Dangerously easy life

For the first time in my life I find myself in an environment that offers me anything I look for: despite its beauty and the many beloved people that my home sweet home take cares of, in Sicily it could be more difficult to find an acting course, or some other out of the box activities offered with quality.

Now I'm in a place where the language spoken and the opportunities offered make up a combination a can take advantage of.

I have been to 2 acting classes so far: the teaching methods are pretty interesting and let us step back to our childhood: lot of games and learning by enjoying... in fact not that different from many AIESEC things... always good fun!
Although it may be still a bit early to really find out what I'm getting out of this course, I must say that a good first result is already achieved: meeting interesting people.
Being there, challenging yourself in a room full of unknown faces for something like acting, not really that common, it means to me a good deal of courage and will to step out of the box and give some spicy to your life: it's by default that I like those people attending the acting course with me!

However, is not just the acting classes or any other activity I'm considering to pick up that made me reflects of the easy life Sydney offers.

First of all the people: Australians drink a good deal... but unlike many European cultures, their drinking is not a tool they need to open up and becoming social animal. They generally are opened and easygoing people. Their "G'day mate, ou are you?" has being pretty frustrating at the beginning: everyone you meet will ask you this question... it's not that is annoying to reply every time... but more because you actually don't need to reply! It's a question that doesn't need an answer... they ask but they actually don't care, and what's more frustrating is that it does NOT introduce, most of the time, any further friendly chat.
Still, it a sign of people ready to talk to you: asking information on a street or try to start a chat with the shop's employee and you'll get something back... they seems positive and smiling people!

And Australian are into sport... people run, ride, serf... almost any kind of sport including those unknown overseas... with, I believe, excellent results on the balance of each individual doing sport. At 5pm all the offices get empty and pubs populated... plenty of activities are offered in any forms and the weekends could be easily filled in with anything you like.
Full of restaurants of any traditions and tastes, and with green parks in the very middle of the city, some relaxing time is soon taken.

Last but not least, Sydney is a big city, mostly sunny, that offers jobs opportunities at any levels: either you are a European students who can get a working/studying visa, or a local person looking for a new job that could easily be bus driver: "Everyday people queue to see me" ...that's what the job offers ad (for becoming a bus driver) says on the bus and also what the funniest driver ever stood up and shout when we were stopping at the red of a traffic light!

He, which name I regret I didn't ask, was welcoming and selling tickets to all new passengers with funny comments... seconds after the trip from the city centre to Bondi started, he provided us with some daily news: cricket results and the latest news from president Bush... he politely nick-named sweetheart a girl who looked lost and asked for some information... then, prior describing it as the best women's underwear shop in the area and as soon as he opened the doors at the stop just in front of the shop, he probably couldn't help to shout out how much he liked that bra!!

An excellent example of how emotional intelligence influence our life in a much more relevant way of our IQ, our bus driver had the power to make everyone in the bus smiling and many, like me and the girl sitting beside, decided it was better to put away our book travel companion and just listen to him and his funny talks.

Now, I'm not saying that all Australians are like the bus driver... but 2 months into my new adventure I definitely came up with the conclusion that, with its people, weather and surrounding, social and business life, Sydney definitely is an easy place to live in.

But then I wonder: wouldn't it be dangerous to get use to all that?!

Dies slowly

Dies slowly he who becomes the slave of habit, repeating every day the same itineraries, who never changes pace, who does not risk and change the color of his clothes, who doesn't talk to whom doesn't know.

Dies slowly he who shuns passion, who prefers black on white, dotting ones "is" rather than a whirlpool of emotions, the kind that make your eyes glimmer, that turn a yawn into a smile, that make the heart pound in the face of mistakes and feelings.

Dies slowly he who does not overthrow the table when is unhappy at work, who does not risk certain for uncertain to thus follow a dream, he who do not forego sound advice at least once in their lives.

Dies slowly he who does not travel, who does not read, who does not listen to music, who does not find grace in himself.

Dies slowly he who destroys his self love, who does not accept somebody's help.

Dies slowly he who passes his days complaining of his bad luck or the rain that never stops.

Dies slowly he who abandons a project before starting it, who fail to ask questions over a subjects that does not know or who doesn't reply when asked about something he knows.

Let's avoid death in small doses, always reminding oneself that being alive demands an effort by far greater than the simple fact of breathing.Only a burning patience will lead to the attainment of a splendid happiness.

Pablo Neruda

Seven weeks Down Under

A lot of time loads of adventures since the last time I posted... Now I'm back with this super posting: 10 easy steps to get to know Sydney through my eyes and my life with Sydney's background!
With a click you can jump to the chapter you are more interested in! Enjoy...

1. Introduction to Down Under
2.First impact!
3.AIESEC reception
4.Living place and flatmates
5.Working place
6.Myself
7.Hunter Valley
8.Social life
9.Missing India?
10.Australian sports
11.Coming next

1. Introduction
[...] we pay shamefully scant attention to our dear cousins Down Under - though not entirely without reason, I suppose. Australia is, after all, mostly empty and a long way away. Its population, about 19 million, is small by world standards - [...] From time to time it sends us useful things - opals, merino wool, Errol Flynn, the boomerang - but nothing we can't actually do without. Above all, Australia doesn't misbehave. It is stable and peaceful and good. It doesn't have coups, recklessly overfish, arm disagreeable despots, grow coca in provocative quantities or throw its weight around in a brash and unseemly manner.

It is the driest, flattest, hottest, most desiccated, infertile and climatically aggressive of all the inhabited continents and still Australia teems with life ? a large portion of it quite deadly. In fact Australia has more things that can kill you in a very nasty way than anywhere else.

You take my point, of course. This is a country that loses (literarily lose!) a Prime Minister and that is so vast and empty that a band of amateur enthusiasts could conceivably set off the world's first non-governmental atomic bomb on its mainland and almost four years would pass before anyone noticed. Clearly this is a place worth getting to know.

The above extracts are from "Down Under" by Bill Bryson. A book to be read!! First chapter available here. Bill... hmm... Mr. Bryson, if by quoting you I've broken any copyrights law, please consider the positive and free promotion given before deciding to sue me!

2. First impact!
It was few mins before landing that they started to show this video about what NOT to import in Australia... plants, wood products, any kind of foods, animal or pseudo animal derivate, medicinal of almost any kind... a list that would have definitely been shorter if presented in positive terms: what is actually allowed in!
Consequence of that was a long line at the airport that gave me the first opportunity to swear in my mother tongue, something that only happen when I'm really frustrated and angry at someone or something!
In short, it wasn't a good start.
So much noise and I eventually passed all the controls with a simple check thanks to have innocently declared "nothing to declare"...despite the one-year provision of medicinal I was carrying in one of the bags!

The reason why Australia is so into avoid stranger introduction in their country becomes a mystery when you consider that the most dangerous among creatures and plants are already IN Australia... what are they afraid of?

Once passed the sliding doors introducing me to real Australia, it wasn't difficult to find the AIESECers waiting for me... traditional banner and perplex young people screening the crowd in search of someone they had never met before was nothing difficult to spot... I was finally on the other side of the reception mysteries: tired, confused, surrounded by new people and with not much left than trusting them 100%...

The ski on top and the ground at the bottom... everyone standing on their feet rather than head or walking rather than jumping... no signs of vertigines or wish to throw up like after a good riding on the roller coast... Ops, I don't feel upside down?! What the heck is wrong?!?!

Oh right... Welcome to Sydney, Australia: Augusto's home for the next 12 months!

3. AIESEC's reception
From the airport through the whole first weekend AIESEC reception has been great... At the end of my very first day in Australia I had a room where to live, a bank account and a tax number (the latter being clearly something I hadn't asked for!), I had had a nice nap on the beach (when the effects of the jet lag showed up and my first visit to the famous Bondi Beach turned to a vision of a huge soft mattress!)
Ordering a steak for my first Australian dinner was more than a good introduction: it was a challenge! The waitress looked at me in astonishment (and a bit pissed) for my clear ignorance of the several stages a steak can be cooked and served (from low to cooked with stages that rank from in between mid-cooked and the extremes and further)... and "which sauce do you want?!" "Ehm... which sauce do you have?!" ...I just wanted some meat!!

It's maybe the different point of view I get as trainee, but I feel AIESEC in Sydney is doing a pretty good job as receptionist: not just providing us with what we need, but actually doing it with care! Hopefully soon we will have the chance to spend more time together, for us to be involved with their Australian culture and for them to find out what does it mean to live families, friends and security to come all the way down under!!

4. Living place and flatmates
Part of the excellent reception and reason for the good settling I had was to find my room waiting for me since the very first day.
Alenka and Gerardo (otherwise Tom and Jerry), selected for the same traineeship, had arrived one month early... While I was enjoying my Indian adventures they were house hunting for a couple of weeks at any spare time they had... great jobs guys... well done!! We... well, they got a nice flat in Bondi, just 10 mins walk form the most famous beach in Sydney... a fully furnished 3 bedrooms flat with bathroom, kitchen and a living room easily transformable in a host's room!

A couple of weeks after my arrival we had our housewarming party... among GE employees, AIESECers, trainees current and former we managed to have a really enjoyable event made of some drinks and Czech/Mexican/Italian food... the latter being mainly the combination of banana and Nutella... simply delicious as many had the luck to discover!
In perfect Australian party style, most of the people brought something to drink to warm up the atmosphere... only few people noticed the lack of music and everybody enjoyed various conversations... the 285 GE Bondi entertainment has done a good job!

It's always interesting to get to know your flatmates by living together.

Jerry is a Mexican guy who has lived a couple of years in Spain and with a decent travel experience... To me he has kind of double personality: The first is the home one. Quite and cleaning oriented, at the beginning I thought he had some kind of phobia towards any small accumulation of trash in the kitchen: he brought it outside (oftener than daily) even bags not half full! Now such phobia seems over... well the clean air phobia has taken over: you can bet Jerry is at home when the widely opened door welcomes you with a wind created by the combination of kitchen back's door, kitchen and bathroom windows all open... hopefully he will chose a new phobia!
His second personality is the outgoing one that comes up whenever a social activity pops up. Jerry doesn't say no to a drink or to a one too many drinks. Always in for any kind of activity he may say no only with a plan B in place. His Spanish accent is pretty strong but none will correct him... instead he managed to let it sounds a pleasure to the listener. He only had problem communicating his real name, Gerardo, which soon turned into Jerry.

It's in this way that Alenka has soon been named Tom... As said, Tom and Jerry arrived together and they were immediately branded as the new AIESEC trainees, Tom and Jerry! Well, if you have met Alenka you definitely know the story.
Alenka is a sharing girl. She must share how her days is going or was, how it happened to her to miss a bus, to misplace an object, to call someone... She likes to talk but definitely not in a way you would not stand her anymore.
She is originally from Czech Republic where she spent her last year working for the Czech MC... and living with 7 people in a tiny flat, where probably sharing, talking and interacting in any way was more a duty than a right. Unlike Jerry and I, Alenka is a "flatmates" person: she doesn't just live together with somebody sharing the rent fee but definitely sees more in us.
Alenka's like to party, drinking and she also never dismiss any social invitation... from time to time she seems to come up with strange and probably crazy (to her eyes) ideas, like going to swim in the ocean at random time of day and mainly night... her country doesn't have any sea shore... understandable!
The two of them seems to be a good combination of flatmates... however is still the beginning!!

5. Working place
Once eaten that challenging steak on my first day in Australia, I was delivered to GE people having their Friday night gathering... no bad to meet your colleagues at first when there are not really in a sober status!.. But it was a good introduction and an excellence conclusion, at 3am, of my first day in Australia.

The formal job started just the Monday after... I'm working in the finance department of GE Commercial Finance: in these first weeks I have been moved wherever there was some needs for basic tasks... good for them and definitely good for me who likes to get the big picture of things and I'm also humble enough to know how much I have to learn in finance!

My office is on the 10 Level of a building that hosts GE in 4 floors: the building is in George St, in the very financial centre of Sydney... If you are lucky you sit in one of the many desk over the perimeter of the building that will show you the opera harbour and bridge or some other nice view... most likely you will be watching at other skyscrapers!

GE offers a really enjoyable working atmosphere: people around are young if not in there ID definitely in their souls. If I missed to congratulate someone for his/her birthday and dig myself into the cake it probably was because of the high volume in my headphone.
Extra activities are organized by the social club of GE or simply by some active employee. Friday's night drinks in Brooklyn, Trivial night, Sunday at the horses' races and much more are some of benefits of being a GE employee!

6. Myself
I'm really happy the way I'm organizing my life so far: of course work takes a big deal of my day... but having a balanced life is a goal I haven't failed yet!
After two years of semi-lethargy I picked up sports again and I often do it early in the mornings.
First of all I bought myself a road bike. With my first acquisition in e-bay I got a pretty cheap bike. It looks good but the price has definitely shown its reason since the very first ride: rigid as to kill my arms at every bumps and not the smoothest while changing the gear I hope my bike will, by the end of the year, be in condition to be re-sold... even at an higher price: in fact I paid all the accessory I bought more than the bike itself.

When you have lived one here up in the north of Estonia, it's really an important statement declaring that I never got so cold like here in Australia: I joined the swimming pool.
Always in search of the best option quality/price (with the second variable having often more weight) I joined what only in a second moment I realized being called the Iceberg swimming pool!
Open air and just beside the ocean, the pool gets its water straight form the Pacific: a combination that, although improving with the upcoming summer, often kicks me out of the water for the cold more than for the tiredness of swimming laps! But if getting out of water is a cold but forced idea, much worse is getting out to the open air after you had run into the sauna (cold too if compared with the 90 degrees of Estonian's saunas).

Another activity I enrolled but still not experienced is the acting classes: soon I'll be learning about several features of acting and hopefully in Feb perform a short monologue in front of those friends who would risk to experience a different night.
I'm really excited by this idea that has been somewhere in the back of my mind for some years now... I'll see!

Also likely to be joined are Salsa/Latino dance's classes... I'm in the investigation process at the moment, but I definitely want to increase those few skills gained in my dances courses in Estonia! Well... "skills" sometime is a word I overuse: let's say I hope one day also that investment in Estonian krones will get some return.

7. Hunter Valley
Hunter valley has been a great weekend, my second in Australia, spent a couple of hours out of Sydney in a great landscape and winemaking area.

Making a 12 hours trips for a place normally reachable in 2 was a memorable adventure: we had fun at the supermarket (3 Indians and an Italian in a cheap Aldi), we followed scenic roads, run into random weddings with breathcutting sunset on the background, we played cricket games (my first time and with rules I later found out not existing at all!)... and much more

That's how Rajat, a new Indian friend of mine, commented the weekend:
"I had a fantastic time this weekend.
So thank you Augusto for the spirit and energy and Nutella idea! Alenka, for always smiling, Namrata for "What a cute dog' and teaching us more signs in dumb-charades, Kenny for his wonderful demonstration of 'The Interpreter', Selim for driving us around and being so flexible, Gerardo no thanks for 'anything', Siddharth for taking us through all the sequels of any movie ever made and of course, Hana, for organizing the motel, dates, pickup and car and everything else including the amazing doughnuts. The Motel, with attached rooms made the culture very pleasant"

8. Social life
Despite some limits in mine being a drinking companion, which may sometime affect me more than I expected, my social life in Sydney is doing great as well.

I arrived here with the impression of going in a place where many people I had already met were... and that wasn't a wrong impression. Therefore kicking my social life wasn't difficult.

So far we have been to several kind of parties: housewarmings, engagements, birthdays... any excuse is good and it has been great way to meet so many people!
I shortly enjoyed an Italian film festival with the outstanding movie "Manual of Love" , had some nice walk over Hyde park or between Bondi and other famous beaches while also enjoying the sculptures show...I have been eating in Japanese, Greek, Oriental, Malaysian, Colombian places and probably more!

Sydney is definitely a city where you can find any kind of enterteiment you would look for... and I'm looking forward to discovering more!

9. Missing India?
Definitely yes!.. But how worse would have it been had I not gone to the Indian festival?! Crowded with Indians already in the train to arrive there, with thousands of them on spot... I smelled (and even tried again!) Indian food, dancing Indian songs and enjoy the loudness and colourful of the fire works!.. What a country!!!

Beside that I met a bunch of India with whom I guess I'll be glad to interact for the whole year... at the housewarming party of Siddarth, Sundeep and Kunal it was easy for me to become the dancing start of the night on the notes of Kajara-re?

Also in the office I have the opportunity to hear some Hindi by overhearing couple of colleagues sitting not far from me and close to each other... I'm surprised they don't call each other Boss or produce strange sounds similar to kisses when in need of communicating something!

So my Indian feelings are all over... but hey, let's be back to Australia!!

10. Australian sports
On a Saturday we went for a short cricket match: only one day long! Thanks to the Indian TV and the Hunter Valley weekend I was good enough to pick up some basic rules: easier than that was to understand that people goes to spend hours in a stadium rather than for the game itself for getting drunk and increasingly enjoy the match with the time passing by... and with increasingly careless toward the match!! It was good fun!!

As a good English colony, Australia picked up some more sport my ignorance about which is pretty developed.
Rugby doesn't say too much if you don't specify if you are talking about rugby union or rugby league!
When the play football they play something else: better say soccer if you wanna ask about next year world cup in Germany. Their football is more a mix of rugby with... hmm... buu! Let's say it's a different sport!

But what has shocked me the most is the horses' race.

On a Sunday we went to a race and were asked to dressed up elegantly: girls were wonderful all over, and not matter what their hat in their head looked like, you would never make fun of it such is the fashion to wear an hat for this occassions normally inclusive of best hat competition.

The race which stops a country, otherwise known as Melbourne cup, involve of course horses: the main race, the one stopping the country, is a 3 mins events that brings any employee of any company out of their office to the closest pub offering the TV show: this year it happened at 3pm of a Tuesday afternoon, definitely not enough in the middle of working time to stop anybody from going. In Melbourne itself, because of the race, the whole city takes a day off!!
Diva, this year winner, made it for the third time in a row, entering the story of the competition and making smiling and crying millions of bidders all over the country! Horses races are definitely different from cricket: if alcohol is the common platform, bets, quotes, the whole financial institutions, personal emotions and 3 mins shouts to your horse make them an outstanding feature of the Australian life!

11.Coming next
Those first weeks have been a great introduction and I enjoyed every minute! I'm now looking forward to getting a deeper understanding of what the Australian culture is in its small details... Meanwhile enjoying some Latin taste...

Stay tuned...