No, I don't know what SWAT stands for either. But this is my reading period, which is a week long. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with myself - a whole bunch of my friends went to New Zealand, but I stayed in Melbourne. I'm planning on doing a lot of city-exploring; I already have a couple of destinations in mind. I'm going to go shopping - I have a gift certificate for one of the main department stores, plus directions to a "cute, indie" neighborhood with cute shops and cafes. I also plan to go to several art galleries, some museums, the aquarium, and back to the beach.
Last weekend, I had a tournament in Bathurst, which is in New South Wales. We drove 10.5 hours to get there. Bathurst is about as far away as Sydney, and I think its as close as I'll get to Sydney. Our team was mixed, meaning we played with a 4-3 gender ration - 4 men, 3 women. We won three of our seven games, and came in 7th, breaking seed by two. I had a fantastic time. Two of the other women played for Honey as well, and it was really fun to play with them again. The men were pretty fun to play with as well - they all respected the playing abilities of the women on the field. I'm pretty bummed that this is the only tourney I'll get to play with Moho - the Melbourne Uni team. The major tourney - Uni Games, is a month after I leave, and there are no tournaments between now and then, unfortunately.
Its hard to believe the classes portion of my semester is already over. I leave Australia in 28 days. Its making me feel panicky - I want to get "everything" done before I go, but I also have exams to study for. I'm really excited to go home - my bed is possibly the most wonderful thing ever invented, and I miss my family and friends. But I also suddenly have realized that my time here is short - and getting shorter rapidly. Several of the women I played ultimate with have left to go home - be it Canada, the US, or somewhere in Europe. Others are getting ready to do some major travelling - Annie is going to Nepal, where she's going to hike to the base camp of Everest or something crazy like that. In some ways, its nice that others are leaving as well; it makes it easier to prep to go home emotionally, since most of my friends here are other internationals.
