Frisbee, Pub Crawl, Community Dinner, and the End Approaching...

For the first time, I can say that I have less than a month left in Australia. I can't believe it has gone this fast, and I'm going to make the most out of the rest of my time here. I would say that the last week was an example of doing just that, and I'll let you in on some of the great things that happened during the week.

Mon-Thur

On Monday I took pictures of everything that happened to me, and those will be on Facebook soon. The rest of the week was full of lots of great food at community dinner, a couple of Footy practices, hours and hours of film editing for my final project, and all of the other normal activities. Then Friday and the weekend came...

Frisbee Friday


Friday turned out to be one of the busiest days that I have had here in Australia. It would have been a great day to do a day in the life because it was jam packed full of interesting events.

I woke up about 6:45am to help out Nic with Friday breakfast for Cleos, but I didn't see Nic anywhere. She said that she would be up at 6:30, so I just waited a bit and took out the dishes that she had been preparing the night before. At 7am I knocked on her door upstairs, and she had missed her alarm due to taking Nyquil for a fever. Everything turned out great though, we cooked breakfast enchiladas (ham, eggs, onions, salsa, avacado) and had bananas and oranges on the side. It was a delicious way to start the day. After brekky I went to Australian history for two hours, sent a package at the Post Office, rushed back to class for another hour, and then went with Robyn, Alissa and Crystal to the University Games frisbee tournament.

Each year, all of the colleges in Western Australia come together to compete in different sports, and on Friday it was frisbee! Notre Dame had never fielded a team before, and none of the people that we brought along (7 Americans, 2 Australians) had ever played frisbee together before. Only 3 of us had ever played a game of frisbee, so from the beginning the odds were heavily stacked against us. In the first game we fell behind 5-1, and then came back to only lose by one point 5-6. Also, the game ended abruptly, when we were supposed to play one more point. But for a team that had never played together before, let alone played frisbee before, it was a great showing. The next game we played great and won 7-2. Notre Dame's first frisbee win ever! Then we got smashed 11-1 or something awful, and lost by one again in the last game 6-7. By that time, we were so tired it was hard to play frisbee. While the other teams had multiple rotations, we had 1 sub for guys and girls. A couple of the guys played every minute of the four 30 minute games, something that is extremely physically demanding.

Overall, it was a ton of fun, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. The other teams kept saying that we had a lot of potential. Well, I would say yes and no. First of all, we had never played together before that day and almost won three games. So that is potential. But no because the 7 Americans will be leaving in about a month, and by then the team will cease to exist. Regardless, I missed frisbee a lot, and it was a ton of fun. We played from about 1pm to 5pm, and then the team went their separate ways. As for the Cleos people, we were heading off the pub crawl. =)

Fearless Friday


I was sore and starving after frisbee, so I ate some dinner when we got back to Cleos, took a shower, and started getting ready for the Pub Crawl. Two of Nic's Australian friends had decided to put together a pub crawl for everyone in Cleos. They made a list of bars that we were going to go (six), had rules as to what we had to drink and how to act at each bar (for instance, cider beer and you can only speak in three word sentences) and punishments for breaking the rules (spinning around three times, or something like that). Also, each person who was going had a partner, and had to dress with that partner in some sort of theme. Julia and I went to Good Sammy's on thursday, and I found a ridiculous green polo, and decided that I would try to be some sort of Columbian drug lord for the night. Julia decided to be my drug lord queen, and it worked out really well. This is how it turned out:

(If you can't tell, I've got some gold chains around my neck, and my hair is slicked back and to the side. Pretty awesome night. This picture is at the very end, when we were definitely both feeling the alcohol.)

Here a rundown of the places we went, the rules, the drinks that I had, and how I was feeling after each one. 

(click on this picture to see the full image and all of the rules)

Bar 1) Feeling: 100% Fine. Had to do 10 pushups.

Bar 2)  Feeling 100% fine. And then I had to spin around 3 times, and that was rough. 

Bar 3) I had a bottles of Peroni. $5 beer, so we bought it, but it tasted terrible, as you can see below. Feeling about 80% ok. The alcohol was definitely starting to kick in, and everyone was having a lot more fun. 

Bar 4. A live band! Everyone was dancing, and speaking in three word sentences was hilarious. I think I did it about 95% of the time, and the bartender was laughing at me. Having a great time. 

Bar 5. More dancing, and even more fun. By now, everyone had consumed a lot of alcohol, and time was flying by. 

Bar 6 (back to the first bar). The night ended amazingly! The band at the Orient was great, and everyone was glad to have come on the pub crawl. It was about time to head to bed though (about 1am), because I was exhausted after such a long day, and had definitely had a lot of alcohol. Before I went to bed I helped Alli clean the kitchen a bit, drank a lot of water, and finally went to bed. After such a long day, it wasn't too long before I was sleeping very soundly. I woke up the next day at about noon with a surprisingly clear head. It was an amazing night, full of great memories. 

(A tourist, desperates housewives, a bride to be, and the drug lords)

Saturday and Sunday

I took it easy on Saturday and went to a maritime museum with a group of friends. It was a cool place, and they were running an ANZANG photography exhibit, with some of the coolest nature pictures taken that year from across Australia. That was easily my favorite part of the museum. Today I had a nice walk along the river and a small picnic, and then went shopping for Community Dinner! This is the first dinner where I am actually coming up with everything, meaning the recipes and organizing people to help me with the food. It's going to be Fondue, Weiner schnitzel, Mashed Potatoes, Salad, and Caramel Oatmeal Chewies, which I made tonight with help from a recipe that my mom gave me over Skype. It's going to be great. 

All in all, a pretty amazing week and weekend. The next blog post might be about two or three weeks away just to warn you, but I'll try to get one in between the trips that we have planned. Here's a preview of my last couple of weeks in Australia

Mon 24th - Friday the 28th- Last week of classes, turn in last assignments. 

Saturday the 29 to Thursday the 3rd- Hiking and exploring Tasmania with Megan!

Friday the 4th to Wednesday the 9th- Road Tripping to Ningaloo reef, camping, and snorkeling. 

Wednesday the 9th to Thursday the 17th Studying for and taking four finals. 

By the 19th, I'll be back in America. Should be a fun month =)

Jokes, Footy Road Trip, Poker, Day in the Life

First of all, I would just like to start off and say that it is Sunday night, and I'm ending one of the best weekends I have had in Australia. Ever since I turned in a 2500 word theology paper on Thursday I have been in a great mood, and the experiences that I had in Port Lodge, Cleos, and at Bruce Rock only made things better.

Popsticle Stick Jokes

First of all, I would like to bring up something that happen about a week ago that could signal a change in my career path. Alissa and I were sitting up at around 1:30am, and I got the idea to start making up jokes using things that I could see in the room around me. Together, we invented about 9 ridiculous jokes in a 20 minute period. After finishing, I realised that I might have a new career as the guy who writes cheesy jokes on Laffy Taffy. Here is a preview:

What do you call it when a park ranger mis-labels a path?

Trail Mix  (Pause for laugh break)


What did the servant waving the palm branch say to the emperor?

I'm your number one fan! (laugh break #2)

A man cuts his arm on a wardrobe and says:

Dang you're a sharp dresser!

Anyway, just wanted to give you some of things that we think of in Cleos on random nights. It really and truly is a great place to live.

Poker


For the first time since I've been in Australia, I finally got the chance to play poker! Patrick Berry came over to Cleos to borrow out set of poker chips, and he invited me over to play a Texas Hold Em tournament with the guys from Port Lodge, another American dorm on campus. About an hour later I walked down to Port Lodge, and actually ended up jogging about half the way (party because I was excited and partly because I was a bit late). The buy in was five dollars, so it wasn't exactly the World Series of Poker, but any chance to play again was great for me. Seven guys ended up playing, and if you are interested in a quick recap of the game, read the next paragraph. If not, skip the next paragraph =)

We started around 9:30pm, with about 400 chips, playing 1/2 blinds. Ok, so I started off pretty well, winning the first couple of hands and building up a decent amount of chips. Then I lost most of it from playing too deep into bad hands and not getting much money out of hands where I had the best cards. One guy got knocked out around 10:45, and it took about 2 hours for the next person to get beat. For about an hour, I was down to 50 chips, folding as much as possible and waiting on a good hand. I got KK, and went all in, and double up, and then tripled up a couple of hands later. Still not having much chips, I kind of tried to bide my time until there were only four people left. Then I started winning a bit, and finally knocked the fourth guy out. Since the game was set up to pay only the last two, I had to stick around, even though by now it was about 3am. Eventually, I knocked out the third guy and made a deal with the last remaining guy to split the money, since it was 4:30am.

Anyway, we finished at 4:30am, and I won $13, so not bad. Which leads me to the next part of my story

Kurt's Klubhouse


I was waking up the next morning to play footy at 6:30am, so I figured that I should hurry back and get to bed. Still, I was in a great mood with the combination of some guy time and playing poker. I got back to Cleos, and after climbing the stairs to my room I noticed a note on my white board that said "Welcome to Kurt's Klubhouse." My only thought was "hmmm, did the girls do something to my room while I was gone?" I opened the door, and to my surprise, this is what I saw:

 I know it is hard to tell what that is, but if you look back on my blog and see pictures of my room normally, you can tell that they had built a dome out of blankets over the entire whole of my room. Probably one of the most hilarious things I have ever seen. I started laughing, still flooded with endorphins from poker, and couldn't stop. I head breathing in the middle of the dome, and realised that people were sleeping in my room as well. My laughing woke them up, Crystal and Alissa, and they smiled as I surveyed the glorious creation that my room had become. I still had to get ready for Footy in the morning though, so they helped me grab everything around the room and pack everything. At one point, I laid down on my bed, looked up, and saw:

Yep, it is exactly what it looks like. I know have a bunch of random girly things to look at everytime I go to sleep and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I started laughing again when I saw that though, just because it took me so long to notice, and it was a great touch. Finally, around five am I went to bed, and woke up an hour and half later.

Footy Road Trip


I had breakfast, grabbed my things, and went over to the P and O to meet Tony and the three American guys that were going with us, Steve, Pat, and Jake. We drove over to the rental car place, and waited for Tony to fill everything out so that we could get in the rental car and drive out to Bruce Rock, and small country town about three hours away. We finally got the car, and I did not volunteer to drive. First of all, I was dead tired at this time, although I hadn't really slept enough to feel too tired, and I needed a nap in the car. I slept a bit, and also spent some time looking at the cool country scenery.

 After a three hour drive, we arrived at the Bruce Rock Footy Oval. Basically, every Saturday two towns from the bush meet up to play Field Hockey and Footy. My American friends and I were there to help out Bruce Rock's reserve team, and play our first footy game ever! I was so excited getting ready in the locker room. I haven't put on a team jersey and been a part of a serious team sport like that for so long! All of the exhaustion that I had felt up until that point went away, and all I felt was excitement about the game. They put me at center half forward, so my job was catch the footy, take my time, and try to kick it through the middle two goal post. Up until this time I had spent a lot of time practicing, but I hadn't played in a actual footy game.

It was intense! I wasn't prepared for the physical play, for the pace of the game. In the first ten minutes Steve and I both scored a goal, but I'm not really sure how it happened. Just kind of going with the flow and being lucky I guess. We were up by ten after the first quarter, down by a goal at half and 3rd quarter, and ended up losing by 5 points. So a super close game, and we had chances the whole time to win it. I would say that I was about an average reserves player, and I really struggled at some times just because it was my first game and it is hard to know what is going on. Also, I got elbowed in the face and hit pretty hard a couple of times, so that kind of woke me up and made me realise how physical the game can be. But I had some good moments, and the whole time I kept thinking about how great of a time I was having playing the Footy.

After the game we hang out with the older guys that we played with, ate some food, and drank a decent amount of beer. We hung around the club and watched the A team play, and then stayed in the bar all night meeting Australians, drinking, and having a pretty good time. It is really hard to drink when you are that tired though, and I was wiped from both the Footy and the lack of sleep. By eleven we were back at the house we were staying at, and I was out in about 5 minutes.

The wife of the guy we were with made us a delicious breakfast in the morning, and we started our journey back to Fremantle. I drove for the first time yet in Australia! It was kind of scary, but I got comfortable after about half an hour and ended up alright. The blinker is on the other side of the steering wheel though, so a lot of time I turned on the wipers while trying to signal. It was an amazing weekend, I had a great time, and I can't wait to play in another footy game.

Day in the Life


I'm writing this so that I remember to do it, and that so if I do not do it I can be reprimanded in some way. Tomorrow I'm planning on doing a day in the life of myself in Australia, so just pictures of what I do all day for one day. So hopefully I'll do that tomorrow, and those will be up in a couple of days!

Love from Australia,

Kurt

Surfing, Great Food, and the Return of Random Adventures

My last two posts have been about huge things going on, so I'm happy that I'm getting back to talking about the little things that happen in Australia that are so much fun. I guess they aren't all smaller, but they kind of feel that way compared to week long trips.

Surf Camp

At the beginning of the year, I looked up prices for a one day surf camp up at Lancelin beach. It was expensive, but I realized that if I didn't learn to surf in Australia, I would really regret it. Best decision I have ever made. In hindsight, I wish I would have payed more to stay overnight and attend the two day surf camp. Regardless, on Saturday morning we rucked up at about 6am, met the bus at the train station, and rode for about North two hours to Lancelin beach. If you have ever been to Florence, it is kind of an Australia version of that, with huge dunes and nice waves for surfing. I somehow managed to get my wetsuit on, (those things are ridiculous), and was completely pumped as we headed out to the beach with our surfboards. I went through a brief surfing lesson, and then went out into the waves to test my skills. Lets just say at first, it wasn't going so well. I could get my feet on the board, but fell over backwards into the waves as soon as I tried to stand up. Eventually, with some help from the instructors and after being pummeled by the water a countless number of times, I finally stood up, balanced, and rode a wave into the beach. We surfed for five hours, broken in the middle by an hour lunch break, and I was laughing and having fun the whole time. If you have ever tried running through water, or swimming for a long time, or getting thrown against the ground a lot, combine those things and you will have some of idea what is like for your body. At least at first, it takes it out of you, and I was so sore the next day. But was it worth it, and did I have a blast? Absolutely!

About to stand up (hopefully)

Taste of India at Holy Spirit Chapel


So every Sunday at 6pm I try to go to church, but last Sunday was especially great. During the mass, a church leader gave an awesome speech about working in missions overseas, and it was inspiring and full of personal stories.  After mass we had a social, where the Priest had cooked a delicious homemade meal of Indian food with a helping family. It was so good! I didn't really think I like Indian food, but it was awesome. Even better, there were so many leftovers that we were able to take home a huge bowl of rice, curries, and other things. It provided a delicious lunch and dinner for the next couple of days =)


Dance Competition

This week our Inter-hall competition was a Dance-off. Led by the genius choreography of Courtney Helmer, we practiced for two hours Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to master our dance and try to beat all of the other halls. It was really fun, and the end product turned out to be a mix between interpretive dance and gymnastics, with Megan Foltz rapping in between. Good stuff. Port Lodge ended up taking home first place, with us second, but their dance wasn't original, and not that impressive, so we all know who the real winners were =)

Singing Songs, Archaeology and Volunteering


I had a busy, full weekend. Friday night we stayed in and recorded songs for Nic for Mother's day. I know that she isn't a Mom, but she takes care of us, and we call her Mom, so we figured that she deserved it. We recorded a remake of Sweet Caroline called Sweet Momma Nic, Don't Stop Believing by Journey, and about four other popular songs. Singing isn't exactly something that I like being recorded doing, but with the girls there everything worked out. Kudos to Megan for directing everything, and I think Nic really loved the CD. Maybe I'll put some of the songs online somewhere, especially the one from Juno (Part time lover and a full time friend) that we remade.

The next morning I woke up early to go on an archaeology trip with Shane Burke, our Australian history professor. We went to the site of a settlement of Australians in 1830, basically the first white people in Western Australia who fled Britain after the battle of Waterloo, and excavated their old home sites. I learned two things while digging and sorting artifacts. First of all, archaeology is pretty cool, and we found buttons, pieces of plate, old lead shots for a shotgun, and lots of miscellaneous things. Second of all, archaeology also kind of sucks. The finding is great, but the sorting and putting into little bags, and all of the paperwork that goes on (the ugly underbelly of archaeology as I would call it), it's really that great. Nevertheless, it was a great day, and we went to a bar with Shane afterward and had a great time.

That brings me to today. Can you believe it, live updates of my life? I'm surprised that I'm actually that on top of it, or at least displaying a semblance of that. Anyway today I participated in a environmental clean-up in South Fremantle. I wasn't really excited about going, just because I kind of got roped into it by someone in film class, but I actually had a very good time. It was a very deserving area to clean, the food they gave us was amazing, and I met some cool Australian and American people. And, at the end there was a crazy flash mob dance on the Perth waterfront. All in all, a fun weekend full of a wide range of activities.

I love you all, and cheers from Australia =)

Life Lessons in the Outback

Our trip to the Kimberley, or a section in the Northwest of Australia that is part of the Australian outback, was an amazing and life altering experience. I wrote a paper reflecting on the experience, and after that paper I'll talk a little bit more about what we actually did. It's one of those things that you have to experience for themselves, so I'll just kind of explain it generally, and encourage you to find about it yourselves or make your own conclusions. 

The first meaningful part of the trip was when our group stopped at the Beagle Bay Aboriginal Community. As the bus drove through the community I could not help but notice the rundown houses, rubbish on the ground, and overall poor living situation. In the centre of this poor community we arrived at our destination, a pristinely beautiful Catholic church. The artwork inside the chapel was brilliant, with local shells inlaid in the walls and statues. Walking through, I could not help but notice the stark contrast between the poor Aboriginal community outside and the stunning artwork inside. We were required to make a donation to the upkeep of the church, and I dropped my gold coin in wishing that I were giving the money to the community where it was actually needed. Beagle Bay used to be a Stolen Generations community, a place where Aboriginal children were taken from their families and forced to learn western culture and religion. Although that practice has been stopped, the remnants of white dominance and inequality still linger.  Only half a day into the journey, it was clear to me that Aboriginal communities continue to struggle with inequality and oppression.

Throughout the journey there were many experiences similar to Beagle Bay, but I learned more from the discussions that we had with Colin, our Aboriginal guide.  The moment that I really started to connect with the Aborigines was during Colin’s first talk about the Stolen Generations. I had read about Aboriginal children being taken from their mothers, but I did not really understand the affect on the families until I heard it from someone who had lived through the experience. Colin’s mother had been taken from her family to a mission when she was only 6, and did not see her mother for over 40 years. As a result, Colin’s mother was never able to learn her culture. When she finally found her mother in a nursing home 40 years later, they needed an interpreter to translate because she could not understand her indigenous language. Relating this to my own life, it broke my heart thinking about what it would be like to not communicate with my mom. This example had a powerful impact on the level of sympathy that I feel for aboriginal people. Before, I was surprised and disappointed by the racism I had seen towards Indigenous Australians. Now I am outraged at the racist attitude toward Aborigines, and I am determined to speak up the next time I encounter blatantly racist statements.

The discussion that most greatly influenced me was about racism and the problems of Aborigines communities. At first, it seemed like the community’s problems were their own fault, but the message that I heard over and over again from Colin was that there are two sides to every coin. This means that although it might seem one way on the surface, I can learn a lot by looking deeper and asking questions about why these communities might be in bad shape. For instance, Colin explained how government bureaucracy stops Aboriginal people from receiving the majority of the funds that are meant to improve their communities. Also, racism forms a barrier that stops many Aborigines from finding jobs and improving their situation. For instance, let’s say a qualified Aborigine goes job searching. The man hiring has a poor view of Aborigines, and refuses to employ him. Discouraged, the Aborigine cannot find a job and is forced to live on the streets, or maybe even turns to alcohol. Seeing this, the white person develops a negative view of Aborigines, which starts the circle all over again. This systemic racism is almost impossible to break, and it locks the aboriginals into a lower social class with less opportunities.

(2nd highest tides in the world at the camp where we stayed)

Learning about this cycle made me think of the times in my own life where I had judged quickly without taking into account the other side of the story. I want to be someone who breaks that circle of racism instead of making it worse. Currently, sometimes I did not even pause before categorising someone or writing them off as a drain on society. From now on, I will try to think twice before I pass judgment on anyone that I meet. This also applies to listening to the ideas and opinions of others. Instead of dismissing the opinion of someone I disagree with, I should investigate why they have that opinion and try to understand their point of view. They probably have a perfectly good reason for that opinion, and by asking questions about their belief I can begin to understand how they came to that conclusion. If I can make it a habit to not judge people on a regular basis, my life and the lives of other will improve.  

(See? We walked in that area crabbing, and an hour later it was covered, and only getting higher)

The experience in Broome also made me revaluate the plight of Indigenous people across of the world, especially in America. Until now I had almost ignored the importance of Native Americans in society and not considered their right as original owners of the land. It is not that I was insensitive to their plight, I just did not spend any time reflecting on their place in society. As it turns out, Native Americans still struggle to protect their culture and secure equal opportunities for their people. The same problems with health, education, and funding for the Aboriginal communities are also found in the Native American reservations. I had thought a lot about coming back and working to help the Aborigines, but I realised that if I do end up doing missionary work with indigenous people, I should start with the communities that my ancestors brutally conquered.

Finally, I cannot write about the Broome trip without mentioning the time I spent playing with three Aboriginal children of ages one, three, and six. While having fun with these kids, it dawned on me that the smiles and laughter of these children would be enough to soften the heart of the most hardened racists.  I think that if everyone had the opportunity to travel to the Kimberley and share those experiences, racism would cease to exist. 

Camp Life

So just to explain some things about camp life, as you can see, we camped for four days out in the open. It usually is not an issue, only because it is really hot in the Kimberley and almost never rains in the summer. But, three of the four days that we slept in camp, there was a huge rain storm. The first night, we were awake, and watched as the clouds covered the starts and lighting flashed in the distance. Not really concerned, we had a good time watching the storm, until the wind hit. All of a sudden, dining dishes and other things were blowing around as the wind crashed into the camp. Soon, our guide leaders were running around the camp and putting up tarps, and all of our students rushed into action. See the tents above? Those were all moved under tin roofed shelter, except for the big three rain proofed ones, and then we wrapped tarps around the shelter to keep the water out. We woke up wet the next morning, dried out, and then had a good day. The next night, the storm woke us up around 2:00am and we had to restart the whole process of securing and protecting everything. After that, we moved the sleeping bags into a tin roofed, walled barn and stayed there for the last two night. 

So just a little bit to explain the rest of the trip. Our days would start early with talks about a topic similar to the ones I mentioned above. Then we would go somewhere, like to an Aboriginal community or to meet and elder, or do something, like crabbing or making and throwing spears. After the day was over, we would meet up around the fire, talk about the day, eat dinner, and learn more about Aboriginal culture. The weather was around 90-100 degrees every day, and the bugs were horrible. Luckily, we had bug spray and sunscreen, and lots of water bottles helped keep us hydrated and cool. If you have any specific question about the trip, I would be happy to answer, but that is all I feel I should share to a general community. 

(It was rough country)

In recent news, I just got back from Surf Camp today, so expect cool things about that in the next update. Cheers from Australia, and I love you all =)