Wednesday 31 October 2018

Bloggers who travels or/and move abroad

I have been searching for other bloggers that update about their everyday life in Australia – and who are NOT only writing about beauty, fashion or "the perfect life". I want something real and I want to be able to relate, I suppose ...

This search has not been easy but I have found some that I can add to my list, here is the whole list: 

❥ Emmy – Bortabrabloggen.com
The writer is a Swedish woman named Emmy who's been living and working in Melbourne since 2010 and shares a lot of good tips on her blog for people like me.

❥ Linn – Linnwiberg.se
Written by a Swedish woman named Linn who lives in London (it's interesting for me to follow other swedes trying to live a life outside Sweden too). She writes about her everyday life, she's very open and shares a lot of beautiful images.

❥ Johanna – Tokyoyo.se
This Swedish woman, Johanna, lives in Japan and shares wonderful images and tips from her life there. I have always been interested in Japan and its culture so that's why I think Johanna's blog is a delight to follow.

❥ Jake – Wheresjake.com
Just discovered Jake and his blog. He's travelling around the world and will maybe visit Australia during Christmas. It will be very interesting to follow him on his journey.

❥ Alice – Nouw.com/aliceeedin/
Also a new discovery, this Swedish woman just recently moved to Melbourne/Australia. Same here, it will be very fun to follow Alice on her journey so far away from Sweden.

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

If you have any more blogs that you want to recommend, please comment below. I would love to read about: 

  • People (both swedes and none-swedes) who share about their everyday life in Australia.
  • People (both swedes and none-swedes) who share about their everyday life in a country different from where they grew up.



Swedish summary: 
Jag letar nya bloggar att följa. Jag vill utöka min lista så om ni har några tips på bloggar som ni tror att jag kanske gillar, kommentera gärna!

Tuesday 30 October 2018

We have an apartment!


We are not being lazy over here, it has really been something every day. We finally moved into our apartment* this weekend and that, as you can imagine, was a workout. It feels nice to have our own space and when we have more things in place I'll post some pictures (of course!!). Even though the weekend was busy, we did manage to squeeze in a Wedding fair on Sunday – our friends are getting married so we went there with them to get inspired. I pointed Sam a little extra to the ring-section (hihi) – I took two photos of some cool dining decoration/launch area ... a bit bohemian, don't you think. Love it!

The location of our apartment is P-E-R-F-E-C-T. We have cafés, restaurants, a park and close to the trains/trams/buses ... and so much more in the area. We are not complaining at all.








Swedish summary: 
Vi är allt annat än lata här borta. I helgen flyttade vi in till vår lägenhet, äntligen! Det var en hel del att göra, våra kroppar var helt skakiga när vi var klara. Trots detta lyckades vi klämma in en bröllops-mässa också, två av våra vänner ska gifta sig så vi följde med för att inspireras. Jag puttade Sam lite extra åt ringarna, hehe. Däremot fastnade jag själv för en matplats-dekoration (eller vad man nu vill kalla det). Bohemiskt och fint, eller hur?

Måste bara säga att vi har verkligen perfekt lokalisering/placering av lägenheten. En hel del härligheter som kaféer, en park, tåg, affärer och mer alldeles i närheten. Älskar´t!



*Later, when we have landed a bit, I will write a post about our chase for an apartment. It was not super easy but obviously not impossible.


Tuesday 16 October 2018

World Vegan Day – Melbourne

Me and Sam went to a vegan event in the city this weekend. It was awesome! So much good food, products and interesting people. The event was free and you could try some samples for free as well. Sam was so happy to see all the cool food products and talking to the smart people selling it all. Yes, we bought a few things, believe it or not but most things were not crazy expensive.

Right now we are putting all our energy into finding a place to live and we might actually have something BUT ... I don't want to say too much until pappers have been signed. We have had a really good time with Sam's family but it will be nice to have our own place and make it to our home.

➺ Can't wait to get back into good routines again when it comes to working out, eating well and writing/drawing/reading. It will be awesome! 


 

 

 

Yes, even the dog food is vegan(!!). 




Swedish summary: 
Sam och jag firade World Vegan Day i stan under helgen. Vi gick till en vegansk mässa där det fanns hur mycket härligt som helst: produkter inom mode och skönhet men också mat, dryck och snacks – till och med hundmat(!!). Det var riktigt intressant. 

Hittills har all energi gått till att finna ett boende och det kan faktiskt vara så att vi har något på gång men jag vill inte säga för mycket förrän alla pappren är påskrivna. Hoppas! Sams familj har varit fantastiska men det ska bli skönt med ett egen hem. Längtar!

Friday 12 October 2018

Work, Australian accent and a pelican

Australia delivers as one could say. The Melbourne weather is special, sometimes you can have all seasons in one day but most of the time, in my opinion, it's pretty great. I have now been working for a week for the job I have had in Sweden and so far everything seems to go well – my co-workers have been very nice to me and given me a very calm week to be honest. Again, I am grateful that I can work for them for another six months before I have to quit or pause my employment. We'll see what happens.

My English is improving everyday as well. I wasn't bad before, I speak better English than I write, but I am getting more comfortable and less scared of making mistakes. The Australian accent though ... oh boy. I really need to concentrate sometimes. It's almost like I get hypnotized byt the accent that I don't always register what they actually are saying, haha ... so bad. Like I said, I'm improving at least. Baby steps forward.

What about all the poison animals? Haha, no but honestly, I have seen a few spiders but nothing too scary. Yet. Yesterday I saw a pelican (see picture below to the right, it's hard to see but it's there) and I thought it was so cool!

Today it's already Friday (I've been in Australia for a little more than a week), me and Sam are going into the city to do some shopping and maybe have some drinks with friends. Later we'll get back to Sam's brothers house (we're still looking for a place of our own) and I think I might draw or write if I can. Tomorrow we will go and see four different apartments and probably apply for them all – I just HOPE that we will get our own place soon.

Have a great weekend!






Swedish summary: 
För det mesta är vädret i Australien helt fantastiskt och jag mår gott av att veta att sommaren är på väg. Jag har haft min första arbetsvecka och det går bra. Vännerna på jobbet har varit mer än snälla men nästa vecka får jag nog mer att göra. Så tacksam för denna möjlighet och trygghet fortfarande. 

Många djur har jag sett här i Australien, för det mesta spindlar och fåglar men inget som var alltför läskigt. Igår såg jag en pelikan och det var jäkligt coolt!

Språket går bra, ibland förtrollas jag av den australiensiska dialekten och tappar bort mig men jag övar. Det blir bättre och bättre. Idag blir det shopping och drinkar i stan innan vi åker tillbaka till Sams brors hus. Vi letar eget boende för fullt och imorgon ska vi gå på hela fyra visningar. Jag HOPPAS att det snart blir vår tur att hitta ett hem. 

Trevlig helg!

Monday 8 October 2018

Renting out my apartment

JUST TO MAKE THIS CLEAR: THIS IS NOT A COLLABORATION.

Before leaving Sweden for Australia I needed to rent out my apartment – I'm leasing an apartment and I wanted to rent it out as "second hand". Why? Well, I don't want to loose the apartment and also, I want some security after my one year in Australia.

Step 1:
I started with a post on Facebook and I had some acquaintances who seemed interested but then backed out. After a few recommendations from friends I decided to use a site called Samtrygg. I just put up an ad on their site and then opened my calendar for viewings of the apartment. This was a bit scary for me and I really had to go outside my comfort zone. I didn't expect that so many people would be interested in my apartment considering my rent is not so low. But, to my surprise, I did meet some cool people that could be potential tenants.

Step 2:
After the first viewings I got a call from Samtrygg. We talked about the potential tenants and what I thought about them. In my case, I liked two out of five the most (two didn't even show up) – and at this point I still had three or four booked viewings on other dates. I wanted to have all of this done as soon as possible but in the end, I still decided on having three more viewings. BUT. One of the potential tenants were very interested in the apartment and could not wait. I decided that a quick deal might be a good idea. So I told Samtrygg that I was happy to go with this tenant. Samtrygg quickly took down my ad on their website, cancelled the viewings I had left and started the process.

Well, the potential tenant did not have all the papers ready and therefore asked if I could maybe wait a bit. This was a warning flag for me and I just told Samtrygg to put my ad back up. I had no time to wait for a "maybe". So this sucked a bit. I had a few more viewings and met a lovely young couple that seem to fit perfect. Again, I started the process via Samtrygg. This time it went better!

Step 3: 
When I had decided who was going to be my tenant, we wrote a contract via Samtrygg. After this, I needed an approval from my landlord as well. More papers to fill in and send away – if my landlord, for some reason, would say "no" then the contract with the tenant would not be valid anymore. BUT, the landlord approved. Woop woop!

Did all go well?
Everything went very smoothly. Before leaving the apartment for the new tenant I had to clean out all the clutter and dust, pack my things, write an inventory list, write an/fill in a inspection list with the new tenant and have all the keys ready. It was hard work but I was truly happy in the end.

Finishing words: 
All in all, the whole process with Samtrygg went fast. Because I might not be available during all hours of the day from Australia, my mom will (very kindly) be my contact person in this case. I think it's important to have someone who can represent you when you can't. 

THIS was SO awesome to check off as "Done" on my to do-list. 

Swedish apartment – living room 



Swedish summary: 
Innan jag drog till Australien ville jag hyra ut min lägenhet i andrahand då det kändes som en viktig trygghet. Det är som sagt inte lätt att få lägenhet i Stockholm, iallafall var det inte lätt för mig. Jag provade först intresset på Facebook men det var något svalt, därför gick jag på vänners rekommendationer – Samtrygg. 

Samtrygg är ett företag som hjälper till med allt möjligt när det kommer till att exempelvis hyra ut sin lägenhet. Dessutom har de ett trygghetspaket som gör att alla parter känner sig något säkrade i denna deal. Trots att det var krokigt och jag hade något bråttom då jag hade en hel del andra saker att göra innan min Australien-resa gick allt smidigt. So far so good!

In a place they call "Down Under"

I landed in Australia Wednesday evening last week and took the rest of that week off. What a beautiful welcome I got! Sam met me at the airport and we acted like giggling teenagers. It was around 7 p.m. so we just had a quiet evening at Sam's brother's house (we are renting a room here until we have found our own place). 

We have been very lucky with the weather, the summer is really on its way! For me, this is of course a crazy feeling considering it is autumn in Sweden and winter is coming. Just the idea that I'll celebrate Christmas in summertime is hard to take in. It will be interesting for sure. 

Today is my first workday from Australia and I really am lucky that I have this opportunity to work from here. It will only last for about 6 months but it's more than enough. I will mostly do graphic material/designs and such, which suits me perfectly. 

There is a few things I want to fix this week: 
  • Open up a bank account.
  • Get an Australian ID.
  • Get a Medicare card.

I already have an Australian phone number, thanks to Sam. The best thing about it is that I have Internet connection wherever I am and ... that Sam can call me if I for some reason get lost, hehe.



 


 

Psst: If you ask me, I think that the botanic garden in Melbourne might be the best place on earth. I love it!



Swedish summary: 
Snart har jag varit i Australien i en vecka. Resan gick över förväntan och det dröjde inte alls länge innan jag var i Sams armar. Jag tog ledigt de resterande dagarna som var kvar av förra veckan och det var fantastiskt. Sommaren är snart här! Givetvis är känslan märklig då hösten nu är i Sverige. Tänk att jag ska fira jul mitt i sommaren? Obegripligt. 

Idag är första arbetsdagen här och jag känner tacksamhet. Tänk att jag får jobba härifrån och lugnt får komma till ro?! Wow, vilken grej! 

Det är några saker jag önskar hinna med denna vecka så jag hoppas att det ska gå smidigt med det också. Tjing!

Monday 1 October 2018

En videohälsning innan det bär av ...

Wow, it took me some time to decide if I was going to make this a public video or not. In the end I just felt that it was too complicated to have it private and try to share it with my closest family and friends. So I made it public ... 

The video is in Swedish but you can choose English subtitle (not the best but its there). I have not decided if future videos should be in Swedish or in English, I guess time will tell. 






Swedish summary: 
Det var mycket velande innan jag beslutade för att göra videon offentlig. Jag orkade inte med krånglet att försöka dela med specifika nära och kära, det var lättast att bara göra det tillgängligt för alla så därav mitt beslut. Än vet jag inte om alla videon kommer att vara på svenska (så som den ovan), jag antar att tiden får avgöra det. Det går att lägga till engelsk undertext (dock inte den bästa). Vi ses!


Before going to Australia: Packing a life

Around 09.00 am tomorrow is when my flight to Australia departs. All on my 'to do'-list is now done and I don't think I can prepare myself anymore. Well ... 

Okay, we have one more thing to do ... squeeze in my life in to (very few) bags. The bags I can check in were maximum two and their weight together can be 30 kg. Hand-baggage can weigh about 7 kg. Well, I think I will have luggage that will weigh about 40-41 kg in total – so 3-4 kg overweight. Depending on how strict they are with the bags that I will check in (1-2 kg too much) ... I think I might be okay. 

I have cleared SO much (my sister and mother are happy about that, they got it all). I hope I don't need to leave anything else. My mum and sis will take me to the airport so they will be able to take whatever I might have to "toss out". ❣





Swedish summary: 
Imorgon, omkring 09.00, går flyget mot Australien. Nästan allt på min att-göra-lista är klart förutom den där biten med att packa ner mitt liv i väskor – och inte så många väskor bör tilläggas. Jag tror att min övervikt ligger på 3-4 kg totalt, och om de inte är alltför strikta med väskorna jag checkar in så bör det vara okej. Ifall jag nu inte skulle ha turen med mig så kommer både min syster och mamma vara på plats för att ta med sig hem det jag måste plocka ut. Håller tummarna att det blir som jag önskar!