Sydney Central YHA
9/16/00
Saturday 10:40 PM
Oh sweet muesli slice! I lament that our time together grows shorter & shorter.
I could say the same of Oz, I suppose. I’ll be on a plane within the week. How sad, so very, very sad.
So last night was the Opening Ceremonies. I watched it and went to bed. If you want to know more, read the newspaper.
Well guess what. Marc’s here. He’s asleep in the room right now. He was completely exhausted. Can’t blame him. Met him at the airport this morning. We came back here, he showered, I did laundry & ate. Sent off some quick emails, then we were off. We first went to Darling Harbor, then we took nearly the exact same route through the CBD as I had three weeks ago. We saw the women’s triathlon run past, I bought a goofy Aussie hat and a bush hat, and Marc schmoozed a free Kangaroo skin keychain out of a shop owner. He laughed at my Brisy Story, told me he was paying for everything from now on, and explained that his parents were pissed and Abbey left him because of the trip. Believe it or not, he threw the whole damn thing together only days ago! Unbelievable.
But now he’s here. I again have someone to talk to, someone to snap a picture of me., someone to travel with. I think between him and the Games, my time devoted to the written word is going to take a nosedive.
So on to the Games. We completely skipped shooting. Marc commented that he wouldn’t have bought the tickets if he had known Karen wasn’t going to make the team. I had to bite my tongue; he didn’t buy the ticket.
Face Paint
We of course weren’t going to miss soccer. We painted our faces. I put on my hat, and we headed for the Sydney Football Stadium. The first game (W AUS v SWE) has a 1-1 tie. It was an alright game. The next game started out great (MAUS v NIG). By the half it was tied at 2 & the home crowd was going crazy. They did all of these cheers, but each one only had the word “Aussie” in it. They must have done the wave a dozen times or so. The second half was worse. The aggression built, and the Aussies more than once did some very uncalled-for things. More than once the officials let it go, too.
Even though the ref handed out 4 or 5 yellow cards and 2 red, I thought there should have been more. Overall the Nigerians played with much more class, and the Aussies failed to keep to the spirit of the competition. After 10 minutes of the second half, I put my hat and flag away, and I began to quietly cheer for the Nigerians. In the end, they won. Karma, baby. The Aussie team is now probably out of the competition with two losses.
And that was Day One. Still can’t believe I bought a bush hat. It was only $45 — not a bad price. I just better wear it. It’s crushable and waterproof, andlooks good. It is a very similar (if not identical) style to the hats the blokes in the Daintree were wearing. Nice and simple. I just refuse to wear it here.
KC
Oh, I could swear I saw Carimme today in town!