Week 7: A Devastating Dilemma

Well, I don't really have too much to say this week. I've been busy with school work ever since we returned from Tassie, and Karl still hasn't got his work VISA. He does have an offer to work at a store of one of his football players. He offered Karl $15.38 an hour to basically push carts around. Sounds good to me! I've emailed several hospitals in the area to try and set up some volunteer work. I've always talked about getting involved in healthcare, and I'm supposed to be doing service work, so I thought I should try. They have both public and private hospitals with the public hospitals being similar to free health clinics in the US. Every Australian gets healthcare, but not everyone has to stand in line to get it (ie. the ones who pay for private care.)

Karl's football team is in a bit of trouble. Guys don't show up consistently and many haven't paid, so Karl decided he doesn't want to coach a team of guys who aren't interested. If at least 16 guys haven't paid by tomorrow, the season is effectively canceled. Karl has other options, though. There is a local juniors team he could help coach, and he is definitely coaching in the Down Under Bowl in late June, early July. For those who aren't familiar with it, the Down Under Bowl is a tournament that hosts American teams and Australian state teams of high school aged players. The Americans get to see Australia, and the Australians get to see some real competition. It means coaching experience for Karl and a week in Brisbane relaxing on the beach for me. (Ok, so I'll probably be doing thesis stuff, but I can dream, right?)

In Karl's cultural education calendar, we have a few things going on. We went to a production of Mamma Mia several weekends ago. It is a musical that uses only ABBA music, so it was harmless and fun. The cast was pretty good, the story sort of weak but good enough, and the music was obviously catchy, so we had a really good time. We also went to Lygon Street, the little Italy of Melbourne, for dinner, so Karl was happy. On April 22 we are going to see Cirque du Soleil's Quidam. Our tickets arrived yesterday, and we are so excited!! Karl doesn't really know what he's getting into, but I assured him it would be great. I'll talk more about it after we go. Too bad I won't be able to take pictures. In the area of future developments, we're looking into going to see The Lion King when it opens in July!!!!

This last paragraph will be a bit of randomness. First, I must discuss the curious phenomenon of having two choices when wanting to flush the toilet. Yes, two flushers on every toilet. Some of them are simply two identical looking choices; some have pictures of half circles and full circles; and until last week, I just alternated between the two buttons. Carol informed me while in Tasmania that the flushing choice should reflect the bathroom activity. The half circle (or left button) is a single flush and the full circle (the one on the right) is a double. You can decide what activity goes with which. Second, one of my favorite WKU classmates and fraternity friends, Matt Long, is coming to Melbourne. Following the recent success of his tv show, Jack and Bobby on the WB, he is joining the cast of Ghost Rider, a new comicbook based movie, as the younger version of Nicholas Cage. He just happens to be filming in the new city that I call home. I managed to track his email down, and we've got a date. (Don't be alarmed he will be married by that time, so it won't be a real date.) Third, our other Canadian traveling partner, Melissa, just got a job working at the Australian Zoo. She actually isn't working. She's volunteering, but she does get to work with Steve Irwin. We'll have to visit:) Fourth, I really like speaking at Rotary meetings. The people are so fun, and they give us nice presents. I spoke tonight at a club, and Karl and I got four wine glasses that commemorate the 100th year of Rotary. The Rotarians do ask the most interesting questions. They always want to know who KY supported during the Civil War. I've also been asked was Davy Crockett a real person, was KY part of the Trail of Tears, and are there Nascar tracks in KY? We've also gotten lots of invitations to come to people's houses for dinner. They're really generous people. Finally, I could end the blog by telling a story about the moronic citation test I took on Monday over the Chicago style which turned out to not really be Chicago style because the library and my department didn't know that a new version had come out two years ago, but I'll save you the heartache. If you were wondering about the devastating dilemma, there wasn't one. I just wanted to catch your attention.

Britt