One nice thing is that whenever I need a break from staring at logic problems or reading articles such as "Geopolitical Determinism: The Origins of the Iran-Iraq War", there is always somebody to throw the frisbee with. My friends here are great, all of them are very laid-back and friendly, which is definitely the Aussie way. It's generally a friendlier environment than Miami: People are always willing to stop to help if you need anything, or just talk if you're stuck on the bus or train together. I make new friends every day!
At halls, we're like family--My group has still been cooking together every day, and we all share out kitchen lockers so that you never know where your stuff is going to end up. Faker and I have played frisbee for a couple hours a day throughout the past week (during study breaks and when we're waiting for dinner), and now we're both pros at forehand, backhand, and less common throws such as the hammer and the "faker flick," which she made up (and it's a brilliant throw if you can get it right, which takes some practice). When we are outside, people always stop by to say hi and we teach them to throw the frisbee too, so last night at 1 o'clock we had a group of about 15 of us outside having a toss by "the mound", a small hill in between Roberts Hall and Richo, the next dorm over.
The Western Bulldogs played the St. Kilda Saints at the Telstra Dome last friday, and as McIvor is a huge 'dogs fan and Tim goes for the Saints, we had to go watch. Doc, Faker, Stoner and I went with them into the city and we all sat up in the upper level with a great view of the whole field. It's pretty nice to be able to get into a professional sporting event for only $11.50. Something that doesn't really happen in the states. I have been watching footy on T.V. for the past few weeks since the season started, but it was something else to go to a real game. Everybody was going crazy and the atmosphere was terrific. Despite the 2:1 odds in favor of St. Kilda, the 'dogs pulled off a victory by a decent margin, so it was quite a show. Tim was pretty disappointed after having trash-talked to McIvor so much before the game. McIvor didn't let him hear the end of it for a few days.
I also went down to Flinders with my buddy K-Train for a little bit. It's where he's from, about an hour south of uni. I went for a surf while I was down there on Friday and it was decent but a little bumpy. Last Wednesday we had a huge storm with like 80 mph gusts. The sky was brown with dust and there were trees blowing over and they had to evacuate the Menzies, the biggest building on campus, because it was shaking in the wind. Anyways, Timmy K's power was still out four days later when we went by his house in Flinders. Reminded me of home during hurricane season.
I surfed a spot called "Big Left" the other day that was about double overhead and 150 metres long. It was like Monster Hole but without Sebastian Inlet's current to suck you out to the break, so I had to paddle for like 15 minutes straight to get out to it. The paddle over deep water was a little creepy, especially after K-Train was telling me about how the biggest shark ever caught in Oz was brought in right across the bay. He also had some stories about great whites swimming around while he was surfing, but I have yet to see one. It's on the list. I told him I see sharks about every time I surf in April back home and one time we had 7 bites in one week within an hour from my house, which is pretty impressive, but you don't swim away from a great white attack. The sharks back home just nibble compared with the ones here.
We had a function last night where everybody from our hall dressed up as a musical artist or genre. Gash, Tim, McIvor, and I went as the Wiggles (and Doc as Captain Feathersword). I was the yellow one. Abhi, my R.A., went as Jimi Hendrix and looked JUST LIKE HIM! I was dying laughing when I saw him. We danced around for a while in goofy outfits. The midnight frisbee toss followed, of course.
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