wine and wildlife.

lyss, alex and i just got back from hunter valley wine tasting tours. it was my first time on anything like that so it was really a lot of fun. it was a great day for the three of us to get out of the city and see the country side and wine country. we discovered a new wine that we like to. it is called verdelho. its a white wine and it is really crisp and amazing.

yesterday, alex, liz, lyss, al and i all shot "the addict." it was amazing and so much fun. everytime i pick up the camera to do a shoot again, i forget how much i enjoy it. it makes me that much more excited to edit too. i know, i am a dork. a huge one. anyways...we shot that and then we shot parts of alyssa and liz's movie. it is a music video to this funky-ass song. it is full of glass breaking, zippers, cars beeping and moving. it is beautiful. it has some electronic piano in there too. its going to be a very cool video. anyways, i tumbled for them. it was my first time tumbling in 3 years. we went over to victoria park and i did back handsprings and front handsprings and aerials. i was so proud of myself to know that i can still put that on the "talent" part of my resume. although i can't really flex any part of my arm today without crying.

last night we went to the afl finals series. the sydney swans played the fremantle dockers. it was unbelievable. we left unilodge at around 7 to get to the game at 8. corey and i walked down to the atm and all of the other boys were standing outside. they were all just hanging out and talking, and they all had their faces painted. this man walked up to them and asked "is that an american accent i hear" and as jake replies, "yes" the man (with his little boy) starts getting up in cassidy's face and screaming at him. he said, "get out of our f***ing country you nazi cunt." (i apologize for the bad language). this was the first encounter we had with someone who really didn't like us. i guess he then got more and more in jake's face and so he had to defend himself. the little boy was standing a few feet away covering his ears, as if his father does this a lot.

it was interesting because we were a bunch of liberal, american students, studying and learning about their culture, dressed in their sporting gear, going to support their team, and this man just came up to the boys and attacked them. it was a little creepy.

the game was ridiculous. we were ten rows away from the goal post. the field is two times longer than an american football field. the men wear no pads at all and it is a mixed sport of soccer, football and hand work of volleyball. there are four quarters of 30 minutes and they have this cheer that they play at the end of the game. it goes:



Cheer, Cheer the Red and the White
Honour the name by day and by night
Lift that noble banner high
Shake down the thunder from the sky
Whether the odds be great or small
Swans will go in and win over all
While her loyal sons are marching
Onwards to victory.



after the game, everyone was talking to us and thought that it was cool that we dressed up and went to the game. overall is was a great adventure.

also as a side note, i caught my first real wave thursday morning. it was about 6 feet high and i dropped into the wave. justin and i both caught it and it was amazing. i can't wait to get better.

melbourne tomorrow (actually in 10 hours).

xo.