Royal Treatment at a Historic Venue
Before I begin, forgive the one-sided commentary. Day 5 was another vocational day, so the group was separated for the majority of the day – and since none of the other slackers on this trip have a computer, you’re subjected to my view of the day. I have to say, that this trip has taught me an incredible amount about myself, and my amazing ability at tolerating authentic Italian food and grinding through the pain of 72 degree weather. So while I can’t speak for the entire group, it was a very grueling day.
My vocational schedule included meetings with Greg Baum, the sports editor for “The Age” newspaper, one of two major daily papers in town, and Anthony Howard, a local television sports reporter who is doing work for ESPN. The day began with a slight alteration in schedule as Greg had a number of deadlines prior to a busy sports weekend, so he offered to meet me for coffee at a local nursery. Yes, that’s right a nursery – like where you buy shrubs and plants. Evidently, it’s quite common for nurseries to include a café or restaurant as part of the business. This particular nursery had a complete lunch menu, chef and a wine menu, if you can imagine.
So anyways, Greg and I swapped stories about professional athletes, journalists (or journos as they are called here). It’s interesting how many similarities there are between Australian Rules Football players and American professional athletes. The biggest difference is salaries, but the changes in the attitudes towards athletes is very much the same.
After passing the time with shopping, lunch, wine and some coffee (this is the grueling part I was referring to), I had a very similar and entertaining conversation with Anthony Howard.
After my excruciating day, the entire group joined up at a radio station to appear on a radio show for an hour. The program, hosted by my first host family Brian Bloomer, promotes Rotary activities (it’s basically a public access type program). Judy, Jen, Christine, Matt and I all crammed into the booth and had a productive hour-long interview in studio. Our team was quite impressive, if I must say so. It made it easy since we had all grown to like Brian over the past week, which eliminated any possibility of intimidation. Plus, it helped that Brian avoided questions about our political system, which is quite the topic of conversation here.
Following the interview, we had what was one of the highlights of the trip for me, although I’m not sure the same could be said for the rest of the group. We scrambled over to downtown Melbourne and had our first look at the Melbourne Cricket Garden. The MCG is THE STADIUM in Australia. It was built in the 1860s and is considered hallowed ground by most. The closest comparison would be our Yankee Stadium, but Yankee Stadium didn’t open until 1923. So MCG is 60-plus years older than one of America’s most historic ballparks.
And if you think that Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium’s sellout streak is impressive, consider this – the MCG has 100,000 members (season ticket holders) and a waiting list of 170,000. In fact many current members obtained their membership a number of years after their fathers placed their names on the list before they were even born. This is a very British sport and deeply rooted in tradition.
We owe a big thanks to our hosts, who not only provided us with tickets to the match, but invited us into the Committee Room (a VERY exclusive area) and the Long Room (another members only area).
Since everyone was pretty exhausted, the majority of the group took off shortly thereafter. Christine was kind enough to stay behind so that I could enjoy some more of the match. Since it has only took me a short amount of time to figure out Christine, she was rewarded with food, wine and gut-splitting laughter in the sports bar afterwards, as David and Sue Anderson (my current host family) treated us at a local pub.
As you can see another outstanding day Down Under. I can definitely see why so many Australians are natives of other countries. This would be a fantastic place to live, especially if you’re a sports fan.
