Embracing the Aussie culture, mate!

Howdy!

What's going on! I know this post is a bit overdue but I've been crazy busy lately. 2 weeks ago was the madness of Unigames, and while our team's performance was less than stellar (0 wins - 8 losses, point differential of -92...), it was good fun. To be honest, I didn't do the best job of managing and coaching the team. We had a few late nights that week (!) and our first game of the day was generally at 9am. Needless to say, sleep came in small quantities. Let me tell you, there's nothing like managing a baseball team that's down 12-1 in the 3nd inning on 4 hour sleep! Uuuhhh..

Last week I was involved with a sports camp for kids at Uni. Added to my regular job and a few big assignments due for school, it made for a pretty hectic few days. While the experience of being a camp counselor for kids anywhere between 5 and 12 was a worthwhile experience, I'm sure glad it's over. Kids just never get tired of running around, and I must have given at least 100 piggyback rides over the course of the week!

Even if I'm really busy with all sorts of stuff, I don't really mind it. Reason being, my #1 goal for my trip here in Australia is to fully immerse myself in the Aussie culture and make the most of the experience. I feel like I'm incredibly blessed to have this opportunity and the last thing I want to do is to spend my time here being lazy, or doing the same things I would be doing back home. So I try to get involved and do what the Aussies do. And it's going quite well so far.

My surfing is starting to be legit, to the point where I can proudly call myself a "surfer". I had a real good session yesterday and rode a few waves all the way to the beach which was a first on my short board. It was a bit of an adaptation going from a long board to a 6'8 board but I know in the long-run it'll make it a lot more fun.

My beloved board

 Every time I go surfing, I'm enjoying it a bit more. Besides the obvious thrill of riding waves, there's also a bit of a spiritual component to this sport. Now I won't get all Zen Master on you, but  there's something special about being in the ocean, away from the shore, my cellphone, my worries (don't have too many of them fortunately). Nothing but the sound of the ocean, the water, the sun, and a big smile on my face. This setting really brings clarity to my mind and oftentimes it's where my best thinking happens. I love it.

I'm trying to hit up the surf about twice a week and at that rate I'm hopeful that I'll be able to ride a few monster waves by the end of next year!

Just give me a few more months of practice!

Another big part of the Aussie culture which I've discovered since I got here is Australian Football, or Footy as it is affectionately known. It's definitely the most popular sport in Western Australia. From watching it a fair bit, I can tell you it is one hell of a sport. It's basically a mix between soccer, football, and rugby. It's a really complete sport and to be excel at it one needs to be fast, have amazing cardio, have the ability to kick with precision, catch the ball way up in the air, be able to tackle and get tackled, and overall have a good feel for the game. I bought a footy just recently, started kicking it around a bit with my mates and I'm loving it. The new season doesn't start for a few months but I'll sure be honing my skills until then and if everything goes well I'll be joining one of UWA's teams after Christmas. If you've never watch any Footy (which is probably the case for most of you) I strongly encourage you to watch this video.. You'll see why Aussies think it's the best sport on the planet! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIReSJhQor0

A funny story about Footy... 2 weeks ago the Grand Final, basically the Australian equivalent of the Super Bowl, was taking place. The protagonists were the St.Kilda Saints and the Collingwood Magpies, 2 teams from the Melbourne region. There was much anticipation leading up to the match, and even I was getting pumped about it despite being new to this sport. The day of the game, I went down to my buddies' house (who conveniently live 2 houses down from me) to watch the match on their big screen. It was one of the best Footy matches in history and after an epic 3 hour battle, the final score was... 68-68. Because of some weird rule, there is no overtime in the Grand Final, so it was called a draw. As a result, they had to have a rematch the following week.

Now, can you imagine the Superbowl ending in a draw and being replayed the next Sunday? So bizarre! It was only the second time in history that it had happened and most people were upset about it. Personally, I was quite happy to be able to watch another high-quality game and deepen my knowledge of the sport! Unfortunately, the rematch was somewhat anticlimatic as Collingwood smashed St.Kilda  108-52 to be crowned 2010 AFL Champions.

Collingwood Magpies, 2010 AFL Champions

Another part of the Aussie culture I've been wanting to get involved with is the scuba diving. It is a well-known fact that Australia boasts some of the finest diving in the world, and since I live 5 km from the ocean it would be a shame not to take advantage of it. Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to do it since I got here. However, through a very favorable turn of events, this might change very soon.

Last week, my Indian roommate moved so we had to replace him. The new guy, Chris, is an Aussie from Queesland,  and he works as a professional "commercial diver". That means that he goes underwater and builds or repair structures such as bridges, oil rigs, etc. In his spare time, he's really into spearfishing. He's told me a few stories about it, and it sounds so damn cool. Last week he went out with his brother and he speared a friggin 30kg Kingfish! He had to fight it for about half an hour and got dragged over more than a kilometer, but he managed to haul it on the boat. That night, he chopped it up all up into filets so now we have about 60 beautiful pieces of fish in the freezer! I couldn't be happier about it, because fish is super expensive at the grocery store here so I hadn't had any in 3 months! I've made a Thai fish green curry earlier this week and I'll be sure to toss a few Kingfish filets on the barbie this weekend. Chris has already agreed to take me out spearfishing with him sometime soon... I'm sooo excited about this and if I'm lucky I'll be coming home with enough fish to feed me for a few months!

How bad-ass is this!!!

As I mentioned in a previous post, summer is right around the corner here and beach season has officially begun. The funny thing about living close to a beach is that it's easy to take it for granted and not take full advantage of it. Don't worry though, I have full intentions of being down there at least every weekend. Kicking the footy around, playing beach cricket, going for a surf or ocean swim, reading on the beach, whatever, I've been dreaming of this for far too long not to live it up 100%.

Cottesloe Beach, my second home for the upcoming summer

The forecast for this Sunday is 27 with perfect blue skies and I am set to partake in my first Sunday Session. I had never heard the term Sunday Sessions before, but from all account they are an integral part of Aussie culture. In the summertime, instead of partying hard on Saturday night, the Aussies will have more relaxed night, maybe a barbie and a few beers but nothing too outrageous. Then on Sunday they stroll down to the beach around mid-day, enjoy the sun and have a few brews during the afternoon.. Then as the day starts winding down, everyone walks (hopefully still straight at that point!) to the Ocean Beach Hotel bar, where basically a late-afternoon party takes place! After the OBH, one can either invite people over for a sunset barbie at home, head over to the Claremont (a bar close to my house where Sunday is the big night), or simply call it a day and start getting ready for Monday morning. No matter the decision at this point, it doesn't matter, those days are apparently epic.  I have no trouble believing it.

As you can see, Australia has much to offer if someone is keen to really get involved. I often wish I could enjoy all this with some of you, but I guess that is the great tragedy of traveling. Living the best experience of our lives, but without the people we love the most... Oh well, c'est la vie.

Anyways, I'm done my pot of green tea and I've written a fair bit, so I'll leave it at that for today. I've got a few more interesting projects in the works to continue my Aussie acculturation, but that's another story for another day!

Take care my friends!

Much love,
Phil