Keeping everybody up to date !

Hang on tight - you're in for a bumpy ride

2009-10-17T20:58:00.006+11:00

Sooo nice being back in India!

Day five and we've done quite a lot actually;

Arrived Tuesday morning October 13 at around 1am - and here's where I got a bit shocked - everything was so easy, it run smoothly like hell; Both our bags arrived, the driver was waiting, he took us straight to the hostel and got us both inside, Sumanthi was very welcoming and made sure we had everything - and then we went straight to bed!

Woke up pretty late, and then just walked around all day - to Bazaar Street, MG Road, the big park etc.

It's warm. It's chaos. It's traffic everywhere. And cows. And dirt. And dust.

It's India!

The smell in the air is India. A blend of spices, pollution, cow dung (and other types of shit), food, insence, sweat and more spices. I love it!

We went to Ruchi Restaurant near our homestay that evening - ended up eating (lovely food) in an empty restaurant. Just the two of us, and like twenty waiters..! One guy took our order, another one came with our plates, a third one came with the food, a fifth one came with the drinks but the sixth one served the drinks of the tray, and a seventh one served us the food from the bowls... and so it went on..! Felt a bit luxurious, although we know you're not supposed to eat anywhere where there's no people (meaning: here you could get stomach ache (and worse)) - but we did get this place recommended to us, so we took a chance =)

Wednesday - walked a bit, tried to buy some nice fabrics to get a dress but it was a bit expensive (yeah, some things could get pricey here too), and then we couldn't find a tailor who had time to sow it for us.. So we went to Ulla's Refreshments - maybe a swedish who started this place? - for some nice food - lovin' it! And later that night we saw half a movie at the cinema. They didn't really speak any english, only things they sais were "Listen", "Okey but here's the thing...", "Seriously" and so on - but we never got to hear the rest in english... =) But you sort of get it anyway, it's pretty obvious what the story is. Although, after half the movie they always have a break - so we went outside to look at the traffic instead =)

Thursday - internet day, taking out money, went to a temple and took a nap - then it was time to get on the 15hour bus journey to Ernakulam/Cochin. I've never ever experienced such a bumpy road in my life! (and we were in the far back, so maybe that had something to do with it being extra bumpy...) But well, you should do something like this once or twice I guess - it's part of the experience, part of the country!

Friday - With sore backs, asses and legs we stumbled out in the hot and humid Ernakulam - the mainland city of Ernakulam/Kochi (also Cochin). Checked in to Mother Tree in Fort Cochin and slept half the day! Not bad at all! But we were still a bit tired, so got into bed at 9pm, and slept twelve (12!) hours =D

Saturday - planned the rest of our trip a bit loosely, walked around the market and stalls along the sea, and now we're struggling with uploading pictures etc. You'll have to make do with the ones I got here, and they're not even mine... My memory card seems to have some disease, so it won't work on any computer... So I've borrowed Therese's pics =) They're all from Bangalore - you'll see more from Cochin later.

Have to run - gotta take a shower (like it's gonna matter..) before catching a show of Kathakali at five - gonna be real fun!

See ya'll soon again!

Hot and sweaty hugs!

I'm off again - India, USA, Thailand - here I come!

2009-10-11T19:46:00.003+11:00

So we've finally arrived at today, and this post will be a very short one.

I'm a bit freaked out.
Leaving tonight for India.

Yeah I know, I've been there before and all, but well, it's still India.

It's going to be great =D

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Leaving home with Therese, a friend from my home town, and we're going to spend almost a month together - first a couple of days in Bangalore (the capital city of the region Karnataka), and then we're going to cruise around Kerala, one of the most southern regions in India.

Probable stops will be: Kochi/Ernakulam (it's one city with two names), The backwater systems, Varkala and Kovalam (beach cities), perhaps Munnar and other town in the mountains, and then my final destination will be Trivandrum.

Therese will go on travelling in India for a fair bit - she'll be there for almost four months in total - and then go to Thailand. Unfortunately I will go home to Sweden way before she even leaves India for Thailand, so we won't meet up for coffee in Bangkok etc =)

After India, I'll fly from Trivandrum to NYC - yeah you're right - New York City!

Then I'll hop between a couple of cities in the states (Cincinnati, Chicago and then go to Colorado for Thanksgiving) and visit a lot of friends I met in Oz - you'll recognize them all from previous pics =)

After the states I'll have five and a half weeks in Thailand just to relax!
And after three and a half week, my parents will come join me - and we'll celebrate Christmas and New Years together in Ao Nang!

Does it sound like a good trip or not?

I. Think. So.

Very well, wish me luck with all my flights - you know my paranoia about flying... - and I'll try to keep you all up to date a bit better this time!

See you all in january (i'm back in sweden the 8th, and then i'm back for some more studies in gothenburg on january 18th), so take care until then!

Lots of hugs // emma

PS: DON'T FORGET TO POST A LOT OF COMMENTS!! I'd like that =)

Summer in Sweden 2009

2009-10-09T20:00:00.032+11:00

And I'm baaack!

This summer has been great - it went by faaar to quick though...

Had coffee with some of my girls (this is one hour after landing in sweden, coming straight from oz), then home for some delicious dinner = RIBS!!

First full day home - I spent it reading in the sun, eating sushi and getting totally burned...

A day on the town (Karlstad - Charles Town) with Emma and Lisa!

A nice, lazy walk a late summer night (yeah, it's around 9pm) - checking out my dad's ice cream truck;

Dad picking flower for Mum ;)

Later that week - hanging out by the river with Emma and Lisa =)

Second week home - going down to the west coast with my folks for a long weekend (thursday-sunday)!

First night - sitting on the rocks eating crayfish, cheese and drinking wine with our good friends Lotta and Lars! (the camping in the background is where we always stay, but this summer we rented a cabin right next to it instead of having a camping van)

It's pretty late at the mo, around 11pm

And finally around midnight the sun has set - although it'll be a clear blue sky all night long anyway =)

Day out at sea (with a quick stop in the coastal town of Grebbestad to get some food)

Dinner at our little cabin =)

Day #2 at sea - spent it at our own little place, which we call the lagoon - swimming, reading, sunbathing - lovely!

Saturday night - hittin' it at Röde Orm (The Red Snake) - a well knowned pub on the docks =)

yeah, it's past 1am... =)

Home in Grums again, and the temperature's rising:

Can you believe it - this is Sweden for God's sake! - and we've got above 30 degrees Celcius in the shadow outside, and more than 45 in the sun!

Grums

Me and my cousin spent a great day by the big lake, Vänern, the water was wonderful!

My summerjob at the paperfactory here in Grums;

That was the control room with all the screens etc - making sure nothing goes wrong. And then outside - all the logs we're going to turn into chips!

Went to Fiskevik (The Bay of Fishing) with Emma and Lisa one day - it's really like being at the ocean here - but still, it's only the lake...!

Inside one of the trucks at the factory:

To compare - Micke is standing next to the truck - and he's a pretty big guy... He can barely make it to the top of one of the tires..

Crayfish dinner at home!

Emma and I on the town - you can see the restaurant Pråmen (The Barge) in the background.

View from the truck a day at work - yup yup, it's Vänern the big lake you can see there - so believe me, this factory is not a bad place to work - nice folks, nice salary (!), and nice views!

Picking mushrooms with my mum and sister in the woods! :

My room:

Had a little surgery the last day of august... Got rid of my gallbladder - and that turns out to be fortunate - it was filled with gallstones.... just a matter of time before the next attack then i guess..

So here i a week after the surgery - I can now stand erect.. =)

Staying over at Evenlina's one of the weekends I spent in Gothenburg to take the gym instructor course. Next to our romantic dinner you'll see pics of the gym where we had all our lessons, and me and some other students at the course:

(woops, the last photo got a bit crooked, well well, can you all turn your heads? then i don't have to upload it again...)

Yeah, so what do you say - a trip to Sweden next summer wouldn't be all that bad aye? ;)
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LAST WEEK IN AUSTRALIA!!!!

2009-06-02T15:11:00.073+10:00

So it has finally happened...

The last week has arrived.
This feels sick. Weird. Wrong.

I. Want. To. Stay.

(although it would have been good to get out of my finals this week...)

Monday - studying for Food Science 2 from 10.30am to 1am tuesday morning...

Tuesday - some more studying for Food Science 2, but not as much - instead I started taking a lot of pics this week, espesh in the dining hall.

Standing in line!

A typical dinner - spring rolls with vegetables, wedges (the potato thingies), sweet chili sauce - should have had sour cream as well - and a lot of oranges! (the apples i take home and put on my shelf)

Take away!

The salad bar

My apple shelf!

Wednesday - Final exam in Food Science 2 (got the results waaay later - got an HD, that would in swedish be a MMVG, yup two M's, since ozzies got one grade more than we do). Ha! Nailed it! Suck on that Surinder! (we'll see how "i go on" - well i've gone all the way, biatch...)

After the final I was so relieved I actually took half an hour to stroll around the campus to take some final pics of the jungle =)

Here's the bank on campus

And i'm back at IH - high five to myself for living through my first final !

Wednesday evening at the dining hall - dessert, well d'ya like doughnuts?
Wednesdays are pizza-pasta nights over here, so enjoy the greasy salad, and the even more greasy pizza slice and pasta serve - sounds almost awful right now, but wow did we eat!

Some more studying after dinner - i've only got one and a half day to prepare for the Clincal Exercise Physiology final that is on friday...

This was my studying position in the end - got my yammie-panties on, and well it's good to be near the radiator since it's fricken freezing....

Thursday morning - the view from my window

Thursday day - revision revision revision

Thursday evening - last dinner at the dining hall! Got some beef (i think) with noodles, vegetables and rice, and can't forget the oranges! I also got extreeemly lucky and got my favorite dessert tonight - some kind of spicey carrot cake!

Later thursday evening - last trip to Jezzo - did some shopping at Cotton On and Wow (woolworths). Katie was glad she found kangaroo meat =)

The gang outside of jezzo!

Friday - final exam in Clinical Exercise Physiology (and the final exam for a bit more than 7 months!!!)...

it was very very tricky, and it felt like i was struggeling to pass, but well, a few weeks later the result came - 86%, ie an HD in this course too!
(only SOCA i didn't get an HD, only a D... which would be MVG over here - so all in all, pretty good semester!)

After my exam i ran into samir who wanted to try my bike - i did warn him that the breaks didn't really work... well, turned out they didn't work at all..!

Friday night - my private farewell dinner =)

We were 20 people getting some awesome food at Grand Hotel! Well, it was just a given, I had to come back before leaving - my first "home" in Newy - it's a bit poetic that they would be the ones to serve me my last dinner... (okey, not completely the last, i still have to eat tomorrow)

It was great food anyway - and super-duper-great company!

Samir got some dessert on his nose..

We're "singing" without moving our lips - can you make out the song? =)

more "singing"

and some more "singing" =)

Woo's doing magic !

Tom's enjoying the handbag - man, i feel like a woman!

We payed a visit to the Underground as well, but yeah, it's the basement of Grand Hotel really!

Ash having a go at the dance floor at the Underground.. =D

Then off to a classic - the beach at night!

This pose is supposed to be known as "The Moon"..

We saw a hooker getting stopped by the police!

Some people drove back pretty quick, the rest of us went to a bar i can't really recall the name of, for a drink or two. Then one of the cars came back and picked us up =)

The night ended in 1130, where we had some kind of poo-nang (we just called it poo), which is Canadas national dish ;)

Then we played some jungle speed =)

Saturday - whoha! Lots to do... Packed for a while, then i drove my bike down to Islington (yup, the prostitute district), to return it at Newcastle Bike Ecology Center. Legen - wait for it - dary place! The guy next to me and bikey is the one running this place - he's pretty much a hippie intended to save the world by putting people on bicycles!

I actually got all my money back that i payed for it (60AUD), which means i've had a free bike for four months!

Took some more pics of the neighbourhood while waiting for Genna to come pick me up =)

Back at IH i spent a fair bit running around exchanging photos with people, and getting some new music on my computer. I happened to be at Blaven's when he got a pretty hysterical call from Katie in 510.. something about a mouse..

We still don't know how it came to be dead right in the middle of their kitchen... normally they creep into walls etc when they feel sick, and they end up dying there - NOT in an open space... - so what the hell happened to this little guy?

Saturday night - another good bye party for me (!), but with the same gang as yesterday!
This time, we went to the car park and played car park soccer for a while - Trent and Laetitia came back from their trip today too, so it was good to see them again =)

Best group photo ever!

The night ended with some chili snaps in 220, followed by jungle speed!

Sunday - whoha! packed the very last things, and then we had a wonderful time out in the courtyard with all the people who came to say g'bye...!

When Happy Cabby came to drive me to the airport i really really really didn't feel like going...

Sydney from Happy Cabby, and then from the plane window..

The last pics before coming to Sweden - the flight camera with this amazing view of the plane!

I'm somewhere to the right, near the wing =)

Bye bye Australia! See you again sooooon!
//xxx

Week 13 - Stu Vac, exam and time to start thinking about going home

2009-06-02T15:10:00.025+10:00

Okey, seriously I have no idea what Stu Vac stands for, Study Vacation maybe?

Anyways, it's a week of no lectures so you'll have time to prepare for the finals that will start next week. If you're really unfortunate, you'll have heaps of final exams bunched together with like zero days in between to study... And since it's finals, it's everything you've been studying for three months that'll be tested in all courses... so not just the last two-three weeks...

I'm pretty lucky, 'cause I've only been taking three courses, and one of them (SOCA) has no final exam! Just two mid-semester ones, and one I've already done, the other one is this Wednesday, so it's the last six weeks of the course. Well, come on, rather that than all 12 weeks right!

Monday - studying for SOCA mid-semester exam 2, but I had some time to go to Cold Rocks (ice cream!) and do a drive up the hill, voilà Newy by night!

Tuesday - some more studying for SOCA

Wednesday - last exam ever in SOCA!
Then we had a French night in 1020 - wine, cheese and grapes =) and to sum up the night, there was a party in my house - 210! wow, that's rare..!

Thursday - studying for Food Science 2 final exam (love-hate this course.... it's kind of interesting (except the stuff about FSANZ, which is their Livsmedelsverket), but i just keep hearing Surinder's voice all the time... which makes me grumpy..).

I also took some time today to send my luggage away, before having Dessert Night in 520!
Yummy Yummy Yummy I've got loving in my tummy!

someone burned some of the chocolate...
still tasted good though, according to Ash

After the massive gourmandizing - really had huge amounts of sweets... - we went to the big car park across campus for some car park soccer!

This is awesome, wicked and just totally random! Lots of people kicking the ball around, and it'll take you half the game to actually know who's in your team or not ;) But oh what a night!

Friday - didn't really study at all today.. dammit!
Just hang out in the sun instead, and then it was time to get ready for Farewell dinner - this was a great night, and really weird too...!

Started out fine in the Green Room - nice dinner and a lot of cameras saying "click". Nice entertainment, nice folks and nice drinks.

Katie playing.

And now people started saying good bye almost, and wanted pics together, so be aware that there's a lot of "posing pics" coming up =)

Then when the dinner was over, a group of us headed down to the beach.
Woo brought his guitar and we danced, played and had the time of our lives ;)

It was magic..!

Also saw a sand crocodile - they very gentle creatures, not at all like the river croc that'll bite your head off, these are really sweet!

Singing at the beach - believe it or not, but the girls (ash and ab) are the only ones that are sober....! =D

After the beach we went back to campus (!), yeah i know it's a long ride, but well, we had to go to Bara (short for Barahinebahn - do not ask me to pronounce that) where Andy lives. And we did, we had some hot chocolate, played some chess, uno and pool with Bara and IH folks, before heading down town again =)

Once we got down town we headed to CBD (a bar/pub/club) and danced our asses off!

Gaby and I in the bathroom - this is why girls always go two and two, we make sure the visit to the loo is fun as well as necessary ;)

When the CBD closed we had two small problems - the first one (hunger) we solved pretty quick, with kebabs, the second one (transportation) was a bit trickier... there was just one car at the mo, and too many peeps (don't worry, the other car was at IH, we did not lose it). So we did what everyone would do, Woo drove back to IH, he and Ash got out, and then AB and I took drove back down town to pick up Samir and Ben.

This ends with 3 round trips down town (ie the same route six times) in one night =)

Saturday - slept wayy to long...
Got some studying for Clinical Exercise Physiology done, and then I made cakes for tomorrow's unit dinner =)

Sunday - studying Food Science 2 (although not that much... f**k), and then we started to cook dinner. It was Wade's and mine turn to cook for 830 (although none of us live there, but we've eaten their food every second week!). And I dare say we did a good job:

Entrée: Vegetable soup with garlic bread
Main: Flying Jacob (swedish course), with rice and crusty bread with sundried tomato paste
Dessert: White chocolate cake with passion fruit, and chocolate cake

And finally - Blaven was so happy that there was a blond, blue eyed swedish girl in the kitchen ;)

After dinner we played games, popped some popcorn and watched Transformers.

they're really interested in the art of popping popcorn

I really don't have the energy right now to move this movies up to Farewell dinner where they belong, but please - enjoy!

Samir's playing at Farewell:

Week 12 - Last week of lectures!!! And GRAFFITI!!!

2009-06-02T15:09:00.009+10:00

Lots to do this week!

Monday - I packed my entire room (!), only to unpack it all again. Wanted to see how much stuff I had, how much to send home and what to bring on the plane without too much overweight...

Wednesday - B-day party for Liam and Clare - fun fun fun =)

Woo beatboxing - getting some tunes from Samir too

Thursday - Reunion with the Tamworth-gang in the Green Room - played games and just chilled.

Friday - GRAFFITI!
Basically, the idea of Graffiti is - wear a white t-shirt/top etc, bring a marker, and go around and write on everybody while they're writing on you. What to write? Fun stuff, private jokes, nice memories together etc etc. When the night's over, you'll have your very own "yearbook" of your time together with all the amazing peeps you've met! It's so cool!

Of course, after a few drinks people went a bit crazy and started writing on faces, arms, legs etc

AB getting warm and cosy once we're back home.

And I had my first cup of Milo - it looks like poop but taste like O'Boy =)

Percy started posing for his next appearance in Pirates XXX

Saturday - Aaron's 19th B-day!
We headed out to Hog's Breath for a delicious dinner! (with an awesome dessert!)

All in all, a pretty good week ;)

Week 11 - Sex trivia, skype and damn cold...

2009-06-02T15:08:00.015+10:00

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holy moly... i sure took a lot of time to update didn't i?...

well, since i'm off travelling again tomorrow, i thought i'd better complete the ozzie trip so that i can start posting stuff about this next journey =)

So I won't write that much about the last four weeks in oz - only the important bits!

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This is week 11, ie May 18-24, and not much happened this week.

Well Monday we had Sex Trivia in the Green Room, and our team (Townies!) got second place. I think we should have won, expecially since Troy and I performed so well in the "fake orgasm"-competition ;) It was a fun night!

I managed to finish my tutorial paper in SOCA, and also turn in the essay for that subject too - yay me! But then I got a cold, a real one.. So spent thursday-sunday pretty much in bed..

So this week has pretty much no pics - but instead I'll show you the campus and IH:

Our living room and kitchen.

Having a lab in Clinical Exercise Physiology with Staph and Ilka!

Roaming around the jungle that is Callaghan campus

Having yummy doughnuts and other good stuff at the final SOCA Tutorial =)

Rolling down towards IH (on my bike without any breaks)...!

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Week 10 - Tamworth

2009-06-01T00:15:00.035+10:00

Crikey what a week!

Managed to do the exam in Clinical Exercise Physiology on Monday morning with everybody else (instead of using my two extra days, since I was supposed to be in Tasmania and do the test on Wednesday)
I hadn't really studied that much over the week end, I was sleepy and high on antibiotics - but I just couldn't stand the thought of two more days of revising - just wanted it over and done with..!

Hehe, when I did the exam I felt like I knew almost everything - and I was starting to worry over why everyone else before had told me that this one was harder than the first one, and then why everyone afterwards kept on going about how hard it was... so I suspected that I had not studied enough at all, just enough to think that I knew it all, but in reality I had not a clue..!

Very well =) it turned out I did have a clue, a pretty good one for that!
Me and one more person got 55 out of 60 points, everyone else ranked from like 50 and down - meaning, I got the highest score in the class! =D whiehaa!!!

Pretty happy about that actually.. =)
you can tell, can't you?

Anyhow - time to spend some time on other courses, the Tutorial presentation and Paper in SOCA was coming up, so I felt the pressure on getting that out of the way.

That didn't quite happen...

Instead I spent hours on fixing my bike (thanks Liam!), looking at flights around the world for november-december and watching That 70s show =)

Procrastination-queen!!!
(skjuta-upp-saker-drottningen)

And then came Friday and it was time for our Tamworth adventure!

Roadtrip!!

(lots of exclamation points in this blog so far...!)

We were 16 happy people in four happy cars heading out into the happy bush to spend a happy week end on the hilarious countryside =)

I was in Annabel's car - with Dan Kao and Trent =)

I can't believe how lucky we were with the weather - brilliant!

Although the boys got a bit sleepy, so they missed out on the nice view from time to time - but we made sure to wake them up =D

And voilà! The Golden Guitar!
Pride landmark of Tamworth!!

Tamworth is about 4 hours drive from Newy, up and in pretty much, and it's the country music capital of Australia (hence the guitar).

Once at Gaby's house, we took a walk among the cows and played down at the small river. Her dogs, Oscar and ... OMG what was his name, Ollie??.., they got confused when we we're throwing stones in the river - so they jumped in to try and bite the plopping water :)

Oscar being carried - he got all these sharp sticky thingys under his paws, the poor fella' could barely walk..

Back at the house after sunset - played pool, hung out by the fire, ate a lot of food :) they have a funny tradition of serving fish with cheese - never seen that before, but it worked really well! Trout and brie =) plus all these other cheeses, grapes, crackers etc - heaps!

Matt even tried to eat a trout eye (he did too), and he got Marky Mark so excited so Mark ate the other one =D

After eating we went outside to our massive bonfire!
Had a few beers, played some games (spotlight!), and watched oscar eating a mouse... The mouse came out of a hay stack that we were sitting on, and Oscar got it head first! He then spent the next hour nibbling away on it..! After that no one liked oscar...

The guys tried to move the big log some of us had been sitting on - and toss it on the fire - and to not disappoint too many; they eventually succeeded! =)

Then, believe or not, we had dinner!
The food earlier was just a warm up! Gosh Gaby's parents must have been ruined feeding 16people for three days..! But it was really good food =)

Saturday - rise and shine! And shone it did - sunshine!

Woo dressed up in Ash's hat, the pregnant horses were idyllic, and we were close to having a puppy with us in Tiff's handbag into town.

We stopped by Ash's house - and what a house!
The first two pics are just of the outhouse...!!! Then we have the wine cellar (yes, impressive non?) and Edwin and Woo got engaged - it was a great day for all of us!

Once we'd checked out the town - it's much bigger than you think, they've got a real mainstreet and it looks good - honestly, it does! - we went up to the lookout, got some nice pics.

At Annabel's house we went macho on her dad's ride - sweet ride, sweet as! - and played some more games (Tribes and something...)

Bought pizza, watched a movie, ate some delishhhh cake (thanks Gaby's mum!!!), and headed out to do Tamworth right and savvy!

Diggers - danced the night away - music from the 80s, early 90s, us and all the other boys and girls on the dance floor (45-50+)
The Tamworth Hotel - learned how to play hockey and football with coins
The Impey - a place to hang out and do a little dance - when you've had one too many (great place though, reminded me of Nöjesfabrikens Balibar, or whatever it's called, the summer bar anyway).

Played some more mafia back at the house - oh yeah, I haven't mention that - down here they're very in to mafia, especially this gang. Mafia is like the game we used to play when we were ten (or younger), when you're sitting in a ring, someone "kills" someone and then you have to figure out who the killer is. Although the version here is with several Mafia (killers), Sheriff/s/ (police, who can check who's mafia or not), and a Doctor (can save people) - and then there are many many other characters you can involve, Snitch and Hooker for instance (I liked the hooker - it was fun).

Anyway, played until three-four in the morning, then most of us went to bed =)

Dan Ho looked like a worm/cocoon in his sleeping bag

Got up too late the next morning - were supposed to leave around 10ish am, but we got up around 12.30 instead... So we had yet another great big breakfast - god bless the Ibles! - and headed home close to 3.30pm, safely back at IH around 7ish!

Time for sleep!

(hehe, this is Gaby's mum's awesome lion! - completely rockin'!)

Week 9 - City walk in Newy and Mexican Night

2009-05-31T18:53:00.026+10:00

yikes - this week went almost completely to hell....!

For starters - I had the worst night between sunday-monday - I got woken up in the middle of the night (around 3-4ish) because the guy in the room next to mine was watching How I met your mother - how do I know that was what he was watching?? Well he couldn't use headphones like every other normal human being at that time of night, oh no - he had to have it on the highest volume possible - so I could actually follow the conversation... (and I had recently watched that episode so I recognised it all...)...

wrapped my hand in a towel and started banging the brick wall - after about 5-6seconds he got the message!

(he's malaysian and does not follow the normal rythm of the day - he goes to sleep around five in the morning, and sleeps until noon, or 2pm, or 3pm... and since he's studying architecture - he's got no assignments this semester (well okey he's constructing a house) - but he doesn't have to sleep like all other mortals..)

hmm, yeah you're right, I am a bit sick of his constant noice
makes me miss my very sound proof apartment back at home.. =)

Anyway - didn't sleep well after getting woken up, so Monday was pretty much awful...
Tuesday didn't get much better (alright I did get my hair cut so that was a plus, but it fades a bit in the context of the following events...) - for those of you who know me, you're most likely to have understood that I take my studies a bit seriously

okey - no need to laugh, I take it very seriously alright..!

So I was worrying a bit over my exam the next week - it was actually on Monday the 11th, but me my idiot had mad a big mistake and booked a trip to Tassie - and I would be back pretty much exatecly 20hours too late.... I managed to get the exam moved to Wednesday, so I would have Tuesday afternoon to study for it (we were coming back around 2-4am tuesday morning). And now I was freaking out - to only have a half day to study - what the hell was I thinking..!? This exam was supposed to be a bit harder than the first one, and I had barely started studying (as you know I was busy getting my essay done...)...

So I decided to try and get an earlier flight home, so that I could be back sunday night and have the entire monday-tuesday to study.. Only that my friends managed to convince me that it would be too much of a hazzle, and way too expensive (as I already knew...). So I decided to stay the entire five days, and try to get some revision done down there as well...

Once this decision was made I got a bit of a stomach ache (this was at dinner time, like 6pm) - and I thought it was just nerves - butterflies in my belly about going away and almost completely ignoring an exam (for the first time in my life). The ache went away, but two hours later, when I was writing a packing list - my insides exploded...

It was pain like I've never experienced before..!

My entire stomach and back were killing me - I couldn't really breathe, I couldn't lie down, or walk straight, or think straight... So after about twenty-thirty minutes, and things just got worse - I asked my house mate Nicole for help - she and Lisa ended up driving me to The Mater Hospital.. and yeah, I was almost screaming when we got there - and well, I ended up screaming when they put me on a bed (it was horrible trying to lie down - it just made it all worse..). And since I only could cope with the pain by breathing funnily, I was as a consequence hyperventilating - so my hands went numb and things got blurry

I've never hyperventilated before - it was a bit fun now afterwards =) just to know what it's about I mean.

Anyway, they hooked me up to an IV, rolled me into a room and put me in bed there - and finally (!!!) I got some painkillers.

People were talking about gallstones, and surgery and who knows what - and all I could think about was how expensive this was going to get... =)

Sent a couple of texts and people started showing up (Katie, Tom and Blaven) to keep me company, talked to mamy a bit too, and finally a bit after midnight the doctor came in and told me that all they could find was an infection (a pretty nasty one apparently), and that my liver's not really working to 100% (what?!)..

So I got some antibiotics and painkillers - and went out to deal with the biggest pain ever.. paying...!

The nurse took forever to try and find the credit-card-reader, and wondered if they could send me a bill instead - but ended up realising that I was Swedish

"Oh but you're Swedish right? Then you don't have to pay! It's free!"

oh sweet moses that was good news!
(almost even better than not having to go into surgery)

'cause you know what this means - I can get how sick I want and won't have to pay!! Tjoho!! =)

anyhow - to cut to the chase - I ended up staying home from Tasmania - I was high on antibiotics and got home from the hospital like 12hours before we were going to leave.

So I spent wednesday-thurs-friday sleeping a lot, and then found enough energy to go with a gang of people on a city walk around Newy - to see all the places we hadn't been to yet. And it was an awesome day - check out the pics!

That was all up from the top of the hill at the Obelisk, and then we walked down the hill to the cathedral

After the cathedral we took a walk out to the lighthouse and the pier beyond Nobby's - lovely! We ended up playing in the sand and having lunch on the beach - cheered on Michael and Samir who came down to go surfing

Katie got some unwanted fecus on her - that seagull had a very very accurate aim..!

Now here are pictures from Fort Scratchely - the fort that fired the cannons on Anzac Day if you saw that video

And then we headed to Bar Beach

It was a great great day!

Sunday was spent studying - I decided to do the exam on Monday morning and not use the extra two days - mainly because I wanted it over and done with, and I needed to focus on the next bulk of school work just waiting for me... So I gave it my best on Sunday, and decided to get some rest and went down to the mexican party next door - Percy had organised a great fiesta!!! Guacamole, tortillas and Swine-Flu-Punch =)

Thank goodness I was still on antibiotics - I got out of doing tequila-shots =)
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Week 8 - essay writing..

2009-05-31T18:52:00.003+10:00

This week was all about school...

Started doing research for my major essay in SOCA last week, so spent the weekend (when I wasn't at GenderBender, Anzac or sleeping) reading articles and books - oh my... my eyes were almost bleeding..

But I got a great deal at Jesmond Fruit Barn last Sunday - three boxes of strawberries for 4 dollars (a bit more than 20SEK) - so it was quite alright to spend time by the computer, since eating always keep me cheered up =) esp when it comes to strawberries!

Completed the essay on Wednesday - gosh, 2000 words about genetically modified food...

This essay really scared the crap out of me - I've never ever written an essay before, not even in Swedish - and now they want a real sociological one in English...! sometimes I've even got troubles understanding the meaning of the word sociological... But hey! I got there - wrote it all in about a week - yippie!

considering it's worth 50% of my mark in SOCA it was quite important to get it done =)

And then on Saturday I actually got the evidence table done for the tutorial paper in SOCA that I also needed to hand in - so all in all, a very productive week =)

The reason I had to get a move on with my work was that on Wednesday the following week we were going to Tasmania - and I would be gone for like five days - return and have a half day to study for an exam in Clinical Exercise Physiology, and then go away over the weekend to Tamworth (!) - and that would leave me with three days to write the real tutorial paper (the evidence table was just one part of it) - 700 words critically evaluating an article re vegetarianism - and then I would need to hand in the tutorial paper, the evidence table and the major essay - all on the same day...! plus give a presentation about the article and vegetarianism!

So it was a tight schedule...

But yey - nothing that a bunch of strawberries can't fix!

Week 7 - Gender Bender and Anzac Day

2009-05-31T17:44:00.022+10:00

Haha this week was a complete mess!

but oh what fun!!

Had two exams - Food Science 2 on Monday morning, with the evil monster (who's now starting to warm up a bit btw), and the first midsemester exam for Sociology of Food on Wednesday. It's a really funny room we've got SOCA (sociology) in - every now and then the light just goes off, and there we are - trying to have a lecture, or in this case, an exam, in the dark =)

Both went well I can tell you now afterwards - got 80% on FoodSc2 (equivalent to MVG in sweden), and 75% on SOCA (will be VG then).

On Thursday night we decided to play some JS (jungle speed), but we had to take a break and make sure we got all the pics we could of Matt =) It was his 21st B-day, and he came into 510 just after his 21st drink - check out his journey from almost standing and conscious to, well - see for yourselves;

Just a little heads up - don't pass out at IH - people with permanent markers take advantage!

Friday - took a quick trip to Wallsend to visit the opshops (second hand stores) to prepare for the evening - costume needed!

And hey ho - it's time for Gender Bender!!!

boys dress up as girls, and girls dress up as boys =D

It was awesome!
So enjoy the pics - they kinda speaks for themselves =)

hehe, yep - it's me!

aka Sven, as everyone knew me that night

Everybody singing on the top of their lungs to My Heart Will Go On,
a truly epic moment!

Waratah League Club was where we were bending our gend as much as possible, and then we have a beautiful and gorgeous pic of me right before I tried to get the make up away...

Well, the week end has just begun as it turns out!

Got home around 1-2am (not quite sure) - and slept until 4am - then it was time to rise and shine for Anzac Day!

Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, and is commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all those who died and served in military operations for the country.

So to join in on this great tradition and show our respect, we attended the Anzac Day Dawn Service down at Nobby's Beach - starting at 5am

We got home around 8am, and got free breakfast - although it was a little bit too much for me, and hey that's not brekkie - cereal and real bread would've been, not white toast bread (not toasted either), bacon, ketchup, greasy eggs and something weird with meat and fat...

I fell asleep uncomfortably full at 9am - barely woke up at 2pm...

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