Beaches and procrastination

Every student knows that tendency, when they are supposed to do something academic, they find tons of other things to do. Since springbreak was a blissful holiday away from all things coming with a deadline, I now have a load of groupwork, presentations, articles to read etc. so naturally I am now writing this blog.

After being away it was nice again to have dinner with all the people in the house and I realize that once I'm back I will miss coming back to such a full house. On Tuesday we celebrated Ruben' s 24th birthday picknickstyle on the floor, because there was not enough space on the couches. When he went off with his friends to go out, we stayed chatting with the remaining housemates. On wednesday I took of in my businessdress, but since our team didn't get a turn to present I will have to dress up again coming Wednesday.

Thursday after class Lisianne and I decided to check out the big shopping centre in Bondi Junction, which is known to be so huge you get lost (since the both of us seem to lack the intuition to find the right direction this is not too hard though). In the evening we went to the Worldbar in Kings Cross where they have Indie night. I fell in love with the place where dentistlamps light up the dozens of teapots on the walls in which they serve cocktails and the jeans on the wall. Not to mention hearing Kings of Leon and Franz Ferdinand while going out.




On Friday we had another birthday from Justine and we had been given the task to all bring food. Therefore we went to the house of some other friends to bake pancakes because we lack proper pans while they were making quiche, salad and other jummy things we weren't allowed to eat yet. With rumbling stomachs we hurried to our house and spend the night eating delicousness in her garden. In the end there were chocholate muffings, apple pie and cranberry crumble all made by Justine and it was a pitty we all had to stop eating because our bellies were practically exploding from our foodbabies. We played hilarious games involving the imitations of whales and the most hilarious bunny I have ever seen thanks to Nano. We ended up literally running home in the middle of the night.

The next morning we woke up early so we could go to Manly, but it was cloudier than expected so instead another day of procrastination began. Luckily yesterday the weather was amazing and we took the beautiful ferry trip to the beach up North. The strong current and big number of surfers prevented us from taking a dip in the water, but nonetheless we enjoyed the sun on our skin and picknicked on the beach.


Now all my postcards have been written, this blog updated and I'm running out of excuses and my communications presentation is giving me an evil eye...
Lets look up snorkling trips at the great barrier reef!

Back to reality

And here I am ten days later back at uni, trying to get myself to work on my PR campaign for Facebook (instead I am 'doing research' on Facebook).


My holiday with the promising tag springbreak ended up not completely as expected, but I still had a blast. With Lisa and Karina I took a train to Brisbane, where we arrived at 6.30 in the morning. After dropping our bags at the hostel we decided to explore the city. Queensland calls itself the sunshine state, but ironically it was very warm, but most certainly cloudy there while I am pretty sure we left sunshine in Sydney. The city was still asleep but even later in the afternoon there were not that many people around. I concluded Brisbane, despite its pretty parks and buildings, felt like a city without a soul. We walked around the Brisbane river, saw the story bridge, went to the museum (to discover that every Australian artist went to Paris at some point in their lives), walked some more along the river and Brisbane's CBD. As someone who lists ' sleeping in' as a hobby I all of a sudden discovered that a day had a lot of hours and in one day we walked through the entire of Brisbane. After a quick bite at the hostel we went for a drink at the groove train in Brisbane's squire and discovered that Brisbane is a lot prettier by night. On the squire stood the festival terrain where the last events of the Brisbane festival were taking place. We were almost falling asleep after such a long day but we waited for the Dj event to start and I'm glad we did. The DJ was amazing but more astonishing was the inside of the festival tent which felt like I walked into a circus.


The next day we went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and to my delight it was actually sunny. Iguanas and bush turkeys randomly rand around in the park I saw countless of koalas, although my favourite was the kindergarten with mummies and their joey's (koalababies). In another part of the park we could feed kangaroos in the large open area where they just hopped around. I also fed an emu, but these big birds are quite scary to feed in comparions to the sweet skippies. After a Sunday Roast at the pub we went to stroll next to the river again with some ice cream and decided that the story bridge did look nice lit up at night and maybe wasn't just a cheap knock off of the Harbour Bridge.


The next morning my alarm went at 4.45 because we thought the only bus to Surfer's Paradise was at 7. This turned out not to be true, but it did mean we were already enjoying the beach and clear blue skies at eight in the morning. Don't let the name fool you, Sufer's paradise is a beach that seems under continuous construction with skyscrapers looming over you. Still, sandy beaches and a nice swim in the sea are hard to spoil (even though I managed to burn my eyelids (!) and looked as if wearing pink eyeshadow for the rest of the week. That night we went out to Vanity, which meant waitresses in lingerie, but also the coolest bathroom I have ever seen. Lollies, perfume bottles, gold and chandeliers everywhere. I also surprisingly met some friends who I thought wouldn't arrive till later and met the brother in law of a friend of mine back in Rotterdam. Something about the world is small?

After just a day in Surfer's we moved on to Byron Bay which can best be described as hippy town. May Karma be with you, peace out and safe the environment can be read everywhere and apparently they forced out MacDonalds out of their town.The beach is amazing, but we were only able to enjoy it the second day we were there. At the beach I spotted a whale in the distance and at that moment I felt truly on holiday.In the afternoon I went surfing for the first time and I surprisingly turned out to be a decent surfer. I was able to stand up most of the time and there was even a dolphin swimming close to us. Byron Bay's nightlife is not the greatest with just a few bars, most of them the wet t-shirt competition kind (I swear, you'd think some of those blokes have never seen boobs before). The third day it sadly was cloudy again so we just strolled around the shop, met some other friends in the supermarket and had dinner together. We ended up building our own party in an almost deserted bar with quite some people we met in the hostel. We went surfing a second time with some higher waves this time. I had a blast once more and felt I found a sport a quite enjoyed, with a typical instructor with long blonde hair yelling 'Feel the wave Holland!'. In the afternoon we walked to the famous lighthouse and stood at the most easterly point of Australia and saw a lot of whales. With the wind in my hair staring over the enormous ocean with grey fins bobbing up and down I felt genuinly on top of the world.

Unfortunately that was about it as we ended with a massive anti-climax. The day and a half we were to spend in Coffs Harbour I can only say I saw my first James Bond. We only had rain and the only thing I saw of the banana worshipping town is the big banana when we rode by it in the bus and the cafe we ate chocolate cake to cheer ourselves up.

In the end it was not the sunshine filled break I had hoped for but I still enjoyed my first trip outside of Sydney. I still can't wait for the day I can go to Bondi in bikini, which should come soon. Of course there are a lot of good days but the weather behaves a bit like a moody teenager. Sometimes you feel as if you are in the Bahamas while the next day I feel as if I'm back in the Netherlands. Three months have passed in a blur and Springbreak is oficially over. Four weeks of class left and still so much to discover!

At last

As I sit here tired from a day's school after a night of cocktails and girly chatter I happily realize that I now have holidays. Tomorrow I will board the train to Brisbane what will hopefully be the start of days filled with beaches, surfing, strolling around and relaxing. Four different places, five different hostels, I can't wait to explore what lies beyond the boundaries of Sydney.

When holiday is near you discover that you desperately need a break so the last couple of days I have been a bit pissed off with uni work and longing for today. Besides that I enjoyed myself immensely.


Saturday I went to the Brazilian festival at Darling Harbour, which honestly was a bit of a disappointment. All in all it was just a couple of stalls with Brazilian food and some music, but I had fun nonetheless. I went with housemates and saw some other friends and watched Sambadancing while eating pastel. Once again I was horrified by the eating of little chickenhearts and felt a twang of nostalgia as I saw all the cans of Guarana around me. I realized I am already looking forward to go back to Brazil.

The next Sunday I went to Centennial park with Lisianne and in the evening I went to a restaurant with my housemates to eat five dollar steak and chicken and surprisingly the food was amazing.





Monday and Tuesday was mostly filled with trying to conquer my assignments, ending up just hanging around with people on campus. The last couple of days campus has been swarming with coloured shirts convincing you to vote for them for the studentcouncil election. Entertaining names as BOOM, PUNCH and ACTIVATE kept harassing you all the way to the poling booth. As I have some friends in BOOM I walked around with a sticker claiming : I tick ticked BOOM which saved me from some aspiring student politicions. Tuesday was also the first day our American housemate Chris cooked for us, which was delicious, but I guess it had to be as he just graduated as a cheff.

Yesterday I went to a a house of two friends in Leichhardt for a girly night full of cocktails, brownies and girly talk. I crashed on the surprisingly comfortable couch and now I am trying to convince myself to finish my PR assignment, for which I have to give a presentation right after I come back. *sigh* I much prefer imagining myself on that beach already.

Jazz, waves and breakfast at Tifanny's

This Wednesday I had to linger after class as I had signed up for participating in a research study, neccesary to obtain a percentage in my grade (it's not for a bonus as it is at Erasmus). In the end I spend an hour (!) instead of the half hour it was supposed to take on a survey of 33 (!!) pages. The first page was the same question, but then askes with different answering scales or option.

I left the room completely cranky, but the clouds around my head quickly dissapeared as I got to Manning bar where there was a Jazz evening. Some friends of mine and other students were playing on stage while I was enjoying a free drink with some other friends. Afterwards I headed home to cook with Lisianne.

That evening I also started booking my trip with Pedro for when he arrives in November. We will go camping in Airlie beach close to the Whitsunday Islands and the great barrier reef, then we will head to Brisbane to catch the bus to Noosa. Then we will head to Melbourne to go camping again in Hobart, Tasmania. I am really looking forward to it and I can't wait to be in that little tent next to the blueest of seas.

Thursday I went to Paddy's market with Lisianne to go shopping. It basically is a big hall full of stalls and you sometimes wonder whether you made a mistake and walked down the same lane again, because half the stores sell the same souvenirs. I did find a nice hat so I can prevent a lovely red line forming on the top of my head. They also sell a lot of veggies and fruits for very low prices and while we were looking around we were entertained by a marketlady shouting 'Lady Gaga' and 'Ella Ella umbereeeeellaaaaa'.

After eating dinner with the four of us with our just bought veggies I went to watch the last revue of the season: Cadavatar, the medicine revue. As a friend perfectly summarized, the revue showcased all possible talent except comedy. The dances were amazing full off stunts which wouldn't be misplaced on a gymnastics competition. I do believe that to be a medstudent hear they ask you two things 1: can you do a backflip? 2: Please lift up your shirt. Half of the show was filled with barechested medstudents and girls in lingerie. The puns towards avatar were amusing and this revue actually had a story, but I didn't really have to laugh about any of the sketches. I didn't mind though, watching people summersault over each other is quite entertaining.

Today I walked from Bondi to Coogee beach with Lisianne and we couldn't have picked a better day. The sun was shining and the waves were enormous. It took us three hours because of all the stops and it made me realize how impressive this country actually is.
I just came back from a friend's place where we watched breakfast at Tiffany's. Now it's time for bed and I have moon river stuck in my head.

Sexy Hippo

That Saturday I went to a 21st birthday of an Australian friend from the revue. The theme was cartoons and she literally was the belle of the ball, beast included. It was amazing to see how much effort actually gets put into a dress-up party. I saw buzz lightyears and Woody's, Little red riding hoods, Ariels, Smurfs,Snowwhites and a lot of powerpuffgirls. I was dressed as Alice in Wonderland, but not exactly a spectaclar version as I only have limited resources for dressing up here. It was a lot of fun with dancing some of the revue again and listening to speeches, which is a custom for major birthdays here.


Sunday I spend the entire day picknicking in the park with Lisianne and on Monday I just did some homework (meaning browsing the internet to find lovely places to go to in November) and read a book in the garden.

On Tuesday it was raining as if I was home so I spend my five hours in between working on a advertising schedule for Hungry Jacks so mostly cursing the computer for refusing to save data and the people who gave the assignment as they nicely mentioned percentage targets, just not in which of the four different categories they wanted to achieve that target. When I got home I almost immediately left again to go to a Thai restaurant for a birthday, where we ended up discussing the fact that a Hippo was Harms favourite animal and I learned how to say sexy Hippo in Japanese and Swedish. Afterwards we went tot The Establishment where they were playing Salsa music. It is a lot chique than Cantinero, but still the atmosphere made me feel like I was back in Lappa, Rio de Janeiro. Trying to teach Harm some moves was a lot of fun and I feel like a kid in a candystore when I see how spectacular some people can dance.

The cutest teddybear

Oh dear, I have neglected my blog again. I needed my mum to remind me I hadn't written anything in a while.

The truth is, I also haven't done that much in the last week. I spent Monday and Sunday studying, running errands and making assignments. Sunday we had another fun dinner with the house (French Laura cooked this time)and Monday I had dinner with the people that were planning to go to the great barrier reef for springbreak.
Tuesday was a long day of class after which I went home to have dinner with the rest of the people in the house before I would go back to the uni, but this time for the coolest kind of party: A silent disco.


I had been to one before during a liberation festival in Rotterdam. I already loved it then and this one was even so much cooler. Two dj's were competing to have as many headphonewearing dancers switched to their channel. The wonderful thing is that you can decide how loud you want the music, which music you want to listen to or just take of the headphones when you want to talk to someone. You see people dancing to different rhythms and you would quickly change the channel when people started shouting because of an awesome song that came on. The finale of the party was everyone that was left in one big slow motion cancan line on the tunes of 'New York'.

Wednesday and Thursday were filled with more classes, reading an amazing book outside in the sun and writing a news release for a mark on a made up company with Hugh Jackman as a spokesperson (later a Norwegian girl I also have another class with was shocked when I told her he was an actor, she had no clue who he was and had just thought he was a member of the made up company HabbaDabbaDo).



Friday I started with a groupmeeting and then continued to a birthdaybreakfast in a chocolate cafe. One chocolate frappe and an amazing but oh so filling brownie later, we went to Manly beach. The ferry ride between the bridge and the operahouse was once again amazing. Unfortunately the weather wasn't very good and it even started raining a bit (it is not always sunny here) but Alexandre the birthdaygirl was determined to go swimming. I went home for dinner and actually we had a party from our French housemate who had her birthday on Wednesday (other alternatives were going out with Alexandra or the sciencerevue) but we ended up just talking, too lazy to go anywhere. In the end some friends dropped by as they lost interest in the bars in Oxford street.

When they left around two I went to my room to skype with Pedro. In Australian time it was our first anniversary and I was looking forward to see him and unpack the parcel that had been burning a hole in my bag since I picked it up from the post office that morning. One year has flown by while so much has happened. As far as I'm concerned there will be many more years, but now I do have the cutest Teddy to hug while I wait for him to arrive in Sydney.

Banana worshipping

On Saturday I went to Lisa's house to plan our Springbreak. Together with her and Karina (both German) I will go backpacking along the gold coast of Australia. We will go by train from Sydney to Brisbane during the night. We will arive at six in the morning on Saturday the 25th of September. We will stay there for two days and then hop onto the greyhound bus to Surfer's Paradise. After one night there we will go to Byron Bay to surf and chill on the beach some more. I am quite excited, since every Australian I talk to tells me to go to Byron Bay. After four days in Byron Bay we will go for two days to Coff's Harbour, where apparently they have a massive banana. Four places, five different hostels, one big eastpack I for some reason used as a freshman and heaps of fun. I can't wait.

With my laptop in the garden soaking up sunlight watching little lizzards shoot by, studying doesn't feel so bad, but still I can't wait to pack my bags and discover what lies outside the boundaries of this city.