Exploring.

My second week was all about settling down and exploring the neighborhood. Since it hadn't rained for months, the obvious thing to happen was "for me to bring the rain with me from Finland"...right. So it has been raining for a week now excluding a few sunny days in between.

Early Monday morning Rhona left for work so I got a ride with her to school, which is located in Burleigh Heads. Across the street there's a shopping centre and a lot of other stores, including Rip Curl and Billabong, in separate buildings. I adventured for a few hours and bought some goods (which I absolutely needed..) until I HAD TO go back to MSQ (The Massage Schools of Queensland) for a shiatsu massage. Shiatsu is Japanese for "finger pressure;" it is a type of alternative medicine consisting of finger and palm pressure, stretches, and other massage techniques. It was my first time having a shiatsu massage and I found it really relaxing. Later that day, Arttu took me sightseeing. Since it was raining, our options were kinda limited, so we drove along the coast whilst my guide pointed out places that were to be taken into account. I can't remember half of the things I saw or any names of the places we drove pass but I'll blame it on the foggy windows...We did however go to a huge surfer kinda clothing, accessory and board shop somewhere far away from where we came :D Arttu being an expert on the whereabouts of outlets, he managed to restrain me from buying anything in haste. Though they did have a SALE on the upper level... :) We had lunch and drove to Robina to see a movie.

 
Pics from the Rip Curl shop.


Kerry is a member of the Kudos health club,  http://www.kudoshealthclub.com.au/ , the most exclusive gym on the Gold Coast. He was kind enough to get me a 7 day pass, so I got to keep up my exercise. Arttu came to the gym with me on Tuesday and I've been going there since. I was also provided a personal trainer session with a pro PT for 21 years. It was fab! The club fee is a bit out of my student budget but luckily I found Team Spreets (like CityDeal in Finland) and got a months pass to a fitness club for only $17 (~12€)!! And it's at walking distance from school.

I had to get myself a GoCard (public transport pass, like the Finnish Matkakortti) to get around. Upon the arrival of the bus I indicated to the driver...with my right hand :D It was really weird getting on the bus from the "wrong" side :P More excitement to the journey brought the feeling that I wasn't completely sure where I was going to get off and that I didn't know the surroundings at all. Luckily the bus drivers here are very helpful and talkative (not like in Finland where they hardly even great you and when you ask them for directions they have no idea what you're talking about...if they even speak Finnish at all...) so I've managed to get from place to place :) The only problem with the public transport on the Gold Coast is that it SUCKS!! Coming from Helsinki, with probably the best public transport in the world, this just seemed unbelievable! A journey you travel in 15 minutes by car can take up to 2h by bus here, depending on where you're going and what the weather happens to be. As soon as it stops raining I'm going to get myself a bike! Btw, I do have my skateboard with me but that's not much help in the rain, now is it.

I also paid my first visit to a local supermarket this week. It's always as much fun grocery shopping in a foreign country when you don't recognise any of the products. You simply have to try something to know what you like and don't like. Luckily i had my guide with me again. I gave him the task of collecting the supplies needed for lunch while I had a look around. The first thing I noticed was the bread selection. Or should I say heaps of PULLAMÖSSÖLEIPÄÄ!! :D (sorry you non-Finnish speakers, tough luck, ey?) Dear Finland, smuggle me some ruisleipää, please.

Nuff said.

I thought this was something from Mary Poppins but apparently some parents actually let their kids have this nutritious syrup apple. On a stick.

I was appalled to see that bananas cost $13/kg until I was told that it's because there were huge floods in 3 states, the size on Germany and France put together, that destroyed most of the banana fields in the beginning of the year of 2011. So yet again Finland, monkey food, please :)

Then we came to the cash desk. I made a complete fool of myself not knowing the Australian supermarket custom. At least I made the cashiers day and Arttu, ones again, had a blast.

On Friday I decided to take a run around the neighborhood to explore some more. I ran for about 40 minutes and found the most amazing places. I am very lucky to live in such a beautiful place and with a coolio skate park just around the corner ;)

I've also heard a lot of comments about my American (some say Canadian) accent and especially Rhona has been working her abs laughing at my pronunciation. Haven't you, exökjuutive drive :)

It's Saturday night and the rugby game is on. Since I don't know anything about this national sport, Rhona introduced me to a thing called "the haka", a traditional maori war cry (dance) performed by the New Zealand All Blacks before the game to intimidate the opponent. It's difficult to describe it more than that but I can assure you, anything you can find on YouTube is not even close to Rhonas imitation :D

That's all for now, but make sure you stay tuned for more jolly stories from The Gold Coast :)

x Ninni

Moving day & Rhona's b'day!

After enjoying my stay at Lena's & Kerry's for the first 4 days it was time for me to move in to my new home at my cousin Rhona. She lives in the suburb of Mermaid Waters. This saturday also happened to be Rhona's birthday and we were obviously going to celebrate that. We went to the Arts Center to see a privet rehearsal of the Pyjamas in Paradise- musical. It was hilarious and we only got to see bits and pieces of it so we decided we'll go see it when they play for real as well.

Me at the show.

My aunt Lena.

Our night continued to a new greek restaurant called Mecca Bah, http://meccabah.net/goldcoast/ , located in Broadbeach. I really liked the food and the atmosphere there and would definitely go again. The only negative thing was that they didn't have their own facilities and one would have to cross the street to go to the toilet. Besides that, we had a lovely dinner with family and Rhona's friends Sara, Hamish and Tim! After dinner, my finnish friend Arttu joined us at the restaurant. It was really nice catching up with him after a long time :) Apparently a famous Aussie football player, Nathan Bock, introduced himself at some point during the night but I just don't recall at all... ;) For some reason and with whatever bluff-techniques Rhona managed to cut the whole taxi line (there was like 100 people in it) and me, Rhona and Arttu were on our way home. We had a whole lot of some weird Japanese vodka up 'til 4.30am and stayed up talking even later. What a great introduction to the Australian party life that was for me! Sunday was a couch and movie day.

 Birthday girl!

Kerry with Arttu's hat :D

 Mecca Bah.

Food at Mecca Bah.

The sunday tasottava aka equalizer ;)

Jet lag.

Lena woke me up at 2 pm. I was exhausted! Kerry had left for his weekly golf so it was just us girls for the day. We had breakfast on the huge yellow leather couch in the living room and talked about everything the whole day. Later on I decided to have a spa-session in Lena's spa-bath. It was so relaxing and just what I needed after a long travel.

While I was having my bath my cousin Rhona and her dog Kruger came to visit and to stay for dinner. We had a lovely first dinner, thank you Lena for cooking! I went to bed at 9 pm and actually fell asleep right away. I woke up an hour later to a nightmare and couldn't sleep until 5 am. Damn jet lag.

Lena woke me up at 9 am because we had a busy day ahead! We drove to the bank to open an account for me, to Telstra to get me a new phone number, to the chemist to get me coughing medicine (thank you air conditioning), to my becoming school to get my student id and finally to a you-can-get-everything-here-shop to get me an adapter. Lena cooked us chicken cacciatore. Once again, a lovely dinner! We had some wine and reminisced old times. Mom and dad, we found a guestbook signed by numerous people at your engagement party back in the 80's :)

Friday 19.8.2011
Lena went to a charity event whilst Kerry and I toddled to a huge shopping center called Australia Fair. He had some errands to run which left me with exploring-time! I fell in love with the first shop I saw! I can't remember the name of it but it was a surfer/skate- styled clothing and accessory shop. Rip Curl, Roxy, Billabong, Vans...you name it. And the prices were about 1/4 of the finnish ones. I could've bought everything but restrained myself :)

Snap shot from the car.

Later on, Kerry took me to see the beach for the first time on the Gold Coast. It was SO amazing seeing the blue sea and the white sand under the blue sky. We went to the Northcliffe Surfers Club, the most successful surfing club on the Gold Coast with numerous victories for many years. Kerry is a member of the club and used to compete when he was younger. We had lunch at the club. Kerry had the famous fish & chips but I felt fat so I had to go for a salad :) The fish & chips looked so delicious though that I must have them next time ;)

 Kerry at the Surfers Club terrace.

 View from the Surfers Club.

 My salad.

Fish & chips.

We came back to the house and since the weather was so nice I decided to go sit by the pool for a while and write on my blog.

 The waterfall.

 The terrace.

The terrace bar.

Time to go!

I came home at 1.30 am because of the Kanye West concert at Flow- festival. I just had to go and see it incase Rihanna would've showed up! She didn't. I woke up at 6 am monday morning. After packing the last stuff, we drove pass dad's place to go get my passport (which I searched for for almost 2 hours the previous day, even unpacked all my boxes that I had just packed my whole apartment into!!). At the airport, I obviously went to the wrong terminal at first but that didn't bother me when I realized I get to fulfill a longtime dream of mine: skateboarding through the airport! Mom pushed my cart with bags :D

Kinda blurry but you get the point ;)

My aunt Outi talked me out of paying any overweight at the check-in and they even let me check 2 bags and the skateboard PLUS take 2 bags as hand-luggage. The hand-luggage part failed at the gate but I still didn't have to pay anything extra for yet another bag going into the airplane. Sweet.

My first flight to Frankfurt with Lufthansa took only 1 h 40 minutes and I didn't have anyone next to me. I chatted with this nice german guy for a while, who was on his way home from a finnish wedding. Obviously I told him EVERYTHING about my year ahead (miss blabbermouth) but who could've resisted that, being exited and all?! :) In Frankfurt I found my way to the next gate where this nice indian-looking guy with Singapore Airlines gave me my boarding tickets for the next 2 flights. By then I was starving and didn't have more than an hour before boarding. So, I looked for a cheap place to get some food from (not that there are any at airports) BUT since the 16€ noodle-wok didn't really tempt my wallet, I found the gates to heaven: Micky Dee's!! I stood in line for 45 minutes...totally not worth saving a few bucks.

The 12h flight to Singapore was ahead. Luckily I was flying with Singapore Airlines which happens to be the best airline there is. I saw 3 movies and a bunch of TV-series that I'd never heard of. The staff was really great and kept smiling even when we left the aircraft.

The final flight to Brisbane was in 3,5 hours so I had some time at the airport. I was glad to find my international love affairs Miss Starbucks Coffee and Mr. Burger King.

 Souvenirs for ya Locoz gals ;)

This is in Singapore after 24 hours of traveling. Check them dark circles!

The 3rd and final flight went fast. The airplane was half full so I once again had two seats for myself. Finally in Brisbane it took me an hour to get out. The line to the pass control took forever and once through, I had the drug-dog on me. Off course. The banana I had eaten 7 hours ago had left a scent in my backpack. Well, I got off the hook. I came out of the airport and there they were, my aunt Lena and her husband Kerry waiting for me with a big smiles on their faces. Lena took a picture of me (after traveling for 29h) and I hope that picture doesn't end up on Facebook! :D We drove for another hour to Surfers Paradise. At arrival we had a small champagne celebration (a bottle) after which I slept for 14 hours.