My Body Is a Cage

I love this place. It's quite a rush knowing that I'm currently living about 9,869 miles away from home. Love it.

Not too much from the past week to recap. On Monday, went to work, then had class. I got my first mark for the term (yep, I'm using the British/Australian lingo). It was a "D". Don't worry, that stands for distinction, which is good. Quite a relief to know that I'm pulling down grades that meet my standards. The next day, I wrote about 1,000 words for my essay that was due on Friday, went to class, and then walked all the way out to Waterloo for a Connect group that I had been set up with through Hillsong church. It was good time, we grilled out and had burgers, talked about Encounterfest, and just hung out. I found it difficult to come into a group of guys that all know each other, but I'll give it time.

Wednesday was the same as Monday: work, class, got another mark. An "HD" this time. And no, that doesn't mean High Definition, but High Distinction. So I'm on a roll now. Thursday was kind of a repeat of Tuesday. Work on the paper, class, come back and finish the paper. Not the most glamourous week, but I was done that night. Around 8 PM I went to the Rocks with Hol-lee and Eamonn. Pretty low key, as we were only out for a couple of hours.

Friday brought a new spin to the week. I walked to the Mills building to turn in my paper. I panicked a little when I couldn't find the MECO drop box, but my fears were relieved after a few minutes of searching. I managed to catch the right bus up to work and spent another day in the legal library, filing away. No fun, but it pays the bills. After a day at work I went to the Landsdowne for dinner.

That night I decided to head to the camel races. Yeah, that's right, camel races. Who goes to camel races? Well apparently, a lot of Australians do. Racing and betting are two of Australia's favourite past times, but to the break out of equine flu with horses here, the race tracks have been shut down. This means that the tracks are all losing money, so they cooked up a camel race to stir interest, and more importantly, get people out there to buy beer and food from them. And so they came. It was a good crowd, but the races were quite underwhelming. They would last just one straightaway of the track, and the camels weren't particularly fast. In fact, every race there would be one camel that wouldn't even run. This gave me a good laugh, and we would make small bets here and there to make things a bit more interesting. Post races, we went down to an area of the track dubbed as the "Neverending Poker Room" and watched Sydney FC take on Perth. A few of my friends decided to play in a $10 tournament and I would watch the game and follow what went on at the table. Upon return, I quickly went to bed with plans of going to the beach on Saturday.

Unfortunately, cold weather greeted me in the morning, and I made the call to put it off until either Sunday or perhaps next week. Dave and I ended up going to the Sydney Aquarium (most impressive) and the Australian International Motor Show. Quite an interesting experience, seeing lots of cars that most people there would never be able to afford. I felt like it was almost worth the $17 entrance fee. But coming from someone that tries not to care about cars at all, a little bit steep.

After the show, we returned to the village, where I quickly threw on a change of clothes and basketball shoes and played pick-up for about an hour and a half. At the end of the games, my end hurt and I couldn't see straight. I was dehydrated and tired. Today, I'm sore and my body kind of hates me. A bit of a bummer, as I decided to stay in that night and take it easy. All the walking and running had wiped me out.

Today I got a nice taste of home as I watched most of the Red Sox-Indians playoff game. It's funny to perceive the Australian reaction to the games (some claim it to be boring--try watching cricket though) while others try and learn how it's played. But, for the most part, I only watch it with Americans. Due to the length of the game I have managed to get no work done and didn't go to Manly. Hmmph. Life goes on, but I'm down to the home stretch, with only two weeks of class left. It has been quite a good ride this first semester. I'll try and post more thoughts and less boring stories later this week.