One For The Books

This past week was full of horse races, carnivals, shopping trips and social outings. Last Wednesday (the 11th) was a public holiday for the Exhibition Horse Races. So no classes and instead we went to the races. Thinking it was going to be a casual race day like in America we went down there wearing jeans and nice tops. We'll say it was dressy casual. Also, we had general admission tickets and on the website it said that denim was allowed for general admission. Well, we first started to notice that we were the "odd ones out" on the bus. Everyone kept on getting on in cute cocktail dresses and the men were all in suits and ties. And the hair accessories were crazy. There were feathers and bows and flowers and netting like you had never seen. They weren't small either. They were the kind that you see in Forever 21 and kinda laugh to yourself and say, "Who would ever wear this?". Almost every girl had one.

As we got closer to the race course we saw that we were clearly not dressed for the event. So when the bus stopped, we did not enter into the Race Club. We instead got back on the bus, and went back to change our clothes.

Take 2: After changing, and putting a few frills in our hair (no where near what everyone else had, but we tried) we arrived back at the course. It was slightly gloomy that day but the sun did make a few appearances throughout the day. The rest of the day was fabulous. We saw several horse races and lots more hair frills and a few drunken shenanigans. Some of the people who attended started kicking back the alcohol a little early and had a little bit too much fun. Back in the states I call the hair frills "Pashwangas" (I coined the word). Here they are called "Fascinators". And let me say, the first ones that we saw and thought they were crazy were the normal ones of the day. They kept on getting bigger and bigger. I managed to take a few snaps of some of my favorites.

Friday (the 13th... ooo...) we took a trip to Ekka. Ekka is basically a big giant carnival. Think of a State Fair times two or three. There are rides, vendors, animals and carnival games. The big thing are showbags. These are basically a bag containing a bunch of goodies that are based on themes. So for example there are candy showbags where you get a bunch of one brand of candy. Or there is the Hello Kitty Showbag, or the Disney Princess Showbag, or the Australian Soccer Showbag, etc. They are very popular.

It is a lot of fun to just walk around the grounds and see everything. Then at night there is a show put on in the main arena. The show consisted of a flag ride on horseback, Horse Jumping, Woodchopping, Jousting, Toyota Hilux Tricks, Car Drift, Monster Truck, Motorcyle Tricks and finally the Firework and Laser show.

The woodchopping, motorcycles and fireworks were my favorite. Queensland won the woodchopping competition against New South Wales. But this is no ordinary woodchopping. It's a relay of chopping wood in all different ways-- very fun to watch. The motorcylists were extremely talented and I held my breath every time they went off the ramp, hoping that they land their flips... and not on their heads. And of course the firework show was fabulous. Set to the tune of the "Waltz of the Flowers", it worked very well. I love fireworks. Being Friday the 13th I kept on waiting for something bad to happen, but luckily nothing ever did.

Saturday was just a shopping day, and Saturday night was a social night. Then Monday brought the start of week five. I can't believe how fast it has gone. And it just keeps on going. I am in the process of planning out some more weekend trips and also looking into trips for our Mid-Semester Break. It's starting to settle in more and more that I am here and not back at home, especially with most people back home starting school again.

For the Creighton kids, I miss you! Make sure to have fun during welcome week and somebody please go to the Foam Party for me! For all the college kids (and high schoolers too) have a great first semester! Study hard :)

Oh, and if anyone knows how to send some really good mexican food my way that would be great. I have yet to find a good mexican restaurant here and once in a while I really do crave it. All I need are some corn tortilla tacos.

Other than that, I truly can't complain. Life is bliss over here on the other side of the world. If anyone wants to come see for themselves, I am totally up for visitors.

Until next time!