Land Down Under

Footy Adventure

Friday night I went to the Butler event-- the Essendon v. Collingwood footy game at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground). The game itself wasn't as interesting as watching a Whitley game...I guess knowing the players and having a connection with the team actually makes it interesting. Go figure. Anyway, Chathu and I had a HUGE adventure in getting to the MCG. We met at 6 at the tram stop outside Whitley. So far so good. We took that tram only til Tin Alley and then walked across the campus to Swanston Street (which runs parallel to Royal Parade, where Whitley is). We were going to meet Natasha and Victoria for dinner by the mall, down Swanston Street. Once we got to that tram stop, we waited. And waited. And waited. And had to give up any ideas of dinner by the time the tram actually got there. Chathu took out her map to look at which tram we should take to get to the MCG (just to be sure), and some random guy walked up to us and was like, so do you know where you're going? Turned out he was going to the footy too, so he said we could just follow him. We thought that was a bit sketchy, but didn't really have any other option, so all three of us packed ourselves on the first tram that got there. The tram went excruciatingly slowly, and then we hear this very quiet announcement: "there's a taxi driver protest on Swanston street so we can't get down there, sorry. We'll be taking a detour." Everyone pulled the little blue cord to stop the tram and rushed off. Chathu and I followed Mystery Man into the train station (more like we ran after him-- he was reeeeeaaaally tall and walking really fast) and hopped on a train. There he turned out to be a little less sketchy, since he plays soccer with ex-Whitley people, and works with Renee (a girl who lives here). It was a really good thing we were able to follow him-- he showed us right to Gate 4 where we were supposed to meet Cara to get our tickets. I don't think we ever would've made it without him. Once we found Cara, I got a prize of a Essendon teddy bear for being one of the first three people to tell her what the Collingwood mascot/nickname is (magpies). He's sitting up on my shelf with my Pokemon toy from McDonald's. This room is starting to look more like a "Christina" dorm room-- it has my nice little notecards with Bible verses all over, and a large poster of a baby lion in a tree, another of Aragorn from Lord of the Rings, and another of a little girl dressed as a fairy kissing a frog in her hands. And a little poster with a kitty in a watering can with the title "When God is in our heart, any place is home." And of course, I've got the obligatory tissue box on my desk. Just in case Jodi was wondering, I'm only on box 2 so far! You should be proud. Although tissues here are huuuuuge-- almost double the size of normal tissues. Perfect for my nose, unless I plan on building more "ice cream cones" out of my trash can like I did last semester. I also have oil and vinegar in my room, which I take down to lunch so I can eat salad. People here find it weird that I put salt on my salad, too. I should take pictures of my room sometime and put them up.

One week left til Guys and Dolls opens!! It still needs work, but it's getting better (always a good sign). I'm excited for it. My fingertips have already gotten their calluses back....I've forgotten how weird it is to not have much feeling in the tips of my left hand fingers. I kinda miss it. I wish I had known about the musical, I would've brought my own violin and then played in the orchestra too. Why is Williams too cool to do musicals? Maybe I'll join the Macho Moocow Military (insert extra random words starting with M) Marching Band senior year. Sunmi and I can rock out on violin together on the football field. I need a fun way of keeping up with it. Actually playing violin is a really stress-relieving activity. So is playing piano, but since I was bright enough to forget my piano music (along with various other things, like my iPod speakers, long-sleeved shirts, and a certain sweater that was bought specifically for Australia...), I can't really do much music here. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to keep myself busy with schoolwork once next weekend's over. Then again, there's always other sports to watch, people to hang out with, and the Cairns trip to be planned....

posted by Christina @ 1:11 AM