I must say I had a blast and made some amazing friends and shared some unforgettable experiences. I spent the first night under the stars, in my winter bag (Go Mountain Hardware). I seriously considered not buying a tent and going the full two weeks in a bag but the girls--Miranda and Fleur, my wondeful travel buddies who stuck it out for the week with me despite our constant gender-clashing moments of sheer awkwardness or tension-convinced me to buy a tent, which I am now lending to a friend who is still at Byron from Melbourne Uni so that she doesn't have to buy one. Sometimes men and women really are on different time schedules, and often have different ultimate goals. Put the two together and things will stir up a bit. Fortunately, we remained civil and I'm proud to have traveled with the ladies, including Camille "Old Greg" Hunter. I'd like to note that upon her arrival I completed a proper harem of women, all of whom I defended gallantly-er as gallantly possible due to me being on Mid Semester Holiday and constantly drinking near the Eastern coast of Australia. At any rate, this has all been an overtly thorough, roundabout approach of thanking you all.
That was a mouthful. Here's a picture of Old Greg in the morning for some comic relief.
Going to Byron especially made me reconsider what exactly my life is about and where exactly it is going. I see all these broke travelers having the time of their life, and here I am struggling my way through school so that I can become part of the more successful American society working a job that pays well so I have money to buy more shit that I don't need. Capital isn't everything, and it alone certainly won't make me happy. And yet, I feel as though I can't be as free as the travelers, for my parents have sacrificed so much to give me a private education from age 11 on, solidifying me in a route destined for a proper professional career. I've decided to do further traveling after I graduate and before I attend Grad/Law school, because even now sometimes it's more than I can take. The hustle and bustle of the Melbourne life is so routine now, and the bad weather continuing this far into spring is bringing me down, but I'm holding out for a bright day and a good splash of sun upon my face. After the impeccable weather at Byron Bay the effects are worsened on me, creating a depressing dichotomy that makes me yearn for a sunny beach town more so than ever before. However, it's not all doom and gloom and after the 7th inning stretch I'm sure the sun will make it's glorious comeback. On that higher note here's a few pictures of the trip.
This was the day I went fishing with the Frenchmen and the Belgian guy I met. From left see Ben, a charming French surfer who is extraordinarily shy around women, Olivier, a guy who vowed to drop me a line when he's in Melbourne and travel with me to the south Isle of New Zealand for December, and Gaetan (Thomas being his chosen name). They all spoke French, and at one point they met up with two other Frenchmen and of course they were all speaking French! Seriously for a good hour French was the entire conversation spoken, until Thomas apologized for speaking only French. Truth be told, I was kind of glad to just be able to not understand entirely what is going on, I couldn't understand a word. Surprisingly, they noticed they were speaking the elegant flow and smooth slurry of sweet noises a non-speaker hears emerging from their mouths.
But ahh that was just one afternoon!
I'll hit you with more info on particular stories/people I met while at Byron when I inevitably recall them from memory over the next few weeks.
In today's news: Nothing Gold Can Stay. Robert Frost, you still said it. It was beautiful and pure and something larger than me and quite the ride, but it took its toll and came crashing to an end, although there may still be a happy friendly ending once I sort some more of my thoughts out and take some time to let go and get thoughts out of my present mind and instead recall them as fond memories when I look her in the eyes again. Extremely poetic and stupid and gay and shit blah blah blah I know but I liked this one and sometimes it's just hard to let go, though we knew the fall we were taking and took the plunge together, something I really admire in a girl. Emmi and I were always daring, accepting, and willing to learn from each other. She gave me an experience completely unique and precious compared to any I've felt before in any of my relatively short and unsucessful years with women. But alas, we were simply too different and it couldn't be. Life goes on, and it improves. As are the ups and downs. Our lives were simply heading in opposite paths and we couldn't come to a compromise for what we both wanted. A final night together kept it a romantic endeavour until the end, making the entire experience even more memorable. I'll never forget you, Em, and I hope you always remember that I'm glad we met and things worked the way they did. It was beautiful, a valiant struggle to hold things together for the Glory of Love until it all inevitably came crashing to an end. There really is no blame for the way things went. We both could sense things were off after the break, and strangely I've heard similar stories from many people, including my roommate Ben. I guess mid semester holiday in Australia just does that...who knows.
But now I can get back on with my life. Save the world, lose the girl. I've been here before and I'm sure I'll be here again. On goes my path in life, separate from everyone but myself, my family, and a few friends that will last me a lifetime. I look forward to going to the gym again, continuing my running during the week and surfing during the weekend, and really putting my focus on friends and schoolwork and saving money for New Zealand for the next month. I really do have my life back, but yesterday she called me thinking I called her (turns out I hadn't)...strange to say the least.
Tonight Ben and I ate chicken with rice. The chicken was some pre-marinated chicken I bought at the Queen Victoria Market. Cheap and delicious. I'm excited to have some more good cooking nights in Room 2 with Ben. We really do eat extremely well.
In other news last night I went out with the guys. I started with Mike and Damo and we wound up going to one of the really nice RA's rooms. There was a huge space for beer pong and I played and drank way too much goon in the process. After that we grabbed a taxi to some bar on Brunswick, the name of which I forget, and got a jug. After that we went to another place and I drank an extremely tasty beer, really hoppy and delicious. Can't remember most of the night after that but I'm almost positive I threw up and we went home, which marks my first blackout and vomiting basically since the first week I got here. But hey it was Friday night what can I say you can't win 'em all. Looking forward to going out again tonight as well.
More to come soon, I promise!
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