Straddie Island

Writing to you from a small room, in a big apartment, on a big street, in a big city!

The past three days have been unbelievable.  Being the prepared and motivated person that I am, I had absolutely no idea of where I was actually going and only learned how to correctly say the name of the island we were on 3 hours before leaving it.  This trip was the culmination of orientation week for the international students and a way for us to meet the people we had not yet met and strengthen relationships with people we had met that week.  On the menu, 3 days of activities including surfing, kayaking, a nature walk, a beach party and a night at a local bar.

Day 1 (Friday) – We left the campus on buses at around 9 am.  While waiting for the buses to show up, I taught some Germans how to play haki sack and not to brag or anything, they picked it up pretty quickly, when they dropped it that is.  I met a girl from Taiwan on the bus and she ended up DJ’ing my ipod for a good part of the trip!  (Ruby... I swear I don’t know how Backstreet Boys got on my ipod!) We ended up on a ferry and that’s when I figured we were probably going to an island... The fact that there was a big sign saying “Ferry to Stradbroke Island” had absolutely nothing to do with it.  When we got to the resort,  I was paired up with 4 guys, we got the largest suite in the resort and this was the view from my room...

I knew I was in for a treat of a weekend.  That night, everyone still strangers to each other, I decided to organize a small ice breaker activity for my German haki buddies, as well as my weekend roommates!  We got some plastic cups and set ourselves up a game of Flipcup.  2 teams, 4 cups - Race time.  Germany on one side of the table, Canada, US and France on the other; the tension was incredible.  Since our team only had 3 members, I bit the bullet and did the first and last leg.  Beads of sweat inching themselves ever so closer to the bottom of our foreheads as we waited for the race to start, we realized we had not designated anyone to start the race... The American said “Go!”  A clash of titans occurred.  All I can say about the results is that Germany ultimately found themselves repeating the performance their country had put on at the world cup.  For those of you that didn’t follow the world cup, Spain won.  Only one team wins the world cup.  I hope that’s clear enough.  Germany was promised a rematch at some point in the next 5 months.  The beach party that ensued was LEGEN... Wait for it... DARY! (Thanks Barney). Fire twirling, swimming and random Australians were all of part of this crazy camp fire.

Day 2 (Saturday) – Today, I got to ride tall blue watery things with a long paddle shaped thingy.  I think they said it was surfing...  It felt strange to paddle 20 meters out into the ocean, only to have to come back standing on this paddle thingy or have the instructors yell at me for going too far.  Plus, whenever I did come back, I always ended up wiping out and swallowing a ton of salt water.  To top that off, they made me wear a ridiculously tight suit to do it all.  I’m not entirely sure because I was underwater, but I think the instructors were laughing every time I fell too!  If I knew I was going to be ridiculed all morning I would have slept in!  But to be serious, I loved it!  So much so that I decided to go back with a friend in the afternoon during our free time and try it again!  I had fallen in love.  Sitting on a board 20 meters out with locals waiting for waves to come, you realize that the people living on this island have one of the most relaxed lifestyles on earth.  They live on an Island!  If you ever have an opportunity to surf, do it!

After this day of hard work, we headed off to the local bar to socialize a bit.  We quickly found out that the bar closed at midnight, and we had shown up at 10.  I thought since we had been given the biggest room in the resort, that it was our duty to host the after party!  My roommates were not of the same opinion (at the time the idea arose)...  After two hours of convincing, they were onboard.  The only problem was that we hadn’t told anyone that we were hosting... Everyone was walking back down to the hotel to sleep...  We scattered and scrambled to tell everyone:”PARTY IN ROOM 31!”  I ran back to the room (about 2 km away) yelling at people I passed “PARTY IN ROOM 31!” When I got there, Nico, one of my roommates, had already set up the bar (Yes, we had a bar...). Hopefully, people would show up.  Did they ever.  Snoop Dogg can take his “Party at the Holiday Inn” and keep it.  This was much better.

Day 3 (Sunday) – Suffice to say this day was very quiet on most fronts... I’ll let you guess why.  My group got a guided walk of the island with some breathtaking sight, such as this one:

We hoped on a bus back to Brisbane, no longer as international students studying at QUT, but QUT students come from everywhere in the world... I know, I know... Corny.

Lesson learned: If a weekend at a resort can’t bring people together, nothing will.  Ever.

Australianly yours,

Joël