AFL and other adventures

I've started to fall a little behind on my blogging due to this whole thing where I go to classes and have assignments. So this is actually everything I did last weekend.  I'll have another post in a couple of days with everything I did this weekend!

Go Swans!

I went to my first AFL game! AFL stands for Australian Football League. Australian Football is a sport unlike any other.  The easiest way to describe it is that it’s a combination of football, rugby and soccer.  Its played on a large ovular field with 18 players from each team on the field at once.  To score points the ball must be kicked between 2 posts.  There are 4 posts at each "end" of the oval.  If the ball is kicked between the middle posts then 6 points are rewarded to the team.  If the ball goes between either of the outer posts then 3 points are rewarded.  If you hit either of the middle posts then one point is rewarded.  The ball is moved up and down the field by either throwing it, kicking it, or running with occasional dribbling.  

The Field

I know that was pretty much a horrible description of the sport so here is a link to the actual rules (http://www.aflrules.com.au/afl-game-rules/) Each quarter is 30 minutes long and even after 2 hours I still didn't completely grasp the concept of the game.  But I sat back with my meat pie and beer and enjoyed the game anyways! I was rooting for the Sydney Swans who won! I went to the game with my flatmate who was rooting for St. Kilda.  St. Kilda got destroyed, but at least she finally got to see her team play live!

Sunday I decided to venture to church.  I grew up going to church and was confirmed into the United Church of Christ so I thought it would be interesting to compare Australian church to American Church.  I found a church that is part of the Uniting Church of Australia which is the closes thing to the United Church of Christ here.  They used to both be the same thing but then Australia broke off.  Sunday morning was pouring rain and miserable but I walked the 4 blocks to the Pitt Street Uniting Church anyways.  

Their website told me that the service started at 10:30.  When I walked in at 10:20 I was actually 20 minutes late.  And basically when you walk through the front door you're standing in the sanctuary so I just causally walked in 20 minutes late and sopping wet.  The church has been around for a long time and can hold about 3000 people.  

Inside view of the church

I walked in to a group of about 30 people worshiping and each one of them was at least old enough to be my parent.  Not quite what I expected.  It was hard to pay attention because I found myself looking around at the sanctuary and still flustered about arriving late.  But the views seemed similar to those of my church at home.  At the end of the service they had every visitor stand up and introduce themselves to the everyone. I wasn't the only American there.  There was a couple from Syracuse, NY there who happen to have family in Colchester, VT. Such a small world.  I haven't decided if I'll go back to that church again, try out some other Uniting Churches, or give up on church here all together.  I do have to say I'd like to find a congregation whose average age is 3 times my own.