The Longest Post Ever

It was a pretty big weekend here in Adelaide. The Friday Unibar tradition was maintained and then the group I was with headed to a club called The Church, which is located in an Old Synagogue (sadly, my Harry Potter yarmulke is in Eugene). More than just a bar, The Church is a fairly sketchy dance club that I was only at for the happy hour drink specials. (This review has nothing to do with the fact that I was not let in on Saturday because I was wearing sneakers, though that fact makes me think even less of the place.) Open to alternate suggestions, I headed to a place called the Crown & Anchor (also, somewhat of a dive) after a friend texted me that their friend's band was playing. The band was pretty good and after their set ended, a friend and I headed for a place called Exeter for someone's birthday celebration. After a couple of toasts in celebration of this stranger’s birthday, I headed home.

While Saturday morning fell victim to the snooze button, the afternoon brought a trip to a big rivalry football game (Aussie Rules of course) between two local high schools. I was there for two reasons or maybe three. 1. I thought it would be cool to see a little bit of this part of Australian culture. 2. The youngest of family that was kind enough to take me in during my first week in Australia was the captain of one of the teams. 3. It gave me a chance to reflect on the many classic moments of high school movie Dazed & Confused. Sadly, in the end, our team lost and I was not invited to the party at the moon tower.

Instead, I had been invited to a BBQ for someone else’s birthday. I made a somewhat late appearance, but enjoyed the remainder of the afternoon in the park not too far from my apartment. After the BBQ, it was another evening out on the town. We started at a place called the Austral and then were moving to The Church when the previously mentioned sneaker incident occurred (to be known as SneakerGate in the made for tv movie). Not wholly disappointed to be kept out of The Church, a friend and I headed to Exeter where we ran into several people and good times were had. However, the most notable part of the evening was still to come. As Exeter was closing, I was able to talk a couple people into making an AB run. An AB is a meal that supposedly provides one of those legendary Adelaide experiences to wrap-up your night out. An AB consists of a bed of chips (French fries) covered in yiro (gyro) meat and then topped off with a mixture of ketchup and a garlic sauce that I believe contained cucumbers. Most people seem to reference having this experience once. I can say it tasted better than it looks, but it may have taken a couple years off my life.

Still full from the AB, I woke up before I would have liked and headed to “The Showdown XXI.” The showdown is the AFL game between the Adelaide Crows and the Port Adelaide Power. This game is like Cardinals/Cubs or any of the good sports rivalries we have in the US. One notable difference though is that both teams play all there home games in AAMI stadium and the greater Adelaide area is largely filled with supporters of both teams who are shocked to discover that their neighbors support the other team (shocked like “oh and they seemed like such nice people”). My introduction to footy, as it is often called here, was by Port supporters, so I was pulling for the Power.
Sadly, things did not look good as the Crows have been one of the best teams all year, though they were in a bit of a slump. I had made certain predictions about a possible upset over the past few days and had to listen to scoffs that included a hint of “this American obviously has no understanding of this sport.”

The game was pretty sloppy from what I was told and confirmed with my own (lightly educated) observations, but in the end the Power were victorious. After the game, I spent the evening putting together a list of people who needed a good old American I-Told-You-So.

-Ben

PS - The Crows have a player named Graham "Stiffy" Johncock and the Power have a Brendon Lade. These two names were used to create the "banner of the game." Hoisted by a Port Adelaide supporter, the banner read "You can have Stiffy because we got Lade."