buy the car, I don't have to worry about timing. Once I get to Adelaide, I can either drive, fly or take the train up to Alice Springs, and from there I can check out Uluru, aka Ayers Rock.

Anyways, I'll probably be out of contact most of the next week while I'm doing this camping/surfing thing, so I hope everyone has a great week!

Oh my god. I just wrote this huge long post, and then it disappeared!

I'm not going to re-write the whole thing, so I'll just give a brief rundown for youse.

Saturday night: drank too much wine in a box, ate french fries from Hungry Jacks, which is what Burger King is called here because some guy in the Northern Territory owns the copyright to the name.

Sunday: hung over, read my book, did nothing much. Also did not get to sleep at all because of the insanely loud snoring of a Scotsman.

Monday: Went to Australia Museum which had cool exhibits about dinosaurs and also Aboriginal peoples. Ate lunch and then hit up the Art Gallery of New South Wales. I didn't see everything, but that's okay, because it's free. So I'll be heading back there later this week.

In other news, I've figured out what I'm going to do next. I've signed up with this company called Surfaris, so starting next Monday, I'll be camping out and learning to surf for five days straight. It sounds awesome.

Okay, I'm going to go write some postcards. If you want one, send your address!

Wow, so after the longest trip EVER I am finally here in Australia. I started off by spending 6 hours in the Vancouver airport (plane was delayed), and then got on the biggest plane I've ever been on in my life. There were two floors! Although it was not nearly as cool as the plane on Snakes on a Plane, it was still pretty exciting. In a I'm going to stay on the lower, crowded like a sardine can coach class floor kind of way. Anyways, not only was the plane huge, it also featured six babies. Which means that for 13 hours, there was at least one baby crying at all times. Yay!

My stopover in Hong Kong was super short, just long enough to run to the other end of the airport, and notice that the airport is not airconditioned (what is up with that?).

After nine hours, I got to Sydney, and shockingly hoped onto a shuttle bus and arrived directly at my hostel WITHOUT GETTING LOST. I have never done that before. Seriously, I always get lost.

Anyways, I checked into my hostel (which advertised that they take credit cards and have a free breakfast, when in fact, they do not!) showered, and went to bed. After sleeping for twelve hours, I got up and headed out into the city.

I walked from my hostel to Central Quay, which is sort of a transportation/tourist hub here. I should note that this route goes through a pretty amazing shopping district, and I didn't buy anything!!

Anyways, I wandered around Central Quay for a while, checking out the amazing views, and then went to the Museum of Contemporary Art. Which was free! Like most contemporary art museums, I found it to be a mix of really cool stuff, and really stupid stuff. Apprarently placing a chocolate bar in a bucket of water is art that references the movie Caddyshack. Yes, that's right, art that references Caddyshack. Jesus.

After that I bought a ticket for one of those hop on hop off city tours, and got an idea of what I want to see while I'm here. Which is mostly museums, 'cause I'm a big nerd like that.

Now I'm going to go back to my hostel and see about maybe meeting some people (everyone in my room was asleep when I left this morning) and re-charging my ipod.

I think I've decided that a week-ish is probably enough for me here in Sydney. I'm going to try and find someplace along the coast that's a bit smaller and more laid back and maybe try surfing or snorkelling or something.

Until next time...

Here is a summary of the last few days in my life:

Trucks Sold: 0
Ulcerous Rages Induced by People Calling to Check out the Truck and Then Not Showing up at the Appointed Time: 4
Hours of Daytime TV Watched: too many to count

What an exciting life I lead!

Anyways, tonight I have double booked myself. So I will be attending a formal attire dance party, as well as a show by Yum Yum Bang Bang, a band my friend is in. So that should be fun.

Tomorrow is the start of my whirlwind trip to Ontario. I'll take the ferry over to Vancouver to chillax with my sisters, and then I've got a red-eye flight to Toronto. I've arranged to rent a car while I'm there, to make things easier. Since I just turned 25 in May, I've never rented a car before. I am, however, the go to girl for any of my friends who needs a U-Haul driven. I'm sure it will be a much more positive experience than the various U-Haul ones I've had. Although I bet not as fun as driving my truck! Anyone...? Anyone...?

So while I'm off easting it up, I'll get to see my father's family, my good friend Ken (who's just started his Masters' at the University of Western Ontario) and my awesome friend Kim. I haven't seen Kim in over a year, and I'm super pumped because I get to meet Dr. Boyfriend! Hoohah for awesome boyfriend nicknames!

Anyways, I should probably go nap before I get all gussied up. I'm not sure how strict this whole formal dance party thing is going to be, and I've been reading a lot of Go Fug Yourself lately, so I'm a little paranoid about clothing. Although the chances of the papparazzi getting a shot of me and it being posted on a website and being made fun of for my sartorial taste is probably pretty slim.