Week 4 (Aug. 2nd- Aug. 8th) - Nothing interesting or informative happened this week.
Week 5 (Aug. 9th- Aug. 15th) - This week was formally known as Ekka Week in Australia. Actually, it's more formally known as the Brisbane Exhibition, but any long title or word never escapes without an informal abbreviation here, hence Ekka. It is an agricultural fair of sorts, and Wednesday was recognized as a public holiday due to the cultural significance of the Ekka. Since Wednesday was a public holiday, we spent Tuesday night like any other society that has the next day off work - we got very very drunk. A group of about 12 of us went out to dinner and brought about 6 bottles of wine, which by some peoples standards may be plenty of alcoholic refreshment, but clearly was not enough for our group. By the end of the dinner and 9 bottles of wine later, the lazy susan (that spinning disk in the middle of the table you put entrees on) and a spoon had been transformed into a lethal drinking game. We had about 3 bottles of wine left, and with no one willing to sacrifice their livers for the team, we came up with a clever involuntary drinking method. We placed the spoon on the lazy susan, spun the lazy susan around, and whoever the spoon pointed towards had to down a glass of wine. No one was safe from the spoon. Eventually, after finishing all the wine and annoying everyone in the restaurant, we meandered to the Jube to drink some more. The Jube is a cowboy themed bar complete with complimentary straw cowboy hats and a mechanical bull - notice that even while intoxicated we are keeping with the agricultural theme of Ekka. I'm pretty sure we danced, sang, and socialized for a bit and then headed back to our place for a dip in Michael's "love tub" jacuzzi- because after a long day on the farm it's tradition for the ranch hands to take a dip in their love tubs. Okay, that's not true at all, we totally broke with the agricultural theme on this one. While others who shall remain nameless found a whole-lotta love in the tub that night, Michael and I fought to see who could collect the most floating miniature rubber duckies. I think I won...
The next morning we worked on nursing our hangovers and piecing together missing parts of the night. Advil, water, and bread was needed, STAT! After all, we had about two hours to pull ourselves together and get ready for the horse races. We hired a van and the Irish girls and the roomies went to New Farm race track. From afar it looked kind of glamorous. Girls wore dresses of all lengths and colors with over-sized hats or flowers in their hair, while guys looked dapper in their suits. But then after closer observation and a couple hours of drinking, this civilized gathering rapidly declined into what could only be described as the horse racing scene from My Fair Lady on crack. Think Kentucky Derby meets Jersey Shore. The crowd was slightly younger and while they were putting on their best show, it had quickly turned into a shit show, perhaps a dressed-up version of what we looked like last night. Girls could no longer function in their heels, guys were wrestling each other and rolling around in the grass, people were making out so hard I think they'd forgot horse races were even taking place - all of this in their Sunday's best. Whatever, it was still fun to watch everyone walk by and rate what they were wearing. It was kind of like watching the red carpet show before the Oscars, except it was nothing like the red carpet show before the Oscars. I definitely plan on going again, it is quite the unique experience.
I spent the rest of the weekend recovering and writing my first paper that was due on Monday. I learned that weekend that while I was able to easily get away with procrastinating in college, that work ethic was not going to fly in grad school. Right now I'm struggling to find the balance between school and social life - without one or the other suffering to grave a consequence. On top of that, I eventually will need to add a job in there somewhere. Oh, in case you were curious, I wrote my paper on the national and human security threats of Uganda brought on by the Lord's Resistance Army. Although the crisis there is dire and tragic, it is just as sad to me that compared to other world issues, this issue has only received minimal media and scholarly attention.
Avoiding lazy susans and spoons from now on,
Jillian aka - Jilly, Jillypet, Jillybean, J-Dilla, J-Bones, and sometimes Crab Cakes
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