Breweries, Poolage and Rugby

This weekend was ridiculous to put it mildly. Friday night I decided not to go out to a) save money and b) so I could spend some time studying for my test on Monday. I studied for a few hours when I got home from class and then Hanne came over to join in our roomie dance party followed by a movie. At one point she was out on our porch and the neighbor yelled over asking what we were doing that night. She said we were listening to music and about to watch a movie. He then asked a question about our house and here is how the conversation proceeded:

"Sorry mate, I don't live here." - hanne
"Wait, you're not the American girl?" - guy
"No, why does my voice sound fat?"- hanne
"Oh yea, forgot about that . . ." - guy

And that is why I love Hanne . . . We then all watched Borat together and I laughed almost as hard as I did the first time I saw it. I was a little bummed Friday night because Saturday I had planned on going to the XXXX brewery with some of the guys and when I looked online all the tickets were sold out. But the roomies and I made plans to spend the day down by the lagoon so not a bad trade. As we were on the bus heading to the lagoon Saturday afternoon we passed Ivar who was walking home. I called him and he explained that they had already purchased my ticket so I needed to get over to the guys house so I could catch the cab with them. Oh snap. I got off at the next stop and then ran over a mile in the pounding heat to get to the house in time. I arrived sweaty and out of breath, but I made it. We then headed off to the brewery for our tour.

I came to find out later that this trip was an all guys trip. Just goes to show you that I have and always will be one of the guys. We were slightly late to the tour and missed the history, but it was really interesting to see all the machines and smell all the separate ingredients that go into making the beer. Also, Queensland had a huge drought problem a while ago and the brewery recently converted almost all of its machines to use recycled water and cut down on their consumption as a company. It was a multi-million dollar endeavor but they are now one of the most efficient brewerys in Australia. Now onto the good part. With the tour we got 4 mini beers to try out the different kinds. They also had their XXX brand which can only be purchased at that bar. There was a guy in our tour group wearing a dress, half of a set of pink fluffy handcuffs and penis antlers. Obviously a bachelor party. At the bar I chatted them up, took some funny pictures and ultimately scored 3 more free drinks. Maybe I should write a book about that cause I tend to be pretty good at getting free drinks . . . not to brag or anything. They offered free drinks all night if I came to the bar they were going to later, but I politely declined. At the end of our brewery adventure the French girls that hang out with us occasionally showed up at the brewery. Coincidence or stalking . . . you decide.Our next phase of the adventure was to find a grill and a pool somewhere. We ended up going to the French girls' place and cooking out, drinking and enjoyed their heated pool. It was fabulous and the pool felt like bath water. After a few hours there we had to catch a cab back home to change and head to the Gabba for the rugby game. This rugby was very different than the other game I went to. There was no passing back with your foot and not much tackling. But that didn't stop us from having fun. As we drank our cokes mixed with carefully snuck in whiskey, we cheered on our Brisbane Lions. I happened to wear the color of the opposing team, but I explained to those around us I was cheering for the Lions. I tried 3 different times to start the wave before someone politely informed me that the wave is not allowed in stadiums in Australia. Ooops. We then made new friends and invited them to our after party.

The after party was our typically awesome house party. Drinking games galore and loud music. I had my first sleepover since being in Australia, it was Hanne of course. Needless to say, Sunday was absolutely miserable. I got up and showered and then laid back in bed. At 3pm I moved to the couch to try to encourage my studying. I met Jackie on campus for a group study session later and then called it an early night with a movie and bed.

The test today wasn't too bad and hopefully I did well. I then headed over to the DaVinci museum exhibit. It was such a cool museum. It shows all of DaVinci's drawings and even has some of his machines built so that you can play with them and see how they work. I took pictures which will be on facebook later. The coolest was his parachute invention which someone actually created exactly to his designs proportions and tried it. He said it was a perfect jump. DaVinci designed so many things hundreds of years before other people caught on. What a genious. A glorious ride on the City Cat home and I'm now relaxing out of the ridiculous heat. Record high in Brisbane today, 32 degrees Celcius. Holy hotness . . .