I haz surfed. I haz survived.

Hardly. I never stood up. Only could get to my knees.

But anyway. Here's a little info about my surfing extravaganza!

The night before, as we all know, was quite a late night. So I didn't have much sleep and I probably was still a little drunk. But that's beside the point.

Melanie and I got up around 6am, put on our bathing suits and headed towards the buses. We caught the bus and got to the train station just in time for our train ride to Cronulla. I was being my usual dork-self and I think it was a side Melanie hadn't seen before. She laughed and to me, that was worth it!

The weirdest part about Sydney is that transportation. Not only is public transportation so widely used, it's used by EVERYONE. Including kids going to school. How weird! There were a ton of kids on the train all in uniform, ready to start their day.

As we finally came to Cronulla, we hopped off the train and figured out our way to the Cronulla Surf Academy. I will add that it wasn't that each to find the beach. What?! Leave me alone! I get turned around easily. BACK OFF.

Once we arrived at Marine Parade (which is a road) we walked along the boardwalk and fell. in. love. with. this. town. It was quaint and calm. I loved it.

These pools are a pretty common occurrence in Australia. Keeps out the sharks and jellies, eh?

Although the surf looks pretty timid, it is rough. Let me tell you!

After taking about a 20 minute walk, we finally arrived at the "Academy." And by Academy, I mean two stoners that woke up one day and decided to make their pastime their career.

Assholes.

The whole time I was kicking myself for never learning how to surf. How EASY of a job with that be?! And they LOVE it. Ugh. Whatever.

They gave me a wetsuit to wear since and an awesome shirt to go ON TOP of it. I almost died, it was so hot. We got these HUGE foam boards and had to drag them out to the beach. Somehow everyone else there had long arms, but I had these stubby-little-can't-carry-a-surfboard arms and ended dragging the bitch in the heat. Oh the heat. I had never wanted to jump into that ocean more.

The "Coach" taught us the basics and actually surprised me since he knew terminology and other useful information to make sure we didn't die out there. He was impressive.

After he picked on the fat girl in the wetsuit (oh right. Me.), we got on our boards and swam out to sea. To our watery grave, if you will.

We kind of floated around for a bit and pretended like we were badass surfers then he started peer-pressuring us to catch some waves, maaaan.

Let's just say. I did a lot of body surfing...on a board. I couldn't stand up. There was too much to think about (I think that was the real issue..I was thinking TOO much). And since my lesson (with 3 other girls) was only 1.5 hours -- I really pushed myself to get back out there after catching a wave.

Oh. Those timid waves. Tiny, little, cute waves.

MY ASS. Those were some powerful waves. And they were literally like 2-4 feet. At one point, I couldn't get back on my feet to grab my board and get back out there. I kept getting pushed down, the board hit me in the head several times, my hair would cover my face and by the time I push it out of the way to see, another wave would crash against me. IT WAS BRUTAL.

But I loved every minute. Made me REALLY determined to get out there and take care, damnit! At one point, I saw Melanie getting out of the water. Come to find out the same thing was happening to her, but she's Canadian. She swallowed a ton of sea water.

So. After our lesson was over, all of us looked beat up. I'm kind of glad my first time wasn't an all weekend event. I would've died.

The best part. We had to drag our big-ass boards back to the Academy. I was the last one. And I'm not ashamed. My wetsuit was clinging to my body. I was soaked, but hot and wanted a shower. Desperately.

And, if you're wondering. I WILL be surfing again. Hopefully in the near future.

I was too embarrassed to have my picture taken with the board. So I let Mel pose.


Here's Cronulla beach. Breathtaking, isn't it?

Yeah. I thought so too. So when I reached in my bag to get my camera out...it wasn't there. I was a little taken aback and prayed to Melanie that I left my camera at home, but no. I had definitely taken a picture of us in the train station. Which meant. I. Left. It. On. The. Train.

With all the damn school kids.

NOOOOO!

When I realized that. I had to sit down for a minute. And my immediate reaction was...I can't tell my mom.

Such is life. And there's nothing I can do about it. Except call the train station. And I did. But I'm not holding my breath. So. These are Melanie's pictures.

Afterwards the shock wore off, Melanie and I stopped and grabbed some lunch. She finally got to see my obsession with ketchup. It wasn't pretty.

We then walked back to the train station, but decided to do a little bit of shopping. There were some awesome stores around this town and I found the cutest dress for $15. It's gonna be my b-day dress.

All-in-all. A great day. An awesome day.

Minus the camera action. Pathetic.