Soccer - and David Beckham!

So I´ve been on my summer break for a week and a half now... The weather has been crabby almost the whole time - rainy, cloudy and windy :( I haven´t done all that much of anything exciting. I´m suprised how many things I gotta take care of before returning to Finland. Geegal is going to be under renovation and everyone has to move out next week. We had an option to be relocated either in Gumal or Bulga (other UTS residences) but I chose to end my contract and receive almost $1000 of my already paid rent back. I´ll be in Sydney only 12 more days after returning from East Coast, and I´ll be living in Moy´s room in Gumal while he´s in Mexico. I don´t think I mentioned I´ll be doing a 2-week long road trip from Cairns to Sydney, along East Coast, with Juulia. I´m flying to Cairns on Tuesday and I can´t wait to begin our journey! So from now on my address will be:

215A, 161 Broadway

Ultimo, NSW 2007

Australia

We´ve had several barbeque parties here in Geegal lately! People are already leaving for traveling before going back to their home countries, so we´ve had some farewell parties, as well as Birthdays. Moy cooked us heaps of delicious Mexican food on Sunday, and yesterday we celebrated NingNing´s Pre-B-Day. I baked pullas for everyone and it didn´t take long till all of them were gone :) Besides parties I´ve been shopping (or "shopping" - not buying anything but looking at stuff that I´d buy if I had more space in my suitcase & more money), to the movies, reading books outside etc...

Moy´s Birthday BBQ

On Monday morning I received a text message from my new friend Mahmoud. He had gotten tickets to go see a soccer match Sydney FC vs. LA Galaxy and invited me to join him. As you might know, David Beckham now plays for LA Galaxy, and his coming to Australia was such a big deal! It was indeed his first time playing here. So I was really excited to go to Telstra Stadium to watch the game :) Already being inside the huge stadium (it was the main stadium during the 2000 Olympics) was an exprience, especially since we had tickets at a premium section. There were over 80 000 people watching the game. Sydney FC played well and won 5-3! David Beckham was hot and made one goal even though he got injured during the first half of the game. So watching the game live was tons of fun, and now I can say I´ve seen one of the worlds hottest soccer stars lol.

Telstra Stadium

Mahmoud and I watching the game

David Beckham on the big screen

I´m all done!!

I´m finally all done with my studies at the UTS :D I had my last exam this morning, and now I´m just hanging around, thinking about all the fun things I´ll get to do... I think I´ll actually write a list of everything I still wanna see and do in Sydney before leaving home. It´ll definately be tons of outdoor activities!

Since my last update I´ve been studying, studying, studying... I dunno why I spent so much time studying even though my goal was just to pass my subjects. I did well on economics, totally blew my finance exam yesterday, and about my HRM exam today I really can´t say anything. But the most important thing is I´m all done and don´t have to spend (waste) any more time sitting inside studying. I did study outside every now and then, though. Broadway Cafe has nice big tables outside, which are perfect for studying while drinking coffee.

What I like about the summer in Sydney are all the different festivals :) Many neighbourhoods have their own street fares and there´re several music, performance and food fests around the city, as well. Last Friday I went to the Rocks with Renar, Cody, Renee, Maryse, Kamilla and Inger. First we had dinner at Pancakes and then we walked around the night markets while listening to live music performances. Then we took the bus to Bar Broadway, where we stayed for a while before going to check out this party at The Loft (our uni bar). It costed $10 to get in so I decided to head home instead and watch a movie. On Sunday I went to Glebe Street Fare. It was a perfect summer day and I spent over two hours just walking along the street and looking at all the stalls. There were tons of them! For lunch I had a delicious Malesian spring roll and a Japanese chocolate pancake. I´m really gonna miss all the international food! I also bought a pretty necklace and 1m-long licorice (the same stuff they sell at markets in Finland).

Night Markets at The Rocks

Glebe Street Fare

Now I´m gonna go outside to enjoy the sunshine and read a book (Jane Austen´s Emma) before going to the gym... I still can´t believe I needn´t study anymore, it feels so unreal :)

My pictures

Denise took these pictures of me for her photography project.

Just an update

I´m bored of studying so I thought to update my blog even though I haven´t done anything that exciting lately... Fortunately I finished my last assingment on Thursday, so I´ve only got 3 final exams left before I´ll be all done with my studies at UTS! In a way I´m already looking forward to going back to studying at LUT to really contribute towards getting my degree. I´ve taken beneficial subjects here and learned many new things, especially during the second semester, but none of them substitute any of the compulsory subjects of my degree. The only thing I´m not looking forward to doing is taking those B2 and B3 maths that I smartly decided to skip as a freshman :/ But my general attitude towards studying is extremely positive! The longer I work at simple jobs such as sales assistant the stronger I feel I really need to get a challenging job to be satisfied. And by studying a degree I can get the kind of job I´ll be happy performing.

So, what all have I done besides studying... I´ve been to a few parties. Last Friday I went to Carlos´ and Jamie´s Housewarming Party in Glebe. They share a nice two-storey house with a small backyard. The party was good, meeting some new people and drinking Finlandia Vodka that I shared with Sharon and Carlos. From the party we went to this nice cocktail bar. I really liked the decorations - an aquarium, lots of wood and red lights - and it was nice sitting there for a while even though I couldn´t afford to buy any drinks. Yesterday I went to another party. It was Andre´s Farewell Party. It was storming last night (I got completely wet walking there and back!) so all the people were packed inside making it crowded and hot. The two best things of the party were the DJ (a professional playing a good mix of techno, latest pop hits and Latin music) and sangria (Spanish/Latin drink with red wine, juice and fruits). Even though I knew hardly anyone there I had a good time dancing :)

At Andre´s Farewell Party

Last Saturday I went to Food and Wine Festival in Hyde Park. The park was full of stands selling different kinds of foods and wines, and lots of people. The queues were quite long and I hadn´t a lot of time to wander around before the stands closed, so I just bought sushi. It was the best sushi I´ve tasted so far :P The two huge rolls were filled with salmon, prawns and some delicious sauce. I sat by a fountain eating them, listening to a music performance and looking at people. Once again I got to experience how friendly Australians are :) These girl and guy sitting next to me just started chatting with me and invited me to join them to walk around the fest area. After leaving the fest I bought an ice cream and walked towards Darling Harbour, from where I went to Paddys Markets to buy some veggies and fruit before going home.

Food and Wine Festival

Fountain in Hyde Park

Speaking of food (why am I always writing about food lol) I cooked Mexican food with Moy and two of his friends on Wednesday. We cooked tortillas with chicken, avocado-onion-tomato sauce, potatoes & sausage and another set of tortillas with mushroom and cheese. So much fun cooking with people :) We made enough food for everyone to take for lunch to uni/work the next day. Today I´m cooking chicken curry with Sharon; already getting hungry...