This weekend was an eventful weekend. Friday was our first footy practice and it was awesome. Footy is Australian rules football, but they just call it footy for short. It is kinda a combination of soccer, american football, rugby, and basketball. It is hard to describe because it is an intense sport not like any other. I was nervous at first because I didn't know what to expect. I had no idea how to play the game and also the boys had a practice before we did and they said they got their ass kicked. The practice was just for the American study abroad students that had no idea what footy is and about 20 girls showed up. It was an awesome turn out. We have also been practicing with the boys and it has been very intense. Our coach is training us so that we can help spread this sport to the states. It is HUGE here and if more people in the states knew about it, I think it would flourish in the states. It is just as intense as American football, except in footy they don't wear any pads. It is illegal to tackle someone who does not have a ball, but when someone has a ball, basically anything goes (except head shots and going for the neck). The field is shaped as a huge oval and there are four big posts at either end of the arena. If you kick it through the middle post, that is 6 points and if you kick it through either of the sides, that is one point. I have so much fun playing, it feels good playing on an organized sport again. We were so tired from practice that we all basically passed out at 11 PM on a Friday night.
Saturday, we woke up early morning and bused to the petting zoo. It only had Australian animals and it was sweet. We got up close and personal with koalas, kangaroos, camels, deer, emus, pigs, dingos, rams, and other animals that I didn't really know what they were. It was funny because everyone that was there was little kids petting all the animals and then us running around petting the animals. I felt like a little kid again. I had a lot of fun running around with all the animals. After the zoo, we went to the footy field to kick around the footy ball a bit. Any chance we get, we practice. All of us American students are getting really into this sport. This week, there isn't really anything too exciting going on. I have a research paper due next week already on the stolen generation of the aboriginal people. I have done a little research, but not much. It is a pretty intense topic and will be more interesting to learn about as I research some more.
Here are some photos from the Zoo, footy practice, and my room at the P&O
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