Thingys

Less than 40 days to go, time to get really busy and try to fit everything into these couple of weeks!  :D

Million things to do and only limited amount of time.  That's why I thought to write what's going on so I'd realize that I'm running out of time.  Forty doesn't sound much, but it's likely to hit me really hard when there's only one month left.  I'm seriously leaving this country and this people.  So hard to comprehend

- Tonight my first family will come to where I stay at the moment and we'll have a nice dinner together.  Can't wait for it!  (:

- On Thursday I'm attending a Rotary meeting
- On Friday I'm visiting the Rotarian who with I stayed for a week when I first got here

- On Saturday I'm moving

- On Sunday I'll unpack and settle in.  More photos to come! (:

- The beginning of next week my Scandinavian friends would like to visit, but because I will move before it I'll have to find out if it's doable 

- On the Friday the 8th there's a sports carnival in my school, and in the night we are having out grand farewell party.  We thought it would be a good idea and a good way to see people for the last time as everyone is leaving soon

- On the Saturday the 9th is my sister's wedding  (:

- On the Thursday the 14th I'll have to give my final presentation, which I naturally haven't even started making yet

At the moment there is also a Vivid Lighting Festival in Sydney which we were planning to visit. Then there is a diving course which we've been planning for ages, lets see if it's going to happen or not. And I'd like to visit people from the safari.  And I should go shopping for the wedding, but also for everything I'll take home. Souvenirs I want to have, and gifts to take to other people.

It's so different to plan things when you are an exchange student: the plans reach like two weeks ahead and that's about it.  On the other hand I loooove having so many things to plan and do and see, but I think I couldn't handle it for much longer.  I know I will miss being busy because of something nice and exiting is happening all the time, but I guess there's a time and place for everything. 

It's starting to feel like my last weeks back home. Stress, stress, stress, joy and sadness. Oh well, I guess that's what it is when you leave you family, friends and whole life. No matter if it's the one you've always had, or if you just happened to create it in couple of months.

Ms. Master Planner,

Liisa

Crazy little things

I've been asked sooo many times lately am I looking forward going home.  Well, I love Australia and being here, but doesn't the question already answer itself?  Going home.  H-o-m-e.  Of course I do.  

But I'm not going to write this only to fill up space or entertain you. As I'm now missing things in Finland, I will most likely miss my second home as soon as I leave.  :D  This will hopefully remind me what I should be happy about, what I was missing while I was away.

So besides people, what is there to look forward?

My home. 

My room.

My bed.

Three really good ones.

Spring.

Summer.

Autumn.

Winter.

The first warm day after winter.  The smell of melting snow.  Sun.

First swim.  Sitting outside during the night.  Light all day round.

Colors. Trees dropping leaves.  Dark nights.  The smell of cold air.

First snow.  Darkness.  Candles.  Sitting in front of living fire.

Stability.

Unpacking my bags and knowing I can stay.  No need to impress the people I live with.  Being fully myself with good, but also bad sides. Being able to plan future further than next week.  Not feeling like guest in home.  Not needing to pack and move.  Knowing I'm home.

Freedom.

Being trusted at all times.  Going for a walk in the dark alone.  Not asking permission for everything.  Being independent.  

Routine.

Going to school to study.  Spending weekends to relax.  Deciding about my life without someone else  telling me what they thought I'd do.  Eating proper food at 11am and 5pm.   

Understanding.

Having people who know me.  Who understand me when I say nothing. Who can tell when I'm not feeling good.  Who know my values and respect them.  Not being foreign and amusing people by doing things differently

Rest.

Having free weekends. Having a sleep in, not one where you're supposed to wake up before 8am. Being Finnish; not needing to talk to everyone I see without it being rude, being quiet without it being awkward.

I love Australia. but this is why I like the thought about going home.

Getting deep,

Liisa

21st

Tonight I'm going to my Australian sister's 21st.  It's actually the first 21st birthday I've ever been attending, because in Finland we only celebrate the 18th.

I've been trying to find out for a long time why do people celebrate their 21st.  I get the 18th; you're no more underage, you can vote, smoke and drink, get married and in Finland you get your license.  But what about when you're twenty-one, what new do you get to do?  Not much.

So far the answer to my question has mainly been that Aussies just want to have a reason to party, but I wanted to know what's actually behind it.  So this is what I found:

-  Back in the day 21 used the be the age limit for most of the rights I described above.  Seems to be that the age of 18 is a 20th century thing

- 21 was a coming of age,  time to step out from the childhood and become an adult

- 21st is still seen as a big milestone when you start seriously thinking about your career and life in the future

- In some countries the age of 21 still gives you the right to drink or get married etc.

That's all my research this time,

Liisa

Autumn just hit the town

The beginning of this week was nicer, but now the weather is becoming cooler.  No more sunshine and lots of wind and rain.  It is an odd feeling, but I kind of feel like the circle is closing; the weather was like this when I got here, I was wearing winter uniform, the landscape was as brown, and we were complaining about how cold it was.  Feels like the beginning of my year, but then I remember all the things I've done and seen and realize I'm going home soon.  :(

Autumn means winter and winter means leaving,

Liisa

Vineyard tour

Yesterday was a student free day, because the teachers of our school were having some kind of an educational day.  As a proper exchange student I decided to go on a wine tour around the Hunter Valley vineyards.  We visited four wineries in total, plus a cheese and a chocolate shop.  And just in addition,  the guide of the tour was Rotarian, so I still have no idea how the famous Hunter wines taste like.  One more reason to come back later I suppose!  (:

So,  the area I live in is called Hunter Valley, and the things we are famous for are wineries and coal industry.  I've already gotten a lot of information about mining and visited a mine here, so now was the time for wine and the vineyards!

Australia is the world's fourth largest wine exporter after France, Italy and Spain, and the area I live in is the most famous wine making area in this state, and remarkable in the whole country too.

Just to tell few more facts, we have over 170 wineries here, which all together produce over 39 million liters of wine annually.  If you want to read more about the industry here, you find your way to the information by clicking this.

Many of the wineries are really small here, so they would only sell their wine at a cellar door and maybe in one or two restaurants nearby.  Those are the places we went to.  Nice, small and friendly.

I also got to know how the wine is actually made.

Besides the wineries we visited a cheese shop, chocolate shop, and a place where they sold different types of oils and balsamic vinegar.  So lot more things for me to test on this part of the tour.  :P  

Wine wizard is my second name,

Liisa

200

200 posts, tick!

Just to see how different my life was year ago when I started writing, I went and checked posts from last May.  If you want to do the same, click this.  Everything has changed so much since that!

Stay tuned till at least the next hundred ;) ,

Liisa

WHOLE safari

FINALLY.  I updated every single one of the safari posts; now not they only have the description of what was meant to happen, they also tell the story of what actually happened and what I saw.  And that's not even everything yet!  I also added photos, lots and lots of them. Enjoy!  (:

So the full safari, here we go!

• Day 1
• Day 2 
• Day 3
• Day 4 
• Day 5
• Day 6
• Day 7
• Day 8
• Day 9
• Day 10
• Day 11
• Day 12
• Day 13
• Day 14
• Day 15
• Day 16
• Day 17
• Day 18
• Day 19
• Day 20
• Day 21
• Day 22

And don't forget the new tool I added; it helps you to search anything and everything from this blog. You can see it on the left hand side, just below my profile.  Just type whatever you are after into the little box, click search, and it should give you a list of posts and links with that word. Useful for sure! (:

Still couple more photos to come,

Liisa

Blue Mountains

We visited the famous Blue Mountains, one more thing from my bucket list. (:  At first it was only meant to be the couple who are hosting me at the moment and I, but after we found out there were free beds (this was late Saturday night and we were going before 8am Sunday morning) I was asked if I wanted to invite a friend.  The ironic thing is that Bec and I were planning this trip with different people for months, and now it all happened; with less than half on hour planning.  How efficient are we!  :D

Famous landmark, the Three Sisters:

This is a railway that takes people to the bottom of the Valley.  Looks like average ride right, well take a look at the tree trunks and the angle between them and the carriage.  Steepest incline 52 degrees.  Average, aye?

After being as low as possible we went across the sky.  Just a normal day! :D

And then some pretty waterfalls.

The whole day was filled up by climbing stairs.  And we didn't even do the big stairs to the bottom of the Valley!

Let me present you, Blue Mountains. (:

And after couple more steps, another waterfall.  (: 

And this is something I'd call 'the edge'.  

Fabulous nature.

If I lived in Australia and was feeling homesick, this is the place I'd go to. It's not like we have waterfalls and views like that everywhere, but it's really green, it gets cold during winter, and they  seemed to partly have autumn colors too.  Felt more like home than our trip to snow which is pretty extraordinary. 

An amazing trip with such an amazing people to one of Australia's many amazing places! (:

Lucky,

Liisa

10 = 5 / 6

Ten months gone, unbelievable!!!  That's actually more than 5/6, as I'm leaving on the 8th instead of the 19th.  Sad.

I did this same kind of thing after 2 months, but as there are so many more things I've done so far I'll make a new list.  Here we go!

So far I've...

- been the only one cycling to school out of 900 people

- practiced eating with chopsticks

- learned what long distance means

- dived on the Barrier Reef

- tried Vegemite several times with same result, yuk

- soaked my camera and noticed it still works

- been polite longer than ever before

- tried chai latte which is a big thing here

- learned that time can actually fly

- sat in a bus over 10 hours in one day

- killed one deadly spider

- met people from more countries than I've been to

- had my first take away hot drink

- been to a mine three times

- had one argument with my host family

- ridden a horse 

- had 6 domestic flights

- tried surfing twice

- eaten home delivered pizza
- sat 22 hours in an airplane
- been to NSW, ACT, QLD, NT, SA and VIC, only WA and Tasmania to go

- drank more soft drinks than I did last year in total

- laughed at people when they say grain bread is dark

- had a frog, cockroach and a mouse in my room 

- met only one guy who surfs

- tried grilling marshmallows

- Climbed Uluru

- eaten kiwifruit, mango, paw paw and passion fruit

- had 7 host dogs- learned that some people eat yogurt on porridge 

- made friends to last 

- bought my first Ray-Bans

- built a gingerbread house and noticed it melts in Australia
- had more phones than in the past 8 years in total

- been the 2nd in a school carnival

- noticed that Australian berries are way worse than ours

- saved thousands of photos into my computer

- went to hairdressers once
- lived in five houses, still waiting for one

- gotten sisters, some which I'll keep in touch with when I get home

- drank hot chocolate with marshmallows

- been to the gym in the mornings
- put on way more weight I should have

- tried sushi three times

- made 175 new facebook friends

- had no big troubles with Aussie slang or accent

- mainly slept in a double bed

- spent the greatest three weeks travelling

- bought way too many pairs of shoes

- had my first kebab

- gotten more confident in public speaking

- wore thongs in +2
- said the letters L-I-I-S-A-E-L-O-R-A-N-T-A at least hundred times

- had visitors from home

- eaten peanut butter

- seen more Australia than many Australian people
- wore my school uniform correctly everyday
- noticed that the sun here is nice though dangerous

- seen two sunrises in one week

- seen kangaroos, echidnas, possums, koalas and emus
- eaten crumpets

- had too many mosquito-hunting-events in the middle of the night

- taught numerous Finnish words to different people

- sent more post cards than ever before

- lived in a tent for three weeks

- ordered junk food from drive-thru

- overslept twice on school mornings but still made it to school in time
- eaten pavlova
- met heaps of awesome people

- SURVIVED

So that's my 10 months, less than 50 day to go,

Liisa

P.S. So we're heading to the Blue Mountains early tomorrow morning, you'll see photos on Monday! (:

Happenings

I just noticed that I've been so busy updating the safari posts that I've totally forgotten to write new ones!  I don't have too much to say, just little notices and happenings.

So as a good start, lets talk about weather.  Australia is getting cooler, because unlike in a lot of parts of the world it's winter coming here instead of summer.  The daily temperature still rises up to 20 degrees, but as strange as it sounds, feels fairly cold!  Good luck with me for the next winter home...

Next Sunday I'll be going to the Blue Mountains for one night, one thing from my bucket list.  I've gotten to do pretty much all the things I was dreaming about, mainly during the safari.  There is one more thing I would love to do, but I'll tell it to you later and only in case it'll happen.  :P

What else.  Back into winter uniforms in school, yay...

And oi, 50 days left in Australia oh no.  Makes me feel really happy to go home, but at the same time unbelievably sad.  I wish I would get home as soon as possible, but on the other hand I wish I could be an exchange student forever.  If every year was as good as this, my life would be the best year after the best year after the best year.  Oh well, I guess you'd get bored after a while.  One year is a really good length of time to be away; enough time to see a lot, but not too long so you can get into your 'normal' life still.  (:

One more thing: notice a new tool I added to the left hand side of the page, just below my profile.  It helps you to find anything specific from the whole blog and things I've linked to it.  Just type whatever you're after, and it should give you a list of posts with that word.  Practical!  (:

Enjoying my last 50 days,

Liisa

Moved again

As I was telling you earlier, I had to move extra time due to the health condition of the person who hosted me.  So instead of the planned three families I'm going to have more places to stay at.  The plans were constantly changing, but now it looks like I'll stay about three weeks in the place I just got to, and then move once more in June.  

Naturally I wasn't really pleased of moving two times in less than 60 days especially because I really liked where I was living, but I guess it's not all bad.  I mean, it's true that in couple of weeks time I can't really settle in or feel like home, but on the other hand I get to meet lots of people and this makes it easier to go home.  I started missing one place where to unpack everything I have, just leave things somewhere for a long time.  Actually at the moment I'm kind of looking forward going home.  I'm not even going to say that I wouldn't cry heaps or not miss anyone, but it'll be good to go home.

This is all I had this time.  I was quite surprised that's all considering that it's my whole life for one year.  Though it's still too much to take home...20 kg....oh dear...

Almost keen to go home,

Liisa

Progress

After getting home from the safari, I went to my year's retreat.  I've spent over three weeks sharing room with people, chatting till we fall asleep, talking again as soon as I wake up.  My life is starting to be empty and quiet again.  :D

Nice to see everyone again after my 3 week trip.

And a notice:  I started adding photos to my safari posts, so you could understand better what a great trip it was.  I'll keep adding to them when I have time, and they should be ready soon.

I'm moving tomorrow, so I will also update more about my life! (:

Lucky,

Liisa

HOME

Finally at home after the most amazing three weeks in my life.   Phew!   Not for long though, tomorrow I'll leave to go to a senior retreat at Sommersby.   My whole year is already there, but because I just got home my options were to rest for couple of days, or keep going, even though a bit late.  And as I'm feeling fairly awesome after sleeping in a tent for three weeks, sitting in a bus quite a few hours and not to mention the early mornings.   Just to give a tiny example (I'll be writing more about this trip as I get myself sorted out first), today we needed to leave the camp at seven o'clock, which means breakfast at six and waking up 5.30, after which we sat in a bus for over 10 hours.   If I had gotten this information beforehand, who knows if I would have even wanted to do the whole trip.   Because despite of all the early mornings and tens of hours in the bus, I can honestly say that I just spent the best three weeks of my life.

Tired as,

Liisa

DAY 22

DAY 22

"LAST DAY!!! Time to say goodbyes and head back home."

Waking up from a bed, wow!  Nice and warm night, for a change.  We'll be on the road the whole day so breakfast is served nice and early, and in pleasant +2 degrees, ah.

We dropped people to Wollongong, Penrith and Speers Point before getting to Maitland.  A full day of travelling for us who live closest to Maitland.  After over ten hours in a bus there was an hour drive waiting for me.  Then finally; home, shower and a big towel, double bed.  Luxury.

Though after an hour I'm missing noise, other exhangies and someone to talk to before going to bed.

Oh, forgot to mention.  I JUST SPENT THE BEST THREE WEEKS OF MY LIFE.  Something to remember till the last day, for sure.

Great.
Terrific.
Awesome.
Magnificent.
Amazing.
Life changing.
Long lasting.
Worth of every cent.
Absolutely brilliant.

Home again,

Liisa

DAY 21

DAY 21

"One more opportunity to explore Melbourne. There's a lot of different options; we can take a ride on Australia’s last remaining tramway system, visit the Queen Victoria Markets or poke about its galleries and museums. In the afternoon we'll head off to Gundagai.  bunking at Gundagai"

YAY.  My life just got onto a new level after finding out that my camera and phone both work.  Unbelievable.  But pleasant.  Therefore I was ready to enjoy Melbourne, finally.

First we headed to Queen Victoria Market, one of the major landmarks in Melbourne.  It is said to be the largest open-air market in Southern Hemisphere, I'm not quite sure about that, but I can ensure you it's huge.

They also have the cutest little shops there.  I found my favorite one, what a princess place!  (;

And finally I do what Melbourne is meant to be for, SHOPPING!  And no more thongs in temperatures near 0...phew!   What a great buy, love them!  (:

And the best part in our stay in Melbourne!  We had so many reasons to celebrate (including our "2 months left in Australia" days) that we needed a really nice coffee shop with nice cakes and everything.  After a huge search and a lot of walking we finally found one.  Love my beautiful Norwegian! (:

Last night,

Liisa

P.S. Two months before going home!!

DAY 20

DAY 20

"Day for visiting the Southbank and the Eureka Skydeck 88, the highest observation deck in the Southern Hemisphere. Skydeck 88 is the only observation deck in the world that can thrill you with ‘The Edge’ – a glass cube which projects 3 meters out from the building, almost 300 meters above the ground. We'll also be able to use the telescope to get a bird’s eye view of Melbourne. Later we'll visit the Docklands and we'll have free time to explore Melbourne.  camping at Melbourne"

Today was a nicer day than yesterday.  I was still really upset about my phone and camera getting soaked, but helped a bit trying the memory card again and finding all the photos on it.  One less thing to worry about.

We were booked to visit the Skydeck at 10am, after which we had free time to explore Melbourne till about 4 o'clock.  I quite liked it there but gosh is was FREEZING!  And because all my other shoes  were wet I was wearing thongs, probably didn't help much...  I'm not really into shopping so I was  one of the very few people who didn't buy anything else but lunch.  Oh well, good sushi at least.

Beginning of last week,

Liisa

DAY 19

DAY 19

"We'll tour part of the Great Ocean Road and see the Twelve Apostles, rising columns of rock surrounded by treacherous reefs and tides. We then head inland and arrive to Melbourne. Before returning to the camp we have time to shop and explore Melbourne.  camping at Melbourne"

This morning was the worst one I've had in a while.  Half of the tent flooded, and you can probably already guess which side it was.  Imagine a morning when you wake up and wonder why your alarm didn't go.  You pick up the phone from the tent floor and notice it's wet all over.  That shocks you enough to get you awake, and then you notice your SLR camera on the floor too.  In the puddle.  Pick it up and remove the battery - dripping wet.  The thought that the photos might still be safe crosses your mind, so you'll test the memory card in another camera.  "ZERO photos in the folder".  Can't really be happy after that.

The start of the day wasn't too great for me, so I wasn't that exited about anything in the morning.  I can only humbly thank the lovely person I was sharing the tent with for doing pretty much all the packing in the morning as I spent all my energy by being cranky...

We left the camp to drive on the Great Ocean Road, one of the world's most scenic coastal drives.  We saw the amazing coast line and the Twelve Apostles, unfortunately I was unable to take any photos.  But this is how it looked like:

By George Koncz

Lucky to have met you, have spent time with you, have traveled with you and have you as my friend.  (:

Greetings from Melbourne...

Not my day,

Liisa

DAY 18

DAY 18

"Day to head to the South Coast of Australia. We'll watch a sound and light show depicting the history of the “ship wreck coast”; a spellbinding chronicle of how Victoria’s western coastline earned its cruel distinction as the Shipwreck Coast.  camping at Warrnambool"

Travelling as always.  We got to Warrnambool way before dinner, so we had time to walk to town from our campsite and take a look.  Warrnambool was a nice little place, though not places were open.

Setting up our tents.  :)  (Read the next post and you'll find out where my smile disappeared...)

By Rebecca Bachmann

In the evening we went to watch a sound and light show about the shipwrecks.  It consisted partly from a video, partly from a light show, but also from a tour in a build fisher village.  The show was good, but after the water and light show in Singapore I was expecting a bit more.  In this one the water made a screen where they played a tiny movie.  Not bad though.  It was a nice night, after whick we walked back to the camp.  We weren't allowed to take any photos during the visit, so I'll link you  the webpage of the show so you can take a closer look.

Couple more days to go,

Liisa

DAY 17

DAY 17

"We'll have a brief tour of Adelaide, before heading further South to Naracoorte. At sunset we'll visit the Naracoorte Caves to see the Bat Cave and Blanche Cave. At the Bat Cave we may be able to see the Southern Bent-wing Bat using the infrared cameras.  bunking at Naracoorte."

After a great night in a cell we left Gladstone and drove to Adelaide.  We got packed lunches so that there would be more time to spend in town.  Exploring Adelaide for 2h 15min, lets say that was fairly brief.  Well at least we got to see a tiny bit of it.  (:

Bye bye outback...

...welcome CITY!

Little walk around, grocery shopping and a nice coffee brake, that's Adelaide in 2 hours, 15 minutes.

So many new experiences,

Liisa