Mexican yoga.

In Mermaid Beach, only 10 minutes by bike away from my place, there's the Australian School of Meditation and Yoga. They provide various free yoga and meditation classes throughout the week held by students of the school. And even the ones that cost are only $5! Great for a student budget. I've been taking classes there for a few weeks now and I'm loving it. Rhona even gave me a pair of burgundy colored yoga pants she had bought and never really used.

The first time I went to yoga here was with Jussi Vanninen, yet another Finnish addition to the Gold Coast, who arrived here 15 October. Welcome, great to have you here! Looking forward to more adventures with you and next time I'll make sure I can join the camping trip.

Jussi turned 18 (+10) on Friday and held a Mexican feast the night before. About 30 friends of Jussis and his housemates (Eve, Kath and Paulie) showed up with various dishes of Mexican food and drinks. Since I only found out about the party two days before, I didn't have time to get ingredients and make a dish so I brought an Aussie feta-spinach-bread-thingy and a dessert bread, kinda like the Finnish wiener bread.
The funniest present given was probably the Shot Bucket. A plastic bucket with 28 different liqueur shots (really sweet ones), each with a rip-off cover and ready to drink. They were a success, especially with Jussi who probably had 15 of the 28...
Thank you for a great party and take care in the outback guys!

 The birthday cake.

 Jussi blowing out the candles.

 Can you tell what the blueberry-nut shape represents?

 Jussi, Matthew(Canadian), Mathias (Brazilian) and me having shots.

 Sanna (Finnish) choosing her shot. ft. Lasse and Jussi.

 We had live music. Sweet jammin'.

 The coolest shoes in a long time. Demi, I thought of you when I saw them <3

 Cheers!

 Sanna with her fab cam.

 "I'm the Birthday boy, I can do whatever the f*** I want" :D

Eve :)

Paulie.

And to sum it up, Mexican yoga.

Kerry's birthday party.

5th November
This Saturday was Kerry's 76th birthday party. The party was due to start at 4pm but me and Rhona went to the Crawford's already at noon to help out with preparations. Lena had made all sorts of cute and delicious finger foods which were to be served for the awaited 20 guests. Us "girls" got the mission to drive and get the cake from the bakery and the chicken from IGA (local grocery shop). The voyage to the bakery took us about 20 minutes even though it was only a few minutes away, because Rhona kept getting lost and we ended up at one dead end after the other. At least we've seen all the dead end roads in Bundall, now haven't we ;) And I also learned about the Gold Coast Turf Club as we passed the sign a few times...When we finally got home with the cake and the chicken, Lena asked us where the sausage rolls are? *me and Rhona swearing* and off we went back to the bakery!

The first guest arrived at 4pm on the dot! It must have been my lucky day because she gave me a present. "Welcome to Australia, Ninni" :)

Kerry's good friend Barry (in orange shirt) held a lovely speech.

 Santiago, the bartender from Colombia.

The next day we had a "left-over breakfast" with the family and spent the rest of the day swimming and sunbathing.

 Lena and Kerry at the BBQ.

Even Stockmann's lakkahillo (Finnish cloud berry jam) had found it's way to the table. I experienced my first 'jam on toast'.

Byron Bay.

24th October
Arttu's sister Arla came from Tokyo to Surfers for a one-week holiday and the three of us decided to take a day trip down to the famous Byron Bay, which is a beach side town located in the far-northeastern corner of the state of New South Wales. Byron (that it's called) is a laid back town popular amongst young people and especially surfers. 


This Monday was a beautiful sunny, hot and a bit windy day. I happened to have my exams the next day and Arttu his a few days later, so we both had to dedicate our sunbathing to studying as well. Byron is well known for it's creativity and many of the locals have turned their hand to making things to sell at the markets and / or in the local stores. Surf board and hat makers to cookie and corn chip chefs have all helped Byron Bay become well known around the world as a place that produces top quality products made with "care and love". There is a lot of small cute shops and you can find anything from organic local veggies (I bought my first bananas in Australia at 4,95/kg) to souvenirs and clothing. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to pop into every shop so I definitely want to go back! :)



One of the most famous sights in Byron is the Cape Byron Lighthouse. Standing on a bald rocky headland with a precipitous cliff on the east side, and a sheer drop of approximately 100 metres, Cape Byron Lighthouse is the most easterly light in Australia, and one of the most powerful. To get to there you need to drive up (or why not walk) a pretty steep road. The "entrance fee" (by car at least) is 7 AUD. 


The view from up there is just breathtaking!! 

 Arttu gazing the view.

 You can walk all the way down to the end of that cliff.

 The most easterly point of the Australian mainland.

 What you don't expect (and definitely not hope) to see so far away from home...yes, it's a Hullut Päivät plastic bag. And it came with a "traditional" Finnish family...

At the end of out tour we sat down for some beverages. Arttu had a pink-moment.


Byron has a lot happening year round but if you're thinking about going there I suggest you check out the blog for upcoming events.
http://www.byron-bay.com/blog

Biking.

7th October

Ida, Swedish girl in my class, had a spare bike lying in her garage and she was kind enough to borrow it to me (until I move to another country, that is). I can finally move around quickly and smoothly without having to wait for buses that take forever and are always late!! And it’s great exercise going to school and back every day (12 km). Tack ska du ha, Ida!! 

My classmates Niki “Bubbles” Burton (Kiwi, which is a nickname for New Zeelanders, comes from a NZ bird, for you Finns who didn’t know), Eri (the crazy Japanese who made us drink shots with straws) and Carolyn (giggles) decided to hit the Gold Coast night life. Niki’s friend Felicity joined us as well. Since me and Eri are new to the GC, Niki thought it would be easy to meat at the Mermaid Tavern, a 2 story, quite laid back bar with live music on both levels. The tavern closed early so we continued to a bar in Broadbeach. Which was really random...And SOMEBODY spilled something red and liquid into my bag. Anyway, we had a lot of fun, thank’s girls! 

FYI (mum, that’s short for For Your Information) All the bouncers here are Kiwi’s or Mauri’s and they’re HUGE and look really mean. Finnish bouncers would cry next to them.

9th October

MSQ has been participating in an annual Brisbane to Gold Coast cycling event for years. Every year a bunch of massage students from the school get the opportunity to go and practice massage on the participating cyclists as they one after the other cross the finish line in Southport. This year there were 12 students from my class, including myself. It was a great experience, we all had a lot of fun and as if that wasn't enough we also got paid for being there! And free working shirts and lunch.

13th October

It was time for another pre-viewing at the Art's Center. This time we saw a spectacular one woman show called "The blonde, the brunette and the vengeful redhead" starring an award winning actress, Monette Lee. She played a 2 hour show with 7 characters with 7 perspectives on one single event. Amazing talent!

AFL.

All students in MSQ have to do 40 clinic hours in school and 100 outside of school before our Certificate 4 graduation 14th January. Now that we have completed our first part of the course, the anatomy & physiology and Swedish massage, we have started working in the clinic weekly. Basically this means that anybody can call the school and make an appointment for a massage given by the students (at a reasonable price of course). This is very good practice for the clients are “real people” that we are going to be working with in our future practice. The clients are also obligated to fill in an assessment form after each treatment which gives us therapists feed back for our treatment.

On 27th September me, Rhona, Lena and Kerry went to the Arts Center to see another preview of a play called The good doctor. It was a hilarious play performed by 6 talented young actors and actresses. Can’t remember when I’ve laughed that much during a play, probably never :D

 A few old school posters/postcards.

30th September we had a First Aid course in school which basically made us qualified first aiders. Let’s hope I never have to use my talent though :)

Australia has 3 different “footballs”. AFL (Australian football league), rugby and cricket. After 2 months I still don’t know the difference between these and I couldn’t be bothered to find out either :D But I can still go to a related-party, right?

1st October was the AFL finals and footie fans nationwide gathered their gang to watch the game on telly. Our family was invited to a house-BBQ-drink-watch-the-game-and-play-pool-and-darts- kinda party. The party lasted all day and night, including betting on the game (I bet even though I didn’t even know who was playing...but my team WON :P), multiple games of pool and for some reason I ended up working behind the bar making drinks to minors...

The party started with beer and cheese tasting...

 View from the party venue.

 Rhona in her AFL fan-shirt.

 Buffet :)

 Kerry playing pool.

 Rhona trying to play the didgeridoo :D (aboriginal instrument).

Popular Aussie beer.