Everything new.

On Monday morning all the international students went to school for a brief introduction and to hear about the rules and regulations we were to follow as international students. The actual classes started on Tuesday when the local students joined us. Our class is a true mixture of cultures with people from Brazil, Sweden, Finland, China, Japan, Russia, Peru and Australia, between 18-57 of age. With so many different nationalities it brings a lot of interesting life experience, views and stories to class. Among us there is an architect, a masseuse with 12 years of experience, a physiotherapist, a medical graduate, a Muay Thai boxer, mothers and more. We attend school Tuesday-Thursday 9am-4pm and the subjects are Anatomy & Physiology and Swedish massage. The attempt is to reach a Certificate IV in Massage therapy by 14.01.2012.

My school stuff. Had to buy a pencil case and contents as well.

After school I decided to have my hair cut so I called a salon called Vogue in Robina and got an appointment for the afternoon. Because I had never been to Robina, it took me 2 hours to find the damn place...Bye bye long hair, welcome new look! I also had a pedicure coz Rhona said I need to have painted toenails as a masseuse since the clients look at my feet from the hole :D I also bought me some Nike running shoes, finally!!

My new hairstyle.

Friday was a national holiday because of The Gold Coast Show Day. I had no idea what that meant so we decided to take a trip to Southport with my classmate Vannia. We drove to Pacific Fair (a mall just 10 mins away) and took the bus from there to Griffith University. Vannia's cousins car makes a strange noise and we had no idea how to get to Southport so we decided it would probably be safest to take the bus further. The show day turned up to be a family event with a tivoli, kids dance performances, horse-riding and booths selling everything from candy and toys to plants and insurance. Seriously! I wouldn't say it was a total waste of time coz we did have fun, but I wouldn't go again :P We took some pictures to entertain ourselves.

 My expensive prawn crackers before they flew away.

 Tourist.

 This is for my Jussi's :)

 Flying children.

 More flying children.

 I regret not going for a ride :D

 This is for my Hanhiemo <3

LOLLIPOP LAND.

Strawberries and chocolate in all the ways you can imagine! Also regret not buying anything from here. Vannia was supposedly on a "diet" so I couldn't treat myself without feeling bad :P

Later that night I found myself at a traditional jewish friday-feast with 10 new friends from Israel. They told me that they have a feast together every friday because saturday is known as a "sunday" in the jewish religion. Seeing and being a part of their traditional pre-dinner prayers was a new experience for me which I truly enjoyed. I was the oldest of the girls precent so I had the honor to be the first one to drink from The Holy Grail after the men had had a sip. Liel, the chef responsible, together with the other guys had cooked delicious food and HEAPS of it! I had yet not eaten that much at once during my stay in Australia so far. We had a lovely evening and i felt really welcome :) Lindsay, the girl from New York, told me all these amazing stories and places I should visit. And I am definitely going to visit as many of them as possible! Can't wait for my summer holiday to begin!!

 All the guys standing up during prayers.

They managed to dislodge the balcony door...

On Saturday me and Rhona went to see The Pyjamas in Paradise- musical. It was hilarious and teaching as well! In the late 1950s and early 1960s, long before Schoolies appeared on the scene, pyjama parties attracted thousands of young people from all around Australia to the small resort town of Surfers Paradise. Their popularity put Surfers on the map. Here's a take from the presentation of the musical:

"Follow the story of Bruce Large – retired (kind of), fast talking (always), larger than life (definitely) and his controversial dream to turn ‘Surfers’ into paradise! Set in a time where bikinis were Itsy Bitsy, love had people All Shook Up and everyone was desperate for a Summer Holiday, Pyjamas in Paradise is a hilarious look at what life may have been like…if life was a musical and Meter Maids were back up singers for the Supremes!"

Lena and Kerry had been given Pyjamas in Paradise-slippers on opening night which they later on handed to me and Rhona. They are cute! Thank's!!

 The play had a PINK poodle. Too bright to see the colors but you get the idea ;)

Slippers.

Sunday was fathers-day. I was positive that fathers day had the same date worldwide so I sent all of my friends and family "Happy fathers day"-messages. I didn't find out I was wrong until my dad replied to me "Fathers day is on november 2nd but it's never wrong to remember your parents". Now I feel a bit embarrassed. 

We had a reservation for the family at 12.30pm to an italian restaurant called Fellini in Marina Mirage. Rhona and me had a 7 course seafood menu which also had 7 different wines to go along with. It was delicious! Too bad I didn't take pictures of all of the courses but here's a few to give you an idea ;)

 Sorbet.

 Seafood pasta.

 Salmon with veggies.

 Tiramisu and a lovely fluffy pastry thingy.

 Krugers, Rhonas and my card.

We were the last to leave the restaurant, after a 4h lunch, with a satisfied staff waving back at us. Another restaurant I'd love to go back to :) We continued the evening with some vino bianco by the pool-bar at the parents residence. Kerry finally opened his present, cordless headphones to ease Lena's volume tolerance during sports on TV :D 

On Saturday Rhona asked me what I was going to do on my day off on Monday. Day off? Yes, you only have school tue-thu...Good that she pointed out that I don't have school on Monday or I would have been going there :D I guess I should check my schedule a bit more carefully next time ;)

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.