Saturday, February 24, 2007

Things didn’t start out very well today. I ran out of credit on my phone and internet, so both my landline and my internet got cut off. Since it was the weekend, it was very hard to get credit added to my account, but I eventually found someone in the building who let me add some credit to my phone line. My internet is still not working well- but I should be able to get that fixed sometime next week. My mobile also doesn’t really work very well. I bought it the day after I got here and have since realized that I got ripped of in Chinatown. I’m trying to deal with my crappy reception and the unreliability, but I really don’t know how long it will last for! All those problems made it kind of difficult to get in touch with everyone here!! …But luckily I was still able to receive calls.

At around 1pm, I met up with a whole bunch of people down at Circular Quay so we could take the ferry over to Manly Beach. Janice, Brooke, Nick, Sabiha, Jacqui, and two Australians (Sarah and Tom) all came. The ferry ride was really nice, but it was a little bit cloudy. I could not believe how many sailboats were in the harbour and how close we came to hitting them numerous times!! We also saw a tall ship being escorted by almost 10 police boats- which was really neat! The ferry ride took about 30 minutes to get to Manly and when we got there it was looking even cloudier :( . It is only about a 3 minute walk to the beach when you get off the ferry- so we went straight there, and then right into the ocean! It was colder than I thought it would be and the waves were MASSIVE, but it was really fun. There was lots of kelp and seaweed around, which was kinda scary, but I got used to after a few minutes. There were so many surfers around (outside of the designated swimming area) and everyone seemed to be good swimmers. I, on the other hand, was getting totally pummeled by the waves. Brooke and I decided that we needed to get bathing suits that stayed on better if we had any chance of getting past the break.
(This is Janice, Brooke and Nick after our swim.) (Waves!)
We spent about 15 minutes in the water and then about 30 minutes sitting on the beach before it started raining. Not the best day to go to the beach- but I’m sure I’ll be going back soon.
(Janice, Nick, me and Brooke on the ferry.)
We got some hot chocolate (at Max Brenner- an AMAZING drink place here) and then took the ferry back to Circular Quay. We walked around the Rocks for a while and found a cute little pizzeria that was very busy, so we decided to have dinner there. It was good and cheap, so we were all happy.
After dinner it was raining even harder, so we just decided to all go home. I came back to my apartment, talked to Brent for a while and watched some “House” on my computer. (All the doctors here have been telling us to watch that show since it is medically accurate and deals with all kinds of strange cases.)
Tomorrow I am back at the hospital and we will be learning how to use our stethoscopes and take blood pressures (as well as some other vitals). Also, Brent’s friend (Alphabet) called me again to check up on me and invited me to a big lifesaving competition (State Championships) that is going to be at one of the beaches in Sydney next weekend. I think I’m going to go on Saturday!