when i say boogie, you say down...

yesterday was one of the greatest days of my LIFE. i have never felt more australian. probably more so than those whinging poms will ever be. when i apply for permanent residence here, i should just make a video montage of yesterday's events and be like, here, mr immigration officer bitch. watch this and tell me i'm not welcome into your bloody country. except i wouldn't say it like that, i'd be much nicer and humbler and innocent. and i might slip him a cadbury chocolate or something.

oh my gosh, my roommate is the loudest food eater in the world. it's worse than madi's snoring. CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP okay mcchomps a lot i get it...

anyways, yesterday we had the girls' footy tournament between all the colleges. first of all, footy is the greatest sport in the world, so i was so excited for this weekend since before i even left for aus. we've been having training sessions for the past two weeks or so, but nothing too formal. or hard. not that girls' footy is a joke, it's pretty hardcore and rough, but the games were only two ten minute halves as opposed to the boys' four fifteen minute quarters. so yeah.

so there's 18 players on a side, and a lot of the cols went home for the weekend because it is father's day, so i figured i had a pretty good shot of playing. we met at 845 for the first match at 10 against newman. can i just say that this day and the day of the 10k were the earliest i've gotten up since i've been in college here.. aka, the only reasons for me waking up early has been for sport. just throwing that out there. so we wake up, eat brekky, grab the boys jumpers and head over to the oval at royal park. it was a beeeeyooootiful day... nice and warm, so playing in shorts & singlets wasn't a big deal at all, plus footy socks go up to your knees. so, first match, newman. i didn't start, which i guess made sense because a) the coaches were ex-cols and didn't know me and b) i'm an american and thus know nothing about footy. since there were only 20 minutes to a game though i went in right away, and played pocketforward which basically means i was on offense. so the first match was GREAT... just going out there and playing and you don't realize how big a field is or how hard it is to kick or handball a football when 6 girls are chasing after you. also, there's no padding and anything goes except for tackles above the shoulders (hint: if you bend forward over the ball, you'll most likely get a whistle in your favor). so first match, newman beat us 7-6. kristen (an AMERICAN, thankyouverymuch) got the only goal for newman. i made sure to mention that to the girls on my team. team america, fuck yeah! newman also had the big butch GD professional netballer on their team; she could kick farther than most guys. overall though i think i played pretty well, it was tons and tons of fun, and i came out with scrapes and bruises and a jammed finger (which sucks to be typing with right now). siobhan, anna, karri, and leah all came to the match too so it was cool to have our own cheer squad (lacking floggers though, but we'll let that slide).

the second match was against international house and this time i started, woo! for an american, not too shabby. we won this match, and i got a good couple of tackles as well as a couple of marks. marking is pretty much my favorite part of the game. too bad i can't kick. oh, and i had a good run until i had to bounce the ball (you can only run 15 meters until you have to bounce it) and no one ever taught me the proper way to bounce a footy so i ended up on the ground tripping over myself. i think i got the ball out to en though. yeah, probably not.

so after this footy match i booked it on the tram to the g for the AFL match st kilda v richmond. i wasn't gonna go but it was a free ticket, and i only stayed till halftime, but since this was the last round before post season i figured i should go because i probably wouldn't get tickets for the next coming weeks. i only stayed till half time but just watching it made you appreciate it so much more after playing it.. you realize that WOW, they are kicking it far, and how do they not get tired running the WHOLE ENTIRE TIME!. it was a close game when i left, 53-54 but i hear st kilda pulled it off in the end.

so then i took the tram right back to royal park for our last footy game against queens. queens team was HUGE... over 50 girls.. i got to start again only this time they put me and fullforward, which is right in front of the goal on offense because "i was the best marker on the team." WOOOOO i was definitely proud of myself for that, which is why i'm writing about it in here. oh humble me. seriously though, it made me feel pretty good. unfortunately we lost this game and thus didn't make it to finals. but overall playing footy was fantastic, i'm definitely hooked for life now, and i'm bringing it back to the states, so don't you worry about a thing. you'll get your go.

so all in all it made for a super exhausting day BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! the lucksmiths (remember the melbourne band?) were having a cd release at a club in richmond and i had told siobhan and karri about it before but i was so tired that i didn't want to go. but then i figured, it was the lucksmiths, i'm in australia, let's do this. so 1030pm we leave for the show. I LOVE THE LUCKSMITHS THEY ARE AWESOME. it was a good show. we got to talk to them after and wished them luck on their american tour coming up (read: americans: do yourself a favor and go see them when they come to chicago, you will not regret it!). getting home was kind of a bust because we took a taxi without any money, but i reckon it worked out okay.

so, yeah. footy, footy, footy, footy, tea, music. i'm too australian for my own good.

today the boys footy played in the grand final but got whomped on. sad story.

alright. i'm so dead tired from this weekend but I WILL DO WORK. i have an essay due thursday, then great ocean road this weekend, then an essay due tuesday = i need to get my head in the game. also, we need to figure out brisbane.

oh! i talked to amanda too - she ran the race, got a 26:03 so good on her! i was so happy that she actually ran it! hopefully this will motivate her to run more. oh, running. oh, marathon in a month.

love, me