Frat boy kangaroos, shark issues, and the Geelong Cats
So far vacation has gone well.
I stayed with my parents and sister for a few days in Sydney after Duel and got to have fun with them. We went on a little tour to the Blue Mountains and stopped at an animal reserve along the way. There were all these animals wandering around, and you could feed them little ice cream cones filled with a grass-like food.
The only thing was that everyone wanted to feed them, and so by the time we got to the kangaroo area they were all passed out on the ground from gorging themselves and had empty ice cream cups strewn all around them. Dana and I decided that it looked almost exactly like a frat house the morning after a party.
The next day, we met up with the son of my mom’s coworker’s brother and his friends. Yes, that’s right — the son of my mom’s coworker’s brother. I was worried that it would be awkward and that they would not be so interested in hanging out with random people that their dad or friend’s dad didn’t really even know.
But they were really nice and took us all over Sydney and to several beaches. They were going to teach us to surf, but the conditions were too rough, so we just went to another beach and went swimming.
Swimming was fun, but I was kind of scared that a shark would come up and bite me. It’s a fear that I feel kind of silly admitting to since I have spent a lot of time and effort trying to promote shark conservation with a charity called WildAid, and I know that shark attacks are really rare. It’s not that I’m afraid of sharks — I think that they are awesome animals that play an important part in our planet’s ecosystem and that it is really important to protect them — it’s just that I get a little nervous when I am swimming in open water. I’d still much rather swim with the possibility that a shark could bite me than know that I am safe because we’ve killed them all.
Later that night, Dana and I met up with the Joyces and wandered around Sydney for a while with Kara Lynn and her brothers. However, since it was Good Friday, the only place that was serving was the casino. So that’s where we went.
Kara didn’t stay too late, so that’s why she isn’t in any of the pictures, but Margaret Hoelzer and her sister joined us and we all had a really great time hanging out and playing Never Have I Ever.
On Saturday, my parents went home and Dana and I headed off back to Melbourne for a day of wandering the city (since I didn’t really get a chance during Worlds) and going to watch the Geelong Cats take on the Carlton Blues in an AFL game. Wandering the city was cool, and I splurged a little on jewelry (one of my favorite things).
The game, however, was really awesome. AFL (Australian rules football or Footy, as it’s known here) is a really great sport and I think that if I knew it as well as I know American football, I would really love it. It’s like a combination of rugby, soccer, basketball and volleyball, and it is pretty much nonstop action. Also, the sound effects of the huge crowd that was watching were great! So many cheers and groans. It was especially entertaining when the ball got loose and we were watching grown men running/falling/crawling around chasing a ball that isn’t round.