After one week in Melbourne, still in the heat of sensory overload, but getting a little more comfortable there, I'm getting ready to visit Sydney for a week. One of the things that's taken me a bit of getting used to is the left handed orientation. Australians don't just driven on the left hand side, it seems like everything I never think about having a specific side to it instinctively does. The down escalador, the men's room, the men's clothing section, the entrance to a store. It all feels like its on the wrong side. Not to mention the sidewalk battles I've been having. You know when you're walking towards someone in the same path as you on the sidewalk. I instinctively step right, well australians, they instinctively step left. This continues until someone steps into the road before the other can react to another step. It's interesting to me to watch some of their driving manuevers too. They can't turn left on red like we do, but in oder to make a left hand turn in traffic, they pull into the right lane! Then they squeeze as many cars as will fit in the right lane into the intersection blocking the traffic that they're turning in front of, wait for their light to turn red, then turn! I guess it's a lot more exciting in person.
I've had a busy week and haven't updated lately, so this could be a long one. I visited the Eureka Skydeck, tallest building in the southern hemisphere, on Wednesday. Took an elevator ("lift") up 88 stories to 300m high at 9m/s! Lot's of good pictures, and a good way to stake out the places you want to see in the city! Thursday i went to the Melbourne Zoo. Lot's of fun there! I saw my first kangaroo, much smaller than on television, and my first koala, much bigger than on television. It's funny how that's all I have to compare them to. I can't even recall seeing any photos of those animals, except maybe in a history book when talking about Australia. Which seems a bit generalized since they really only have koalas small parts of the south.
On Friday I went with some friends to my first Australian Rules Football match! I won't go too much into detail about the rules an customs of the game, having been subjected to its intricacies by my new friend who was once an umpire of the game. It's a wierd combination of Soccer and Football wherein you score points by running with the ball, kicking it, and hitting it to other players, but not throwing. The ultimate end of which is be kick it between two posts. No pads, very little fighting, and the athletes look a lot more like soccer players than football. Though it was no use trying to convince that ozzies that football is a more manly sport. And in terms of danger and bone-crushing action they have us beat with rugby, so it was a moot point. Ozzies as I can tell so far are very laid back, nice people, until it comes to the opponents of thier favorite team. Though once the game is over they are friends again, unlike the unspeakable divide between sox and yankees fans, they still leave no insult out and incite their fair share of rough-housing. The teams are a lot more local, generally being named after small towns instead of cities, and there are 18 teams in much fewer states, so it's not uncommon to see fans of football clubs that aren't even playing at the game. Also, all the seats are the same price, I paid $19 AUD at the gates. obviously it's much more affordable, probably owing to how much they pay thier players.
It's a 10 hour train ride to sydney tomorrow. Though I won't have any connection maybe I'll type something up then.
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