40 Hour Famine

                               

So starting early last saturday morning at 2am was the 40 Hour Famine which is a nation wide charity cause in Australia to fundraise money for starving children in various countries around china and asia.  I decided to participate and see if i could actually go 40 hours without food along with 40 others from the dorm I am in.  We were not allowed to eat or drink anything but water, juice that just has sugar added, and boiled sweets which are like zero calorie lifesaver type things.  The famine was scheduled to go from 2am saturday morning and ending sunday evening at 6pm with a huge feast in the dining hall.  All of us stayed up late friday night and made a run to McDonalds, or "Maccas" as they call it here. All of us got happy meals and finished them just before 2am and the start of the famine.  I cant remember the last time I had a happy meal but it was a great change and a lot of fun with all the toys and the word search on the box entertaining us for quite a bit until we all decided it was time for bed.  All day saturday we had events planned in order to keep our mind off food.  Starting at 11am all of us went down to the Long Room and starting making arts and crafts for Global Highway which is an event put on by the University where they have about 20-25 stands each with a different country and activity at each countries table.  Our dorm (Weerona) was given two table to make, Japan and Norway.  I was on team Japan and we decided to make a bunch of mario stuff.  So we made carts out of cardboard boxes and designed them like Peaches, Marios, Luigis, Toads, and DK's car in the game Mario Kart and then made costumes to wear for each character.  We also got Mario golf and Mario tennis games to play.

          

Once we finished a few of us went outside and played some american football which then turned into a small game of rugby league until it started to rain and us american who wernt 100% sure of what we were doing got sick of playing.  Next a few of us set up a mini golf course with the Mario golf game around the dorm, and played some totem tennis.  Finally it was 8:30pm and time for fort night where we made a giant fort out of our mattresses and the like 30 couches and chairs in the TV Room.  Once the fort was built we decided to play some more Uno until midnight when me and the rest of the people going on the One Fish Two Fish trip during spring break went to book our flights from Sydney to Brisbane and then from Cairns to Sydney!  So excited for this trip to see two more australian cities, the great barrier reef, daintree rainforest, whitsunday islands, bungy jumping, bungy swinging through the rainforest, maybe skydiving, snorkling, 4 wheel driving and so much more!  The next day (Sunday morning) I wasnt really feeling hungry as much as just really really tired and I just had no energy to do anything.  Even walking up the stairs made me tired so there was no way I was going to participate in the Intercollege AFL (AFL is Australian Football League which is a form of rugby played mainly in just Australia) game at 1pm so I just went and watch our Weeronians win every game against the other dorms like campus east, I-house, kooloobong, and kieraview.  AFL is played with 18 people on each team and is basically no form at all, kinda just tackle and run and eventually try to kick the ball between two post at each end of the field.  During the game one of our players dislocated his knee and had to be brought to the hospital, so that made me glad I choose not to play, some of these aussie rugby players are pretty big.

 Finally It was 6pm and time for the big feast.  It was delicious mashed potatoes, corn, carrots, brocolli, chicken breast, and steak along with either blueberry cheesecake or rocky road cheesecake for dessert.  It was a great way to end the famine.


Also last Thursday was the first big assignment I had due.  It was an essay for my Locating Australia class.  The question was:
i) Provide a working definition of 'transnational history' and describe how it differs from national history.
ii) What does transnational history offer historians of Australia?

I found myself repeating the same thing over and over in order to get to the 1000 word limit but I think it was a decent essay so hopefully I get an HD on my first paper, but I doubt it because I heard they grade hard. The grading goes High Distinction (100-85), Distinction (84-75), Credit (74-65), Pass (64-50).
Next essay is due this Thursday.  I need to perform an interview with someone asking questions about their opinions on the Australian National Guideline for Physical Activity and write a 1000 word essay on their responses and how the interview went.