Coogee Beach

Australia's most famous beach is Bondi in Sydney East, Sydney - about 40 minutes by bus, or 1h15 walking. But also in the top five is Coogee beach, and at only 10 minutes by bus or 35 minutes walking, it's very accessible.

At this point, I've been to Coogee beach three times, and really enjoy it! The first day, I made the mistake of opting for experiencing the Australian waves even though I hadn't yet bought any sunscreen (or sun lotion). My bad. You can burn in about ten minutes out here, and between the six or so of us (half Germans and half Americans), it was like we were trying to set the record for who could burn fastest. But talking to a local, it seems that burning in the sun is actually a strategy they use - they intentionally will go out without sun lotion the first time of the season, take one for the team, and then once it resolves into a tan, they don't have to wear anything for the rest of the summer. So they didn't laugh at me too much (but I did buy sun lotion).

I've been trying to join a volleyball league at Coogee, I think it'd be so Australian to play in a Wednesday night sand volleyball league, for example. But the Coogee Volleyball Association wouldn't allow me to join (they say, "come down to talk to us" but at the beach say "send us an email"), and neither would the UNSW Volleyball Club (they require that you are there for at least a year, so they don't accomodate internationals). So I suppose I'll put my interests somewhere else for the semester.

Yesterday, though, I started to feel too reckless - I'd been to the beach three times in three days! That's crazy, no rules! So I went to the library, figured out the system there, and checked out some available textbooks for my upcoming courses. I don't think I'll have time to do a whole lot of prep, but I particularly want to read a bit of the philosophy book, just to be somewhat ready. Now we're living.

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