Holidays in Byron Bay and Lake Eildon

It has definitely been a slow starting summer here in Melbourne. For my birthday present, Joel got us a trip to Byron Bay, which is like 9 hours North of Sydney in NSW on the coast. I wanted to visit there since I went to the Gold Coast and heard awesome things about it. Joel knows me well, because no gift is like the gift of travel and getting to explore more.

We did a hike to what was supposed to be a beautiful waterfall, but ended up being just a trickle. We were warned about this on google, but decided to go for it anyways and check it out. The hike was a lot of fun, and really beautiful. I also drove (a car) for the first time on the left side of the road. It is funny and of course natural that your brain constantly wants to shift to the left shoulder, so besides that and hitting the windshield wipers a few times instead of the blinkers, everything went smoothly.

We also had our hand at some surfing. We took a surfing lessons from a guy named Gaz who was a great teacher. He had his entire lesson with funny themes involved and completely memorized. One thing he did promise is that we would stand up on the first go, and that was true. Some other members in the group stopped trying after a bit in the water which left us plenty of time for tips. We had a BBQ in our hotel next to the pool. So we prepared Christmas (Chrissy in OZ) eve dinner in OZ style. Steaks on the bbq, salad, beers, and mango!

On the last day we drove around the coast, stopping at some beautiful look out points and enjoyed more time on the beach. On Boxing Day (the day after Christmas is a public holiday kind of like America's black friday) nothing was open to eat after 2pm.. We had a late brekky and were then stuck eating Mcdonalds! :(  Just another awesome example of awesome work life balance in OZ because Christmas fell on a Sunday, there was another make up holiday on the 27th. People working in lots of jobs, like myself have public holiday penalty rates which are usually double or more than double their normal rate.

For New Years we joined 18 friends (some we had never met before) from Ulimate Frisbee for a camping trip in Lake Eildon, Victoria. The lake was the perfect temperature for a swim, and the weather was perfect. Plenty of sunshine and the lake to cool you down if you got too warm. We all got plastic inflatible row boats and had the best time paddling or swimming around the lake. Even though it was summer, a camping trip isn't complete without a camp fire right? We gathered around the fire and had several other visitors from the camp site join us. One young man who was dancing around the fire, eventually fell and dislocated his shoulder. Luckily in our group we were able to strap him up and get him some help. We danced, drank, ate, and sang together to ring in the new year. We also ate 12 grapes each, a Colombian and Portuguese tradition. Each grape you make a wish.
We played lots of games and could just talk and talk if no one ever told us to stop. :) It was one of my favorite moments in Australia so far.

I have signed a contract to start a position as a Teachers Assistant in a Special Education School working with Elementary School students grades 1 and 2 starting Jan 30th. The position is just three days a week so I will continue working at my current job the other two days a week.

I was also selected to play on Bauhaus Reserves again, and crazily enough volunteered to be the team manager. So I help out with all the finance sharing, the communication, the organization of tournaments, etc, etc. It has been a lot of extra work that I didn't expect, so definitely keeping me busy. In addition to all the trainings we have for the team.  Joel has tried out to play with a different, more competitive team than last year and is really enjoying the challenges so far. Our tournaments begin the first weekend in Feb.

The first official weekend of summer Joel and I went on little cycling journey starting in Mordialloc and finishing in Sandringham along the beach. We were optimistic when we looked out the window and saw some sun. I packed only a light jacket and Joel didnt have any. It rained and was soo windy we could barely cycle against it! It was really pretty and a lot of fun, but I was cold the whole time. I had no idea Australia had cold weather,  but never been so wrong! We will have a high of 97F today and 69 tomorrow... the differences are so crazy but that makes it nice after a hot day you have some relief quickly.

I also have a new (loaned) to me set of wheels.. These set of wheels have a motor. I am driving a friends beautiful red vespa around melbourne. I got my motorcycles learners permit just before Christmas. In Australia they require you to do a two day course to get your license. All things driving here are very cautious in comparison to the US, which I think is a good thing to help new drivers have ample time learning before they set off on their own without restrictions.  This course was really useful. Though I had my little beaver in Korea, I never really had instructions on driving. It was really helpful, however I did my class on the motorcycles provided. It was really fun!

Over and out!
xoxo
Nicole