Mini-Adventures

"You make known to me the path of life;

in your presence there is fullness of joy;

at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

-Psalm 16:11

Wow it’s Thursday already! Life happens so fast. Over the weekend, QUT hosted the Dragon Boat Regatta, and I got to row on the Brisbane river. There were twenty people per boat and twenty teams, so it was a pretty big event. Even though our team didn’t come close to winning, I had a great experience meeting and hanging out with different locals and international students on our team (shown below). I also got drafted to play touch rugby! Maybe. I’ve discovered how bad Aussies are at following up and communication in general. You definitely have to be proactive about everything. We’ll see if this follows through.

Team Dragonest!

There was a circus booth at the Dragon Boat Regatta, and I learned to use the sock poi and dragon staff (they also had diabolos, hula hoops, and juggling clubs and balls). I guess I was really keen on learning, so the guy teaching me told me about the West End Fire Fest happening at Orleigh Park that evening. It’s a meeting “spontaneously combusted in 2006” and "has since transformed into a free community night filled with music, fire arts, drums and a little magic.” (Facebook) Since I had nothing to do Saturday evening, I decided to check it out. I almost didn’t find them, but I’m glad I did! It was basically a gathering of professional and amateur fire spinners practicing and performing, and the longer I stayed the less I wanted to leave (but then it got really cold and I was by myself so decided to take the bus home instead of walking). The glow of the fire in the dark near to the river was mesmerising. There were also people dancing (playing?) with LED hula hoops in a way that made patterns and it was enchanting. It felt very gypsy-like (not that I know anything about gypsies :P) and cool. The Bay Area would never have the space for anything like this. 

Fire Spinners 

I finally know people that I’m starting to run into them on campus! After Taekwondo on Monday, Pink and I bumped into Walter and invited him to join us next week. He used to do Taekwondo in Malaysia and was really surprised and interested when we told him we were part of Taekwondo 😛 I was told that GP campus had a piano, so I went piano-hunting on Tuesday after math. On my way, I ran into Shi Yee, and she showed me where the piano was! It was on Level 2 in the chaplaincy (where the entrance is in the corner of the car park level. I would never have found it myself), and she even showed me her work station on Level 8 (she’s a PhD student). Later that afternoon, I saw Troy, our dragon boat team captain, and he showed me a picture of his breakfast (which was fried rice I made, story for another time). It’s starting to feel like uni again.

I went to pickup again, this time with a friend! It’s been awhile since I’ve played with someone I've met outside of Ultimate, and I was reminded that frisbee is fun not because it’s frisbee, but because of the people you play with. And the more it’s shared, the more fun it is! Thank you, Burks family, for introducing me to Ultimate! After pickup, we went into the city to meet up with some other friends, and we got KFC at 9pm. It was so unhealthy and I stayed up til midnight waiting for the chicken to digest (I usually eat dinner pretty early), but it was the time I spent with them that made it worth it. Speaking of bedtimes, I met a classmate who goes to bed at 8.30pm and wakes up at 4.40am AS A UNI STUDENT 😮. But that’s because he has to work at 6am, so it makes sense. But still. It showed me that stereotypes of college students staying up way past midnight to “do work” doesn’t apply to everyone, and people have different uni experiences based on their needs. It sucks to have to go to bed so early, but one has to do things to pay for the necessities of life. 

Yesterday was Ekka holiday (so I only had two days of classes. 5-day weekend?), and I got lunch with Laura (I rode the train for the first time too)! We were originally getting ramen, but the restaurant was closed so we ended up getting sushi (I didn’t mind, since it was 30 degrees C - too hot for ramen). Then we went into the city to do some shopping (read: she shopped and I accompanied her/tried on ridiculous things [see below]); it’s so nice being able to spend an entire afternoon with a friend without the pressure of needing to rush back to do hw. 

Wish You Were Here~ 💩

A lot more adventures happened (visited Hope Church, fried rice story, celebrated Pink’s birthday -> free churros), but I’m going to the Gold Coast in >1 hour and want to post before I leave! Finally going to real Australian beach hehe. Pictures of sand and surf to come in the next post!