Blog 3: The End of the Beginning?

Hi everyone. It appears that it's been an entire two months since I have last blogged so I figured it's high time that I got back on that train. The only excuse I have is that I've been busy putting time into making friendships and settling into the community. As many of you have already noticed, I also finally got around to posting a bunch of pictures on Facebook. You can view them, even if you aren't a member of the site, here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2234464&id=5612955&l=674337973c

This past Sunday was the final match of the Great Southern Football League regular season. It was at our home field, and for some reason I seem to play better at home so I was excited to play. I played all 80 minutes of the Reserves game, as usual, and was tiredly waiting around for the League players to run out of the locker room when my friend Josh came up to me and said "I think you're playing League today." "Hmm shouldn't someone have told me earlier?" I thought. He went and double checked and indeed I did make the list for the A Grade team. I rushed into the locker room mid-coach's speech. I was happy to finally be in the lineup with all of my friends and the guys I have been practicing with for the past three months. I started out on the bench, and was glad to have the opportunity to rest as I was still exhausted from running and hitting for 80 minutes with no break. However, as the quarters clicked by with no change I realized that I was pretty much put on the team out of pity. In the break before the final quarter I was told my time had come. I think the coach just had the intention of leaving me in for a little bit while another player rested. I went in with a "balls to the wall" mentality and played my tired legs off. Not that anyone reading this will know, but I had several nice marks, a bunch of disposals, and at least one assist. Needless to say they left me in for the length of the quarter. As I trotted off the field I was greeted with many "great jobs" and even the coach said "Damn we should have brought you up sooner!" They were preaching to the choir on that one! It confirmed what I had thought all along; although my skills aren't on par with the big boys, I'm athletic enough to contribute in a well-defined role, as opposed to Reserves where it was basically everyone for themselves. In the end though, I was super tired from playing in back to back games but it was amazing to not only be finally called up but to have played so well in my first League game. I was getting a bit jaded with Aussie rules football but this was a great way to cap off the season. I'll be glad to let my ever present injuries heal now.

Things are changing at work. In the fruit and veg department we had two people leave, which catapulted me from fourth on the ladder to second in command for a small period of time. Then a man and his wife were hired, each with allegedly 20+ years of experience in F&V so it was back down to the bottom for me. For awhile I was literally chopping every vegetable and bagging every piece of fruit myself. The new guy is a real piece of work though, as he came in expecting to usurp the top spot from my manager, who has "only" 8 years of experience. On his very first day he was spouting off slimy comments such as "when i'm in charge things will change" and "do things his way for now but know it won't be that way for long". Now that he realizes his rise to power isn't happening anytime soon, he has ceased communication with the manager. Very mature. Of course you all want to know how this affects the dear author. With more than enough collective experience in the department, I now get to spread my wings in other directions. On Wednesdays I work in the Dairy department and on Fridays I work out on the floor with the Shop Manager. I don't mind it though, it's nice to have some variety from the monotony of produce prep. There has been lots of turnover in the other departments as well so there are many new faces around. Unfortunately the new hires are all older people. No disrespect to my wiser readers, but I miss seeing the cute checkout chicks.

Now for the part you've all been waiting for, the quick anecdotes!

>I'm drinking 2-3 cups of tea per day. It's easy when your morning break is labeled "Tea Break"

>I won $32.40 at the Pub betting on a dog race. I only bet because I had $3 and wanted another beer, so I placed three one dollar bets. Kyle 1 gambling 0.

>I went to see Transformers 2 twice. Like I said, we live in a small town... which brings me to my next point: You know you live in a farm town when you get in your car to drive home after work and you see a gaggle of toddlers walking/riding past on a pony.

>We went hunting awhile back but didn't get any kills. We went out to a farm because the overpopulated kangaroos break cattle fences. I rather enjoyed stalking around in the bush on the edge of the paddock as twilight approached; just a man with his gun, alone in a wild and strange place. It was also cool that on my right was what reminded me of the English countryside (or at least what I imagined it to be) with little babbling brooks among matted grasses and small stony hills and on my left was full on Aussie eucalyptus forest. Often I heard the soft thump-thump of an otherwise silent Roo jumping through the bush but didn't see one until, of course, I stopped to take a leak and put my gun down. Figures.

>One day at work I was unloading a stack of banana boxes from a metal push cart. When I lifted the final box from the bottom I noticed a menacing and very poisonous Red-Backed spider sitting on the cart right next to where my fingers had been. Just a day in the life.

>Speaking of work, I hate to disappoint those who thought IGA was connected to the IGAs at home, but I just found out that it stands for "Independent Grocers of Australia"

>Also speaking of work, the head of the Dairy is an avid movie watcher, and since most movies come from the US, every day he comes to work with questions about America for me. One particularly humorous exchange was about prom.
Nick: "Hey so what's the deal with prom? Does everyone do that?"
Kyle: "Yeah every high school has prom. It's just a big dance in the spring that the upperclassmen go to."
Nick: "And prom court. The American football guy is always the king... the quarterback?"
Kyle: "Ha not always but yeah there's usually football players on it"
Nick: "And the quarterback always dates the cheerleader. I bet that was you wasn't it"
Kyle: "nahh I was just a wide receiver and I wasn't prom king. Hahaha I did date a cheerleader though."
Nick: "That's so AWESOME. Football player dates cheerleader.. That's so American!"
Kyle: lol

>Also, many many Australians think there are 52 US states. And it's not as if they think Puerto Rico is a state, in fact no one has any idea PR is a part of the US. No, for whatever reason, they think Hawaii was the 52nd state.

>In July a group of us made the 4.5 hr trek up to Perth to celebrate Josh's 21st birthday. We even rented a stretch Hummer limo and dressed up in coats and ties to arrive in style. This was a great weekend because it marked the turning point in my social life here, as the many hours spent recounting hilarious stories from the night (most of which are too college to be discussed here) cemented several friendships.

>One perk of working in F&V is that I've been able to sample a great variety of odd, mostly tropical fruits. Look em up on Wikipedia for more info. I've tried passion fruit (hard outer shell; sweet, tart pulp with seeds that look like tadpole eggs), persimmons (looks like an orange apple, it is very astringent), lychee (from Thailand, it is very sweet and Asian-y. This probably isn't P.C., but it was somehow infused with like that smell you get in most Chinese restaurants), tangelos (cross between orange and grapefruit, not that exciting), papaya (actually not very good), champagne melon (watermelon with bright yellow flesh), mangosteen (a superfruit with extremely high antioxidant levels), and the strangest of all, a blood orange which tasted and looked like a regular orange except for the unavoidable fact that the flesh was dark purple with dark red, blood colored juice. I dripped some on my shirt and it looked as if I had committed murder.

>Thank you so much to those who have sent me letters and pictures. Pen pals are awesome.

>This past weekend Brent, Andrew, and I went up to Perth for a gathering of American footy players. There are 5 of us playing footy in the Southwest and the head of development wanted to bring us all together for an AFL (pro) game before our respective seasons ended. After being interviewed by a TV reporter and filmed kicking around an Australian football and passing an American football, as well as what seemed like an unnecessary number of takes of us merely walking across a park, we got to watch West Coast Eagles go through pregame drills in their private warm up drills before standing on the field as they ran out for their game vs the North Melbourne Kangaroos (how original, eh?). We then got box seats in the 40,000 seat stadium and enjoyed an exciting game. Oh and the night before I got to visit with two friends from my former dorm at ND who are studying this semester at UWA, which was great.

Whew, that's about it for now. I guess a lot has happened these last two months after all. In closing, I must say it's hard to believe that school is starting back up again, a fact that I am reminded of with a daily barrage of "omg i love Notre Dame, so happy to be back with all of my best friends" type of status updates on Facebook. I am sad to not be there in the thick of things anymore but at the same time I think the pain is fading. Graduation can only be described as a bad breakup; with time and separation, the sense of loss is slowly healing. I surely miss campus and my friends a lot, and am very jealous of those who still have time left, but already my time as a collegian seems like another lifetime. This can only be a good thing.