Reflection Blog

Taking this class about Sport and Learning in Australian Culture did not really appeal to me at first. I was never too interested in sports growing up, but I was required to play at least three sports a year from my seventh year of school until my twelfth year of school. I also played soccer from when I was three years old until I was about twelve. So I had a lot of experience with sports and the culture that surrounds American sports. However, I can’t say that I was much of a sports fan. I can definitely say that if it weren’t for this class, I doubt I would have ever watched a rugby game or learned to play cricket. The best thing about taking this class is that I was forced to do things that I know I would have never done in my own free time in Australia. It is so crazy how important the sports culture is amongst people in Australia. I would have missed out on a vital part of life in Sydney if I had not learned about the sports culture here.

The field trips for the class were also so much fun. We got to see everything that we were learning about in real life and be able to see with our own eyes what a rugby game looks like, or how surf life saving lessons look, etc. It was such perfect timing to learn about rugby as well, since the Rugby World Cup was taking place at the same time as the class. It was fun to compare the culture of American football to that of Australian rugby. I was a cheerleader in Texas, so we take football so seriously and it was funny to see the same thing happen in Australia with the Australian love of rugby. When the Wallabies lost to the All Blacks, I saw the frustration in people’s eyes around me that I can remember feeling when my high school team lost the championship. Sports really bring people together no matter what country you are in. When a game is on, it doesn’t matter that the person next to you is a complete stranger, if they are cheering for your team, you are high-fiving that person all night and cheering right along with them.

I also learned so much about surfing and the surf culture that began in Australia. Instead of only being able to tell my friends that I surfed for the first time at Manly Beach, I can tell them all about the history behind the surfing counter-culture and commercialization that occurred here in Australia. I’m sure they won’t care very much, but I feel so full of knowledge and understanding now that I took this class. I am a nursing major at my university at home, so I know that I never would have had the opportunity to learn about sports culture in Australia! I am so thankful that I took a leap of faith and signed up for this class despite the fact that it didn’t appeal to my interests initially. I have now officially played a game of cricket, a game of netball, and a game of lawn bowls. Not many of my friends at home would be able to say that they have played those sports. They probably wouldn’t even know what lawn bowls or netball is!

Now I have a very different perspective of sports in general. I used to think that the main point of sports was to encourage children and adults to stay healthy and fit and to work on the importance of teamwork. However, now I see that even sport viewers gain a sense of mateship. Also, kids can learn about the importance of good sportsmanship and other important lessons that come along with teamwork. Playing sports is also good for a child’s development as a person because it gives them a sense of identity and a group that he/she can belong to. I still remember the great memories from playing on my soccer team, the Hotshots. We won first place in our division and got beautiful trophies! I will never forget how hard we all worked and how happy we were when our hard work paid off in the end.

I can’t believe that my time here in Australia is almost over. It is pretty crazy that four months can seem so long at first, but now looking back, four months has gone by so quickly! I really don’t think I’ll forget all of the fun times that I have had during this amazing semester abroad. I learned a lot of things that I never could have learned back home with a nursing degree. I’m so glad that I got to experience every part of Australian culture possible, as well. It is going to be weird to go home now that I am so accustomed to the Aussie way of life now! I can guarantee that my friends will laugh at me for saying “keen” and all of the other funny words that I have picked up along the way too! When I come back to Australia one day, I’ll have to be sure to go check out a Sydney Swans game or go and see the good old Wallabies playing! I know for certain that I will never look at a surfer the same way again after knowing that surfing is so much more than just a silly sport. This class has somewhat changed my view on quite a few things. It has broadened my horizons and given me a new appreciation of the sport cultures of certain countries.

Thank you for such a wonderful experience inside the classroom, as well as outside of the classroom on our fabulous field trips! I had such a great time getting to know you and everyone else in the class. So happy that I picked this class and got to experience something new and different that I would not normally choose to do back in Fort Worth, Texas!

Learning About Surf Life Saving

In the class before we went to Maroubra to watch surf life saving, we learned the specifics of surf subculture in Australia and how it fits into society here. Surfing was originally seen as a druggie or slacker sport, but over time became culturally accepted as a family-friendly sport. Aboriginals were also included in the history of the surf subculture in Australia. Tommy Tanna was the first person that showed people how to body surf. We also learned about the three types of boards that people use to surf. The paipo is a four foot board, the alaia is between 7 feet and 12 feet, and the olo is between sixteen and twenty-four feet, which is only used for "surf royalty." Surf Life Saving is very different than the typical surf subculture because it is taken very seriously. The surf subculture is a very laid back and relaxed lifestyle, but surf life saving involves people's lives in danger. The surfing youth had their own music, language, fashion, hair styles, etc. It really took on many subcultures in itself and created a new lifestyle for Australian youth in the 1960s. Since the 1970s, there has been a growth in the number of surf competitions around the world and a definite growth in the amount of prize money that is offered. In Australian history, surfing is seen as a symbol of freedom. I think surfing is such a beautiful culture and it is so much fun in America to be able to see surfers in California or on the North Shore of Hawaii. They brave the water and just have such an adventurous spirit to want to find that "perfect wave." However, Surf Life Saving is something I've never known about before, so it was really unique and interesting to learn a little bit about the importance of it in Maroubra. So many people wish to take part in something so important and so honorable.

Surf Life Saving - Day at Maroubra

Last Sunday, we went on a field trip to Maroubra Beach to learn about Surf Life Saving. It was such a unique experience seeing the kids training to become life guards! They were doing races and showing their abilities to be a good future life guard. We learned that it is somewhat of a way to give back to the community as an Australian. On the weekends, the life guards are volunteers and they look out for the swimmers and surfers between the flagged area on the beach. The kids were pretty young who were training as well. They must have been around 5 years old and all the way up to older teenagers. I ended up staying on the beach after hearing about the rules of Surf Life Saving. I saw some amazing cultural aspects of beach life in Maroubra. I saw groups of Bra Boys with "My Brother's Keeper" tattooed on their chests, I saw younger Bra Boys in the making trying to fit in with the older boys. It was crazy how they all run around in packs and enjoy a nice Sunday on the beach. They tended to stay on one area of the beach as well. It was so fun watching people on the beach at Maroubra. I also got to see the older surf life saving people taking the red life saving boat out into the ocean. It looked like a lot of fun, but I know that they were taking it more seriously than that. I've noticed that surf life saving is a very important part of Australian culture and that the parents of the children learning to be life guards were pushing them very hard to become a surf life saver. It is seen as an honor and a part of the volunteer community in Maroubra. 

Scotland's Part in the Rugby World Cup

I'm running out of topics to talk about on my own, so I have resulted to looking up articles on Yahoo! about recent events in the Rugby World Cup :) It appears that Scotland has had three wins so far, but they have "have struggled to produce beautiful, free-flowing rugby." However, a win is a win, so it doesn't really matter how shoddy their technique was! What really stood out in this article to me was that I couldn't picture rugby plays as "beautiful" and "free-flowing" the first time we watched a game here. When I sat down and watched the USA get killed by Australia the other day, I really noticed how graceful the plays could really be. I saw a perfect zig-zag technique during that game and just had so much respect for the plays that I hadn't really noticed before. Winger, Sean Lamont said, "At the end of the day, you can play beautiful rugby and still lose." I can also understand this because I feel like that happens in a lot of sports. Sometimes everything goes right on the field, but scoring just seems impossible. I'm actually very interested to see how the Scots do the rest of the way through the World Cup. Will they keep getting as lucky as they have been so far? Hopefully the Scots will win the next game and end up in the quarter-finals with their "arch rival," England. I'm always going to cheer for the team that gets lucky!!

Website Used: http://sports.yahoo.com/sr/news?slug=reu-worldscotland_pix

AFL Clubs

My friend Harry plays "footie" on the weekends in Sydney and I love hearing all of his stories from practice and from games. He always comes home with bruises and wounds all over him. He plays rugby as well and definitely has more of a rugy build. I always ask him why he decided to play rugby as a kid instead of some other sport that an American kid would normally play like soccer or basketball. His answer is always something along the lines of "because it's what everyone else did." It made me think of the first field trip that we took to see the little league rugby game. It's really quite similar to the youth in America. My brother HATED sports growing up, but he played baseball and soccer and even tried to play football for a while because all of his other friends did. It was also a very parental influence, which Harry agreed that he had as well. His parents insisted that he would like it, and I guess he must like it since he still plays it. He also works out so hard during the week to stay in shape. However, I am mostly impressed  by the fact that he plays rugby and AFL for FUN! They even play on the lawn at SUV some days just because they feel like it. Watching rugby on TV, it can sometimes seem all serious business. Sometimes I forget that it is an enjoyable Australian pasttime to play AND watch!

Australia's Three Most Popular Sports

I went to another bar the other day to have a beer with some friends and we ended up watching some sports upstairs while we enjoyed our drinks. It was really interesting because one of my friends, who is Australian, mentioned that all three of the most popular sports were playing on the three TVs upstairs. I noticed that the first TV was showing cricket, the second was showing AFL, and the third was showing a rugby match. I laughed because all three of those sports would never be shown on TVs in a bar in America. We would be watching baseball, football, and basketball most likely. I love how sports can define a culture so perfectly. We take our sports very seriously, just as Australians take their national sports very seriously. It's been so neat to see how sports have found their way into my average life here in Australia. I started out not very interested, but somehow end up in bars watching rugby more than I could have ever thought. Studying abroad and taking this class has really shown me how to look at sports in a more social and cultural aspect!

USA vs. Australia World Cup Game

Last night I went to the Marly Bar and watched the US get killed by Australia in Rugby! Let's just say that the American team looked very unskilled next to the much more infamous Australia team. It was really cool seeing the bar atmosphere of a rugby game though. All the girls and guys got together and split jugs of beer and cheered on the Australian team. It reminded me of when we go to bars and watch football and baseball games. It's a chill atmoshpere, but it can definitely get rowdy! My friend, Harry, was telling me how people had bet that the USA would lose by 62.5 points and we only lost by 62 points. It's crazy how close people predicted the game would turn out! Toward the end of the game, we kind of zoned out because it was very obvious that the Australian team was going to be the winner. However, I think it would be weird if the American team was better because we don't really play a lot of rugby in the states. I was actually surprised to know we even had a rugby team! Now I know that they are called the Eagles :) I learned something new about America while watching Australian rugby! Yay!

Maroubra Surfer Boys

Today in class we watched the Bra Boys documentary. I thought it was so interesting to learn about the surfer relationships in the town of Maroubra. The main boys who formed the Bra Boys gang are the Abberton brothers. All of the boys in the gang were from low-income families and broken homes that are filled with drugs, violence, neglect, abuse, etc. Since the boys lived such difficult lives at home, they really relied on each other and surfing to get them through life. They have all these tattoos to show membership to the Bra Boys and they earn these tattoos by hanging out with the gang for 5 to 10 years or so. I thought it was a really neat documentary because it really showed the camaraderie that is involved in the surfing communities here in Australia. I can’t think of an equivalent of that in America, but I guess the closest thing would be how guys group together and skateboard or ride BMX together. However, the story of the Bra Boys is a very unique and endearing story mixed with violence and sadness as well.

Cricket

Today we played cricket during our class period. It was by far the game that I was the best at so far! It reminded me a little bit of baseball, but not quite as much running. I thought it was actually very fun. We used plastic bats that were flat on one side to hit a small, hard ball. When you hit the ball, you run to the other post and that is a point for your team. If you hit the ball and someone catches it, you are out. Adults and children play cricket on an average Sunday in Australia. Also, professional cricket players can make millions of dollars a year! When someone pitches the ball, it is called “bowling.” I was absolutely awful at bowling! You can’t bend your elbow when you are throwing it and the motion you use to throw it is like a windmill motion. Colorful clothes and rules are designed to encourage faster and more spectacular play in cricket. Cricket is even considered Australia’s national sport. We also learned about the bodyline series of the 1930s that really tested the morality of the game of cricket. Australians are fitter and more competitive in cricket, but not as skilled at batting as the English. Every four years there is even a World Cup for cricket and Australia is the dominant power as of right now. Yay Australia!

This is Football?

This week we went to our first AFL game. It was soooo different than rugby, but I had a really fun time! It's definitely a quicker-paced game compared to the rugby games that we have been to. I also really enjoyed the screaming crowed. They seemed way more enthusiastic than the crowds at the rugby games. It also seemed like there were many more women at the AFL game, which was nice to see! AFL seems like it takes a lot more agility to play compared to rugby. The players were so quick and had a very different body shape compared to the bulky rugby players. They were quick and lean and moved in many different directions rather than the typical forward-play of a rugby match. There were also a lot more possession changes in AFL compared to rugby, which made the game more exciting to watch for me. I would have to say that I think I liked the AFL game more than I have liked rugby. I like a quick-paced game so that I don’t have time to get bored haha! I was shocked to hear in class that they run 18-24 km per game! It was also interesting to get to play with the AFL ball outside, because the players make it look so easy to bounce the ball and kick it and everything. However, I realized that it is definitely not as easy as it looks!

Rabbitoh Rugby Game at ANZ Stadium

My very first ARL rugby game was such a success! The South Sydney Rabbitohs ended up winning (that was who we were supposed to cheer for). I really liked them anyway, because their jerseys were Christmas colored! Anyway, it was really cool to see an adult rugby game because it is so intense compared to the little league team that we had watched last week. These men are just massive and they plow over each other like bulldozers! I still don’t fully understand the rules, but hopefully by the end of my semester I will completely understand the rules of rugby. I love how avid the fans are at the games. They had so much spirit and had signs and everything! It reminded me of an NFL game back home, so it was a bit nostalgic! It was also really cool to see the women play at half time. It wasn’t quite as intense as the men’s game, but it was still very much a major contact sport! All in all, I had a pretty good Monday night watching rugby.

First Little League Rugby Game

Today, we went to our first little league rugby game at Erskineville Park. It was such a fun experience! It kind of reminded me of when I used to play soccer when I was little. I thought it was really cool that rugby could be played at such a young age and they seemed to take it very seriously too. I saw a team win and the boys were SO excited! Rugby seems like a very common social event in Australian culture. People had packs of beer and snacks. The whole family could come and watch the games and the entry was free. They even had an announcer who would talk about the games going on. I was pretty surprised that the five and six year old kids could actually tackle each other. Their knees were all scraped up after the game! They were so cute as they showed off their battle wounds from the match! Overall, I had a pretty great first rugby experience!