Adelaide Or Bust!

So I've been living in a town called Naracoorte South Australia for the last 9 months. A place that's a 6 hour drive from Melbourne, 16 hours from Sydney, a bloody world away from Cairns, a different land mass than Tasmania and a mere 4 hours drive to Adelaide. Yet, I've been to Sydney twice, Melbourne more times than I can count, made it down to Tassie and up to Cairns before visiting Adelaide. The capital of my own state. This pretty much makes me pathetic. . .wouldn't ya say? I've spent more time in Victoria than I have in South Australia. And to anyone living in South Australia, they would recognize this as a great Betrayal. Victorians are the dirty Mexicans of Australia. They live south of the (NSW) border :) But no, not this time. I was determined to show some South Australia pride. I spent 5 days in Adeliade doin the Tourist thang with my thrid Host Family, the Agnew's.

First we went to the Monarto Zoo. Now look at that word 'Monarto'. It is pronounced monato. That, like the word 'arse', is the Australian accent in a nutshell. They put useless, meaningless R's in the middle of words just to make themselves different. Bloody hopeless I'd say. Oh, and get this! They do it with U's too!! Colour? Flavour? Labour? What is this country doing to me!!?!?!? Anyways. . .back to the Zoo :) It's a massive chunk of land that was meant to be used to expand the city of Adelaide but because the soil is hopeless for growing crops and no one ever got around to building any hospitals or schools, it's a zoo. With animals mostly imported from South Africa and the USA. There were Bison, Zebras, Giraffes, African painted dogs, lot's of African deer and antelope of some kind or another and Lions. This photo is of Leroy. The king of the Pride. Looks pretty scary. . . RRRAAAWWRRRR!

And the Zebra's. Which is pronounced Z-eh-bra, none of this Z-eeeee-bra hoopla.

Oh, now this is exciting. Well, more exciting than the grammar lesson I've been giving you :) I went to the Footy on Friday night right. Aussie Rules is just about the only sport I can sit down and watch. Cricket is hopelessly boring and Grid Iron is incredibly confusing. Footy just makes sense. It was a St Kilda (My Team) V.S. Port Power match. The Saints creamed Power. Beating them 106 to 32. GO SAINTS!! There was a members thing after the match and my host Dad is a member so I got to meet some of the players and got an autograph on my scarf. To bad I have no idea who this bloke is, let alone what position he plays. . .I'll have to google that one and get back to you on it :) I only know that he was nearly 7 feet tall and is pratically bent in half for this photo. . .WOW.

And then there was ANZAC Day (April 25). Australia and New Zealand Army Corps Day. A day to celebrate and thank all of the men and women who have put their lives on the line for Australia's Freedom, Peace and Safety. There was Dawn Service which I attended. I now have a new respect for the soldiers or a country. I would never do such a thing, but those who do are Heros in my eyes. The ceremony was beautiful. It's to bad we don't do anything like this for the Hero's of the USA.