Back to reality? Maybe not! (and our 1 month anniversary) :)
Tuesday saw the start of uni - which meant I had to be in at 9, and I didn't leave until 6. I have 2 lectures and 2 tutorials with an hour break in between each of them. I can't really complain as I had weeks to prepare myself and get back into the swing of things - I was excited to go back!
It was really interesting stuff actually, I'm studying Online Documentary, Advertising Campaign Practice and Media Power. Seeing as it was the first week we just got a basic introduction as to what the course is, what was expected and how the next few weeks are going to work out.
In short - my advertising lecturer calls everyone 'cats' which I love - every time he says it I laugh (in my head). My tutorial for advertising is the smallest because it's the last one of the day, I can't work out yet if this is a good thing or not... and I can tell I'm really going to enjoy Online Documentary. Nothing too gruelling for the first week - especially as my usual Media Power classes that take place on Friday were postponed because of the Easter Weekend :D
So Wednesday, to treat ourselves after the long day and all the hard work in our first day of uni (I'm joking ofc), we decided to make the one hour bus trip to Palm Beach. We woke up at 9 in order to spend most of the day there. The bus journey was beautiful - it reminded me of some of the roads my family drove down in New Zealand, really windy, steep roads but with colourful green trees and catching the occasional glimpse of the ocean. Then suddenly a long beach rolled out in front of us, the bus stopped, and off we climbed literally onto the sand.
Palm Beach is beautiful, it has a lighthouse on a hill on one side, and on the other is a pool and some rocks. It's probably just as big as Bondi - but wayyy less crowded which is nice. Behind the beach are hills covered in trees and the most beautiful houses in the openings which look out to the ocean.
We spent pretty much all day sunbathing and going in the ocean. When we first got in we were trying to get past the breaks, by jumping high enough but at one stage we found ourselves face to face with a massive wave. It was forming literally above our heads and was about to crash on us. Greta shouts "what do we do???' and I had just enough time to shout 'DIIIIVEEEE'. I ducked under the wave, came up to the surface on the other side laughing so hard and to my relief - so was Greta.
I got wiped out a few times from the waves and found myself clinging onto my bikini for dear life in the hopes that it wouldn't come off! But it was all fun stuff, and a really nice day.By the time we were done relaxing it was too late to explore the lighthouse, so that's for another day's adventure :)
Friday as I've mentioned we had no class, so decided to do the coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee. It's a 6 km walk, and can be done in next to no time - but we were stopping every few metres to take pictures, and to take it all in. You're literally walking alongside the ocean, and discover cute little beaches, or amazing viewing points. We picked the perfect weather for it as it was cloudy and not too hot, I'd struggle doing it in the heat because there's a lot of steps and hills!
During this trail at one point, I remember thinking in my head 'right, this is decided. I HAVE to live by the beach at some point soon in my life.' And, I am going to. It's just a case of where and when.
This is something I'd do over and over again, without having to second think it at all. Absolutely loved the day, and it made me appreciate where I was, how I got here and how lucky I am.
After another Tuesday of class - where there isn't too much to talk about, the following Thursday (31st) we decided to visit yet another beach. This time it was Manly, which involved getting our first train and ferry!
The trains are so futuristic here, the backs of the seats move so you can decide if you want to sit backwards or forwards, or make a 2 seater, or a 4 seater just by moving the backs of the seats - it's so clever! The ferry ride was chilly, but beautiful.
Manly is a fairly nice beach, but not one of my favourites. It's lined by trees which means that when the sun starts to go down, the shadows from the trees puts you in shade pretty much wherever you are sat on the beach.
We got there in the afternoon, and it wasn't warm enough to go in the ocean and then dry off, so we just sunbathed for a bit and decided to walk from end to end seeing as it's really long. Then, we sat on the beach for a few hours, talking and watching the sky change colours as the sun set (the sun sets on the other side to where we were).
Friday we had our first Media Power classes, which were interesting to say the least. I think it's going to take some time for me to decide if I like the lecture or not... But I'm not giving up yet. The topic and my tutorial is interesting which is good, and I've been put in a good group.
But more importantly, Friday marked our 1 month anniversary of being in Sydney!! To celebrate we went out to dinner to Vapiano. I don't know much about Vapiano, I'd never been before but Alex raves about it all the time and he told me I HAD to have a carbonara, which I did, and it was delicious.
After that, we went to the Opera House in order to have drinks back on the famous wall I've spoken about before.
It's crazy how quick time is going, in some ways it feels like I've been here for way longer, and in other ways it feels like I've only been here a week or two. But I'm loving it either way.
Saturday we had a society meeting. Sounds boring right? Wrong! It was on the beach with a society called InTents (camping). A group of us gathered together and got picked up by a member of the group who drove us. The day consisted of chatting and getting to know new people, although some of us went to have a swim and sun-bathe afterwards.
The tide was crazyy (I've realised I've described the ocean as crazy everytime, but it truly is), we went in the water, in the flags with some guys from the society who we were with, but suddenly all of us were caught in a rip and being pulled sideways (thankfully not towards any rocks), we were trying to swim against it but it was too strong, so I let a wave bring me back into shore, walked back right into the flags and got back in. Our group stayed together which was nice, because we were being faced with wave after wave. They were way too big to jump over, so everytime we'd all dive. At the same time there were side waves hitting us from the rocks. It was crazy. Everytime we came up after the wave, me and Greta would look around for each other to make sure we were all still safe. People were bumping into each other, or coming up in a completely different place to where they just were, it was exhausting - completely exhausting but so much fun.
At one point I heard Greta saying 'Becca, are you here?' I was like 'I'm here, but I'm not sure my bikini will be for much longer' to which one of the group replied as a joke 'oh, did we not tell you? That's a part of initiation!!'
After getting the bus back with two girls who we had met there, we were exhausted. I cooked dinner, skyped Dad who was disappointed/surprised we weren't going out for the evening, but we were too tired and ended up in bed.
