Journey to Aussie

Being able to watch the World Cup and and be part of the Aussie cheering section while living in the country? Not a bad start to month three here.   While Australia’s run in the tournament may have been short-lived, it was amazing to see all of the support that this country gives to its players. Something about Aussie fans and getting rowdy during games..lets just say it definitely is entertaining haha Well round 2 officially started in the Gold Coast Premier League as we finished a 3-3 tie against Palm Beach this past Friday night.   I was lucky enough to have all three assists in the game and somehow managed to earn man of the match.   What does that entail?   A nice, enticing certificate to the best burger place in the Gold Coast.   Yeah, you better believe that money was gone Saturday afternoon.   Fun Fact: If you haven’t learned this already about me, I’ll do anything for a good burger.   In fact, its 100% the easiest wa...

Well it’s official, I have been here for exactly two months.   Even better? I got mistaken for an Aussie at the grocery store last week.   I think its safe to say that I am definitely settled in and enjoying my new life. Since its been a couple weeks since my last post, I thought I’d give an update on soccer.   Our team, Nerang FC, is currently sitting in 4th place after two solid victories this past weekend.   We hit the halfway mark in the season in two weeks, which means its important to get these next 6 points in our two upcoming away games: Coomera and Mudgeeraba.   Please don’t ask me how to pronounce either of those names..I’m sure I’d butcher both of them.   From a competition standpoint, practices here have been really intense.   Since the technical side of the game is very important to Aussies, we do a lot of work with the ball.   Most of our warm-ups, possession grids, passing drills, and even our fitness, have some compone...

A bit late for last weeks post, but I definitely think its worth the wait.  Here's the phrase that I've basically adopted into my lifestyle for the next four months that I am here: Every new adventure will get me closer to never coming home. Here's the excuse for this week: The Great Barrier Reef Growing up, I've always enjoyed going on snorkeling trips with my family.  I've been lucky enough to snorkel at many cool places around the world, but nothing compared to this past weekend. As if it couldn't get better from a surprise visit from my sister, we decided to journey up to Cairns and hit one of the seven wonders of the world, The Great Barrier Reef.  Unlike most reefs, this reef is actually the largest living structure in the world.  Not only is it home to the largest coral reef, but its deep blue waters home over a 1500 different types of fish, thirty species of whales, dolphins, and sharks, and six different types of turtles.  We ended u...

This past weekend we played Surfers Paradise and ended up drawing 1-1...which I would say is a pretty fair result considering luck was not with us again as the ref called a pretty questionable penalty kick against us early on in the game. As time was winding down, the need to score became desperate as we started to push more and more players up the field. With about a minute left in the game, we earned a free kick outside the box. Considering that it was probably the last play of the game, we brought all eleven players including the keeper into the box to try and get a last minute goal to save us from what would have felt like an undeserved loss.  As the ball was kicked and started to soar towards the middle of the box, it became a scramble to see which team would make contact with it first. Out of no where, I found myself being thrown into the flight pattern of the ball just in time to make contact with it and send it bouncing towards the rest of the mass of the players. After...