Good to see the AB's managed to salvage that win!
Had me worried for a second here. It's quite nice that the games are in the
early afternoon here, I imagine it's a bit hard to watch them back in NZ!
I had an interesting, very American weekend. On Saturday
there was a big game in town for the college football team. I think I mentioned
how there are over 100,000 seats in the stadium, so there were a lot of people
milling about for a town of under 20,000! It was interesting because a lot of
the people who were dressed to go appeared to be middle aged people or
families, presumably alumni still faithful to the sport. It's amazing how much
interest there is in college sports here. I don't know if anyone goes to see
Victoria University rugby games except people who know those playing.
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| PSU football Stadium |
Anyway while I didn't have a ticket, a few of my exchange
friends did and one of them was invited to go 'tailgating' with an American in
one of his classes so he invited a few of us along. It's essentially a giant
party in the parking lot of the stadium and the area around it where everyone
drives their 'truck' (ute that is) or RV to the area and cooks some grilled
food and sits around drinking beer and playing drinking games. A bit like New
Years back home it seems. They started fairly early- the game was at 8 and they
started around noon, but we all showed up around 4 so we were a bit late!
Still, got to experience one of the great American college traditions which was
great.
Today I went to a free outdoor activities expo at the local
artificial lake at Stone valley. They dammed a river near the college and made a 70-something
acre lake which people can go kayaking or boating in. I went kayaking there
with a few of my friends, though we arrived quite late in the afternoon as we
were all watching the rugby and the shuttle going back in forth got held up, so
we didn't get to spend too much time there. There is apparently also tramping
there which I'll have to check out, apparently they have free shuttles there
every couple of weeks during the weekend so I'll be sure to go back. I've
attached a few photos I took there, it was very pretty.
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| Stone Valley Recreation Area |
My friends went rock climbing but my shoulder's been buggered up somehow
(perhaps while I was playing basketball?) so I figured I shouldn't exert myself
just yet. Apparently come winter they even ice skate and ice fish on the lake.
That could be interesting (though a little scary having seen Bear Grylls go on
about how dangerous ice can be!)
