byron bay here I come!!

So it's about 1 am and I am getting picked up by a shuttle at 5 am to go to the airport and fly to Byron Bay!! haha, I am definitely the procrastinator and am still packing sadly. Anyways, I am so stoked about this trip...I will be there from the 22nd to the 29th! I plan on surfing, enjoying the beach, kayaking, and hopefully meeting people to spend Christmas with :) It will be weird being away from home, but this is a once in a lifetime thing and I know I will be home soon...

     This past week has been really really great!! On my day off on Tuesday I decided to be spontaneous. The night before (on monday), I was really anxious to go out surfing, but since I hate going alone, I searched for "surf day trips" in the area and found one that was a decent price! So I texted the phone number that I found (since it was 11 pm at night) and the next morning I got woken up to a phone call at 8:15 am saying that they had space for me to go that day! I was so excited, but also flustered and worried because I had to be at the wharf by 9 am! I somehow made it there, and had the best time ever...we surfed for about 4 hours total and had an awesome time...I caught more waves than I've caught in my whole life and really enjoyed the trip! We just went to a couple local beaches, which was cool because I was already familiar with the area and everything. Oh and fun fact about freshwater "freshie" beach that I live by...it was the first beach where surfing was brought to in australia-the famouse "Duke" from Hawaii surfed there. Cool eh? 

Another fun fact...Stan Walker, who is the winner of the "Australian Idol" goes to my church and I also saw him perform randomly when I was at the mall the other day. I also saw the live taping of the "Australian Idol Finale" where he won, at the opera house. 

       Anyways, it really hasn't felt like Christmas yet at all. The weather has been nice and hot, and since the family doesn't have a Christmas tree, it hasn't really hit me yet that it's the holiday season. Although on Saturday evening the family had a big Christmas dinner (since they are going out of town in a couple days) and had relatives over and Shayli (my friend) came over as well. It was an amazing meal and I definitely appreciated wearing a loose fitting dress that day haha...no waist band for me thank you!! 

So let's see...today was an amazing day! I spent it all day with Molly (my friend from home) and Katie. We went to the famous Blue Mountains and on the way we stopped at an animal park where we fed kangaroos and petted koalas..then we learned how to throw a boomerang which was pretty sweet! I had dinner at the Murray's house, which is who Molly and Katie are staying with. It was so nice being able to spend all day with them, as I'm leaving tomorrow for Byron Bay and they are leaving on Wednesday to fly back home to the states. It was pretty sad saying goodbye to Molly....I am SO glad she was able to come out here though :)

       Anyways, I should probably get going, as I'm getting picked up to go to the airport in less than 5 hours and I still need to finish packing and get a bit of shut-eye hah, whoops! I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas and I can't wait to update you all on my little Christmas trip to Byron Bay...oh and by the way, here is a link to a little video I made for everyone at home. Love you all!! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STu5lIXTudY