Footy!!!

On Saturday, we decided to go to the AFL (Australian Football League) game that was at Aurora Stadium in Launceston. The Hawthorne Hawks and Brisbane Lions were playing. Aurora stadium is the Hawks home stadium so we decided to cheer for them since they were from Tasmania. Since I have arrived here I have watched quite a few “footy” games and am slowly starting to understand it. A lot of people have explained it to me, but it will probably take awhile to fully understand it.


It was a blast being at an actual game though because the atmosphere is crazy! Everyone is decked out in their team’s gear: jerseys, scarves, hats, giant pom poms, fingers, flags, signs, and face painting. I felt weird that I wasn’t wearing the right colors because I stood out. They do not have cheerleaders so there were not very many except for when a team scored and then the crowd went nuts. The ladies behind us had all of these songs that they would sing and it was hilarious. We were in the standing section and there was a mix of Hawk and Lions fans and people were getting pretty hostile and yelling things at each other. The Aussies love their footy! I am still deciding on a team to cheer for (some possibilities: Western Bulldogs, Hawks, Geelong Cats, or Sydney Swans).



When we got back we made some Mexican food because they do not have Mexican here. We went to one Mexican restaurant, but it wasn’t really Mexican because it was not spicy at all. We even had trouble finding spicy salsa at the grocery store. We made some tacos and dip and it was very tasty. Our Aussie friends love coming over and trying our food. Later that night we went to the city and listened to a local band. They sang a good mix of songs, both American and Australian.



Random:

-Ate at a place called Banjo’s and it is like Panera.

-Sherwin loves Bug Juice and wants to come to America to be a camp counselor.

-Introduced peanut butter and apples to my neighbor Victoria (she thought I was weird for this combo)

-Supposedly there are these giant birds in Cairns that will attack you (Sam told us to run if we ever see one!!)

-People ALWAYS ask me if I’m American or Canadian.

-The scarves people wear to the footy games remind me of Harry Potter.