Barracking and Mateship

"Barrack": means to "cheer on" or as we say, "root for." Under no circumstances, however, should you ever use the phrase "root(ing) for," in Australia. "Root" means something very different here. Alright, alright, it crudely translate to "fucking" (or "fuck," depending if you used it as a noun or verb).

Random guy standing next to me: "Which team are you barracking for?"
Me: "Barracking? Is that the same thing as rooting for?"
.....I won't go into the details of what happened after this.

"Mateship": roughly translates to "friendship," however it's the deepest, most intimate kind of platonic friendship possible. If someone calls you a mate or refers to you as "my best mate," that means you're considered to be a very, very good friend. The concept of "mateship" is especially important between teammates in sports teams/clubs.

So it turns out that the game I was going to was a rugby game, not footy. For those who are wondering, Australian footy is actually very similar to American football. They even have an AFL - Australian Football League. Rugby is also very similar to football (I know, confusing) except the playing field is rectangular (not oval, like for footy) and you can only pass the ball backwards, either through your legs or by kicking it.

The two teams that were playing were the Brisbane Broncos and the Melbourne Storm. It was a pretty exciting game, because awhile ago, Storm's youngest player, a 19 year old, left the team for a higher-paying position in the Queensland team. Luckily, the Storms had an avalanche win of 28-8. Yay Melbourne!

The highlight of the entire experience, however, took place two rows ahead of where my girlfriends and I sat. At the beginning of the game, a huge group of guys dressed in Brisbane colors trooped over and sat down in front of us. These were impressively well-built youths, the kind that would be star jocks in high school. I could practically smell the testosterone rolling off of them (it was probably the heady cologne they were wearing). Anyway, my girlfriends and I looked at each other self-consciously and then giggled over who was the cutest (obviously!) A couple of minutes into the game, however, I noticed something very queer (no pun intended!) One of the guys had rested his arm over his neighbor. A few seconds later, he stretches out his other hand, tousles the hair of another buddy and then rests it on his shoulder, but not after pulling his pal close. After gaping at this scene for a few moments, I quickly pulled out my camera and took a couple of shots, then poked a girlfriend and pointed out the scene. We pretty much spent the rest of the game chuckling over how comfortable and close the guys were. It's actually pretty endearing, considering that America is such a homophobic culture that guys can't even sleep in the same bed together in private. Here, it is normal for a guy to drape a friendly arm over a mate, or even affectionately poke him for a bit (which one of them actually did). Unfortunately, I missed capturing that scene, but I did manage to get a pretty good shot of the roughest-looking one of the bunch being affectionate.
Say it with me now, "Awwwwwwww." If only we can show that much acceptance within our culture as well.

Alright, it's late and I still haven't posted about my sea kayaking experience yet. Tomorrow, then!