Lawn Bowling: "The Best Fun You Can Have On Two Feet" (Week 5)

On Sunday, we had our second field trip to North Sydney for lawn bowling, which was so much fun! When we arrived, it looked exactly like a country club in America. There were retired aged men all sitting around, some bowling, while drinking beer and hanging out. I noticed that they are were wearing the same white jerseys. 

When we got there, we had to sign a waiver which they told us meant that we had to be over 18 years old if were to win any money. Unfortunately, none of us got the chance to play for money, which was probably a good thing being our first time playing! Once signing in, we also got wristbands with a number on it stating which team we were a part of, where I was on team 5!

Lawn bowling is a sport in which the objective is to roll a slightly asymmetric weighted ball as close to a smaller white ball called a "jack". The ground you roll the ball on is well-taken care of grass that almost looks too perfect. This is necessary so the ball can roll smoothly.

There is a dot on one side of the ball that shows which side is weighted. This is important to know so the person playing knows which way to curve the ball to get close to the jack. There is a gutter behind the jacks that is full of sand, so if you throw it too hard, it will land in the gutter. We were in teams of about 4-5 people, and played against another team. Each team had a colored set of balls so you know whose is whose and did not get mixed up.

We practiced and got an introduction for about 5 minutes, and then it started to POUR! I do not mean rain, I mean POUR! We were handed ponchos, but decided to wait inside for about 30 minutes until it cleared up. Once it did, the sun came out and the weather was perfect. Once the rain went away, we broke up into teams and played in a tournament. I am not exactly sure how the scoring works, but the team who gets their balls closest to the jack gets the most points. Out of about 12 teams, my team was the only team to not score any points. I guess lawn bowling was not our thing, but I definitely did improve by the end. A couple of times I actually hit the jack, which could be good and bad depending where the other balls land. At the end, they had finals for the winners bracket and the losers bracket. The winner in the winners bracket got a trophy with a cup on it, and the losers bracket winner got a horses butt trophy. 

Even though the United States has nothing like this, it did remind me a lot of regular bowling. The same ideas were used, including a heavy weighted ball being thrown at a smaller object. Also both bowling in America and law bowl consisted of gutters, and a nice, smooth surface to throw the ball on. Even though I have never played bocce, everyone said it was the closest thing to what we play in America. I had such a fun day though and a great experience lawn bowling. By the end I was really catching on to the sport and the precise was to throw the ball. It showed me a different sport than I am used to. If I lived in Australia, I would definitely take it up as a sport!

Competitive Tennis Match (Week 4)

This week, we did not have a field trip unfortunately, but I learned more about Australian's and their love with sports by watching girls play tennis at one of the colleges. This past weekend, I was walking by and saw two girls warming up to play tennis. I then proceeded to walk up to the fence and watch these two girls warm up, and they play for a little bit to get the experience of watching tennis in another country. 

I know that the game of tennis cannot change much from country to country, but I wanted to see how competitive these girls were. As I stood against the fence during their warm up, the girls were so competitive that if the ball hit the line one of them would yell at the other to try and prove that the ball was actually in bounds. I feel like in America during a warm up girls would not yell at one another, rather play for fun to warm up their muscles. It made me realize what the lecturers were saying all along, how Australians are so competitive with everything that they do, especially sports. As the girls proceeded in actually playing, the intensity got even stronger and one of the girls wanted her friend to come and be the referee of the match to make things fair. I was very surprised by this request since they were only playing for fun, but once again, Australians are in love with their sports, and will probably always be.

Swimmers are the Most Well Known Athletes in Australia (Week 2)

This week, March 7th, was my first lecture with this class and my first learning experience about Australian swimming. During this 2 hour period, I learned so much information about swimming in Australia and how popular it is to compete. One of the things that Christina said was that swimmers are the most well known athletes in Australia, which completely blew my mind. In America, swimming is not a big sport at all and the athletes are not very well known. One reason I believe why swimmers are the most well known in Australia, and not in America, is because the majority of the people living in Australia live near the coast. In America, people live throughout the country, and not primarily on the edges near the water. Therefore, people who live in the middle of the country in America may never have seen the ocean, where swimming is very popular. Other sports such as basketball, baseball, soccer, and football do not need the ocean or a swimming pool to be played. Therefore, this can make these sports more popular because only land is needed, which occurs across the country.

I live about a mile from the beach back in America, where my city is called, "Surf City Huntington Beach." Therefore, a lot of my friends swim and surf, making many of the athletes who surf very well know in my city. Therefore, I can name a few surfers off of the top of my head, but can definitely name more athletes who play land sports. This gives me a new perspective and appreciation for swimmers and surfers after learning about the importance of swimmers and the ocean in Australia.

First Week in Sydney and my First Cricket Encounter (Week 1)

After going to lecture on Monday, March 14, I realized I am behind 2 weeks in my blog postings. This one is supposed to be for week 1, so I can get all caught up.

Being an American studying abroad from California has been an incredible experience so far. I did not arrive in Sydney until March 4th, in which I missed the whole first week of Uni. I was really sick with mono back at home, and was not allowed to travel until I got better. Therefore, I missed the first lecture, but will write about my first experience seeing cricket being played right when I got onto campus!

When I arrived on March 4th, I moved into my apartment right away. I wanted to walk around the campus and see what Sydney Uni and Australia looked like. Right across the street from my apartment is a huge field, in which I saw a bunch of men running around throwing a ball. I walked up close to the field and learned that these men were playing cricket. Immediately, I thought of baseball because of the way the men hit the ball with a bat. The only difference I saw for the short amount of time I watched the men was that their bat was flat, instead of rounded. I did not stay for long watching them play, but eventually in my time in Sydney I definitely want to go watch a cricket game being played. If I am lucky enough and can find someone with the equipment, I really want to play the sport. I am really excited to learn about cricket in this class, and how it is different from baseball back in America. This class so far has really opened me up to Australian culture and sports, which is something that will help me experience Australia on a deeper level.

My First Nipper Experience (Week 3)

Yesterday, March 13th, was the first field trip to Maroubra Beach to see a group of children aged 5-12 years old called Nippers. These children join Nippers to gain confidence, learn about the water, and have a fun filled morning in a safe beach environment.

When I first got to Maroubra Beach, I instantly spotted the Nippers who were having a friendly competition along the beach. Each of these children either had a white cap or a green cap on with their names written legibly on the side. Back home in Huntington Beach, California, there is something that kids aged 8-16 years old participate in called Huntington Beach Junior Lifeguards. In Huntington Beach Junior Lifeguards, the children and teenagers learn about the ocean and ways to get out of trouble if something unexpected happens while swimming or being on the beach. Nippers reminded me a lot of the program back home, because it pretty much had the same goals for these children and teenagers. I think that Nippers is a lot better than the program back at home because it is strictly run by volunteers. These volunteers do it not only because they have community spirit, but they did Nippers as a young child and want to give back to others. Since Australia is surrounded by ocean and the majority of the people live on the coast, it is really important for all kids to learn how to swim and be comfortable with the ocean. For example, one of the parents told me that they pour buckets of water on the kids heads (the 5 year-old group) to get them comfortable before going out into the ocean. The mentality of Nippers is that everyone is a winner and is meant to be fun. All of the parents come out and cheer the kids on, which makes the children want to continue with Nippers up until the age of 12. The goal of the program is by age 12, these children can go out by themselves into the ocean and "ride the surf" while being perfectly safe. I had an amazing experience being exposed to my first Australian sport.