Beachouse YHA
9/19/00
Tuesday 10:00 AM
Say it ain’t so! Today can’t be my last day of events. Not possible. I just came back to Sydney yesterday. Or so it seems.
Hanging out in the hostel’s atrium; Marc’s upstairs. Maybe I’ll be able to write something now. This Beach House is really nice: pool, atrium, nearly on the beach, within an hour of the CBD. It’s just too bad I’m not here long enough to enjoy it. Now when have I said that before? … and how many times?
Yesterday we got up, cleared out of Central & hopped a bus for Collaroy. As I mentioned, it took an hour or so to get here. Marc bitched about it taking so long. That kind of made me mad. I’m not sure what he expects. And it’s obvious he has paid NO attention to the plans I’ve been making. He didn’t expect to get any beach time (we’ve been booked at the Beach House for months), he didn’t know what events we were seeing — I don’t get it. But I digress.
After checking into our room, we grabbed another paper I didn’t read and a cheap breky I didn’t want. Budget restaurants. Well, someone’s budget restaurants. Afterwards, we hit the beach for a few hours. I took a couple swims in the cold water, proved to Marc that three girls walking past were not Aussie (Italiano), and we talked some more. I think my disenchantment is more apparent to Marc than I would like it to be.
After the beach, we headed to Homebush for our 3:00 table tennis match. The bus ride took an hour, so we were late. No matter. I could have done without that event. Good seats though. From there we had to hustle to the aquatic center for water polo. We followed the wrong signs & ended up walking nearly two kilometers to a different train station. We were late again.
Water Polo Faces
We did take the time out to paint our faces … after I convinced Marc. He didn’t want his face to itch. Then we went up to watch the US take on Russia. There was a Cartan tour group just across the aisle, but I couldn’t get them to join in my rowdy support. Jerks. Then I nearly got in a fight with some a%$hole behind me. He and his wife were yelling at me to sit down because they couldn’t see. It was a dead ball! I refused, and he grabbed me by the shirt and yanked me down. Oh, was I pissed. I was ready to kick his a*& in front of his wife and kids. I yelled at him, made a big scene, then went back to supporting the team. A cop took me aside later and asked about it, but he was cool. A guy behind us told us not to worry and the guy was a jerk. F@#$ing Americans.
The US won that game & Canada won the next. Since the only way back to Collaroy was via Homebush, we got back on the train. Now the next few events are key. Marc wanted to wash his face off before too long, and I thought I would too. I figured he would at one of the train stations, but he never did. Next we had to decide if we were going to get off at Olympic Park, or at the station a bit closer to the buses. Well, we knew how to get to the buses from there, at
Katie Couric
least. We opted to switch trains and cut through the park. As we made our way over, I stopped to snap a picture of the stadium. It was very picturesque spot, which is why NBC must have set up a stage there. We looked over to see a big NBC Today sign and a small crowd gathering. The Today Show! We went over to see what was going on. There were a couple girls from Colorado standing at the fence, and we asked them what was going on. They were going to go live in 45 minutes, Katie Curric and all!
I told Marc to hold our place while I went to find a phone. With our painted faces, we were sure to be on! I called the house and caught Mom up. She had just gotten up 5 minutes before. She was so excited. I told her to pop in a tape for my 5 seconds of famous anonymity, and I went back to Marc — who had lost our spot. I was pissed. For some reason he left the crowd to talk with some guy. I still don’t even know what was so important he had to leave our spot. Well I jumped back in as close as i could.
“I love you Katie!”
When Katie came out, I shouted, “I love you, Katie!” and she turned and waved. It was a proud moment until four or five other guys did the same thing over the next hour. But the cameras finally started rolling, and the fun started. I know we got on TV more than once. It was fun. I hope someone at home saw it. Other highlights included: Katie and the Giant Head (“put your head on m shoulder”); noisy, obnoxious Aussies, noisy, obnoxious Americans; jersey from the day before getting on camera (he said they were at Darling Harbor. Clever rouse.); three US swimmers who won gold; some cool people from Boulder, CO. Marc missed out at the end: he was tired and wanted to sit down. I stayed there for an hour and a half while he ate McDonald’s the last 20 min or so. Of course we can ALWAYS get on the Today Show in Oz again next week. I just don’t get him.
Well he’s finally come down looking for me, plus I need some breky.
KC