Long long Wednesdays...
I've just had my really long Wednesday at Uni. From 10am to 7pm. I know it's like a normal working day, but it's just different when you need to be alert and learn things. So far I have to say that even though getting into the studying thing again and getting all the new projects, essays and assignments is really daunting, I still really love it. The only one that is a bit tough is the Architectural History, but I guess I'll just have to put some extra work into that subject.
The one thing you DONT want after a long day is complications... I ordered a new bag for Uni about 3-4 weeks ago and it still has not arrived. So finally I got around to contacting them and after chatting to them for about 30 minutes I got them to refund the money, as they had not even send it yet. They kept on trying to make me just get a giftcard and order something else!!! Idiots, do you really think I am going to order from you again when you couldn't deliver the first time??? Annoying...
Well, tomorrow is a new day, I day off from Uni and there will be lots of studying going on, hours of drawing in one of my design diaries to be exact, but I will also be going on bag hunting. I REALLY need a proper bag that will fit all my textbooks and design diaries and laptop.
*xo xo*
Tadaa, my new paint kit :)
Hi guys :)
This is just gonna be a short one, because I should be studying right now :) But, I got my paint kit the other day and I just thought I had to show it to you. It's really pretty, and it has heaps of different kind of Acrylic paints and colour pencils, all inside a really neat wooden box. Carlos found it on the internet and it was really cheap, so I just had to get it. Plus I actually need it now for my projects, because as you can imagine, there is a lot of drawing involved when your studying to become an Architect ;)
First week and first challenges....
It's only Thursday, but the first week of Uni is done :) This week we don't have our studios and workshops, so it turned out to be a pretty short week. But we have now gotten our first assignment and project. It's very exciting and nice to go to every lecture and genuinely be interested in what they are telling you, not like it was in high school where you a lot of the time was thinking : what are they teaching me this for?
Here we have some pictures of "my new home" :)
Time to get serious
It has been a busy week. We have basically just been trying to make the most out of each day. We have been to the beach a lot, Carlos has been surfing and I got out there and tried a few times:) It is sooo hard! I mean just to go for a swim is a challenge because of the currents! But I'll get used to it :)
So tomorrow is when it really begins... I have my first "real" day at Uni, my first lectures, now is when they start expecting things from you, so lets hope I can do it.
During last week I got to meet my classmates and see our facilities which was a lot of fun:) One of the coolest things was the 3D printer. You know those miniture buildings you sometimes see at a museum or something, they are PRINTED! So cool! It might sound silly, but at least I had no idea that that was how they make them, but it is and we have one of those printers for if you have a project or something :) Can't wait until I get to use it :)
Well guys, tomorrow is a big day, Uni starts, which obviously is the exciting part. But unfortunately tomorrow is also Carlos's last day:( After 3 weeks of holiday, it's time for him to go back to the Northern Territory:'( It's gonna be sad to see him go back, but hopefully it wont be for long.
Wish me luck for tomorrow :)
*xo xo*
Fun fun :)
The latest 2 days I have barely been home. I have been out and met some of Carlos's friends and then last night I finally went out with my Sarah :) It was lots of fun and it is meet up with old friends and to make some new ones.
I have also had Uni, eith iconnect, which was basicaly just getting to know you games with all the other international students. And then some more important stuff like "Financial Aid". Next week it is time for the School Orientation, so that is when I will actually meet my classmates and learn more about the program and have a look around the facilities. So it will be a very exciting week.
This is just a tribute...
To my beautiful friend Malin:)
Thank you sooo much for the new blog design, you have done a great job!
I absolutely love it, thank you for all the time and effort you have put in to
make it look the way I wanted it to :)
*xoxo*
It has begun
I did say I was going to write yesterday. But since I first had Uni in the morning, then went with Nieve to get my school supplies, came home and cleaned the car in the afternoon and then finished the day off with a nice dinner in Broadbeach with Carlos, it was just a bit hard to find the time to write about it all :) So here I am writing it today.
The Uni start was easy, we just had a 3 hour session where they welcomed us to the country. I think I already knew about 95% of the things they told me. I mean it's good that they help everyone that is new in the country. But I didn't really need most of it. But it was still a nice day, got to meet some of the other international students, I got my student ID and I had a nice walk around campus. I have Uni 2 more days this week with the international students and then I have 2 days next week with the Environmental Design class and the week after that is when it really starts. :)
Carlos and me went to a nice restaurant close to the beach down in Broadbeach, which is just south of Surfers Paradise. We had a lovely Valentines evening with awesome food :)
My Valentines Rose :)
Tomorrow, it's time...
Alright, so tomorrow... Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow... Uni starts at 10 am and well, at the moment I'm all good, but sometimes I get really nervous thinking about it. But before I fell asleep yesterday I started thinking in a different way. Tomorrow is actually going to be the best day out of all my time at Uni. Tomorrow will be the one day when they expect nothing from you. They don't expect you to know anything, they don't even expect you to know where to go :) So everytime I feel the nervs coming on, I just think of that :)
These latest 2 days have been awesome (except for my worrying over nothing). Me and Carlos spend 5 hours at Harbour Town on Friday, which is a huge shopping centre with outlet stores :) I was actually surprised that Carlos managed to handle 5 hours, but he did good. Only difference between me and him was that afterwards he said he won't go shopping for ages now. And for all of you who know me, knows I will probably never get tired of shopping :)
Yesterday we drove down to Coolangatta and saw one of Carlos's mates and his girlfriend and we went to the beach. So nice to be in "normal" heat and be able to go to the beach. Not like the Northern Territory where any waterhole or even the sea is: "look but don't touch" unless you want to be eaten by a crocodile.
Alright, today I am going to clean the car and sort out the problems with it so I can use it to drive to Uni and then me and Carlos are going to see his dad. I will write tomorrow and let you know what my first day was like :)
*xoxo*
Gold Coast Arrival :)
Now we are on the Gold Coast and I have to say I am enjoying it incredibly much :D
We arrived yesterday morning at 5.20 in the morning and got picked up by Carlos mum Robyn and her husband Terry. We are staying in their house in Helensvale, which is in the north part of Gold Coast. We are living there at the moment with Robyn, Terry and the 2 dogs Gemma and Bayley. On the day we arrived I spend my day with Sarah, my lovely English friend whom I met the last time I was down here and we had an absolutely awesome day. We went for lunch and then we went shopping. I am quite proud of all the bargains I made:) 4 tops, 2 dresses, a bra and hair color :)
On Monday the Orientation Week starts and then the lectures start on the 28th of February. Exciting :)
Here comes a few pictures of my "new home" :)
*xoxo*
The end of a chapter...
Since I don’t have very long left in Jabiru, actually just got home from my last day at work :D So excited about all the upcoming changes!!! However, last week I did something that just had to be done before I left Kakadu National Park. I took the opportunity to go on a helicopter flight down to the waterfalls. The waterfalls are really the biggest attraction here in the wet, and I could not leave without actually seeing them. As they only flow during the wet season I had to wait until now. During the dry season all you have water-wise is a few billabongs and the wetlands. The waterfalls is basically just all the water that falls in the area during the wet season. But I had been told that it definitely was something I needed to see. And WOW, what a view! It was absolutely amazing! Definitely the best experience I have had while I have been in Kakadu, and the most memorable. And of course, I took heaps and heaps of pictures, here you have some of my favorites.
I think this is the perfect way to finish my story about my time in the NT. It has been a great experience and a challenge at times, and now a even bigger challenge is awaiting....
*xoxo*
The boat cruise on The Magela Creek System
Something you should do when you visit Kakadu, is to go on a boat cruise, which we finally got around to do last weekend. Me and Carlos went on a 1,5 hour boat cruise along the Guluyambi Magela Creek system, which is only accessible during 2 months of the year, when the water level is at its peak . The landscape around us was as beautiful as ever. We saw a crocodile nest and spotted the mother guarding the nest. We also saw birds, a turtle and got to learn about the Aboriginal way of hunting. It was a really nice day and as we got to go for free, it was even better :)
Hurray for my new laptop :)
It’s not Christmas anymore, but I finally got my awesome Christmas present from my awesome boyfriend J. My new laptop arrived yesterday, and I absolutely love it!! It’s so great to have a laptop that actually reacts when I press a button :) My old one is more than 4 years old now and it was not very good to start with. So it was really needed and a great present just before Uni starts. I have been playing with it for hours now :) I think it is safe to say, that I will be more active on my blog from now on, because it is actually fun to sit on the computer now, and not frustrating like before. There was the forever ongoing battle between: should I get a PC or a Mac? In the end PC won this time, I got a Dell. And I have to say, so far, I am very happy with that decision.
All "good" things come to an end...
Ok, so now I have about 2 weeks left. I have been thinking back on my time here and it has been good. It has not been great, but it has not been bad either, it has been... good. But I would be lying if I said I am not happy to go. It has been a very different experience and I definitely never thought I would be able to call a national park my home, or that I would call myself a "flight controller". )Ha, it still makes me laugh sometimes!) So even though it has been tough at times to live in the middle of nowhere, it is safe to say that I will never forget it.
But now I am in the process of counting down. When you have 2 weeks left in a place, it is definitely time for count down :) It is time to prepare myself for another one of those huge changes, where pretty much every part of my life will change and at the moment I can not do much else then imagine what it will be like.
Just to give you an idea of my schedule, I will be arriving on the Gold Coast on the 8th of February. Six days later, on the 14th of February, I will start Uni. I will be going to Griffith University, Gold Coast campus and I will study "Bachelor of Environmental Design" (Architectural studies). Which is, as you might understand from the name, what you study to become an Architect. The first 2 weeks are orientation weeks and the real lectures do not start until the 28th of February. I will be staying at Carlos's mums place in the beginning, until I find my own place. Carlos is coming with me for a 3 week holiday and hopefully he can stay after that too, but we will have to wait and see. But that is pretty much all I know about the coming month and the rest I will just have to work out as it comes. But it really is exciting times and I can assure you, I will be writing and telling you all about it.
I also want to say Happy Birthday to the 2 best siblings in the world. Happy Birthday Lisett and Alex! I wish I could have been there!!!
Lots of love to you all.
I will write again soon :)
Welcome to two-thousand-and-eleven :D
Hey!
It's been a while... But I am back, and NO, I have not drowned or floated away, I am still here :) I know all you hear about back home is the floods over here, but they are pretty far from where I am. It is pretty much like if I would here that there is a flood in Austria and call you back home to check if your ok. So no worries :)
Not that much its happening down here, just working, and tomorrow the new girl starts:) So I will be training here for the coming 3-4 weeks before it is time to go to the Gold Coast and get ready for Uni. So there is definitely some big and exciting changes coming up.
I thought I would show you a few pictures from New Years. We spend it in Darwin. It was me and about 9 pilots I think... Lots of fun :D
Talk soon...
No white Xmas for me...
The Xmas weekend went fast, just like every weekend does. Unfortunately the Xmas spirit was not really there, when you know that everyone back home is having a nice cold and white Xmas, it gets even harder to enjoy it. But I am very proud to say that I at least made Swedish Xmas dinner on the night of the 24th. I got to go home early, since I was the only one that celebrates Xmas on the 24th and not the 25th. I made "Jansons Frestelse", "prins korvar", eggs with homemade "skagen rora" and homemade meatballs. I also baked "Lusse bullar" and "Knack". Took me about 6 hours and even though I was a bit tired in the end, I did feel a bit more "Xmase" :) . And Carlos liked it a lot and I told him that next year he will get the whole Swedish Xmas table when we go to Sweden :)
On the 25th it was time to celebrate Xmas again, only this time the Australian way. We were all invited over to the Chief pilots house (by all, I mean everyone from work). We were about 14 people in the end and we had food for about 30 :P We had turkey, ham, different salads, Swedish food that I brought, cakes afterwards. Then we just hung out in the garden, I spend most of the afternoon in the pool, so those of you who are home in the cold in Sweden can imagine how far from Xmas it felt, but it was still lots of fun :)
But in the end, Xmas is just meant to be spent with the family, and if things go my way, I will be in Sweden for next Xmas :D I know you are probably not gonna agree with me on this one, but I hope it will be a white Xmas next year too...
Also, A HAPPY New Year to you all!!! I will see you again in the next year :)
*Kisses and Hugs*
A Very...... Merry.... Christmas :)
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
Or as they say in Sweden on " Kalle Ankas jul", fran oss alla (jag :P) till er alla, EN RIKGIT GOD JUL!!!
Miss you all lots, save me some snow :-)
Santa Clauses in Japan :-D
Xmas party in Darwin
This weekend was an eventful one, for once... We had our Xmas dinner at a nice restaurant, with some really good food. After the dinner we went to a bar only a 5 minute walk away. It is amazing how much you can miss things, things that you did not even think you would miss. The others were not much for dancing, but as you all know, I am. So I got up on the dance floor without the others. I also walked over to the most crowded part of the pub, just because I missed having a lot of people around me :P Weird... But it was a really nice Xmas party and we had a lot of fun. We were staying at Darwin Central, the same place that me and Carlos stayed at the last time we went to Darwin. We ended up getting one of those 24 hour movie deals in our room. And we managed to watch 3 movies in the short time we were in Darwin. One in the afternoon when we arrived, before the party, one at 2 o'clock in the morning when we got back from the party and one in the morning when we woke up and felt hungover.
I can not find anything negative with the weekend, it was great, except for the small detail that there is absolutely no Xmas spirit whatsoever :( Xmas is just supposed to be cold, dark and preferably with heaps of snow. And none of that can be found around here. The wet season has arrived and it is raining most days and the days it doesn't is still very humid.
Other exciting things that has happened is that I have gotten my student visa approved, I got a package from my lovely sister back home and I have ordered a bunch of art supplies so I can start painting and drawing again.
The visa got approved straight away, no questions or anything, so everything for Uni is now sorted. I have not started getting nervous yet, but I am sure that when it gets closer in time the nerves will come out (2 months left today).
The package from Sweden made me so so so so VERY happy :) It had Swedish candy, chocolate, gingerbread dough (pepparkaks deg :P ), presents that I have not opened yet and a really nice card that (of course) was handmade by my very own sister:) I realized what a difference there is in the quality of
Swedish candy and Australian candy. Cause Oh My God, there is nothing better then Swedish candy. I think most of you would agree with me ;)
Swedish candy and Australian candy. Cause Oh My God, there is nothing better then Swedish candy. I think most of you would agree with me ;)
The art supplies that are on there way is basically the result of me being so tired of having boring weekends and Carlos being tired of me getting restless :P So from now on, when I don't feel like going to the pool or play computer games, I can just draw :)
For now I guess that is all. I miss you ALL a lot, especially coming up to Xmas, which is the time of year where your supposed to be close to friends and family.
Heaps of hugs to you....
Dundee land :)
Here are some more pictures, all from our latest adventure. :)
These are just pictures I did not upload the last time... Not the fastest computers around here, so I just do not have the patience to upload them all at once...
I am now back to normal weeks, with a proper 2 day weekend, which is really nice. Not much is happening at the moment, we have not had internet for a week at work, because of the thunder strike we had. We are starting to get more and more storms and this one hit us be surprise. Scared the hell out of me :P But hey, it got me a better computer, so I can not complain :)
It hit me the other day that I have not told you guys that the Crocodile Dundee movies were made out here. most of the filming that is done in Australia is a location just 10 minutes north of where we live. I only found out 2 weeks ago that it was that close by, just though it might interest some of you Dundee fans :)
Lots of love
Some pictures from Ubirr Rockart
More will come... just don't have any internet at work at the moment... stupid lightning strike... be back shortly :)
Xmas, already?
Hey everyone,
Yepp, I'm still alive and kicking over here. I know I have not been writing very often lately, but it is just because, like everybody else, I now have my everyday life and there is not much new going on. I could write and tell you every day about my long days at work and that is about it, most of the time. Getting up early and coming home late does not leave a lot of room for anything else.
The company has started planning our Christmas party, that will take place in Darwin in about 4 weeks. I still can not believe that it is already getting close to Christmas. But that seems to be the way it feels most years. The Christmas party plan is that we work like normal on Saturday the 11/12, at the end of the day we take one of the planes and fly in to Darwin. There they have booked hotel rooms for everyone, so after the party, we will stay in Darwin for the night. Then everyone who is working on the Sunday, will have to fly back in time for work :) Luckily, both Saturday and Sunday are my days off :D score! So I can get how ever drunk I feel like :P
me Carlos have had 2 friends visiting the last 2 days, and we went to Ubirr Rock with them yesterday. So I will get back to you with details and pictures from our little trip shortly. But now I have to get back to work :)
*Talk soon, xoxo*
