Days go by

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G’day everybody. I realize it’s been awhile since I updated this thing but it has been an incredibly busy month. I probably won’t even be able to remember it all, and not necessarily because of the alcohol consumption. Alright we’ll start with our college wide secret friend game and go from there. The whole point of secret friends is to give your friend a gift each day for four days and then introduce yourself at the toga party held at the end of the week. Great idea in theory right, simplistic, but apparently some people signed up for the game without really getting the concept. Personally, the guy who had me was pretty good although he missed the first day and I was not very impressed, in the end he made up for it and to this day I’m glad to say we’re still buddies. However there were some people who decided to drop out of the game after it started, which meant that some people were giving to people and not getting anything. Luckily for the one person I knew who this happened to, our American guy friends were amazing and set up a treasure hunt for her with chocolates and wine and flowers at the end, very sweet. We’ve got a pretty good group of people here I’d have to say, even if they are Americans. Now this year was pretty tame compared to previous years, last year they moved this guys mini coop into the space in front of the dining hall so when he got up for breakfast his car was not exactly where he had left it. Although there were a few serenades this year in the dining hall at dinner which was fun to watch, including one in which the Zimbabwe boys sang “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling”, I felt like I was in Top Gun. That week was a rough week though because it was also four people’s birthdays who we hang out with which meant three separate nights of partying, not including the toga party. But we managed to make it through that week, albeit with a hurting liver, and had a very active weekend. There was an inter-residence soccer competition on Saturday and our team made it to the quarter finals, go Cook! And yes that was with me playing on the team, you can shut your mouths now I’m not that bad, I knew which end we were shooting at, most of the time. Then on Sunday as a member of the Trinity girl’s softball team, this was inter-college, I’d like to inform everyone of our gold medal win. Thank you, thank you. It was tough, we were up against some fierce Asian competition, who seemed to think that throwing the ball back to the pitcher was just as good as throwing it to any base . Needless to say it took them awhile to get three outs. But our team had some fun and we tried to bet who could hit Adam’s car the most times (that would be the mini coop that has an uncanny ability to reappear outside the cafeteria). The next week went by pretty quickly as I actually had some work to do AND a quiz to study for. I know, I was surprised to, apparently I’m not actually at adult camp, I’m at university. But then Friday night we went to see the Western Force attempt to achieve their first win of the season against the South African Stormers. Unfortunately they were not victorious but I did finally start to understand the game of rugby. Yes folks there is a reason why they stick their heads up each others butts, I just don’t think it’s a very good one. But it was a close and exciting game (or atleast that’s what I was told, I was to busy laughing at the old man who was trying to pick up Flip, my South African friend, I’ll include a pic for everyone to see) and after that I came home and went straight to bed because the alarm was set for 5:30 am, the time we were leaving at to go to Margaret River. Margaret River is a cute little town three hours south of us that is known around the world to the surfers for it’s excellent waves, or something like that. Saturday afternoon we went and watched some of the second biggest surf competition in the world. That’s right I saw some of the world’s greatest surfers, although I had no idea which ones they were or if they did anything special but I can now say that I saw them. That night we went to a concert and watched Ben Lee (Claire Dane’s ex) get bottled in the head and walk off stage. Apparently he’s not loved by the Aussies. Luckily there were other Australian bands that played although none that I knew, but we had fun drinking and meeting people. We camped out that night and then left the next morning after breakfast. On the way home we also stopped at the Centre of the Universe, for those of you who do not know where it is, it’s a gas station and café right before Manderuh. Contrary to popular belief, Beth, my little sister, is not the centre of the universe, who knew? Just kidding little one. Alright well that brings us up to last week, it was a good one. First of all we’ll talk about Wednesday. Wednesday was Prosh. Prosh is another good in theory idea. Here’s the universitys theory, uni students get the morning of classes off, they get up at 4 am and get dressed up in costumes and go to the school to get papers which are parodies of actual newspapers and tin cans where people will give donations for charity for the fake papers. At 6 am they have a nice breakfast and then go into the city to sell to all the morning commuters. Then in the afternoon they either sell more or go to classes. That night there is a prosh party at the Tavern where people show up in their costumes. Here’s Trinity’s (my residence) theory, you get up at 4 am and get into costumes, you have some drinks, you get the papers, you have breakfast, you have a few more drinks, you go out and sell the newspapers because you’re really outgoing and sociable by this time. You come back in the afternoon, have a nap and go out partying that night. Here was Kristen’s and friends theory of Prosh: You set your alarm to get up at 4 am, someone comes and bashes on your door at 3:15 am, they hand you a drink and decide drinking games is a great idea, 5 am rolls around and you really just want food, 6 am rolls around and u talk to people on msn back home while hammered (although Lauren that really wasn’t me talking to you, it was my friend Simba and he kept asking me questions like your last name and your address) you realize breakfast started 30 minutes ago at 6:30 and you make your way down to get food, you realize there is no way in hell you are going downtown. 7 am you’re back in bed, 11 am you wake up, you go to class at 12, you get back for lunch and everyone is hungover. Somehow you end up going out that night again, but you do it sober and watch everyone else get smashed this time, you go home at 1 and go to sleep. Prosh, good in theory.
Alright well last but not least that brings me up to this Friday. This Friday was a momentous event in which the first girl ever played on the boys UWA baseball team. Yes folks that girl was me. How did that happen you say, I’m not entirely sure myself, I e-mailed someone about the softball team they told me to show up to a meeting one day at the Tav (the uni drinking hole, you can tell this team’s serious already) and then told me there wasn’t a softball team this year but I could play baseball, they forgot to mention I was the only girl playing. Friday morning one of the guys came to pick me up and we went to practice with the team for an hour before the game, fifteen other guys showed up, no more girls. I was a little nervous to say the least. Then they decide to make up a batting order, lead off batter will be Kristen. I asked them if it was a joke and if they were just trying to screw with the pitcher’s mind, they said no but I’m pretty sure they were lying. So I go out as the first batter, in my first actual baseball game ever and what do I do, hit it over the left fielders head, damn straight skippy. Then and I really hate mentioning this part, I got confused and ran to second, still not really sure why, but I ran right into the tag. But everyone was really good about it and waited until after the game to really grill me about it. I played second but as we had a pitcher from the Australian team and another one who played NCAA in the states, no one in the field really ever got the ball. Then the second time I went up to bat, I got nailed. That’s right, only girl playing, only person to get hit. Right on the thigh. But I’m proud to say I took it like a champ, closed my eyes for a sec and then walked to first. Which was really important because I think if I had gone down there might have been a bench clearing brawl, the guys were not happy about that one, our pitcher asked me if I wanted revenge, and he was dead serious. Wow boys, I really just don’t get them. I mean this guy who was pitching to me was probably so nervous about hitting me that, that’s why it happened, I’m sure it wasn’t intentional. Anyways I have a lovely welt on my leg the size of a baseball, it’s really a good one too, it was swollen at first and then it turned pretty colours. It’s so hot, I keep showing it off. But in the end we won the game easily 13-0. We went out that afternoon and celebrated and then tried to go out that night but by that time most of the team was down for the count, met some new Aussie friends though so all in all I enjoyed my time and I can now say I played baseball not just softball. Oh yeah and since it was a tournament with only two teams (it’s actually preliminaries to the AusGames in Adelaide) I also have a gold medal. Yay me, well that’s all I’ve got for now. I’ll put up some new pics and hopefully people are still checking this thing. Miss you all.

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Photos

Beach babes
Alyssa and I at Rottnest Island. We went camping for the weekend and went biking around the island.

Some of Rotto Crew
This a bunch of us catching the ferry to the island. Laura and Robbie are in the back. Me, Brian,Jess, Jill and Kristen

Boys and their Togas
Robbie, Brian, Lenny and Colby. Look at the lovely colour palate

Togas
Alice, me and Simba. Alice is from England and Simba is from Zimbabwe

Girl Toga Pic
Jen (aussie) Lauren(Queens) Kendra (UBC) me Laura (Queen's) and Karis (Aussie)

Random Night Out
Me, Brian and Flip (Philipa) South African

More Toga
Lauren, Zack (England) and me

Marg River Crew
Kendra, Lauren, Colby, Nate and Remi
Brian in the front and a bunch of the girls in a huddle behind them.