Festivals

Here I am, writing again... I had a great day at Bondi Beach :) I went with Sharon, Cameron and Kath and we stayed there for over 5 hours; just laying on the beach (it was windy so we got all covered in sand), walking around and most importantly enjoying the sunshine and hottness! We also had lunch at a sushi restaurant that I´d rate as overpriced. Now I´ve got a good base tan, which I can keep working on :)

I promised to write more about my weekend. I spent Sunday in Victoria Park, laying by the pool in my bikinis and trying to read some articles for a finance assignment. Suprisingly I was more interested in reading this silly book about an airhostess, though. I was supposed to start writing the essay in the evening, but I felt too tired because of being outside for so long, so I joined my flatmates to watch a movie instead.

On Monday Moy and I met in the morning to go to Manly for a jazz festival. It was the most beautiful day again! We took the ferry to Manly. Even though it´s pretty expensive, especially without concession (I still cannot understand why study abroad students don´t get concession even though exchange students do), I enjoy it a lot. It´s nice sitting outside on the deck looking at the views: some posh houses and nice apartments, private beaches, boats and of course the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. When we got to Manly we checked out the different stages - there were four of them - where jazz bands were performing. There were bands from high school groups to nationally recognized artists. Moy knows quite a lot about jazz, and even though I know almost nothing I had a good time listening to the music, too. Some day I´d love to go to a sophisticated underground jazz club, like the ones you see on movies and TV-shows (especially on Sex and the City). The main stage was right on the beach, and there were heaps of people sunbathing and listening to the bands. We walked in the water, too, which felt refreshing. Then we went to get ice cream from Copenhagen (one of my favorite ice cream places) and sat on the grass in front of another stage on the main street. At some point when we were just walking around Moy noticed his cell phone was missing. We tried to look for it, but with no success, so we went to report it missing. He ended up getting it back the next day from the police station, but we had to run to catch the ferry back.

The main stage at the jazz festival

It was a day of festivals, since we went straight to Darling Harbour to Latin Fest, which was a rather big festival with music, performances, food and other stuff from Latin countries. Moy performed there with his capoiera group. He has learned so much since I first saw him trying the moves in February, when we went to check out the capoiera class together. It´s funny how I initially asked him to join me for capoiera and ended up not going back, but he´s kept training it all this time. The capoiera teacher is so skilled; he can do all kinds of cool tricks! After Moy´s performance we both were starving, so we bought lunch/dinner from the food stands. I got a thick pancake with some kind of salsa topping, and Columbian coffee with these sweat sticks for dessert. By the time we were done eating most of the performances were over. There was still a band performing on a removable stage that was floating on the water, and we sat there listening to them to watching the view over Darling Harbour as it got darker. It was a warm and beautiful summer night. Just sitting there and looking at the Sydney skyline with all the lights made me think of my dream about coming to Australia and how wonderful this year has been so far! I´ve never regretted deciding to spend a year of my life here and there´re so many things I´ll miss after I return home.

Capoiera show - Moy doing a hand stand

A Latin band performing

Darling Harbour and Sydney skyline

It was another hot and sunny day yesterday, but I decided to be a good student and stay home working on my assignment. So I wrote it till noon, when I went to the gym where Michael taucht me some new things. He tried to teach me this exercise where I gotta throw a ball and catch it, but I missed it and it hit me straight on my face lol. It was a 5kg ball, so I was lucky not to get any bruices. After lunch I went back to the UTS to get a second shot of the cervical cancer vaccination. In the meanwhile they´ve started charging international students $150 for it, but since I got the first shot when it was still free I get the whole treatment without having to pay. I think I´m lucky since I believe the vaccination would be even more expensive in Finland. Then I decided to go for a short walk and just followed a road towards the Anzac Bridge, to a neighbourhood I had never been to before. I found this little park and some round stone statues in front of it. I sat on one of them and watched the traffic on Anzac Bridge, aeroplanes taking off and landing and an empty sports field behind some buildings. I spent a moment thinking about my goals and dreams. At the moment I don´t have any set goals, apart from graduating and wanting to work for an international company doing something challenging and exciting. I also doubt I´ll stay in one city - or even in one country - for any long periods of time. There´s still so much to learn and experience in the world! I guess the best way to pursue my goals is to finish my studies and in the meanwhile keep my eyes open for any career (and other) possibilities to be found. In my opinion it´s important to gain experience and network with people while you´re still studying, so that you´ll have something to build on when you graduate. I don´t think one should have any too specified plans - about the field of business or the location of the job - in order to be fully able to reach her full potential when an opportunity comes to her. This means I´ve got almost no idea what kind of company I´ll end up working for and in which country - or even in which continent - but I feel pretty confident I´ll gain some sort of success at some point of my life :)

Alright, this is making no sense anymore lol. I bet you´ve fallen asleep already - I almost have. Speaking of pursuing ones dreams and experiencing all kinds of new things, my brother Heka has just begun his exchange year in Kanazawa, Japan. You can read his blog at www.claudelin.net/blog (in English) if you´re interested. And another thing; I got 88% for my Economics of the Firm mid-term exam, which was a positive suprise.