Boxing Day

ranoodle31
Dec 25, 2015
3 min read

Today we went and celebrated the Australian holiday Boxing day by attending the Test Cricket Match at one of the biggest stadiums in the world the MCG.. This stadium is absolutely huge, but it was not too full because they were playing a team that was not too good. They played the West Indies. So I know NOTHING about cricket!!! All I knew is that a one guy pitched/threw a ball at another guy who was batting, but their bats are long and flat. And they try to hit the ball.....so it kind of sounds like an American baseball game.

We started talking to a group of people behind us to ask them about the game since we were pretty clueless.

Apparently the batter is trying to defend these wickets that are behind them, and ontop of these 3 wickets (poles) there are these 1 or 2 bails that sit on top of the poles. They are trying to make sure that the ball doesn't hit the wickets and knock off the thing on top of the poles. By the way.....this guy who is pitching this ball towards the batter is actually called the bowler.

So we had a rare thing happen at the game, where 2 players scored more than 100 runs in the game! Now that sounds a bit absurd but in the game depending on where the ball ends up from the batter hitting it. They can have different runs scored depending on where it ends. The ball can roll all the way to the green boarder which is the fartherst out and they get 4 runs for it. If the ball goes over the green line they get 6 points for it. The lower runs are earned when the ball is hit and the batter runs towards the bowler and crosses a line. That is one run. Have I lost you yet? Haha we had a blast thanks to the fine group of people behind us. They were absolutely wonderful!!!! I think the people here in Melbourne are some of the nicest around, along with the Fijian people. While we were all hanging out they bought us a few rounds of beer, which is pretty unheard of back in the states. During the game the fans do this thing called a cup snake, and the police and secuity in the stadium absolutely don't want people doing it. It is where people keep their empty beer cups and stack them together. They get as long as 30 seats or so......they hold them up and it looks like a snake. The securtiy and police come over and people will either toss all of the cups in the air or keep stakcs and go recycle them. It is quite hysterical, people try to do this very silently without being caught until someone shows up. Once this happens, you are toss out of the game, so most of the time people will do it in a high scoring or very boring game. Just about when the game was over this lovely group of people asked if we wanted to go out and join them for dinner. We said absolutely!!! They took us to a place called Cookie. I had no idea what I was in for that is for sure.....Cookie is a Thai place. I have never had Thai food primarily because I am not really a fan of going to try a whole meal that is new and not liking any of it. I find that wasting food is annoying :) Well this food was amazing!!!!!!! Our newly found friends Dannielle, Clint and JD picked out some amazing plates of food. Some breaded thingy, a noodle dish, some pork belly, some pad thai and some chicken dish. I could of eaten this days on end. I enjoyed most of it so much that I ended up getting some thai food the next day.

Till my next post....

XOXO