tirsdag 15. november 2011

The adventure is coming to an end



Well yeah again, it's been a while since the last update, but, a lot of stuff to do. And I guess it might be the last update, since I leave in five days *sob*. This time there's some pictures from the Nan Tien Buddhist Temple in Wollongong. And it's one of the largest Buddhist temples in the southern hemisphere (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nan_Tien_Temple)


Fishies in the pond!

And cool statues on the lawn



So, this is the entrance to a small shrine.


Quite beautiful in the gardens


This is the entrance to the main shrine


A shrine for incense


A huge bell you could ring and make thanks for what you are grateful for.

Can't quite remember what I gave thanks for, but I guess it was for meeting all these cool people down here :)

Going to miss campus down here, this is what you might see right outside your bedroom door.


There is also a planetarium real close to the campus, so we went there one day
and played around with different stuff. Also saw a Liquid Nitrogen show, quite cool!
Poured nitrogen a plant, easy to shatter afterwards!

The coolest thing there however was the planetarium, looks like a doomsday device!








Surfin USA... I mean Fairy Meadow Beach!

 So, finally some proof that I've actually been surfing!

 Pretty determined to get this done.


I can't for the life of me get past the fist waves. I suck.
However another day I managed to get up on my knees, 
for about 0.5 seconds! Great success!



Since it was getting close to the end of the semester. The campus hosted a formal dinner night. However this was expensive so we hosted our own formal dinner with the famous chef Antonio!

And assistant chef Allison, looks a bit afraid of what we're gonna eat!

Herroh!

It was the one of the most delicious meals I've ever had! And I'm not that fond of squid!

Yummy!


 More food!

 Since there is a surplus of Americans here they hosted a thanksgiving dinner for us. It was fucking amazing!

 Yeah, we gathered all of the people in our group for this, was an evening of great enjoyment.

One idea that came up was that each person got an envelope with their name on.
Other people could then write something about that person an d put it in the corresponding envelope.
It was great, when I read my notes I cried :'(

Some of the highlights from this:
"I'm going to miss you more than the desert miss the rain"
"You're like a ray of sunshine in a dark evil world"
Oh yeah and "You stud muffin you" That cracked me up xD
And so many more, but they're a bit long to recite here in whole. But, damn it, I cried.

After this great night, I've been occupied with studying for my exams, and at the time of writing I'm all done!  Of course, I should have read more, but we'll see how it goes. I went and got my PADI Open Water Certification instead of reading one weekend. It was great, so I'm now a Certified Scuba Diver, so much fun! Have to return to the Great Barrier Reef sometime, damn it! Oh yeah, we also finally had a bbq where we had Kangaroo steak, it was awesome!

We tried to get a picture with everyone, sadly all couldn't come. So you are with us in spirit (or on paper) at least :)


We've had so much fun down here, I can't believe it's almost over. The last few days have been spent saying goodbye to people down here. It's sad, some of these people I might never see again :(

So what remains to be done down here then? Well, Sydney again for some last minute sightseeing and souvenirs. And still a few more goodbyes over the coming five days until I leave on Sunday while trying to soak up as much sun as possible. It's about 30degrees here these days! Damn you all that are staying here longer, so so jealous! Hope you all get the mother of all sunburns :)

I'm gonna miss you all dearly, and I hope to see you all again! Now, off to more BBQ and Sun!










tirsdag 4. oktober 2011

Recess, Surfing, New Zealand

 So yeah, sorry for the long wait, but it hasn't really happened that much. But now, we've had a recess and some days with good weather etc, so stuff get done. Specifically, what I did was going to New Zealand, but we'll get to that later on. First out is the picture below of me in the all so sexy wetsuit. Ladies.. control yourselves! (I suck at surfing btw.)


Ahhh yeah!
 Land a hoy!

Anyhow, we also went to a fair one weekend and I found this awesome gadget aka a sixtant, but
it was like ehr.. 350$, or 450$ a bit too expensive. but none the less really cool!


During the first day of the recess me and some friends rented a car and went to New Castle a three hour drive something from Wollongong. We just stayed there for one night, but it was worth it, beautiful nature, and a cool town! Below is some of the stuff we saw.



 Of course, since we are hardcore tourists we risk life and limbs to see cool stuff, so here goes!

 The causeway out to some sort of contraption.

 The lighthouse in New Castle seen from the causeway

 The lighthouse seen from the beach

The beach, or at least a part of it.

The beach was quite nice, to bad it was too cold to go for a swim.

The waves hit pretty hard out at the end of the causeway!

 
Again, the lighthouse seen from far far away.


 We found some secluded really beautiful and dangerous places, but, worth it!
 

 Me and my partners in crime! Oh and thanks to Reto for taking the picture!

 Be careful!

 The view was quite nice!





What is that?

Chilling out at the beach, eating lunch, that is, cookies!



What's a trip without the mandatory pose picture?

Oh yeah, we also stumbled upon a old radars tation/gun emplacement. Looks inviting?
Enter for pain, think I'll pass. Quite creepy, and it was pretty much pitch black in there.
Hah, found this book in the bookshelf at the hostel. Quite random to find a Norwegian book on the other side of the world!
I also got to drive on the left side of the road for some minutes. Everything went better than expected until I was gonna park. Too close to the curb, scratched the rims :p It was an automatic so didn't really need to worry about shifting gear. But, the wipers and blinkers is opposite to what they are back home,so at a junction I'm trying to signal I want to go left, well, what happens? I turn on the windshield wipers, feel like a proper smart ass xD



So this brings us to New Zealand, this was the first that met me when I landed. Some art from the native people of NZ the Mäori people.
 


Below is some random photos from NZ, it's quite beautiful there!






 A lot of the beaches along the east coast are all black because of some mineral in the earth. Quite cool, and quite hot during a nice summers day! Scolding hot in fact.

 


 Screw Area 51 or Roswell, the aliens are in NZ!


I wish I could go out for a walk on the skies :)


 Sydney from the air.
 New Zealand was beautiful and I would encourage everyone to go there. But stay for more than 4-5 days. There is so much to see, I only stayed in one town, but traveled around a bit in the nearby area. The nature is like the Scottish highland some places, or like back home in Norway. Or quite Lord of the Ringsish! I was supposed to go and see The Shire, but since they are starting the filming of The Hobbit there this week or something along those lines, everything was booked, so no luck :\




 I finally caved in and bought a new Ipod, that is, I managed to destroy my old one. So I had to get a new one. So I got a Ipod Touch and installed running apps and whatnot. As you can see, that worked out very well. According to this, we spent 46 minutes running in "circles" on the lawn outside campus East. Instead of actually running the 6-7km to another beach and back again. Guess I have to give it another go and see if the GPS will behave properly.
 


So yeah, that is it for now. Further on, basically, it's just exams and stuff. But I will try to get my scuba license still. Hope it turns out alright. I guess that's it for now, can't really say I got anything else to write about. It's only like 6-7 weeks left of my stay here, It's going to be good to get home, but I would so much have like to stay here over new year, new years eve at Sydney is supposed to be fucking awesome! But, return ticket already booked, starting to run low on cash, might get a job, etc.
Anyhow, have to go to uni early tomorrow, night!