Rugby

On Saturday night, I was lucky enough to get tickets to see the Australia Wallabies take on the New Zealand All Blacks in rugby. It was an amazing game, with a huge stadium packed with over 80,000 screaming Aussies and Kiwis. At the start of the game, the national anthems of New Zealand and Australia were sung (or shouted) at the top of the spectators lungs. Then, the All Blacks lined up facing the Wallabies and performed the Haka, a traditional Maori war dance. After that it was time to play.

While I didn't (and still don't) really understand all the rules (at one point a penalty was called for "entering the ruck from the side"), I could understand enough to see that it was a close (and very intense) game. New Zealand scored first, but the Wallabies rallied and were able to take and hold the lead for the majority of the game. With two minutes to go, however, the All Blacks scored a penalty kick and then managed to (barely) hold of a final Aussie drive to win the game by one point.

All in all, it was a great experience, sitting in the stands packed with fans of both teams, all mixed together, all laughing and joking about the penalties that were (or in some cases, were not) called, and trying to shout over eachother with cheers of "Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oy Oy Oy!" and "All Blacks!"

Olympic Park, home to ANZ Stadium

A national anthem is a thing best sung by thousands, at the top of their lungs

The All Blacks perform the Haka

The stands were a sea of Aussie yellow and Kiwi black

Damper

Yesterday, some of the Australians here taught some of us international students how to make damper. Damper is a simple Aussie bread (or bush bread, since it is a recipe for the bush), made from flour, milk, oil, butter, and pretty much whatever you want to add in for taste (according to the guy teaching us; he recommended cheese or olives). I made a plain one and cooked it in a frying pan covered in tin foil (we don't have an oven, but one of the benefits of damper is that you don't need one); it ended up tasting a lot like biscuits. I think I may have made mine a bit too thick (it was pretty dense), so I'm gonna try again later and try to get a more fluffy bread like the guy was describing. It was good though.

In other news, I've decided to do the Sydney Half Marathon. It's part of the Sydney Running Festival, which features a marathon, half marathon, 9k, and 4k runs on September 20th. All of them start by going across the Harbour Bridge and end right in front of the Opera House - it should be an amazing run.

Once again, we are to run for a charity of our choosing, from the list here. I'm asking for suggestions as to which charity to run for, please let me know which one you think is best. I'm going to register at the end of this week, and I need to tell them a charity then so I can start fundraising.

Thank you so much to everyone who donated to EWB Australia - together we raised $300! That money will help EWB's efforts around the globe, building a better world. Thank you all very much.

Also, congratulations to my brother, who did a Half-Ironman Triathlon over the weekend (that's over 70 miles of swimming, biking and running - wow). Way to go Michael!

UTS Bats AFL Game

Today I went to an AFL (Aussie Football League) game for the UTS Bats (as in Batman, not baseball bats). AFL is a very fast-paced sport - it's played on an oval field with two sets of goalposts at either end (a middle one worth 6 points, and a wider one worth 1). The two teams (18 players on the field each) are trying to get a roughly rugby-shaped ball across the field and kicked through the opponent's goalposts. The ball must be kicked to score. To move the ball, the players can either run with it (but they have to bounce it once every 15 meters or so - a referee judges when they've done this wrong), pass it, or kick it. A tackle does not end the play - when someone is tackled they can send the ball off to a teammate (hopefully) but hitting it out of their hand with their other hand (not throwing, hitting - it's kinda like an underhand volleyball serve). If they are taken down and the ball ends up wrapped up under a pile of people, the ref blows the whistle and he takes the ball and throws it in the air at that spot kinda like a basketball jump ball. All in all, it's a quick, rough game - very entertaining to watch.

Some pictures (my camera is not exactly of the best quality for sports photography, but you get the picture... no pun intended):

One end of the field - you can see the goalposts against the trees on the left

UTS Bats in black and green; the cheer, or so we're told, is "Up the mighty bats!"

In the end, the Bats were victorious, which prompted the singing of the Bats Victory song (or shouting, as the case may be), sung to the tune of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home":

The UTS Bats won again today

hooray, hooray

we proved that we're the better side

today, today

we knocked 'em down, we drank their blood

and then we rubbed them in the mud

we'll be victors in 2009

they've never seen a team like us

before, before

when we get down we get back up and

fight some more

around the ground and through the sky

the Bats are always flying high

we'll be victors in 2009

The weather was perfect, the home team won, and a great time was had by all. What a day.

Official Results

Official results from the timing chip are in:

I ran it in 1:18:46, placing 14,994 out of 62,684, putting me in the top 25% overall.

Now the question is, should I sign up for the Sydney Half Marathon on Sept 20?

Hyde Park, Mrs. Macquarie's Chair, and City 2 Surf

Big Post, this one... Yesterday I went to Hyde Park to do some homework and hang out with friends, and took some pictures:

The ANZAC Memorial

St. Mary's Cathedral - very beautiful on the inside, but there was a wedding going on so I didn't take any pictures

After awhile, we walked to Mrs. Macquarie's Chair, out on a point of land overlooking the Harbour:
Apparently Mrs. Macquarie was the wife of the mayor, and he had his workmen build this for her when they built the road out to the point so that she could sit and watch the ships go by in the Harbour:

From the point, we watched the sun set over the Harbour Bridge and Opera House - it was amazing:

I snapped this shot of the Sydney skyline on the way back

That night, I cooked pasta - ziti with a bolognese sauce (with kangaroo meat instead of beef). It was quite good, though I made the mistake of cooking the whole bag of pasta (1 kg) at once, meaning that I now have a very large ziplock bag full of pasta in the fridge... can anyone guess what I'm having for dinner tonight?

Then I went to bed to get some rest for an early morning today.

I woke up at 6:30 for a nice breakfast of bacon, sausage, two fried eggs, and an English muffin with strawberry jam. I figured I'd have plenty of time to meet the UTS team in Hyde Park at 8 before the race started at 9. What I did not count on was locking myself out of the room when I went to take a shower.

The security of our residence is very good. Your UTS ID is your key, and you need it to open the door of the building, move the elevator, open the door of your apartment, and open the door of your room in the apartment. I left my key in my room and shut the door behind me, where it promptly locked. I didn't notice this until I finished my shower and went back. After several unsuccessful attempts to pull on the latch from the inside by sticking a coathanger under the door (it is possible, just very difficult), one of my flatmates came to the rescue by running to Security (I only had my towel, and it was very cold outside) and getting them to bring a master key. By then it was about 8:10. I got to Hyde Park by about 8:45; it turned out to not matter whether or not I met Team UTS - we would all be running in our individual heats, and I already had my bib and timing tag. As I was in the last heat (being relatively late to register, and having no seed time), I didn't start until about 10 anyway.

The run itself was great - winding and hilly (and crowded - 75,000 people were taking part, the largest timed race in the world), but offering great views of the city and the ocean. There were bands playing along the street (some playing rock, some playing jazz, some just drum corps). Around kilometer 4 we hit Heartbreak Hill, a steep-ish and winding road that goes uphill all the way to kilometer 7 (the halfway point is at the crest of a hill, tricking you into thinking that it's all downhill from here, which it's not). We ran through a tunnel, we ran along harbours, we ran across ridges, through neighborhoods and rows of shops, all the way to Bondi Beach, one of the most famous beaches in the world.

I finished at 1:18.48 by my watch (the official time will be printed in Tuesday's paper), a new PR for me since I've never run a race that long before. After that it was down to the beach and the UTS tent, which supplied all UTS runners with BBQ (chicken kebabs and beef sausages, not American BBQ), bananas, apples, water, and tea.

Tents were lined up across the beach - charities, companies, teams, and UTS (the only Uni with a tent; there were 350 UTS runners)

After a bit of a rest, I met up with some Americans from the Australearn group who were planning to hang out at the beach that day anyway and had agreed to bring me a bag of my stuff (camera, phone, a sweatshirt, etc) and we went out to explore the area. We walked down a trail along the cliffs, heading south and getting some great views of Bondi:

It was at this point that my camera decided to run out of batteries; I'll try to get a hold of some more pictures from the day. We went all the way to Bronte Beach, and saw some incredible cliffs and beaches along the way. After that, it was a bus ride back to the city (the City 2 Surf finisher's medal earns a free bus ride back), and now, dinner.

Overall, C2S runners raised nearly $2 million for various charities (each runner chooses one of their own), and, with your help, I've raised $275 for EWB Australia. Just because the race is over doesn't mean you can't still donate though - the donation sites stay open until the end of September (I think) - please help me try to reach my goal of $500!

City 2 Surf Charity

One week from today, I will be running the City 2 Surf 14k race from Hyde Park to Bondi Beach. As part of the race entry, I'm sponsoring Engineers Without Borders Australia (the Australian counterpart to EWB-USA). Please help me raise money by clicking the button off to the right, or by following this link.

Any amount is welcome, please spread the word.

You can learn more about EWB Australia at their webpage.

Thank you.

First Week of Classes

I've just finished my first week of classes. Only lectures, though - labs don't start till next week. So far it's been mostly introductory stuff, but it looks like it ought to be very interesting. In my Intro to Innovation class, we talked about nanotechnology, and Rice came up (Buckyballs - discovered by Rice professors). Cool stuff.

This morning I went for a nice long run along the Harbour. I got a little lost, but I found a path that basically runs along the cliffs at the edge of the water. It was beautiful.

Afterwards I went to Paddy's Market with one of my flatmates, Rob. It's a big farmer's market with lots of cheap (but good) stuff. I got some eggs and bananas, and the two of us got some salmon (that will come up again later in this post). I'll definitely be going back there again.

This afternoon there was a photo scavenger hunt organized by housing where we were put in small groups and given two hours to take pictures of ourselves at various Sydney landmarks. My team went to the Prime Minister's House (worth 100 pts), and then worked our way back through the city, seeing Circular Quay, the Opera House, Hyde Park Barracks, the ANZAC Memorial, and many others. We eventually placed fourth (not too bad).

After the scavenger hunt Rob and I went to cook our fish. We marinated it for maybe 20 min in honey, lemon, and soy sauce and then put it in a frying pan, seared both sides, and sprinkled sesame seeds on it and continued cooking until we felt like it was done (this wasn't a very scientific process... we just kinda played it by ear). The end product was great; nice steaming salmon fillets with couscous. (so you see, mom, I'm not just eating EasyMac and cereal)