New Beginnings

A two-year-recess. Who would have thought. Time to start again.

It truly is a new beginning. A new beginning in every sense of the word. The 24-year-old girl who had just moved to Australia to follow The Love has turned into a 26-year-old wife who gets incredibly delighted every time her little one kicks inside her belly. The Perth apartment building has been (temporarily only!) replaced by a mine site at the heart of an Indonesian jungle. What remains the same is love for everything pretty, sparkly and pastel-coloured. Charming & Colliding, albeit the jungle edition, is back.

A little Tuesday vent…

The past week has went by incredibly fast. It has also been a very challenging week with some frustration and confusion. Namely, it was the first real week of university.

I am the stereotype of a law student in Finland a.k.a. I never went to classes. And if I did, I surely didn’t prepare for them – you go to classes to listen, right? Getting law students to speak in lectures is like pulling wisdom teeth. Extraordinarily hard, that is.

In Australia there are lectures and tutorials you must attend. As the cherry on top of a cake you also must prepare for tutorials. Luckily you are given very clear instructions about what to do for a tutorial but unfortunately it takes hours to prepare. And why do you have to prepare? Well, to explain it shortly, I might just say that because it is like an elementary school in which the teacher decides who gets to share their knowledge.. and just like in elementary schools, you also get a grade for participation. For someone who dislikes going to classes and loathes being active in them the only words that describe the system are “oh crap”.

Ok. I have gotten it out of me. Now it’s time to focus on the good sides… and despite of what you might think based on the last paragraph, there are good sides! It is extraordinarily good that students have all sorts of assignments to do – all the time. It is also awesome that you have to go to classes – where else would you network and get social support? And even more importantly, where else would you get answers to questions that books don’t cover?

To my (very) enormous surprise, I am actually in the process of shifting to the mindset that the system in Australian universities is so much better than in Finnish universities. It might be quite convenient for students to just hit the books on their own. It might also be extremely cheap, too. But it is questionable whether that is the right way to study? Does it teach one to think? At least in law it was a very strong presumption that the student should think in the same way as the author. Is that deep understanding?

It may be day two of week two but I have already been obliged to write probably 50 pages of assignments altogether. That is something that is so very unfamiliar to a Finnish law student. And it is actually a shame – Finland may have amazing school system but is it a good idea to say goodbye to pedagogism at tertiary level? I’d say no.

 

Written while listening to Two Birds by Regina Spektor.

A strange affair

I attended an engagement party for the first time ever a couple of days ago. I had pictured it to be a rather classy affair but, well, all my knowledge about engagement parties come from Charlotte’s engagement party on Sex and the City.

All that I have to say about the party (and, well, many Aussie parties) can be summarized in these lines…

1) “I put a hot chilli in my pocket and now my nipple is burning – can you lick it?” (What’s even worse is that this went on for at least two hours)

2) starting a private little party in front of the house

3) a cop (!!!) secretly surfing on a taxi and then falling off when the taxi started to go faster,

4) making rude remarks during speeches, such as “has he even met X?”,

5) being a rough Australian; “I didn’t say I was a lady.”  - “Well, you’ve got tits, don’t you?”

6) drunk people stepping on presents…

The list could go on. Note-to-the-engaged-couple; don’t invite these people to your wedding.

Guild Day & Paper Speakers

Yesterday was the finale of the orientation week; Guild Day. Basically the campus was literally packed of all kinds of clubs promoting themselves and trying to get people to sign up. I must say that I love that about Australian universities… I feel like in my university in Finland there weren’t that many clubs (or maybe I just wasn’t aware of them!) and I absolutely love it that there are university clubs for e.g. social soccer, netball, swimming… you name it.

By the end of the day I had signed up to way too many clubs and had tons of freebies to carry home with me. My clubs included for example the Yoga Club, Aussie footy for beginners and Amnesty International and Save the Children. I am very excited – I bet soon my e-mail inbox will be very full (and I may not have time to go to lectures!)

So what all freebies did I manage to bring home? Well, a lot. It is a funny thing how every time when there are freebies available somewhere, we just have to take that stuff – even when we’re pretty sure that there won’t ever be any use for it. Well, after participating in competitions such as fishing and trying to catch (rubber) ducks, I ended up getting a water gun, noodles (whaaat?!) speakers with a paper case, a soccer club’s cap (I might have joined the club too – me, who knows absolutely nada about soccer!) and lots of pens.

All in all, the day was a massive success in my opinion – it was actually a lot of fun to walk around the campus with new friends and eat candy… and have your bags filled with free Chupa Chups. I have no idea how they put it all together and I am a little bummed I couldn’t stay longer to see some bands that were playing there as well but literally, thumbs up for the Guild – they did an amazing job.

Aren’t they cute?!

Now it’s time to start to get ready for tonight’s engagement party – not mine though! It’s the first engagement party I have ever been to so it shall be interesting!

First postgrad days…

So university has started… All I can say is wow as I am just feeling a little bit overwhelmed! The first two days have been full of lollipops, cupcakes with extra icing and yummy avocado salad. If that is university life in Australia, I am rather excited but I have the slightest feeling that the university won’t be feeding us with fancy food every day for the rest of our studies!

This week is still all about orientating ourselves into the mindset of studying postgrad law but next week it will all start. For me it will be Contract Law, Criminal Law, Legal Process and Property Law. Quite a package, luckily it includes two of my all-time favourites!

All in all the law school has been amazing for us. They have organised us breakfasts and given us complimentary tickets to arts shows and to an outdoors cinema. It has been a good way to meet fellow students who all have very different backgrounds; some have just finished their PhD in another subject and some have returned to law after taking time off. It truly is an interesting mix of people and I am looking forward to getting to know them better.

My study plan for this year.

What has been even better is that now that my days have been rather busy and I have met a group of Australians, I have gotten this feeling of belonging here. I have been very happy here, no doubts about it… but at the same time I have felt a little bit like an outsider. Now, I feel like I have managed to start the transfer of my life to Australia and it feels quite incredible!

Written while listening to King and Lionheart by Of Monsters and Men.

Never be the same

I have always loved to have normal weekdays off – there’s nothing else that describes freedom better than sipping a latte on the balcony and looking at people rushing to work. Unfortunately, those days are extremely limited right now!

It is almost a little bit intimidating to start university here… It feels like a massive workload… which it surely is. I felt like that also when I started my law degree in Finland – an empty academic record just looks very harsh. However, I am also very excited. The campus is amazing and I have already now met some lovely ladies and it is quite whimsical to create new friendships – it is simply amazing to meet new people and then only after a couple of days see how there was always an empty spot for them in your life.

All in all, these photos describe the past days amazingly well…

 

Going to the beach – nothing screams like summer than your skin covered with sand and trying to apply more sunscreen… Result? A nice exfoliation!

Yummy frozen yoghurt… why isn’t all yoghurt frozen?

Dinner-BBQs… what else would be more summery

 

This was written while listening to Never Be the Same by The Rubens.

The 14th

I’ve never been a massive fan of Hallmark-holidays but I suppose the 14th of February just offers a great excuse to do something nice for your loved ones! This year Valentine’s Day included…

1. SO surprising me with 12 (naturally since we’re in Australia) roses the day before!

2. Loveheart-shaped pancakes with apple slices, mangos and coconut cream for brekkie!

3. Self-made cards are the best ones!

4. And making some amazing new friends, including a wombat!