champions are made. heroes are born.

So a couple weeks ago, my household was invited to a hot dog eating contest at the International House. For any prospective travellers who are genuinely interested in studying abroad, then I whole-heartedly endorse this place for a spot. Unfortunately, it's super exclusive so unless you come from derka-derka-ga-lam-a-badstan... you better apply early. Otherwise it's great because lots of international and indigenous Australians hang out and live there.

But, since Luigi, Christian, and Jake lived there, we've been able to hang out with some really cool kids. Koki is even moving in there next semester. So instant connection.

The point of this is that we entered a Hot Dog eating contest. Besides the prospect of free food, it was a pretty outrageous idea and I wanted to test the limits of my sanity, gluttony, and shame. Nonetheless, we entered as a team, with Koki, Christian, Jake and I leading the charge and seeking to bring honour to our names and clan.

Koki went into this thing a heavy favourite, but facing him was a meat pie eating champion from the university. We were pretty worried, but once that bell sounded we were on our game. I tried to Kobuyashi technique of eating the hot dogs seperately and then soaking the buns in water and swallowing them. Unfortunately, we were only allowed one glass of water, and no lube (in the form of ketchup and mustard). After my initial attempts to choke down the pasty, semi-cooked hotdogs, I looked over to my left and realized Koki was literally just brute-forcing his way through the hot dogs. I stopped eating and started cheering. Koki built up a sizable lead and after about 30 minutes had eating 7 hot dogs. The other competitors (myself included) had already passed out.

Intense.

Completely unprepared for what was about to hit them.

Koki end up winning some money which he promptly donated to charity, as did Christian (who bet on Koki winning despite being a competitor... I smell foul play!).

So now I live with a World Champion. It's pretty cool. I wish I could upload the post-eating interview, but alas, the internet in this country hates my life.

C'est la vie.
Rick