Blast from the Past

It's crazy to think that I have been here for two and a half months already.  I am nearly halfway through my internship here in Byron.  It is definitely a bit sad because time is flying by.  People leave and move on and new travelers arrive.

Because I am waiting for a package from my boyfriend, I checked the mail this morning.  No package for me, but I did find a humorous envelope from back in September:

I instantly laughed because I remembered when Conor got arrested for his DUI on the first night I was back in Byron after my week at Spot X.  Conor actually left the country before his court date, so I would assume the police were trying to hunt him down.

Shenanigans like that are really going to make me miss this place.

One Pill Makes You Larger

Maybe it's because I'm from a state in the Midwest of America where beer is worshiped and hard drugs are looked down on, but I never had any desire to meddle with hard drugs.  Beer is huge back home, so I did have my fair share of alcohol, but that was my main fix for drugs.  

Pot was definitely popular in my college town, though I don't consider it to be a hardcore drug.  Personally, I think it's less harmful than alcohol, but to each his own.  Occasionally, I would run into a couple of my friends snorting coke, but even that was relatively rare.  

In Australia, however, everyone seems to do a handful of different drugs every weekend.  I'm surrounded by marijuana all the time, but that doesn't bother me.  If you want to chill out and smoke a joint, go for it.  Beyond pot, though, people take just about anything they can get their hands on.  

Every time there's a beach party, I see my friends with glossy, blood-shot eyes at 6 o'clock the following evening.  Many of my friends take MDMA at the beach parties so they can dance all night and stay up until sunrise.  Mind you, these are the same people who refuse to take pain relievers when they have a headache because the chemicals in Ibuprofen. Just a bit ironic.  Aside from MDMA, people often take mushrooms, acid, Xanax, and snort cocaine(to name a few), which is all so foreign to me. 

Now, I'm not trying to preach in any way, it's just to point out a difference in culture, yet again.  Even the friends who I knew snorted coke back home did it very privately.  Pot was smoked openly, but anything else was a well-kept secret.

Sometimes I almost wonder if it's that people are more afraid of being judged back home, whereas here, everyone does what they want because they are who they are.  Either you like it or you talk to someone else.  I find it interesting, although I don't always know how to react to it.  I constantly get asked if I take certain drugs or if I would.  You begin to feel like you're in an anti-drug commercial, with an angel on your shoulder telling you not to take drugs, and a devil on the other shoulder telling you to take them and enjoy yourself.  

I would be lying if I said the opportunity wasn't tempting sometimes, but one thing I pride myself in is standing my ground for what I believe in;  I think I would try just about anything natural and unprocessed--aside from alcohol.  Otherwise, I don't want to touch it.  

Oddly, I like knowing people who do harder drugs because I get to hear stories, both good and bad, without actually experiencing the drugs themselves.  It's simply a large variety of risks to my health that I'm not willing to take.  This, however, is coming from someone who smokes cigarettes.

Let's Go Surfing, Surfing By-ron Bay

Live music Saturday night

This weekend in Byron, I was actually able to volunteer at the Byron Bay Surf Festival. It ended up being a relatively busy weekend for me because I was meant to volunteer in the morning and at night, as well as work a short shift in the middle of the day at the Lazy Italian.  

And I say I was meant to work in both the morning and at night because I couldn't find the information tent in the morning for the life of me.  I asked several different people, and no one knew where the tent was. 

I got to wonder around all of the different shops being set up in large tepees, which was a really cool idea.  Vendors were selling everything from wet suits to surfboards to just food to keep the fanatics well-fed.  Nonetheless, I couldn't find the information tent anywhere so, overtired, and a bit cranky, I walked back to the Arts Factory.  I  got to relax for a few hours until my shift at least.  

A combie everyone colored
on with chalk

Once finished with my 3.5hr work shift, I wondered back to the festival, and actually found the tent this time.  I was given a t-shirt and told to help pack up the tent.  After that was done, we were meant to just be crowd control for the live music.  It was definitely not a bad gig, especially since there was already security there.  We basically just had to try to pick up trash and keep an eye on people, while listening and watching the show.

By the time the main act, Donavon Frankenreiter, came on, the whole area was packed.  Aside from picking up a little bit of rubbish, we basically just got to chill out until about 10pm.  It was an early night for me, like usual, but it was a really fun day in general.

What Started as One Eventually Became Four

I have an internship with both Mojosurf and Loka(a new hop on hop off tour along the east coast of Australia) until March 1st 2015.  Because I am only an intern, I receive free accommodation from Mojosurf, and a small weekly allowance from Loka. As I said nearly a month ago, I needed to find another job since I came here with such a small amount of money. Now I have two more.

I applied at the Lazy Italian about two weeks ago, and just heard back from them this week.  After talking on the phone to the owner yesterday, I arranged for a trial last night.  I got to have my first shift.

The Lazy Italian is a small shop down one of the alley ways in Byron.  There are several similar shops that all compete for the business of each person that wanders through, looking for somewhere to eat.  Obviously, we serve Italian food, but even better: it's all homemade.  Everything.  Even the chicken and beef are raised locally.  

I only had a 3.5 hour shift yesterday, which went by extremely fast.  I was only learning, but everything was pretty easy to grasp.  I am basically a hospitality all-a-rounder, mostly taking food orders and serving dishes to patrons.

At the end of my trial, my manager told me that I did a really good job, and asked if I would like to have two more trials this week.  I did, of course.  She also mentioned that I would be working at their other restaurant right next door, Fishmongers, once I had gotten used to how the Lazy Italian operates.  

So what started as one internship in Australia, turned into 4 jobs.  Even if I have no life, I am pretty excited to finally feel a bit more financially secure.

Kayaking With Dolphins

Mondays definitely don't always have to be bad. Like this morning.  One of the benefits to working in the tourism industry, especially with Loka, is that companies want you to experience their tours so that you can send business their way.  

With Loka, travelers get to hop-on and hop-off of their Loka buses in different towns and cities, such as Byron Bay.  If the travelers decide to stay in Byron for a few days, we will have several tours that they can book directly through Loka.  This would obviously be the most convenient way for travelers to book activities, so there is a major benefit to being one of those recommended companies.

Cape Byron Kayaks is one of our Byron featured companies.  Out of complete luck, I was at the right place at the right time (the Byron Bay Brewery for a work meeting at about 4 PM) last Thursday.  The owner of CBK knows my bosses, and sat down to have a beer with us.  She told us we all needed to come out for her kayaking tour someday soon.  My bosses agreed on Monday morning, and told me to come as well.

I was excited, yet still a bit nervous, only because I had been sea rafting at Spot X and our raft tipped over twice, trapping me underneath for a few seconds each time.  Plus, I have always had a bit of a fear of kayaks because I was always afraid of tipping my kayak over with my legs stuck inside, unable to escape.  Luckily, I knew that sea kayaks were a bit different, and do not secure your legs inside them.  You just sit on top of the kayaks, basically.

I am so glad I went this morning.  We got all geared up and headed out, paddling fiercely to get beyond the breaking waves.  Once we truly made it out into the ocean, it was incredibly peaceful.  We kept our eyes open for whales and dolphins mainly, but even when you looked straight down in the water, you could easily see the sea bottom.

We didn't get to see turtles or whales, but we did see several dolphins up in front of our kayaks, maybe 10 meters away.  It was awesome just to see the dolphins that close to us.  They were diving in and out of the water very lazily,careless of the 30 kayakers gawking at them.

We even got to ride waves into the beach.  My first attempt was awesome and we rode the wave straight into the beach, where TimTams, tea, and coffee awaited us.  We headed back out to look for more marine life, but eventually just headed back into shore, riding waves in yet again.  Our second attempt was less successful.  The waves were much bigger, and I probably wasn't steering as I should have been.  Our kayak tipped, but our helmets eliminated any risk of injury during the crash.

I really didn't have much of an interest in sea kayaking before this experience but I have to admit I thought it was really cool, and I would do it again for sure.  And definitely with Cape Byron.

Beyond just the great experience overall, on thing that really means a lot to me is when instructors remember your name, and one of mine today kept referring to me by name, even giving me a hug at the very end, asking how my experience was.  All of the instructors were truly having a good time while they were out there, which was contagious to myself and the other travelers.  If you have the opportunity to go while in Byron, I highly suggest doing this tour.

All Shapes and Sizes

I would say a typical stereotype of the States is that our portion sizes are massive.  For the most part, I believe that the stereotype is accurate.  Coffees, for example, are massive in the U.S.  Our small coffees are usually 12 oz and are generally bigger than the large size coffees here in Australia.  The small coffees here can nearly fit in your entire hand.

American coffee company

Also, McDonald's Super Size menu is a horrendous example of large portions in the U.S.  As if the large, greasy burger and gigantic portion of fries, complete with a massive coke, weren't big enough, we had to create something to destroy any hope of staying within the average American's daily caloric limit.

What accentuates our portions, I find, is the price of our meals.  In Australia, I have gotten some fairly large portions while eating out, but you pay a fair price for them.  Back home, everything is dirt cheap.  Our average price for a meal out is about $10, whereas in Australia, it's closer to $20.  Even alcohol is the same way.  I can buy a case of beer in Wisconsin for the same price of a six pack over here.

The noticeable differences are growing everyday.  I'm just beginning to wonder if I will get to a point where I consider the Australian culture normal and the American culture foreign. 

I Have a New Guest

I wasn't really sure how I would react to snakes in Australia.  Spiders I knew I wouldn't like because I don't even like the small ones at home.  During the summer months, I used to have tons and tons of spiders spinning webs outside of my apartment door.  At night, they would come out and hang in front of it, so it was always a challenge to sneak into my apartment.

Actual Python near my tent

Snakes, however, I didn't encounter very often.  To be honest, I don't even remember the last time I saw one back home.  When I was younger, my brother used to find Garter snakes all of the time in our yard, since my parents lived out in the country.  They weren't venomous snakes, though occasionally my brother would get bitten.  The 'wound' was really only like a paper cut.

Now I'm in a country with loads of snakes, both venomous and not.  I think if I saw an Eastern Brown snake, I would have a heart attack because I really don't want to die or even be sick in the hospital because of a bite from one of them.

This weekend, I actually saw a Python near my tent.  Growing up, some families kept Pythons as pets.  On rare occasions, I remember seeing massive snakes wrapped around people's necks and shoulders like a fashion accessory.  A pet like that, however, you don't really expect to see out in the wild.

It was a bit of a shock at first, but after knowing it was a Python (which are nonvenomous snakes), I wasn't really bothered by it at all.  It was coiled up like a garden hose , but I really would've liked to see it slithering through the grass or wrapping itself around a tree.  I posted the photo on Facebook and, of course, my friends and family back home were horrified.

No one at the AFL was really the least bit afraid.  A few people, including myself, came to gawk at the animal, but aside from that no one was even the least bit alarmed. I thought it was a Python right away, but another backpacker confirmed my suspicions when one of my friends asked what it was. 

I think that because there are so many things that can kill you here, a nonvenomous snake is the least of my worries.  It even eats rodents, so really, it's a pest-remover.   Now I just need to be able to see Huntsman spiders in the same light.