"Winter" Baseball anyone??

After reading your email Jaws, I felt the need to also voice my frustration with the lack of softball opportunity on this side of the world. I guess it's a bit better here than in NZ. At least I had the opportunity to play a few weeks of baseball when I first got here. Playing baseball was so frustrating because it's so similar to softball but so different at the same time, specifically the batting. It sure did humble me. Hearing and thinking about everyone back home, preparing for the start of another season, makes me a little home sick. They don't even have enough interest on campus to form a co-ed team. There's how many people attending this university and they can't find 12-15 people that plays softball...how sad...Maybe I should take up cricket or something. It seems similar to softball...

With the weather being so nice all year round and with Australia having a pretty good Olympic softball team, one would think that finding a team would be easy. My naive mind thought that I would come to Australia and be able to find a team, just like that. Everyone here keeps telling me how easy it should be to find a team but no one can actually give me any contacts. They say that women usually play softball in summer and baseball in the "winter", whereas men play baseball in the summer and softball in the "winter". So I have to wait until October before I can play softball. Well I was invited to try out for the State team softball team in June but, like Jaws mentioned, I can't even find anyone to play catch with. Is there even a point of making the long journey up there?? I'm seriously considering just playing baseball while I'm here in Australia and forget about softball. My baseball teammates wants me to use "winter baseball" to train to become a pitcher. That should be really fun and I love a challenge. As much as I'll miss playing softball, not having access to a car in Australia really limits your options. The public transportation is horrible here.

This morning I borrowed Becks' bike to go register for "winter baseball". It's suppose to be a really social league to recruit new players and teach newbies how to play but everyone from the state team is playing so we'll see how social it really is. Come on Becks, sign up. I swear it's meant for beginners. It's only once a week and I doubt there'll be practices but I'll take what I can. Unfortunately it doesn't start till June so more waiting. The games are going to be held at this newly built baseball stadium so that'll be exciting. I've never played in a stadium before. Apparently it's the only baseball stadium in Perth and they'll be charging people to watch the games. Haha, I don't think we'll have anyone in the stands.

You know you're Australian when...

Since I've been here, a lot of you have been really curious as to what Australia is really like. Well it is quite similar to Canada except for the little things that makes a big difference in daily converstions. Most of the time, I find myself disscussing the different terms/slangs than I am about anything else. Just to give you all a little taste of what I'm talking about, I've compiles a list of words...

trading hours = business hours
toilet = washroom
flat = house
theatre = operation (this one took me awhile...I was on a clinical placement at the time)
scratch match = exhibition game
wag classes = skip classes
tomorrow week = next week
fort week = two weeks
thongs = flip flops
singlet = tank tops
jumpers = lab coats, sweaters
capsicum = bell peppers
tomato sauce = ketchup
how you going? = how's it going?
pacers = mechanical lead pencils
Gridiron football = American football
hockey = field hockey (not ice hockey)

The worst thing about Australia is, without a doubt, Vegemite. This stuff has to be the nastiest food EVER, if you can even call it food. It's a spread made of yeast and it's incredibly salty. Just the smell of it is enough to make you gag. Aussies love this stuff as much as I love peanut butter. In fact they think the combination of peanut butter and jam (or bananas, if you're like me) is weird and wrong. That's just messed.

Yes snail mail...

The only thing better than getting a personal email is getting snail mail from a friend. Well I guess a visit to Australia would be even better but that may be pushing my luck. So I received a care package from Flash today and it was a really nice surprise. Thanks buddy!!! There were these songs about the '92 and '93 Blue Jays and they have to be one of the best songs ever created. Now I can play the songs and make the Yankee guy listen to how awesome the Blue Jays are, over and over again. If only I knew a method to transfer cassette tape recorders onto a laptop...Any suggestions??

Trying to break my programmed mind frame...

For the past 4 years, April have always been an exciting month for me. Everything about April is exciting. The snow is finally starting to melt, the weather is getting warmer, the beginning of a new softball season, and you wake up to the reemergence of chirping birds, as opposed to the loud gawking that we get over here. Nothing can be better. April may represent exams but a few weeks of cramming is well worth it. I've been trying to switch modes here but it's tough to change such a perfected routine. During class today, I checked out my term schedule and realize that we are barely half way through the term and this is pretty much the beginning of the softball off season. It's true when people say that things are opposite here. It's kind of neat though because I sometimes feel like I'm living in a parallel world where everything is similar but not quite familiar. However, I have to admit that this term has been going by extremely fast and sometimes even too fast...

Good luck to everyone who are starting to write exams...Study hard because the end is so very close, especially to those who are graduating this term!!! Now get back to studying and stop using my blogger as a procrastination aid. I know how all of you think...

The long awaited introductions of unit 38...

unit 38
Originally uploaded by sub29.

I would like to finally introduce you all to some of my flatmates and where they are from. From L to R, there's Ben (US), me (obviously), Adrianna (Malaysia), Jenny (US)...Two of them are missing from this picture but their names are Nigel and Sebatian, both from Mauritius. We have a lot of laughs in our unit...good times...