Dear blog-reader,
Now that Jasmin has safely returned from her exchange semester in Melbourne, Australia, she is back at Tilburg University in the Netherlands to complete her BA Liberal Arts and Sciences degree.
A new cohort of third-year BA Liberal Arts and Sciences students will go on exchange as of July 2011. So please come back in July to read about their experiences, as they happen!
Best wishes,
The Liberal Arts and Sciences core staff
Tuesday 25 January 2011
Sunday 2 January 2011
Chapter 9 - And another last entry
I've been back in good old Germany for a week and a half now. My flight went smooth, only one hour delay. Ya, I was really lucky, I arrived on the 22nd and on the 23rd and 24th it started snowing A LOT! But that was the plan, I wanted a white Christmas :) It's been great to be back, although I am already losing my tan. I miss it already.
The last week in OZ was awesome as well. Went on a boat to the Great Barrier Reef and more particular to White Haven Beach. It is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, with sand as white as snow, and water in so many blue shades, I would have to wiki them in order to tell you.
Fraser Island on the other hand, has to be discovered in a 4-wheeled-drive, because it is the biggest Sand Island in the world. It is three times the size of Singapore and has twice as much sand as the Sahara. Saw dolphins, lizards and a dingo! The highlight of the trip is Lake McKenzie. It is a freshwater lake in the middle of the island's rainforest (which btw is the only rainforest in the world that grows on sand). I must tell you now, that this lake has a beach which is apparently voted under the top 5 beaches in the world every year and the sand was even whiter than Whitehaven beach.
The last week in OZ was awesome as well. Went on a boat to the Great Barrier Reef and more particular to White Haven Beach. It is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, with sand as white as snow, and water in so many blue shades, I would have to wiki them in order to tell you.
Fraser Island on the other hand, has to be discovered in a 4-wheeled-drive, because it is the biggest Sand Island in the world. It is three times the size of Singapore and has twice as much sand as the Sahara. Saw dolphins, lizards and a dingo! The highlight of the trip is Lake McKenzie. It is a freshwater lake in the middle of the island's rainforest (which btw is the only rainforest in the world that grows on sand). I must tell you now, that this lake has a beach which is apparently voted under the top 5 beaches in the world every year and the sand was even whiter than Whitehaven beach.
But, besides being concerned with which beach is the whitest in Oz, there are some other big news that followed us along the way. What does Australia care about?
5. Wikileaks.
I cannot say how many times they started a radio poll about what people think about it... seriously, get over it.
4. Surfing and Skating.
Never have I ever seen so many people surf and/or skate. Our guide on Fraser Island was about 23 and told us that he was planning to retire soon, so that he could live in a van and surf all day. The Australian dream.
3. Apples.
New Zealand was banned from importing apples to Australia, because of some apple disease that existed 200 years ago. This year the WTO decided that this ban is ridiculous and Australia being part of free trade has to allow the import of apples. Farmers had nervous breakdowns and the country is still shaken up.
2. Blizzards and Storms.
This was the wettest summer any Australian can remember. Yay lucky us... not! But, it was really bad and it is getting worse as we speak. Every day you would hear of somebody getting struck my lightening or drowning. Not cool.
1. Oprah.
Yupp, Australia paid Oprah something like $8million to get her down under and made about $80million. Highlight of the trip was her two part show in the Opera House. People went crazy mad. But her presents were only necklaces that the audience would receive in 6 to 8 weeks.
But now, let's turn back to some more pleasant stories and here come the promised pictures. I am going to buy some self-tanner now.
Main road, Fraser Island
Steak-stealing Leguana
Lake McKenzie (replanting trees and bushes)
Freshwater creek on Fraser Island
the MooMoo van
arriving at Whitehaven Beach
our boat, the Camira at Whitehaven Beach
Airlie Beach, Whitsundays
cooking breakfast
our wicked van
Hippies drumming and playing Didgeridoo in Byron Bay
tee pee in Byron Bay
Nimbin, Hippie town
Nambucca beaches
sunrise on the West coast, Newcastle lighthouse
Sunday 12 December 2010
Chapter 8 - Bluebottles hurt
Just to warn you: This post will be a completely unorganised collection of thoughts. It is difficult to put all my new adventures and experiences into perspective just yet.
About a month ago I wrote my last exam and I am happy to say that I have successfully passed all my classes. Immediately after the last exam goodbyes were in order, because as a reward I flew to Sydney with a couple of friends and stayed at Bondi Beach. If you ever want to feel fat, pale, and disgusting, this is definitely the place to go! People jog non-stop, everybody is tanned and surfs. It is the ultimate Australian stereotype.
I was not as upset as I had expected to be. I guess it was because I was still with some friends and it didn´t seem like it was a goodbye. I know that I will probably see most of them again (Sweden, here I come!) and facebook (btw movie is quite good) make life apart easier.
Confirming to the German backpacker stereotype, Tomas and I rented a wicked van (actual name of the company) in Slipknot style and drove up the Gold Coast to Brisbane. I will post some pictures once I am back home and you will get the full image of what it means to drive around in a 200 year old Ford with a message on the trunk "Noone is ugly at 2am". It was quite an adventure, the van overheated once, and going up the hill in second gear and with the speed of 5km/h definitely brought out a sweat or two. Sitting on the passenger seat meant sitting on the engine and thus we had free seat heating in 30 degrees.
For the last couple of days we were staying in some kind of Hippie Hostel in Byron Bay. I was staying in a gigantic kind of tent/tee pee which was definitely a new experience.
When on exchange, from time to time you catch yourself realising the situation you are in right now and asking yourself "How did I get here and what the f*** is going on!?". Well, the last time that happened to me was two days ago when we were sitting in the middle of the jungle in the camp, with some hippies playing music, the rest hanging out, and bearded dragons and wild bush turkeys walking among the crowd.
Passing by enormous mountain ranges, unbelievable beautiful beaches, petting Wallabies, Cobras and Koalas, meeting random people along the way, and getting stung by jellyfish (bluebottles to be precise and they hurt like hell) we are getting closer to completing the Australian experience.
Tomorrow, we are picking up a van again - this time a MooMoo Camper (yeah, I was asking myself if they have some kind of bet going on who comes up with the most ridiculous name) and we will drive towards the Great Barrier Reef again (Fraser Island and Whitsundays).
To round this up; this is my last blog entry, as I will return to the homeland for Christmas. Exchange is over. Am I sad? Am I happy?
I am ecstatic for having had this opportunity.
I am sad that I have to leave this life I was leading for the last few months behind.
I am excited to see everyone back home again and soon exchange all our stories.
I am sad that I have to wait another 6 months until summer comes again.
I cannot wait to eat good cheese again and drink some nice German beer.
But, most of all, I want to thank my parents for supporting me.
I want to tell Carley, Charlie, Caitlin, Matt, Lucho, Pagina, Tomas, Josefin, Michelle, and everyone else for making a completely strange place a new home. I love you guys and I will miss you (except Tomas, because I will still see his face every day in Tilburg)
About a month ago I wrote my last exam and I am happy to say that I have successfully passed all my classes. Immediately after the last exam goodbyes were in order, because as a reward I flew to Sydney with a couple of friends and stayed at Bondi Beach. If you ever want to feel fat, pale, and disgusting, this is definitely the place to go! People jog non-stop, everybody is tanned and surfs. It is the ultimate Australian stereotype.
I was not as upset as I had expected to be. I guess it was because I was still with some friends and it didn´t seem like it was a goodbye. I know that I will probably see most of them again (Sweden, here I come!) and facebook (btw movie is quite good) make life apart easier.
Confirming to the German backpacker stereotype, Tomas and I rented a wicked van (actual name of the company) in Slipknot style and drove up the Gold Coast to Brisbane. I will post some pictures once I am back home and you will get the full image of what it means to drive around in a 200 year old Ford with a message on the trunk "Noone is ugly at 2am". It was quite an adventure, the van overheated once, and going up the hill in second gear and with the speed of 5km/h definitely brought out a sweat or two. Sitting on the passenger seat meant sitting on the engine and thus we had free seat heating in 30 degrees.
For the last couple of days we were staying in some kind of Hippie Hostel in Byron Bay. I was staying in a gigantic kind of tent/tee pee which was definitely a new experience.
When on exchange, from time to time you catch yourself realising the situation you are in right now and asking yourself "How did I get here and what the f*** is going on!?". Well, the last time that happened to me was two days ago when we were sitting in the middle of the jungle in the camp, with some hippies playing music, the rest hanging out, and bearded dragons and wild bush turkeys walking among the crowd.
Passing by enormous mountain ranges, unbelievable beautiful beaches, petting Wallabies, Cobras and Koalas, meeting random people along the way, and getting stung by jellyfish (bluebottles to be precise and they hurt like hell) we are getting closer to completing the Australian experience.
Tomorrow, we are picking up a van again - this time a MooMoo Camper (yeah, I was asking myself if they have some kind of bet going on who comes up with the most ridiculous name) and we will drive towards the Great Barrier Reef again (Fraser Island and Whitsundays).
To round this up; this is my last blog entry, as I will return to the homeland for Christmas. Exchange is over. Am I sad? Am I happy?
I am ecstatic for having had this opportunity.
I am sad that I have to leave this life I was leading for the last few months behind.
I am excited to see everyone back home again and soon exchange all our stories.
I am sad that I have to wait another 6 months until summer comes again.
I cannot wait to eat good cheese again and drink some nice German beer.
But, most of all, I want to thank my parents for supporting me.
I want to tell Carley, Charlie, Caitlin, Matt, Lucho, Pagina, Tomas, Josefin, Michelle, and everyone else for making a completely strange place a new home. I love you guys and I will miss you (except Tomas, because I will still see his face every day in Tilburg)
Saturday 6 November 2010
Chapter 7 - Heart of Australia
Recently, I travelled to the Ayers Rock (Aboriginal Name: Uluru). It was a journey into the heart of Australia, literally, as well as culturally and politically. It is a sacred part of Aboriginal creation mythology, or dreamtime - reality being a dream. Uluru is considered one of the great wonders of the world and one of Australia's most recognizable natural icons. Uluru is a large magnetic mound large not unlike Silbury Hill in England. It is located on a major planetary grid point much like the Great Pyramid in Egypt.
Sunset and Sunrise at Uluru
Uluru is a large sandstone rock formation in central Australia, in the Northern Territory. It is located in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, 350 km southwest of Alice Springs. It is the second-largest monolith in the world (after Mount Augustus, also in Australia), more than 318 m high and 8 km around. It also extends 2.5 km into the ground. It was described by explorer Ernest Giles in 1872 as "the remarkable pebble". As much as I love this expression to me it was something I had never seen before. The red colors of the sand, the clear blue sky without one single cloud and the green bushes painted a truly fascinating picture which could be best enjoyed riding a camel at one of the countless camel farms.
Camel Shami
Uluru is an inselberg, literally "island mountain", an isolated remnant left after the slow erosion of an original mountain range. But besides this geographical uniqueness, it is one of the most sacred places for Aborigines and today one of the most touristic parks in Australia.
In Australian Aboriginal mythology, The Dreaming or Altjeringa (also called the Dreamtime) is a sacred 'once upon a time' time out of time in which ancestral Totemic Spirit Beings formed The Creation. The Dreamtime contains many parts: It is the story of things that have happened, how the universe came to be, how human beings were created and how the Creator intended for humans to function within the cosmos. I was impressed by the dreamtime story about the formation of the Rock.
Uluru: Scars from the Battle of Kuniya and Liru:
Long, long ago, in the time of the Tjukurpa (The Dreamtime or creation period), there was a young woma python (Kuniya) snakeboy who was surprised and ambushed by a group of Liru (which are venomous snakes). The Liru threw spears at the Kuniya and killed him. So hard did they throw their spears that the points made holes in the Uluru rock. (see the holes made in Uluru by the points of the Lirus' spears).
The boy's aunt, a Kuniya woma pythonwoman, was so angry and chased the Lirus. She slid in, caught up and killed one of the Liru with her stick with a blow to the head. You can see her sliding in as a dark wavy line on Uluru. The blood flowing from the head of the dying Liru can also be seen.
Reading and learning about the Aborigine culture was fascinating. Never have I met such a different culture. But, at the same time you see the Aborigines in Alice Springs and as sad as it is to admit, they were all drunk. Their culture is so different to that of ours that it must be unbelievable difficult for them to understand and fit in. One Aborigine woman we saw falling over earlier came over to us and asked if she could have a lighter. Then she started telling us a strange story that had us guessing if she worked as a cleaner or prostitute.
What upset me the most was the abuse of this sacred place. Uluru is the only National Park you have to pay entry for. And what is worse is that the tourist companies legitimize this by saying that the money goes into maintaining the Park and give a better life to the Aborigines. A few years ago the Australian government gave back the Park to the Aborigines with the agreement that they leave it open for 99 years for tourism. I am not sure how sincere this gesture was, because it seems like they were only trying to bring back authenticity while at the same time exploiting this opportunity. This is not only visible in the way it is managed (Aborigines do not want us to climb the Rock, nonetheless it is possible to climb all over it), but also the Monopoly the Hotels and Hostel built. With only desert around and no other option, but to stay at a hostel that costs twice as much as a hostel in the city center of Sydney, tourists will leave Ayers Rock with empty pockets and a lot of new impressions.
Kata Tjuta (meaning 'many heads') is part of the World Heritage National Park Uluru. It is a very sacred men's place relating to knowledge that is considered very powerful and dangerous.
Sunday 17 October 2010
Chapter 6 - Nostalgia
One month.
It hit me today.
Only 31 short days left until Uni ends and I leave Melbourne. I have a trip to Ayers Rock coming up, maybe Tasmania, two exams, a ton of essays, and a lot of very sad goodbyes ahead of me, before I fly to Sydney and start my travels from there.
But, let's try to stay positive and not have the post-Erasmus stress take over just yet. So, here is a song that made me feel better.
It hit me today.
Only 31 short days left until Uni ends and I leave Melbourne. I have a trip to Ayers Rock coming up, maybe Tasmania, two exams, a ton of essays, and a lot of very sad goodbyes ahead of me, before I fly to Sydney and start my travels from there.
But, let's try to stay positive and not have the post-Erasmus stress take over just yet. So, here is a song that made me feel better.
Mellow Mark - Reise (Journey)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MURpr12Uaw4&feature=related
Nimm Abschied
und dann geh auf die Reise
denn das Leben ist weise
und die Welt zeigt dir leise
das Geheimnis ihrer Seele
nimm dein Herz und dann wähle
wähl deine Wege
lass los und dann lebe!
Say your farewells
and then start your journey
because life is wise
and the world shows you quietly
the secret of its soul
take your heart and then choose
choose your paths
let go and then live!
Sunday 10 October 2010
Chapter 5 - Chasing Nemo
Dear Mama and Papa,
this blog entry is dedicated to you - my two most loyal readers. You wanted me to write more about what I do at University. All I can say is that I am writing a lot of essays and am currently preparing a presentation. Not much different than what I do at UvT, except I am still taking the distance course from Tilburg, which is truly taking up a lot more time than anything I have to do for any course here. I had to watch a movie called "The Crying Game" which is about a transvestite and is a bit disturbing on different levels (but reminded me of the ladyboys in Bangkok). I got back an essay today that I had to write for Sociology of Culture about "Heart of Darkness" and Nietzsche and I got a B on it. I am really happy with the result, especially because this is probably the most challenging course that I am taking (also because the lecture is scheduled Monday mornings at 10am, and you know I do not enjoy waking up before noon).
So, no worries your daughter is still going to University and studies next to going out and travelling. But before I return to the homeland I still have a lot of travelling to do and let's be honest, Mama, it is just way more interesting to talk about where I am going next :)
Miss you a lot and give kisses to Baby,
Yours truly
Jasmin
P.S. Attached you will find some pictures of my trip to Cairns, the Great Barrier Reef & surrounding area.
this blog entry is dedicated to you - my two most loyal readers. You wanted me to write more about what I do at University. All I can say is that I am writing a lot of essays and am currently preparing a presentation. Not much different than what I do at UvT, except I am still taking the distance course from Tilburg, which is truly taking up a lot more time than anything I have to do for any course here. I had to watch a movie called "The Crying Game" which is about a transvestite and is a bit disturbing on different levels (but reminded me of the ladyboys in Bangkok). I got back an essay today that I had to write for Sociology of Culture about "Heart of Darkness" and Nietzsche and I got a B on it. I am really happy with the result, especially because this is probably the most challenging course that I am taking (also because the lecture is scheduled Monday mornings at 10am, and you know I do not enjoy waking up before noon).
So, no worries your daughter is still going to University and studies next to going out and travelling. But before I return to the homeland I still have a lot of travelling to do and let's be honest, Mama, it is just way more interesting to talk about where I am going next :)
Miss you a lot and give kisses to Baby,
Yours truly
Jasmin
P.S. Attached you will find some pictures of my trip to Cairns, the Great Barrier Reef & surrounding area.
Curtain Fig Tree
home on four wheels
Ellis beach
Josephine Falls
Millaa Millaa Falls and Pelican in Rainforest Habituary, Port Douglas
unbelievable beauty
that is me snorkelling and chasing some fish
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