Hey, I Saw Ian Thorpe

(From across the arena, but it was still cool :) I wound up going to the second night of swimming at the FINA world championships with two girls from my new, wonderful hostel. It's just down the street from the old one, but it might as well be in a different world. I'm in a small 4 bed female dorm, it's quiet and peaceful, and boasts the biggest, handsomest kitty in the world (sorry, Kuching) named Alex, short for Alexander the Great. He's still warming up to me, but I have faith.

Karenza, one of my dorm mates, is a volunteer for the event, and I went with another girl named Franzie. They both know quite a bit about swimming, which is cool. The swimming is held at Rod Laver arena, which normally hosts the Australian Open. They created a temporary pool on center court, named after the Australian butterfly champ Susie O'Neill. The arena was only 2/3 full, and many seats were filled by team members or sponsored groups. I'm not sure how many paying ticket holders they actually got. Since the cheapest decent seats were A$98, I think FINA priced themselves out of a full house. I also bought tickets for water polo this afternoon. By contrast, admission to see three water polo matches only set me back A$25. I don't know what's up with their price structuring.

Anyway, we saw Brendan Hansen win the men's 100 breast, the Aussie women go 1-2 in the 100 fly, and Katie Hoff set a new Championship record in the 200 IM. Phelps and Van Den Hoogenband swam heats in the men's 200 free. They're both desperately trying to break Ian Thorpe's world record, but they've got quite a ways to go. And I forgot half the words to the star spangled banner. Quite embarrassing.

Melbourne's a great city, and I'm really enjoying my time here. St. Kilda beach is beautiful, although it does take a bit to get into the city center on the tram. Melbourne is much more continental European, in contrast to Sydney's strong British influence. There is actually a synagogue across the street from my first hostel, and a fair number of eastern European immigrants have settled here.

I plan to go on a tour of the great ocean road on Thursday and Friday, and I may just have to see the fairy penguin colony on Phillips Island. It is the biggest tourist attraction in Victoria, but I just might not care. How often am I in the southern hemisphere, anyway?