surf's up.

This morning, Lexi and I woke up early to attend a kickboxing class in town at 6 am. Since we are still getting used to the time difference (and the fact that the sun sets at 4:30 pm, which makes me want to go to bed at around 8:00 pm), waking up was easy. There were 4 other women and the class was taught by an exercise physiologist named Pete. It was different than all of the other kickboxing classes I had ever taken--Pete really focused on kicking and punching technique and kept the routine simple. I also noticed that he played no music during, which was weird because I cannot remember the last time I worked out without music. Nevertheless, it was a great start to our day and interesting to see how exercise classes in Australia differ from those in the US.

Right after our kickboxing class, Lexi and I met up with the rest of the group at the beach for our surf lesson. It was taught by Mojo Surf and they promised "sexy instructors" on their website, so we were pretty excited--to learn how to surf of course. When they arrived, they got us into wet suits (thank God because it was pretty chilly, but luckily the water was a warm 24 degrees Celsius  and gave us each a surfboard. The instructors consisted of 1 head older guy, 2 guys our age, and 1 girl also our age. And to answer your question, the website fulfilled their promise. We started off with a warm up and then the head older guy talked to us about what to check for when checking the conditions. Unfortunately he had a pretty thick Australian accent and spoke extremely fast so it was pretty difficult to understand, but I was able to get the most important information out of that talk: stay between the buoys or else you will get sucked in by the ocean. He then gave us a quick tutorial of how to get up on the surfboard and we got in the water. While he sent us in with minimal instruction, I preferred that because I learn better by doing.

The first thing I learned about surfing was that getting out there is the  hardest and most time consuming aspect of surfing. At times I felt that for every one step I took forward, the ocean pushed me ten steps back. Once I got out there I also realized that I didn't really know how to identify a good wave, so I just decided to go for it. I hopped onto my surfboard, looked back, saw an incoming wave, started paddling, and stood up on my board like we were taught. I was feeling great for all of a second and then next thing I know, I was underwater and being tossed around by the waves. Determined to do better, I paddled back to try again. This time, one of the surf instructors assisted me and let me hold on to him while I stood up on the board. This built up my confidence a bit more, and I was able to stand up 4 times by myself! With many, many falls in between and a few war wounds. Considering I didn't think I was going to be able to stand up at all, I feel like that lesson was pretty successful.

After surfing, we had a couple hours for a lunch break before we had to go to our afternoon hydrotherapy lesson. It was still pretty chilly and all I wanted to do was take a hot shower, but the hydrotherapy lesson was going to be in the pool so it would not have been worth it to change out of my swimsuit. Once it was time for the hydrotherapy session, it was even colder and the pool water was also much colder than the ocean at 20 degrees Celsius. I do not do well with cold and was not looking forward to it, but Mez, the exercise physiologist from yesterday, was teaching it and she has so much enthusiasm that it was hard to not want to partake. She taught us both the home and pool exercises that she teaches her aboriginal patients to increase their mobility and balance. Hydrotherapy isn't something we have learned in my classes yet, so it was interesting to perform the exercises and get a feel for how they can help people's physical well being.

As great as the lesson was, I was really excited once it ended and I could finally take a hot shower and start warming up. After a short break, we walked into town (its about a mile long walk one way), and watched the Trojans practice. The Trojans are a local rugby union team who we have a training session with on Friday and then are going to their game on Saturday. I was surprised to see that they were practicing at a field in the middle of town that was open for everyone to see. This was different than in the US where you would never be able to just show up to a practice for a team no matter what skill level. I had also never watched  much rugby before so it was fun to watch them practice up close and I am excited to learn how to play tomorrow and watch them play on Saturday.

For dinner, some of us went to Ellenix, a local restaurant, which had a $25 steak and wine special. I instead got a Greek salad with falafel, but it was delicious nevertheless. After having had dinner at three different restaurants and all with a wait of an hour or more, I realized another cultural difference. In the US, we are accustomed to being served quickly and expect to have minimal wait. Here, they truly take their time and are in no rush whatsoever. After asking for the check tonight, the server even asked us why we were in such a hurry. I know that the reason I want my food quickly is because I am starving and I am not a pleasant person when I am hungry. However, once I get my food I continue to be in a hurry and not really sure why. Eating out in Lennox Head has definitely been testing my patience, but I was also told that this is just the culture here since its such a small and relaxed surf town. Hopefully the larger cities we go to will have a shorter wait for food....