I have now officially lived in my house for one week (today!) and am really enjoying it. My roommates are awesome and tend to stick to their own thing, which is cool because they are both pretty unique. The final roommate Emma is moving in tomorrow so I am excited to get to know her as well. My one roommate is from Croatia, well not really, but from a country beside it that is really small, and so it can sometimes be hard to understand what she is saying. I thought that I may have heard her wrong when she was talking to me the other day about how she wouldn’t sleep with me. I didn’t know whether to be thankful or insulted, until she said “Don’t take it personally; it’s not that you aren’t hot, it’s just that I don’t sleep with roommates! It is a rule that I refuse to break”. So needless to say, things have been pretty funny around the house! I am also starting to get to know my way around Melbourne—and how to not fall over on the tram for that matter! The last week has offered much excitement with the Fringe Festival in full tow as well as the finals of the AFL, and my very first trip to the beach!
First things first, the Fringe Festival. This is like nothing I have ever seen before. With more than 300 acts taking stage all over Melbourne for the next two weeks, my biggest struggle has been deciding what acts to take in because it is impossible to do them all. So far I have seen two shows, one called “Re-Educating Rita”, a comedy about the life of a teacher, and the other called “The Rap Canterbury Tales” which retells some of Chaucer’s works with a modern day spin using rap personas such as Kid Rock, Missy Elliot, and Eminem to retell the tales. This one was particularly enjoyable mainly because of the skill that it took to perform the work. Another cool thing was that the guy who wrote and performed it (a one man show) was Canadian. His name is Baba Brinkman, and is based in Vancouver, so if you ever get a chance to check him out…do it! Also, he has a book and DVD on the market too, so if you see it floating around, it is well worth the purchase. Next week I am heading out again to see a performance art work called Cinderella Sux (a story about not so happy endings) as well as some contortion artists and a stand up comedian. All in all, I am trying to take in as much of the Fringe as I can---which has been fairly easy since I don’t have a job yet!!
I have been at the gym every day too which has been awesome, and I am contemplating doing another distance race, but am a little unsure if I will enter as the admission fee is pretty hefty. The race is on October 9th, so I will be sure to keep you posted on the outcome.
At the beginning of the week I happened into Federation Square (it is the main square in downtown Melbourne where EVERYTHING seems to happen) only to find the 12 remaining contestants of Australian Idol doing a concert…at least that is what was advertised. I decided to stick around to see if all the fuss was worth the while—there were hundreds of people there—only to find a couple previous Idol winners doing some songs, then the top 12 taking the stage for less than 10 minutes. I forgot how cheesy the Idol series is, and was quickly reminded by the host as well as the surrounding screaming tweens that were in hysterics over “Matt”, the idol hopeful. I thought that I would give them the benefit of the doubt after I thought their first song was pretty cheesy, until they went on to sing “Smoke on the Water”, to which I had to turn and walk away. I mean, 12 Idol hopefuls can’t really get that hardcore, unless of course they are trying an Evanescence spin (right Nancy!!).
Yesterday was perhaps one of the biggest days in Aussie sports with the finals of the Aussie Rules Football taking place. I had no idea what the whole thing was about so I decided to sit down and try to learn the game. From what I gathered, it was a lot like soccer, football and rugby all mixed together, and pretty rough. The players don’t wear any padding, and pretty much anything goes. Players will even jump on the opponents back to get leverage to catch the ball…it is crazy. In the playoffs was the favored Port Adelaide team versus the Melbourne outskirt, Geelong. The Geelong story was pretty emotional; they had yet to win a final in 44 years. My heart went out to their team because the support of the town and encouragement towards the players was truly heartwarming. At the end of the game Geelong came home with a record AFL final win of 163-44. The game was awesome and very energizing so I headed down to the square afterwards for a HUGE celebration. Thousands of people were there and there was a free concert by Evermore happening before the winning team took the stage to say their thank-yous to the fans. The crowd was unreal and all in all, it was an amazing night!
I have so far only been able to venture out to one beach here in town (there are three that are decent) since the weather has been pretty poor lately. Even so, the view was unreal. There is always something about the ocean that makes you feel at ease. I am hoping that the weather will pick up before the school term starts again and I actually have to work (which happens next Monday) so that I will be able to make it to the beach and enjoy the weather while I am at it.
That being said, Melbourne is beginning to work its way into my heart, and I am excited for what the rest of the year has to offer.
First things first, the Fringe Festival. This is like nothing I have ever seen before. With more than 300 acts taking stage all over Melbourne for the next two weeks, my biggest struggle has been deciding what acts to take in because it is impossible to do them all. So far I have seen two shows, one called “Re-Educating Rita”, a comedy about the life of a teacher, and the other called “The Rap Canterbury Tales” which retells some of Chaucer’s works with a modern day spin using rap personas such as Kid Rock, Missy Elliot, and Eminem to retell the tales. This one was particularly enjoyable mainly because of the skill that it took to perform the work. Another cool thing was that the guy who wrote and performed it (a one man show) was Canadian. His name is Baba Brinkman, and is based in Vancouver, so if you ever get a chance to check him out…do it! Also, he has a book and DVD on the market too, so if you see it floating around, it is well worth the purchase. Next week I am heading out again to see a performance art work called Cinderella Sux (a story about not so happy endings) as well as some contortion artists and a stand up comedian. All in all, I am trying to take in as much of the Fringe as I can---which has been fairly easy since I don’t have a job yet!!
I have been at the gym every day too which has been awesome, and I am contemplating doing another distance race, but am a little unsure if I will enter as the admission fee is pretty hefty. The race is on October 9th, so I will be sure to keep you posted on the outcome.
At the beginning of the week I happened into Federation Square (it is the main square in downtown Melbourne where EVERYTHING seems to happen) only to find the 12 remaining contestants of Australian Idol doing a concert…at least that is what was advertised. I decided to stick around to see if all the fuss was worth the while—there were hundreds of people there—only to find a couple previous Idol winners doing some songs, then the top 12 taking the stage for less than 10 minutes. I forgot how cheesy the Idol series is, and was quickly reminded by the host as well as the surrounding screaming tweens that were in hysterics over “Matt”, the idol hopeful. I thought that I would give them the benefit of the doubt after I thought their first song was pretty cheesy, until they went on to sing “Smoke on the Water”, to which I had to turn and walk away. I mean, 12 Idol hopefuls can’t really get that hardcore, unless of course they are trying an Evanescence spin (right Nancy!!).
Yesterday was perhaps one of the biggest days in Aussie sports with the finals of the Aussie Rules Football taking place. I had no idea what the whole thing was about so I decided to sit down and try to learn the game. From what I gathered, it was a lot like soccer, football and rugby all mixed together, and pretty rough. The players don’t wear any padding, and pretty much anything goes. Players will even jump on the opponents back to get leverage to catch the ball…it is crazy. In the playoffs was the favored Port Adelaide team versus the Melbourne outskirt, Geelong. The Geelong story was pretty emotional; they had yet to win a final in 44 years. My heart went out to their team because the support of the town and encouragement towards the players was truly heartwarming. At the end of the game Geelong came home with a record AFL final win of 163-44. The game was awesome and very energizing so I headed down to the square afterwards for a HUGE celebration. Thousands of people were there and there was a free concert by Evermore happening before the winning team took the stage to say their thank-yous to the fans. The crowd was unreal and all in all, it was an amazing night!
I have so far only been able to venture out to one beach here in town (there are three that are decent) since the weather has been pretty poor lately. Even so, the view was unreal. There is always something about the ocean that makes you feel at ease. I am hoping that the weather will pick up before the school term starts again and I actually have to work (which happens next Monday) so that I will be able to make it to the beach and enjoy the weather while I am at it.
That being said, Melbourne is beginning to work its way into my heart, and I am excited for what the rest of the year has to offer.
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