GAME OVER!!! – GOODBYE AUSTRALIA !!

Yes, the Australian “game” is almost over... few hours and i’ll leave this land...
I have really strange and controversial feelings about this leaving. First of all, as always happens when you have a good time, i have the feeling these months flied!! I can’t believe that, it’s already time to come back to the usual life...

Anyway, as i told to some of you, leaving so far from Italy made me understand how much i love my country, with its good and bad sides... yeah, even if here in Australia the life quality is high, i missed Italy and so it will be nice to come back to my “bel paese”.

But, at the same time, i feel a bit sad in leaving this country, with its natural landscapes of a stunning beauty! There are places i saw that i will not ever forget!
If i could choose, i’d like Australia be my usual destination for my future vacation!! Yeah, to live in my Italy and to spend my vacations and to relax in Australia, that would be perfect! But to get to Australia is “a bloody long way”... so i just hope to be able to come back here one day... this place is a quite common spot for the honeymoons, and who knows...
so, goodbye Australia, goodbye Sydney...

In this way this blog gets to the end as well. It finished its task, to tell you something about my life in Australia. Thanks to all of you for the attention and see you in Italy!


P.S. In the map, circled with red colour, you see the main cities/places i’ve been.

some relax in the tropics

In a long white sand beach, with the palms all around, with the warm weather of northern Queensland, with long hair (well, the longest i have ever had in the last ten years) and not shaved... in this relaxing way i'm spending my last days downunder...

cheers

Meeting with the Dalai Lama

My staying in Australia is getting to to the end. Less than 3 weeks by now for the coming back.
Among the many beautiful memories of my months here downunder, I’ll keep the experience of yesterday, when i went to attend a public talking of the Dalai Lama.

I’ve always been very interested in this figure, I consider him one of the most prominent spiritual and moral leader of our time. And, as a student in the international relations field, i admire him for his peaceful, not-violent way of promoting the cause of its people and its land, the Tibet. Probably some of you remember I told them initially i was going to do my final thesis about the Tibet and its peaceful fight for the autonomy.

Anyway, the Dalai Lama confirmed me all the good feeling i had about him. He’s a very charismatic person, that stirs up a special “attraction” like only Karol Woityla (John Paul II) was able to do.
In the first part of the conference he had a sort of lecture about the purpose of life, that is to say how we should try to live to make our life really meaningful.
In the second part there was space for questions from the audience. Unluckily only few people had the privilege to ask him questions.
I could appreciate his words of wisdom, quietness and irony sometimes.
I suggest to know more about this man, i think many of you could remain fascinated! Quite “funny” that the Chinese government consider him a “dangerous” political subversive only because he wants the world knows what happens in Tibet and to the Tibetan people under the Chinese oppression!

Exams period...and Euro2008 time!

Ahlan uahsalan!
(= just a greeting in arabic)
The exam period started for me the last week! Three days ago i had my first final exam! It was Arabic! You can see my main exercise in the photo!
Yeah, i’m able, more or less, to read and translate it now!
No, that doesn’t mean i can read and translate everything in Arabic, only some basic sentences... Actually, in this course i just learnt the basis of Arabic, it’s a so complex language... but to be able to read it’s a great satisfaction! I hope to go on studying it when i come back home.
The next week i’ll have my second final exam, international relations.

But, besides my exams period, even the football European Championship started yesterday!
All of you know my passion for football and my love for my national team, so you can guess how much i want to watch the matches of Italy. But here the problems come...
First, they don’t broadcast the matches on the normal channels on tv here in Australia, but only in pay per view. That means i have to found a pub, a place to watch them. And i found a place. But, the other big problem is that the matches, most of them, are at 4.45 a.m. in the morning!!! That means i have to go in the heart of the night to the city and i have to do that by public transports...and i have to come back home at dawn... so, will be “our hero” able to watch the matches of Italia? I’ll tell you!!!
In the meantime, forza Italia!! (ora si può dire, no? Il partito del pagliaccio ha cambiato nome, giusto?)… and anyway, just remember that SIAMO CAMPIONI DEL MONDO, popopopopopopopooooo

A weekend in the tropics... or in the Paradise??

In the last 2 weeks, i’ve been quite busy with the study. The final exams are coming and the time to study seriously has arrived. But the last weekend I decided to “present” myself some relax, far from the books and the uni life.

In Italy when I’m tired or stressed from work and want some relax, i take my car and i go to visit my parents, my brother, some friend or just to enjoy some nice places not far from Rome.

Here in Australia, I took a flight and i was in the tropics!
Actually, we’re having a nice weather in Sydney, mostly sunny days, but it isn’t warm enough any more to go to the beach. But I found a cheap flight to go to the north of Australia, 2000 km more in the north than Sydney, and you know, i’m a bit crazy sometimes when it comes to travel, so I didn’t think twice and i decided to go and breath the tropical atmosphere, even only for a couple of days.
There the weather was perfect, of course! My main aim to go there was to visit the Whitsundays islands. It’s a popular tourist spot here in OZ and when for the first time i saw a picture of these islands, i told myself: i must go there!

I took a boat trip to see these islands and...well, take a look at the pictures!
I can assure you that’s true, it is not a postcard or any fake image...You know i’ve travelled a bit in my life so far, and i visited many beautiful places... but the view i took in this tour maybe reaches the first place in my personal list! The first photo is probably the most beautiful I’ve ever done! And the second one, look at that wonderful large white beach, the beautiful colour of the sea-water: simply breathless! “Senza parole”, to say it in italian. That place is so gorgeous, so amazing to seem “fake”... you wonder if you’re dreaming or it’s all true...

I even had the chance to do some snorkeling near these islands... it’s a pity i hadn’t a water-resistant camera, but believe me, there’s an awesome show underwater! Corals, fishes of many colours, sea plants, what a marvel!!
Once again, after NZ, I felt almost “touched” to have had the chance to enjoy such amazing natural beauties.

To all of you that dream about an unforgettable trip, take a note of this place: Whitsundays Islands, Queensland, East coast of Australia.

a night in the stadium

When someone asks me what i miss most from Italy, I always reply: apart my dear people, 1)my car; 2) the real italian pizza; 3) the football (or soccer, like they call it here) matches .

For as concerns the car, i have no other choice than waiting for driving it again when i come back! I couldn’t come to Australia with it like i did during the Erasmus in Spain!

For the pizza, here in Sydney there’s a little Italian quarter. It isn’t very close to where i live (actually every place in Sydney is far from where i live!), but anyway when i really want something similar to a real pizza, i go there and i find a passable pizza! I’d have never thought i could miss my Egyptian pizzaiolo near house in Rome!

For the soccer, well, it isn’t the most popular sport in Australia. Here the most loved sports are : 1)rugby; 2) australian football (something very similar to rugby); 3) cricket (one of the most boring sport i’ve ever seen! Just think that a match usually lasts 7/8 hours!!!).
Anyway they told me here the soccer has become more popular after the last World Cup, so every now and then you see people playing it and even some matches on TV. In fact i.e. they broadcasted the most important matches of the Champions League and I could even see the final Manchester-Chelsea. The big problem in that case is the difference of time zone: to watch a soccer match live from Europe means to wake up at 4.30 in the morning! You can understand it’s quite uncomfortable!

So my lack of soccer pushed me to go to the stadium to watch a real soccer match the last Thursday. It was a friendly match, Australia vs Ghana. I was quite surprised for the audience, almost 30000 people is a considerable number for a friendly match. Let me to say the Australians have still to learn how to see a soccer match!! They get to the stadium even many minutes later after the match has started and some people seem more interested in chatting and eating snacks than in seeing what happens in the field! Actually the match wasn’t so spectacular and it will not remain in the history of football!! 1-0 for Australia, if you care...
And no doubt, it wasn’t the same thing than when in Spain i could enjoy a match in the Santiago Bernabeu!!

primi appuntamenti italiani

"Portami dove mi devi portare Venere,Marte o altri locali

fammi vedere che cosa succede a viaggiare davvero

Sei sempre così il centro del mondo

il primo bengala sparato nel cielo quando mi perdo

sei sempre così il centro del mondo

ti prendi il mio tempo ti prendi il mio spazio ti prendi il mio meglio"

Beato te, Liga, che l'hai trovato il "centro del mondo"!

In attesa di capire quale sia il mio,

per ora l'appuntamento è x il 18 luglio, stadio Olimpico, Roma:

io ci sarò!

Queensland

Lets leave the politics for a more pleasant topic: to tell you about the beauties of Australia.

So, i was saying you that after having visited New Zealand I flyed directly to Brisbane.

Brisbane is the third largest Australian city and the capital of the state of Queensland. The first thing I appreciated in Brisbane was the warm weather: in New Zealand it was a bit chilly sometimes, but in Brisbane we found a very warm and sunny weather. In Brisbane I spent only one day, but I had a nice feeling about that city! I know that only few hours is nothing to understand a city, but anyway i got the impression it’s a nice place where to live!

Well, the day after we moved towards the north and the Sunshine Coast.
But first we stopped at the Australia Zoo. Actually it isn’t a normal zoo, as you feel amost in touch with the animals. We saw all the “typical” australian animals and so finally I saw the kangaroos and could touch them! And the koalas as well!

After that, we spent the remaining time along the Sunshine Coast. Do you know because that part is called “Sunshine coast”? Because there are more than 300 days of sunshine in a year! In our little staying there, we tested that’s true: sunshine all the time long!

Before coming back to Sydney, we had a one-day guided tour in Fraser Island. This is a unique island, it is the largest sandy island in the world! There aren’t regular roads there, only sandy tracks! And in fact you can’t drive with a normal car, you need a 4x4. There aren’t houses or villages in the island, only a couple of hotels, one camping and almost the whole island is covered by forests! A paradise for the nature lovers! And long, long beaches! The beaches are used like normal motorways, and it was so strange and funny to see, on a beach, people walking, buses and 4x4 cars passing and even airplanes landing!!!! We took a flight with one of these little airplanes to have a view of the island from the high: it was really breathtaking! You can see the photo!
The only shame is you can’t swim in the sea, there are very strong currents and mainly it’s common to meet the sharks! We just saw one from the airplane!
But there are several lakes in the island where you can swim! The water is really crystal-clear! The photo i put is a proof!

Much more than Sydney, Queensland gave me the idea of being in Australia, or better according to the image i had of Australia! A very relaxed atmosphere, sunshine, warm weather, huge beaches...that’s really living the life, my friends!!
I just found the place where i want to go to spend my days when i’ll be retired!!

Iniziamo bene!

Quella che vedete è la prima pagina del quotidiano tedesco “Bild” che titola: “Mamma mia, il ministro più bello del mondo!”. Il ministro in questione è ovviamente Mara Carfagna!

Queste sì che so’ soddisfazioni! In Italia abbiamo, a detta dei tedeschi, “la ministra” + bella al mondo!
Non c’è che dire, si vede subito che il governo Berlusconi è tutta un’altra storia! Il governo Prodi annoverava tra le sue fila gente come Livia Turco e Rosy Bindi… il governo Berlusconi schiera gente come la Prestigiacomo e appunto la Carfagna! Mi viene in mente il film “Il mostro” di Benigni, e il suo celebre “e facci vedere il tuo ministero!”… vabbè, in attesa di vederle alla prova, come ministri intendo, per lo meno abbiamo qualcosa di + bello da vedere rispetto a Schifani e Bondi!


P.S. Alle ragazze che leggono questo blog e che sanno di essere carine, almeno un po’… siete ancora alle prese con i libri e l’università? Lasciate stare! Siete alla ricerca di un lavoro, anche da 1000€ al mese? Tempo perso! Iscrivetevi invece al PDL, unitevi anche voi ai giovani del partito delle libertà e fatevi vedere da sua santità…mmm,troppo presto… da sua altezza… no, non mi pare opportuno…insomma dal Presidente del Consiglio, e chissà che anche voi un giorno potrete diventare Ministro della Repubblica Italiana!

New Zealand - part II

NZ has less than 5 millions residents all together. So you can understand you can drive for kms and kms without meeting any car or any town.
For our second night we stopped in a very little town called Gore and following the suggestion of the “lonelyplanet” guide, we went to a hostel that was an ex fire station. I’ll spend few lines to tell about that. The hostel was actually like a house, with a great kitchen with all the utensils, a great dining room with TV, sofas, a piano, books, CDs, DVDs, the bedrooms and 2 big bathrooms. The atmosphere was so familiar! And it was so clean! We were the only guest at the beginning. There was no reception, but a girl (the owner or the manager), living in the close flat, came to open and explained us about it. They didn’t have a credit card reader, so we had to pay cash. But as we didn’t have it enough, we went to withdraw and to have a dinner first. When we came back, the girl wasn’t there anymore, we had the key to enter. We found on the table in the gate an envelope with our names, asking us to leave there the money!! It was shocking for me! The girl had not asked us any document or our personal details, only our names... so she didn’t know anything about us... but she trusted us and that we left the money there before going away the following morning!
I wanted to tell you this because so much the simplicity of those people impressed me!! My travel mates kidded me that i liked that hostel a lot because I fell in love with the girl there! That’s not true, of course. Moreover, in all the hostels where we were in NZ we paid in advance like normal, but nobody asked us the ID or the passport. You know that isn’t usual in the rest of the world, where they just take all your personal datas, just in case... therefore, it was so beautiful to see that there are places in the world where the people still trust the others.

After this long digression, i really have to run to tell you the rest of my trip!

Well, our next stop was the Fjordland National Park. There we drove across green valleys, through high mountains, along lakes, rivers and streams, we walked along tracks in the forest. And many times we had the impression to be “inside” the “lord of the rings” movie. In the evening we arrived in a place called Milford Sound, where actually the road just finished. “Sound” in this case in NZ stands for fjord, that’s the main feature of that part of NZ and Milford Sound was supposed to be one of the most beautiful!
The following morning, a beautiful sunny day, we had a short cruise in this fjord. I can simply say you this place is surely in my top-three list of the most impressive, amazing places where i have ever been!

After that, we moved towards Queenstown. Queenstown has only 10000 residents, but it’s a very popular spot among the tourists. It is just on a lake and it’s in a valley with high mountains all around. More, it’s the capital town of the extreme sports, something quite popular in NZ. Bungee-jumping was just born there, more there you can find all the kinds of crazy sports: rafting, gliding, skydiving, etc... you need to be brave to do that, more you need money! That’s the only thing a bit expensive in NZ!

A couple of days in Queenstown, then we moved towards the north. While driving, we admired other beautiful landscapes: lakes, valleys, mountains, creeks, forests... I really felt so good being in such a paradise! I’d just have wanted to catch all these views and keep in my memory forever! I took a lot of photos, i want to remember that such beautiful places exist in this earth!

So, the next step was at the glaciers. There are 2 glaciers in NZ, the Franz Josef and the Fox. They’re unique in their kind as they are only few kms from the sea and they aren’t in a very big height: both of them just “start” before the 1000m. With the luck of another beautiful sunny day, i did another new experience: i just walked for the first time on a glacier. I did it with a guided tour, i’m a man from a sea place, not so used to the mountains and the glaciers! Anyway, it was funny!
The glaciers were our last stop before coming back to Christchurch. There we found some time to go to a Maori heritage centre and to see a Maori performance... and to learn something about the Maori culture and language. Just if you’re interested, “Kia ora” means hello and welcome!

After 9 days, the time to leave arrived... I was a bit sad to leave NZ, but at the same time so happy to have had the luck to visit such a beautiful country!
To all of you, my suggestion is to go there once in your life! It’s far and it’s expensive to go there, i know... but if you have the chance one day, do that! You won’t regret!!

I’m posting only few of the photos i took. But believe me, the reality is even better!

New Zealand - part I

Are you looking for a piece of heaven in this earth?? Well, then go to New Zealand!
But lets start from the beginning...

After 3 hours of flying from Sydney we got to Christchurch, the biggest city in the Southern island of NZ. Let me to say it was a particular emotion to land and to put my feet on the ground of that country! I just remember when sometimes in the past, until the last year, i was glancing through an atlas and i saw this far country, New Zealand... the land of Maoris, the land where the Lord of the Rings was set, and mainly the country at the antipodes...and i thought “Will i ever be able to see this so far country one day?”. Instead, sooner than expected, on the 13rd of April 2008, i was there, i reached the antipodes!!

The first thing we noticed was that our mobile phones didn’t work...ehi, we are really in a remote part of the world, we thought! Later we discovered it was only a fault of our australian Vodafone cards, while my italian card worked regularly...

But, no more nonsense... the day after we took our rent car and we left for our tour of the southern island of NZ!
(Ops, just a digression: NZ is so cheap for many things!! Just to give you an example, we paid 13€ a day for the car and we slept in hostel for an average of 14 € a night! And most of the times, we got a private room only for us and many hostel were really clean and nice!).

Anyway, our first stop was on the east coast, in a place called Oamaru. There we saw a colony of penguins! A new experience: seeing live penguins for the 1st time! Even if that was the smallest species and we couldn’t take photos of them! It wasn’t allowed as the flash troubles them!
Anyway, going on our first night was in the town of Dunedin. We got there around 10 p.m. and we discovered it was too late to have dinner in any kind of place! You know, british times! Btw, we slept in a old manorhouse transformed in a hostel. Really cute!

The day after we had a look in the town centre and then we saw the Otago peninsula, when we started appreciating the wonderful landscapes of NZ! The road just run next to a bay and climbed on a promontory, with a great view. The “funny” thing was that the road was quite narrow and without any kind of guardrail! We also found some large and nice beaches...it was a pity it was a bit cold and not very sunny to have a bath!

Later, we drove towards the west coast. There are no motorways in NZ, but there is no traffic at all, so it was ok! Driving in this part, our more frequent view was about the sheep! No surprise, that’s New Zealand! Even if it’s called the land of the kiwis, sometimes i thought there were more sheep than people in that country!

Si, viaggiare...

Hi everyone! Come back after 2 weeks around Oceania!

After a great disappointment, you need a great happiness to forget it! So I did...
After the elections in Italy (no more comments about that...), i spent 2 unforgettable weeks travelling. All of you that know me a bit know how much I love to travel... that always makes me happy and relaxed. But i think to be able to say that never, never so far i had seen so many beautiful places in only 2 weeks!

I spent 9 days in New Zealand, in the South Island, and 5 days in Queensland in the north of Brisbane (East coast of Australia). Here i’m posting only 2 photos, like “appetizers” for you... even if i have hundreds that i’d like to show you! I took almost 400 photos in 2 weeks, the places where i was were so amazing!! I’ll try to tell you more in the details the emotions and the facts of my trip in the next days.

“Yes, we can!”

before leaving for New Zealand, let me to appeal to my italian friends:

per il fatto di trovarmi all’estero, domenica 13 non potrò esercitare il mio diritto di voto alle elezioni politiche. Nel 2008 l’Italia non è ancora capace di far votare i suoi cittadini che si trovano all’estero per studio o lavoro…ma questo è un altro discorso…

cmq, questo diritto lo potrete esercitare voi…lo so, la politica italiana è penosa e i nostri politici a volte ci danno la nausea… ma domenica andate a votare e cercate di scegliere il male minore!
Se nn si è capito, io penso che “yes, we can!”. Si, il male minore…
Se poi volete riconsegnare l’Italia al “cabarettista” di Arcore, per favore, almeno assumetevene la responsabilità! E tra 1 anno o due, quando si sarà rifatto qualche legge ad personam o magari avrà deciso di rimandare i militari italiani in Iraq… bè, abbiate il coraggio di non rinnegare di averlo votato!!

Vi saluto con alcuni versi del Liga:

“Buonanotte all’Italia
con gli sfregi nel cuore
e le flebo attaccate
da chi ha tutto il potere
e la guarda distratto
come fosse una moglie
come un gioco in soffitta
che gli ha tolto le voglie
e una stella fa luce
senza troppi perché
ti costringe a vedere
tutto quello che c’è
buonanotte all’Italia
che si fa o si muore
o si passa la notte
a volersela fare”.

To dive or not to dive?

...yes, this is the problem!
With a so blue and clean sea water, it’s just hard to resist the temptation!
Anyway, don’t envy me too much! The chances to enjoy some relax at the beach are reducing...
We’re in autumn now, the days are shorter, it starts getting dark around 6 p.m. and the weather is not as fine as 1 month ago...the last 2 days we got a lot of raining...uff...
More, this week i’m quite busy with the studying! After all, i’m not in Australia on vacation!!
But the Australian universities are very “generous”, so they concede 1/2 weeks of vacation to their students in the middle of semester. And, of course, i’m using this time to travel more! The next Saturday i’m leaving for a week in New Zealand. Many people suggest it for its enchanting natural landscapes...
Well, do you remember “the Lord of the Rings”? The movie was just set in NZ!
So i’ll have another country to tell you about!

The Eastern trip - part II

On the Easter day, with my trip mates (my italian flatmate and other 5 girls studying with me in Sydney) we rent 2 cars, we left Melbourne and we travelled along the Great Ocean Road, famous to be one of the most scenic and beautiful roads in Australia.

First of all, i have to confess you my “pleasure” in driving again! After more than a month without a car, I really enjoyed driving again! And it was my first time driving in the “wrong side” of the road! yeah, in Australia (like in England) the wheel is on the right side of the car and you have to drive staying in the left side of the road! It’s such a strange thing to drive in that way!! And as the Australians know that, they put a lot of road signs remembering “drive on the left in Australia!”. Anyway, i’m here telling you that, so that means I didn’t have any car accidents!!

Apart that, i drove along one of the most amazing roads i saw in my life! The road runs along the Ocean and across some forests. It’s a pity i’m not a photographer and i don’t have a professional camera, as I won’t able to let you to appreciate the beauty of those places at the most... i’m posting some photos, but believe me that the reality is much more better! You can’t see the blue of the ocean, you can’t really feel the presence of the nature... i could stay there for hours, admiring and enjoying those beautiful landscapes.
My God, how many wonderful places we have in our world and sometimes we forget or even we spoil them!

The road is also full of signs, telling you to be careful about the presence of the kangaroos! unluckily we didn’t see any and i could also took a picture with the road sign!! but, on the way back to Melbourne, crossing an eucalyptus forest, we saw some koalas! So i can confirm you, that’s true that in Australia the koala live freely! They just stay on the trees and sleep... they aren’t active animals at all! But they’re so sweet! And I realized another dream! Yeah, you don’t know that, but my first “teddy bear” when i was a child was a koala!!

the Eastern trip - part I

My Easter holidays passed so quickly! Anyway i was able to see another beautiful part of this country!

I spent the first 2 days in Melbourne. It’s known as the most European city in Australia and actually when you walk in the streets of the centre you understand that you could easily be in a Middle-European city.
There are a lot of nice restaurants and bars, many of them Italian. Actually in Melbourne you can “breath” the Italian presence, the Italians are the 2nd largest community there, so it can even happen to speak in a market with an italian seller about Inter – Juve and the Italian football championship!
(P.S. to my Italian friends: certo che il calcio è proprio strano!! Succede addirittura che la squadra + forte d’Italia, così piena di campioni, perde in casa con una squadra neopromossa dalla serie B! )

Sorry for the digression, the football passion is still in me, even here in Australia.... i was saying, I stayed in Melbourne only 2 days, but I got the impression it’s a place with a very good quality of living. Even if it’s a big city, it’s very quiet and relaxing... (even if i could have got a wrong impression as i was there during the easter holidays...)

Apart that, i’m happy to stay in Sydney! There’s a strong rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne to be the best in Australia...well, don’t think i’m “parochial”, but no doubt Sydney is more beautiful! Melbourne doesn’t have such impressive architectures like the Opera House, doesn’t have a wonderful bay or large white beaches like Sydney, has less green areas, has a more changeable weather...

The tale goes on ...

Happy Easter!

Tomorrow my Easter holidays will start. They are 4 days long and I’ll spend them going to visit the 2nd largest Australian city: Melbourne!
Before leaving, my best wishes to you and your dear ones for a happy Easter!

One day... “in Ireland”!

As I already told you, Australia is the multiethnic country par excellence and Sydney is really a melting-pot of people, races, religions, etc...

Well, one of the biggest community here is the Irish one and yesterday they celebrated their holiday: St. Patrick’s day!
First, there was a parade in the streets of the city, then the party moved to a park, that was transformed in a “piece of Ireland”: thousands of people dressed with green clothes, liters and liters of Guinness and a lot of celtic and good traditional irish music! To close the party, even the U2 came to perform: you can see Bono and friends in the pic! Ok, ok, not really...it was only a cover band... but people, the U2 music live, even by a cover band, is always sensational!

W the Ireland, W the nice Irish people!

The most famous Australian beach

Even if I’ve seen a so little part of this huge country so far, I’m quite sure this isn’t the most beautiful Australian beach... but it’s probably the most famous!

Ladies and gentlemen, this is Bondi Beach! It’s the largest beach in Sydney and it’s so popular: most of the tourist that come to Sydney don’t miss to see it! It’s a popular spot among the surfers too (even if actually I see the Australians surfing in each beach... that’s one of the biggest passions among the Aussies).

Anyway, many “posh” people are used to attend Bondi and believe me, both for the women and men eyes, there are many very good-looking people to admire here! (noo, i’m not showing you some examples, sorry...)

Amazing!

"Amazing" is the word that best describe my feeling at enjoying that view…
there are some place that are “magic”, that give you some particular “emotions”!
Well, the Sydney Bay is one of them! To see the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge by the Botanic Garden (photo 1) or by the ferry boat to Manly beach(photo 2) is one of the best views I’ve got in all my travelling so far!

Mardi Gras

First of all an important introduction: i didn’t change my sexual orientation, I’m still heterosexual!

Told that, I’m telling you about the “Mardi Gras”, one of the most important event in the year in Sydney!

Mardi Gras is nothing else than the gay-lesbian parade! But it’s not like a “gay pride” day we see in Italy or in any westerner country, it’s something much more funny! It’s like a carnival parade (for that is called “Mardi Gras”) with gay/lesbian people dancing and parading with any kind of dressing-up, and someone almost totally naked as well... Gays/lesbians from all over Australia and some ones from other countries (i.e. the USA) as well just come to parade in this occasion!
And a lot of people come and see the “party”! The news talked about an audience of more or less half million people!

I’d never have thought to go and see a gay parade “life” one day! I admit I’m quite a conservative person and i’ve been not always fully tolerant about that topic...
but i have to recognize that this parade is a funny and “intelligent” way to make the gay/lesbian matter more familiar and “acceptable” to the other heterosexual people!

Maybe i’ll never see something like that in Italy! We’re not such a tolerant country at all! And i don’t mean only owing to the Church and the Pope, that never would accept such an event!
Even not to let the Pope to talk in a university is a sign of a retrogade and intolerant country!

The parade was 2 hours and half long, so you can guess how many people took part in it!
The “strangest” thing of the evening was the weather: quite cold to be in a summer day!

What you see in the pic is not any of the parks in Sydney...it’s the campus of the Macquarie University, where it’s supposed i’ll spend most of my time here... just remembering i’m in Australia for study reasons, not only for fun!!

The campus is a very big area, with a lot of green spaces, the buildings of all the faculties where to attend the classes, some shops, a foodcourt, a theater, and a lot of sport facilities. And some student residences as well. So it’s almost everything a student needs!

The population of the campus is very heterogeneous! Well, first because the Australian society is very multiethnic, so you meet people of european origin but also people from asian descent, you can see women with the traditional islamic veil or Sikh indian men...
moreover there’s a very high number of international students. Two groups are the largest: the Japanese/Korean and the Americans.
We Europeans are a minority and I did meet few Italians so far!

The Australian university system is a bit different from the italian one. They have distinction between lectures (about the same than an italian lecture) and tutorials (that are little groups class, where you have discussions, group works, debating... they are compulsory). They require you to do some work during all the course, every week, sometimes readings, sometimes essay.

I had my first week of classes... I have to admit that some have been really hard! I mean that in some classes i understood not more than the 50% of what the teacher was telling. It’s just happening what i was afraid of... i don’t have the chance to practice english in Italy (i mean, speaking and listening it), so here my difficulties with the language come! My listening skills are not so great yet to understand an academic lecture... and, guess what? The lesson i understood best is the Arabic one!! I mean, for the ones who don’t know it yet, i decided to take an elementary Arabic course as well here. It’s another way to test myself, more the Arabic is a quite “popular” language in the international relations field by now, so it could be useful one day. As the arabic teacher is not english native speaker, i understand her well. So after the first week, i can say the Arabic was the easiest subject for me! and i learnt the first 5 letters of the arabic alphabet! I can write them, but... sorry, i can’t show you that!!

Moreover, my being still a bit uncomfortable with the language causes me some difficulties in the social relations as well!! When the australians (or the americans) speak quickly or with a particular accent, it becomes not easy at all and “tiring” for me to keep the conversation!

anyway, one of the biggest aims for my coming to Australia is to improve my english, so i hope and i think with the passing of the time the things will go better...

The 4 days in Adelaide

I’m a week late with the telling of the events, but I can’t miss to tell you about my 4 days in Adelaide the last week.

As someone doesn’t know, i explain that i’m here in Australia for an exchange project between European and Australian universities about the Global Citizenship. The first part of the project provided that all the European students met at Adelaide for a 3 days program of lectures, workshops and cultural visits.

Well, we left in a cloudy morning from Sydney, with a 20° C temperature, and after 2 hours of flying we just got to a sunny, hot Adelaide : 38°C!! Ah, from Sydney to Adelaide, placed in the Southern Australia, there’s 30 mins of time-zone difference!

We were taken at our accommodation: a sort of bungalow in a camping! We just expected something better, as the last year, for the same project, the other student stayed in a four-stars hotel! Anyway, the good thing was that the camping was only 50 meters from the beach! So in a while we left our belongings in our rooms and we run to the beach! And in 5 minutes we were taking our first bath in the Australian waters! You can guess about the sea-water, transparent of course!...and no jellyfishes and no sharks luckily!! Instead what’s dangerous is the sunshine: it’s very “strong”, i had to “throw” my sun protective cream n. 10 and use a cream +30. In Australia they’re very careful about the sunburns, they always say you how dangerous it could be, mainly because the ozone hole is just over Australia!
By the way, it was my first time swimming in February, while in Italy (like someone told me) the temperature was about 5°C!
And after some time we saw some guys playing with a ball and... do you know what happen when 3 italian men see a ball?? In a moment it started a soccer match on the beach: Italy vs Australia. We are the world champions and (obviously) we won!!! Io in Italia a giocare a calcio se nn sono una pippa poco ci manca, in mezzo agli australiani ero un fuoriclasse!! Queste sì che so’ soddisfazioni!!!

Later we met the other European students: we were 7 from Roma, 7 from Utrecht (Holland), 7 from Malmoe (Sweden) and 2 Australians. The first night we went together for a (typical?) fish&chips... simple terrible!!! i’d have prefered a pizza, but i have to adapt to the living abroad, so...

The days passed quickly, some lectures, some workshops and some visits to museums and cultural centres. the most interesting was the one to an Aborigin culture centre, where an Aborigin guide talked us about their culture and played the dijeridoo. Really funny!
All these days with a temperature around 35-37°.

The final day we had to do a presentation about the work done and at the end we had a formal dinner for the closing of the program. People, we had champagne with oysters and very good food! For the first time, i ate the kangaroo meat! I know some of you are shivering at the idea of eating kangaroos, but here it’s not strange. And the kangaroo meat is quite tender and not fat at all!
Food apart, we spent some great time together, learning more about the multicultural australian society and socializing among us!
Ehi men, you can understand me, it was quite hard not “to fall in love” with some of those girls I met there!!! you see the group final photo to understand what i mean!!!

The beginning...

As many people asked to me, i “gave birth” to this blog to inform all of you about my life in Australia.
It will be mostly in English, this is “my” language now and moreover in this way all of you can understand.


I got to Australia 12 days ago and i’d have so many things to tell already...I’ll try to make a resume...

Lets start from the beginning. You know, the flying time to Australia was very long (about 20 hours!) but good. I flyed by Singapore Airlines, that’s a very good airline, the flight attendants are so cute and helpful!
From the air, the most spectacular view was the Australian desert, huge, with red sand and rocks, ...and i was even able to take a pic of the famous Ayers Rock!! The quality is not excellent, but from the air you can’t expect much...

Once landed, you can guess, we are looking forward for getting to new “house”, but... a line for the cheching passports and another one for the “quarantine” was waiting for us! They check your baggage to see if you have food, plants, anything that can “spoil” the Australian “ecosystem”. Actually I got the impression that’s only a form of trade protectionism!

We found a person from the Macquarie Univ. (my australian university) picking us up and leaving to our apartment. In the way to “home”, we got the first impression about how huge this city is.
So, after 12 hours of flying from Rome to Singapore, 3 hours of waiting in Singapore, 8 hours of flying from Singapore to Sydney, 1 hour and half in the airport for the checks and 1 hours by car we got to our new apartment!!

It’s in a very nice residential area, with villas, little buildings, with a lot of green areas, we can clearly smell the eucalyptus trees, to hear the chirping of the birds... it’s a quite romantic atmosphere, don’t you think? More we have the chance to use a tennis court or a little swimming pool for free just downstairs.
The apartment is even quite large, and we’re only 2 people. So isn’t it wonderful?

Actually there are some incoveniences. We’re 20 minutes walk from the campus, where we’ll have the lectures, where there are some little shops and the library where i can use internet! Yeah, that’s a quite big problem: internet is less widespread than in Italy, to get wi-fi connection in the apartment is very expensive or they ask you to get a 2 year long subscription...
At the end i suppose i’ll use internet only at the university...it’s a pity even because it’s quite difficult to stay in touch by skype... we also have to consider here we are10 hours later than in Italy, so it isn’t easy to be on-line at the same time!

The first day after our arrival we had our first visit of the campus. We’re not used to live in a campus in Italy, so it’s something new for us. It’s a very large area, with hundreds of buildings, sport fields, gym, pool, meadows, ecc... all very nice, but if not a car, a bike would be very useful to go around! We often think about buying it and we’re waiting for a good occasion.

In the meantime, my legs and my feet started working so hard! Well, you could say: “Why don’t use the public transports?”. Sure, we do, but the bus that passes near to us isn’t very frequent, often it’s once in a hour... And during the week there are no night buses!! The first night we went to Sydney we had to catch a taxi to come back home! The Australians told us there are night buses only in the weekend, they explained that they (the Australian students) also work during the week, so they don’t have the chance to go out at night.
Anyway, to go to the city is not less than 40 mins, more than 1 hour during the rush-hours. With a lot of curses, we realized that a lot of time in Australia will be spent in a bus, or waiting for a bus, or just walking!!! I just MISS MY CAR!!!!!

In the weekend we had our first visit of Sydney during the day. It was such an emotion to cross the Harbour Bridge, to see the Opera House and the Darling Harbour of Sydney not anymore in a pic, but “live”! Ehi people, I did it, I’m really being in Australia!!
I’ve to say thank you to God and some other people for having got that... and maybe also thank you to myself: if i got this grant, that’s also thanks to the weekends and the nights spent studying ...