Heya Mates!

First and foremost, a big thanks to everyone that has been a part of this great Australian opportunity I will be experiencing! Without CSB/SJU Study Abroad trips, my Study Abroad Director Wendy Sterba, previous director Stephen Saupe, Tony Fairhead, USFooty, WACFL, Minnesota Freeze, Dale Ballantyne, my new team, the Denmark/Warpole Magpies and many others; support from my family, teammates and friends…without all of you I wouldn’t be doing this! Thank you.

So finally I get around to throwing together a blog post, here on my third flight from Auckland, NZ to Melbourne where Andrew ‘Tiger’ Werner’s brother Joe will be picking us up from the airport in a couple of hours. Funny how Tiger and my flights didn’t coincide, but we did cross paths and had a moment to speak in the Auckland airport. Overall, things have gone OK. Definitely a few bumps on the trip here…had a tire blow on the family van on the way to MSP, Dad and I did our best NASCAR impersonation, with Mom getting in on the action by cranking down the spare. Good teamwork, and also big thanks for the help from Uncle and Aunt, Kurt and Janice and family, as they met us on the freeway to trade vehicles so we could make up time and I could make my flight. If that wasn’t enough excitement, not an hour into the flight to LA, turbulence helped to spill my can of Pepsi on my lap, not too much one can do but to watch it soak up in your jeans and dry hours later when you are stuck in a window seat with sleeping neighbors (one measly airline napkin didn’t soak much up)! That was frustrating, but provided some good entertainment for others. I have enjoyed the long flights; they have been relaxing as I did the Home Alone run at each airport! With VERY short layovers and arriving late to MSP I had just enough time to inhale a Whopper and throw the fries to the garbage as I had boarded to New Zealand. 

As Tony says, “It’s all good mate!” Wow, goodbyes are hard, I’ll have to post the pictures of my little sister Shannon and I, it’s almost funny seeing the overwhelming amount of tears. Tears of joy of course, now all her brothers are out of the house and unable to pick on her! Shannon, don’t cause too much trouble for Mom and Dad! Now that I am gone again and the Twins are off in college, it’s going to be a little different back home on the Mergen Farm. The Twin Brothers Brad and Chad were just returning from their college baseball Spring Break trips; unfortunately I didn’t get more than a phone conversation with them. The time flew by and took away chances for a more appropriate goodbye

I was definitely happy with the going-away party and that gave me a chance to say a lot of goodbyes and show off the game of Aussie Rules, Australian Football, or Footy as you might know it. People up at Shady’s kind of understand what I am up to now, and no, not playing in the pros and I wasn’t in the Grand Final! Someday…haha. Although it was tough to speak to each going-away attendee as much as I hoped, I appreciate you coming out and making time for a night out and a goodbye! Thanks to Lee, Kris and Shady’s for hosting the gig. Well, I'm excited for the next two weeks of travelling and seeing some old friends, my former host-family, new places and also my stomping grounds that I'll have to tour Tiger through when we get to Freo. Tomorrow we hire a car for three days to take a trip of the Great Ocean Road and see the 12 Apostles, a land formation. On Friday we'll be back in Melbourne to have a tour of the MCG (where the game was played that I showed at Shady's, at the going away). As well, Tiger, I, and a player from Milwuakee that's doing an internship with the AFL, Doren James, will be meeting some big names from the pros Friday. Saturday we are watching Joe's home opener, he plays pro basketball in Melbourne, and going out with the team for our last night in the city. Then it's off to Perth/Freo Sunday the 22^nd!

As two Canadians from the Toronto area said on my flight into L.A., “We are just going to OZ, don’t know what we are doing or where we are going, but we are taking your story, ‘We are here to play footy!’” That was good, I laughed, good Blokes. Well that's about it. I'm excited, happy, and looking forward to this year-long adventure of work, holiday and footy. As Wendy Sterba once said, “Have low expectations”, with that mind-set every encounter will exceed my standards.

Hope all is well wherever you are in the world!

Brent 'Mergo' Mergen

P.S. Tiger and I arrived about 6 hours ago in Melbourne, got picked up from his brother Joe at the airport, did some grocery shopping for the road-trip, and are relaxing for the day as our bodies feel like it's 12:10AM Monday rather than 4:10PM Tuesday…so far, so good…