Rockpools and Moonlight Parties

The beaches here are surrounded on each side by rocks like this.

This salt water pool sticks out into the ocean.  This is where I played with the little boys, and there are living things all surrounding the pool in the rocks. There is a snorkel spot off to the left.

I ran out onto the tip of the rocks to get this shot :)

A Rock Pool surrounded by rocks that jut out into the surf.

Good morning from Australia! It is Saturday morning here, and I am up early enough to write some things in the blog before my day begins!

         For the past couple of days I have been going out with some American girls shopping or to the beach on the bus.  There is a free shuttle bus around the town that runs right by our residence, so it is easy to jump on. One thing we are learning quick is that Australian “walking distance” is quite a bit further than American walking distance.  Thursday we went out looking for a beach towel and a couple other things, and ended up at the mall. We couldn’t help ourselves and each bought a dress at a shop where they were on sale for $10.  Yesterday we were shopping for the same kind of things, and I was in the market for a straightener with an Australian plug. I ended up getting one on sale for 19.97 that does the job, and I am satisfied with it.

         One interesting thing we have seen out shopping is that sometimes people don’t wear shoes here. We were in the food store the other day and several people were just shopping around without shoes it.  It seems to be something that is very commonplace and totally overlooked by most Australians. 

         We have also been going to the beach for the past couple of days, and let me marvel at how wonderful and beautiful it is for a moment!  The coastline here is littered with huge rocks, and the waves are pretty big coming onto shore.  It is like a really like a picture, and there are gulls and everything else littering the beach.  It is also not very crowded, so it really looks natural all the time.  The beach that we have been to, North Beach, is right next to a beautiful little harbor where sailboats and old yachts are moored out in the middle, and there is a lighthouse jutting out in the ocean.  Along all of this is a cool walkway that runs parallel, and on the walkway people are jogging, pushing ‘prams,’ or carrying their surfboards from the beach. 

On a rocky part of the beach there is this awesome rockpool- it is built right into the scenery, and the bottom is quite mushy, and smells like horrible sulfur if you sink deep enough. It is really cool, though, because it stays calm and relaxing even when the ocean current is rough and the waves are big.  It is really awesome, and all around it there are rocks with so much marine life it blows my mind!  People snorkel in this area, also, because the water is clear enough to see. 

I ran into two little Australian boys who where very excited to show off their crab catching abilities to an American girl.  I told them I was from South Carolina and when their mum came up one was heard saying “Mum, this girl is from South Carolina! What’s that??” haha.  I told them about our crabs, and about how I was worried they would get pinched, but they were not worried, as Australian crabs on this beach are a little smaller. They did catch me two, and each was about the length of my finger.  They also looked kind of like ghost crabs, not the colorful crabs we are used to on the marsh.  They showed me the different corals that were stuck to the rocks, and we took turns touching each one because they all felt so different, and would usually move when we touched them.

Besides the awesome rock pool, there is a pool right at the ocean that is totally free and totally cool. This pool is a saltwater pool, and puts its water out into the ocean, but somehow it is sanitized. I don’t really understand the mechanism.  But anyway, lots of Australians come to do laps in the Olympic size lap pool, while others go to the shallower pool and relax, and others take their children to the baby pool. This pool is more beautiful than any pool I have ever been to because it is separated by a roaring ocean and the rocks surrounding it by only a small seawall.  It really looks like the pool juts out into the ocean, and on rough days I imagine the water comes up over the wall and into the pool. 

We layed out on this seawall/walkway that separates the pool and ocean, and I must say it was one of the most pleasurable things I have ever done.  People were doing laps on one side of me, the ocean was roaring on the other, and the sun was shining down but it wasn’t hot because of a great breeze.  This place really is magnificent, and breathtaking, and all of those other adjectives that I want to use to describe things that are wonderful!

Anyway, I haven’t been to another tribunal, but I have been going to dinners, which have been improving by an American’s standards. Last night spaghetti was on the menu, and it was really more cheese and meat than tomato base.  That is another weird thing here- katsup is tomato sauce, and tomato sauce is katsup. We have to specify, haha, when ordering food, because the language really is slightly different. 

Last night we did something cool to- we told ourselves we were going to go out, so we got ready and everything and starting walking. We were told by a couple of the girls on our hall how to get to some bars, and we followed their directions. Somewhere along the way we started following some other people walking, and eventually ended up walking across town back to the beach.  On the beach there was this Moonlight Party; it was all of these people who casually were like firetossers or throwers, and were all doing it with their friends on the beach. There was also a big circle of people drumming on different instruments they had all brought down with them, and in the middle were hippie girls dancing to the beat.  Along the sides there were other people with little sideshow type talents, one guy throwing machetes, one guy who had made a tightrope between two bars and was trying to walk upon it.  It seemed like a lot of hippies from the area, a lot of younger people who casually spun the fire batons and stuff, and then older people who came to sit and watch and drink wine.  It was relaxing and cool to sit and watch, because you could see more than one firethrower on the beach at a time, and the drums resounded everywhere onto the beach.  It was really something to see, and the closest thing I have ever seen to anything like it was at the sunset down at Key West, where performers go down to perform their weird talents every night for the hoards of people who come to watch. 

One of the girls was disappointed we never found a bar, but I am glad we ended up at the moonlight party. While I will probably never be participating in the activities, I enjoyed sitting and watching other people perform and drum and everything else.  It was a beautiful, totally Australian scene right on the beach, and I am glad we ended up there.

Today, I have CIEE orientation, where I will meet the other people in my program and we will get to know each other.  I am looking forward to it, because soon we will be taking a trip together with CIEE. I will update the blog soon!