Weekend in Paradise

With spring break coming up quicker than we realized and my body’s need to develop a cold we decided to stick around the Gold Coast area for the weekend. Yet as we were in the area last weekend as well we wanted to make sure to make this weekend a much more productive and exciting weekend than the last one. Therefore, on friday we booked a day trip to Moreton Island, a small island 36 km off the coast of Brisbane [you do the mile conversion]. We were picked up at 6 am from the bus station in Southport where we were driven an hour to the ferry in Brisbane by our driver, nicknamed "Yunchi" by Rachel and I. Yunchi was aspiring to become a tour guide and therefore was very quick to make conversation with us and even quicker to tell us all about his experiences with speech therapists as a child after hearing about our majors. Anyways, after bonding with Yunchi, we were introduced to the rest of the group we would be with for the day. We were joined by 7 other individuals, all of whom were older than us. The group then loaded the van and the van drove onto the ferry to be parked amongst the other 4WD vehicles that would be touring the island for the day. The ferry was very nice with a cafe on board and so we sat and ordered Cheese and Spinach Rolls and got our complimentary Lattes [the best coffee order I have made so far in this country- you can't just order coffee here- very confusing!] and sat down for the hour ride out to the island. Once we got to the island we got back on our bus and were off to explore the island. Our first stop was "The Desert". Here we got the opportunity to go sandboarding, essentially, sledding in sand. I thought this was going to be very scary as the hill looked very steep from the top and they send you down face first but it is actually not scary at all and I went up for a second time. It is actually hiking back up the sand dune for a second turn that is the worst part, especially in that "desert" heat, and it was a verryyy hot day! When we were all done sandboarding we heading back to the bus to check out another area of the island. As there are no roads on the island and all driving is done through sand it is a very bumpy ride. Our next stop was at a lighthouse which offered very pretty views of the water, beaches, and surrounding cliffs. From the top, our guide was able to point out turtles in the water and claims we were looking at sharks from above as well. Our next stop was Main Beach, my favorite stop on the island and possibly so far on my trip. This beach was the prettiest beach I have seen so far in my time in Australia. This may be due to the fact that my trip and one other small group were the only people on this huge stretch of beach, or it may be how warm the water was or how nice the day was in general. Our 30 minutes spent here were definately not enough time. From this spot we were then taken to the Blue Lagoon, one of Moreton Island's fresh water lakes. We got another chance to go swimming and again, the area was very pretty, although after Main Beach, nothing could compare for me. After to short a time it was time to get back on the bus and head back to the ferry so we did not miss the last one back to Brisbane for the day. Once back at the ferry Yunchi pointed out the ship wrecks off the shore, explaining that these wrecks were caused on purpose for diving reasons, which I found slightly disappointed as they are pointed out as such an attraction on the island. It was then time for the long commute back home, making me very ready for an early bedtime!
The next day, despite feeling the worse, it was time for a rugby game, or as it is sometimes referred to here, a footy game. After spending the entire day trying to gain the strength, by Saturday night we were off on the train to Skilled Park to cheer on the Gold Coast Titans against the Canberra Raiders. It was fun to see the fans with their team flags and watch as the stadium sets off fireworks to introduce the hometeam. I am not sure fireworks would be allowed to be set off that constantly or that close to the field in a game in America. But American stadiums are definately more crowded than this game was. It may just be the team/league I was at, but the stadium was not even half full [although the anouncer claims there to have been 11,000 people there- the announcer was either very clearly lying orrrr there is a certain human conversion rate in australia that I have not been filled in on yet]. The first half of the game was spent staring intently trying to figure out the rules. Shockingly I think I may have actually figured the sport out. Hopefully I will have a chance to go to another game to test out my theories...or maybe some research will have to be done. [For those of you who were worried, the Titans crushed the Raiders.]
And the rest of my weekend is now devoted to Passover...Sunday being the great matzah hunt [success] and Monday being my first Chabad seder [also a success]. We joined a room full of atleast 50 people from all over the world and participated in a seder conducted entirely in Hebrew. For alot of it the Rabbi would instruct people to read ahead on their own while he would give a sermon of sorts and joining everyone back together for each glass of wine. Another man checked in our table of all griffith students and two english girls periodically making sure we had done everything we needed to do and of course to mock us for being american or to try and make us sing. All I will say about dinner is we were served the standard Passover meal...meat pies. Yes that is all I am saying about dinner. Except I will add, for my possibly worrying mother, the fast of the first born has been broken. Meat pies and all it was a very interesting and overall enjoyable experience and I look forward to going back tomorrow night, espeically now that I know what to expect.