Sports, Horses, Hell

In case you haven't heard, Adelaide is currently breaking records. Sports records? Maybe. Drinking Records? Probably. Temperature Records? DING DING We have a winner!! That's right, for the past 13 days the weather in Adelaide has been over 35 degrees...errr I mean over 95 degrees. Ironic because I think the East coast is chilling at 35 degrees as well, but that's actually in Fahrenheit. So though you may be bundled up in your jacket, be jealous of the fact that I get to go to the beach and lounge around in shorts and tanks tops. Oh and lets not forget that fact that I also get to sleep on the floor in the library of St. Mark's because my room is 100 degrees ALL THE TIME. Yah, I know you're jealous. If that didn't rouse enough jealousy, here are some other things to tickle your green eyed monster with:

Adelaide Cup -- that's right, horses racing in 100 degree weather. Forget about animals rights, lets talk about the people here!! Heat wave or not, Devon, Jenn, Laura and I all dressed in our finest with a bottle of wine in hand and climbed in the Gassie for a trip to the races. Now, I thought people in Virginia went a little nuts with their big hats and summer dresses for horse racing. Oh no, Australians have us beat. Feathers, flowers, hats, birds, strings, god knows what else these women glued it on a hat or directly to their hair. Seriously, one woman was in a yellow dress with a yellow and orange feathered hat. She looked like a duck. Now, I tried my best to take some decent pictures of these women, but it was hard to do it without being caught. I only successfully got one. Don't worry, slideshow will follow. I didn't beat on any of the horses cause lets face it, how do I know if Mystic is faster than Golden Flower? Either way, the races were a blast and I even attempted to make up my own words to the Australian anthem. Needless to say, some of the Aussies weren't too pleased about that =P The trip home we all piled into the Gassie and by all I mean a good 30 people sitting on each other's laps on the floor of this old truck. It was quite an adventure, but just to spice things up a bit the cops pulled us over and had about 5 people get out. Yah, that really made a difference. We made it back to St. Mark's safe and sound and spent the rest of the evening laying on the tennis courts sipping wine and talking.

St. Mark's and Sports -- thus far, St. Mark's has had two athletic events: Tennis and Swimming. Tennis, we rocked. We won the entire tournament in the girls, boys and co-ed divisions. BOO YAH. Swimming, nooottt tooo shabby, but we didn't come out on top. Though swimming was like a cheer fest. We were all sitting in the stands screaming St. Mark's cheers, wearing our St. Mark's polos (THANKS MOM!) and showing some school spirit. I, as an ex-Spirit Queen (2 years in a row), had to of course led some cheers and yell at the top of my lungs. Needless to say, I lost my voice. Tony was on the swim team, he did really well and overall St. Mark's was 3rd place. Why does this all matter? Three Words: HIGH TABLE CUP. St. Mark's has won the High Table Cup 6 years in a row. Which means we have scored the highest or won all of the sporting events against the other residential colleges. The new Master is dead set on going for the unprecedent 7th year. Good thing this semester brought some of the loudest and most spirited Americans ever (that would be Devon and I).

Still not jealous? Well this one might put you over the top:

Hell -- yes, you read that right, Hell. Now I know you must be thinking "Seriously, Emily, why would I be jealous of Hell? And are you talking about real Hell or has the weather completly melted your brain?" Well before I answer those questions (Yes you should be jealous. Yes, real Hell.), I must explain floor crawl. Floor crawl is a drinking activity that allows the members of your floor or hall bond with each other. We team up with another person on the hall and we decorate, have drinks and a game that goes along with the floor's theme. Our floor's theme was Vacation Locations. So under this theme we had: the Moon, Rome, and Mexico to name a few. Now for the jealousy part. Tony and I teamed up and came up with the most epic idea ever. Destination: Hell. I went shopping slash found in the storage room at St. Mark's the most AMAZING decorations (fabric with flames, red sheets, red yellow and orange balloons, red streamers and other devilish things). Tony and I dressed in devil outfits, me in a red dress with horns, him in a red cape with horns. Seriously, I was so pumped through this party, even writing about it now (three days later) I'm still so impressed by it. I took pictures. I'll post them. You'll be jealous.

Okay...so maybe Hell isn't your thing. But, if you know the person I am about to talk about next, believe me, YOU WILL BE JEALOUS.

Mr. Dolan -- that's right. Mr. Dolan, Jackie's dad!! He was on a business trip here in Adelaide and I got to have dinner with him!! I seriously was so excited. We had a really awesome dinner at a Chinese place and even had some chocolate cake (though I had to eat the whole thing because Mr. Dolan didn't want any pssh). It was so wonderful to see someone from home. Jackie if you read this, please thank your dad. It was really great of him to take the time and see me and it honestly made my night. =)


Alright, so don't be too jealous because in reality I am jealous of all of you. I miss being home a lot and though I am having a fantastic time here, seeing people from home, like Mr. Dolan, really makes me miss being in Virginia. I will post pictures from all these adventures soon. =)