Friendship Cup

Today we had the first round of the "Friendship Cup" - a competition between American students and Australian students playing the different types of "football". Today we played "Gridiron" or American football. St. Johns/St. Bens and Notre Dame made the bulk of our roster and we had the horses. It was touch football, but there were unlimited blitzes so blocking was a key to the game.

We just destroyed them. The Aussies didn't totally understand the rules and were perplexed a few times why they couldn't do what they had just attempted to do. I got to play some quarterback and my stat line read 3 TDs 1 INT. To be fair. SJSB has 4 guys over the height of 6'6 and a few guys who are flat out athletic so all I had to do was advoid the rush and put a spiral on a high ball and they went up and got it. They made me look a lot better. It got so bad that the rule was implemented that the Americans had to play 4 girls at all times, and we still ran away in the second half.

In two weeks we are set to play Aussie rules football. This is where we may have a problem. We have the athletes, but no comprehension of what we are doing. We have two weeks to get our acts together and salt this thing away. If we lose that puts all of the emphasis on soccer, although there is a possibility of adding rugby to the list as the fourth game. I don't know what kind of soccer team we have, but it may come down to that.

For the first time since I arrived in this country, I broke down today and got fast food. I went to a McDonalds for lunch. I think its funny that they still call the burger the Quarter Pounder even though to people here it is just a fancy name and not the weight of the food. Aussie beef tastes really good and I liked the burger better than in the states. The fries taste different too- like they never switced to the healthier oil mandated in the US. Finally, all of the sodas here are much sweeter than the US counterparts of the same name (Patrick you should taste the Fanta here... not a ton of carbonation and way sweeter).

In other news, I have felt like a travel agent the last few days. If my future career does not work out in some way I figure I am now qualified to try my hand at travel. It started when I put together a kayaking trip for this Sunday. We are using a company that runs services, kayaking a few miles to Sea Lion Island, where we will see seals and sea lions in their natural habitat. Along the way, dolphins and sea lions rub up against your boat and jump over you.

Our next stop is Penguin Island where there are many penguins in their natural environment (after making a journey from nearby Antarctica). We will get to feed the penguins before having a nature hike around the island. We will have the opportunity to snorkel around the island before having a lunch and then paddling back. I had to work to get the trip set up, people signed up, and the money delivered.

At the same time, spring break dates were announced, and everyone in the dorm had the idea that -- Tom will figure it out. I have been working on that non -stop and are still in the progress of figuring that out.

School work is really picking up, so everything is a little hectic. I figure that is better though, because it means that I am busy and not wasting the time sitting around.