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!