Oh my! I'm like a confused Bambi on ice when I walk around in this city. You should hear my thoughts: "Where the h*ll am I?"... "Ah, now I know where I am!"... "Nope, who am I trying to fool here? I don't know where I am..."... "Uhm, right or left?"... "Ok I know you don't like this but you seriously need to look on the map now.. Hm, this street is not even on the map.. Ah, it's outside the map!".. "Huh? Darling Harbour? Here? Really?".
Also, it was quite interesting when I was on my way back from the city to the suburb I live in. I thought I bought a two way ticket, but apparently I didn't. Didn't look that carefully on the ticket either. So at the train station I scanned my ticket, but the doors didn't open. I read "Invalid" on the screen, but at that time the person behind me had already scanned her ticket. The doors were opened and I had no choise but to walk even though I had a invalid ticket. Two security guards see me, of course, walk up to me and says "Can I see your ticket please". I started to laugh and tried to explain the problem for them. They were actually quite friendly even though they were not too happy about me. I explain and then one of them says "Where do you come from?". I put on my puppy eyes and said "Sweden...". Tried to look as innocent as possible. They took my old ticket and told me to go and buy a ticket, but then I realized that I need to have a ticket to get out of that area... And I had none. I started "Uhm, how do I get out of here without a ticket?". They look at me and say "Well, how did you get in here?"... Me: "Ah, oh, ah, ok.." and tried to hitchhike with someone out again. Oh god! This only happens to me!
So what have we learned today? Well, look at your ticket and do not assume that you do stuff you later on realize you haven't done. Uhm?
Guess what I did today... The same thing I always do here in Australia: Burn myself in the Sun. Haha! Yup, I never seem to learn... But it's not as bad as for my feet last time here.
My feet the last time I was here in Sydney...
Also, when I was out walking today a creepy guy started to follow me with his car. He drove slowly right behind me... Quite scary to be honest! Right outside my house I stopped, with my keys ready in my hands, coz I didn't want him to know where I live. He stopped, walked out of the car, walked to one of the houses. I quickly walked to my door but he ran back to watch me. He was looking at me all the time until I got indoors. Whah!
Later, a couple of young guys started to scream "Hey, girl!" and whistle to me when I was walking by. I thought Australia was a "safe" country for a blonde Swedish girl to live in, but right now it feels like I've been brought back to Spain again...
Semla! My sisters husband told me that IKEA always sell semla this time of year. I know what to do tomorrow. I'm gonna walk to IKEA and order one! :) Perhaps start the day with a nice meatball plate and have a semla as a desert! Yummie!
I have a good time down here! It's been somewhat cloudy but I'm enjoying this place anyway. It's still a bit hard with the language though, want to squeeze in some swedish in my english. Really annoying! But I've only been here for a couple of days. I guess I will think more and more in english, becouse now it's about 50% english and 50% swedish. Just the other day me and Andrew had a funny confusing situation. He said "Yankee" and I said "Junkie?". Ah well, you can't get it all right... :D
Here are some pics of where I'm living. Enjoy!
Just outside the house.
Just outside the house.
My room.
The kitchen.
A birdy-bird.
The house I'm living in.
I'm in Sydney and it feels great! One of my flatmates, Andrew, is the greatest and takes such good care of me! Always helping me out.
Yesterday I was out for a walk in my new neighbourhood. It was 30 C outside and the sun was shining, really nice! One thing tho... I forgot to bring water to drink. Not the smartest thing I've done. Anyway, I came to this 3 laned street (6 in total) and I felt like Bambi on ice. The left-hand-side traffic drives me crazy! It's no worries when I just need to cross the street but when cars turn I can't determine on which side they will end up. That's a problem coz you kinda realize they are driving on the same side that you're standing on the moment they are very close to you. You think "shit" and perform a nice running/jump out of the street. It's gonna take some time for me to get adjusted to this up-side-down and right-side-goes-left traffic. And besides, 6 lanes in total. Yeah right, when will a Swede learn how that works coming from a country where there are 9 million people in total... :)
What else? Well, a little bit jet lagged but it could have been so much worse! I sleep the entire night here, but I wake up early. I get very tired in the afternoon here as well, but as I wrote: It could have been so much worse!
I've contacted Heidi, a girl from Finland I met last time here in Sydney. Apparently she's still here so we'll catch up later on. Really looking forward to meet her again. She's one of those people who's always happy. I don't know where she gets all her energy from! I'm hoping to meet Joey as well, Ned too. We'll see. I guess I have to find my way out of this area first. The train station is just 5 minutes away so that shouldn't be a problem. The real problem is to know when to get off the train. Ah well, I guess I'll work that out... eventually.
Ooooops so many things I have! Uhm, there's no way in hell I'm gonna be able to pack all these things in just two suitcases. I have to re-think a bit...
Yesterday I managed to do most of my things on my to-do-list. Now I even have some time to get nervous... Have I really done all the stuff I needed to do? Naaa, that can't be possible. Something is wrong! Something MUST be wrong... Whaaa, panic, everything seems to be in order!
Ok, hopefully, see you on the other side of the world!
It's now time for the last preparations before moving to the other side of the world. Yesterday I was at the dentist. Half of my face was numb after three anaesthetic shots. I couldn't speak, it was crazy! Today I've started packing, called the insurance company to get my papers, payed my last bills, packed some of my belongings in boxes and done some laundry. Tomorrow will be busy! I have to print out my grades, copy some articles, go to the doctor, leave my Uni key, get a certificate from work, install some programs on my computer so that I can connect to the computers at Uppsala University from Australia. In the evening I'm hoping to meet Johanna for a while, to say good bye.
On Thursday I will be busy as well. Need to return my mobile internet modem to a friend, check if the flight times are correct, fix my watch, perhaps confirm with the airlines that I'm going, change currency, get a certificate from the bank that I have money and probably thousands of other things as well.
Ah well, I better continue my preparations now...
I've had a really nice weekend! Astropub on Friday, family gathering and party with friends on Saturday. I had a dinner thing at my mom's place and it turned out really well! The reason was of course me leaving to Australia soon.
Later on Saturday we went to a hotel bar to see one of my professors play with his band. They were REALLY good and it's always more fun when you know someone in the band! Listen to them for a couple of hours and then we left to the BJ club. At the club there were alot of drewling guys, gaah! The best way to get rid of them is to ignore them. I just wanted to spend my time with my friends anyway. Stayed the night at Anna's place.
It feels a bit weird to leave my friends. I'm gonna miss them so much!
Ah! A hectic week with alot of thesis work and almost no sleep. But now I've just had my oral presentation and that was the last school related thing for me to do before going to Australia. Now it's time for astro pub. This week it's a good-bye-Åsa-astro-pub so I have to attend even though I so tired I could sleep for 100 years. Putting alcohol to the problem will probably make it worse...
Got to go now!
Skål!
Posts
