The past months...

Greetings all,

From some of you I have recieved messages about the lag in my blogging. Honestly I have had plenty of time to keep up with it recently but just haven't had much inspiration and have been a bit lazy during my school break. Since my last blog was near end of March, this one is about 4 months overdue.
My last posting talked about the Mardi Gras parade, which was during autumn season here. I was still in my pre-master stage and doing the preliminary 'Graduate Certificate in Business', which thankfully I've completed since then. Basically I had to get a 'P' (pass) or higher for each of my 4 subjects and so I studied like a madman for a few weeks before the finals. The overall results weren't too bad: 2 passes and 2 distinctions. Needless to say, once I found that I had completed the certificate I went out with some friends and celebrated. This was around the start of June and that's also when my long (and well deserved ;-)) semester break began...

My vacation period was approximately 2 months, so finally plenty of time to enjoy Sydney EXCEPT, now winter had come around! Sydney winters aren't too bad generally but we had quite a rainy and windy winter this year (according to locals) and so it wasn't really inviting to go out and explore the city + surrounding areas on many days. Temperature wise it doesn't get much below 12-13 degrees during daytime (at coldest) but nights were around freezing point. Consequently, most of my first month off I spent indoors, reading and watching some movies and also 2 HBO series (Oz and Six feet Under). I also did quite a bit of sports (mainly running) and revised my C.V./resume. I met up with some friends from school on occasion for dinner/drinks and met some cool new people through Fred, a friend who came to travel Oz for 2 months and who I know from my high school year in Tokyo, Japan.

Fred and I had planned a trip to explore a bit beyond Sydney. We were originally planning to head for Townsville to dive the Great Barrier Reef and also dive the SS Yongala (a 100 year old ship that's at 30 meters deep and one of the 7 diving-wonders of the world). Unfortunately the main diving company in Townsville was coping with very low numbers of people for the trip we wanted to take (first week of July) and couldn't get the boat full. Instead, we decided to take a road trip from Byron Bay up the Gold Coast/Sunhine Coast to Noosa Head and finish off with a 2 day stay on Fraser Island. The 5-day trip was great fun with some nice bush walks/jeep safaris (Fraser Island, see photos below) during the daytime and plenty of wine drinking and culinary delights at night. We flew back on a Saturday and a mutual buddy from Melbourne flew up to party with us that eve so we all headed for the various bars around the Sydney/Darling Harbour area.

Here are some photographs of the trip. If you want to see the pictures in a larger/full screen format, just double click on the embedded slideshow.



The following Thursday it was time for my second adventure: a week in Singapore to see Arvid (my brother), Pare (his wife), and their newly born baby girl named Mayuri. It was cool to see my brother in his new 'dad' role and Mayuri is an absolute doll. We all stayed on Joo Seng Road, which is a bit of a local area about a 10 min cabride to Orchard Rd. Apparently Arvid and I were the only caucasian (white) people in the area because we were constantly being observed by the locals. Great little hawker centres in the area though, which means that you could have a feast of a dinner for as little as 6 SGD (around 3 EUR). It was also the source of our morning dose of iced coffee, which was only 1 SGD, close to half a liter and served in a transparent plastic bag! While in Singapore I did a bit of sightseeing by myself and also Arvid came along for a few trips to Sentosa for instance, which is the main beach area of the city. Nights were spent eating great food and drinking some nice wines also, and the week was over before I knew it. Some pictures of this trip below.



My orientation week for the next semester at Macquarie Uni started a few days after I returned from Singapore. Since then, the weather has really been picking up here. Almost every day is very sunny and 19-21 degrees during daytime, and still a bit chilly at night. Considering that it's still winter here, that's not bad at all and spring is just around the corner (early September)! Right after orientation week I went on the so-called 'Aussie Getaway' trip, which was a weekend in a bush-land type of setting and with a youth hostel type of accommodation. The nice thing about this trip is that you get to meet lots of new international people who have either just arrived or have already been at the uni for some time, and they come from all over the world, so it's a great way to make new friends. Two weeks after the Aussie Getaway, the school organized another trip called the Darling Harbour Cruise, which was on a large boat with 400-500 people cruising the harbour for 2.5 hours, lots of pizza and an open bar. If you're interested in those pictures, go to my facebook page and check out my album and other photo's: http://www.facebook.com/people/Ilja-Swartsenburg/735792067.

I'm in my 3rd week of school already and time seems to be flying by even faster than last semester, which is also due to the large amount of studying that needs to be done. I've decided to take 3 'core' subjects and only 1 elective subject this semester so that I have 3 elective subjects and only 1 core for next semester. Teachers are really good so far and there is a much larger focus this semester on class participation, group projects and lots of reading and other homework of course. Hence, I have been going full-throttle and doing the readings/homework on a daily basis because you really cannot afford to fall behind when you're doing a master. Although I will be much busier than last semester, I am excited about all the new things I will be learning and although I won't be blogging much due to my workload, I will try keep my blog current on a fairly regular basis...

Thanks for checking in and till next time!