Australian art

No, this topic did not occupy us all day, but we did learn about it at school today. Dr Laini Burton at South Bank campus talked about Australian art, and it was rather interesting. We also finally managed to get a bus card today (yeah, I know...). So now we can just beep our way around the city and not have to count change anymore. Beeping is also more fun. Yay. I had a craving for chicken and Hanne for her beef and potatoes, so we went an extra trip to Garden City to get food at the food court. I did some grocerieshopping and I bought some more socks (sorry mum!). We went back home, intending to do some studying, and ended up on the sofa watching South Park. Hanne slept for two hours while I started reading Zigzag street, the author of which we will meet tomorrow in West End. We watched more tv, ate dinner (rice and veggies and something we think we identified as pieces of tofu), and watched more tv (The Triangle). We also managed to squeeze in some hotelbrowsing and ordered hotel for our trip to Sydney. That's about it I think. Goodnight and sleep tight!

It's fun how little things can make you happy.

Today has been a beautiful day. Sun has been shining, I've been enjoying myself and actually getting some work done as well! Went for one walk in the morning, and one later in the day, and I keep bumping into interesting people. We don't necessarily talk, but we smile and wink at each other, we make funny gestures about people's kids or weird who's-going-to-move-to-the-right-to-get-out-of-the-way-dances.. Also, there are birds everywhere here and people in gardens or out walking their dogs.. (This is rambling, isn't it? Yeah, whatever... it's happy rambling ;)

As I was having fun at the shop today, another amusing thing occurs. I start reading the labels on vitamin water bottles.. I don't normally fall for that kind of crap (vitamins in water), but this one had such a cute label. *I'm a sucker for these things, and ended up buying a taste that I normally wouldn't, just to get the label..*

"If you woke up tired, you probably need more sleep. If you woke up drooling at your desk, you probably need a new job. If you woke up with a headache, on a ferris wheel, wearing a toga, you probably need answers . Not to mention this product. It's got b and c vitamins to help you recover and feel refreshed - kinda like in those old norsca® soap commersials. And if you're like our boss, Mike, and woke up married to an Elvis impersonator, you probably need a lawyer."

Poor Mike.. :) In between having fun at the shops and walking around though, I did some schoolwork :) Read a novel by Nick Earls called Zig Zag Street. A must-have for any lunatic that's just been trashed by their girlfriend ;) We're meeting the author on Tuesday night, so I'm thinking about buying the book and getting it signed for my future (never going to happen) library.

As for Julie, I don't know what she's been doing today. She hung out our washing (thank you) and we both took it in later. Julie was hardly finished hanging stuff on the clothes line before the rest had started drying. (30 degrees here today, a little windy as well, perfect...). We played Cluedo 5 or 6 times and tried to understand a couple of other weird games. We had chicken for dinner, which was good. And we're into our third box of honey :P

Just asked Julie what she's been up to: She has worked on Multiculturalism (for the minor assignment), spent time in the sun, watched TV, and generally been relaxing I believe :) Life in Australia isn't that bad ;P

Spending money (27.09.2008)

It's me again. Julie can't be arsed to write, so it is I, Hanne, that gets to manipulate the keys (and thus the storyline).. Not bad at all :) Yesterday (I realize we've started updating every other day now, not good.) Well, yesterday.. We had breakfast at the mall (I can't stop eating their fantastic beef.. wow.. ), and then we did some shopping :) As people back home are marrying and engaging faster than I can plan ahead, I had to get a dress, right? (Who cares if it's winter back home?) Julie stuffed me into a store, learned me size and started shuffling dresses into my hands. Quite fun :) Some dresses were cute, some did not fit, some were plain ugly and all of the cost too much :P But I ended up with two of them anyway, one for the wedding... (maybe...?) and one for everydays (like I wear dresses on everyday occasions back home... )
I know.. it's orange... but I like it :) And, black is boring anyway right? And money is there to be spent right? :P

The spending of real money though, has not yet started... We walked into the Flight Centre, walked out to the ATM, walked in again, and walked out 1700 AUD poorer.. Each.

Julie with 3400 AUD in her hands... That's sixty-eight 50 AUD notes...

You know, when the highest note they have in Australia is the 50 note.. and you have to withdraw 1700 dollars.. that's an ugly amount of 50's if you ask me ;) But what did we do with the money? Did we make the saleswoman dance on the counter? Did we fly in penguins to do the rumba? Are we regretting this at all?

No. :D For 1700 AUD, we got return flights to Sydney for a weekend in October, return flights to New Zealand in December, and a package flight/hotel deal at Poppy's On the Lagoon. http://www.poppys.com.vu/ Now, for the observant reader.. if .no means a Norwegian site, then .vu means a site in........ Yes, quite correct! VANUATU! We are going for a week of relaxing paradise and enjoyment in the country (Yes, it is a country) of Vanuatu.. Can we get exited now, please? :D

Pictureblog :)

There are days where we forget to upload photo's, or days when we can't be bothered, days where we can't find our camera's (This applies to me much oftener than it applies to Julie). We are horrid people, we know. But what separates us from your everyday horrid people is that we make it up to you: we post the pictures:) (We just do it a bit late!)

So, these are non-before-posted pictures that we just had to share with the world :)

This cute little car literally lightens up our day every time we walk down the street. The thought of fitting my 6 ft 4 (195 cm) boyfriend in this vehicle is hilarious.. :D

I just had to snap a picture of whitey, (I made the Asians happy with the yellow one, now I have to please the rest of the world.. ) But I think its really cute :)

Julie wrote some days ago that we bought cheap games and that we played for an evening. More evenings (and days) have passed and Julie and I try out weird games we've never heard of before. This is because I bought a package with 101 games in it. (Quantity before quality obviously...) The picture displays Julie winning in Australian Monopoly (she's a brand-game kind of girl..). But! On the contrary to what this may seem like, we actually do leave the house! (errm, to get food and water and the occasional trip to school... :P)

One of (actually all) of the trees outside the cinema were crowed with these things. Small bugs (about 1 cm), but extremely cute.. I love these things :)

Since some of you might have a problem with weird white bugs, maybe an insect would be better? This cute little one swirled around us at school one day and we had a great conversation.

I love this flower :) (boy, do I seem happy today or what?). Generally, I have an inclination towards photographing flowers. I love flowers, vibrant colours, insane shapes, me likes :)

And Hanne continues being stupid.

Yeah, yesterday: Julie got up early, Hanne overslept. We both made school, Julie in good time, Hanne in no time :P We had a lecture on Ethics in Photojournalism and hurried to get dinner at Garden City (Beef and the world's greatest cheesy creamy baked potatoes.. Yummi!)

Today: Julie got up early and Hanne did too! But Julie went shopping and Hanne did work... (This is one lousy point for me at least, eh?). Julie bought a keyboard, a mouse (cause she has a shitty computer with a dysfunctional everything), a ring (bling!), and a cellphone. Go her! (For using tons of money... but, we're getting to it... I did as well..) I spent my day washing, cleaning and doing schoolwork (with the occasional episode of Criminal Minds). So how, do you ask, could Hanne have spent a lot of money just staying at home being a good girl? Hanne forgot to read fine print. Or, maybe it wasn't even fine print, maybe she's just stupid (and crazy, thus referring to herself in third person.) Anyways, I made a mistake and now my phone bill has increased with more than 400 %.

*don't kill me mom*

Hanne's frauding days are over!

You may or may not have heard that I've been impersonating my grandmother in order to use her credit card in Australia. Well, this situation has lead to a lot of funny (or scary) moments. I've had to fake my grandmother's signature (first time I wasn't even aware that I had to, so it was really bad... I just smiled... and it worked.. :P ). There has been a lot of fake signature since that last one.. Then another time I was talking with a salesperson for a freaking long time and told her my real name (duh..). It wasn't really a problem until I got to the register and wrote my signature.... A totally different name from what I had told her. *Think fast, think, fast, think faster* "Ehh.. yeah, you see... Hanne's my middle name!"... But it doesn't stop there.. :P

Last week, the driver was taking some pretty nasty turns on the bus. My bag fell down, my stuff all over the place... Thought I had everything, but when I got home, I saw my phone was missing.. Very well, called the bus company and stuff, said they had a few in that day and asked me to come look over the weekend. So, a lot of stress getting there, finally find it, and I remember I have forgotten my photo-ID. I'm thinking, no way am I going home again to get that thing... "Julie...?" "Wanna fake being me?"

So yeah, Julie had brought her photo-ID, so she could get a hold of the phone. Only, she didn't know my PIN and stuff, so... We had her fake not being able to speak English, so that I could translate for her.. Yeah right, anyway, she was brilliant at it :P But just think about it, a Norwegian girl not speaking English? Who cares.. it worked ;)

Anyway! School! We had a popular music lecture at South Bank today, with Dr. Scott Harrison. He was really fun and interesting :) He was on about iconic music and talking about a song called "Sounds of Then". Then he showed us this Youtube video with that song, and the artist was GANGgajang! (For those who have no clue here... We are doing homestay with the guitarist in that exact band :P)

After lectures we went to get food: Fish 'n Chips and Juicy Fruity Crêpes. Separately :P Then we went to Queen Street, Julie was shopping and I was in Happy Hanneland (read: discount bookstore). We have also changed our flights today. We will be leaving Brisbane 12th Dec for Malaysia, and then proceed as normal with our flight from Malaysia to Amsterdam the 21st. That means we get a week in Malaysia :) *is super exited*

We walked home, Julie was the one freezing for a change. I was listening to music, can't freeze when you listen to music >.<

Nathan Campus and unknown future

We managed to find a better bus this morning, and got to Nathan Campus for our lecture with Dr Peter Brown about sports in Australia. We had to hang out at the campus for like 4,5 hours while waiting for Hanne's appointment with a computerguy to fix the vpnclient for her linux. Apparently, he did not even want to touch that crap (naturally) nor know how to do it, so she still does not have internet. Haha! We're at school now, I've been doing research for my paper on multiculturalism in Australia and the other paper on children's literature, and Hanne's been surfing girly webpages and playing Tux (a penguin (linux) version of Super Mario). As of yet we do not know what to do today (hence the unknown future part), hopefully we'll go to Garden City again and get some food. Cheers mate!

School, shopping and playing games (22.09.08)

We went to school at Nathan Campus (after some difficulty with buses not showing up so we ended up hailing a taxi driven by an old man who did not mind 'helping damsels in distress'), had a writing workshop with Dr Leah Burns for 2h, did some librarying and took the bus to Garden City Interchange where there are a lot of buses, and a large shopping mall. We were starving, so naturally we got some yummy food, and ate. We went to Toys 'r' Us and bought cheap games, went home, and spent the evening playing games. We had a yummy dinner with Yasmin, Tom and Eve which Lisa made for us, and then we watched some TV. We were quite lazy.

Nearly Monday....

I almost forgot to write about Sunday! And now Sunday is almost over. We're handing in this thing tomorrow about what our Major Assignment is going to be about and stuff. Julie's been a good girl and me? Well, everyone can't be good at the same time.. :P

We were supposed to go to the library today and find out stuff, write the stuff and print the stuff (no printer at home), but when we saw the bus(es... 3 of them actually) would use 2 hours just to get to the library.. we kind of decided it wasn't worth it. We got food instead ;) And... ehh... Julie bought a knife... I am so not sleeping tonight...

Well, Julie is going to sleep and I have to stop writing here (I have school work to do anyway).. but seeing her now is just funney.. All drowzy and talking about the pretty lightning that was here today and how she spent her morning tanning her toes.

Sleepy Saturday

Today there's pretty much nothing to tell :P Julie got up rather early (and I would say, got to sleep rather early as well.. You normal people would say she has a normal sleeping rhythm..) I, on the other hand, stay up late and thus, get up late. Julie spent her time listening to audio books and we both did some school work when I woke up (I got up much later). As I said to Julie, (and this is nothing like what you psychos think): I work best when in bed ;)

As I wrote earlier, we haven't really done that much (and Julie has done more than me, I know :P ) but we have seen a lot of South Park and just been chilling out at home really. I have worn my floral dress for the first time, and just been jumping around feeling great :P

And that's about it.. Day's soon over (for Julie) and I will stay up a little longer (my poor head doesn't know it's getting up early tomorrow yet... Mwahaha! )

Have a nice day/night, wherever you are :)

Moreton Island (19.09.08)

Today we headed out early to the cultural forecourt at South Bank, where a bus was picking us all up to go whalewatching in Moreton Bay. We bus'ed up to Pinkenba north of Brisbane, and boarded the ferry to Tangalooma Resort, Moreton Island. It is not what yopu would call a ferry in Norway, it's more like a large catamaran passenger boat. It took about an hour to get there. Me and the people I was sitting with saw dolphins in the sea just before we arrived at the island. Just before we were about to disembark, the captain informed us that the whalewatching cruise had been cancelled because of incoming 'storms' or strong wind or something like that. We all knew that this could get interesting, as the ferry back left at 4pm, and we arrived around 11am. We disembarked, and walked on the pier to the island. It was very pretty, with a long beach, green water, forests and prettyness. There were pelicans and seagulls being fed on the beach from the pier; they looked really cool. We were met by a resortlady, and she and Anni were trying to organise some other activity for us. We went past an outdoor aquariumpoolthingy which apparently contained 'dangerous fish'. They looked nice to me, but I didn't stick my hand in to put it like that. We walked over to the cafe-area and sat down under some 'large tropical-style umbrellas'. We were served sandwiches, oranges, muffins and coke while waiting. The resort used to be a whaling station, where they slaughtered humpback whales. It stopped in the 1960s, when the stock was down to 500 whales and the laws were changed to save the whales. The whaling station is still there. The island was made a national park, and the area turned into a resort. There's a lot of activities to do there, like feeding dolphins, whalewatching, driving your own 4WD and cruise around in the sanddunes, helicopter rides and water activities. They replaced our whalewatching cruise with a desert safari, which after having experienced, I do not mind at all. We were taken to a 6WD bus, and were told that it would be a bumpy ride, and especially for those in the back. Naturally, I went to the back and sat down. Hanne was a bit slower and ended up nearer the front.

We set off into the wild, bumping our way around. It was the funniest busride I've taken in my life, as you literally jumped off your seat, or slided off the seat, as the bus bumped both up and down, and to the sides. There was only room for one vehicle on the 'road' through the jungle, and we found it very amusing that in the middle of it there were signs saying that the speed limit was 20 (as if you'd ever think of driving 60 on those roads), and that it was a two-way road. Of course, we ended up meeting a jeep and a truck in the middle there. What on earth is a truck doing out there? There's nothing but sand and trees? We ended up in a desert with some large sanddunes, and we drove over to one of them and got out. We left all our stuff in the bus and got a demonstration of sandboarding from a guy. We were two buses, the other one was filled with asians. We picked up a tiny piece of plywood, rubbed a candle on it "to give it speed" (why do we want speed? I don't want speed! :( ) and started climbing up the sanddune. If you've ever climbed a sanddune, you know how 'fun' that is. We lined up on top of the dune, and I was totally terrified. I hate heights, and it was a looong way down. I shut down my head when it was my turn, the pusher put my piece of candled plywood on the sand, I lay down, pulled the front of the plywood up, held my arms and legs up from the ground, and the guy pushed me off the dune. Two metres after the pusher was a professional photographer, taking pictures of us as we launched into nothingness. I went down the hill at a speed of 45-60 km/h, and ended up far down with some sand on me. Hanne came down just after me. The photographer guy came down when everyone had done their first turn (people could do it as many times as they wanted), and made people pose for him. We got some really cool photos (or bought, for 16 AUD per picture). When everyone was done, we headed back to the resort. On the way, we saw a small snake. The driver informed us of the various species of animals on the island, among them #17 and #2 on the list of deadliest snakes in the world. Nice to know. We came back to the resort, went to the photoshop and bought pictures, then went to the boat, sorry, ferry, and left for Pinkenba, where the bus picked us up and drove us to the city. Hanne and me have a bit of difficulty getting home from that part of the city, as we have to switch buses so many times. Anni was very kind and brought us with her on the train to Morningside, where we got into her car and she drove us home. It was very nice of her, and saved us a lot of trouble. We were supposed to go to Fortitude Valley to meet up with our class that evening, but we didnt get dinner until very late and we were very tired, and it would take us like an hour to get there, switching buses man times, so we decided to stay at home and relax. Sorry class :(

First lecture and Wall-E

Today was our first day with 'real' school. Hanne and me headed to town and had breakfast at the Crepe place again. Hanne had mixed berries pancakes and I had 'hawaiian' pancakes (pancakes with ham, cheese and pineapple). The freaky ibis birds were circling around as usual. We went to the library and used the internet for about an hour; I did some reasearch for the minor assignment on multiculturalism while Hanne did random internet stuff. Our lecture began at 1pm, the subject being photography and the lecturerer being Siegfried Manietta. He was a very good lecturer and photographer. He spent about an hour showing us pictures that he had taken from all around Australia, both printed pictures and digital ones. After a short break, he continued with the basics of photography, like lighting, lenses, aperture and such things. It was very interesting and very informative. After lecture, Hanne and me walked around in the area before ending up at the South Bank cinemacomplex buying tickets for the 5pm screening of Wall-E. We were fascinated that there was no numbered seats or anything, you just walk in and conquer a seat. There was a short film called Presto that was shown before Wall-E started. It was hilarious (naturally, since it's made by Pixar) and involved a magician, two magical hats, a bunny and a carrot. I have to admit that I laughed out loud (as did we all, except for Hanne who actually made it as far as a smile (she don't laugh out loud too often)). Wall-E was a great film as well, definately recommendable :) It was very very very cute and funny. We went back home after the film, and have just been hanging out in our room the rest of the evening.

EDITED BY HANNE: THE CONTENT THAT USED TO BE HERE HAS BEEN CENSORED BY HIGHER HANNE AUTHORITIES....

Comment by Julie: How rude :<

Day off from school, wholly spent at the mall!

Breakfast at the mall, Julie had a chicken kebab, and I had the world's tastiest Chicken strips. Yum! So, 5 hours at the mall... I have spent too much money.. It's like this girl *shivers* inside of me is trying to get out of Sensible Hanne and spend all my money on silly things.
I got a beautiful green wallet from my new favorite store Tree of Life (my own wallet is falling apart), and I bought a bag (my old one is falling apart...) It seems when I find something I like, I use it until it is beyond dead. Then again, it isn't often I find things I like. I also bought some postcards, new earplugs for my MP3 (wrecked my old ones :P). Then I bought a gift for S-B, which I am going to mail if it isn't too expensive. Sorry S-B, no socks this time! :P And I got a new shirt, the supercute black one ;)

But, this is the worst part. I got tricked by a saleswoman. I have always prided myself with being extremely good (and not buying anything), but it seems my irony can only withstand a certain amount of sales tricks before it feels sorry for the person and buys.. So here I am, a girl that don't used make-up or lotions or whatever girls use these days, and I bought her stuff.. I am so ashamed.

But! Here is proof that I didn't spend all my time shopping! I didn't even buy the 2 tees ;)

But Julie bought stuff as well! I was by no means doing this outrageous thing with money all on my own. She bought two pairs of shoes, a pretty notebook, pens, an Australian extension chord, foodstuff, a keep-my-sodacan-cold-thingy, more pharmacy stuff and a miniature cola-class. She also fell in love with a beautiful blue and black lace and silk dress....
And oh! Oh! On our way home we saw bats! Like black and vampiric and cool bats! and a possum! :D
Possum says Good Night :)

School, killers and The Gingerbread Man ;)

Yesterday we had a grand tour of South Bank Campus, thus leading us not to have any lectures all day. Today, we got to see the other two campuses that we're attending. (No lectures today either then, and tomorrow's off!) Very well, at Nathan Campus we met Cousin Itt. (Little dude from Addams Family TV series and film. Completely covered in hair)

At Nathan Campus, we found something weird as well. The Multi-feit Centre. I think (but must be wrong) that this is a place where they expect people from different religions to come together. Weird huh.. :P

Julie was shocked they didn't call it the Multi War Centre..

Mt. Gravatt Campus is the smallest campus, and we are only having lectures there two out of twelve times. Of course this is also the one campus we can get to without changing buses along the way.

I found South Bank Campus (Queensland College of Art) fantastic because everyone was walking around with canvases and film-making equipment. But when I came to Mt. Gravatt I saw this sign upon one of the doors. I want that kind of sign!

Yeye, enough about school already. When we walked off the bus Julie and I went separate ways (at least for the next half hour), as I headed for food and Julie for home. She had the camera, so I couldn't take pictures of whateverIwantedtotakeapictureof, but at least Julie did :P So here is our road and our house (My paranoid friends will say I am screaming out to every killer in the neighborhood now.. "See! This is where I live!".. Scary. But not scary enough apparently...)



And finally: the moment you have all been waiting for: Whateverhappened to the Gingerbread Man? Well, obviously he moved to Australia and got heaps of kids only to throw them in to plastic bags for consummation.
Yay!

Finally the blog is up to date (and school starts)

Monday morning, early birds are rising and getting off to school. Julie is looking nice in her new shoes (spotted black/white ballerinas) and we're starting the journey (twenty minute walk to bus stop, 20 minutes by bus if we catch the express, 35 minutes if we don't). Now, what happens?

BLISTERS.

Julie is starting to ache. Julie has a blister, then two. Both heels are running sore. 25 minutes of pain and agony later we are at the bus stop, I run over to a pharmacy to get band aids, bus is coming, I'm still at the store, lady's taking her time, I am paying, running, we catch the bus, Julie get her band aids. Everything is fine. We even got to see a little tiger.

Then, 35 minutes later (we didn't catch the express), we're walking off the bus. Everything is fine, cause Julie has plastered her heels. Then, when Julies heels are not aching anymore (everything is relative), she notices more blisters one her toes.. And they're getting worse by the minute. The pictures would be unbelievable.. (Thus, I was not allowed to take them). I took pictures of other things instead :) Like the bird that fascinates me and scares Julie :P

And I had to post this picture from a beautiful and secret little place here in Brisbane :) Julie was out buying new shoes at this time.
Our first day at school at school was nice, we both think this will work out fine. We ended early :P, and we got invited to a BBQ at one of the places where some of our group are staying. Ended up walking around half the city looking for a groceries store, which we found. Saw some weird things along the way as well.

For BBQ-ing we bought chicken skewers, satay and honey-marinated ones :) We made our way (somehow) to the place and grilled with most of our class. I am really anxious to get this post out while it's still the 15th, to not get behind again, so I'm not really writing that much more about grilling. I just had to add a picture of this pool. You see, according to Urban Legend (the people of our class who live there), it can only be bathed in at night, because then it is clean! When it's light (and you see what you're bathing in), swimming in the pool would be impossible. ..