4 Days of Life...On Tivo

I left you saturday with me playing a soccer game, and it was one for the ages. 6 weeks of being the happiest person on the planet can leave your emotions a little unbalanced. Life is not void of stress, and no matter how hard you try the stress will manifest itself, even if you are in paradise. So pretty much I unloaded all of it on the German team in the game on saturday, I probably should have been thrown out of the game, but hey what are you going to do. I really haven't had any problems with any groups of people here, but the Germans are just idiots on the soccer field. I haven't seen a bigger group of pansies since, well, ever. Although, at the end of the day I just chalk it up as culture sharing. They showed me that they like to complain, yell at the top of their lungs, and be as soft as possible. I showed them why America won WWII, and of course how to trash talk. I hate to hype my own skills, but here were some of my favorite lines: "Hey how do you say your a p*#sy in german?", "Baldy, I'm not your mother, I'm going to be hitting you all day", "Nice Touch, Girly Man", "I'd give that dive a perfect 10." So naturally, I had a blast! We ended up tying which sucked-Moving on. So the rest of saturday and sunday I spent studying for my first econ exam on monday morning. I even got up at 8 before class to study some more. I walk into the class sit down, pull out my pens and calculator only to find the teacher beginning a lecture. After consulting the girl next to me, I discovered that my exam was next Monday. B- E- A-utiful. I wasted 2 days studying for an exam I didn't have while completely ignoring the exam I had at six because it wasn't going to be anything near my Econ exam. My six o'clock exam was for my Australian geology class, and it was really hard. Every question had to do with some obscure fossil date. I ended up getting a low "B" which is called a "credit" It also means I only have to get a 30 on the final to pass the course. (FYI the grading system is as follows: A "C" is called a Pass, a "B+/A-" is a distinction, and an "A+" is a high distinction.) Most people just got a pass, while a few people picked up credits and distinctions. The grading here is pretty brutal, one kid was excited that he got a 70 on something, and apparently if you get anything around an 85 thats like a perfect score. Monday night, I worked out and recovered from my exam with some online streaming sports center. A man with out sports center is like a man with out lungs. I found a way to get ESPN 360 as well so I should be able to start catching some of the Clemson games. I want to experience as much as the Australian culture as possible, but I'm not giving up on everything back home. It's definitely important to find a middle ground where you can be open to new things while keeping your eye on what is important to you on the home front. I also discovered a pretty sweet place on campus while I was studying. The MLC or Multimedia Learning Center is across from the library, and is kind of an innovative idea. It has a bunch of relaxed, comfortable seating, plasma TV's with PS3s built into them, a laptop bar-no alcohol is served there which is probably against the australian constitution, and state of the art meeting rooms that you can reserve for group work. It's a really cool place to go for group work, or if you want to get out of your room and are not keen on being productive. This weekend is a big race in surfers. I'm not sure if its formula 1 or something like it, but hopefully I will be able to go because I've never been to a road course race, and it looks awesome. Anyway I hope everyone is doing well back stateside..LATER

Aussie Lingo:

Pissed-Drunk

Magget-Super Drunk

Arvo-Afternoon

Windscreen-Windshield

Boots-Cleats