The Stolen Generations

I had my first exam yesterday, for the Australian Idol subject. It went really well considering the amount of studying that I did for it, = zero. I had to write two essays. I wrote about the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s apology to the Stolen Generations last year, and if the reconciliation has stagnated after that or not. 

History Lesson: The Stolen Generations refer to the children of the indigenous people that were removed from their families during Australia’s six decades of racist White Australia policy. The European settlers considered Australia as a no-man’s land and to them Aboriginals were doomed to extinction. Aboriginals were denigrated, dehumanized and oppressed because of the false sense of superiority of the European settlers and the aboriginal culture was almost destroyed. The present disadvantages of the indigenous people such as alcoholism, diseases, alienation and other devastation is all because of the European settlers. Even as late as in the 1980s they were for instance denied service in shops or bars and spat on. So, resolving these issues is essential for Australia to truly see itself as a first rate social democracy, the land of the’ fair go’ and better chance. That’s basically what I wrote... But seriously, the indigenous people were denied from all of their basic human rights such as DRINKING!!! Imagine that!!! And I read somewhere, that even if you were 1/128 aboriginal they denied some of your rights! It seems like the apology was merely a symbolic start for true reconciliation. The Rudd Government has committed to some real action such as increasing the education of aboriginal children as well and there have been some improvements.

But reconciliation will be difficult to achieve. It’s a two-way process and requires respect, forgiveness, acceptance and also the will of the aboriginals to help themselves. It’s easier to divide people than it is to unite and people’s attitudes change slower than legislation. I think it’s important that the non-indigenous Australians recognize that it was their ignorance that caused the dispossession of land, culture and language. It doesn’t mean that individual Australians should feel personal guilt over it. It means that the same way they can feel national pride over sporting or the Anzacs, they should be able to feel national shame of past actions.

Okay that was just a summary of it, I could give you a long lecture about it but somehow I doubt that you’d read it…

Another question that I wrote about was about Australian immigration and racial exclusion. I didn’t have that much to say about that. Basically Australian immigration has been really restricted throughout the history. I actually read somewhere that they had this dictation test, where e.g. Maltese people wanting to immigrate to Australia were asked to write a 50-word length statement in DUTCH!! Just to prevent them from entering the country because they were not white enough although they too (to my knowledge) have been under British rule. I think it’s interesting how in just a few decades Australia has managed to become such a multicultural country despite all that...

Airlie Beach & The Whitsundays

No worries, I’m still alive. Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays were amazing and heaps of fun, but it’s also good to be back home in Melbourne.

We had a flight to MacKay, in northeastern Australia, on early Sunday morning. I wanted to have a relaxing, non-party weekend before that. On Friday we went to see Monsters vs. Aliens in IMAX, 3D movie theatre with the 3rd biggest screen in the world. It was amazing! The film actually feels so real that you feel like you can actually touch the pictures, although the film itself was pretty dumb :) One can only wonder what kind of medication the guy was on who wrote the story… Afterwards we went to Lygon street, ‘little Italy’ for dinner and later for a drink, so it was a relaxing evening.

On Saturday I was supposed crash at my friend's place, because there are no trains early in the morning to the city. However, she was going out to party. I told them that I’m definitely not up for it, otherwise I would miss the flight, like in Bangkok. But then my Californian buddy Ari called me, he had a flight to Brisbane early in the morning, so he had the same problem. So we decided to leave our stuff at Shanli's and go out with them. We went to Lounge and guess who was the last to leave and almost missed the flight - again!… I blame the bartender, who gave me this card that I could get free drinks with. At 5AM Shanli called me and told me to get my ass over to her place NOW or we would miss the flight :)

I have no recollection of the flight and in MacKay I was still quite drunk. We were going to catch a bus from the airport to Airlie Beach, the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. First, we waited 2 hours for the bus. When it finally arrived, it was full and we couldn’t get in. The next bus was coming in 6 hours. Luckily, we weren’t the only ones who missed the bus. We got this German dude, David, to rent a car with us and drive us to Airlie. So everything worked out well and he wasn’t an axe murderer.

The next day we were going to jump on a boat and explore the dreamy Whitsundays on a 3 day sailing trip. At the meeting point we met 2 other Canadians (Airlie Beach was full of Canadians), and we hung out with them the rest of the vacation.

There were about 40 of us on board of Pride of Airlie, mostly Canadians, a few Americans and a few Europeans. It was a bit cloudy but still the islands looked amazing. The Whitsundays consist of 74 islands, of which only 6 are inhabited. So you really have the chance to find your own private tropical paradise there... :) Each of the islands is covered in rainforest and surrounded by white sandy beaches. There are also these exclusive expensive resorts for the rich and the famous with high security and you can only access them with a helicopter.

We stayed in South Molle Island, in this beautiful resort with a huge swimming pool, hot tub and a big bar. We weren’t allowed to take ANY drinks on the island. However, the guy from the crew advised us that we should take the drinks with us as long as we keep it discreet and don’t run around the island with goon casks (cheap wine) in our hands.

Well, we passed out after dinner, because we had been drinking all day on the boat (crazy Canadians!). The next day we had to wake up really early, with destination Whitehaven Beach that’s ranked as the 2nd best beach in the world. White silica sand and turquoise water. And finally the sun came out and we fell asleep on the beach. We woke up when it started pouring with rain and the boat came to pick us up.

But it was great fun swimming, drinking goon and dancing in the ocean while it was raining! That night we actually managed to stay up partying quite late. I remember the security guard giving me head massages all the time because I had this huge headache all night. And I ran into Ari, who was on his way up the east coast. Such a small world again, at the same time we happened to be at the same tiny island...

On the third day we went snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef. As I know that some of you retards haven’t even heard of it, although it’s as iconically Aussie as the Sydney Opera House or Ayers Rock, I can tell you, or Wikipedia can, that it is one of the world’s seven wonders, and the largest coral reef system in the world, stretching for 2,600 km over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometers. It can even be seen from space, and it is the largest structure being made by living creatures. Anyway, the best place in the world to go diving.

We only saw a tiny part of it when we went snorkeling. But OMG it was so AMAZING!!! Rainbow-colored fish, clownfish, neon-colored fish, and the most awesome corals in the world! They were pink, orange, bright blue, so amazing, words can’t even describe… I got so carried away with snorkeling that I almost missed the boat and was left alone in the little island with only turtles as my companion. 

The rest of the week we spent in Airlie Beach, party town. One short main street is filled with pubs, shops, restaurants, palm trees and clubs. We couldn’t swim in the ocean at Airlie Beach because it was stinger season and we should have worn stinger suits. But there was the lagoon, a huuuuuge swimming pool. And for the rest of the trip, the weather was purrrrfect. And I’m more tanned than ever, yayyyyy, almost like a black person!!!!

We also got to know Carla and Ashley’s British and Welsh CRAZY flatmates and we played the stupidest drinking games and got ‘pissed off our trolleys’ with them as the Welsh guy would say!!

Carla, Shanly, Ashley and Chris went skydiving the next day. I have never EVER had ANY interest in scaring myself stupid and needlessly jumping off a perfectly good aeroplane.

The journey home was long, exhausting and uncomfortable. We had to leave Airlie on Sunday evening because, again, there were no buses the next morning. We had planned to sleep at the airport but we were kicked out because apparently the airport closed for the night. So we had to take a cab back to the town and find a hotel room. And there were HUGE toads and flying cockroaches everywhere, gross!

The weather’s been good in Melbourne, +20-25 all week. Last night we went to see the circus, Cirque du soleil, it was really cool but it made me really miss dancing. And I got one of my essays back today, the one about management theories, and I got a HD+! And I thought it was a shit essay! I can only wonder how bad essays the Aussies write lol, as I was the only exchange student…

PS. The comments page is finally working!!! ---> USE IT :)

Going out in St Kilda

I’ve been getting these disturbing messages from back home – that I should cut down on drinking and focus more on studying?!!? Let’s make one thing clear here! I AM drinking less than in Finland and I AM studying more. Apparently you have no idea of my drinking habits in Finland. (Maybe that's a good thing). And when it comes to studying… First of all, I spent 200 euros on BOOKS. With that amount of money I could have bought at least 2 pairs of SHOES. And I’ve actually read a few pages!!! Normally I don’t open a book until the night before an exam.

Last week I was sick in bed for two days. I just felt really sick and weak and couldn't eat or even move and I had a terrible headache. I just slept and watched 2 seasons of Desperate Housewives. My flatmates were amazed about the fact that I was spending Friday night at home resting.

On Saturday I was feeling better and because the weather was so nice, I took the train+tram to St.Kilda and went for a drink... or two. This time we went to Mink, which was nice, there are these big armchairs and you can close the curtains so that you have your own private space. After Mink we wanted to go somewhere we could dance, so we went to Riva by the beach.

St.Kilda was even crazier than usually because of the Grand Prix, everybody was out. Last week in class we talked about crime in Melbourne because there had been a stabbing at this huge nightclub in the city. I haven't been there yet. The professor said that there is more crime in Melbourne today than there was before, and he asked our opinions, whether we think Melbourne is safe or not.

St.Kilda is definitely one of the most dangerous areas because of the crazy nightlife, with all the junkies, prostitutes and nutcases. I don't think it's safe to walk around anywhere in the night time by yourself if you're a girl. Especially St.Kilda or the city. I do it anyway, cause I have to. I hate taking the train at night, because there are ALWAYS some sort of drunk or otherwise crazy people that put on a show.

Last week on my home street this SCARY-looking druggie girl harassed me. She really looked like she had escaped from the film The Grudge. I know junkies are usually harmless when they're on drugs, loving life and the world and everybody, but still they make me nervous because they're so unpredictable.

I had a scarier encounter with a junkie at the beach one day, when I had just arrived in Melbourne. I was chilling at this quiet spot away from the people when this guy came to talk to me. At first I didn't even notice anything strange, not until there was foam coming out of his mouth when he couldn't stop babbling about how handsome he is and how much I probably want to kiss him, lol. He was also shaking and his eyes and voice was all strange. I just ignored him and got my things and left. He even followed me for awhile. Creepy.

So yes, Melbourne is definitely more dangerous than Lappeenranta. But on a big city scale it's hard to say cause I haven't lived in any other big cities...

University Life Down Under

University life is a bit different here than in Finland. First of all, you have to remember that the locals pay huge tuition fees whereas in Finland studying is practically free. So the locals are far more motivated, they read a lot of books and take studying really seriously. Whereas me, if it’s a sunny day, I go to the beach and skip the lectures. I’ve got 12 hours of uni a week.

The university is also a ‘bit’ bigger than my home university… It’s the biggest university in Australia with 8 campuses, with 2 of them located abroad. There are around 26,000 students on my campus, Clayton, and 75 buildings!!! Monash Uni is also ranked as one of the top universities in the world.

Clayton campus

Lectures are pretty much the same as in Finland – boring. Tutorials are more like being back in high school. They consist of about 10-20 students and the tutor. They are used to consolidate what we have covered in lectures through discussions and presentations and that sort of stuff. 

Generally speaking, there is more work to do than in Finland. Here people actually read and BUY (!!!!!) the books. And they’re about $100 a book!!! There is about the same amount of work to do, a couple of assignments and an exam per unit.

The circumstances, however, are way better than in Finland. I actually enjoy hanging out on campus. In Finland I always escape when I have the chance and spend the minimum of time at uni. Here on the other hand, there is so much stuff to do and always something going on. Like today, free bbq’s, music and because of the St. Patrick’s Day, people were boozing since noon on the lawn. Good times. 

Roadtrippin'

Last week in Melbourne was freezing. According to the locals it was exceptionally cold. At night it was only 10-15 degrees, and the wind blew 120m/s… And I didn’t bring much warm clothes from Finland. Our house is like a freezer. It’s actually colder inside than outside. 

Bar crawl night was a disaster, at least for my part. I left home at 6 pm. I got off at the wrong train station and had to go back. I was trying to find Chapel Street, which is a long road full of good shops and bars. I walked for 2,5 hours in the crazy wind wearing only a tiny dress. I asked people for advice but everybody was pointing in different direction. Then I broke the heel in my shoe, so I had to walk without shoes. After that it started pouring with rain. I felt like crying and almost took a taxi home. When I finally got to the bar, I was soaking wet and everybody was already leaving.

On Thursday there was this Full Moon Party at another campus, and it was supposed to be ‘the’ party of the year, so we bought tickets. It was crap. The crowd was really young, and people were passing out in the toilet at 9 pm and they didn’t even sell buckets there!!!! It can’t be a full moon party without buckets!! So we went home early and decided that we've had enough of uni parties.

On Friday it was time to escape the cold and wind of Melbourne and we rented a campervan and headed towards the warmer inland areas, north from Melbourne, that’s called High Country. High country is a dry and hot area, with lots of high forests, hills and wilderness as far as you can see, it was beautiful. It’s the area where the worst bushfires were. On the way we saw burned down houses, signs and forests as far as the eye could reach, it was a devastating. Just dead black tree trunks and black grass. As I don’t have a driver’s licence, I was the navigator. In the end the trip took hours, because all the roads to High Country were still closed because of the bushfires.

We stayed at caravan parks for the nights, where we had proper showers and toilets. It was nice, camping in style, sleeping in the van under the stars (we had a skylight in the van).

On Saturday we went horseback riding. I’ve never been on a horse before, so I was really excited and it was so much fun1 It wasn’t just a nice walk on the beach, at first we practiced trotting and canter for awhile and then we rode around the hills and mountains on the horses. I have to do it again soon!!

After that we went to see rodeo. I’m pretty sure we were the first foreigners that the small village had ever seen. It was fun to see the real Aussie life and people. The guy that took us horseback riding told us a lot about their life, the area and the bushfires. The area had been evacuated, but the guy wanted to stay with his wife to protect the farm. So he had to stay awake for two nights and be alarmed if the fire hits the house. Luckily they were saved, but so many people lost their houses or family members, it’s tragic. And because of the roads being closed, there are no tourists (except us) so the businesses in the area are in trouble.

On Sunday we wanted to find koalas, because we had heard that there should be lots of them because they had escaped the bushfires. There were signs with koalas everywhere but not a trace of a koala. We even went to ask the information centre where we could find koalas. There was this wine festival nearby and we decided to spend the last night there. The weather was perfect, we just chilled by a ‘river’ in the sunshine and went to refill our glasses every now and then. In the evening we (=ME) lit a campfire (we weren’t quite sure if that was allowed but did it anyway) and listened to music and just chilled by the fire. Very relaxing…

Monday morning we returned to the information centre. There was this old lady who asked if we were the same guys that were so obsessed with finding koalas the other day. She told us to go to this sanctuary that was on the way back to Melbourne. In Healesville sanctuary I finally saw koalas, kangaroos, a platypus, dingos, wallabies, Tasmanian devils, emus, echidnas, lots of funny looking birds, little crocodiles and big lizards… I also saw wombats, not live ones though, on the side of the roads, upside down… :( But the koalas were the cutest!!

G'day mates!

Finally settling down! I moved into my own room last night. It’s in a nice 4 bedroom house in Clayton, close to the campus. I live with a Korean girl and her brother and a Polish girl. It’s about 300 euros a month, same as in Finland. House sharing is the way to live here in Melbourne. My next task is to find a job, and not only because I just got a 1,230$ phone bill... Oops!

The previous night I crashed at my friend Philippe’s house cause I had to check out from the hostel. On Sunday I met Philippe’s friend Jimmy, whom I had also met in Dam, and his brother Scott. They took me and Jimmy’s British friend Random Guy around the city. First we went to the bottle shop and bought some red wine with beer and whisky and coke in a can. Here you can buy whisky with almost any mixer in a can, which is great. But red wine with beer I still don’t quite understand… We went to see Scott’s boat in St. Kilda. I thought it was really cold and windy (=below 25). The boys told me I shouldn’t be complaining about cold since I’m from the ‘ice capital’ of the world… I get that a lot over here.

It was Scott’s birthday and Random Guy and I joined their family dinner. After that we went drinking to some guy’s backyard and I saw a possum! It was so cute, a bit like a squirrel. I can’t believe I’ve been to Australia for more than 2 weeks and I haven’t even seen a kangaroo!!!  I tried to pat the little thing but it ran away… Oh yeah, I did see some big jellyfish in St. Kilda. Not cool.

On Monday I had my first lectures. It had been ages since I had slept so well and when Philippe came to wake me up I just mumbled something and turned over. Later Philippe took me to uni. The first lectures were fun. The professor talked with a platypus hand puppet, and every time somebody answered a question right, they got a beer!!! Sometimes even a sixpack!!! He sure knows how to motivate students. Shame I couldn’t do my whole degree here, I would have graduated ages ago! And probably become an alcoholic... 

Today I was gonna skip uni and head to the beach because it was suppose to be a really hot day (nearly 40). Every citizen in Victoria, even me, received a text message from Victoria Police that warned about extreme heat and fires. In the morning I went to the gym at uni. It’s really big, good fitness classes and big swimming pools and even a sauna. But after that there's been this crazy wind that I haven’t gone outside. Tonight we have this Monash Exchange Club Bowling and Bar crawl night so I suppose I’ll start getting ready for that now!

Apartment hunting...

St. Kilda Beach

Trying to look for a room is tiring, exhausting and time-consuming. I’m sick and tired staying at the hostel, I miss my own space and privacy. Some of my stuff was also stolen the other day. I would like to finally settle down and start the normal everyday life here in Melbourne.

I’m a bit annoyed by the fact that I changed my flights because of the orientation week, which wasn’t in the end that important, mainly just getting to know new people and drinking. Bar crawls and afterparties and stuff like that every night. The orientation ended in this welcome dinner on Friday at a posh restaurant, Red Scooter in St. Kilda. There were red carpets and everything. Then a bus drove us to the afterparty at a club in Chinatown. I was on my way home when I ran into a boy from the hostel reception, David and ended up drinking tequila shots with him until 6 o’clock in the morning.

On Sunday I went to St.Kilda, which is a town next to nice beaches and it has a crazy nightlife. It’s about 20 minutes away from the centre. Satu from the same dance group and university finally came to Melbourne and we went for a jug or two with the girls (We don’t drink pints here, it’s either a pot=285ml or a big jug. I usually take the latter, you know me). Here they play lots of live music at pubs. All the bars also have ATMs inside, which is cool. 

The transportation system is good here once you learn how to use it. It’s easy to move around the city by taking a tram or train. Daily ticket(=Metcard) costs about 5 euros, so it’s not exactly a free ride, but then again you can move around as much as you like. And there are also free trams moving around the city centre. Because we are study abroad students aka our uni has paid the tuition fee for us, we don’t get student concession cards. That sucks, cause the transportation is going to cost a lot…

The university is big. The Clayton campus centre is like a shopping mall with many shops and food courts and there’s also for example a meditation room, a theatre and a swimming pool. I have 4 units for the semester, I couldn’t even take more even if I wanted to, which was a bit strange but I don’t mind :) I suppose it’s a part of the deal with the university… My units that I should pass are human resource management, integrated marketing communication, organizations: contexts and strategies and experiencing Australian landscape. The latter one should involve trips e.g. to the Outback and stuff like that.

Starting uni in Melbourne & the cognitive overload

So much new information and so many new people that it’s almost too much, it’s exhausting! It’s impossible to remember everybody’s names and what they study and where they are from! The orientation week is going to be fun but exhausting, we have lots of school and every night some activities that always include some drinking…

I met Heli, a Finnish girl from the same university at the train station. We hadn’t met before, but we had been in contact via facebook and email. We took the train and the bus to the uni. Outside uni we met another Finnish girl, Yvonne. After some pancakes and coffee (yes, it’s normal here to have pancakes and ice-cream or muffins for breakfast) we had a few hours of lectures about Australia, the bushfires, accommodation, public transport, enrolments and so on. It was loads of fun, quizzes in the between, fun games and people throwing candy to us every once in a while. If lectures were like that in Finland, I might go there sometimes!!!

A man from Singapore talked a lot about culture shock, which hits everyone sooner or later. We went through the phases, symptoms and what to do and what not to do. I’ve been having all of the symptoms: I’m homesick, missing everybody, appreciating Finland in a whole new way, getting easily frustrated over minor inconveniencies and problems, getting irritated over things easily if they don’t run smoothly, everything feels superior and feeling like giving up… Sometimes feeling sad and depressed and wondering why I did this in the first place and having difficulties in concentrating and doing the normal everyday stuff. According to him it’s normal…Then the lecturer listed the things that do NOT help in getting over the culture shock, and they included drinking, smoking, partying, not sleeping and eating properly….................  He told us that it’s going to get better in time and you just have to keep an open mind and remember the reasons what you are there for. Also, everybody keeps telling us all the time that this is going to be the best times of our lives and we have to take the most of it. The lecturer from Singapore also told us how he had been dating for 6 years in Singapore before he came to Australia and after 3 months in Australia they broke up. And he never got over it! 

In the evening Philippe, whom I had met in Amsterdam a year ago came to pick me up from the hostel. We went to buy some more wine for the picnic that we had at Royal Botanical Gardens. It’s a huge beautiful park with a beautiful view of the city. The picnic was arranged by the uni and again I met lots of new people. From there we went to some bar. I had one drink and after that Philippe took me home. I was so tired that I slept without any sleeping pills or even ear plugs until the late afternoon the next day and missed uni.

Finally Down Under

Just when I was on my way to check in to the flight I noticed that I had lost my credit card,  no surprise there! I had zero cash on me and I knew that I was going to need money to pay eg. for the hostel and the overweight of my backpack.  First I tried to ask around if anybody had found it but I only got pissed off because the people didn’t understand English. So I had to call Finland and cancel the card.

But no worries mate! At the check-in counter I met an Australian boy who also studies commerce at Monash University, at the same campus. He promised to help me out if I had any problems with having no money. He also told me a little bit about the start of the semester. In the plane our seats were next to each other. The flight took about 9 hours. I was freezing the whole time but they couldn’t even give me a blanket without any money. I tried to wrap my legs in the dresses that I had in my hand luggage so I wouldn’t freeze to death. Tim, the Australian guy, had taken a sleeping pill bought in Thailand and he slept the whole way.

From Melbourne Tullamarine Airport I got a free airport pickup to my hostel. The minibus driver gave me a tour around Melbourne CBD before driving me to the hostel and told me a lot about Melbourne. There was still a lot of smoke from the bushfires surrounding the high buildings of Melbourne. The weather was about +25C and not as humid as in Thailand, perfect! The driver also told me that last week they had measured the highest temperatures in Melbourne ever, +47C, and many of the animals, plants and trees had died because of the heat. It was the hottest day in Melbourne history, same kinds of temperatures were measured the last time in 1939! French guy in my hostel told me that his flipflops had burned in the asphalt and the wind had felt like a hundred of hairdryers had blown on you!

My first impression of Melbourne is really good. I saw some great shoe shops on the way over! Everybody’s been really friendly and helpful as well. I also like the multiculturalism, every third person speaks other than English as their mother tongue and almost 40% have been born overseas or have parents from another country. The weather is perfect. It also seems like there’s so much to do here. Western Union sorted out my money issues as well.

On Saturday I just slept and rested. I also took a sleeping pill bought in Thailand and slept like a baby for 24 hours, although there are 9 others staying in the same room and people come and go and there is a lot of noise. When I woke up I went for a run to the park. There are lots of nice parks everywhere and trees surrounding almost all the streets. The architecture reminds me of big European cities. People have been amazingly nice and helpful. If you open a map on a street there is always someone willing to help you out. Everybody’s always chatting to you eg. in the elevators and trams and everywhere which felt strange at first after living in Finland where nobody talks to strangers :D After Thailand it also feels great to speak and hear English…