Early Update

first off: your lack of facebook has forced me to do this on a public forum, sooo HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY JONAH BAUTISTA!! we'll celebrate both of our bdays at college park come august... not as good as last year's joint bday hawaiian bbq at north plains beach or wherever but it'll have to do

now that that's taken care of, a few updates... earlier this week dan and i joined the local footy club for only 30AUD. we are now card carrying members of the South Fremantle Bulldogs. yesterday we both utilized our membership for the first time. he lifted and i did a lot of running around the oval (field), which is realllly big. i did all that running b/c i realized i was out of shape after we played the australians in american football, or gridiron as they call it here, on wednesday. The Friendship Cup is a series of sporting events throughout the semester between aussie and american students. Unfortunately Dan and I were the only American guys who knew about this first event, so the teams were about 14 really athletic australian guys against dan and it, several US girls, and some aussies that the athletes didnt want on their team. needless to say it was quite a mismatch... but we pulled out with a tie so it was a moral victory. it was funny to see them play, they set the rules in the beginning so they knew what they were doing for the most part but then they would pitch the ball forward or keep going after an incomplete pass. While I'm on the subject of football, this afternoon we have our first training session for the study abroad footy team, so that should be interesting.

Yesterday was the first cloudy day since we got here two and a half weeks ago. It was nice though, since it was not so hot. This morning (i'm writing at 7:30am) we are getting a lot of rain, there was even a little thunder and lightning. I think the change in air pressure or whatever happens when its going to rain kept me from going back to sleep, i could tell something was different even before it started raining.

well thats about it for now, i should go eat something and maybe shower before my 8:30 class. looking ahead, tonight all the study abroad guys on the footy team (dan, myself, one iona guy, and then the 15 or so guys from st. john's in MN in the other dorm) are going to go see the West Coast Eagles, Perth's AFL team, play in their big stadium after practice tonight. Then my group is getting picked up at 6:30am saturday morning to go on a weekend surfing trip to Lancelin, which should be great. Also, we booked our trip for the easter holiday last night... we are going up the coast to Exmouth to explore the Ningaloo Reef national marine park, the second best reef
in oz after the Great Barrier.