Banished

I have been reading The Female Quixote, and 'banish' is one of the terms that just seems to pop up every other paragraph, so I have been banished to the room while Tom is outside still having fun at the HPU Beachwalk Barbeque - to be fair, I still have a ton of work to do for tomorrow (which is, of course, why I'm updating).

Just heard a splash - I wonder if Tom's been pushed in the pool!?

Anyway, back to the start. We had our first (free!) surfing lesson this morning, after I started chatting to a guy on the bus yesterday. He offered to teach us, and he knows a place around here that hires out surfboards for $7 an hour (and isn't that strict on the number of minutes in an hour). I was absolutely terrified, as was Tom, but he was managing to conceal it quite well, which helped. The lesson started out with some stupid lying-on-a-towel-practising-jumping-up kind of thing, which was just a bit embarrassing on a crowded lunchtime beach. The embarrassment only got worse, however, when we tried to wade into the water with our boards: my board turned over on top of me and I went completely underwater. Not a great way to start!

We got out further and Gabriel was a great teacher - he kept pushing me into waves and I actually kind of surfed a few! The first time was terrifying, I stayed on my stomach because I was so shellshocked, and it just went so fast. And so far! I totally lost Gabriel and Tom, and had to paddle back out for ages before I found them. Second time I actually managed to kneel and even put one foot up, but at that point I went under again. Tom was a bit less lucky, and 'pearled' once or twice (when the front of the board is sucked under the wave - you can imagine what happens then), but it was fun, and he will definitely do it again. Me, I'm less sure, but I still had a great time.

I've done most of both assignments for tomorrow but there's still a bit left to do for each. I can't believe how much work I've got to do. Around 6:30 we could smell meat outside, and as yesterday we got an invite to a barbeque, we headed out. We each got a burger - for free! Yay! - and Tom got a hotdog - also free! We love free stuff! - and chatted to loads of other students who live here too, for about an hour. We met Andrew, finally. There is one really nice Norwegian girl called Eda (?) who just seems mad! I think she was half-drunk though. Tom got in an argument with a 23 year old in the army studying Military History, which was a teensy bit awkward, to say the least. And now I have been sent back here to do work while he (from the sounds of it) throws people in the pool. Life is sad!