Footie

Sunday was a beautiful afternoon, and we spent it with some of the international volunteers at an AFL match - that's Australian Football League, where men get tackled to the ground without one single bit of equipment to protect them. Sydney Swans vs. Melbourne Bulldogs. We cheered by following the reactions of the people in front of us until we got the hang of it ourselves (or until the person in front of us got too drunk to be coherent... or polite). Melbourne won... 108 to 96.

So, this is what Australian football looks like. As you can see, this guy is kicking the ball with his foot (hence the name) toward four posts sticking up in the air. If you get it between the two middle poles, that's 6 points. If it goes between the two poles on the outside, then that's 1 point. So, there's running around back and forth, scoring of points, and - voila - that's a game of footie.

We had good seats to watch the game...

... but it was super sunny.

And here's Sr. Mary Rachel and Sr. Mary Madeleine enjoying another good part of the game... hot dogs. The funniest part of our afternoon was when we overheard some guy saying "Where are all these nuns coming from?" All two of them... just taking over the place.

After the game, they let all the fans down onto the playing field. Hundreds of people run around with their own footballs playing the most gigantic game of catch imaginable. This poor kid in red got knocked over by someone else's toss. It's all fun and games until someone gets hit in the head....