Rugby Time

Saturday 24 April 2010

I know it has been over a week since my last entry. It is hard to just sit down and write what has been happening. So what ends up happening is I don't write and I get really long entries. Although, I did warn everyone that this would probably happen. I just hate doing it.

So lately the Internet has been going at the slowest speed possible. Sometimes, it wouldn't show anything at all for over an hour. So Internet use has been quite limited. We have had interactions with our newest flatmate. He is quite the chatter box, to the point where he makes me feel out of breath. He has moved in and is quite excited about the flat. I don't really understand why, since he has already been making a lot of changes (such as painting his room, buying all kinds of bedding, and many other things). He said he was a compulsive, excessive spender. He wanted to buy things and just split the cost of ingredients. Alison and I kind of put our foot down on the since we are here to save money. Not spend it excessively (unless, that is, we are travelling). After a couple days, he told us that he has been here only 1/2 week and already things are working out for him. We almost laughed out loud. A whole 1/2 week! You must be doing great!!! He is still in his honeymoon stage. We will see how long that wears off. Our wore off LONG ago. He is planning on living here a long time, so it is going to be hard to relate to him, since we are here for a few months, and then the travelling begins!

So about the Rugby game (hence the title name). We decided to have a New Zealand experience of seeing Rugby. We have been told by numerous people that Rugby is not as crazy as European football. We though, "That sounds perfect." So we walked down to the stadium and got our bags checked. the guy checking our bags asked if we were rooting for the Cheetahs or Crusaders. Fortunately, we had found out that the Cheetahs were from South Africa and the Crusaders were from Christchurch. It still took me a couple seconds to process who was who, so my answer sounded a bit phony. Then and found our seats. Well, we were directly in the middle of the goal post and we were in the very front row. The players were practicing their kicks, so the balls would come directly at us. It frightened us, because neither one of us would be good at catching them, so we dodged out of the way of the flying balls. After a couple headed straight our way, we got up to ask if there was any way we could sit somewhere else. Fortunately, it was not a sold out game, and they allowed us to sit further back. It was also better, because the speakers were deafening.

So we sat, freezing in the Stadium, to watch a game that neither of us are familiar with. The mascot came out (a crusader on a horse) and went across the field. Then several other Crusaders started galloping across the field and there were flames of fire blazing in all sections of the stadium. It was kind of cool. I tried to take pictures and videos, but they did not come out all that well.

So the first half of the game, we tried to figure out the rules. The only reference I had was American football. Well, it is similar yet, very different. There are 2 halves and both are 40 minutes. The thing is, they never stop. When the ball hits the ground, it is up for grabs for either team. I think the only time the timer stops is when it is out of bounds or someone is hurt. There is a lot of kicking and throwing of the ball. They even lift players up to catch the ball if it is in the air. It was actually quite interesting.

1/2 time was quite ridiculous. They had two "bad guys" on the field shooting up in the air so the police dogs would attack them. The dogs would bite their arms, then they would be dragged of the field. We were not impressed.

Well, the score was 45 to 6. Crusaders won. It was not a difficult game, and not very exciting, but at least the Christchurch Crusaders won.