Look!

My new web banners are up on the NBL website... check it out! There are 4 that rotate I think every time you load the page.

not the milkman's child?

i was catching up on my brother's blog today, and i had a HUGE grin when i read this paragraph...

"This weekend was the first time in over a month that I've had the chance to really just be in Prague, without any kind of rehearsals to attend or trips to think about. And it made me realize something (I might start an entire new blog called "Evan's realizations" because I think I already have enough content for it. But that was not the realization). I am in love with this city. It's not like a "I loved studying here" or "I had a great semester here" or "This place is so pretty" or "I want to visit again" (all of those are true, but after a while you kinda become desensitized to how awesome the place is in those senses). It's more of a "this city owns a part of me" kind of thing. I want to live here again, not just in a college-student-studying-abroad-wishes-he-could-just-party-constantly way. And I could live here, really live and work. I don't feel like that about anywhere but Chicago."

i guess he and i are a lot more alike than i ever gave us credit for!

Happy ANZAC Day!

So, yesterday was ANZAC day. (click the blog title for the wikipedia explanation of ANZAC day.) I guess comparably it's like our Memorial Day, but of course, in true Aussie fashion, any holiday here means you drink. So, at about 2pm i met my friends at the bar, only to find i was walking into insanity! the place is huge and it was packed!! people were waiting 20 minutes to get a drink at any of the 4 bars, the ATM line was over an hour, and clearly getting food was just simply not even considered. somehow i found the boys, out back near a huge crowd that were screaming and cheering... no idea what was going on. Apparently there's an ANZAC tradition to play this game called 2-up. this bar was one of the ones in the area hosting it, hence the crowds. there was a crowd of people in a circle standing on grandstands and the balcony and the ground around this center area where two older guys were moderating this game. the old guy was dressed in a hilarious sparkly gold suit and funny hat and waving his arms everywhere, and the other slightly younger one was in a red velvet suit and matching hat. in one corner of this little area, someone from the crowd stood with a flat wooden stick that had 3 coins on it. he/she had to toss the coins above everyone's heads and, when they landed, whichever side (heads or tails) had the majority face up won. here's where it got nuts: the rest of the crowd is screaming before the coins are thrown, holding up different dollar values - some on their heads, some by their butts. if you wanted to bet heads and you had $5, for example, you'd yell "5 on heads, 5 on heads!" until you make eye contact with someone else in the crowd betting the same dollar amount against you. then the person betting heads takes the other's money to hold onto until the coins are tossed. once the bets are cut off and the coin tosser is about to throw, everyone chants either "head 'em up!" or "tail 'em up!". if the coin tosser does a bad throw (aka, not high enough, rolls off the playing area, etc.), the ENTIRE crowd starts booing! one of our friends was trying to convince me to get in the middle and throw, but i didn't think i could handle being booed by that many people:) people were betting $50 a toss or more! it's such a funny concept though, because really the "house" doesn't benefit at all, and it's just an exchange of funds amoungst the crowd! in reality though, i guess the bar wins because everyone that won was using their winnings to buy more drinks:)
so that was most of the day, till about 10 (yes, 8 hours!)... Wazz, Paul, another girl Amy, and I took the bus back to Coogee at that point and because they were all WAY too drunk to get into the CBH (our usual after hours spot), they gave up and we went to the Rugby Club for free drinks:) somehow, this turned into a debacle! Amy was behind the bar at one point and started spraying Wazz with soda water from the drink dispenser. Wazz of course fired back, and it turned into all out war! Paul grabbed me, kicking and fighting, and held me in the line of fire; somewhere along the lines a bucket came into use; and, at one point Amy accidentally started spraying Coke and Lemonade! I fought with as much as i could -- even grabbed onto the door handle while paul was trying to drag me by the legs -- but in the end we were all incredibly wet and VERY sticky! the bar was a little bit of a mess too:) don't worry, there are pictures and video of all this! well, some anyway cause most of the time i was fighting with paul for my life!:)
Happy ANZAC day!

Virginia Tech...

Even the front page of the newspapers here is about the insanity a VT... Something I found interesting though was the letters australians wrote in regarding our ridiculous "right to bear arms". I know this is all anyone is hearing on the news, but I felt the need to email these to show you what people in a country so similar to the US think of us:

"Australians can be thankful that they do not have the same obsession with firearms as Americans. The tragedy at the Virginia Tech university campus yesterday would not have happened if guns were not so readily available to just about anyone in the US. Isn't it time for the Americans to amend the Constitution giving ordinary citizens "the right to bear arms"? When that Constitution was written more than three centuries ago, American needed guns to protect themselves against the natives. But nobody other than the police, security officers and the military needs to bear arms in the 21st century. I hope the next US president has the courage to change the gun laws in that country."

"'He was just a normal-looking kid,' said a fellow student of the mass murderer at VT. Was the commentator aware that US ails are filled with tens of thousands of 'normal-looking' people? Decidedly abnormal - at least in the eyes of sane and honest Americans - is that in the state of VA, the only 'character reference' that is required before you are able to stock up on an arsenal of lethal weapons is a current drivers' license. It looks as though Baghdad is not the only dangerous environment for US citizens."

"The latest massacre in the US comes as no surprise. If students know anything about US foreign policy since WWII, they only have to recall a few names - such as Guatemala, Vietnam, cambodia, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Chile, Nicaragua, Grenada, Libya, Panama, El salvador, Yugoslavia, Haiti, Afghanistan and Iraq - to know that if you don't like someone, you either bomb the hell out of them, machinegun them to death or sell someone else the weapons to do the job for you."

Also, in a press conference at our office today (about something ENTIRELY unrelated), the head of Basketball Australia was asked if they would start thinking twice about sending players to study and play in the states (one of the australian bball players was at VT). His response, and my American friend and I were a bit upset by this, was something along the lines of, "as a father, yes i would think twice. i think it's very important to consider the gun control laws in the US before sending our loved ones over and potentially putting them in danger."

Honestly, i'm not one to get too vocally involved in politics, but this is truly absurd that an international student (who wouldn't even have a valid driver's license!) got a hold of TWO hand guns?? what on earth is the purpose of allowing civilians to own handguns -- cause they're definitely not for hunting animals! It's really hard to sit here and listen to people in a country that is so culturally similar to the US consistently bash us -- and honestly, for good reason, in my opinion. how come the rest of the world has it figured out that there is no need to allow guns in everyday society and we can't seem to get past the fact that because it was written into the Constitution over 200 years ago that it should still be valid today? Conservative Jews understand that certain customs and beliefs in judaism that were once strictly believed might not be applicable in society today -- so shouldn't that apply to other absurd laws? For example, the town of Evanston used to have a law outlawing bowling alleys for religious reasons...

I'll end my rant with this: what finally made me burst into tears about this (because normally i would just be pissed off and not-so-much emotional) was hearing the story of Professor Librescu who managed to survive the Holocaust, and died years later saving his students from another soulless psycho -- on Holocaust Memorial Day.

My summer vacation

Ok, so not really "vacation", but I have figured out (i think, haha) what I'm doing when i get back to the States.

For those who live in the greater LA area, mark your calendars for the weekend of May 19-21! I'll be arriving in LA from Sydney a few days before that and staying till monday or tuesday. Dance classes and A-list parties are a requirement for this time period.

For those in the greater Chicagoland area, mark your calendars for May 23-28ish! I'll swinging through to trade clothes and pick up a car and there will be a Cubs game in there somewhere. (hopefully)

For those in the western PA area, after chicago, I'm off to lovely Woodward, Pennsylvania. Where is that, you ask? Well, it's in the absolute middle-of-nowhere-Amish country, about 25 minutes from State College. Why the hell am i playing with amish people this summer? I'm actually going to be playing with famous gymnast and action sports athletes! haha:) I'll be coaching gymnastics and helping orchestrate visiting teams, coaches, and athletes at Camp Woodward (aka, gymnastics and action sports mecca!) I was there a few years ago when i was working on Gravity Games and i really wanted to go back and get back into coaching. Plus, let's be honest, that lifestyle is perfect for me: high energy every day, active, and surrounded by athletes. I pulled some strings (yes, i'm good at that) to get in touch with the camp director, who assured me that i'll be involved in a lot more of the behind-the-scenes management and hospitality stuff associated with running the camp -- and not just coaching.

i better get to see everyone in all those areas this summer!

best discoveries ever!

The two reasons I can now officially live here:

1) lactaid! yes, i found lactase enzyme caplets just like lactaid!
2) the equivalent of No Pudge Brownies. (these are chocolate chip muffins and chocolate cake though, but whatever, all tastes the same)

happy. yes, very very happy:)

an interesting bus ride

Ok, this happened a few weeks ago at this point, but I still thought it was worth writing about...

I was waiting for the bus home after the gym one night, and the other girl waiting with me was a Muslim girl. I'm struggling now to remember where exactly she said she was from, but that part is relatively insignificant, minus the fact that english was her second language and she was very strictly Muslim. We started chatting, commiserating about how long we'd been waiting for the bus and why the previous one had mysteriously just not come (public transportation can be a huge pain in the ass here...).

I asked her why she was in Sydney.

She was 23 and had come with her husband, who decided he wanted to work for 6 months abroad. She hadn't really wanted to come, but was obligated to follow him. She was doing some studying while she was here, and also working at a local fast food place. She told me this was the first time in her life she'd worn jeans. She also told me how much she was dreading getting up the next morning at 4:30am.

Why, I asked, are you getting up at 4:30am? (thinking that seemed a bit early for any uni classes.)

To pray, she said. I pray 5 times every day, but it's been hard with school and work because I get to work at 4:30pm and i'm done at 10, so I can't pray before dinner or after. So, I go home now and pray for a long time, then get up in the morning and do it again. Plus, I cook for my husband.

(I'm reminded how much i love the feminist movement at this point!)

We chatted more on the bus, mostly me asking her questions. I asked her why she prays 5 times a day. She said, because I have to...

She told me that tonight was the first night she was ever out alone after dark. Slightly shocked, I asked why.

Because it's not safe in my country, she said. The women always have to have a man with them if they want to go out after dark. The men are OK, but women should never go out alone. It's not safe.

Yikes...

We chatted more and somehow got to the topic of drinking. She told me she's never had a drink. Of course I asked why. "Because I'm not supposed to."

Why?, I asked again. (this was entertaining for me.)

Because they say so. (they??...) yes, because alcohol makes you do bad things.

ok.

(talking about food now) she complained that she was getting fat as she got older because all their diet is is rice and meat and fish -- not pork though. I said I really liked sushi and mediterranean-type cuisine, and that I didn't eat pork either. I decided to throw in, at this point, "because I'm not supposed to."

Why?, she asked.

Oh, because i'm Jewish, I said.

Silence for a minute... I was VERY interested in how this conversation was going to go.

she says tentatively, so, do you believe in just one God?

yes, I said.

Oh, she said.

I should also say that earlier in the conversation she made a reference to Ramadan, and was very shocked when i not only knew what that was, but also that they fasted during the day for it. it didn't surprise me that she knew nothing about judiasm, and probably had never met a jew, but i was really really interested in what went through her head right as i said that. I'm sure the only thing she's ever heard about jews was any of the fighting going on in the middle east and all the negative stereotypes that come along with that. Unfortunately, the bus ride ended right at this point (talk about bad timing!), and I haven't run into her since. I'm really really hoping to run into her again sometime soon...