The Race that Stops a Nation

“A race that stops a nation or the whole country,” I couldn’t believe it. I arrived at school Tuesday morning and saw all the kids dressed up in fancy clothes. I didn’t know anything about this thing called the Melbourne Cup.

The Melbourne Cup is a horse race that is held on the 2nd Tuesday in November. Most businesses and schools in Melbourne close for the day. My class had to come to school so they dressed up as race-goers, jockeys, horses and strappers. It was a very colourful parade.

At 3 o’clock everyone went to find a TV to watch the race. We went to the Library and cheered our horses on (if they hadn’t been “scratched”). The winner this year was Efficient. The most famous winner was Pharlap.

(Melbourne is the capital city of Victoria in Australia. I am living with the students in Hawkesdale, which is in Vitoria.)

Patch at the Footy

In September I went to the Mininera and District Football Grand Final to watch the footy at Lake Bolac which is a small town near us. Football, or footy as Australians call it, is a game played on a grass oval field, with 22 people on a team and 18 people on the field. The other players are on the bench and can be swapped with someone on the field at any time. AFL football is our national sport.
Netball is also played. Many of the Hawkesdale Macarthur teams were in the grand final and although we lost, I liked being at the footy because I knew some people and Mrs H took lots of photos of us. There were lots of yellow and blue balloons for the team's colours. Overall it was a great and exciting day.
My teacher is having trouble uploading the photos so we shall put them up another time.