Twenty-five dollar ticket

He read my face and asked me if the ticket cost too much. Then we talked about Movies, and books, and broccoli with oil and lemon, and how 4pm is too early to eat dinner anyways, just grab a snack and come with.

And that's how I ended up sitting in the blazing sun, at the midfield line of a New Zealand Vodafone Warriors VS Australia Dragons Rugby match with two Israeli guys who knew just as much about Rugby as I did. Much learning (mostly speculating) happened on those sidelines. No there was no Haka. There was however a helicopter, and a lot of GIANT men with GIANT legs and tiny shorts. There was also a significant amount of losing on the NZ side.- which was particularly embarrassing because their giants were definitely gianter. 

Rugby is not football, so allow me to translate for those less-schooled in the sport:

"That was a good try" = "That was a good touchdown"

"The attempt was good" = "Fieldgoal!"

"Smash him!" = "Defence! Defence!"

roughly.

So after sustaining excessive sun exposure and asking the kid next to me why they were group hugging- and receiving a reluctant and certainly judgemental response- we walked away with the rest of Nelson to our home where we decided to play soccer and now my feet and ankles are sufficiently bruised.

The next day they invited me to go to the beach where the dream was to play volleyball.* Instead we took on the responsibility of saving an injured bird** and played no sport.

I really considered not having- an arguably necessary- cultural experience because it cost me $25. I would have missed out on two days of having friends, laughing with people more genuinely than I have in weeks, explaining that girls do in fact play soccer in America, learning the way to the beach, and watching a seagull have diarrhoea (this is apparently the english way of spelling diarrhea).

Thanks Idan for talking me in to eating a late dinner to watch a Rugby game.

That is all.

*Regev is a setter for a prominent Israeli team, so upon seeing the amateur playing we were joining he opted out of the experience. 
**pictures and video to come