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!