One Month Down

Hello all and welcome to another summary of my latest week in Australia. I will begin again by wishing you all the best and hoping that this finds you doing very well, very happy, and very healthy! Australia is wonderful, but I must let you know something. I have been talking about the beautiful weather every time I have posted. This past week it rained 4 days and it came down long and hard. Normally this time of year they get rain showers similar to Florida. It rains hard for 20 – 30 minutes and it is gone. This past week it was continuous. Ironically, last week I wrote about how it has not rained and how dry it is here. The very next day…Bam!

This week I am going to format this blog a bit different. I am going to let you in on the happenings of the week, starting with today and concluding with where I left off last week. So, today… It is currently late Tuesday night. I just returned home from training, which I hope propels us into some better play for this upcoming weekend, and was fortunate enough to chat with a couple friends on Facebook, respond to some messages, and speak to my lovely mother! I had two long days of work at the high school thus far this week, 8-5, and it continues to amaze me how the schooling is different here. High school is not compulsory. Kids are not required to graduate, but rather to finish year 11 or their last year while they are 17 years old. At this point most of the kids find apprenticeships in the trades or work in the mines.

It appears to be very rare for a student to attend a University from the high school I teach at. This is not because of the school I teach at, but what seems to be the region. You might wonder why this is, but there is so much money in this region due to the heavy gold mining that these kids are able to come out of high school unskilled and make between $75-$150 k a year. Now, the trades are tough 12 hour days, but due to the high wages in the mines, local businesses and employers must compete with those mines for workers and thus the wages in Kalgoorlie are heavily inflated for basic jobs. This is where I benefit!

You might wonder why you are not in Kal working for that much or how do those companies afford to pay wages like that. Well there are a lot of people that come over to mine. Most of these people are Kiwi’s, aka New Zealanders. In regards to the latter, Western Australia produces roughly 2 million ounces of gold a year at a profit margin of roughly $600 per ounce. Kal may account for half of that production. Now these numbers are not exact or quoted, but fairly good estimates. And profit margin is after paying those enormous wages. Do the math…gold is a good business to be in. I might just start prospecting in my free time.

Now to the weekend. This weekend was our first home game. We played the Willeton Tigers who appear to be a league favorite. Kal is known to have the best home crowd in the league and it was far better than the two previous opposing arenas that we have played in. I heard a rumor that the alcohol sales were roughly $7,000 for the night and the game was not as full as usual due to a Children’s Charity Ball in town and some Cricket grand finals taking place Saturday night. It was a fun atmosphere as they play music throughout the game, have an announcer commentating and getting the crowd into the game, and they serve alcohol with a bar right off the baseline.



We played well sporadically throughout the night. We had the equivalent of Paul Conrad as an official, and those of you who know him and me, my game and his philosophy of calling a game a far contrasting. He is however a very consistent official- always terrible. I fouled out but finished with 17 points and 4 rebounds. I was limited to only 20 minutes of playing and a couple of my later fouls were very marginal at best. To this day I have never committed a foul in a game! We lost by 2 points, 110-108, and had a chance to win the game with 16 seconds left but just couldn’t get it done. It is unfortunate to lose, especially at home, but we have a lot of work to do, a lot of room for improvement and a lot of games ahead of us.



After the game we gathered at a “mates” house where he and his girlfriend hosted the team and friends. After a couple “cartons” of Coronas ($50 AUD a case here) we took to Hannan Street to have some drinks and actually meet up with the opposing team. This was a bit different, but it was a lot of fun getting on the “piss” with the guys and shooting the breeze. I must have the worst accent in the world because I went to the bar and was going to order a pitcher “jug” of beer. I asked for a jug of beer and I was handed a small glass with Jim Beam and coke. I cannot explain how I received what I did by asking what I asked, but the confusion took place, I drank the Beam and I blame it on my accent.

After bouncing back and forth between The Palace and DeBos I was ready to head home. I had plenty of beverages, dancing (which after taking ballroom lessons things seem to really be coming together- lol) and the clock striking 5 am this pumpkin was ready for bed. The only issue now was getting up for church at 9:30 am. Do not fear I was sitting in the 6th row for mass.

After church and a lovely brunch, the team came over for a big barbecue. I was not lying about how popular they are here. Some of the guys were having a few drinks but I wasn’t about to dabble. It was nice getting all the players, their families, “partners”, and supporters of the team together early in the season to put names to faces and get a nice dinner in. I put in “partners” because here everyone refers to their boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife/etc. as a partner. I received a game pass for my “partner” to let them enter free of charge and I had to explain to them that where I come from partner is used differently. It is unusual playing games where you do not have any friends or family at your home games. I was so used to signing up for tickets the last couple years for my parents, visitors, or other important people that were going to be at the game and looking up to find them in the stands. Playing at home here is still playing at home and you look forward to it, but it is different. Just as transitioning from high school to college was different because all of your best friends have been replaced by acquaintances in the stands.

Anyways, Last Friday was a big day for Mike Haney (the other import) and me. Mike had recorded all the NCAA tournament games on the television and we were set to watch basketball. I did not have to work because the fair was in town and the school closed down for it. The games were all taped delayed from Thursday’s opening rounds. It was difficult as some games were live and more appealing to watch while others were good games, but recorded. The issue became if we watched the live games we would see the scores from the recorded ones making them unnecessary to watch. Needless to say, after this weekend, my bracket is shot (no pun)!

After watching some college hoops we headed to the stadium in Kal to watch the local competition grand finals. The local comp is very popular and a lot of the community was there to watch the men’s and Women’s finals. These kids grow up playing in their clubs and the bragging rights are huge!

My time here continues to be amazing. I will continue to say that I am very blessed and fortunate to have this opportunity and look forward to continue sharing with you. I have so much to write, but will prevent myself from doing so for fear of things settling down in the future. There are so many situational things that I find absolutely hilarious and customary things that are so different and interesting! I will save them for a later date! Cheers and God bless.

Selection Monday

Selection Monday! You might be thinking WTF is he talking about, but for those of you basketball enthusiasts, I had to wait until Monday (today) to view the NCAA tournament brackets. Yes, the Sunday night selection show actually takes place on Monday here. I have yet to fill out my bracket, but Kansas is my team.

Anyways, once again I hope that this post finds you doing very well. This might get redundant, but I am happy to report that things are going wonderfully in the southern hemisphere. The water continues to swirl the opposite direction. The weather has been lovely with warm temperatures and no rain. Kalgoorlie is in the desert and it is very dry and very red. It is quite nice and picturesque. This past week has brought some pretty fun activities and some changes as well.

There has been a bit of a change in my work situation. I am still doing the same things, but focusing more on specific kids / groups of kids during the day and tutoring after school. Instead of working with individuals that have disabilities, I am working with other students and monitoring their progress in classes and visiting them in their classrooms during the day. It will be a fun change and it will allow me to get to know a group of kids quite well and hopefully I will see improvements in their studies.

I spent a couple nights out last week at barbecues. I have so under appreciated the essence of a bbq back home and hope that I change that when I am home. These “feeds,” as they, “the Australians,” refer to them, are tremendous. Friday night I was at Cliffy’s place for dinner and to watch the National Basketball League Grand Finals. The Perth Wildcats defeated the Wollongong Hawks to win the championship. That is a pretty big deal for Western Australia as the Wildcats are the only team for the state. The food was great and it was fun seeing some live sports on television. I have been without cable since I arrived!

Randall and Karen Hulme, my teammate Ryan’s parents, had the new players over on Wednesday night. Randall had both grills going with an assortment of meats, there were varieties of salads, breads, potatoes, etc. It was absolutely fantastic! So many people here have taken such wonderful care of me since my arrival! I am very thankful for that. Our team has had some big changes since last year, and that is why I say they had all the new players over. Lordan Franich and his girlfriend Leia were over. They moved from Perth together where they both played for the Lakeside Lightning the previous years. Lakeside is a big rival for us. Hamish Bowden, a guard from Tasmania, and his girlfriend, Abbie, were also there. Those are the new players other than me and they are great guys and their girlfriends are lovely too.

This season we have a new coach, 2 new Australian players (mentioned above), a new import (me), a couple new junior players, and several departures of long-term players from last year’s team. I get the feeling around town that everyone is quite anxious to see how the team goes. The Giants have been very successful the past 5 years and everyone wants to see that continue.

We began the opening round of games this weekend in Perth playing a doubleheader against the Sterling Senators and Kalamunda Eastern Suns. I have done many road trips for basketball in my life, and this one was full of firsts. We left at 6 am Saturday morning. It is a 6 hour ride from Kalgoorlie to Perth, essentially driving from Minneapolis to Chicago. We arrived in the afternoon, checked in, walked around to get the stiffness out, and went to the game. That is one of the first times that I have bussed that far and played that night. One thing came to mind when the players asked me about traveling for games back at UMD. I said we always went the day before the game. We would practice there and stay over. Then I realized there were a couple exceptions (Bemidji, St. Cloud, Concordia, Crookston…) I explained that those were within 2-3 hours of each other. Except Crookston was 4 hours away. Then again, Mankato was 4 hours away but we always traveled the day before for that game. Hmm… Holqy, is there a difference in respect for one team over the other??

The game went well on Saturday night. We won by over 30 points and played very well. Personally I did not play my best, but we got the win. I only played 23 minutes due to foul trouble. I accumulated 3 fouls in the span of 3 minutes to start the 2nd quarter. I sat the remainder and then sat most of the 4th as we had a very convincing lead and another game in 14 hours or so. I finished with 12 points, 11 rebounds, and 5 assists. I had four fouls, but luckily we get 6 here due to the 48 minute games. I think it is going to take some time to adjust to the officiating here. This is on my part as well as for the officials. The past few years the league has not had as many “big” players. This year most teams have 7 footers and it provides a new aspect of the game. One team, East Perth, has 3 players over 7 feet.

Sunday we visited Kalamunda for a noon tip off. They are expected to be a very good team this year. They have a very good left handed forward that can absolutely fill it up. Their import is a former Georgetown / Fresno State point guard that is now sponsored by And1. He left Fresno after some charges were presented…weird for a Fresno State player… They also have a player named Justin Brown that is a 7 foot center who played college ball at UConn. We were winning the majority of the game, by as much as 17 points, and managed to lose. I fouled out with 19 points, 12 rebs, 5 assists. It was a pretty poorly officiated game, 30 fouls – 17. It is not an excuse to lose; you should never lose a game where you have a lead like that no matter what point in the game. We played well at times, but also very poorly. We have a lot to work on this week before our home opener on Saturday against Willeton.

After my first weekend of international basketball the biggest difference was in the road trip home. This was where several Coronas were consumed, something that never would have happened at Duluth…Maybe if HB was running the show.

Other than that I am working hard and enjoying this wonderful opportunity, the people, and the experiences. I hope everything is going well at home and I am anxious to hear how everyone is doing. God Bless! Until next week.

I have so much to write but

Hello Everyone!

I hope this post finds everyone doing very well and enjoying themselves with whatever you choose to be doing. Things in Australia are terrific! The weather is cooling down a bit as we are approaching the end of summer and the beginning of autumn. You might be wondering why this is a good thing, but when it is over 100 degrees for extended periods of time I get a little uncomfortable and actually begin to appreciate those cool fall nights of jeans and a t-shirt. So things have been cooling down, but do not let me lead you to believe that it is getting cold here. It is still in the 80s and sunny! Everyone here is persistent in telling me that it is going to cool down in the winter months, that heaters are brought into the stadium for games.Based on what I have experienced, not necessarily here in Kalgoorlie, in Duluth, bring it on. We might get a bit a frost one night…oooh.

Anyways, this week is a big one. We start the regular season off this Saturday on the road at Sterling. We play them Saturday night and turn around and play Kalamunda Sunday afternoon before heading back to Kalgoorlie from Perth. Nearly all of our road games will be played as double headers in Perth, with the exception of playing a triple header one weekend with one of the games (Geraldton) being north of the city by about 4 hours. So, the season is under way and I will try to post links to streaming video of games, box scores, or press clippings as I can.

This past week was a pretty big week for me. I started working a job on Monday as an Educational Assistant at the local high school (referred to as a College, College is called University here) and as a tutor after school and on Wednesdays. As an EA I go to classes with students in grades 11 and 12 that have some sort of learning or physical disability and help with their assignments, keeping them on task, or just assisting them however I can. I am really excited for this job as it is really going to test my patience and expose me to things that I have never really dealt with in this capacity. In regards to the tutoring, I am primarily working with Aboriginal kids. We spend time finishing their homework or preparing for their year-end assessments. The program I work with is sponsored by Polly Farmer, a famous AFL player. He is one of the greatest players in the history of the AFL and an Aboriginal. He has donated large amounts of money to help support Aboriginal football players advance in their educations. The tutoring is fun and rewarding when all goes right, but at times it is very difficult. At times some of the kids are not interested in being at the session, do not want to do any work, or they have other things they want to do like surf the net. It can also become difficult at times as many of the students' English and Maths (yes, Maths) skills have deep rooted gaps.

On a different note, Australia continues to open my eyes and ears. As mentioned above, they refer to Math as Maths. Biscuits are not the southern food that I prefer not to eat, but rather a cookie. Similarly on the dessert front, Pies are actually filled with beef and vegetables…not strawberry rhubarb, blueberry, or apple. On a more common note for these settlements with the Union Jack, the only place you buy French Fries is at McDonald’s (aka Mackers). When you order anything that comes with chips, you are getting fries, not potato or tortilla chips. I'm sure that many of you know that from Fish and Chips dinners, but it doesn't stop there. It is with everything. Finally, the one thing that has really opened my ears up and baffled me is the word “but” and where it is used in a sentence. In America we say, “I would like to go, but I have to work.” In Australia you conclude the sentence with but and are expressing the same thing. It sounds like this: “I would like to go, I have to work but.” Weird, I know. It takes a few hundred times before you stop thinking about how terrible that sounds and just move on.

Since I have been here I have been very fortunate. I have had minimal expenses and many people taking care of me. Meals (tea), accommodations, etc. have all been taken care of for me and provided by wonderful people. It is still pretty expensive here, but that is because my reference point is still America. Talking with a fellow American, after spending time here you don’t bat an eye at $12 beers at the bar or $50 cartons of beer because your reference point changes. The analogy here from an American perspective is that “they throw $50 bills around like we throw $20 bills around.” No exaggeration. The wages earned here are far greater in comparison to those in the states and thus the cost of living is greater as well. Luckily I can make some pretty good money at the school to support me experiencing Australia!

Things have been great thus far and I did get to speak to my mom and dad via skype finally. If you have skype, my username is john.vaudreuil and I hope that you add me. I am excited for the season to begin and to get to Perth more often to see my friends Ben, Casey, Bobby, and Trey. It is really nice having a good group of guys near since all my other friends / family are so far away… Things are great though and looking forward to sharing more in the future! God Bless.

Little side note, for all those former Recorder players in grade school. This morning I had a wonderful breakfast of Hot Cross Buns. Let me break some truth on you… They are good, well actually they are great, but they do not cost: 1 a penny, 2 a penny. They cost like $1 each.

Good Luck to the Lady Bulldogs in the NCAAs!

Catching Up

March 2, 2010

Good morning USA! It is late Tuesday night here in Australia, but mid-morning back home. It has taken me some time to adjust to the time difference, but I am finally getting my body clock settled and getting into a daily routine. It is definitely not as difficult on the body traveling west as it is traveling eastward back home. Both times I have flown over here it has not taken very long to get acclimated, but returning home for the holidays was a nightmare for me.

Anyway, the past week has been very busy. I had a fun media day after arriving in town last week. I spoke with the local paper as they did a nice feature story for the Kalgoorlie Miner. I also spoke with the local television station and did an interview with them about being the new ‘import’ player for the team. It is fun doing that type of stuff, but somewhat surreal. To me, why would anyone really care about some Yankee, but the town is quite small and they really embrace the basketball team.

After getting that stuff settled, I picked up my new Toyota Camry. Just like home, except for everything being on the opposite side! Driving has not been much of an issue, even though it is on the other side of the road, but there are some other major differences. There is an excessive use of round-a-bouts throughout the streets. My indicator is on the right side of the wheel and my windshield wipers are on the left, thus I find myself trying to signal a turn and the result is my wipers going at full speed. I also continuously walk to the left side of the car to get in as if I were driving back home, but this is where the passenger sits. A simple solution to this problem, I just ride as a passenger as often as I can.

Basketball wise, last week we had training on Tuesday and Thursday nights before heading to Perth for a weekend Blitz tournament. Training went ok, and when I refer to training that is what they call practice here. I have found the dialect can be confusing at times when I assume I know what they are talking about. They say let’s get a burger, I order one and get a chicken sandwich. They say let’s have tea, I ask for English Breakfast tea but we all sit down for dinner. They say let’s get some whiskey, I grab for the Johnny Walker and we are all happy!

Basketball last week was a bit difficult adjusting to a new offense, the jet-lag, and just getting up and down against new competition. After spending five years in the same system of basketball it is a challenge to adjust to new offensive and defensive schemes. After some time and repetition it all will be ironed out. Luckily this past weekend really helped in those regards.

Our team did not perform very well over the four games, and I was not personally very satisfied with my contributions. I played hard, was solid on defense, but my shots were not falling and I was not as proactive as I needed to be in the offense. It was also quite difficult in that several of our key players were missing last week for training and for this weekend’s games. Mike Haney, our other import arrived Sunday afternoon from Kentucky. Mike is a power forward for us and has played with Goldfields the past three seasons after finishing his collegiate career at Western Kentucky University. He is a very solid player and kind of the pulse of the team. Training tonight was much different with Mike there than the previous sessions I have attended. Hamish, a guard from the eastern states of Australia, arrived yesterday and practiced for the first time tonight. He is a young player, but talented and should help the team greatly.

The road trip this weekend was a lot of fun. It takes about six hours to get to Perth from Kalgoorlie. You take the Great Eastern Highway from the main street in Kal straight to downtown Perth. 600 km’s of straight desert highway. It is actually a very beautiful drive with terrific scenery, kangaroos, and small towns approximately every 200 km’s. I was riding with a teammate and a friend of his, about halfway to Perth and 15 minutes outside of a town called Southern Cross, and we had a tire blow out. We jacked the car up, pulled out the spare, and took the jack down. As the jack held less and less of the car’s weight we watched the tire deflate more and more. Jimmy’s spare did not have enough air in it. Luckily we were caravanning with another car and we went to town and filled the tire up and were on our way again. Life lesson learned: Make sure your spare can act the part.

Once in Perth we played at the Kalamunda venue. We actually play there again the first weekend of our fixture before heading back home. The weekend was setup for four games, two each day, with reduced time and fouls. We play with the international rules, 24 second shot, 8 second back-court, the ball can be played on the rim, and for my benefit…6 personal fouls! In our first contest we defeated Rockingham in double overtime. I believe I had 10 points or so, but just did not play my best. That game was our only victory of the weekend. We were very short handed; playing against teams that had all their import players and their full Australian rosters where we were missing three of our top six guys. It is not an excuse for our losses, but clearly that does impact the outcomes. It was nice, however, to get a couple runs in and see what we really need to improve upon.

We were able to hit up the beach on Saturday and it was beautiful! I love it here! It is so laid back and no worries. The entire coast is just beach after beach and everyone congregates to them. We spent some time in the water, hanging out and walking the beach. It was just beautiful. Low 90’s and sunny. I can get used to that. After cleaning up from the beach and grabbing a bite to eat we headed to the casino. This is where I did work on the blackjack tables in a very short amount of time. After putting up a $100, I walked away with $400. It was a nice start to the evening, but then I decided to hit the tables again later that night with a friend. My luck was not the same this time around and should have walked immediately after this incident happened: get a pair of aces, $40 hand. Split, dealt another ace. Split, $120 now in play. Cards come: 10, 9, Jack. Dealer: flops 21. Push, lose, Push. Ouch. Needless to say, I gave some, most, of the money back after a couple of those hands.

Well, my time here thus far has been amazing. I am really enjoying myself and finding it difficult to realize this is what I am doing and how fortunate I am to be able to enjoy such a wonderful opportunity. I miss home and all the family and friends. I pray this finds everyone doing well and enjoying the cold weather! I’ll be thinking of you all tomorrow as I hang out in the pool! Cheers.