Living with kangaroos: 300 days and time is just flying by

Moikka kaikki! (the second paragraph is in english!)

Mulla on taas aika paljon asiaa eli video oli helpoin vaihtoehto :) Pääasioina siis tällä kertaa uudet ystävät, athletics carnival ja vähän nää kaikki stereotypiat mitä suomalaisilla on ausseista. Vähän erilaista tällä kertaa ja olkaa kilttejä ja kertokaa mielipide tosta mun artikkelista!! Tarviin mielipiteitä koska toi on siis yks tehtävä enkun tunneille... Heeeelp!

And finally also in english!! So hello everyone :) This time I'm writing about my new friends, athletics carnival and also a little about the stereotypes that many finns have about australians. Some inspiration came from my english lessons.. :P But yeah, could you maybe comment and say what you think about my article? I need heeeeelp!!

Stereotypes vs. Reality

As an finnish girl it is hard to talk to you about australian identity but that’s not going to stop me. At the moment when I arrived here, I noticed that almost all of my thoughts about Australia were wrong. They were only stereotypes that all the finns have. We think that anywhere you look, you can see a kangaroo or a koala, all the guys are tanned and cute, surfboards everywhere and the accent is like Crocodile-Dundee has.

But nothing is like my thoughts. Accent may be strong or weak, people here is from all over the world, and here comes the saddest thing: all the guys aren’t cute and tanned surfers. How I’m going to manage with this disaster?

Well it is not so big disaster because the lack of cuteness is usually replaced with openness and friendliness that we finns don’t usually have. We finns are independent and isolated from the others and it’s not easy to get to know someone. Here I made friends in just two days. That has never happened to me before. In Finland I make friends in three weeks.

But thanks to globalisation, I still can be in contact with my family and friends from Finland. All the people I’ve been in contact with, are suprised about the things I have told them. One of my friends almost passed out when I told her about the reality.

It is sad to see that I have lived in a little imaginary world, but even sadder to know that almost all of the finns have these stereotypes. And not only finns, also the rest of Europe and maybe the rest of the world. I haven’t met yet any “Aussie guys” that I always talked about with my friends and I saw koalas and kangaroos only in a cage. Where has the Australia gone that I dreamed of?

Nowhere, it is right here under my feet. My thoughts about Australia were only dreams and especially stereotypes but the reality is much better. I love to be here and I wish that someday I could live here permanently. The australian identity I knew is long gone but now the australian identity is even better: loving, friendly, open and everything else positive. Media, could you please stop what you are doing and start to talk about the REAL australian identity, the one I fell in love with.

But how about the stereotypes about finns? If I had this many thoughts about australians, I just wonder how other countries see me and the other finns? Many people has asked me if all the finns have blond hair, blue eyes and we all are this tall. Well no, I am only one person and you can't find another person like me. We all are individuals and I wish that someday we all know that.

Now I need your help! Please leave a comment and say what think! :)

And time is going sooooo fast! 300 days to go and at the moment it feels like it is a lot but in fact it isn't :s I just remember when I started to count down to my departure and the time passed so fast!! I'm scared but still happy to know that I have that many days here :)

And now to the videos, first one in finnish and the second one in english