Another novel by Andrea

I apologize for again blabbering on and on in these posts, but my blog doubles as my journal -- kill two birds with one stone ya know?

I wrote this while I was flying to Tasmania:

Differences between Australian airports and American airports: I never once showed any identification, I didn’t have to take off my shoes or my jacket, I took liquids in containers larger than 3 ounces, I was allowed to take aerosols on, they didn’t confiscate my little nail scissors.

Surfing experience: I went surfing for the very first time on Saturday April 10. I almost didn’t go because I was sick and had only slept about 4 hours the night before, but I ended up going anyway and am SO glad that I did. It was an absolute blast. I woke up at 6:30 and took the bus into the CBD and then the ferry over to Manly. The surf guide picked a group of 4 of us up at Manly wharf in his beat up van (totally surfer style) and drove us over to Dee Why beach. The other 3 people were lovely – I can’t remember their names for the life of me, but I enjoyed spending the entire day with them. One was a cute boy from Georgia who is living here in Australia for the next year working for the Neilson ratings company. The other two girls were here from Canada for a conference. We got to the beach and the surf guide provided us with wet suits and surfboards, and we headed to the sand. Our instructor was a 19 year old surfer dude who grew up surfing at Dee Why. I quickly realized that (a) I would get more help with surfing and (b) it would be more fun if I worked it with the kid a little bit. Don’t judge me J. So anyway, the walk from the van to the beach carrying the surfboard felt like a mile, but it was probably only a couple hundred meters. My arm felt like it was going to fall off by the time we set the surfboards down though. Not the best start J. I was using a soft longboard that was freaking heavy. We then practiced paddling and standing up on the beach. MUCH, MUCH harder than I expected and I wasn’t even in the water yet. You have to be pretty quick to pop up onto the board, and it is a pretty narrow board! If you have never been surfing try this – put a line of tape on the floor and lie on your stomach on it. Then jump from your stomach to your feet in one smooth movement without stepping more than 3 inches on either side of the line. All four of us kinda started to break a sweat just practicing. Then we headed into the water and started catching some waves. Again, WAY harder than I expected – standing up on such an unstable surface takes talent! We were catching waves that weren’t very big at all, thank goodness! The surf instructor (I think his name was Tom) would push us into the wave from behind as we paddled and then we would try to stand up. I caught on pretty quickly, but I found that I had to get to my knees first and then up to my feet – not the most effective way to do it. And I definitely ate A LOT of salt water, or “stacked it” as the Aussies say. Interestingly, it is a quite effective remedy for a cold—clears your sinuses right out. It was so fun. I got along really well with the other people there and I tried to be really friendly and cheer everyone on and create conversation as we waited for the good waves. We were out there for 2 hours and then we came in for lunch. The surf guide provided us with stuff for a gourmet sandwich and some Cadbury eggs. After lunch, we took a little 20 minute snooze and then it was back to the ocean for some more lessons with a different instructor. This one was named Jemma and older than the first, and definitely had the cute surfer thing going on. Still probably younger than me, but a girl can’t be too picky. However, I did find it rather annoying that he had better hair than me. Dang you surfer dudes with pretty hair. We went back and surfed for 2 more hours, in which time I think I digressed in my surfing abilities. But the water was beautiful and it turned out to be a nice sunny day and it was just a good time. Then our surf guide took us for a little driving tour of the area and showed us different beaches and lookout points before taking us back to Manly wharf! I then walked to Manly beach and rested my weary little head for 2 hours til the sun went down.

The night before I went out with my coworkers after a management meeting and it was the WORST night ever. The meeting was after work on the 11th floor, which had views of the Harbor and the Opera House and all of Eastern Suburbs. I would never leave the office if I had a view like that! The meeting wasn’t too bad because I got to hear all of their marketing and business strategies. However, at one point they started taking about the clinical education program and wanted my feedback and I got so flustered cuz they were all looking at me and I turned bright red and I literally started sweating. I was so embarrassed. But I couldn’t help it! It just happens – I can’t control the redness! The meeting started at 5:30 and at 6:30 they brought in the wine and I had to tell about 3 people that I didn’t want any, and then the secretary asked if I wanted beer or tea or coffee or coke, which I didn’t want either and they just thought that was so bizarre. The meeting lasted til 8:00 and my stomach was imploding by that time! I’m usually starting in on my post-dinner snack by then! We all headed over to a Japanese restaurant, at which point I again had to repeat that I didn’t want anything but water to drink. No. No. No. Everyone was just making sure that I was taken care of, but I got tired of saying no. No I don’t want coffee either. Water is fine. No I’m not just being polite, I really just drink water normally. No I don’t want a coke. No, Mormons are allowed to drink caffeine, I just don’t think it tastes good. Then they started passing around the food plates (we were all just sharing a ton of different dishes), most of which were sushi, which conveniently, I don’t like either. Mormons aren’t allowed to eat sushi? No, fools, I just don’t like it. So I ended up getting fed up with saying no and eating some of the freaking sushi. I literally had to gag it down. I have this talent where I can plug my nose without actually touching it, so I did that and chewed each piece maybe twice and practically swallowed the stupid thing whole. The rest of the evening was spent telling drinking stories and telling dirty jokes. Andrea why are you being so quiet? Because I have nothing to contribute to this conversation and I feel completely out of place! And the dinner went on and on and on…. And I’m thinking, I hope my bus runs this late. I didn’t end up getting out of there until 11:00. Luckily, my bus runs every 20 minutes until midnight. Now, I really like all of the people that I work with and they have been very kind to me and I think they are great people, so don’t get the wrong impression. But it is just difficult to be so different from everyone else. They just don’t understand why I don’t drink even coffee, why I don’t have sex, why I wear weird white underwear, etc. It isn’t that I wish that I could participate in the drinking or that lifestyle or whatever, it is just frustrating to feel on the outside because of your beliefs. And I’m getting really tired of hearing the F word.

Other random notes: The short shorts for boys fashion is much more popular here. The Aussie men like to show a little leg. This can make for some very awkward moments when you are in a physiotherapy clinic and ask them to bend in different directions to assess their injury. But, there seem to be a lot of awkward moments since modesty is apparently not a concern for most of our patients. You would think that if you knew you had a physio appointment and you knew they were going to have you take your shirt off, you would AT LEAST wear a bra that isn’t see through. Apparently that is just me though.

The Australian’s know how to do mayonnaise. That is quite a compliment coming from me. I don’t mean to brag, but I’m kinda a mayo connoisseur. Their mayo isn’t as thick as American mayo and they have tons of different flavors. It just makes sandwiches that much better. I won’t be bringing many souvenirs home from Australia, except for food items: chocolate and mayonnaise.

That is all the randomness I have at the moment.