I can see clearly now the rain is gone

Rough times are meant to amplify the good times in life. I just wish I could believe that fully when those black clouds find their way into my sunny days. I have a tattoo even that is meant to remind me of whats important and whats worth living for. Three hearts on my wrist, a place I see often that stand for live laugh and love.

Well enough philosophy and a bit more Australia :).. I got to play with pretty birds on Saturday on the way to Shaun's grand final. The birds here are really tropical and make funny noises, I enjoyed being a tourist and feeding them.
AFL(Australian Football League) is similar to rugby in my opinion. I'm missing college football season back in the states and I'm a bit sad about that.. So this game was definitely a good enough to hold me over for awhile on missing football back home. Anyway, after the first two quarters I had a pretty good understanding of the game and I didn't mind looking at the boys who obviously have to stay in good shape for the game :). The end of the fourth quarter, they were down by two goals and ended up making three to win the game, quite an amazing first game I would say. Of course the boys had to celebrate their victory, so LJ, Em and I joined them at their club house. LJ and I drank until 3am and ended up getting home at 5am. They have mixed drinks that come in cans, including something called a pulse which is basically vodka and red bull, so those nasty things kept me up very late. It was fun being a novelty and hearing all the stereotypes about American. Everyone is much more laid back and friendly I continue to find, and I have no problem with that.

After sleeping all day on Sunday, we decided on round two at a bar called G bung. Definitely a Portland kinda bar, minus the copious amounts of broken glass everywhere including places it shouldn't be like in my drink. Yea.. I may be suffer from some internal bleeding for the next few days, no worries, Australia has universal health care.. yay! Dream team (Shaun Liz LJ and myself) never not have a good time so it seems and it was yet another good night. I started to feel a out of my element when people at the bar started talking to me.. note to self, aussies sound EXTRA aussie when intoxicated. LJ had to translate most of the time or I would just nod my head and act like I knew what they were saying. They also play this lovely game where you throw change in someone drink and they have to "skull" it. I'm not up to aussie par with drinking, this is true. So I didn't impress many people when it took me a good 5 minutes to "skull" my beer.At the moment I'm smiling about quite a few things, and it feels good. I can't find very many things that I not only like but love about Australia. I think the only thing I will find myself missing will be the mountains and snowboarding.. but winter in the states hasn't come yet. I'll have to block snow report websites from my computer, I might die if this season is as good as last year.

But when in Rome, do like the Romans. So it looks like surfing will have to replace my first true love for now. Australia summer is close enough!