A little hiphop.

Vannia, the peruvian girl in my class, had her 29th birthday 16th September and I decided we have to celebrate that! We took the bus to Broadbeach and went to a mexican restaurant for nachos and sangria. There were two guys playing the guitar and singing in the street, not far from where we were sitting, which kinda completed our celebration. We continued to a club called Envy, which happened to have a hip hop-night. Perfect. There weren’t too many people which made it even better and we danced the night away. 

Cumpleaños feliz churrita :)

22nd September was the date for my first exams in Anatomy & Physiology and Swedish massage. I was very nervous but it went well and therefore I decided to treat myself with some good music by going to EVE’s concert at The Beer Garden that night.

I had been given a free ticket to the gig by a former student of the Massage Schools of Queensland who was going to perform with his street dance crew at the event. I talked Arttu into coming with me since he’s been saying it’s dangerous for me to move around on my own in Surfers night time... :P

We arrived early to be sure we don’t miss the dance show. Well, like we all know, no show is ever on time and it ended up starting 2,5h later than estimated. There were 5 street crews, a few rappers and a magician show (which was VERY interesting...) to warm up the crowd before EVY EVE hit the stage. And she sure did! The gig took 30 mins and she didn’t perform even ONE song from beginning to end...Nevertheless, we enjoyed the concert and I must say it felt good to hear some classics from my childhood.

Feel me? ;)

Before the concert there was a photographer who wanted to take a picture of us but I kindly declined. Well, that didn’t help since there were 7 others in line to stalk us innocent out-goer’s. In the end one persistent lady took our picture. “Great! Now I’m gona be on some stupid partypictures.com site...”, I thought. I wish! Instead I found our picture and names in a full page story about the gig on the social pages in Saturdays Gold Coast Bulletin (newspaper like Helsingin sanomat)!! :D

Finnish night & Surfers Paradise.

On friday 9th September Rhona left for Sydney for her 30-year school reunion. She was so excited about it and being a woman, obviously, had a hard time trying to decide what to wear to the event. Well, who wouldn’t be a bit anxious trying to impress former classmates after 30 years?! And they were ALL girls!! Luckily we had attended a fashion event earlier that week and I had picked out a fabulous tunic for Rhona to wear. Unfortunately the reunion weekend in Sydney happened to be freezing so the summer tunic got left out :(

One of my former workmates, Teija, from Finland had been in Australia for a year and happened to be coming to Surfers that Saturday. Arttu was also coming back from his 2 week holiday in Tokyo so I thought it would be fun to arrange a “Finnish night” with the three of us. So, I invited both of them for dinner. 

Earlier that day I went grocery shopping to the local mall. Somehow my inside compass was a bit off and I ended up adventuring for 3 hours! It was a really hot day and I got around on my skateboard and by the time I had done my shopping (around the area of Mermaid Beach and beyond) my backpack was packed to the limit and I was soaking wet from skating my way from one place to the other!! By the time I got home I realized I had forgot the beef mince...

I prepared all the food, swept the house and made myself ready for the evening to come. Arttu was the first to arrive and I surprised him with a home baked Finnish rye-bread (ruislimppu)!! I actually made it myself from scratch and the look on Arttu’s face when he opened the cloth around the oven-warm bread was just worth all the blood, sweat and tears I suffered baking it ;) We ate the whole thing that day.

Rye bread in the making.

Fresh from the oven.

Teija arrived A BIT later but just in time for dinner. My home-made burgers were appreciated and delicious!! We had a fun night and stayed up until dawn. Thank’s guys!!

The following Sunday we made a tourist trip to Surfers with Teija. We went to the Q1 tower, Ripley’s believe it or not-museum, The Haunted House (a horror house we had to walk through...scared the living sh*t out of me...US!), the beach, did a bit of shopping, had dinner at Hard Rock Cafe and finally had a beer at Avenue, a small pub that played live music. Sweet.

 Q1 tower.

 View from Q1.

 Looking South.

 ...and North.

 Their job is to pose when tourists want to take pictures.

 Ripley's. The worlds tallest man.

 "Mom, I thought it would bring out my personality better".

 Don't be shallow, I bet she has a great personality!

 Who else would wear this except James Brown. RIP.

Grasshoppers painted as Michael Jackson.

Of course we had to go in to the kids tunnel!

...and no problems fitting in.

The King of pop piece of art made of round lollies.

Worlds fattest guy. The on on the left that is ;)

Hard Rock Cafe.

What to eat...

James Brown ice sculpture at Hard Rock Cafe.

Shakira's pants made of rubber. Hot. Literally.

I finally got to see this live! You guys remember a similar pic from my farewell party event on Facebook? 

Teija had to leave Surfers on Wednesday to go sort out her visa. It was a short but lovely visit from her and we already decided we'll catch up again and continue from where we left off. Take care out there adventurer!

P.S. For some stupid reason I couldn't change the size of the font in the beginning. Sometimes we just have to live with these small flaws in life :)

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 ;)