O-Weeeeeek!!!!

What a crazy week!  The Aussies got here last weekend and I immediately made several best friends.  I went to a day of orientation and then decided that I needed a break so I went surfing instead of orienting the next day.  I drove down to Gunnamatta, on the Mornington Peninsula, and tried to pass myself off as a local by putting on an Australian accent and saying things like "g'day, mate." and "howya goin' mate?"  I think it worked, but probably only because that's all I said to the other surfers.

The surf was pretty flat, like a couple feet overhead with offshore winds (in other words, it would have been one of the best days of the year back home).  The water was really cold but extremely clear.  When I got out I drove down the peninsula to some cliffs overlooking the ocean, where there are some good-looking diving spots.  Now I joined the scuba club, and with $25.00 a week full-gear rental, I'll definitely be going back there.

I got pretty sick for a couple days there, which wasn't much fun, but I had a couple pretty trippy dreams when I had a solid fever and that always makes it more interesting.

Sooo I hung out, shooting pool, watching movies, and making friends around the halls until I started getting better.  I met my best Aussie mates by cooking a good dinner: they said I could join their cooking club for first years, and what's more, they said I could cook every meal for the club.  There are just seven of us in it.  So I promised them a good American meal of steak and potatoes as long as they buy the food.

We have fun trying to mimic each others' accents.  They get a kick out of me talking about putting on a "jumpa and trackies", and I get a kick out of Lash saying with his best American accent:  "Hey, y'all gimme a hot dawg with ketchup" (which makes absolutely no sense to an Australian, seeing as they have "sausages" rather than hot dogs and "tomato sauce" rather than ketchup.

Last night we had a black-light party and a very random thing happened.  I met a girl named Cindy who said she was from Greenville, SC.  I said "oh, my sister goes to Furman" and she said "Hey, I went to Furman too."  So it turns out that she is friends with Carolyn and the crew.  I think I'm starting to believe in the six degrees of separation theory when I come all the way to the other side of the world and randomly meet somebody who knows my sister.

Today I went to orientation for a while, then we had a huge food fight back at the halls.  What started out as a somewhat organized though messy activity which involved a food version of the game twister and a blindfolded ice-cream feeding competition soon devolved into a wild mess which left all of us covered head to toe in cottage cheese, shaving cream, ice cream, sprinkles, chocolate syrup, tomato sauce, barbecue sauce, coke, and orange juice residue.  My R.A., Abhi, a guy Tim who lives below me, and I led the charge down the hill into the lake to clean up.  Which is ironic considering that had we been in any other state of cleanliness the lake would be considered more of a cesspool than an actual body of water.  But by our best estimates, the water was cleaner than we were, so we went for a swim.  Then everybody went and took showers and put antibiotic cream on whatever skin lesions they had.  Tim reckons we'll all die of some weird disease, but I feel okay right now.

Aside from a sore throat, that is, which I obtained by screaming my lungs out on the most unthrilling roller coaster rides I've experienced in a long time.  Let me take that back.  The thrilling part was that the rides felt like they would fall apart at every turn and send us plummeting to the pavement 15 metres below.  Screaming just makes it more fun.  Luna Park, the small theme park we visited, resembles the St. Theresa's fair without the cotton candy or the prize booths.  But Monash rented it out for us, so at least it was free.  And I had fun with my mates.

I've been working on my footie as well so expect me to be a pro Aussie-rules player by the end of the semester.  Between kicking the footie, jumping for frisbees, and late-night bush diving and possum chasing, I think we might destroy every bush in the grass area below my dorm by the end of the semester.  Jimmy and I plan on catching a possum by the time we leave Australia.