the works, rambles, and life of an aspiring graphic designer

Damn, time goes fast! Well, here I am, in Australia. I’ve now been here for a bit over a week, and have sorted out quite a few things. I’m pretty sure most of you have gotten an update of a sorts from people I’ve been in touch with (unfortunately, this has been my last priority this week, what with settling in), but here goes!

On Thursday last week, I arrived at around 6am at Perth Airport, and was made aware of the cultural differences already as I met the immigration officers. They smiled. Yes, actually SMILED. And talked. Not about the kind of mundane stuff that you’d expect, such as ”why are you here” and so forth, but actual small talk. And jokes. WOW.

Duty free was the next big change to get used to – in Norway you get one measly liter of booze over 22% (or 44 proof for those who use that system), whereas here.. you can get 2.25 liters! WOHOO! Needless to say, I went straight for tequila and cointreau because I’m a student and am quite fond of margaritas.

Now, for those of you who didn’t know, I was traveling with two classmates (Irene and Agnetha) and two Australians (Vivian and Lauren), and we were all picked up by Vivi’s mom, Anette, at the airport. We took the scenic route home, thinking it sure was nice and warm compared to Norway. Despite it being midwinter here. After all greetings were done, and our luggage was dropped, Vivian, Anette and I popped down to South Fremantle Beach where Vivian works (all in t-shirts and shorts. Let me remind you again – midwinter). After thinking things carefully through over a cuppa (that’s what they call warm drinks here. Be that coffee or tea. In this case, coffee), I decided it was time to set the bar as crazyass Viking. I charged the Indian Ocean and hit a hidden sandbank, falling elegantly into the water while screaming somewhat like a sissy. Good times. But – I got what I needed. Witnesses to my crazy feat and bragging rights for having swam in the ocean midwinter. Everyone I’ve met after that has said that I’m nuts for having done so. I actually thought it was nice. After all, it was 20 degrees Celsius and sunny.

Later on the same day, we ran over to a gourmet burger place, where I tried a bit of kangaroo (which was horrible in burger form, in my opinion), and a chickenpestomozerellaburger which was awesome.

Since then, days have been something of a blur. I’ve been to a fair few house viewings, but have been denied the lot seeing as I’m neither female or Asian. Apparently that’s a big plus if you’re looking for a place to stay down here. I’ve been to a local microbrewery which had great brown ale, checked out the local nightlife with Olaf (Anette’s son), ran around and have enjoyed the sun aaaaaaand explored campus.

Campus. Holy shit. Once upon a time, when I went to NKF, I thought that it was an OK sized school. Nothing huge, nothing too grand, but it housed about 400 students and was smack in the middle of town. Its about as big as one of the smaller buildings at Curtin Campus. Its like a minitown, with everything you need – bookstores, libraries, computer shops, fitness centers, cafes, pubs.. you name it. And its pretty. Very much so. And you can get lost there, very easily. Good times!

While we’re on the subject of campus, we might as well move on to how school is going thus far – I’ve sorted out everything that needs to be sorted out, such as Student ID, enrolled for classes, registered my timetables (yay, every Wednesday off!) aaand decided that my elective classes are all going to be about photography. So I’m now studying Graphic Design and Photography, which makes it that much easier to justify getting a huge 7D camera as soon as I’m able to get around a bit more and compare prices. Yaaaay.

Other than that, we’ve had a fair few “get to know each other” sessions – this is just international startup week so far – which ended yesterday with a big international party with a local church group. Relax, I’m not getting brainwashed. It was just for the social bit. Being the only blond person at the place that was otherwise packed with Asian people (well.. there were a handful of non Asians, but they were pretty much all dark haired as well), and one of about 5 people who was over 180cm (6ft), I did kinda feel like I was on spot. And girls actually lined up to take pictures with me. Possibly because I said I was famous in Norway. Oh well.

Now that I’ve got my computer, I’ll try to update this a bit more, but I can’t really promise anything more than a weekly update. At least until I get my camera. Then we’ll see.

The short version for you folks who have been worried about me – I’m in Australia, I’m enjoying it, I’ve got a tan and have so far avoided being eaten by sharks or crocodiles. Toodles for now!