The Best Day Ever, Part 1

Cheers! Hands down, this past Sunday was absolutely one of the best days I've had my entire time abroad! I don't even know where to start. Several of my housemates and I woke up early to eat pancakes together (thank you, Lindsey and Alyssa!) and around noon headed out to go to our very first AFL game. AFL is Aussie rules football. It's a lot like rugby (which, admittedly, I've never watched), but also different...in some ways I'm not sure about. Well, you don't always have to pass the ball backwards, that's one difference, right?

So I guess I'd describe Aussie Rules as a game a lot like rugby, that has a score like a basketball game, moves at the speed of a lacrosse or soccer game, and has some definite football elements to it. There are 4 posts on each side of the field. The goal is to kick the ball in between the two posts in the middle. If you do this, it's a goal - 6 points. If you get it in either of the outside sections, it's a "behind" - 1 point. If someone from the other team hits the ball while it's on its way to being a goal, then it only counts as a behind. And if you catch the ball after a kick (which can happen at anytime), it's a "mark" and you get a free kick of it. You can throw the ball, kick it, whatever - just get it down the field and get a goal. And there are four ~30 minute quarters. If you want to know more, check out the Wikipedia here.

Rachel, Gabby and Me

All of us!

Yours truly

 Anyway, so Sydney's team is the Sydney Swans. They're white and red, so we all dressed accordingly. We took a train out to ANZ stadium, which was probably about 30-45 minutes or so from Central Station. On the train, I found out that we were going "near" Olympic Park...and it was only once we were already inside the stadium that I realized that ANZ Stadium is THE Olympic Stadium, where the Opening/Closing ceremonies were in 2000! And so we were actually directly in Olympic Park! This was super exciting...but more on that later.

ANZ Stadium, i.e. Olympic Park!

 We arrived at the game and were immediately die-hard Swans fans. We bought hats (Morgan and Rachel proved themselves to be just about an indecisive as I am...a true feat!), got our free "Goal!" signs/noisemakers, and settled into our roles as the Swans' newest and loudest fans. For 15 bucks, we bought general admission tickets that were AMAZING seating! It was insane, we were basically right by the field. And I hear that when they play at their normal home field (because this was apparently a special occasion, playing here...lucky us!), it's smaller and you're even closer to the action.

Gabby and me getting in the spirit

Rachel and Kimi... this is how close our seats were!

Pat, Morgan, Randall, Steven and me

It got crowded!!! 28,000 total!

 The Swans gave us a definite nail-biter. They started the game way in the lead, but the tide quickly turned. The Bombers took the lead, and we started getting crushed. At one point, we were down by about 25 points. In the last ten minutes of the game however, the Swans dug deep....and when the final horn sounded, the score was Swans 98, Bombers 93. Victory! We - and the 28,000 fans in attendance - were pumped.

Onwards to Victory!

Swans 98, Bombers 93

The game was just so much fun. We're definitely gunna be going back and cheering the Swans on for the rest of our time here! I still need to get to a rugby game so I can truly decide which I like better, but I think that so far, the AFL is truly my favorite part of Australian culture. It was great. There was even a good number of Bombers fans there, so it almost had a feel kind of like a high school game (though there were way, way, way more Swans fans!)

The loudest Bombers fan near us

SWANS!

Still couldn't believe it was the Olympic Stadium...

The game was so much fun. It was definitely one of the best things I've done my entire time abroad. When we left though, things just got even better...like I said, we were in Olympic Park. So, Steven, Pat and I decided we didn't wanna go back right away. Instead, we wanted to walk around and explore Olympic Park, get to see all of the different stadiums and areans and everything...

I'm out of time! A cab is coming in less than 20 minutes to pick me up to go to Fraser Island for a long weekend with some friends. I'm sitting here blogging in a towel. So, I'll have to fill you in on Part 2 of my Best Day Ever after the weekend. The next 25 days are going to be crazy...between today and May 1st, I'm traveling for 20 out of 25 days! Fraser Island, Melbourne, Thailand....lots of blogging will be coming your way! But for now, I've got to run, so I don't miss this cab/my flight! I'll tell you all about the Olympic Park in a few days, as well as my crazy adventures on Fraser Island!

Thanks for reading! Missing everyone, but having a BLAST!

-Ryan