G'Day

Well I have good news, bad news, and just general news.  First the bad news, I typed out the Thai chip post, but it has disappeared into the mysterious void that also houses several of my socks.  I will have to do some soul searching tonight and decide whether it is worth typing again tomorrow.  Because I don't have class on Tuesday, I would give this at least a 50% shot.  Sadly, I won't ever be able to replicate the original, which I assure you was at least mildly funny and informative.

 

I have now been in Australia for about 10 days.  My first week of school went well; I found a room in an apartment; and my new mobile phone has Yahtzee which is nice when I am waiting for busses. 

 

On Friday I went out with my new roommates and some of their friends.  First stop was the "Unibar," which is actually the bar on campus.  Drinks there are more affordable than other places and it seems like a good bar (it has darts, occasional live music, and a video game called "Extreme Hunting" (look for a future post on this)).  For the most part it is just like your typical college bar in the US with the exception that pitchers are called jugs.  After a few hours at Unibar, we went upstairs to a cafe called Rumours (there are a lot of extra "U's" in the Queen's English).  Apparently it is quite common to grab a "Parmi" to eat when going out on the town.  I expected a sandwich of some sort, but it is actually a bed of french fries with chicken or beef on top and then a bunch of cheese melted over it all.  I can't remember if there was more to it, I will keep you updated as I am sure I will have another one.  From there we went to a few more bars around the city and generally had a good time. 

 

I have felt better than I did on Saturday morning, but I had to take the day by storm as I showed up and started at third base for the University of Adelaide Baseball Club.  It was interesting to hit off fast pitching again as it has been 10 years since high school baseball.  The first curve ball I saw got me back up to speed and I ended up going 1-2.  Next weekend we take on Flinders University and I hope to use the knuckleball in a relief appearance. 

 

On Saturday night I attended my first AFL game (Australian Football League).  The Sydney Swans dominated the Port Adelaide Power (who I am told are in a rebuilding year) with the final score being 77-50.  Again, Aussie Rules will take a bit of explaining, so I will save that for another day.

 

Other than that, I have just been trying to get used to living in Adelaide.  Being here is like having a weird type of amnesia.  Everything is very similar and familiar, but you still don't know anything.  For example, I went grocery shopping the other day and everything is basically the same, but instead of being able to just grab my normal type of bread I have to look through everything to figure out what I am going to like.  Doing that once is not a big deal, but having to do it for everything adds up.  Also, I have been busted at least twice just staring at things looking confused.  The first time a parrot of some sort was in the tree above me and I was trying to check it out (imagine someone staring at a pigeon and you will know how the Australians probably felt) and the other time was getting used to the currency here.  I had ended up with a handful of change (not uncommon as they have a $2 coin like Canada) that included my first 5 cent piece.  As I looked at it, the cashier definitely gave me the "did I give you the wrong amount look" so I simply told her I was new to Australia.   

 

-Ben      

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