Western Australia_Update

I actually became worse with updating since last post. I guess I was so busy that sitting in front of the computer didnt tempt me very much.

A short update from my Perth trip. On wednesday I did go to Rottnest Island. It is about 30 min ferry ride from Fremantle (just outside Perth). It was a beautiful sunny day, still a bit cold, but very sunny. When I got to the island I rented a cycle and got a map of the island. At first I wasnt sure if I had enough time to cycle around it, but as I was cycling along I got a bit lost and ran into a woman from Perth. She was on her way around so I joined her in the venture. It was a hilly island with supermany pestering flies, but it was also lots of amazing bays and beaches. I also saw one lizard, a big eagle and lots of Quokkas (animal looking like a cross between rat and kangaroo). The ride around took about 3-4 hours with some getting lost and a couple of breaks. When I had gone around I went to the beach for an hour, sipped my toes in the sea, but didnt swim as it was like 16 C in the water (brrr). All in all a really good trip though.

Thursday I went into Perth again and had a look in KIngs Park which is amassive park more or less in Perth. Met a girl from Melbourne on my way there and we did a guided tour of parts of the park. It had great views of the city too.

On friday I went on a whale watching trip. We was about 7 humpback whales jumping around us. It was fantastic! I tried to take picture, but as Ionly had my digital camera I didnt manage, but I did get some on film. Ill try to upload it.

Ok...gotto go now...will continue a bit later...

Travelling again :)

I finalyyyyy finished my studies. Jihaa! Last Monday we gave in the portfolios at 6 pm, then we went to a bar with most of the ppl in the class for some hours of unwindng. It was such a releif to be done, altough I still havent really understood it.

Anyway, I spendt last week packing up and shipping off my stuff plus meeting up with some friends.

Sunday at around midnight I caught the Shuttle bus to the airport, and since I was the only passenger, the driver who was really nice gave me a free lift. I then hang out at the airport until about 5 am when I checked into my flight to Perth. Arrived here yesterday morning. Im staying at a backpackers (Ocean Beach)which is about 15 min by train from Perth, just on the seaside by the beach (they saw a shark there the day before I arrived..uhhh!) I met a Swedish girl in the dorm and we spent the day walking around in Perth. By the evening I was totally knackered though and fell fast asleep at aroung 9 pm. Today I got up early and had a walk along the beach (really nice). Then I caught the train to Freemantle (small city south of Perth), been walking around here a bit and saw the Freemantle Prison and Art Gallery. Yep, that just a really quick update of the last days. Hopefully tomorrow Im off to Rottnest Island, which is supposed to be great for cycling around. Ill try and be better at updating the coming days. Bye :)

Some pictures

The beach/promenade in Elwood/St.Kilda




Yarra River




View from our balcony




View from our balcony




City centre seen from Elwood?St. Kilda

Catching up even more...

ups..suddenly about 2 months have passed by. I have kept putting off writing here because it seemed like too much to catch up on, and the longer I wait, of course the more it was to catch up on. However now it has been so long that I have probably forgot half of what I would have written about anyway..hehe

What inspired me to write again was a funny episode yesterday. I was catching the tram back from the city and when I climbed inboard I heard these chicken sounds - and I thought "wow, have someone brought a live chicken with them to the city?" Then a little later I saw that it was actually a grown man who was sitting on his seat, or kind of jumping up and down and making chicken sounds. I assume he had some kind of problem. It was funny how everyone acted as if this was an everyday incidence...hmmm which in fact might not be that far from the truth. If you want to see something weird, take the trams. I have never seen as many special cases as on the trams in Melbourne. Especially the Chapel Street tram. I think I have mentioned a guy I saw there once. He started screaming and slapping himself every time the tram stopped. Almost freaked me out...but that time too, everyone else was completely unfazed by the event.

Ok, so where to begin with all the rest. Well, some shit happened. I had planned going to a Moby concert for ages, I got the ticket months ago. The concert was in the end of July, of course a few days before I started feeling unwell, like I had a cold or something, but on the day of the concert I actually felt a little better so I decided to go. I went with two friends. After about an hour and 3 songs into Moby actually coming on stage, I started feeling naseasus and werid. I then realized that I was about to faint. I grabbed my friends arm and dragged her with me out of the crowd. Just at the egde I collapsed. Most people probably assumed I was drunk or off my head on drugs, but I was neither. I came to my senses again, but fainted 2 more times and didn't really regain my full strength again, so they called an ambulance and the staff there confiscated my water bottle because they thought it was something in it. That was kind of funny, it was pure water and they kept sniffing it as if it was poison or something. In the end the ambulance came and took me to the emergency. At this point I was feeling a bit better, but was ice-cold and looked pale. FInally at the hospital it turned out my blood-sugar and blood pressure was very low. They gave me a sweet drink and sent me home though. No mercy there. Next day I felt shit. Went to doctor and she said it was probably the flu. I never had a flu that made me feel so bad and even faint, but I anway I hope that was all it was. Took about 3 weeks to get fully back to health though, so that is partly why I have not updated this site too. Good news about this whole event though is that I managed to take some pics of Moby before I went to the floor.











Apart from this I have also been pretty busy catching up on uni work. I like RMIT (the new school) much better. It is still pretty hectic, but I feel I learn more useful things and I have time to have a more normal sleeping pattern.

I dont think much else fun has been going on. I saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory last night though, which was nice. Regine and me had also planned to go to Tasmania in out one week spring break, but suddenly all the work crept up on us and from now and till the end of the semester there is basically no spare time - if we want all stuff to be done as good as we can. Time is flying though, which is both scary and good. Scary due to all the stuff that has to be done and good coz then there will finally be a holiday and I can go home - jippi, Ok now I have to get back to work again - or procrastinating, which Im also pretty good at :)

Catching up...

Hallo hallo :)
Im sorry for the long absence, but it seems like my interest for hanging around my computer dropped drastically once my holiday began. Anyway I'll try to recap. After several days which was spent more or less dominated by catching up on sleep I went away on a yoga & meditation camp for 5 days. I saw that as a much needed way to recharge myself and it definitely was successful.

The camp was located a few hours south of Melbourne, in the Mornington Peninsula. Since there was no public transport going there I got a life with a woman called Madelynn. She had never been to this place either though, so I was assigned the job as map reader (!) Something which I managed pretty well until I managed to do a tiny mix up of left and right at the crucial intersection....
It was totally dark outside, so it was hard to see where we were, but eventually we realized the error when we noticed the ocean was running along on our right side when we were supposed to be somewhere in the middle of the bush. By this time though we had managed to get quite far down the wrong side of the peninsula. When trying to find a place to turn around Madelynn was driving a bit hesitant and suddenly we were pulled over by the police. Hehe, they assumed we were drunk or something, when we told them were we were going they were like: "Ooops, you are way off!" We also happened to mention that we were going to a meditation camp so they probably assumed we were some fruitcake-new age freaks.... Anyway, they helped us out by telling us which road was the best to take to get us back on track. Finally after 3 hours we reached the place, normally it should take 1,5 hour, juhuu....so we did a major detour. We arrived pretty late in the night, but just in time to catch the last bits of dinner. In the evening we met all the participants, about 60 ppl apparently, half of them were actually Indian, something which I thought was great since Im a bit addicted to India. Even the teacher was Indian.

We stayed in bunk-beds and each morning we had to get up at 6 am, at 6.30 we had 2 hours yoga and meditation, then some breakfast and some practical work around the camp. In The afternoon was spent doing various meditations and practices, then delicious lunch, more meditation, then dinner and a walk, in the evening we had music and sometimes a bit of dancing. Some of the Indian girls really knew how to do the Bollywood dance moves, it was great to watch them.

The most challenging and interesting thing though was that after the first day we all had to go into silence for almost 3 days (2.5). That meant not talking at all, no music, no reading, no phone or sms. It was quite difficult the first day, sometimes words just came out without thinking of it, stuff like, hi, come in, sorry....my head was also buzzing with a lot of thoughts. However on the 2. day it became easier and the mind became quieter. This made the meditations much better too. At the 3. day I almost wished we could have done it for a few more days as I found it a very good experience. I also met some nice people, a few that I have met up with back here in Melbourne too. Madhvi, from India and Heather from Ireland. Heather spent a year traveling around India and she is really into a lot of alternative and interesting things related to yoga and meditation. Actually there seems to be loads of people into that stuff here compared to Norway.

Ah, another thing was that there was a really cute guy on the course, but due to the silence thing I didn't even know his name by the end of it. Then I figured out that he might go to some of the weekly gatherings they have in Melbourne, so I went last week and he was there...i was pretty happy until I during talking to him figured out that he of course has a girlfriend. Urgh..typical my luck.
So, so much for romance, I guess I dont really have time for it anyway, now that uni starts again and the stress is back on ;)

Lets see, what else can i tell. Yes, earlier this week I wanted to go the sea because it was a beautiful sunny day, cold but sunny. So I caught the train a bit southwards and from my simple LP map I had figured out that if I got off at a certain station it should be an easy walk to the sea. However it turned out the stop was outside my map and when I had to go through a residential area I got confused and lost track of the directions. Eventually I found my way back to a major road and there i found a woman that I asked for help, she told me to follow her as she was going towards the same direction. So we started talking, it turned out she was from Romania and had been here for 15 years, she also seemed very friendly, so when she asked me in for a cup of tea I said yes. It is always interesting to meet new people. So she gave me tea and cookies and we talked for quite a while. It turned out she was also into a lot of the alternative, new age thinking and had done heaps of courses in various things like reiki, massages, meditations etc. When I had to leave she even made me lunch to take with me. Its great when you meet people like that. By the way, this area of Melbourne is packed with alternative things, every other shop is a healing place or shop selling everything from incense to crystals. So it is not like Im meeting the odd people here, it is more the norm. Anyway, in the end I found my way to the sea and had a great walk along the coast back towards the centre.

The rest of my holiday I have been catching up with various friends, been to cafes, movies and a couple of bars.
Today I went to a market by the seaside again, I was supposed to meet my Indian friend there, but she slept in so I spent a while sitting on a bench by the beach while waiting, watching people passing. Many people were out walking their dogs, but one man stood out, he was walking 4 dogs, but one of the dogs actually had a sign around its neck saying: FOR SALE!! hahahha, that was hilarious :)

Ok, last news is that I have changed university. I did this for various reasons, mainly due to an elitist attitude at Swinburne that I really did not like, also due to the feeling that I did not get value for my money. The course they put me in was aimed first and foremost at 4th year students doing their Honor year and I just felt that the course was not aimed at students like me who have no real previous background in the Graphic Design area and I felt I kept missing out on basic knowledge. So I am now doing my final semester at RMIT, their course is specifically aimed at students coming in from other creative backgrounds (such as me) and will put me on a more equal level and also (I hope) give me more of the basic founding in the subject. Despite of all this though I did fairly well in my semester at Swinburne and although Im not totally happy with my results considering how insanely much a struggled. Anyway its over and done with and a good experience to have:) Tomorrow I begin at RMIT and im pretty excited and hoping it is more along the lines im hoping for.

Brr....well im about to loose the feeling in my hands because my room is freezing, after a massive electricity bill (well in Norwegian standard it is actually cheap, but for the Aussie ppl it is huge) I feel guilty if I use the heater too much, so instead im dressed up like the Michelin man. So im off to warm myself under my doona :) See you later....

Finally done!!!!!!!!

Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinaalyyyyyyyyyyyy!! Im done with my last submission for this semester. It has been an insane 4 months. I havent worked as much ever in my life. But, I think, as a designer kind of person it is easy to get obsessive and when you are in a class with people who are, on some levels, light years ahead of you, it is even easier to go insane on the working hours to try and catch up to their level.

Anyway, I submitted my final project yesterday. It consisted of 75 A3 pages!! Me and a friend (Regine) bought an A3 printer together so we could have control over the printing & colours. I spent like the 7 hours at her flat just printing out the stuff. One page takes a couple of minutes and of course when you print out, you notice all kinds of mistakes and have to reprint half of the stuff. I guess we even become a bit obsessive about this in the end too, but really at the very end I could not care anymore. I was exhausted. I gave in my project around 3 pm yesterday then I went back home to sleep. However my Malaysian housemates (2 sisters) were having a birthday party and that apparently involved games that included jumping up and down on the floor for ages and screaming out extremely loud! So I didn't really get to sleep until quite late. Anyway, it was great just relaxing and not having to stress about something.

I slept about 10 hours. Woke up today, still pretty tired, but went out to organize some stuff. Hmm.... I don't actually have much fun to write at this point, as I have forgotten most of what happened the last month (you can just assume it was more or less me being nerdy working like mad).

The only fun experience I can muster up at his point is this: The manually operated lift: I was in this shopping complex today and after having done the stuff I needed to do I wanted to get out, however there where no stairs leading down to the exit. Finally I found a lift so I thought Id just be lazy and use that. However I could not find any button to bring the lift to where I was. Eventually I noticed a sign saying something about the lift and at the end it said: this lift is manually operated! Hmm...I found that a bit weird, but assumed that they just meant that it was operated by the people using it!? Anyway, finally one of the doors opened and a woman looked out asking where I was going!!!!! Hehe...the lift actually had a driver. That must be the most boring job ever. She had to go up and down, stop at each level, pop her head out and ask people where they were going, she then had to announce at each level what was there. Like for example: 4th floor: Designer clothes and accesories 3rd floor: toys and children clothes. Hehe...it was all a bit odd. However an interesting experience.

Not much else fun to report just yet. Im still pretty tired, was supposed to go to see Batman today, but when I called the friend I was going with she was flat out sleeping, having also worked like mad lately. So I just stayed at home and shared a bottle of wine with my housemate while watching Lost. Anyway, Im happy just being able to relax and not worry about any more submissions for a while :D Yihaaaaaaaaa!

Summary

Everything is about summarising and finishing off stuff now, so it is a suiteable title...although my brain does not really respond well to that word anymore after one of the teachers at school with a high pitched, stressfull voice has babbled on endlessly about "the summary" for the last few months. We are about to finish our first semester and since we have had just one (loooong) project in each of the three subjects we have had, we now have to finish up everything and summarise our actions, thoughts etc..about what we have done, why and so on. Two more weeks of this though, and I can finally take a break (jippi).

Yesterday it was 17 Mai (the Norwegian national day) and I could not even celebrate it because of this neverending work, but it was actually not a huge problem since I more or less forgot about it until half the day had passed and I got messages from people at home. Since i dont have any Norwegian friends that I hang around with on daily basis I just totally forgot about it for a bit.

So to summarise the last weeks....hmm...I have been to see Aussie Rules (Australian Football), which is kind of like, well...Im not sure, since I dont really watch any other kinds of football, but it is totally different from soccer, reminds me a bit of American football and rugby, but apparently is very different (dont aks me why though). The field was oval, the goals are four poles, the ball is ovall, they use both feets and hands, there are 16 player (i think) on the field, they can "wrestle/tackle" and there is no real goal keeper (!) Yup, thats all I know. I went to see it with an Australian friend who invited me along. It was played in the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground), a huge stadium that can soon take 100 000 people. Im not sure how many was there when I was there, but maybe 30 -40 000. Every weekend there are games (friday, saturday, sunday) and every game there are tens of thousands people watching. They say it is like a religion here!!!(?) Crazy people...hehe

I also have been to a concert, a heavy rock band from Perth and to the cinema to see Hitchikers guide and, yeah, thats about it. The rest of the time I have been working (or trying to work). Here is a few pics from the game.

Launch Party

Last night I went to this restaurant opening thing in South Melbourne. The sister of a friends flatmate was opening it and I got an invite. Actually I didn't really have time to go due to some stupid deadlines on Tuesday, but I thought I would go for a couple of hours just to meet people and get some free food and alchohol :) Yeah, well the "couple of hours plan" obviously did not work. It was good fun and many people there and in the end I just stayed on until it more or less closed - feeling pretty crap today and guilty for wasting prescious worktime, but it was kind of worth it too. Needed a change of scenerey!

There was even some famous (kind of) people there. A guy from Home & Away (Australian tv series), I have never seen him tho, but someone told me. The other person was a guy from Neighbours (another Aussie series). A bit weird seeng actors in real life, because they look kind of different. Ah...and there were also some cute guys there ;)