Greetings from Australia

Dear Bloomington,

As you know, this past weekend was The Greatest College Weekend Ever. Snoop Dogg came, and so did rain storms and about 10,000 cops. There’s nothing like Little 500 in Bloomington.

Well, except maybe for Little 500 in Wollongong, Australia.

You see, the celebration cannot be contained in Monroe County. It can’t be held to the United States. Hell, the northern or western hemispheres can’t even keep the spirit in check.

This past Friday, we brought Little 500 to Australia. And we brought it hard.

While you had 40,000 strong celebrating for a week filled with too much partying and too little sleep, we had 18 dedicated kids — mostly from schools around the country and the world — who skipped class and dressed to the nines for a single afternoon celebration they heard about just days before.

While big name celebrities came and put on what were undoubtedly unforgettable performances in fraternity parking lots for you, the same songs were played for us.

The only catch is, ours came blaring from iPods and computer speakers at outdoor picnic tables.

While your skies opened and poured rain on your weekend, our skies opened and poured 75 degrees of sun.

Your after-party was held in fraternity basements, apartment living rooms and hundreds of front porches across campus. Ours was held on the beach that is a 10-minute walk from our campus. In both cases, however, some people were a bit too tuckered out to make it.

While your bike race — which is known worldwide, trained for a year in advance and considered the second-most important annual race in the state of Indiana — filled Bill Armstrong Stadium with thousands of adoring, screaming and inebriated fans, ours did not.

But we did have a bike race.

Our race had one-on-one heats, guy/girl teams of two. All 18 of us were gunning for fake gold medals that were purchased at $2.70 apiece. The bikes were purple and teal children’s bicycles, equipped with training wheels, tassels on the handle bars, a basket on the front and a bell. Guys pushed and girls steered around our dorm quad, which was about an eighth of a mile in diameter. I’d like to see the Cutters win another title riding that equipment.

When it’s all said and done, is IU’s Little 500 better than ours? Probably.

Is ours a new tradition abroad that should continue next year and beyond?
Absolutely.

Beyond the parties and mayhem that surrounds Little 500 in Bloomington, there is a spirit that is contagious. It just took us IU students a 9,500-mile trip to realize it.

Because, Bloomington, when our group started gathering at noon this past Friday for a day dedicated to IU, our group made it their own. One Australian wore a red “Little 500” crown she made out of construction paper, while a kid from South Carolina had “Hoosier Daddy” written on his chest. Before Friday, they didn’t even know our colors. But somehow, Little 500 became the most important priority to them, even if just for a day.

We never daunted and could not falter on Friday. Because as it turns out, when it comes to Little 500 anywhere in the world, we’re all for you, IU.

Wish you were here,

Australia