Not that any other days have been bad, not at all. They’ve just been busy. The last couple of weeks have been packed with assignments, assessments, reflections, essay and whatnot. Now you might find this strange, but I’m actually the kind of guy that actually likes this stuff (regardless of what my facebook status might say at the time) so I think it’s been pretty alright. The best part of it is of course that everybody else is in the same situation, that is: sleepwalking around the library in a caffeine-daze accompanied by the kind of bad humour you only experience at universities at the end of the semester. I love it! Not to mention the desperate screams for help on facebook and the prolonged coffee breaks that turns into lying-on-the-grass-breaks and end up as dinner breaks with a bad conscience. Yeah, the life of a student is harsh..

I wanted to tell you guys about my day though! First I got some good news in an email. Then I went and had my last lecture for this semester before I finished and handed in my final assignment. After calling it a day at 1:45PM I went home where I found something I’d lost before discovering a fantastic care-package in the mail from some friends at home. It included Norwegian chocolate, candy, newspapers and food. The Belgians and Swiss can say what they want, Norway has the best chocolate in the world! And if that wasn’t enough my french housemate decided to make crepês for dinner. J’aime les crepês!

Not really a typical day in Australia, but hey I mean, there’s been quite a few of those already. Don’t get me wrong, I came here to Australia to experience the Australian way of life, and I have! - but sometimes all you really want is a little bit of home… So I joined with several hundred other Norwegians on the 17th of May to celebrate the Norwegian Constitutional Day. This is pretty much the most important day in Norwegian culture (followed closely by Christmas Eve) so it was a lot of fun to celebrate it so far from home. The celebration in Brisbane is allegedly the biggest one outside Norway - for some reason.

Speaking of cultures other than the Australian one, I went to the annual Greek festival here in Brisbane a few weeks ago. I didn’t know anything about Greek culture to start with, but now I do. The Greeks like to cook, eat, dance, eat and then eat some more after they’ve finished eating. Suffice to say I was fairly stuffed when I got home. Garcon! A bucket for monsieur!

I also went with a friend of mine and Mates@UQ to Dreamworld some time ago. Mates@UQ is this service the uni offers where you can meet other international students and at the same time experience Queensland without murdering your wallet in the process. Anyways, they did this trip to Dreamworld which is an amusement park with an adjacent water world plus a zoo!

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And since we’re down under, it only makes sense that we should be upside down!

Have a great time guys, next time I’ll write about how me, a sunburned, half blind Scandinavian ended up on a surfboard *DRAMATIC MUSIC*

To Be Continued! ….

Imagine a round field of grass. About 150 meters in diameter or thereabouts. Plant four huge poles at opposite sides of this field and paint some markers here and there, finally you send 36 players, some water runners, messengers and 10 officials onto the field along with an oddly shaped ball. Finally you slam 30 000 crazed Australians all around and you’ve got yourself a game of Australian Football League! (or AFL as it’s commonly known) It’s kinda like rugby, but without the boring bits. Kinda like soccer, but without the elegance. Not at all similar to golf.  I guess you could even compare it with basketball, if only on basis of the speed and number of points scored. AFL is like quiddich on speed without the dorky glasses and the silly brooms.

I went to an AFL match between The Brisbane Lions and The Fremantle Dockers and it was absolutely manic.

They can run with the ball, sprint, kick it, even punch it (!) They’ll jump like.. well kangaroo’s to grab it, and  run into each other, somehow with more style than the blokes at rugby. They’ll all try to kick the ball between the opposition’s centre poles for the most points, while simultaneously trying to prevent the opponents from doing the same. And it’s so fast, it’s insane! I heard that an AFL player will run between 8 and 15 kilometres each match and a lot of this running is actually sprinting, dodging and jumping. The ball is being kicked everywhere, literally! Yet it (almost) always goes to a team-mate. I guess that’s one of the benefits of being 18 per team.  It’s a fantastic game, really. You have to look hard for a sport that is equally fast and entertaining without being repetitive.

But the sport itself, although fantastic and insane as it was, was not in any way even comparable to the spectators. Never before have I been to a major sporting event where they mixed the fans of the opposing teams, without anyone being killed, maimed or generally discomforted in any way. It was fantastic! I had Lion fans on my left side and Freo fans on my right, so no matter what happened I could still applaud without anyone murdering me. Try doing that on a soccer match in say, England! Now don’t take me wrong, they would still sing, yell, scream, curse, and shout at the team, referees each other, the opposing team and not to mention the players’ mothers. But it was all done in the typical friendly-if-slightly-brawly-and-somewhat-nasal-Aussie-way. I saw friends supporting opposite teams dragging each other down from celebration - all in good spirit.

It was great, really. AFL is a sport for the people,  If you can pick up a small watermelon or pumpkin and kick it in some random direction then you can play AFL. This was proved by yet another utterly amazing thing that happened at the game. When the game was over (Freo won, booo as I had decided to support the home team) at least one third of the spectators ran onto the field, and having brought their own footballs, started kicking away! Many hundreds, thousands, maybe even ten thousand, went on the pitch, kicking away on the same grass the stars of AFL had been running on just a few minutes earlier. Absolutely awesome! I’ve never seen anything like it before.

Now, AFL tickets don’t normally fall from the sky, but regardless of whether they do or not, you should still grab the chance and see it if you can. Because AFL is as entertaining as any sport can be, it’s as crazy as any sport can be, as unlike golf as you’ll ever see, and not to mention as Australian as you can get!

Go Lions!

I mentioned I would be partaking in a mountain climb in my last post, and here it is folks, what a trip!

We started out at 4 AM (!) in order to do the climb before the sun would fry us alive. The eight of us gathered at my house (quite convenient) and set off in two cars. The drive which took a few hours was spent taking pictures the sunrise and eventually the most AWESOME street name in Australia!

Now, when we talked about the mountain climb beforehand I presumed it would be a nice, if somewhat strenuous hike up a path to the summit. I was wrong. and not just a little bit either. The mountain climb really was a CLIMB meaning using your arms and feet to scale a 90 degreee rock face with a fairly grueling fate should you lose your grip on the way.

Still though, desipite not being the greatest fan of neither heights nor climbing I made it up to the top. (tip: singing the theme from Indiana Jones helped tremendously!) And what a top! From the summit we could see as far as the eye could reach, just absolutely fantastic!

I was fairly proud to be honest, and I think the others were too

Going down was somewhat less heroic though, since the easiest way proved to be just sliding down on our bums. Still, we timed it quite well since we managed to get a BBQ going and do all our sizzling before the drizzling commenced. The rain also proved to be a nice excuse for a drive to Melany (Maleny?) and possibly the best ice cream in THE WORLD!

All in all it was nothing short of a fantastic day!

ps: sorry for the bad quality of some of the pictures, they didn’t take well to being uploaded.

In my last post I mentioned I had tasted kangaroo, the most Australian of all food sources, or so I thought… I was soon to be proven wrong though, there is something more Australian than the majestic kangaroo. The infamous Vegemite! Now for those of you who aren`t familiar with this .. substance, allow me to explain. Vegemite is a yeast extract with a smell that you`d associate with the stuff under the sink or in the garage that you`re not supposed to eat, I`ll not elaborate too much on the colour, you can probably do so yourselves. Your instincts would either way tell you to stay away, that is if you`re not Australian. That`s right, Vegemite is a spread, and the Aussies love it! On toast, under cheese, with jam (?) and so on. It`s absolutely horrible, and definitely well worth trying. Because, yes the smell makes you cry, and the taste does make your tongue hurt (true story!) it is still a (big?) part of the Australian culture and way of life, and thus should be experienced!

That doesn`t change the fact that it tastes like death though…

So apart from the cuisine, what`s new? Well, studies are well under way now with assessments left and right, everything is still fairly chaotic, but alot less than a few weeks ago. I`ve gotten my head around the everydays and am quite enjoying life as a student in the sun. I just had my 2 month Australian anniversary and am proud to say that I still haven`t worn pants since I got off the plane. (About that, they just got a new snow-record in my home town in Norway, 91 (!) consecutive days of snow… he he he). Life is good. I have a nice share house with a Frenchman, 2 Australians, a Chinese girl, a bush turkey, about 14 Geckos, some possums and a bunch of miscellaneous birds. I haven`t gotten a sunburn for quite some time, although that might change after shaving my head in support of The Leukemia Foundation, (check out The World`s Greatest Shave) and I’ve even bought a second hand book about Steve Irwin! Yeah, me happy…

That`s it for now peeps, it`s time to get back to the real world for me. Next time I`ll tell you about the trip I`ll do in a couple of days to the Glass House Mountains And yes, I`ll bring my camera!

(as they say) Cheers mates!

- Helge

So this is to be my blog here in Australia - at the UQ. Wow, I must say I’m pretty exited to write about my experiences down under, so far from home. I had a look at the globe before I left good ol’ Norway. The phrase ”far side of the world” really got a new meaning as I was pointing one finger at my home country, and another at, well pretty much the other side of the world – also known as Australia. Quite the distance to go, 10 000 miles to be precise, or 16 000 km as my in-flight computer informed me.

Whew.

But as they say: “Ain’t no mountain high enough.” I’m here now, and aside from growing noticeably older every time I’m waiting to cross a traffic light, I do quite enjoy this land of strange wonders. I’ve seen wild parrots, water dragons and sea turtles. I’ve had a ‘barbie’ on Australia Day, and I’ve even slapped the Goon. Not bad for a sweaty, sunburned Norwegian eh? Heh, I’ve even eaten kangaroo - they’ll never believe that one at home…

Still, after O-week and my first lecture I can tell there is so much still to come. I’ll have to find my way around the bureaucracy (and the campus!) of UQ, master the art of Australian academic writing and not to mention passing all my assignments, exams etc. But I’m not worrying about that, not yet at least. Now is the time to explore the place, join the unions and societies and most of all, meet new people and make friends. I made one the other day, she was nice.

How about you?

- Helge