Cowabunga

This is Noosa. Its a city on the coast a few hours north of Brisbane. It was definitely a spur of the moment trip. Hanne and I found out that some of our friends were heading here for the weekend so we tagged along. Travel time was supposed to be about 3 hours but 4.5 hours later we arrived. We had to take a train and two buses. On the last bus, a guy got on wearing a Carolina sweatshirt. I almost didn't even notice because it seemed so normal to me. I asked if he was a Carolina fan. He responded with some kind of Australia accent with a lisp, and as he drank box wine out of his backpack I decided we probably weren't meant to be friends even if he did love Carolina.

Once we arrived in Noosa we headed off to find a place to stay. We ended up at Koala which is a hostel there. After dinner and a lil chill time, we headed out to The Reef, one of two bars in Noosa. I was promptly denied entrance because I had on thongs. For those of you who just read that and gasped, thongs are flip flops. A quick change of the shoes and I was back in action. It happened to be Karaoke night, so Hanne and I decided to sing "Hit Me Baby One More Time" by good ol Britney. All in all a good night. We woke up around 10am Saturday and Hanne and I headed out to the beach. Our plan was to go surfing later that afternoon with the whole group. I called to book a time but they were already all booked for Saturday afternoon because they had a group of 7. I found out later that I was actually part of the group of 7, score.
And that ladies and gentlemen, is me surfing. We used soft long boards so it was easier than a fiberglass one, but it was pretty awesome. I actually stood up and rode a wave in about 5 times. I am now a huge fan of surfing and may try to continue my new passion once I arrive back in the states. I definitely recommend a lesson to everyone. Saturday night we hung out at the hostel bar followed by some drinking games in our room. Circle of Death with cheap box wine . . . probably not a good idea. Good times.

Sunday we spent the day out on the beach again working on our tans. This time home we caught a different train so it only took us 4 hours. I helped the Germans with their homework for a while when I got back and then settled in for a good night of rest before my first day of class.

So, school. This may come off nerdy, but I'm really excited about class. I had my Contemporary Issues in Advertising class today and it looks pretty tough but really interesting. After going around the room and trying to learn everyone's names (which most of the students are international meaning names aren't exactly easy) we then looked into what we'll be doing this semester. It will mostly be case studies of ad campaigns which sounds fun. Evidently in the UK right now there is an ad campaign by the National Health Service whose message is mainly "Sex is fun" and its targeted towards teens. One of the tag lines in this ad is "An orgasm a day keeps the doctor away." No joke, you can google this and read more about it. The UK also has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy . . . needless to say we're going to study the implications of this campaign and figure out what they hell they are thinking. I also met a nice American girl from NY in my class and we're going to do our first group project together. We also realized we have 3 classes together this semester so I found my new study buddy. For now I'm off to eat dinner and see how the German's first day went. Then its out for bowling with the Norwegian girls.