Urban dictionary

"Julia - a name for girls. Most julia's are artistic, smart, romantic, beautiful and also very charming. Julia's can get whatever they want if they try. They can be very sexy so watch out! They are romantics and love old movies, art and books. they love old stuff! They usually aren't very athletic but if a julia is athletic she's kick butt! they have great fashion sense and usually look smokin'. A julia will most likely become a mother because they love kids. They are very successful in life and there is just something about them that draws people in. Also they are ah-mazing dancers!" //Urban Dictionary

It's crazy, but 70 % of that is actually a good description of me. I know there are some negative sides as well, but who cares when it all sounds like a shameless self-promotion. Copy-paste to my CL!

Btw: A photo from Andrew's awesome 21st party last Saturday. Credits to the photographer, whoever it was. Jane, Andrew and me are in the same economics classes.

Time

“You lose it all the time - the track of time." sings Anna Von Hausswolff. And I think she is right, I'm always tangled in time. This has become a big issue because for the past 6 weeks I've been working in a group project to organise an event. The project is about activating your leadership potential; the organisation behind it is AIESEC - the largest international student organisation.

Back to the event. We (Tony, Marijn, Sadia, Shuyi and I) decided to organise an event which deals with personal development, and specifically time management. Time is all we got. No matter what people do with their lives, no matter how smart or skilled they are - time is all we got. So we did a time management workshop. We went from being completely unaware of what time management is to being able to hold a whole workshop (with a little help from guest lectures). The event was a big success, about 50 people came, listened, took notes, participated in our planned activities and shared their own experiences with us. I'm so proud of this - how it went from a vague idea to this wonderful event. I have so much excess energy now, I can't sleep!

I have to admit I have learned a lot about time management by organising this event. Unfortunately I can't say I'm any good at managing my time, even now after 6 intensive weeks of preparations. It's not just about making lists, setting up goals and not getting distracted. You also have to realize it's a lot of hard work - especially when you need to change some of your habits. I'll get there, but first I have to find a motivating long term goal for where I want to be. Those of you who know me well, I might seem very determined and motivated already, but this is not the complete truth. In fact I have no idea where I want to go, what I want to do in life etc. I just know I love the combination of business and psychology. I need some time to sit down and think about the future. Note to self in my calendar: Saturday 15:00 - 18:00 Come up with life time goal.

The bad news is that time flies, the good news is that you're the pilot.

Busy bee

I will post more photos from Abel Tasman when I'm not as busy. I just don't know when that is.

Mt Robert - the first mountain I've ever climbed

Mt Robert is one of the mountains of Nelson Lakes National Park. It's 1421 m high (Wikipedia) and you can climb up all the way in about two hours (or even less if you are fit). I'm not sure Kiwis would say it's a real mountain, since they have way higher peaks here. In Sweden anything above 200 m above sea level is a mountain, in NZ it would be another hill.
However, mountain climbing looks easy, but since I'm not fit for any type of physically exhausting activity, yet, this was quite a challenge. But thanks to Eilidh, Dougal (her little brother) and their father I made it to the top :)

They have some funny names for other mountains in Nelson Lakes National Park. Imagine attempting to climb Mt Misery or Mt Hopeless...


Here are a couple photos from that day:










We also went for a short walk near the lake Rotoiti:


The water was quite cold and full of eels, but these crazy people just jumped in!



You may wonder why the eels were there. I'll explain the philosophy of the national parks in a few words for you.
- A national park is supposed to protect the nature, so no hunting, fishing, polluting, rubbish, dogs etc. are allowed
- They are free to visit for anyone, but if you happen to be a possum, rat or any other sort of introduced animal you are considered a pest. Nelson Lakes National Park is almost free from pests, which is good for the small population of the re-introduced kiwi birds living there
- You have to wash shoes and everything else that has been in contact with water where algae live, before you enter any clean water areas
- No fires are allowed in national parks
- You are not allowed to use anything else than a toilet cabin for you needs
- Don't feed the animals/birds in any national park

Drunk for the first time in New Zealand

I'm not joking! I'm on exchange, living in a city full of scarfies (totally decadent students) and the first time I get a little drunk is on a brewery tour. Yep, that's my student life here in a nut shell.

The Speights brewery tour was awesome. I learned a bit about how beer is made and why we say "Skål!" (cheers!) in Sweden.

The best part was when we all got to try six different beers. We walked around the taps in a circle holding two glasses each, trying to drink as much as possible in 15 minutes. Sweet as!


Apologies for the poor picture quality, my big camera stayed at home that night.

Btw, why are all the Blogger backgrounds so pathetically ugly???

So much to tell...

Haven't been updating this blog for a while, but that doesn't mean that there are no pictures to show, no story to tell. Actually I have tons of pictures and a lot of cool things to share! Brewery tour, Mt Robert & Nelson Lakes, Centre of NZ, epic Abel Tasman adventure and the most recent news - an earthquake. Stay tuned!