MELBOURNE SPRING BREAK: SATURDAY

Saturday was actually almost just as amazing as friday. The day started off a heading down to the Cricket ground for our AFL (Aussie Rules Footy Game). We also had planned for that day to go to the Olympic museum which is located in the stadium. We walked over to the Cricket ground (which is where the opening ceremony and some Olympic games we held in for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and the 2000 Sydney Olympics). The Cricket Ground, first of all is a beautiful stadium let me say... Unlike Rugby, AFL stadiums are circular (rugby is rectangle like a football or soccer stadium). Today The Hawthorne Hawks played against the Port Adelaide Power.
Before the game they open up the museum so we wandered around the museum for a few hours before the game. Unfortunately they do not allowed cameras into the museum or i would have taken probably a billion... For those who want to travel to Melbourne, this museum is a must see. I learned so much not just about the different sports in the olympics, but the actual olympics and the progression form year to year. it is small, but theres a lot of material in the layout of the museum and I was first of all overwhelmed, but also blown away by all the material in the museum. They had many mini theatures set up displaying accounts of different competitors telling the audience of their experiences in the olympics etc... they had a huge cricket and AFL section. (probably because the Cricket ground actually has those two sports play there throughout the year). After we went through the museum it was about time for the game. On the Ocean Road Tour from the day before some guys on the tour told us we should root for hawthorne and that they were the favored team winning last year's championships (also they were more the home team than the other team and therefore the majority. Unfortunately for the most favored team, they failed miserably with a terrible score of 115 to 85. so much for the best team in the league..... but I have a confession to make about this game.. watching this game i have discovered my new favorite sport. let me repeat that....AUSSIE RULES FOOTY HAS BECOME MY NEW FAVORITE SPORT. this means, even back in the states I plan to follow AFL. I am so stoked. I love watching this style game more than any other sport. even Rugby. There is always something going on and I enjoy every secound of it!. The task I have now is to find the team i want to follow. Hawthorne will deffinitely not be the team. they are sloppy when they play and drop the ball to much. I was thinking maybe the Sydney Swans. I think they are the closest to Newcastle... i want to try to go to one of their games..... i will do some research.

anyways... moving on from my rant from the AFL... after the game we walked all the way home.. (did i mention before that it probably took us like 40min to walk to the cricket ground....we walked everywhere thsi week if your couldnt tell.) we picked up flowerds for the girls whp let us stay in their appartment for the week. That night i watched two AFL games and fell in love even more with this game..... (sorry i said i wouldnt talk about it again and i did.. sorry..) Allison and I TRIED to get to bed early due to the fact that we had to get up at 4:45 to head to the airport. I went to bed around maybe ten or so but only ended up getting about three hours of sleep. i was, for some reason, not tired and I woke back up at midnight and read for a few hours.

a few hours later Allison and I woke up at 4:45 and by 5:30 we were packed and headed out for the train station where a bus would pick us up and take up the airport. keep in mind the sun was not yet up so here we are in the dark draging our suitcase 3o minutes to the train station..... we got the the airport on time and headed back to newcastle. we got back home at about 10:30 or 11. by then Carly got home from her road trip up the coast with the boys so i cooked myself some food and chatted with her about her trip. and now i am here in the hub writing this blog.....

something i have decided i will do, at some point is start blogging about my thoughts. just random things. last night i read a book called Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (actually for the second time) and it got me thinking and I feel like i should write down my thoughts. so whoever want to check that out, keep looking at my blog and i will post a link to that blog soon enough.. maybe i will make it when i am here in Aussi land.. i am unsure.

anyways.. this lack of sleep is catching up with me..... ill write back soon enough...

follow this link to the pictures of all this....
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=113977&id=1067220169&l=c05627128b