The soy milk is good for you!!!

Spent the day hanging out with Erin which was uberfun! She saw the Tiffany and can hopefully later help me to more accurately convey the awesomeness of the view. We walked around Bondi Junction for a bit, got slurpees at 7-11, then headed over to the University of New South Wales to see her dorm and such. Had free lunch there which wasn't all that impressive, but hey, it was free and it was food so I ain't gonna complain. Then we walked to this rugby shop she and some of the girls from her program had seen to see if they had any fun apparel for the game we were going to later. As we were talking to the nice elderly shopkeeper we told him that Erin and I were from FL and he mentioned that his wife had just been in G-ville visiting his Aunty. It truly amazes me what a freaking small world it really is sometimes. After we were done browsing the shop we headed back to the dorms to wait for the rest of the group who was going to the game. Then it was off to the stadium to get tickets for $20 and to see the Sydney Roosters go up against the Auckland Warriors.

Let me just say, first off, that rugby is DAMN hard core!! I guess since I never actually saw the Chiefs play a game when we were in Amsterdam I didn't realize what it was like. These guys go at each other and make our NFL football players look like wussies. With the exception of a few guys who wore a kind of padded headgear, they have no protection whatsoever and they tackle full on. We were really close to the field and we could see that these guys are incredibly muscular. At one point one of the Auckland guys had the ball and 3 Sydney players tackled him so hard they literally picked him up and carried him back before they took him to the ground. And there was even a fight that broke out at one point. It reminded me of hockey and I smiled b/c the NHL is back baby!! Woot woot! (But I digress.) Rugby is amazing to watch though. I think it's my new favorite sport. I still don't quite have the hang of who gets the ball when and why, or what most of the rules are, but that's okay b/c I decided that my future Australian boyfriend is going to play rugby and he can explain it to me when he takes me to see games. lol

I was sitting next to this really loud and proud Auckland fan who kept waving a big flag and shouting "GO THE WARRIORS!!" (Because adding an article like "the" makes them better than normal warriors I guess.) He was really funny. He most definitely could have checked the "Asian/Pacific Islander" category on a census form and had this bad full of food that he brought with him. And he kept offering some to us. Oranges, pears, cheese puffs (I think) and a carton labeled "soy drink." We didn't take any of course, but the gesture was nice. Apparently he had some weird rugby-fan belief that by eating this food he was in some way helping his team win because every time the Warriors would have a good run or score a goal he would stand up and shout "See, the soy milk is good for you! It's good for the Warriors! The soy milk is good for you!" He repeated this ritual until the soy milk ran out and then substituted pears. And at one point he mentioned that he usually brings a rather large bongo drum with him. (To be honest, I'm not as sad as I pretended to be that I missed out on the bongo ritual and only got the food one.) It was hilarious; Erin and I were dying laughing. I think one of the other girls there with us took a picture of him on the sly that I'm going to have to find some way to get my hands on. So that was my first official rugby game and I think I'm hooked. The Roosters lost, but it was a really close and exciting game and I had tons of fun. Once I know more of the rules I think I'll enjoy it a little more. And as I was telling Erin, nothing can really replace Gator football, but I believe that rugby will be an adequate substitute for the time being. :-)