Sports how I missed thee

Recent Pics
pics

So another week of school has gone by, and I'm more satisfied with my classes. Especially my database class. I really liked my lab instructor and we finally got to some interesting stuff in lecture. My Anthro and Philosophy classes overlap with content so that makes it easier to study. I've had quite an eventful week.

Saturday
I played some badminton with my friend Steve. He invited me to play with a bunch of his friends (10-11). We rented out 2 courts and rotated playing doubles and singles. I held my own against them. They were quite surprised that an american was decent at Badminton. I told them not to excited as it wasn't a typical thing. That night I went to my friend Alex's new place in Richmond. He had a bunch of people over before heading out to the bars in South Yarra. We drank a little bit there and mingled among some new people. Most of them were from Scandinavia but there were a few others from various other places in Europe. I met some nice people from Finland, Norway, Denmark, France, and Canada (he was from Quebec so he sounded french too). We were pretty disorganized and the group ended up getting split up but it was a good time anyway. We ended up at a nice irish pub called O'Reillys. It had fairly cheap prices and a nice dance floor. I had to fend off some guys advances on my Norwegian friend. This one Indian guy was relentless at trying to get her number. I'm lucky I didn't get into a fight! We did a typical late night run to a fast food place. Hungry Jacks! It's so much better than Burger King. I spent like 12 dollars there. (whopper meal +2 large friends on top of that!) I was so full! I took a cab back to Caulfield with some friends and slept on their couch. It was much easier than going back into the city to catch the nightrider bus home.

Sunday
BEACH! Sundays are a great day to go to the beach because of the Sunday Saver metro ticket. Its 2.90 for both metro zones all day. On a regular day a pass like that would cost 10 dollars full-fare! Anyway I ventured out to the beach and met some of my American/Canadian friends. We met at El Wood beach which actually has a bus straight from Monash. It took about 35 min to get there. The beach was quite nice. Soft sand, pretty view. Still no waves though :( The majority of the people I met up with are younger. (18-20). It was strange how different it is hanging out with younger American/Canadians than hanging out with Europeans that were my own age or older. I've found I can relate to the European crowd a bit better even though we have grown up quite differently. I got to the beach a bit late as I waited for a friend to go with me. I was at the beach from about 3-730. It was so beautiful as the sun was setting. I wish I lived closer to the beach so I could go every day.

Monday
Booo 2nd week of class starts. I went in a bit early to have lunch with my friend Shan. It was nice to catch up with her. I was then supposed to meet a guy to buy my database class book but he didn't pick up his phone. He called me later to explain that he was in an interview and that we could meet up the next day. After that I met up with my friend Julia who I had met randomly the previous week at the dance club. We walked around a bit and then she walked me to my first and only class of the day. The lecture was a bit boring as usual. We discussed mean, median, mode etc. Oh and we also did graphs! ooooOOOOoooo. Monday night I played tennis with my friend Dan. He had purchased a racket this time so we didn't have to pay for the court. We just played tiebreakers. He took the first one off me but after that it was all John haha. We got kicked off a court since someone had rented it and it was getting dark so the lights started to go out on courts that hadn't been paid for.

Tuesday
Pretty typical tuesday, 2 classes then chilled around campus. I booked my tickets for spring break! I'm going to NZ with my friend Alex, Anders and a few other scandinavians. We're renting a car in Christchurch and driving around. We still have a bit to plan but I'm really excited so far. Tuesday night I went to volleyball club. Practiced with the men's competition team. I decided to just do the social club because I didn't want to pay extra and didn't want to be tied down to a club. I met some guy that had studied at Purdue for his first 2 years then went back to China and eventually ended up at Monash. Every time I have worn a Purdue shirt I have met someone who has been there! It's crazy the reach that Purdue has even in Australia.

Wednesday
I made it to my Anthropology tutorial this week! Turns out I was knocking and trying the backdoor the previous week. I guess I didn't miss too much except for meeting other classmates. We discussed some definitions of religion. One classmate suggested that Australian Rules Footy is similar to a religion. It seemed to fit almost all aspects of Geertz's definition. I'm really starting to enjoy both my elective classes. I'm glad I took them both so I can get 2 different perspectives on the same topic. I've found that I am using things that I learn in one, in the tutorials in the other. Needless to say the teacher is impressed when I quote Marx off the top of my head haha. I purchased a ticket for a pirate cruise. My friend's Felicia and Hadley are going and I've never had a chance to go on a pirate cruise so I figured it would be entertaining. I went to the clayton shops after my classes to get some pirate gear. I found a cool skulls bandana and a childrens pirate costume. All for under 7 dollars! That night I went to club table tennis. It was a little intimidating at first because it had been a while since I have played with anyone good (*cough cough* Joe doesn't count *cough*). I ended up competing pretty well and went 3-0 with this guy Shawn. It was a lot of fun and we ended up just messing around and going for body-shots toward the end of the night.

Thursday
I was trying to gather some people together to come to the beach with me for the morning but I couldn't find anyone. Instead I just slept in. I woke up around 11 and made my way to Clayton station to get my concession card. It cost me about 18 dollars to obtain (passport photos and registration). Now I can pay concession fares on any public transport! It's essentially 50% any fare. So I can travel into the city after 6 for about 1.75. It's going to save me so much money :) I helped my friend's Cathy and Emily with their internet before heading to my first class of the day. I had my business tutorial in a computer lab this week. It was a lot better as I could talk to my classmates and if I got bored I could just surf the net. It was just doing some basic excel stuff , graphing, pivot tables. I did learn something new though! An easy way to flip the computer screen on a windows computer. Give it a try! hold ctrl+alt and press down. Any of the arrows will flip it that direction. If you need to get it back hold ctrl+alt and press up. I thought it was quite amusing. Professor Google taught me that trick. That night was the pirate cruise! I hurried home to get into my outfit and then get back to the bus loop. I managed to squeeze into a very small childrens vest by cutting the arms a bit. I felt ridiculous but it was all part of the costume. We arrived at the flinders street station only to find out that our train was not continuing on to Southern Cross where we needed to be. We walked along the river thinking we could get to the ship. The directions to the place were absolutely terrible. We took a cab to the Docklands which wasn't even close to where the people had told us to go. The cruise was quite a bit of fun. Almost everyone was dressed up as a pirate and the alcohol was all-inclusive.


I apologize if my writing is a bit dry or formulaic. It's tough to summarize and still be entertaining.

---

---