June 29, 2009 3:15pm. I decided to call a company and see if they've got my CV and cover letter.
Me: Hello, My name is Andre Sherard, I saw that you are looking for employees. I was just wondering have you gotten my CV?
Woman on Phone: I'm sorry, We are not looking for anyone anymore.
Me: What happened?
Woman: We just aren't looking for anyone.
Me: What do you mean? You sent a post on Seek yesterday!!!!!
That's been the frustration which has been building up inside me through trying to find a job. I said that I wasn't going to talk about personal stuff, but I think this is right up everybody's alley at the moment so I'm going to discuss. For the last week, I've been sending application after application after application and still I haven't found any luck. Not even a phone call. So I decided to call one of them. And that above is what I got. It's been ridiculous.
I'm sure people back home are finding the same problems that I'm dealing with. About 75% of the jobs that I've looked at want experience. And most of these jobs a 12 year old kid could do those jobs effectively. However I guess you need experience in picking your nose now. I understand that you don't want to pay for training however most of the demographic who are looking for jobs probably do not have that experience yet. I just got out of college, I've been busy with soccer all my life, I'll admit that I haven't really had the experience that most people have. But that is what I'm trying to get unfortunately, I'm in the wrong game I guess.
I did have to stop with the job hunt because I got confused on what one of the websites were trying to tell me. It had to be the strangest thing I've ever seen in my life. It's so confusing that I don't even think I could explain it. My head begun to hurt and I just said that I can start over tomorrow.
Remember the times when you can go into a store, ask for an application, and get interviewed right there? It seems that those days are gone. I was walking down the street today (yes in the rain) and asked for applications. They told me to go on seek and see if there are any openings......
You know, you are right here. You have the ability to tell me if there are any openings are not. Don't tell me to walk back out in the rain, dish out $6.50 for internet, look on the computer, and find out that there is nothing. I don't know whether people want to give jobs to anyone anymore. I've been here for about a month now and people that I know that live here are having the same problems that I'm having. I know the recession has been rough on everybody but at least don't tell people that you have openings and then a couple of days later there's nothing.
I'll keep on looking. I mean giving up at this point would be useless and plus I hate giving up on something that I know I can do. I'll keep on keeping on. Maybe a job will fall directly on my lap. Well I would probably have to get out of this bed first...
Monday, June 29, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
I've Got Nothing
Yeah, I'm kind of feeling like that is the size of my brain at the moment because I've got nothing really to talk about this week. All I've been doing is looking for jobs and getting on facebook. Haven't been on any sight-seeing adventures due to the rain. Oh last night was the first night that I've heard thunder and it was thundering pretty loudly. There goes that. We tied our game 2-2 last weekend. Probably our worse performance of the year and we probably should have won it, but hey it's football. Fortunately for us, the second-place team couldn't gain any ground on us. They tied also.
Should I talk about how I'm feeling? I've been trying to get away from that lately. I don't think that many of you should know my personal thoughts or probably care either way. So I made my own journal for that nonsense and I'm most definitely sure that it will never see the light of day.
Other than that, umm yeah, my brain feels like the size of a peanut right now. Even though I've been writing cover-letters by the hour trying to find a job and such. I've been trying to write blog post but however when I get started, I forget exactly where I was going with the post and then I would have to scrap it altogether. Darn Empty Brain Syndrome, it never fails to get me in these important times....
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Having an Internet Data limit.
An Internet Data limit: When someone is trying to screw you out of money.
Well they screwed me out of $6.50 today. I bought a day pass for the internet. It isn't just a day pass. It also has a limit of 160Mb of data that could be used at one time. I know it's crap. Why can't you just let me use the internet how it is just for the day and no data limit? You would think that 160mb of data might be enough for one day of internet use. Also it would avoid you from downloading I guess.
What if I was updating my computer? So it would run faster. Does that count as downloading? I guess so because I exceeded my limit after 30 minutes because I didn't know updating my computer had to deal with my internet use. Me, knowing a little bit about computers should have at least understood that though right?
I can't blame the people. They are just trying to take our money anyway possible. If it is using the community computer for 30 minutes worth $2 or buying a week pass worth $30s and having a cap limit of 1.2gbs. Which is a large amount of data but you better make sure not to download anything.
These internet cafe's have the best ideas. Keeping their cafes open for 24 hrs. You would think, what exactly would you do in a cafe for 24 hrs. Well you have those who are gamers, who need fast and reliable internet connections to keep their game flowing. And like me, who lives in a hostel. I don't have a television in my room and we don't have Sky cable in our living area. So one can get on the internet to watch internet tv of their favorite shows. Or in my case, catch up with numerous shows that I'm currently missing.
In all honest, I need the internet for just a hour or two. I don't do too much on the internet. I just go on twitter, facebook, and on my blog. That's about it. I occasionally check what's going on in the World. However it isn't much really. I don't even use my skype account and AIM seems to be fading fast, if it hasn't disappeared for most everybody as it is.
So I'm going to spend the next 26 minutes revising this post, writing e-mails, and posting on twitter. Sweet life huh. "Sniff you jerks later"
Well they screwed me out of $6.50 today. I bought a day pass for the internet. It isn't just a day pass. It also has a limit of 160Mb of data that could be used at one time. I know it's crap. Why can't you just let me use the internet how it is just for the day and no data limit? You would think that 160mb of data might be enough for one day of internet use. Also it would avoid you from downloading I guess.
What if I was updating my computer? So it would run faster. Does that count as downloading? I guess so because I exceeded my limit after 30 minutes because I didn't know updating my computer had to deal with my internet use. Me, knowing a little bit about computers should have at least understood that though right?
I can't blame the people. They are just trying to take our money anyway possible. If it is using the community computer for 30 minutes worth $2 or buying a week pass worth $30s and having a cap limit of 1.2gbs. Which is a large amount of data but you better make sure not to download anything.
These internet cafe's have the best ideas. Keeping their cafes open for 24 hrs. You would think, what exactly would you do in a cafe for 24 hrs. Well you have those who are gamers, who need fast and reliable internet connections to keep their game flowing. And like me, who lives in a hostel. I don't have a television in my room and we don't have Sky cable in our living area. So one can get on the internet to watch internet tv of their favorite shows. Or in my case, catch up with numerous shows that I'm currently missing.
In all honest, I need the internet for just a hour or two. I don't do too much on the internet. I just go on twitter, facebook, and on my blog. That's about it. I occasionally check what's going on in the World. However it isn't much really. I don't even use my skype account and AIM seems to be fading fast, if it hasn't disappeared for most everybody as it is.
So I'm going to spend the next 26 minutes revising this post, writing e-mails, and posting on twitter. Sweet life huh. "Sniff you jerks later"
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Will he regret being CR9?
Christiano Ronaldo has left Manchester United for Real Madrid with a world record transfer fee of about 80mil pounds. By the end of his contract (because every footballer honors their contract nowadays) he'll be earning over a half a million a week. The question on everyone's mind is will he regret leaving Manchester?
In a financial standpoint, you would be an idiot to say that this isn't the best idea for him. One could say that if he stayed with United that it could have been possible for him to get as much money there. He's starting off at about 200,000 pounds a week in Madrid. And knowing what he spends on cash, I don't think he's going to regret getting bigger and bigger checks every week.
For him personally, his boyhood dream is to play for Real Madrid. I respect that, we all have dreams to be at the perfect place and now he is able to play out his boyhood dream. I've never been to Spain but I'm sure the surroundings from his standpoint will be a better fit for him than it would be in Manchester. He can get his tan game up tenfold if he goes to Madrid.....wait pause....
The only thing I will see him regretting is the club he is leaving for Madrid. Man Utd has been the model of stability. Sir Alex Ferguson has stayed in United for over 20 years. He is still able to get the most out of players while others begin to tune out their managers, ask Arsene Wenger (everybody loves a little jab at Arsenal, even though I'm not an EPL fan anyways).
Could anybody name me a manager of Real Madrid that has been successful for 10 years? let alone 20.
Don't worry I'll wait....
There is no stability in the Bernabeau. Hell even when they win the La Liga trophy they do not keep their manager. This season alone they went through three managers. Schuster, Ramos and now Pellegrini. And Juande Ramos brought Madrid back to keep the La Liga race close but still he wasn't able to keep his job. Personally I think he's a better manager than Manny Pellgrini but that's a different subject for a different day.
Even though Florentino Perez plans on bringing a renewed Galaticos era, it is still debated how this crop of players will develop with each other. He brought in Ronaldo and Kaka with the impending signing of David Villa ahead (as a Valencia fan.....SHIT!!!), the forward line will be formidable. However unlike players like Zidane, who only needed the ball some of the time. Most of these current players need the ball ALL the time. We haven't put in the equation of Arjen Robben into this current side (unless he's transferred). He is the alpha ball-hog on this team. He shows greatness himself but he needs to be on the ball also. I think Christiano Ronaldo and him will clash because there's only one ball and both of them feel like they need it.
I think the King of Madrid [Raul] and Ronaldo will clash too, because even though it's Ronaldo's boyhood dream to be a Madrid player. Raul will certainly have a problem with CR's partying lifestyle. And the Portuguese's commitment to the side will be tested like no other.
Another aspect will be the expectation of him to replicate what he did in Manchester. Madrid fans will expect him to score 40 goals a season like he did with Man U a couple of seasons ago. There's no way that'll happen. I'm sure him, Kaka, and Villa could do what Eto'o, Henry, and Messi did this last season. However Christino's expectation is to score 30 goals and it doesn't matter how many goals the others get, he has to get his. Of course that will lead to more disharmony because they won't conform to him like Rooney and company did for him.
Of course time will tell and probably more managers will be sacked before we figure out if this is a regrettable decision. Knowing him, he won't see it as a regret, he'll see it as a new challenge because it is true that he's won all he could with Manchester. He'll have to deal with figures that on a given day can be on par with his ability. I wonder how he'll react to that and the comparisons with Messi will continue more now than ever. There will be more and more expectations, it's different to tell the media that you can handle it and then actually do it. This will be the first time that he'll expect to be the alpha dog in his new club. I think this may be too much pressure even for him.
All I know is that the real Ronaldo will smack him in the face if he ever sees him. That's the Phenomenon's number and his only....
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Can I press restart on today?
My day started out at about 8:45am. I was suppose to sit-in on this TESOL course. TESOL is a program that helps those who aren't native speakers to learn how to speak English. It is an interesting program, something that I would most definitely be interested in. I was told about this program last weekend after our game. I thought the courses would start in July sometime. Umm no they started on Monday, totally not prepared for it. I didn't go on Monday because I had lots of other things to do, like put money into my account and mail out my medical and x-ray for my working holiday visa.
Well back to my day, I was already not feeling well at the moment and the fact that I hardly got much sleep didn't make things better. When I got up at about 8am, I tried to take a shower. Unfortunately there were already people in the showers so now I had just hurry to the lobby and get myself to the place.
It was a good lecture. Our teacher taught us the ways in which we should teach students how to comprehend and speak proper English. Many of the other future TESOL teachers were nice. Most of them were from Asian. I'm sure they are plan on heading back to their home countries and help teach those who need it. However some of them actually needed my help in trying to figure out the right words. Go Figure, these people probably don't know how bad my English is.
Well anyways, the session usually goes from 9 to 5. However I was feeling sick and I decided that I probably needed to get back to the hostel and try to feel better. I kept on missing buses which was irritating and I honestly didn't know where I was going after a while. My pride told me that I was going to find my way however I was feeling sicker and sicker by the moment and also carrying a backpack (that I don't even know why I had personally), I was getting real weak.
I finally found a bus that got me to Mt. Eden or close to it. So I tried to wait patiently for another bus to come. And I waited. And I waited some more. After a while I just decided to keep on walking even though I was getting real sick. It took me about three hours to get back home. Honestly if I knew the exact way, I probably would have gotten there in half the time, but pride got in the way. I need to control that.
So I finally got back to the place. Sick, frustrated, and tired, I decided to drop down in my bed and go to sleep and not think about anything that happened. I really wanted to say, I can put this day in the past and just go on from here. Hopefully I won't be sick anymore.
Well back to my day, I was already not feeling well at the moment and the fact that I hardly got much sleep didn't make things better. When I got up at about 8am, I tried to take a shower. Unfortunately there were already people in the showers so now I had just hurry to the lobby and get myself to the place.
It was a good lecture. Our teacher taught us the ways in which we should teach students how to comprehend and speak proper English. Many of the other future TESOL teachers were nice. Most of them were from Asian. I'm sure they are plan on heading back to their home countries and help teach those who need it. However some of them actually needed my help in trying to figure out the right words. Go Figure, these people probably don't know how bad my English is.
Well anyways, the session usually goes from 9 to 5. However I was feeling sick and I decided that I probably needed to get back to the hostel and try to feel better. I kept on missing buses which was irritating and I honestly didn't know where I was going after a while. My pride told me that I was going to find my way however I was feeling sicker and sicker by the moment and also carrying a backpack (that I don't even know why I had personally), I was getting real weak.
I finally found a bus that got me to Mt. Eden or close to it. So I tried to wait patiently for another bus to come. And I waited. And I waited some more. After a while I just decided to keep on walking even though I was getting real sick. It took me about three hours to get back home. Honestly if I knew the exact way, I probably would have gotten there in half the time, but pride got in the way. I need to control that.
So I finally got back to the place. Sick, frustrated, and tired, I decided to drop down in my bed and go to sleep and not think about anything that happened. I really wanted to say, I can put this day in the past and just go on from here. Hopefully I won't be sick anymore.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Weekly blog update
Not really in the crazy blog mood, but I know everybody wants to see my weekly blog post about nonsense of my life in New Zealand. Me and Greg moved into this hostel. It isn't too bad or anything. They do not have a lot of channels and their video collection is limited. By the way, who does VHS anymore. I know these people do. I don't really need the tv anyways. For the time being until my permit comes in I'll be sleeping all day. Especially now that I feel somewhat under the weather.
We had our Chatham Cup game yesterday against Hamilton Wanderers. It was a big game for us. We would make it into the final 16 teams for the national tournament. We started off strong, heavy pressing them and forcing them into many mistakes. We got a goal in the first 45 to make the game 1-0. I feel like I made some boneheaded mistakes in the second half. I thought the ball was going in when nicky struck it so I let it go and the damn ball decided to effin go wide which made me look like a dumbass. And then we got scored on to make it 1-1. We should have scored on numerous opportunities and the one time we did scored they decided to call it offsides even though Jacob easily ran around the dude and crossed it in. The refereeing was a joke yesterday honestly. I did make up for that mistake and scored to make it 2-1. It was a good balll and all I had to do was guide it in. Class! We ended up scoring two more to make it a deserving 4-1 victory. We are probably disappointed it wasn't more but we'll take it and go to the next round.
I was debating whether to walk up Mt. Eden today. That's the suburb that we are living in now. I haven't been feeling too well so I am going to hold off until then. I cannot wait to just sleep for a long time today. That is the plan. I cannot mail out my medical info today because it's Sunday and all the places are closed. So I got to wait until then. I got some stuff to do tomorrow so I'll at least be busy for most of the day.
As for now I'm going to sit here chill in this Internet Cafe next to our hostel and just look up some of the news to keep me updated. Peace
We had our Chatham Cup game yesterday against Hamilton Wanderers. It was a big game for us. We would make it into the final 16 teams for the national tournament. We started off strong, heavy pressing them and forcing them into many mistakes. We got a goal in the first 45 to make the game 1-0. I feel like I made some boneheaded mistakes in the second half. I thought the ball was going in when nicky struck it so I let it go and the damn ball decided to effin go wide which made me look like a dumbass. And then we got scored on to make it 1-1. We should have scored on numerous opportunities and the one time we did scored they decided to call it offsides even though Jacob easily ran around the dude and crossed it in. The refereeing was a joke yesterday honestly. I did make up for that mistake and scored to make it 2-1. It was a good balll and all I had to do was guide it in. Class! We ended up scoring two more to make it a deserving 4-1 victory. We are probably disappointed it wasn't more but we'll take it and go to the next round.
I was debating whether to walk up Mt. Eden today. That's the suburb that we are living in now. I haven't been feeling too well so I am going to hold off until then. I cannot wait to just sleep for a long time today. That is the plan. I cannot mail out my medical info today because it's Sunday and all the places are closed. So I got to wait until then. I got some stuff to do tomorrow so I'll at least be busy for most of the day.
As for now I'm going to sit here chill in this Internet Cafe next to our hostel and just look up some of the news to keep me updated. Peace
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Listening to my fav ipod playlist so my brain is operating for a change...
I felt like I should write something other than my mind-numbing experiences here in New Zealand. However there isn't much in my head. There hasn't been too much going on in my head lately. I have to make a delay on the work permit front because I have to wait to get my medical exam and x-ray papers (which I get on Friday). So I have been having amples and amples of free time and one would think that's cool but in a house with a family inside it, it's kind of hard to just act as if you were a bum and sleep all day or watch tv all day. So I've been trying to walk around and make sure to get to know this place much better than I do now and so hopefully they won't have one more body to worry about, I feel bad about it (my laziness during this time due to my delay).
Back to my head. I haven't been able to get on my ipod alot lately. I don't know why but I decided to put on my headphones and just relax. I've been on a R&B tip lately. I just don't really have the taste at the moment for hip hop. Don't know why and I don't really want to get off the point. So whenever I listen to R&B naturally I begin to think about someone because of course most of these songs talk about the perfect woman and such. Lately, my mind has been void of someone. You can say, " obviously you're in a distant land, you haven't really met that many people yet." That's true however at least someone back in the United States would creep back into my head. That hasn't happened yet either.
It's strange because Marshy (my head coach) and a couple of other players asked if I had a lady-friend back home. Of course I said no and they thought that it was probably for the best. They are probably right for a change. I've finally found a team to play for and I feel like I've been playing well and finally playing my position (hmm despite my supposedly size disadvantage). I don't think having a person, that you care about alot, is going to make your new transition any easier. Plus when you are trying to find a job to get extra income and finding a place to stay everything is stacking up against you. Then if you accidently miss calling her a few times or talking to them on gchat, AIM or whatever you are using these days, they might become very upset with you.
You're going to miss them and want to be with them instead of being here and trying to do something that you love to do and been doing for 16 or 17 years of your life. It's hard to understand in their situation but it's also hard on the person who is far away also. Sometimes you cannot have it both ways.
I was going to go on in a rant about marriage but I don't even want to mention that. I don't want to get married or anything I was going to use it as an example of sacrifice.
With all that being said, that isn't why I have a lady-friend and why I'm not thinking of one. Maybe because rejection creeps into head all the time (among other things that are stupid on my part) but you don't want to be rejected and then even the friendship is awkward until they stop speaking to you altogether and it leaves you wondering what the hell happened or you just have a problem of looking ugly.
Andre, I don't know what you're talking about I look hot as hell.
Maybe that's another reason for my lack of homesickness and for the first time this morning I kind of felt like I want to stay here for the long haul. I just hope everything works out.....
No matter what I decide to do....
Back to my head. I haven't been able to get on my ipod alot lately. I don't know why but I decided to put on my headphones and just relax. I've been on a R&B tip lately. I just don't really have the taste at the moment for hip hop. Don't know why and I don't really want to get off the point. So whenever I listen to R&B naturally I begin to think about someone because of course most of these songs talk about the perfect woman and such. Lately, my mind has been void of someone. You can say, " obviously you're in a distant land, you haven't really met that many people yet." That's true however at least someone back in the United States would creep back into my head. That hasn't happened yet either.
It's strange because Marshy (my head coach) and a couple of other players asked if I had a lady-friend back home. Of course I said no and they thought that it was probably for the best. They are probably right for a change. I've finally found a team to play for and I feel like I've been playing well and finally playing my position (hmm despite my supposedly size disadvantage). I don't think having a person, that you care about alot, is going to make your new transition any easier. Plus when you are trying to find a job to get extra income and finding a place to stay everything is stacking up against you. Then if you accidently miss calling her a few times or talking to them on gchat, AIM or whatever you are using these days, they might become very upset with you.
You're going to miss them and want to be with them instead of being here and trying to do something that you love to do and been doing for 16 or 17 years of your life. It's hard to understand in their situation but it's also hard on the person who is far away also. Sometimes you cannot have it both ways.
I was going to go on in a rant about marriage but I don't even want to mention that. I don't want to get married or anything I was going to use it as an example of sacrifice.
With all that being said, that isn't why I have a lady-friend and why I'm not thinking of one. Maybe because rejection creeps into head all the time (among other things that are stupid on my part) but you don't want to be rejected and then even the friendship is awkward until they stop speaking to you altogether and it leaves you wondering what the hell happened or you just have a problem of looking ugly.
Andre, I don't know what you're talking about I look hot as hell.
Maybe that's another reason for my lack of homesickness and for the first time this morning I kind of felt like I want to stay here for the long haul. I just hope everything works out.....
No matter what I decide to do....
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Denying myself a second goal, being on a boat, and going to a bar called Lenin?
Saturday was a pretty good day overall. I mean we won our soccer game today. Went on a little boat cruise and then stayed out until around 345am.
Earlier in the day we had an away match-up against Ellersie. The locker rooms were crap and we had to spread ourselves through three locker rooms because they were that small. Field was okay, it rained a couple of times so it made the field kinda muddy and it would be easy for legs to tire down easily. I didn't know how we would come out because in our Cup game on Monday we started off pretty flat. Well instead of starting off flat, we scored within the first couple of minutes. They could hardly get the ball off of us really. The only chances they had were when we gave the ball easily and they tried to hit us on the counter attack. I could have had another goal yesterday. It was off of a free kick this time and the ball was flicked to my path. I trapped it down with a "first class" touch and then I got my shot blocked unfortunately. It happened pretty fast that I didn't really know how I didn't score it.
Later on in the first half I managed to injure my shoulder somehow. It hurt bad enough to where I had trouble taking my shirt off at the end of the game. However I could still play the rest of the game with little pain plus it's in my shoulder, so I could still run. We scored three more to win the game pretty easily 4-0. I thought I played pretty well. A bit better than last weekend and plus we were able to get a clean sheet and that was pretty important. Plus the $50 helped also.
After the game, we headed to Stu's place to change clothes and got ready to get on a boat cruise. It wasn't a big boat or anything, but it was pretty fun. This was the first time I've been on a boat like this before. I really don't fish a lot, for that matter I don't go out on the water a lot. We headed out for a three hour ride with all the drinks we wanted. It was pretty chill. The music wasn't that great or anything but I guess it would manage.
The rest of the night wasn't a blur or anything but I don't know if I just wanted to talk about it., nothing bad happened and the noteworthy parts would have been much more funnier if you were there yourself obviously. But we went to this bar called Lenin, I wondered who came up with that idea to have a place called by a ruthless communist kinda strange. I did see one of those ice bars right beside that place. I don't know how I feel about those places. I mean yeah you get a big coat so you would stay warm but all they serve is vodka (i think? or at least at that place) and of course you can't really stay in there for a long amount of time. Oh well, the night ended at about 3:45am. Unlike in most places I go to, these bars close real late here. So I had my fun and luckily I was sane enough not to drink way too much or anything but I still had fun and it was a pretty enjoyable Saturday.
This week, we have a Chatham Cup game against Hamilton Wanderers. This time I will be able to play in the game because I've played two league games which makes me eligible. It'll be my first home game with the club and the field looks in pretty good condition. It should be a good game, if we play well like I know we can, defend well and keep on putting our chances away then we should be coming away with another victory. And another $50 dollars isn't bad at all either.
Nah not bad at all.
Earlier in the day we had an away match-up against Ellersie. The locker rooms were crap and we had to spread ourselves through three locker rooms because they were that small. Field was okay, it rained a couple of times so it made the field kinda muddy and it would be easy for legs to tire down easily. I didn't know how we would come out because in our Cup game on Monday we started off pretty flat. Well instead of starting off flat, we scored within the first couple of minutes. They could hardly get the ball off of us really. The only chances they had were when we gave the ball easily and they tried to hit us on the counter attack. I could have had another goal yesterday. It was off of a free kick this time and the ball was flicked to my path. I trapped it down with a "first class" touch and then I got my shot blocked unfortunately. It happened pretty fast that I didn't really know how I didn't score it.
Later on in the first half I managed to injure my shoulder somehow. It hurt bad enough to where I had trouble taking my shirt off at the end of the game. However I could still play the rest of the game with little pain plus it's in my shoulder, so I could still run. We scored three more to win the game pretty easily 4-0. I thought I played pretty well. A bit better than last weekend and plus we were able to get a clean sheet and that was pretty important. Plus the $50 helped also.
After the game, we headed to Stu's place to change clothes and got ready to get on a boat cruise. It wasn't a big boat or anything, but it was pretty fun. This was the first time I've been on a boat like this before. I really don't fish a lot, for that matter I don't go out on the water a lot. We headed out for a three hour ride with all the drinks we wanted. It was pretty chill. The music wasn't that great or anything but I guess it would manage.
The rest of the night wasn't a blur or anything but I don't know if I just wanted to talk about it., nothing bad happened and the noteworthy parts would have been much more funnier if you were there yourself obviously. But we went to this bar called Lenin, I wondered who came up with that idea to have a place called by a ruthless communist kinda strange. I did see one of those ice bars right beside that place. I don't know how I feel about those places. I mean yeah you get a big coat so you would stay warm but all they serve is vodka (i think? or at least at that place) and of course you can't really stay in there for a long amount of time. Oh well, the night ended at about 3:45am. Unlike in most places I go to, these bars close real late here. So I had my fun and luckily I was sane enough not to drink way too much or anything but I still had fun and it was a pretty enjoyable Saturday.
This week, we have a Chatham Cup game against Hamilton Wanderers. This time I will be able to play in the game because I've played two league games which makes me eligible. It'll be my first home game with the club and the field looks in pretty good condition. It should be a good game, if we play well like I know we can, defend well and keep on putting our chances away then we should be coming away with another victory. And another $50 dollars isn't bad at all either.
Nah not bad at all.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
State of Origin
June 5, 2009
On Monday while I was watching the Australian Sportscenter, They were talking about a big rugby match called State of Origins. They didn't give me any more details on what the game was about. They just talked about who was going to be able to play and who was injured. So me being curious, I decided to go on the wikipedia and look it up and see what it was all about.
According to wikipedia, this is a three game series that pits all the players from the Australian state of Queensland against all the players from New South Wales. If you wanted to look at it in American terms, think of an All-Star game or a Pro Bowl. But in this series of games, all these players are playing for their home states and bragging rights. So unlike the typical All-Star game, these guys are going as hard as humanly possible and trying to hurt the players on the other team. (I've heard that they get into fights in these match-ups. There's nothing like seeing people wreck it out on TV)
I didn't know if the people in New Zealand would actually tune in to this, because it was an Australian event. However I was invited to watch the game with a few of the boys on the team and such. So I decided why not, plus it will give me a better view of what rugby was all about instead of watching it from home and not really know what's going on.
You can think of Rugby as football in that they are running and trying to tackle each other. However there aren't that many stoppages in rugby except for the occasion video replay. Also there is no quarterback that you have to be mindful of, you get to just hit whoever has the ball. The rules are that a try is worth 4 pts and a goal is worth two. Wherever you score the try, that's where you would have to kick your goal, which in our terms would mean an extra point (two for them though). So while trying to score a try, you would want to get it as close to the middle of the park as possible. Oh and you have to touch the ball into the ground to get a try, it's not enough to just run into the end zone.
The game was pretty exciting. Even though for the most part I did not know what was going on. I didn't know which was a good play or which was a bad one. The guys did help me out by explaining more about what was good and bad. And after a while I got very much into the game. Queensland won the first match-up 28-18. The next game will be in Sydney, home territory for New South Wales, hopefully it will be a very exciting game because I'll be following it closely.
Everything is going fine with me. The work permit still hasn't came in yet so during the days I'm just trying to find things to do around the house. Which means I'm more likely on the computer searching things on facebook. I'm also trying to get this SanDisk to work. It is a chip that I put on my phone to save pictures on and I'm trying to put them on my computer but I'm having no luck whatsoever in doing so. So the pictures are going to have to wait. Until I google the problem and see what I can do about it.
We have another road game tomorrow against Ellerslie. They are a mid-table team but it is in their home park and anything can happen away from home. I'm not overly worried about it. If we play like the way I know we can then this should be an easy win and another $50 win bonus woo! LOL
I'm still waiting for the homesickness to occur. I'm not really waiting for it but it always happens when you know you are going to stay at a distant place for a long extent amount of time. Another week has went by and I am continuing to love this place by the moment. Also another thing that might be helping me avoid the homesickness is that almost everyone I know has spread out to do things with their lives. Aaron is back in Chapel Hill, Will is going to New York, Juan is in DC. It seems like everyone is making moves with their lives and I think that I should do the same thing and try to make something out of myself.....
Plus the fish and chips here are bangin.....
On Monday while I was watching the Australian Sportscenter, They were talking about a big rugby match called State of Origins. They didn't give me any more details on what the game was about. They just talked about who was going to be able to play and who was injured. So me being curious, I decided to go on the wikipedia and look it up and see what it was all about.
According to wikipedia, this is a three game series that pits all the players from the Australian state of Queensland against all the players from New South Wales. If you wanted to look at it in American terms, think of an All-Star game or a Pro Bowl. But in this series of games, all these players are playing for their home states and bragging rights. So unlike the typical All-Star game, these guys are going as hard as humanly possible and trying to hurt the players on the other team. (I've heard that they get into fights in these match-ups. There's nothing like seeing people wreck it out on TV)
I didn't know if the people in New Zealand would actually tune in to this, because it was an Australian event. However I was invited to watch the game with a few of the boys on the team and such. So I decided why not, plus it will give me a better view of what rugby was all about instead of watching it from home and not really know what's going on.
You can think of Rugby as football in that they are running and trying to tackle each other. However there aren't that many stoppages in rugby except for the occasion video replay. Also there is no quarterback that you have to be mindful of, you get to just hit whoever has the ball. The rules are that a try is worth 4 pts and a goal is worth two. Wherever you score the try, that's where you would have to kick your goal, which in our terms would mean an extra point (two for them though). So while trying to score a try, you would want to get it as close to the middle of the park as possible. Oh and you have to touch the ball into the ground to get a try, it's not enough to just run into the end zone.
The game was pretty exciting. Even though for the most part I did not know what was going on. I didn't know which was a good play or which was a bad one. The guys did help me out by explaining more about what was good and bad. And after a while I got very much into the game. Queensland won the first match-up 28-18. The next game will be in Sydney, home territory for New South Wales, hopefully it will be a very exciting game because I'll be following it closely.
Everything is going fine with me. The work permit still hasn't came in yet so during the days I'm just trying to find things to do around the house. Which means I'm more likely on the computer searching things on facebook. I'm also trying to get this SanDisk to work. It is a chip that I put on my phone to save pictures on and I'm trying to put them on my computer but I'm having no luck whatsoever in doing so. So the pictures are going to have to wait. Until I google the problem and see what I can do about it.
We have another road game tomorrow against Ellerslie. They are a mid-table team but it is in their home park and anything can happen away from home. I'm not overly worried about it. If we play like the way I know we can then this should be an easy win and another $50 win bonus woo! LOL
I'm still waiting for the homesickness to occur. I'm not really waiting for it but it always happens when you know you are going to stay at a distant place for a long extent amount of time. Another week has went by and I am continuing to love this place by the moment. Also another thing that might be helping me avoid the homesickness is that almost everyone I know has spread out to do things with their lives. Aaron is back in Chapel Hill, Will is going to New York, Juan is in DC. It seems like everyone is making moves with their lives and I think that I should do the same thing and try to make something out of myself.....
Plus the fish and chips here are bangin.....
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Just a lil Exploration
June 3, 2009So today and yesterday I decided to do a little exploring for myself.
Yesterday I went to Mission Bay and walked on the beach for a little bit with Jacob as my guide. Obviously there is no one on the beach because it is the winter time. And this isn't really a popular beach to go to just to sit on the beach. Still it was beautiful scenery and if I had a real camera instead of my camera phone I would have taken better pictures. Also while we were driving around the waterfront, there was a big volcanic island. It looked beautiful from a far. I also tried to take a picture of it but I was unsuccesful in getting a good pic of it.
Today, I ventured out to Mt. Albert and just stared down into the city of Auckland. It was kind of nice sitting down and listening to nice smooth music while the cool breeze was hitting the back of my head. With the view that I had I was able to look down into the Pacific Ocean also. It was neat to say the least.
I'm glad to get out of the house today. I felt it would have been a long day if I didn't. Plus the fact that I did clean up my living area early this morning. I don't know what's gotten into me, I'm cleaning rooms now? Really? Going outside was the nice remedy for my boringness (yeah I just created that word).
Now I'm about to get ready for training tonight. It is going to be very very very cold outside. About 3 degs C, you can convert it to Fairenheit on your own time. All I know is that it is going to be frigid. I don't know how I worked this out, skipped out on American's summer to come to winter down under? That doesn't make too much sense at all. Oh well, it'll be worth it. I get to have more intense training and also I'm at least doing something with my days.
Alright I don't really have anything else to babble about. Most of this nonsense probably didn't make any sense. Hopefully my thoughts will come to in a few....
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