Aussie Rules Football

Rachel:

After a week from hell, we finally pulled ourselves together, cleaned up the apartment and partied all weekend. This meant that the cleaning had to be done all over again Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

We had some people over Friday night, played some Wii (still in black and white) and ordered pizza.

Then last night, Lauren came over and we went to an AFL game at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground). The Essendon Bombers were playing the Richmond Tigers. Kurtis and I support the Bombers because Lauren's family supports the Bombers. Its as simple as that.

Aussie Rules Football is pretty fun and funny at the same time. The rules aren't that complicated but you have to be watching it for me to explain it to you. The players are incredibly athletic, the game is really fast paced and sometimes it looks like a bunch of grown men chasing around a small animal.

If you ever come to Australia, Melbourne specifically, you should definitely go to an AFL game. Make sure you grab a beer and a meat pie and you'll be set.

We really just needed to have a good time and forget about the f-word and this weekend really hit the spot.

Australian Word of the Day: "Mark" - when an Aussie Rules player catches a ball from a kick, its called a mark and he can either stop and has space and time to kick it to another player (the other team can't tackle him) or he can play on. See I told you that you have to watch it to understand!

The F-Word

Rachel:

An event so terrible occurred to us and so it will not be discussed on our blog. Just know that it sucked BIG TIME! We are both are looking forward to better times in life.

You know you're an adult when...

Rachel:
... you find yourself saying, "It was really good we got that dishwashing liquid on sale, huh?"
... you are stunned to discover you have stayed up until 3 am
... you are constantly turning off lights and reminding your significant other to take shorter showers
... you give out detentions (Kurtis)
... you cringe when you hear your students talking about drinking, boys or parties
... instead of shopping for clothes, you shop for potato mashers, tupperware, shelving units, flour and garbage bags
... you have dinner parties
... your budget doesn't include shoes, concerts, make-up and eating out, but electricty, internet, groceries and rent
... you say you need to go to bed early and you actually do it
I'm sure we'll find more things to add to this list as the year progresses.

And HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! We miss our moms! xoxo


Australian word of the day: "Vinnies" - the St. Vincent de Paul Society... I kid you not. Don't believe me? www.vinnies.org.au

My Spelling

According to Rach, my sppellin is "horendous".
Sory readers!

lorve,
Kurtis

Guide to Australian Culture Part 1

Rachel:

As promised, here is my first installment of my Guide to Australian Culture. 

1. Neighbours – this daily soap is filmed in Melbourne on Ramsey Street and has been going for ages.  Big difference between Neighbours and typical soaps is that things happen fast.  In one episode, for example, Rachel decides she will go to London for school on a scholarship, books her flight, has a going away party and leaves...all in one day.  You can’t argue that you are bored with Neighbours plots.  There are also “Neighbours” tours out to the set in Melbourne where you can meet and greet some of the cast. Neighbours is regarded as the Australian gateway to fame.  Almost all famous Australians were on Neighbours for a bit: Kylie Monogue, Russell Crowe, Natalie Imbruglia, etc. 

2.Tim Tams – these famed Australian cookies or “biscuits” as they are called here, are commonly eaten with coffee or tea (see number 7).  Picture a chocolate Peek Freen cookie dipped in chocolate.  I liked them, but I like the chocolate chip cookies that the Tim Tam company makes better.

3. Kath and Kim – along with Neighbours, Kath and Kim is amazingly Australian, but way better quality.  The American version is a terrible representation of something that could have been brought over to the US market as is.  Shot in a similar style to The Office, Kath and Kim is a show about a mother and daughter who are too odd, but in different ways.  Their over exaggerated Victorian accents just add to the “yumour” of the script.  Shot in Melbourne, the references to Melbournian culture and places, paired with the Australian slang, makes it an Australian cultural jewel. 

4. Shortening words – A stereotype about Australians are that they tend to be a little lazy.  This is true in some ways and shortening words is definitely evidence of this.  Almost every word has a short form. Seriously.  Afternoon = avro, university = uni, uncoordinated = unco, breakfast = brekie, Australia = Oz or ‘Stralia, chicken = chook, kindergarden = kindie, mosquito = mozzy, vitamin = vita,  etc etc etc.

5. Nicknames – When you come to Australian, you need to leave your Canadian name at home and get an Australian name. In order to do this, take your name, drop about 2 or 3 letters then add a y, o, ie, oz, or a.  Voila! You have your Australian name! I’ll give you an example.  Say your name is Alexis, just drop the a, i and s and what you have is Lexo. Gary is Gaz, Lauren is Loz, Hudson is Huddo, etc.  BUT don’t give yourself this name! This is important.  Others must always give you a nickname.  If you introduce yourself as you nickname, you come off as a wanker.

Australian word of the day: I'm pretty sure I just gave you about 10. Pick the one you like best.

Review:Mountain Goat Brewery,Chill On & Hungry Jacks

After a week of hellish teaching rounds we went out for a few drinks.We decided to start the night in Richmond at the Mountain Goat Bar.

Mountain Goat
Mountain Goat Bar is not a bar per se, just a bunch of picnic tables, arm chairs, a stereo, and a fooseball table thrown together inside the Mountain Goat Brewery. Still, its a pretty wicked place to grab a drink, if you can get there.

The space itself isnt particularly hard to find. The problem lies in convincing your cab driver that your not trying to mugg him when he drives you to the "bar" at the corner of North & Clark st. Ours was honestly pretty reluctant to pull over as the whole area is pretty much run down industrial buildings. Convenient place to dump a body but we thought we pay the fair instead.

The bar doesnt have a sign so dont look for one. There is however a mountain goat head painted on the steel enterance door and possibly a few smokers hudled around outside.

The space pretty cavernous and a little chilly at first. The staff though try their best to keep it warm with a wack of heat lamps scattered around and after a few pints it gets pretty damn comfortable.

The beer is good and pretty cheap. Three or four different ales, a good stout and a few one off batches on tap. Theres also a few bottles of wine floating around for those who forgot they came to a brewery. In addition to a great beer, Mountain Goat supposedly serve super good pizza which you can smell through the entire space. Me and a buddy of mine debate weather or not to get one. Having eatten before I left the house I reluctantly decide to skip it.

The bar area of the brewery is only open on Wednesay's and Thursday's from 5 til about 11:30. Rachel Defender of Justice meets us after work at 10 and about 10:30 we all bail and head into the CDB.

Chill On
We meet up with a group of kids from Deakin at Chill On, an Ice Bar.

Ice is not a drink.Ice is not a food.In this case Ice is litteraly ICE. After each paying a thirty dollar cover, we head inside and upstairs to the "ski lounge", the clubs waiting room.
After complaining about the recent cold spell in Melbourne and enjoying a few two for one drink specials we head down to the Ice bar.

Before we entered the Ice bar the staff handed us all coats and gloves. A Newzelander working their irronically warns Rachel & I, our Norwegian friends and about 5 Canadians that its very cold inside (Minus 4). In fairness, the bar is pretty cold and leaves Rach and I wondering why the hell a group of Canadians and Norwegians paid money to stand inside a freezer in Australia. A half our later and were back outside in the warm(er) Melbourne air laughing at ourselves. Off to grab a burger.

Hungry Jacks (AKA Burger King)
Chicken sandwich and fries. Should have got a pizza at the brewery.

-Kurtis

Racism

Rachel:

I didn't really want to have to write about this, but after an incident that happened today, I feel like I have to. 

I had heard that Australia has been known for its racism.  The banker I was talking to before moving here said that his family were deciding whether to move to Canada or Australia and they decided on Canada because they were afraid of being discriminated against.  When we were on the plane coming here, we sat next to an Australian who told us not to live in Springvale because its "full of Asians."  We have heard other comments like this since coming here and newspaper headlines and tv news flashes have tinges of "non-political correctness." 

I selected this picture for my blog.  It was a message written on the sand after the Cronulla race riots in Sydney in 2005.  For those people who haven't heard about these, they were protests against non-white immigrants in 2005! That was 4 years ago!

Tonight I was coming home on the tram from IKEA with Kurtis and I overheard a lady saying something to the effect of "Speak English! You're in Australia and you have to speak English!" I turned around and this lady was yelling at these two Chinese men who were speaking in Cantonese or Mandarin.  She again repeated this and I yelled at her to shut up.  She again said something like this and other people in the tram were muttering about her.  

By this time, my stop had come and the Chinese men were getting off at the same stop. I stormed up the tram and began to tell her off by calling her an ignorant racist and that she is an embarassment to Australia.  She responded by calling me an American and that I should shut up.  To be honest, I was so enraged that I can't really remember everything she said to me.  I just continued to yell at her telling her that she is an immigrant to this country too and that she is a stupid racist.  

I had to get off the tram by this time and I gave her the finger as the tram drove off.  The two Chinese men waited for us to get to the sidewalk and thanked us and said not to worry about it.  I told them that they should move to Canada because no one would ever say that to them there. By this point I was so angry about what had happened I was almost crying and I told them that I am ashamed to be a white person when stuff like that happens.  I apologized to them that they had to hear that.

I am really disappointed in Australia.  I know not everyone is like that but the fact that racism is almost accepted says something about their country.  I don't think I could live here because of this.  

I'm not saying that Canada is a utopia where discrimination doesn't exist, but I know that no one in their right mind would say something like that on a streetcar in Toronto.  I am proud to be Canadian and I am proud that anyone, regardless of their race, religion, sexuality or gender is welcome to be a Canadian along with me.

I don't feel like having an Australian word of the day today.