I also made a chicken parmesan dinner with pasta/garlic bread for the house mates before I left to thank them for my stay; they seemed to enjoy it. It's hard to find a good Chicken Parm over here, and the ones they make aren't like the ones in the states.
I opened a bank account one day during the week and they have 7% interest on savings; meanwhile my bank of america account gets less than 1%; probably a good idea to shift all
your funds to an oversees bank.
I left in my car 
for Wollongong on Thursday afternoon and made it in about 2 hours. I am staying at my Australian friend John's apartment who lives about 3 blocks from the beach near the downtown area of Wollongong. I met John at my dorms 6 years ago and he was glad to have me. He lives in a 2 bedroom apartment. His apartment is pretty simple, with few material things, just a tv, couches, and a super nintendo. His kitchen consists of the classic milo (camparible to our nes quick chocolate mix), bread, and devon. He asked me if I liked devon and I had no idea what it was. It is a processed meat mainly ham, but basically the meat from every part of pigs and other animals that they can't sell as regular meet. It costs about 1/3 the price of other meats. He says he lives on the stuff, especially when him and his mates go on roadtrips. He's been trying to get me on it but I am going to pass unless I go broke. John is a big body boarder but has been giving the stick a try lately. It's great to hang out with him, we have many similarities as we both like punk music, waves, travels, and have similiar personalities. John works at a psychology job so he has to work during the week, he was keen to go for surfs before though and to go out after work. I felt bad for him since he has to work and on Monday his brother is getting into town, as well as his roomate and another friend, and they are all staying at his place and are on break from uni (university).
for Wollongong on Thursday afternoon and made it in about 2 hours. I am staying at my Australian friend John's apartment who lives about 3 blocks from the beach near the downtown area of Wollongong. I met John at my dorms 6 years ago and he was glad to have me. He lives in a 2 bedroom apartment. His apartment is pretty simple, with few material things, just a tv, couches, and a super nintendo. His kitchen consists of the classic milo (camparible to our nes quick chocolate mix), bread, and devon. He asked me if I liked devon and I had no idea what it was. It is a processed meat mainly ham, but basically the meat from every part of pigs and other animals that they can't sell as regular meet. It costs about 1/3 the price of other meats. He says he lives on the stuff, especially when him and his mates go on roadtrips. He's been trying to get me on it but I am going to pass unless I go broke. John is a big body boarder but has been giving the stick a try lately. It's great to hang out with him, we have many similarities as we both like punk music, waves, travels, and have similiar personalities. John works at a psychology job so he has to work during the week, he was keen to go for surfs before though and to go out after work. I felt bad for him since he has to work and on Monday his brother is getting into town, as well as his roomate and another friend, and they are all staying at his place and are on break from uni (university). On Thursday, before anyone else arrived at the apartment I drove north up the coast for a surf. Last time I was here I didn't have a car so I wasn't able to explore as much I wanted. It was neat to see all the suburban towns around where my dorms were, they were in Fairy Meadow just north of Wollongong. I checkout out a few surf spots and finally I surfed at Bulli point, a nice point break. It was solid reef, so it is a bit scary to see all the rock beneath you since the water is so clear. You also have to jump off a big rock to get into the break. Since it was crowded I just picked off some waves on the inside. After the surf I drove up north to Royal National Park.
It was a beautiful drive along cliffs and through dense eucalyptus forests. There were several hiking trails as well, I walked along a beach called Garie Beach, which had massive cliffs along it.
John and I headed back up to Wollongong that afternoon. It was great just hanging with John in his car on his way back to the Gong and talking about Aussie culture and living. Australians work a 37.5 hour work week with 4 weeks paid leave a year and all major holiday days off. Australians love to travel, so it is not unusual for them to take 3 months off or even a year off from there jobs. His company gives yearly leave. He hasn't worked more than 6 months at a company. My friend Benny just got back from a month or two month holiday in France and is already talking about taking his next vacation probably in a month. I guess it was kinda of what I did except I worked for 4 years and then took an extended holiday. But most Americans don't take extended leaves, it could be because we buy more things than we need. I learned a good lesson that material things really aren't that important, you only live once. I think it is real important to take breaks from work, or else you go crazy. Also, it is a lot easier to travel when your younger, without kids and a marriage, so I am glad I made it. On our way back we saw two dead kangaroos on the highway, one we ran over after it had already been hit. Unfortunately the kangaroos are like deer, always running in roads and getting hit. We got a good nights sleep that night back in the Gong on Sunday night, getting me ready for the next week. John's brother gets in Tuesday, and John's roomate and another friend get in Tuesday as well.
It was a beautiful drive along cliffs and through dense eucalyptus forests. There were several hiking trails as well, I walked along a beach called Garie Beach, which had massive cliffs along it.
John had told me that the last Toss the Boss event was going to be Friday and I was excited to be there for it. Toss the Boss is a happy hour event that a bar near our dorms had every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday between 5 and 6 pm where you would order your drinks and they would roll dice and you had 1/3 chance of getting free drinks, 1/3 chance for half price, and 1/3 chance of paying full price. It was basically gambling for your drinks. It was a great place to meet people and have a good time before dinner. I went with John, my friend Steveo that still lives in the area as well, and John's friend Sadler. S
ince the Australian government is trying to change Australia's stereotype as heavy drinkers they are enforcing new laws with drinking. So this was the last night for gambling for drinks here at the North Gong Pub. They also increased prices on mixed drinks at liqueur stores by over double. John reckons more people will drink beer and goon (wine). We had a fun night on Friday although I ended up paying full price a few times. I was surprised how much they changed the bar, they used to have open grass lawns to hang out on; now they placed bricks down and added picnic tables everywhere outside. They also added a night club upstairs and turned the restaurant next door into a side bar. I guess things have to change over time.
ince the Australian government is trying to change Australia's stereotype as heavy drinkers they are enforcing new laws with drinking. So this was the last night for gambling for drinks here at the North Gong Pub. They also increased prices on mixed drinks at liqueur stores by over double. John reckons more people will drink beer and goon (wine). We had a fun night on Friday although I ended up paying full price a few times. I was surprised how much they changed the bar, they used to have open grass lawns to hang out on; now they placed bricks down and added picnic tables everywhere outside. They also added a night club upstairs and turned the restaurant next door into a side bar. I guess things have to change over time.Saturday morning we got up early for a surf. We went to Bellambi point and paddled to a place called Virgins, it was a long paddle, almost a mile. It must have been easy for John and Saddler (John's buddy) since they were body boarding and had fins. We surfed a few waves but the winds shifted to onshore and conditions got worse. I got one wave and the next wave thumped me deep under the water, the break was a fast steep wave that gets hollow, usually it is surfed by body boarders for this reason. We paddled in and got some lunch. We stopped for meat pies, which is a very popular food item in Australia. They make pies with steak, chicken, veggies, potatoes, or cheese and add gravy to them. Also sausage sticks are popular as well, basically a pie in a long, wide stick shape. I got a cheese and potato pie and sausage stick, both pretty good.
John was taking me down to where he grew up this weekend so we headed down after lunch to his Dad's place in Tuross Head, about a 3-4 hour drive south of Wollongong. We ended up stopping about 30 minutes south of Wollongong at Bomboo beach for a surf; as we saw great peaks and long rides at this beach as we drove by. We had checked a few other points south but ended up coming back to this beach near Kiama (Bomboo Beach). 
It was a beach break so a little safer compared to all the reef breaks we had been surfing. The winds were offshore and the waves were hollow, John brought his stick out this time, and we both got some tubes. No one was on our peak, so we had a lot of fun. We surfed here for probably 2 hours.
Then we got back on the road and headed to John's hometown. The town of Tuross Head only had 2,000 people in it; it borders the ocean and it has a lake on each side and seemed like a great place to live. I enjoyed seeing another part of the Aussie life, outside the major cities. His Dad's place was simple, he almost had less than John's apartment. It really shows you that you don't need many material things to make you happy. His dad is a big surfer and showed me his bamboo board, it was made in the Philippines. He works at the big telephone company of Australia: Telstra. Other than that he surfs and is building a camper for the back of his truck. He made us a great dinner which consisted of beans, rice, and tomatoes on a crispy flour shell. It was nice to have a home cooked meal. That night we watched a surf video called hammerheads, which was a video of surfing a big wave surf spot just north of Tuross Head; and you can guess where the name came from. 
The next day (Sunday), John, his father and I checked a bunch of surf spots before we went out at this one spot. I saw two kangaroos on the open land as we were driving, the first roos I have seen since I have been back. We checked a few surf spots out and found a pretty decent right. Just before we went out one of the locals caught a 4 foot+ shark; his dad was telling us this is one of the more sharky areas, jeeze! But he did say that there hasn't been any shark attacks in a long time in the area. As long as you don't think about the sharks you are fine, it's when you keep seeing shadows is when you start to freak. I know shark attacks are rare so usually I can keep it out my head. After the cold surf (yeah it was a fair bit colder down there than in Wollongong) we had lunch at a fish and chips place right on a lake in Tuross Head. 
The pelicans were huge on the lake, probably at least twice as big as San Diego pelicans.
The next day (Sunday), John, his father and I checked a bunch of surf spots before we went out at this one spot. I saw two kangaroos on the open land as we were driving, the first roos I have seen since I have been back. We checked a few surf spots out and found a pretty decent right. Just before we went out one of the locals caught a 4 foot+ shark; his dad was telling us this is one of the more sharky areas, jeeze! But he did say that there hasn't been any shark attacks in a long time in the area. As long as you don't think about the sharks you are fine, it's when you keep seeing shadows is when you start to freak. I know shark attacks are rare so usually I can keep it out my head. After the cold surf (yeah it was a fair bit colder down there than in Wollongong) we had lunch at a fish and chips place right on a lake in Tuross Head. 
The pelicans were huge on the lake, probably at least twice as big as San Diego pelicans. 
John and I headed back up to Wollongong that afternoon. It was great just hanging with John in his car on his way back to the Gong and talking about Aussie culture and living. Australians work a 37.5 hour work week with 4 weeks paid leave a year and all major holiday days off. Australians love to travel, so it is not unusual for them to take 3 months off or even a year off from there jobs. His company gives yearly leave. He hasn't worked more than 6 months at a company. My friend Benny just got back from a month or two month holiday in France and is already talking about taking his next vacation probably in a month. I guess it was kinda of what I did except I worked for 4 years and then took an extended holiday. But most Americans don't take extended leaves, it could be because we buy more things than we need. I learned a good lesson that material things really aren't that important, you only live once. I think it is real important to take breaks from work, or else you go crazy. Also, it is a lot easier to travel when your younger, without kids and a marriage, so I am glad I made it. On our way back we saw two dead kangaroos on the highway, one we ran over after it had already been hit. Unfortunately the kangaroos are like deer, always running in roads and getting hit. We got a good nights sleep that night back in the Gong on Sunday night, getting me ready for the next week. John's brother gets in Tuesday, and John's roomate and another friend get in Tuesday as well. 
