Week Thirteen

Thursday is Thanksgiving, the tastiest day of the year for Americans. I'll be celebrating with Swedes, Canadians, Australians and a Colombian at a potluck event. It won't be quite the same without the full day off and football in the background, but there will be tons of food and I plan to bring my A-Game in eating virtually all of it. In the Spirit of Thanksgiving, I have created my own list of the top-10 things I am thankful for:

1) Diet Coke
2) my retarded friends
3) my mum and all of her motherly wisdom
4) Caffeine free Diet Coke
5) Diet Coke with Vanilla
6) the current Australia:U.S. dollar exchange rate
7) having a roof over my head
8) Kanye West's new album
9) Mexican food, and
10) God.

I love you all!! Especially you, Diet Coke with Vanilla. I would trade any of my friends for you on any given day.

So yesterday was the Australian Idol Grand Final, the biggest day of the year for Australians aged 11 to 11.5. Nearly two million (about 10 percent of the entire Australian population) watched or attended the live event, held at the Sydney Opera House. Thousands of tears were shed, mostly by my flatmate, when Wes Carr, the pretty blonde from Bondi, won a recording contract, Mazda 2 and instant Australian fame. Though I attempted to boycott the show due to the controversy surrounding the departure of my beloved Brooke Addamo, the only looker in the entire top 24, I did watch the Final in its entirety. I have to say, it was pretty cool.

Unlike the two-day American Idol Finale, which consists of performances from the final two contestants and an ultra-long voting recap show, the Australian Idol Grand Final has no voted-on performances and is not performed indoors - it is on a giant outdoor stage in front of the Sydney Opera House, filled with thousands of spectators and hundreds of fireworks over the Harbour. If I were 11 I would think it was the coolest thing south of South America/ north of Antarctica.

So less than a week after firing Greg Robinson, the Syracuse football team beat Notre Dame at Notre Dame in what many are calling the biggest upset of 2008. It was so bad and so embarrassing that Notre Dame fans threw snowballs at all of the players, which literally added injury to insult following a terrible loss for the Irish. Seriously, how do you lose to the worst college football team in the 139-year history of college football? Destiny's Child could probably beat the Syracuse Orange and the Fighting Irish can't. Good grief.

(picture at right = Don's Mo Watch Day 23)

Well, there are only six days left in the month of November, meaning there are only six days left to sponsor my moustache. It's getting a bit out of hand, as evidenced by the picture to the right. Luckily only six days until I can shave!! So unlucky week number 13 is almost in the books, meaning my one year here is one-quarter done. My thoughts are with all of you Californians recouping from the wild fires. We all love Bad Religion, but safe to say most Angelinos are getting a little sick of hearing "Los Angeles is Burning" for the fourth year in a row. The L.A. wildfires made headline news here in Australia, and I hope that all of you and your prized possessions are safe. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! Thirteen weeks down, 39 to go.

Week Thirteen Summary:
Weather: cold, rainy, windy and hailing.
New observation: my office building has to be the oldest office building on the entire Southern Hemisphere
New activity(ies): Australian Idol Grand Final, The Order of Melbourne
New food: skewered lamb with coriander yogurt
New word(s): pronouncing "capsule" "capsholl", pronouncing "ketchup" "tomahto sauce"
New people: A 25-year-old who is pulling a Don: Quit her job on Friday and is moving to England with a one-way ticket, visa, suitcase and nothing else. Good luck :)
What I miss: Thanksgiving, pumpkin pie, limitless nighttime and weekend minutes, Shiner Bock, my own washer & dryer, American mayonnaise