Patriotism overseas

This more or less sums up the day

So Constitution Day came and went. It was the second time in my life I didn't celebrate May 17th at home (the other being in Seattle in '06). 

The day started out quite chilly, with the temperature hovering around 12-13 degrees, which is rather cold here. There were also some signs of rain, but this luckily never came to be. The temperature climbed quickly though and by the time everyone was gathered it was easily over 20C.

We met up outside the Old Government House on QUTs Gardens Point campus, right in the middle of the city. After a little while there was quite a few people there, most dressed in either suits, dresses, bunad, draped in a flag or, as me, with something Norwegian on them.

Definitely a good turnout

The parade, with a 4 man band, started marching at around 10:30 and we did a good lap around the city center before heading back to the campus. We even had a police escort to help us close down the streets and probably to calm the infuriated locals who were wondering who these crazy fucking guys were, marching down the street singing furiously.

Yes, we thought Pacific Blue as well

After the parade we had the national anthem before we, as good Norwegians, went for a beer...

...and promptly claimed the table for Norway! If your flag's on it, it's yours!

Altogether a very nice day, even if it finished with me in class and doing schoolwork. No rest for the weary I suppose... 

Economic troubles

Did you know some ATM's use Microsoft software? Yeah, me neither.

Did you know some ATM's use fucking Internet Explorer to handle our personal information and banking records? Fuck no, you didn't!

So imagine my surprise when I went to get some cash at an ATM in Queen Street and got this on the screen:

In case you can't see it, this is basically what it said: "Internet Explorer Script Error" which basically translates into "Bill Gates just stole your Visa card!"

I was understandably a litte... angry at this (Sorry about the swearing Customer Service lady), but Are, Hans-Petter and Daniel couldn't stop laughing. The bastards... At least I got a free Hungry Jack's meal out of it...

First thing I did when I got back home was call home and close my card, just in case someone got a hold of it. The following day I went back to the bank and, after bullshitting my way through the layers of bureaucracy, I got my card back. However, after talking for an hour or so with my bank, DnBNOR, they told me that the only way to unlock my card would be to 1) Visit my nearest DnB bank (which is 15.000km away) or 2) Visit the Norwegian embassy to verify my identity for the bank, so they can be sure I am who I am. Yeah...


So now I'm using my friends as personal ATM's while waiting for a new card to arrive from the other side of the globe. 

Observations

Some random observations from the last days (read: weeks)

-I no longer look left before crossing the road. I now look the proper way for a country driving on the left side: right, left, right, cross.

-ANZAC Day is a pretty big thing. There are veterans everywhere, most with medals covering most of their chest. Talking to them on the bus is humbling, yet awesome. Thank you.

-School here is, for some reason, more relaxed, yet more stressful at the same time. I think it’s because I’m in this strange Upside-Down World. Think Alice in Wonderland, without the hats and with a funny accent.

-Iron Man 2 is less than a week away!!!

-I am playing more football (soccer) than I have in years, and I’m loving it.

-I still can’t get over the fact that the two warmest months in my life have been February and March. It’s now “fall” here and I’m still rocking shorts and a t-shirt. Awesome? Yes. Very.

Exams?! Already?

So, yeah. Three weeks since last post. I've sort of been busy. Quite busy in fact. For reasons I can't quite fathom, I've started with exams already. In week 6. Out of 13.

Officially I suppose it's a "mid-term" exam, but there isn't a final exam in this unit, so 40% of my grade is in this one one-hour exam. Yeah...

Anyways, I'm getting more and more accustomed to life Down Under. I now automatically respond with "No worries" whenever someone asks me "How are you, mate?", which is all the time! I had also gotten to the point that I, without thinking, knew exactly what time it was back in Norway. Then daylight savings came along and fucked it all up. As only some states down here uses it, Queensland not being one of them, the time difference back home changed by one hour. You'd think it wouldn't be a problem, but it is. I suddenly find myself staring blanky at the ceiling, doing simple 1st grade math. It only takes a second or two, but it is still really annoying.

Also, we had St. Patricks day down here. That's all I'm going to say about that. Children read this site you know...

Well, my Hour of Horror starts in not that long, so I'd better get back to reading. Vacation tomorrow Snorre, vacation tomorrow...

Getting into routine

It's been near two weeks since my last entry here. Have no fear, I'm not dead (although Australia is still trying. It is always trying...), I've just gotten myself back into somewhat of a routine.

So the days are passing somwhat regurarly now. The fact that I've only got class three times a week makes my weeks seem really, really short (and let's be honest here, they really, really are) Having Thursday - Sundag off is perhaps a little much I think, but I'm guessing when the work starts loading up for real, they'll be a gift from the gods. Not the the profs aren't trying to overload us with work already, I just have a feeling it'll get worse before it gets better...

So my routine has gotten quite good to be honest. Of course, classes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but besides that I'm managing to hit the gym every other day. The goal is 4-5 times a week, but looks like it'll be more like 3-4 times, plus a jog from my house once a week. It really helps to take my mind of off school. Plus, the TV's there are the only place I get to watch football (no, it's called football, not soccer, you bloody yanks!)

H-P has also bought a football now and, seeing as how I managed to remember to bring my cletes down here, I'll probably get to play som in not too long as well. I've also been invited to play indoor hockey (innebandy for nordmenn) by a Norwegian I met down here, so we'll see how that goes. Perhaps I'll return to Norway fit. Won't that be a surprise!

By the way, that Norwegian is someone I met on a pub-crawl we had here in town last Thursday. The student group NorSK, QUT's biggest and perhaps Brisbane's biggest, arranged a massive pub crawl. I think there were more than 500 people in on it. To say the places got packed is an understatement... And, because I have no shame, here are some photos from that night. There are photos from after 02:00, but since my family reads this crap, I will refrain from posting those.

Pure awesomeness (oh, and Sweden)

Filip, H-P, Are. All drunk. Norway drunk.

To beer or not to beer...?

"Ooooh, girls just wanna have fuh-un! Oooooh, girls just wanna have fun!"

Back to school (for real this time)

I am now officially off of my long vacation. My last final was December 3^rd and, for me, two and a half months is way too long for a break. Most of my Norwegian class mates are almost halfway through their semester at this point, for crying out loud!

So, back to school then and I’m actually quite excited. I’m finished with the first week at this point and while some of it seems like it’s going to be a lot of work, it seems like it’s going to be rather entertaining. My schedule is quite weird though, although I have no right to complain. It goes as follows:

Monday: Human Resources Issues & Strategy from 18:00 to 21:00

The teacher is a very eccentric man, who sort of resembles Robin Williams, just without the ridiculous amount of body hair that Mr. Williams possesses.

Tuesday: Negotiation and Conflict Resolution from 15:00 to 16:00 and tutoring from 19:00 to 21:00

The teacher here was, to my surprise, an American from Boston. Very nice lady, and her class was easy to follow except for the fact that she’s so nervous it looks like she’s going to drop a brick at any moment.

Wednesday: Management from 09:00 to 12:00 and Global Business from 12:00 to 15:00

So this is that one day. From being spoiled with Monday and Tuesday, this is the day that will make me suffer. Both are quite hard when it comes to workload and are a lot less personal than the other two classes. Management is lectured in the biggest classroom I’ve ever been in. It resembles a theater hall more than a classroom to be honest. And Global Business has (and I’m not making this up) 970 student enrolled. Over 2% of all QUT students are in this one class. We’re not all in the same lecture, mind you, but still, holy crap!

Thursday to Sunday: Me time!

So all in all a rather decent schedule if I may say so myself.

In addition, because I’m feeling generous today, here are some pictures from right outside the Business Faculty and of other places in Brisbane, including my house.

From the door at the Faculty of Business, looking out over the botanical gardens

The Casino, which is along my route to school (as in, on the way to the bus stop)

My house!

Brisbane at night

Road trip!

After more or less a week here in the Down Underverse I am getting slightly more accustomed to the heat. Mind you, I will still lunge for the nearest air condition like a lion for a gazelle (or a Texan for a burger), but when I’m not in earshot of the fabulous, divine hum of that most fantastic of machines I actually don’t mind the heat all that much. That said it is still freakishly hot down here and, according to a weird, yet entertaining, cab driver named Dave; it will stay this way for at least another month before we’ll see a noticeable drop in temperature.

So since last update, which unfortunately was in Norwegian (I still can’t figure out how that happened. Trust me, the ones responsible are being hunted down as I speak), I have gotten myself some accommodations down here. Somehow, though, I managed to pick the house that has two Swedes, a German and another Norwegian. So much for being international… If I live in Brisbane, an Australian city, is it too much to ask for some freaking Australians?! Oh well, I guess it could’ve been worse. There could’ve been Danes here! Or, gods forbid, Vålerenga supporters…

So what has been going on since then? Well we got it in our heads that it’d be a good idea to go to IKEA. However, IKEA is a good 30 kilometers south of the city and, conveniently, there are no buses there. So in our infinite wisdom we rented a car. What is special about this you might think? Well, for the unenlightened Australia has decided to follow Britain’s example and rebel against logic and reason by driving on the wrong side of the road (when it comes to driving it is right/wrong, not right/left). So off we went on our little adventure, with me behind the wheel for some reason. Although never having driven on the wrong side of the road before, I found it to be not that challenging as I had been expecting and only half as painful. As in losing one arm is less painful than losing two.

Our car!

Are tries desperately to cling on to some sense of reality...

As you might have concluded we survived our little excursion and even got some decidedly not-Swedish meatballs at the store. So now we had a car for two days. What to do? The natural answer was of course “Go to the beach.” And so we did. We drove north along the M1/M3 motorway till I saw signs towards a smallish town with the almost-to-good-to-be-true name of Mooloolaba. Being way too geeky for my own good and a frequent visitor of the internetz I thought to myself that a town with “lol” in it must be a good place and decided that was where we were headed. It turned out to have a wonderful beach and we promptly sat down and got sunburned. An hour or two later we decided that we were properly roasted, so we grabbed something to drink then headed back to Brisbane.

Unfortunately my place still haven’t gotten its internet connection up and running yet, so I have to head into the city to go online. This, for example, is being posted from a Starbucks in the financial district. So updates will be sparse for now, but it’ll be here sooner or later (I hope…)