a mountain, goon, and a peaceful beach

I'm feeling a bit behind in my postings! Oopsiedaisy.

Yesterday I woke up with the intention of doing all sorts of errands that kinda needed to be done but weren't quite vital to my life keeping in good order. On my way to do these ever-important errands, I ran into some friends who were just about to make their way up Mt. Kiera, so me and my housemate, Holly, decided to join them! It was absolutely breath-taking. There were a lot of wooden, winding stairs, covered with vines and moss. Literally, it is a rainforest in there. Wow! I know what you're thinking... um, pictures please? I know i know, I wish I would have brought my camera too, but I didn't. Another oopsiedaisy moment. But now I'm inspired to hike up it again, even if just for the pictures. It only took us about two hours! There's a part where we climbed up a creek bed, and I really liked that, minus the fact that there were a lot of webs that we had to pick through, and one of the girls saw a snake on our way down. Eek!

Oh, and speaking of snakes: it's true that most things here are poisonous/more deadly that any bugs n such that we have in America. Good to know, eh?

So that was definitely a wonderful highlight of my day. That night a group of us went out to some of the local pubs. I must say, I feel like I'm back at IU when I'm around a lot of these students here. It's just that the bars are a heck of a lot cooler. But all everyone ever wants to do is drink. They all drink this wine cooler, like Franzia, that has been dubbed the awesome name of "Goon". It's cheap and you get drunk fast. It doesn't taste good. The guy in the picture has made his very own goon-hat. Classy, huh? haha I just don't get it, and I don't think that I ever will. Drinking is so unnecessary. And they make it the main event! Like the whole night is just about drinking more and more. Shoot, that's dumb. I would love to meet people and go and have fun with them, but if that's all that their going to do and all that they will talk about, then I'm bored, and totally disillusioned. No thank you! Luckily, I actually met one normal guy out, who also wasn't drinking, and he's a cyclist, so perhaps I can get some good routes to go on. I'm looking forward to meeting more people who are like me, but I am really grateful that I have a wonderful housemate!

So I woke up feeling a bit poopy about the former night, so I decided to make this day count. I spent some time in the Word, and was struck by Matthew 14:23 where it describes how Jesus went alone to pray. I realized how much I needed some space, and time to be alone with the Lord as well. So I hopped on my bike (so glad that I brought it over here!), and wandered my way towards the beach.

On my way, I got caught up at Uni because they had lots of brochures, free food/weird drinks, cute animals, and I met a lovely group of students from a Christian group called EFC (yay!).

And then

I got caught up downtown because there was a sale on these beautiful little sundresses, and then I had to scavenge up some food as well...

So I didn't actually end up at the beach until like 5. That was not my plan. However, it made the water smell that much sweeter, and the sun felt that much more glorious. My suit was wet when I was leaving my room in the morning, so I didn't bring it. Very unfortunate. Luckily, I had on some sporty undies and a sports bra... hehe. Nobody even noticed. Besides perhaps this creepy man named Rory who came over to my secluded spot to say that he was really hungover, thought I had nice lips, and was intrigued about what I was journaling. I didn't tell him, and I pretended to be really bored by our conversation (it wasn't hard to "pretend"). He eventually left, thank goodness. And then it was quiet. Sighhh.

I cannot even describe how great it is to be able to just hop over to the beach like that.

My soul rejoices!! ;)

I then navigated my way back home... I'm finally getting the hang of my directions here. Mostly I know that if I just ride toward Mt. Kiera, I'll find my way back, and if I go away from Mt. Kiera, I'll be at the beach. Pretty simple, really.

I am currently sipping on some warm soup, eating brie on crackers, and drinking a bit of merlot as I wait for Casablanca to finish downloading on itunes, where I rented it for cheap. This is my kinda night.