Blog 2

Heyo everybody.. Sorry for the hold up. I've been struggling with getting pictures uploaded in the format I want.

I've played in three footy games now and we've lost all three horribly. I'm still on the reserves team, which is frustrating because everyone on the team plays selfishly and refuses to get back on defense (especially aggravating when one is playing defense and is confronted with a 7 on 2 situation). The league team isn't doing much better and have lost all their games since I've been here as well. Oh well, I can't really say my skills warrant a promotion to the top level yet, as I'm still figuring everything out. Training remains quite difficult... for instance the other day we ran 10 laps around the track for warm up, a 4K. That's 2.5 miles, in case you were wondering. I'm waiting for the time when running a crapload will not be so hard but I guess I'm still out of shape!

Weeks are fairly mundane; work everyday usually 8am-5pm with footy practice on tuesday and thursday nights with a game on saturday or sunday afternoons. Since it's winter it's dark by 5pm so we can't really do anything after work except come home and watch tv, which is usually fine by me because I'm usually tired from work or training. It will be so nice when the weather gets warmer and it stays light longer. I think there will be a lot more to do then, such as take advantage of the fact that we live next to the water.

Weather has been pretty dismal, it rains every day without fail. Even if the day starts out sunny and promising it will be raining by late afternoon. The rain patterns are kind of weird, it either rains in half hour spurts and then gets sunny or else we get torrential downpours all day. It also hails a lot. Oh well, at least it's not snowing (even though it is a chilly).

Yesterday, Saturday, was a pretty good day. I woke up to a text from my friend Josh and met him for breakfast at a cafe in town. Ham and cheese croissant was dece but the chai vanilla latte was phenomenal. Then went down to the pub so he could place a bet on one of the horse races. That's right, gambling is legal in Australia and officially licensed bookies are as common as shoe stores. Aussies love betting; in fact, Josh also was doing instant lotto tickets at breakfast, or "scratchies." At the pub, there were about 6 older men watching the races and betting while enjoying beers. It was 11am. All in all though, the sports betting seems pretty harmless even though I didn't place any bets (too stingy). Next, we drove over to the footy oval to watch the Denmark women's team play. I was expecting to see a pretty sloppy game but we were both surprised by some of the skill exhibited by a few of the girls. After that Josh, Damo, Brent, and I drove out to Albany to watch our Colts team play (again, the colts is the U-18 footy team) because Josh coaches them. Brent and I then hung around Albany because we were going to go to the one nightclub that night, and it was pointless to drive 45 minutes back home beforehand. We stopped in an electronics store and purchased a wireless router, which I installed today. Having wireless is soo nice. Anyways we grabbed a case of beer and had a nice dinner at a BYO restaurant before going over to Jamie's place. He plays on our footy team b/c he's originally from Denmark but lives in Albany now. We had some predrinks and walked down to the nightclub. It is literally the only club in the entire south west part of the state.. the next closest ones would be 5 hours away up in Perth. It was a pretty good time but I spent too much money. Supposedly the place was voted worst night club in all of Australia but it didn't seem too bad to me. A year of Finnies and Fever will do that to someone.

Interesting parts from the last 3 weeks:
>The one time we went to the beach it ended up being too cold to get in so instead we explored Elephant Rocks and Greens Pool, which has good snorkeling when the weather gets warmer.

>There was a huge rainbow outside our front door the other day which was cool, until I realized that this is standard because as I said earlier, it usually rains and then gets sunny. Rainbow count is now at 7. If I didn't work indoors I'm positive I'd see one every day.

>I learned every member of AC/DC is from Australia. One is even from Fremantle.

>We sell Ratatouille at IGA. It's in with the potato salads and cole slaw in the deli. It looks like vegetables in marina sauce but I could be wrong. Hopefully no rats.

> I was talking to a girl about her trip to Seattle and asked her what she thought about our money. I was expecting something about how its boring and not very colorful (aussie money looks like monopoly money) or something about how dumb pennies are (the lowest australian coin is a 5 cent piece). Instead, she commented on how dirty it is. She said it was gross and she felt like washing her hands every time she handled it. You were right Mom!

>Josh, Brent, another kid named Sean and myself went fishing at the Wilson Inlet and the Denmark River last weekend but didn't get a single bite. Bummer.

> I got an unexpected letter from a friend in the US, which was really great. What is it about snail mail that is so satisfying?

>We made a huge batch of cole slaw from scratch the other night. Half a head of regular cabbage, half head of red cabbage, a few carrots and a onion. Miracle whip, vinegar, some olive oil, and a bunch of pepper. It was fun... In the post graduate world, you gotta get your kicks wherever you can.

Bed time.

click the pics to expand

Green's Pool












Good view

Elephant Rocks. The middle three or so are supposed to look like a group of elephants from behind

En route to fishing destination

Wilson Inlet on winter day

Good view x 2

having trouble uploading pictures... will try again in the morning

First Week (back) in Australia

-click pictures to expand-

View of water from the kitchen

the crib

mean streets of downtown Denmark.. right down the hill from our house, 2 minute drive)

place of employment (again, 2 min drive from house)

downtown again. i love how the sun makes the skyscrapers sparkle

Denmark (a shop on this row is actually where I am posting this from right now)

Forest on edge of town

Neat trail

Wilson Inlet

Denmark River, feeds into inlet

Ocean beach from lookout

sunset at ocean beach

(Edit: wrote this monday but am posting thursday... the internet at home stinks!)

Am currently sitting on our back porch in Denmark, WA with a view of the water a ways off, it’s sunny today and very nice. It is going into winter here but today just may be nice enough to make my first trip to the beach. Otherwise it’s pretty chilly in the mornings and at night but jeans and a sweatshirt are generally all I need. The worst part is that it starts getting dark between 5-5:30 which really bums me out because the days were just getting longer back home and now it’s hard to get out and do stuff in the dark. Anyways I’ve been in Australia for a week now (wow is that all?) so I guess it’s time to get everyone caught up to speed on what’s been happening. I’ll give a blow by blow account of each day because it was the first week but after this post I’ll just talk about important and interesting things.

I left the Wednesday after Graduation, so it was definitely a whirlwind trying to unpack the past four years of collegiate life and then turn around and repack everything I would need to live on the other side of the world for a whole year in the span of basically two days. Flew from Dayton to Chicago to LA to Sydney (14 hour flight) to Perth (5 hour flight), leaving on a Wednesday afternoon and arriving on a Friday afternoon. It was quite a trek but overall uneventful, which is usually a good sign when traveling. This was definitely my easiest trans-Pacific flight so far, as I slept for what had to be about 8 hours, meaning after a few movies I had arrived in Sydney.
In the Perth airport I was met by Tony Fairhead, the man in charge of the footy training program I participated in when studying in Fremantle last year and the guy most responsible for getting me over here. We took the scenic route rather than the highway from the airport to Freo where he lives. We drove right along the swan river past downtown and the bell tower, down past Cottesloe beach and hotel, right along the train route and across the infamous bridge over river down by the freo port (no comments please, Shannon). It turns out Tony lives in the top floor of an apartment building literally across the street from NDAU. If graduation and senior week was previously my most surreal experience, it definitely took the cake to be back in Freo, retracing my steps of a year ago. The rest of Friday went as follows: lunch with Tony and a few others at Roma on the end of High Street, having a few beers down at the South Freo Football Club, eating at Waggamamma (recently put in next to Sweet Lips), and meeting up with Mackenzie--a girl I worked with at Reckers--and being introduced to the new Port Lodgers before retiring to Tony’s incredible pad for an early bedtime.

Saturday I went back to Port Lodge to catch up with Tom Staudt an O’Neill junior who lived in 3B with me and who was the first underclassmen I met my soph year. Tom and I and a few other junior domers got dinner at Pizza on High for the all you can eat pizza and pasta, which was great because I actually never made it there before. Then just like old times we pounded goon in Plodge before going to Newport. It was good to be back but just really not the same. I realized that so much of my wonderful experience last year was due to the great group of people I was there with.

Sunday I got up early and Tony took me to Cottesloe to meet up with Andrew Werner, an American that came over with Brent to play footy in Mt Barker, a small town just north of Denmark. We drove the 5 hours down to Albany so he could play in his game and I met up with Sarah, the owner of the house where I am now living. She’s the daughter of owners of the IGAs in Albany and Denmark and a manager of them. I grabbed the car and followed her on the 30-40 minute drive to Denmark. I should mention that Brent Mergen, the American who is doing the same thing as I and my roommate who has been here since the beginning of the season in March, had to return to America for his grandpa’s funeral right when I left the states so when I moved in down here I had a week in the house by myself. The house was very nice but I just went in and passed out right away in my new bed as I was exhausted.

Monday I met up with Sarah and was introduced to all the people down at the IGA but didn’t have to work yet so I decided to explore rather than sit around. I walked around my neighborhood and the tiny downtown area and took pictures. I stumbled upon a nature trail at the edge of town and went on about a 2 mile hike through a really cool eucalyptus forest where I saw lots of colorful parrots and some kookaburrahs. The trail dead ended at the Wilson Inlet which was cool. I got back to my car in town and was still feeling adventurous even thought it was getting late in the afternoon so I went for a drive and found Ocean Beach, which obviously was the actual ocean rather than the inlet (look Denmark up on google earth if you want to understand the layout). I saw some surfers down in the water even though it was rather chilly. I stuck around for awhile waiting for the sunset and was treated to a good one. That night two of the guys from the footy team, Josh and Damien (aka Damo), came over to meet me and they seemed like really fun guys.

Tuesday was my first day of work. I work 7-5, with an hour lunch break and 15 minutes for "morning tea", in the Fruit and Veg department at Supa IGA. The work is fairly mundane, consisting of cutting, wrapping, bagging, and pricing fruit in the back and stocking the shelves out in the store for 8 hours a day. It would be pretty boring but I work with some very chill guys who I enjoy working and talking with. That night was my first practice, or "training", down at the oval. It was at 6pm but was already pitch black by then so it was under the lights. Apparently Tuesday is the hard conditioning day because it kicked my butt.. we ran 6 200s and two 400s in addition to all the running in the drills. I did pretty poorly because it had been so long since I touched a footy ball. After training I went to Josh and Damo’s--which is apparently right across the meadow across the street from me--for a little to hang out.

Wednesday after work I went down to the oval to "have a kick" since I was so rusty but there were a lot of people there, so instead I decided to explore more and drove on another road which winded through the country and eventually became unpaved. It was a really cool drive; a dirt road with huge shady trees on the side of the road looking over vast fields full of wild kangaroos and forests. It was dusk, which is when the roos come out, so I saw hundreds of them. I turned back when it started getting real dark because I was scared of getting lost and potentially running over a roo, which happens quite often. I went to Josh and Damo’s for Chinese and a movie. The Chinese wasn’t anything like the stuff back home (no General Tso’s chicken), it seemed more like the Indonesian/Malaysian stuff I’d get back in Freo. Just goes to show you that neither country has authentic Chinese, just food tailored to the local population.

Thursday was pretty uneventful, I set up my bank account at lunch time so I can get my cheddar and had the second footy training. I did better, the skills are slowly coming back. The cool thing about this training was that there were kangaroos on the field! Of course I was excited but no one else cared since they’re just like deer here. After Thursday trainings people come down the club house for cheap burgers and beers so I had some of each since everyone else was. It was kind of funny to me, because as an American all I wanted after a strenuous practice was a Gatorade and maybe a cold shower but instead we were having greasy burgers and sucking down cold beers. Questionable, but hey, when in Rome…

Friday I made my first attempt at cooking, sautéing some roast beef and veggies in soy sauce, garlic, chilis, and random seasonings I found in the cupboard and eating it with rice. It was decent but needed some more flavor. I also learned that a little bit of rice makes a lot of rice so I had way too much rice. Later I went to Josh and Damo’s for drinks, met a few more Aussies there, and actually finally met Brent as he unexpectedly got a ride home from the Perth Airport that night. We then went to "the tav" (tavern), one of two bars in town, where there was a band. Everything closes at 12 here (yuck) so everyone came back to our place for awhile. A rando girl asked if she could have some bread and before I knew it she had turned the entire brand new loaf into toast with vegemite. I thought maybe under the influence Vegemite would taste better but it was still disgusting. Also, I was mad she took the whole loaf without informing me.
Saturday was pretty much a wasted day. Brent and I spent most of the day lazing around watching footy games before finally getting our S together and going down to have a kick at the Oval in the late afternoon. Hilariously, when we got back there was a loaf of bread on the front doorstep, in repayment. We went out to a sick party at this weird shantytown-type place outside of town that night. Apparently a bunch of alternative, hippie type ppl live there but let younger people party there whenever. Josh, Damo and some other footy guys have a band and were playing so we watched them but since we had a game the next day Brent and I didn’t drink and were both real tired so we went home early.

Sunday (yesterday) was my first footy game. It was up in Mt. Barker so we had to drove there. Oddly enough everyone has to pay admission, even players, so it was $6.50 for me to play. Strange. Anyways there are always three games: Colts (under 17), Ressies (Reserves), and League (the top level). Brent and I both played ressies (he because he had been gone for a week and a half and I because it was my first game ever). I did alright, caught most balls kicked to me, but handballing or kicking it off after catching it was a bit tougher. Also tough was just knowing where to be at all times as it is such a free flowing game. Oh well, these game-awareness type things will hopefully come with more experience. The worst part was just running so much.. I need to get in shape if I’m gonna make it through four 20 minute quarters of straight running. Anyways we won (I scored a point but missed the 6 point goal) but the league team lost. I guess Denmark and Mt Barker were tied for last place in the 5 team league so losing to the Bulls was not a good thing. Oh yeah, we’re called the Magpies and uniforms are white and black striped. After driving back home we went to the tav for the traditional post-game awards and dinner. Club members vote on the best players and the top three get small monetary prizes. Many of the guys kept drinking but all I could think about was icing down my aching body and going to sleep so I did just that.

Today, Monday, is Foundation Day, a state holiday celebrating the date Western Australia became a state so everyone is off work. It is unseasonably warm so we’re probably going to go down to the beach in a bit.

I apologize for the long post but again, now that I will be settling into a routine life of work and football I won’t have as much to write about. Leave comments!