Sunshine State & North Stradbroke Island

Life is finally as it should be. Yesterday a new Aussie friend of mine let me
borrow a skateboard and an acoustic guitar. I'm the happiest kiddo alive.

Everything’s okay now. It’s all really challenging you know, traveling around and living together with people with extremely diverse interests and needs. I’m like used to live pretty much on my own, have my own bathroom in my own flat etc. And why is normal hygiene always a big issue among flatmates? Fuck, pardon my language. I seem to have grown into a nagging old freak or something. Probably not that bad, but I can’t wait to be the queen of my own castle again. Won’t be that long though. Just ordered flight tickets to Perth, where I’m going alone to visit some family for about ten days. November 6th – 17th. Lovely! Can’t wait. Even though they got sharks, the surf in Perth is said to be awesome. I’ll go there four days after I come back from our two week trip to Vietnam where we travel as a group. I also ordered tickets to the Harvest Festival in Brisbane – November 18th. Santigold, Dark Dark Dark, The War On Drugs, Fuck Buttons, Dark Horses, Grizzly Bear, The Dandy Warhols, and Sigur Rós are some of the headliners. !!! Anyway. Saw some autumn pictures from Norway earlier today, and I noticed that the only thing I miss except my folks are the colours. Explored more of West End of Brisbane together with my new friend James yesterday, and found a music pub which serves nachos and live music. For my major assignment I have decided to explore how up-and-coming bands in the Queensland area can afford to keep on traveling around playing gigs, record and make music. My main focus will be how new bands work their way up from nothing to become recognised bands that actually get paid and gain profit from their concerts.

Most common, just like for us back in Norway, independent and unsigned bands play gigs for free just to get recognised by the audience. There’s a long way to go – to get acknowledged by the bigger crowds. I’ve been to a couple of band-stand nights already, but I guess there will be more research and digging into the musical environments here in Brisbane the upcoming weeks. Think I’ll place a holdon the AC/DC bibliography at the library. Gotta start somewhere. Now I have to focus on environmental issues faced in Norway and Australia. Minor assignment. Yay. Outside the sun is shining and the city streets are overflowing with kids and families back home on holiday. Tomorrow, hopefully, I’ll go to Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise or Byron Bay. Been trying to get someone or anyone from my class to join me for like three weeks (I seriously can’t believe people can be that dull), and I’m starting to realise I’m a lonely weirdo on this trip. But, now that I got a skateboard to follow me I guess I don’t mind fooling around on my own.

Last week we visited North Stradbroke Island, located in the state of Queensland, 30 km southeast of the capital Brisbane. Wikipedia says that before 1896 the island was part of the Stradbroke Island. In that year a storm separated it from South Stradbroke Island, forming the Jumpinpin Channel. It is known colloquially as Straddie. To get there we had to take a ferry from Cleveland to Dunwich for about forty minutes, and then our hippie bus took us to the other side of the island, up North to Cylinder Beach where we went for a swim in the Coral Sea. Afterwards we went back to near Dunwich for a boomerang and digeridoo workshop.

It’s a jungle out there! Heading for the salty water. Finally.

I’m a crazy tree lover so you can imagine how fascinated I get. The forests in Aussie is far more interesting than the boring Norwegian ones. Last week I climbed one just to get away from everything and everyone, at Kangaroo Point where I live. Trees. Haha. Recorded and made a song of it too. Monkey in a tree, that’s me.

A shame we didn’t go to the other side of the island, Main Beach, where the surf spots are located. Next time!

Since I came to Aussie I’ve been swimming in rivers, hot springs, pools and stuff, but nothing beats the ocean. I almost started crying when we finally got there. I’m too sentimental, I know.

Awesome! Looks just like the woods in Jurassic Park! And there’s baby dinosaurs all over the place! They say Australia has 755 species of reptiles, making it the country with the highest number in the world.

I just love sand between my toes. Sand, sand, sand. Waves, waves, waves. Ah, life. I guess I love my life right now.

Best feeling ever, except from surfing green, sweet waves.

Me and some other classmates at the beach!

Guess the picture speaks for itself. We had fun there body surfing and splashing around for an hour or so before we saw …

A live koala in a tree!!! Unfortunately he or she find herself living in the middle of a street in neighbourhood where you find dogs, cars and other things that would kill you – if you were a koala.

Then we went to learn some more about indigenous dance and music traditions.

Digeridoo. Women aren’t allowed to play, but lucky me has tried one of those back in Norway. The man who led the workshop was carzy good at it, and we were all dragged into the atmosphere and sounds he created with the digeridoo. He demonstrated and played us a song or a story, imitating different kinds of birds, water, humans and so on while he was playing.

Me and some of my classmates. Photo by Henriette Gauteplass Rygg.

Anne Berit in the mood. Instruments used for all sorts of occasions – like dancing traditional dances. We also learnt some hunting and fishing dances, but I didn’t get any pictures from it.

I had to try them too!

Indigenous face paint. Afterwards the awesome digeridoo-man painted all of our faces with clay, the native way.

Our mission for the day. Painting our own boomerangs!

All in deep concentration. Focused. Just like children’s school – we kids loved it!

Then suddenly it started raining, a storm on the way, and I had to finish my boomerang under a table. Photo by Una Brännström Sverdrup.

Photo by Una Brännström Sverdrup.

Me and my crappy painted boomerang. Photo by Una Brännström Sverdrup.

Haha. Then we we’re throwing boomerangs till the storm arrived.

Raining outside, happy kiddo and her new toy. Photo by Henriette Gauteplass Rygg.

Storm. It was raining cats and dogs and cows and whales and what have you. Photo by Una Brännström Sverdrup.

TUNEZ TODAY: FOO FIGHTERS – ONE BY ONE. Been listening to the album on repeat the last couple of days. And to the rest of you readers, I’ll be back with more photos and updates from Aussie later. Love K.

Butterflies

They sure got an extra pair of wings, those butterflies in my stomach.

As I’m writing these words I’ve just started my adventure. This weekend me and some beloved lady-friends of mine went to the oldest known rock festival in Norway – Glopperock. Good times. I got a thing for these small festivals. Last Thursday me and my band VITO performed four songs at Open Mic in Volda. Last night we had our last jam session in 6 months. Got a Thin Lizzy LP – Black Rose A Rock Legend, as a going-away-present from my drummer. Then I got REALLY sentimental, and wrote a new song. Tears wont stop us being productive! Now I’m back in Tomrefjorden to say some good byes to my family. Gonna miss them, much! After a stressful summer I eventually notice the seasons ripe for change. Tomorrow I’ll head for the rail way station, one hour drive to a small town called Åndalsnes, located in the middle of Møre og Romsdal. Then it’s off to the state capital Oslo, baby. Then to Asker, to visit my love Nico. Monday September 3rd calendar says byebye everything I know – hello AUSTRALIA.

Along with 19 other fellow students on the Austral-Asian Culture program I’m going down under. To see the sun, to taste the salt water.. To get away. To the land of convicts, explorers, and adventures. Tomorrow on the train I’ll start dig down in history. A concise history of Australia – by Stewart Macintyre, pensum. Kangaroos and wallabies. Crocodiles and sharks! Can’t wait to see one! Got the rest of my stuff packed today. Credit card, passport, and my backpacker sack – CHECK! Hope everything goes smoothly with the tickets and stuff. Everything’s good to go. But, I guess with my pre history of bad karma I’ll forget my luggage at the wrong platform, oversleep, or get stuck in the doorway or something.. On the other hand I’m the luckies daydreaming bum since mom will take me to the train station. I’m not too good with time tables, busses, or any public transport, no doubt about that. I’ll cross my legs, arms, and fingers just to be sure… My sense of direction and intuition will be far more better in the next couple of weeks, I wish. Never thought it would be easy to get outta here. This great big challenge, I’ll have it anyway.

At the end of our first week in Brisbane our class will head out on a field trip to the outback of New South Wales, Bourke. I’ll post an update on the excursion later! The following five weeks I’ll be sharing apartment and travel with two happy guitar playing blokes named Martin and Marius, and an open minded globetrotter named Anne Berit. We don’t know each other that much yet, but I have to say at this point I’m pretty excited! Hippie spirit! That’s it for now. Gotta catch some rest before the new day arrives. Take care. Love K.

TUNEZ TODAY:  The Distillers – Coral Fang (Album)

School’s up

Got all these nerves in a bundle. Don’t know if I’m scared, awkwardly shy, or just bashful about telling folks how I really feel. My knees are shaking, and inside my head – though I have never been there – I swear it’s JUST like Disneyland. Everything’s blinking, beeping, twisting, and turning. Bet some of it’s jumping too.

View from the place we’re staying in Brisbane – Kangaroo Point. I can get used to this!!! Mad. Pic downloaded here.

First thing I gained today was the knowledge that if you go East it takes one hour drive from Brisbane to locate the first surf spots. Up North, approximately one and half hour drive before you get great shores and waves. Whoop! I also learned the fact that I’ll have to befriend a surf-loving driver who’s in the possession of a real driver’s license. Or, I knew that already, BUT, we’ve been talking about this well known phenomenon – long distances. Very long distances. On the Australian continent there’s a lot of them. I guess I’ll forget about my favorite  activity as a non-driving hippie; walking. That was a joke, I prefer skating and bicycling. But neither will do. Gotta learn how to trust planes and cars. If there’s anyone in the Queensland area who’s up for surf in the middle of September let me know!

First day in my new class, and we’ve just started with the introduction course of the Austral-Asian program. Been chatting with some teachers from Brisbane, and we have started discussing different topics of our main major assignment. Children’s theater, shadow plays, masks, clay, costumes, traditions, plays, puppet theater, school system, vietnamese theater, aboriginal theater, culture for children – how is the situation compared to Scandinavia? And then there’s music! Oh, I’m such a nerd.

Australian phrase of the day: “No worries mate!”

The whole class had to say it out loud. At the same time. Awkward, and we all acted like small giggling girls. In front of the old school black board compassionate eyes of an urban globetrotter woman told me we still have a long way ahead of us. Not sure if our stuttering Norwenglish blew her away anywhere. Gotta work on my dialect! Then they started all this talk about spiders… and I went to get lunch. Now it’s back to class. Information about the seven day trip into the outback, more specific Bourke – is about to be given. I’ll welcome it with open arms! Stoked! Love K.

TUNEZ TODAY: Natural Mystic – Bob Marley & The Wailers, Flake – Jack Johnson, The Letter – Xavier Rudd,
Collie Man – Slightly Stoopid.