Ments

Disappointment.

a) I am in the midst of long job application process with Belmont City College (a high school in a lower income area of Perth) for a youth worker position. I have received lots of positive feedback from BCC, but no official word that I have been hired or of a start date; however with all that said, they checked my references and I am scheduled for a pre-employment medical screening, so there’s definitely optimism on my part. I just wish I could have heard something more definite from them.

a.5) Well! My disappointment has turned into joy! I wrote the rest of this entry yesterday but did not have time to post it and today I received a call from BCC informing me that I had been hired and I start on Wednesday! I am working in two part time positions, one which is two days a week as a youth worker and one other day as the community service liaison for the students at the high school! Haha, I really could not have been any happier about this position unless it was full time and they paid me more, but whatever ϑ Thank you so much for your prayers and encouragement!

b) I was debating whether to put my serious disappointment here or my funny one, but I chose to go out with a laugh… Tonight, Cate and I went to a music festival, which was great, but one of the food vendors, “American Fast Foods,” plastered the sign below above their booth.



In case you can’t tell, the flag on the left is the confederate flag. I have also seen multiple advertisements for a local car dealership called, “Southside Mitsubishi.”



Again, in case there is any confusion, the cavalryman is carrying the confederate flag. I am nearly certain that neither of these usages of the incendiary flag was meant to oppress or create fear and that they were both seen as general “American” images and used as such out of ignorance. However, I would have expected a little more tact out of the Australians; if your business is going to have a logo from another country’s set of images, one would think that you might, I don’t know, check the context of the image you are using. But, maybe the upside to all of my free time while waiting to be hired is that I have a wonderful opportunity to courteously express my vehement disgust with both of these fine establishments.

c) My favorite Australian fast food chain, Chicken Treat, has a combo meal called the, “Hawaiian Pack.” The pack includes a quarter chicken, French fries, a drink, and of course, to add Hawaiian authenticity, a couple of slices of Pineapple. Now, Chicken Treat is currently running a television promotion to drum up sales for the Hawaiian Pack by giving away a trip to Hawaii. In the commercial, a cartoon chicken talks in an unmistakably Jamaican accent about the wonders of a lush Hawaiian getaway. Hawaii is certainly tropical, as is Jamaica, but come on Aussie ad exec; really? There are SO many advertising teams who need to give me (as a fifth grader) their jobs because clearly, I (even at the tender age of 11) could do wonders for them. Ha.

Excitement.

*The following section (until the break) is also an addition since I wrote the bulk of this post. I am moving out of my Mandurah house this weekend! I’m moving into a house in Nedlands, about a ten minute walk from my rugby club, with two other guys for a couple weeks and then hopefully finding a new and permanent residence for the next nine or so months. I would have stayed in the Nedlands house, but I thought I would be able to find a cheaper place to live… this might have been a mistake, but I suppose you live and you learn; and then you get Luvs, haha, I couldn’t resist. At any rate, I am looking forward to settling into a real routine at last. I commented to Cate that over the past few weeks I have secured two out of the three things I needed while I was here, a home, a car, and a job, but never all three and never the same two. Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled programming.


Cate and I have just finished the last of our jam packed weekends for a while. Just to recap, last weekend, we saw Coldplay… COLDPLAY! It was a great show with awesome energy from the band and of course the crowd (Pictures below)




A couple of days ago, we saw The Cat Empire, another show with greatly enthused participants; except for me, but it was still a good time and I can appreciate the band for their musical worth. On Saturday, Cate coached her little kids in basketball, and then we rushed over to my first Aussie rugby game! After the rugby, Cate and I came home thinking we had several hours before we would leave to attend an Aussie Rules Football match between local rivals (Fremantle Dockers and the West Coast Eagles), but it turns out that we had about five minutes. So I sprayed on some deodorant (yikes, sorry mom) and changed clothes as we ran out the door. But this footy matchup was well worth my funkiness. The Eagles have traditionally beaten up on the Dockers, and the Dockers seemed to play with this knowledge casting a long shadow over their abilities. The Eagles were up by 25 points, but somehow the Dockers pulled off a furious come back to win the contest!



Finally, today, we joined one of Cate’s friends for a breakfast cookout before attending the aforementioned music festival featuring Kings of Leon. The KoL show featured wonderful emotion from the standing crowds that had been waiting around slogging through the average performances of filler acts before their heroes performed; yet KoL just didn’t really bring their A game in my opinion. At any rate, another excellent weekend, but I’m just looking forward to some down time with Cate next weekend as we celebrate our four year anniversary. ϑ







Statement.

1) I hate to brag, but I like to think that I made a bit of a statement during Saturday’s rugby matches. Our team played in three 7’s (seven on seven as opposed to standard rugby which is 15 on 15) matches, each lasting 14 minutes. In the first game, I just got to play for a couple of minutes, but we won handily; so resounding was our victory that our coach decided to rest all of the starters for the second game and play us second stringers. While definitely more than a little nervous, I was thrilled to finally get back into some competitive, physical sport after my three year hiatus. Somehow, I managed to make several big runs (including a try complete with me stiff-arming a would be tackler… in the face! FYI, a try is approximately the rugby equivalent of a touchdown in American football), a few tackles, and a great defensive play that would be too complicated for me to explain right now, but just know that it involved me sprinting nearly the length of the field, and I did it in impressive fashion. Our team has several weeks of trial matches coming up before our real season begins, but these next weeks are integral in deciding which players are established at the different levels called grades; 1,2,3,4, and 5 where 1 is the highest level). Of course, lest I get too cocky, our team was humbled in my final game of the day. I was just unable to keep up with the players on the other team, and to top it off, at some point in the game, an opponent stepped on my thigh and ripped my spandex shorts! But that last game really was a crucial one because it showed me just how far I have to go if I want to make it to the first grade team, let alone be successful if selected for it.




2) OBAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! I saw this hat on the head of an Australian in front of us at the music festival today, haha. I have also seen t- shirts emblazoned with the face of the American president in the Australian equivalent of a forever 21. Small world.




ANYway. That’s enough out of me, hope all is well wherever you are. Please keep in touch; as busy as I am being unemployed and having a great time with Cate, it is always so refreshing to hear from a fellow Davis or Parker or Burroughs/ CU alum. Take care.