Welcome to Australia

Hi how ya going? Thats how everyone greets us here in australia! Its a funny phrase even for a southerner i must say but nonetheless its cheery! Australia is great ...cold at the moment but great. It actually reminds me a lot of south africa. The plane ride was long and uneventful. I think I watched about five movies and even Ice Age III in Portuguese because i was so bored. We arrived at 730am, Sydney time, 530pm our time. Our coach and one of our teammates came to pick us up from the airport. They took us right away to Bondi beach, which is one of the tourist spots, but on this cold windy day it was empty. The waves were amazing and rather large. We had a nice breakfast right along side the ocean. Jill ordered first and without even looking at the menu said just give me coffee! (and for those of you that are wondering, no there has not been a sighting of dunkin!) Then the waitress looked are her funny and said what kind? she said coffee. The waitress then laughed. Come to find out there are several ways to order your brewed beans ...ha. Flat white. Tall white. Short white. Lattes. and the list went on. So happy to just have some coffee when a little 1/2c cup comes out. Jill took it down in one sip. She was disappointed at the normal sizes (not the usual american sizes) but was evermore happy. Then after she had 12 more ...ha just kidding. We then had to head to the office, sign papers, get gear, etc. We all hit a wall and were exhausted but come to find out we had to train that night. It was fun meeting the team even though i felt like i was in a coma from the lack of sleep.

Things are going well so far. We have already played one game and won 3-1. More details on that to come. We have our first home game this sunday and im so excited. Our stadium is amazing. Its the only stadium that is enclosed just on three sides. The other side is open and has palm trees and looks out over the water!!! It is incredible.

Oh and we watched our first ever rugby league grand final the other night. It is equivalent to our super bowl i guess you could say. It was cool learning the different rules and trying to follow it but overall it was pretty boring. The underdogs, the Eels gave the Storm their run for the money for about ten minutes which was pretty much the only entertaining bit. And they say Goooo the Eels ...THE eels sounds so funny!

Tomorrow night we are headed off to watch Australia play the Netherlands in the Sydney Stadium we played at last game! Robben, Van Nistelroy, Van Persie, Kuyt ...i cant wait!!

Here are some pictures from our latest excursion :)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2160766&id=6105242&l=1be30803a1

Until next time ....

Lydia