Sorry for the lag, there hasn't been too much excitement lately. I do have some fun stuff to share though!
Rugby! We went to the USA vs. Australia Rugby Match here in Wellington a week ago. For those of you that don't know much about Rugby (like us), there are 20 teams in this World Cup Tournament. Australia is ranked 2nd, USA is ranked 17th. In other words, we were well aware that our team would most likely get slaughtered on the field. Elliot and I geared up with our USA flags and headed down to the waterfront to grab a beer before the match. We figured there would be a good crowd of USA fans, but we TOTALLY underestimated. We forgot to figure in the big rivalry between New Zealand (#1) and Australia (#2). Any kiwi All Blacks fan wanted Austraila to go down. They had lost in a big upset to Ireland, so another upset losing to us would have prevented them from going on to the next round. So, one of the few teams New Zealand doesn't want to meet in the finals was going up against the USA. If you haven't figured it out by now, pretty much all the kiwis were USA fans for a day! It was crazy! People were so dressed up, and in very elaborate ways. We saw grown men in American Flag spandex suits. It was awesome. We headed over to Chicago, which is one of the few American bars in Wellington. We expected a crowd, but we did not expect what we found. The place was decked out in USA decorations including giant flags hanging outside and red, white, and blue Christmas lights strung everywhere. You could barely move, let alone get to the bar to order a drink. We took in the scene, snapped a few pictures, then headed out to a less crowded joint (The Bull & Bear) for some food and beers (still met an American there though, which was cool). See some of the pictures from Chicago by clicking on this link
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627667368815/
The stadium is right on the Waterfront in Wellington, so we were pretty close. We started to make our way to the stadium and ran into even more crazy USA fans. Some of them were actually American, but the large majority were kiwis. As were were walking into the stadium we heard a group of people chanting. Once we got closer we realized what they were saying and joined in...
Leader: AMERICA!
Crowd: Fuck Yeah!
For anyone who hasn't seen the movie Team America (by the South Park guys), as long as you aren't easily offended, you really need to watch it. Not only will the above make sense, but it is a really hilarious movie.
The match went better than expected. Don't get me wrong, we lost, but it wasn't a blowout and we even scored some points! There were lots of USA chants going on, which was cool. We took a video of it so everyone could hear. It ended up that the people sitting next to us were Americans visiting New Zealand on their honeymoon. They were really cool and also knew nothing about rugby. They, like us, just got tickets because they figured why not, if we're there anyway we might as well go! They were from Portland, but originally from Alaska. We had a great time hanging out with them and even hit up a bar together afterwards. It was great to hang out with some more Americans, but unfortunately that was their last night before leaving. Hopefully we at least helped them enjoy it! On a side note, we met a couple of communists while at that bar. It was weird. Elliot was talking to this older guy, and so I started talking to his female friend. After a few minutes she began to elude to the fact that she didn't like that New Zealand gave us Visas to work in the country, and that we shouldn't be there. I was shocked. That was the first time anyone had been anything but accepting. I found out from Elliot later that he started having a political debate with the guy, and based on everything the guy was saying he was a Marxist. I didn't expect to find many communists in New Zealand. Weird but funny! Elliot couldn't resist a political debate with a Marxist, when would he have that opportunity again? The links below will take you to some pictures of the match, our friends for the night, and a video so you can hear all the USA chants :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627667374337/
http://www.youtube.com/user/EandLeeNZ?feature=mhee
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