This past Sunday Mendel and I went to watch the Sydney Football Club play in the semi-final against Adelaide United.
It was an amazing game, and being an avid sports fan, particularly a soccer fan, there is almost nothing like being in a stadium with 35,000 other people, and hearing them erupt in applause as the home team scores a goal. We (we, as in Sydney FC, I have since become a big fan) won the game 2-1 to advance to the final. It was just an awesome experience, and a great game! Wasn't as great as watching a Newcastle United game, but then again, nothing is as great as watching Alan Shearer play!!!
I didn't bring a camera with me to the game, and my official photographer was not present at the game, so unfortunately I have no pictures of myself or my brother during the game. However see if you can spot me in the picture below....Don't look too hard cuz I'm not in that picture!
The final is on the 5th of March, which I plan on going to G-d willing. Hopefully I'll have some personal pics from that game!

GO SYDNEY!

SMICHA PARTY

Almost there....

Our trophy
!!!

My chavrusa

The final page...the Tangy Taffy was my bookmark, it's been in there for months....empty though!

We finished!!!

Pouring the first drops of Dr Pepper...

Mendy and Yanki joining in the celebrations...

Meyer and Yitzi

This week my chavrusa, Jessy, and I finished learning the first section of Smicha. To celebrate the monumental occasion, we had a small celebration party in zal, where I oppened one of my sacred bottles of DR PEPPER!!! This was just a small celebration, there will be a much bigger one in just over a week when we pass the test!!!

BBQ @ STANS

Me at the BBQ...

Getting my teeth into a peice of juicy meat!

Me, Jessy and Chana

A couple weeks ago Stan and Anne (my Australian adoptive family) made a BBQ for the smicha guys here...of course the food was great...I don't really know what else to write about this, so just enjoy the pictures!!!

The eighth wonder of the world...

I decided it was time to put up a picture of the undisputed, best drink in the world...
DR PEPPER!!!
Unfortunately, I am currently exiled from my favorite drink, as they do not sell it in Australia. However, this wonderful drink was recently discovered being sold in a store in Sydney that imports food from England and Ireland (being that there is a high percentage of Irish residing in Australia, don't ask me about the English though!). Being that it is imported all the way from the UK, it is quite pricey, so I continue to live in exile, buying this magnificent drink only on rare occasions!!!

RESCUE TRIP

Last week I got a call on my phone 15 minutes before I was supposed to learn with someone from my community. Apparently my friend, Yitzi, had broken down, due to insufficient amounts of gasoline...in laymans terms...HE RAN OUT OF GAS! So here he was calling me to come to his rescue...As I got near to his breakdown point I noticed how the traffic was getting heavier, until it was almost bumper to bumper. It turns out he broke down just after a major intersection...one of the biggest intersections in Sydney...So everyone had to filter to one lane!!! As you can see from the above pictures, we did rescue him, and we both went our separate ways...after receiving many angry comments from frustrated drivers!!!
Just another day in my Sydney life!!!
(I made my learning appointment, arriving only 3 minutes late, with hands smelling of gasoline!)

SUPERBOWL PARTY

Superbowl sunday....a bunch of us went to someone's house to watch the SuperBowl between the Seattle Seahawks vs the Pittsburgh Steelers...As you can see the party was alot of fun...and the bed was very comfortable!!!

One of my late night Caltex (gas station) walks...

I first started these walks with my roomate and dear friend Meyron. We decided to take a late night walk once to the local gas station to buy a drink. It was then and there that I discovered a drink called VIBE. So now, every once in a while (although I have to admit that its a little more often nowadays), we go for late night walks to the Caltex station and buy our drinks....and I always buy the same drink...VIBE...and I drink it on our way back 'home'!

Just one of my cars...

THE REST OF THE WAY HOME...

THE WAY HOME...
(see MIVTZOIM below to understand whats happening)

Okay, so on the way home from our camp mivtzoim trip (see below), we stopped off to have a BBQ (in true Aussie fashion)...Yours truly did all the cooking whilst all his friends ate!!! It was totaly awesome, we stopped off in middle of nowhere, in some hickville, and just had a BBQ and basically partied....

MIVTZOIM IN CAMP...

Strappin the boys up!

Group photo...

And another one!

Farbrenging with the kids

This past Thursday, myself and a group of my fellow bochurim drove 2 hours north of Sydney to Lake Macquarie (ya, I know the name probably means nothing to you, but...), where a non-Jewish school was having a camp. We went up to put on tefillin with the Jewish boys who were in camp and talk to the Jewish kids about Judaism in general. In addition to being a great mivtzoim it was a heckuva lot of fun!!!