Il mio Overseas a Sydney, Australia (Gen-Lug 2007)... e il mio periodo di Tesi all'Estero a Rotterdam/Utrecht, Olanda (Ott 2007-Mar 2008)!

25th May – BoS/7: Blue Mountains Trip/3

For a day I could put my head somewhere else, even if the thought of the girl you know was always present. She didn’t come because she had already been there with UTS the Sunday after Easter. Furthermore it was a long time we were not seeing each other, I didn’t even know if the boyfriend was still there!
Anyway finally I did what I am capable to do. I organised a trip and gathered a lot of people, 24 including me. It cost $11,60 for concession holders and $23,20 for those who hadn’t got concessions. Nothing compared to the $79 asked by UTS for the same trip (plus a short stop at the Olympic Park, which means that the UTS time at Blue Mountains has been less). So I also made people saving a lot of money, another reason of which I had to be happy.
But the best of the trip had been the appreciation showed during and after it, with the applauses, throws in the air and texts and emails saying “thank you”, together with the new friends that everyone made that day.
Maybe too late, but at least for a day I could raise my hands to the sky.

Postato da: DexterH46 a 21:45 | link | commenti
holiday, sydney, mountains, the battle of sydney

25th May – Blue Mountains Trip/2

At every lookout we stopped for some minutes. Then, having a look to the map, the leading crew noticed that we had to be faster if we wanted to complete the trip in time to let some of the participants catching the train to be back at Sydney Central by 6.30 PM.
The leading crew was basically composed by me, as the leader and organiser, plus Zjenja (without his help many decisions would have been much more difficult) and sometimes Ish (good suggestions to improve the pace of the crowd) or Nico (he brought a great number of people, so he had to be in the leading crew!).
When the first people started to notice their empty stomach, we decided to have a break.

Postato da: DexterH46 a 11:30 | link | commenti (2)
holiday, sydney, mountains

25th May – Blue Mountains Trip/1

On Friday 18th a group gathered by me had to go to the Blue Mountains, but when we woke up in the morning it was raining, and the cameras we could find on the internet about the Blue Mountains were showing us that it was not the best weather ever to go there.
I received phone calls from 7AM, which means as soon as I turned on my mobile, to 8.30 AM, with no breaks, and we decided together to postpone the trip and do it one week later. Prize "legend of the day" went to Tobias. At 13.33 I got his text saying "obiouvsly it was a good decision not to go, still rain". At 13.40 the sun came out. So I wrote him "Tobi... next time please text me at 7.30 in the morning in case it rains, so we can go anyway! ;-)" .
The following Friday the weather was much better. A bright sun was shining on the sky and a few more people knew about the trip and decided to join the group.
We met at around 8AM at the train station where the crowd was waiting for me. We bought our tickets and jumped on the train but... damn! The train broke down before leaving the station so we had to move to another train and our trip started with a 30 minutes delay.
We reached Katoomba station a bit later than expected, and looked for a detailed map. Our search was unsuccessful, but no worries, we were ready to have a great day, and that was the most important thing!
Before starting to walk we took a picture all together. One, two, three... 24 people! Not bad, do you agree?

Postato da: DexterH46 a 22:41 | link | commenti (1)
holiday, sydney, mountains

17th May – BoS/6: Bed bugs

My sentimental troubles hadn’t been the only one in this adventure in Sydney. I already mentioned the infection I had on my foot before going to Melbourne. And after a few days I came back from Melbourne I started experiencing something strange on me after the few hours I could sleep at night.
Every morning I woke up with red spots on my arms, and a great itch on them. For a couple of weeks I thought they were mosquito’s bites, then when I went with Maria and Eva in the centre to make a present for my friend Alessandra, I had been told that they could have been bed bugs. Small animals (maybe insects? I can’t remember very well...) that during the day hide inside the mattress and during the night come out to bite you and get your blood, the only thing that make them surviving.
As soon as I switched room with the Australian Phil and gained the double room together with Alessandra, my Aussie flatmate (who was much better informed than me about these small animals) found out the bed bugs. So we had to work hard and go on with disinfestations of all the three rooms on the first floor. We had to clean all our clothes as well. I did it and you can see a proof here, with all my clothes (plus the bedlinen) amassed once dried in the dryer.

Postato da: DexterH46 a 10:37 | link | commenti
accomodation, the battle of sydney

12th May – BoS/5: Even in the library

All the pain I had to tolerate wasn’t enough. It may seem incredible: for a period I tried my best to meet Eva so I could tell her everything, regardless the answer I would have got, and I couldn’t meet her because either she was ill or she had to study. Then the man arrived and maybe the best thing, at least for my heart, was not to see them together.
I was in the library, borrowing a book to learn German, something I wanted to do since I arrived in Sydney. I took the book and walked down the stairs to the checkout but when I got to the first floor the unexpected happened again. Maria, Eva and her boyfriend were there, just right the corner, and I found them in front of my face, with no way to go somewhere else. Luckily the library was about to close, so I was forced to go one more floor down to check my book out. But before doing that I had to hear from the man that “the best people come from Carinthia“. Well, about girls I agreed with him. But I couldn't say anything about boys, everything seemed to collapse on me. And it wasn’t finished: then I had to see them kissing on the mouth in front of me. I could only bend my head down, it was like someone was telling me “you’d rather go away”. And I did, before seeing them again at the exit, when her usual smile turned this time to a much more serious face, making me wonder hat did I do to deserve that.

Postato da: DexterH46 a 22:00 | link | commenti (1)
sydney, uts , the battle of sydney

8th May – BoS/4: Because I said so

Another Tuesday, another movie. It was virtually impossible to go away. Furthermore I was there and I could not leave the place without telling the girl I loved all my love for her. I could not even give up, I was there representing my Uni, my family, my friends. The Doctor would have stayed there, until the end, even after such a big blow. It was Tuesday, anyway I still had my Advanced Manufacturing Lab from 5.30 to 7.30 PM, so I could not join the Ultimate Frisbee trainings anymore (they were from 6 to 8), but running home after Uni would have given me the opportunity to go to the cinema with the others.
This time Spiderman 3 was out from a few day: to get there and watch it one should have been there quite in advance to secure a seat because of the great demand. Furthermore my roommate Alessandra had already seen it on Saturday so we decided to go there not in a rush: we would have seen something else.
Knowing that a couple (you know which one) could have been there I didn’t feel very comfortable. I was right, the couple was not in the queue for “Spiderman 3”: they suddenly appeared from nothing. I could not believe my eyes, I didn’t want to believe them, so I started to talk to Alessandra (holy girl!) and we chose “Because I said so”, purchased the tickets and took our seats in the room.
The incredible had still to come anyway. The movie was about to start and... who entered in the same room to watch the same movie? Try to guess... yes, correct answer. Furthermore my seat was next to the stairs and they passed just next to me, with Ale whispering me “don’t turn now”. After a few seconds I understood why.

Postato da: DexterH46 a 20:15 | link | commenti
cinema, sydney, the battle of sydney

5th May – BoS/3: “Her boyfriend arrived today”

But that night, great for nearly everyone, turned into the darkest one for me around midnight.
The conditions of Nicola were not the best ever, so Maria decided to bring her home and then come back. Since two girls (and then one) shouldn’t go around alone around midnight, especially if they have drunk a good quantity of alcohol, I offered myself to go and escort them on the way to Chippendale and back because, being a boy who always goes around that area at night, I could have been of some help for them. I caught them when they were close to Nicola’s house, so everything was safe. We left Niky on her bed in her house in Abercrombie Street, and then walked back to the BBQ at my place in Redfern. While approaching to my place I asked Maria where the other guys were, since only the two girls and Philip were there. She told me that after the New Zealand trip Pascal was still making up the lost time in terms of studying, while Eva could not come because “her boyfriend arrived today”. I could resist saying something for the following ten seconds, pointing out that she was weird coz she asked me if she could have joined the BBQ while we were at the cinema a few days earlier. I thought she was ill again or had to study a lot. I never expected that answer who broke my heart in a thousand parts. So I parked my bike and went alone on the bench in front of the house.

Postato da: DexterH46 a 09:16 | link | commenti
party, the battle of sydney

5th May – Goodbye Dusan BBQ/2

It was plenty of people, definitely the biggest number of participants so far for a “home” BBQ.
An Italian team was present, with three Italians who actually were residents: Federica, Alessandra and me.

Postato da: DexterH46 a 12:06 | link | commenti
party, sydney, accomodation

5th May – Goodbye Dusan BBQ/1

A legend of 62 Redfern Street decided to leave UTS and his studies in Sydney. Dusan re-named UTS as University of Total Suck because they had been very bad with him, forcing him to take some courses instead of others and giving him no opportunity to attend what he wanted to.

Furthermore he had a girlfriend in Europe, and this helped him in taking his decision to leave Australia.

He really deserved a farewell party so we organised a BBQ. Furthermore Emilie from France had just joined the flat and Alessandra from Italy did the same, so we had two more excuses to make it, to say “welcome” to the two girls.

Some people went on the BBQ taking care of the meat while some others were just relaxing and chatting in our backyard. In this picture Harrison, Nash and Dusan from the house, together with Luciano, were cooking the food, while Zjenja and Cote were among those who chatted and relaxed while taking some pictures.

Postato da: DexterH46 a 14:03 | link | commenti
party, sydney, accomodation

4th May – Exams dates

At the beginning of May the exams dates were released. They were not definitive, anyway they were likely to be so.
My first exam would have been on Tuesday 12th June, the second on Tuesday 19th June, then the day after on Wednesday 20th June and the final one on Tuesday 26th June. Looking at this timetable I must admit I have been quite lucky, exams (except from the pair on 19th and 20th) were far one from the other. Looking at my friends’ timetables maybe I haven’t been so lucky. Someone was finishing on the 22nd, someone on the 20th, someone the week before, someone even at the beginning of June, around the tenth. It meant that while the others could start making plans of going somewhere in Australia I had to stay in Sydney and study. Not the favourite hobby for an exchange student in such a big and wonderful country so far away from his own one.

Postato da: DexterH46 a 21:39 | link | commenti
holiday, sydney, uts