Four Months, Three Apartments + Feeling Manly At Manly
I complained about my apartment to my CT and he went to work for me. He very kindly asked around at his church and with close friends if anyone would mind keeping me for the rest of my time here as my current living situation sucks. Back-read the blog to find out why. Or I could just tell you now, that my landlord was a jerk that ranted about my 7-instead-of-3 minute length of shower, among other things.
My CT told me that he talked to his best friends parents and they would be happy to have me at their house for the rest of my time there. He gave me their telephone number and I called them during my last period on Thursday which I had free. I left a message on their machine.
Friday night I got a call from one of my new landlords asking when I could drop by to see the house. We made a time for Sunday (yesterday) a bit after 1 pm. I was excited to see it!
They have a lovely house and couldn’t be nicer. They’re in their mid-60’s and very kind. We chatted over tea and biscuits about why I’m in Australia, they types of experiences I’ve had, and the old landlord. They were very understanding about my situation and were incredibly genuine people. They told me I would not have to pay rent, I could take as long a shower as I would like, they have 8 GB of Internet a month, if I needed any food just let them know and next time they run to the store they would pick some up, and if I had a laundry basket just to give it to them and they would take care of any dirty laundry I had. See what I mean? AMAZING PEOPLE! I believe I’m going to move in on Wednesday of this week with the help of my CT. I’m pretty well packed and ready to go with a few sets of clothes for the rest of my time at the old place.
I will have a room to myself with a desk, full size bed, and closet (I’ll post pictures soon). I get my own bathroom, and as I stated previous, as much water as I can handle. They live near bush (woodsy area) and I can even choose to walk through it on my way to school to catch the bus in the morning. I probably won’t since it’s getting pretty hot. Today it was about 32 degrees Celsius (90 Fahrenheit). But that’s okay because I was at the beach for school!
Today was the Year 7’s Manly Beach Day. In the morning we spent 2 hours on at Water Works which consisted of three tube slides. It wasn’t a water park. It was just a place in a small pocket near the beach that used ocean water and three tube slides into a meter deep pool. It was actually really fun. The rides were surprisingly long and lots of fun to go down. I feel bad because one of the teachers loaned me his rashie and i accidentally lost it. I don’t know what they call them in the US. You know those shirts that fat kids wear? One of those. Except in Australia everyone has them since the sun is so harsh. I left it at Water Works after we left to have lunch. I’ll have to pick one up for him (after I use it Friday when I go again for the year 8 trip!)
Then we played beach volleyball for a few hours. The kids were tired and the instructors didn’t want to be there either. It was a bit boring, but passed the time well.
Finally, at the end of the day we got to go surfing and body boarding. It was awesome. Seriously awesome. It was one of those situations where I couldn’t stop smiling. I knew I looked like a goon, but it was so much fun. I got up on the board about four times in one hour. Looking back, my longest ride was probably about 10 seconds long, but boy did it feel a whole lot longer. We just surfed on the white wash of everything, so it wasn’t like I was carving up the waves or anything, but it was sufficiently euphoric. I was a bit nervous before hand, but the students were surprisingly understanding. Even cheering when I would stand on the board.
I made my way back and picked up some packages from the post office from my parents and friends that I really appreciated after a tiring day. I don’t know how today could have gone any better. I’m a bit burnt, I have a few bumps on my butt from the water slides, and I don’t know if I’m every going to get all the sand off my body, but that’s okay. I’m not sure if I want to.
