And Life in Aussie Land Goes On

Not too much has been going on down here in Wollongong.  On Monday, a few of my friends and I went to a local bar to play some pool and socialize with other people who go to UOW.  My friend Megan and I entered ourselves in a pool tournament; we won the first game by default (the opposing team hit in both the white and black ball on the same turn) and lost our second game.  The rules of Australian pool are the same as American pool (I'm like 95% sure) but the balls are different colors.  There's no stripes or non-stripes; the balls are red and yellow.

On Tuesday, I had uni from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. and the rest of the day I did school work at uni.  Tuesday night, a bunch of my friends and I went to trivia at a local restaurant/bar, Towradgi.  Every Tuesday night, Towradgi hosts trivia; usually about 50 people show up.  The host of trivia, this half-Australian, half-British man, is actually one of the most obnoxious people I've ever met.  There's no shortage of swear words in the air when the host speaks--fun game, but I'm not so keen on the host.  When I went last week (that was my third time going), there was a huge group of us, almost all American.  About half way through the game, the host realized we were an "American" team and 'boo'ed' us every time we got an answer right.  So much for American love, right?  Actually his 'boo'ing' made us cheer even louder when we got an answer right... just so we could prove how smart our team was!  In the end, we came in second place (we lost by one point), so we were the lucky recipients of a free bottle of wine.

On Wednesday, it was my friends birthday--Jessica, another girl who goes to Colgate.  Megan and I went to Weerona College to celebrate her birthday with a few of our other friends.  Weerona College is very similar to Campus East, it's a place where students who attend UOW live.  I had the option to live in Weerona before coming to Australia, but I chose Campus East instead.  Weerona is closer to uni and the center of Wollongong, but the residency is all dorm style at Weerona (so all the rooms are doubles and whole halls share one bathroom).  It looks and feels like a freshman dorm at Colgate... which is not what I wanted to experience as a third-year college student.  Anyway,  we had a fun time celebrating her birthday!

Yesterday, Saturday, I didn't do much; mostly just lounged around.  Megan and I watched part of a movie and I did some homework.

Today, I accidentally woke up pretty late (11:00 a.m.--I think that's a PR) and have been doing homework ever since.  I also went running for an hour, which felt really good.  I'm really going to miss running on the beach when I go back to the U.S.; its so nice to hear and watch the waves while you run along the sandy shoreline.  I actually like running on the sand sometimes because it's more of a work out--you have to run harder because the sand is so soft, you sort of sink into it with every step.  I'm thinking of investing in a pair of "Five Finger" shoes...  they're better for your feet.  I'm going to read more about the benefits of running with pretty much no padding on your feet (unlike modern day running shoes) in the book "Born to Run."