Post for the week of 3/2 -3/8 (the wifi struggle to get these uploaded was absurd)
What a wild and crazy week this turned out to be! The week was chock full of interesting classes. We learned about Australia’s vast wealth of natural resources (mostly from mining), a little bit about the enormous sporting culture, and about Australia’s goals of embracing their multicultural heritage. However, for me, this week was really made by the things that happened outside of class.
The first thing that made this week more memorable than some others was the fact that we got to go to a wild rugby match at the start of the season between the Brisbane Broncos and the South Sydney Rabbitohs. Even though we were rooting for the home team Broncos, the Rabbitohs proved to be too much to handle, and thoroughly crushed the Broncos. Turns out the Rabbitohs are the defending league champions from last year, and they are still in top form this year.
It was a wonderfully exciting sporting event, and even though many of us still didn’t fully understand the rules of the game, there was plenty of beer to go around, and we all got into the spirit with plenty of cheering and screaming for the home team. The Australians certainly do love their sports and we got to witness their passion firsthand in an unforgettable experience at Suncorp Stadium in downtown Brisbane.
The most exciting thing that happened during this week, though, was attending the Future Music Festival with my homestay brother, Ryan. I will never forget this wonderful crazy day full of amazing, loud music, and more people in a crowd than I have ever experienced before.
The day started off fairly normally, but I felt like a little kid waking up on Christmas morning, ready to see what presents I had in store.When I woke up at 5:00 a.m., I was so excited that I couldn’t fall back to sleep, so instead, I paced nervously and drank too much coffee. The time finally came to catch the bus, and I was so excited, I almost forgot my ticket!
The gates to the festival opened at noon, and naturally I got there at 11, and I was well towards the front of the line. I think I might have been one of the first hundred people let in to the festival. While I was waiting in line, I watched as hundreds of people arrived behind me and the line grew and grew until it stretched around the corner.
Once inside, I immediately grabbed a map and ran around trying to figure out the layout before the place was completely packed with people. I had totally figured out which artists I wanted to see once the festival really got going. After assessing the stages, I bought myself a drink and waited for Ryan. He arrived not too much later, and then the fun really began. We went around the stages watching different artists and meeting all kinds of crazy people dressed up in costumes. I should also probably mention that since my hair is ridiculously curly, I can brush it out into an enormous afro, and I was wearing a singlet covered in pictures of tacos, so I was one of those crazy people all dressed up. I can’t even count the number of people who wanted to take pictures with me or touch my hair because they didn’t believe it was real.
Ryan and I spent all afternoon and night dancing and jumping around in the middle of this enormous sea of thousands of people all enjoying the same music, and it was an incredibly magical experience. Since we had to wait for all the other thousands of people to catch their trains and buses back into the city, we didn’t find our way home until well after midnight.
I haven’t been to many concerts back in the States, so to go to something so enormous and amazing was a truly special, and I will cherish those memories for the rest of my life.