A Clean Break

The second intra-semester break of the year has finally arrived, and not a moment too soon. In order to match the university break with the regular school break, this break takes place 10 weeks into the 13 week semester. It's been a long time coming and everyone is very happy to finally have a rest. I'll be using my break productively, visiting my brother in Christchurch, New Zealand. We're planning on heading down to Dunedin and Invercargill, two cities I didn't get to the last time I was that way. I leave next Saturday, so I'll probably update my blog on Friday.

On Sunday, there was another instance of wild weather, with a particularly harsh rainstorm. The Bureau of Meteorology even called it a gale. The winds howled and the rain beat down with relentless force. I had a great time walking to university through the rain. For some reason, whenever it rains like that, I think of Canada's East Coast.

On Monday, the Ukrainian Scouts went to an indoor rock-climbing facility in Canberra, and I went with them. The last time I tried this was 8 years ago and it didn't turn out so well. Luckily, this time I had more success. I made it all the way to the ceiling and there are pictures to prove it, but none on my camera. You'll have to take it on faith.

I also had my first day officially working at ACTTAB when I was sent to the outlet in Civic Centre, an area called Garema (gah-REE-ma) Place. It's not a big outlet and not a busy one either. It services mostly civil servants so it only gets busy at lunch and after business hours. I actually had a fun time and I'm looking forward to more hours at the TAB. I think this is one of the most interesting jobs I've ever had, not to mention one of the most financially rewarding.

On Friday I went to the production of the Three Penny Opera that Fenner Hall put on, and it was fantastic. For those who don't know, the Three Penny Opera is an adaptation of the older Beggar's Opera and is based around the escapades of Macheath (Mac the Knife) a criminal who runs amok in London because he was in the army with Tiger Brown, the Commissioner of Police. The actors are all residents of Fenner Hall who volunteered exorbitant amounts of time in order to put on this production. In any event, it went off very well and was quite funny. Next year, I'm suggesting they put on the Mikado.

Today I had a doubly good time as I went bowling and watched part of the AFL Grand Final. Bowling was floor event organized by Lisa, our Senior Resident (the head of the floor). It was 10 pin, which felt unusual since I'm used to 5 pin but I did alright. The Grand Final was very intense as the underdog Hawthorn Hawks played the Geelong Cats, a team that lost only 1 game in the regular season. I didn't get to see then end as I had to work at Cafe Pronto, but I was told that the Hawks pulled through and won in the end. A lot of people were cheering for Hawthorn because Geelong had won it last year and now it was seen as someone else's turn. This idea of giving everyone a "fair go" is an Australian characteristic.

Finally, I'll leave you with photos of some early morning fog in Canberra. Apparently, Canberra is known for its for though I have seldom seen it. It comes in the morning and you have to get up pretty early to witness the wonderful mists that encompass the city in the early hours of the day.