We Heart Footie

So today started off like every other day at AIS with some breakfast (fully stocked with the infamous spaghetti... PS Jared, I know a lot of places that serve baked beans as a side for breakfast, might be a New England thing). The nice thing about today was that breakfast was at 9 which meant we got to sleep in for once. After breakfast everyone did their own thing, most of us packed and did laundry (which took forever because the dryers in Australia take a minimum of 3 hours to dry your laundry) in anticipation for Sydney tomorrow. Then at noon we had lunch (basically all we do here is eat, sleep and learn... what is this place?)
So after taking forever to eat we left to go take yet another group picture to document our time here. Then the excitement started as we made our way to Canberra Stadium where we would soon get to see a rousing game of rugby or footie as the natives call it. We were excited because this was a Rugby League game which was supposedly more violent (aka more injuries and more excitement for us sports medicine students). The game was very interesting to say the least, especially with Mike pretending he knew some of his made up rules. We got to the point where most of us understood the basics so that we could cheer for the Canberra team at the appropriate times. There were many times where the refs (who were dressed in bright pink shirts) would do weird things indicating some penalty (like drawing a square in the air with their hands) and there would be a scrum.

There were some similarities to American sporting events at this stadium:
- Annoying people at the door trying to sell programs... check
- Over priced food, drink and merchandise... check
- Tons of fans wearing brightly colored wigs, #1 fingers, thunder sticks and jerseys... check
- Mascots trying to be funny... check
- Advertisements everywhere you look... check
- The golden arches... check
- Cheerleaders that can't dance and are not dressed weather appropriately... check

We found some differences in Australian sporting events though:
- Small children being used to advertise on a 4 wheeler... Only in Australia
- Running time with no time-outs for a shorter game... Only in Rugby
- Men in shorts that were far too short... Only in Rugby
- Refs wearing pink... Only in Australia
- Cheerleaders that have seats to sit in on the sideline (lazy)... Only in Australia

Over all it was a really great day, the weather was perfect and the footie was fantastic. Canberra took the game with ease which was nice because that was the team we chose to root for (I chose them purely due to them wearing lime green). After the game we went to dinner after going over with Dr. Jutte what our plans were for tomorrow so she could drill the plans into our brains. I think its safe to say that we are all a little over excited to go off to Sydney tomorrow (especially because before this trip a lot of people thought that was Australia's capital and not Canberra). Hopefully it lives up to our expectations.

Cheers!
Jenna