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Favourite things right now

Yoga

Surprise, surprise! Just such a good way to unwind after work. It can be yoga with Asana Rebel, or just freely flowing on my mat at home. I always feel like another person after focusing just on my breath and body for a while. I also signed up to one studio last week and loved it! There’s just something so special about the calm and relaxed feeling in yoga studios. And even though I enjoy practicing at home (especially inversions) I find classes more relaxing and empowering.

Sleep

I sleep like a baby here. Maybe because my mind is super exhausted after every day and evenings always so dark. But it’s so good to be out like a light as soon as I go to sleep, and wake up well rested for my alarms. It’s been sunny almost everyday since I got here, and it’s just such a good start to a day to wake up when sun is already up.

Coffee

I’m not a big coffee drinker since I want my body and mind be able to wake up without caffeine. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy a good cup of coffee! Even a quick coffee run makes a day at the office feel a bit more special. My go-tos are dirty chai on weekdays and mocha on weekends. Always in soy milk since me and dairy don’t get along too well.

Nice people and being nice to people

You know, just smiling at random people or holding that door. This morning I went for a run and was so happy when a few people just smiled at me or said good morning. Such a small thing yet what a big difference it makes!

Crime shows on Netflix

I feel like I’m getting old but there are just too many good crime shows! My favourites so far are Ozark, Money Heist and The Fall, which we are still watching.

Trying new recipes

We have agreed with my boyfriend to eat vegetarian food on weekdays and meat on weekends. However, the last thing I want to do when I come back home from work is to start cooking. That’s why we try to cook dishes than can last a couple days. In Helsinki I always used to cook the same things every week, especially when it comes to lunch salads, but here we’ve made something new every week. I’ll sure share some of my favs here!

Breakfast

Breakfast will always be my favourite meal of the day. I’m always so weirded out when I hear people saying they don’t eat breakfast. Of course that’s completely okay, but apparently they have no idea what they’re missing out on. My everyday favourites are overnight oats, smoothie and avocado toast. And it’s not just about the food. It’s also about the moment and about enjoying the morning. It’s especially good if a good cup of tea or coffee and sunshine is involved.

Crazy Plant Lady

Australia, Blog, Categories, Ideas & Tips, Yoga & Training

Hi there!

So if I counted right, we have 18 plants in the apartment. I think that’s quite a decent number. The only hard part is trying to remember to water them all accordingly 😀 But as a list loving person, I’ve written a list of all the real plants and their watering schedule, and it seems to work quite well since none of them has died yet. But just for the record, the crazy plant lady is not just me, it’s mostly my boyfriend. A whole new side of him that I’ve got to know after I moved here.

I must admit that our living room and bedroom start to look super good! My favourite part about this interior is the colours. The living room is what I would call very Scandinavian with neutral colours and lots of white, whereas the bedroom is very different with dark wood and darker colours. And that couch!! Not only is it gorgeous, but also it’s the most comfortable one ever.

If you ever got to see my home in Finland, you’d know it was all black and white. So it’s funny what this sunny climate has already done to me 😀 I’m especially obsessed with different shades of green and blue!

P.S. Thanks to everyone who took the time to read my previous post and especially all you who messaged me afterwards. Means the world to me! This week has already been so much better for various reasons, and I’ve felt so much happiness!

xx Enjoy your Sunday!!

First month in Australia

Australia, Blog, Categories, Personal development

Moi!

I started to write this in Finnish but I guess I’m just so used to writing my blog in English now that it didn’t really come naturally 😀 Anyway, tomorrow it has been a month since I arrived in Australia. However, it feels like so much longer, probably because a lot has happened.

When I first came here I thought I wouldn’t have any expectations about my life here. It was kind of exciting to just leave life as I knew it behind and not know where I’m gonna work, whom I’m gonna meet and what my days are gonna look like here. But I’ve come to realise that I still had an image of my life here in my head and some kind of expectations. I thought that my mindset is gonna change to a more relaxed one when I’m here, and that adjusting to this new environment will be quite easy for me. And I also thought meeting new people would not be too difficult, because after all, I’m in Australia.

Well how do I feel after a month here?

I feel like I’m a little bit all over the place.

Every other day I’m ready to move back to Helsinki, just because I miss being inside my comfort zone all the time, and then every other day I’m so freakishly happy I’m here, and even just the early morning sunlight makes me the happiest person in the world. And sometimes I’m walking down a street just a big smile on my face and unable to truly understand I really live here.

It’s probably very normal to have all these mixed feelings. Maybe it would be different if I already had my life figured out here. I mean if I had a job I genuinely loved and felt like I was working towards a goal I’m passionate about, or if I was studying here and met likeminded people at uni. But the truth is that at the moment the only things that make me feel like home here are my boyfriend and our home.

It’s also my first time ever living abroad. And even though I consider myseld being very fluent in English, I find myself struggling a lot. For example, when people don’t understand some words because of my accent, I get very frustrated, and almost upset. And it actually is very overwhelming and it takes quite a lot of energy to try adjust to a completely new environment and speak in my non native language all day every day.

Then because I find it quite overwhelming, I want to give myself time to feel comfortable and at home here. So I haven’t really tried to be very social yet. For example it probably would be a good idea to contact some other Finns living in Sydney to meet new people and possibly make friends with them. But I just don’t have the energy for that and then the same time I almost want to beat myself up because I feel like I should be social and I already should have a social circle here. And it’s weird being a very unsocial person without a single friend here after coming from Helsinki, where I lived with friends and would meet up with people multiple times a week.

And also because I’m here on the other side of the world I feel like it’s a crime to just stay home and do nothing. Especially because I’m in Australia where sun seems to shine almost every day. Back in Finland I was known to skip all the parties cause I wanted to spend time alone, and here I really struggle at enjoying my alone time. Maybe because most of the time I am alone. And I, out of all the people, have started to suffer from FOMO!! Probably just because I love having lots of people around and here I’m just wondering what is everyone else doing. And I feel like I should see and experience as much as possible now that I’m here, even though it’s totally okay if I haven’t travelled all around Australia during the first couple of months. But maybe it’s a bit different for me than for people who come here just for a year or two, and I think I really should stop all the stalking and comparing I’m doing on social media.

Maybe I should be more worried if I didn’t have any doubts or if I didn’t miss home at all. And the reality is, that I’m kind of trying to build a new identity for myself here. Because back in Finland I would have identified myself as a political science student and as everything I enjoyed doing regularly and through the people I spent the most time with. And all those things are kind of behind me at the moment and I really don’t know what I want to do or be. Especially now in the beginning, when everything is new, I’ve needed to sort out lots of things, I’m still adjusting, and there’s not much time for normal everyday activities. So in order to feel more like home and more like ”myself”, I know I should put more time into the things I enjoy the most and the things that make me “me”. First step will be singing up to a yoga studio near us this week. And putting more time into my normal wellness stuff that I really enjoy doing and sharing here with you.

I hope you’re not getting a very negative vibe out of this post. Because obviously I’m happy where I am at the moment. I just somehow thought it would have been easier to get started here. And because I’m such a short tempeder and impatient person, I struggle at giving time to myself and except having everything sorted out in a week after moving on the other side of the world.

At the moment I’m at work, having lunch outside in 34 degrees enjoying the sunshine. And sunshine is something that will always make me happy. And when I’m thinking about how nice and cozy life in Helsinki would be, I just need to remind myself of its’ awful weather. And the fact that it’s been my dream for such a long time to live in Australia and that I’m finally here.

But yes, everything comes with a trade off. Even though Sydney is such a beautiful and vibrant city, where I’m very happy to live the first years of my life here in Australia, I honestly can’t wait to move somewhere more quiet. An efficient public transport system would also be cool. You know the kind that takes you wherever you want in less than 1 hour. But let’s not get to that now.

Anyway, at the end of the day we all know that only you can make yourself happy. And it all comes from within. And what I need at the moment, is probably just a change in my mindset and lots more yoga!

P.S. Our home is starting to be ready! Just waiting for a giraffe poster I decided to order from somewhere as near to us as Sweden 😀

Goals & Routines

Blog, Categories, Personal development, Wellbeing

Happy Easter! Hope you’ve taken the time to unwind and relax!

Remember my post about freedom a couple months back? I wrote that I really miss routines in my life because I really didn’t have any due to traveling, and that I would really want to work in a normal 9-17 job. Well I found my first job in Sydney last week and finally started working on Wednesday! I’m super excited because I get to meet new people, learn new things and have a routine in my life (and of course regular income). But at the same time I’m also horrified, because as I said before, I’ll certainly miss all my free time 😀

I know I’m the kind of person who needs routines in order to stay active and ambitious. I wouldn’t like to admit this but when I don’t have anything I have to do, I get lazy and a bit too comfortable. You could almost say that I just start drifting. And I’m always very aware of it.

Some people say they work better under pressure/stress and I guess I’m one of them. Maybe because when someone’s stressed, they need to use their willpower more than normally in order to achieve their goals. And I sure as hell have a lot of willpower in me. But then it all just disappears when life is easy and I have nothing to stress about.

I’ve always been very fascinated about golden middle way but I’ve also come to realise that there just might not be such thing. In my case it’s just more about bouncing between the two extremes. At the moment, after a long holiday, I’m in a position where I miss the very ambitious me who wants to achieve things and set new goals. And I certainly think that having a routine in my life will help me get there.

It almost feels like summer’s over and I’m going back to school. You remember the feeling when you were a kid and got a new pencil case, backpack and calendar for the year and could barely hold your excitement? I’m that kid now! I want to write down all my goals for the next weeks, months and years and actually start working for them. The first thing on my list is to get rid of all these Easter chocolates and create a workout/yoga plan for the upcoming weeks 😀

Sundays are for pancakes and pizza

Australia, Blog, Categories, Traveling

Hey there!

Since it was such a beautiful weather today, we decided to take a ferry to Sydney Harbour. The one hour ferry-ride was basically all about beautiful views and huge mansions by the water. People actually use the ferry to commute to work here which is so cool!

The main reason why we wanted to go to the harbour was to have Sunday pancakes at Pancakes on the Rocks. They were super nice, but oh god, never again! Especially not in the morning, and not two huge pancakes each with all those toppings 😀

We got home a couple hours ago and haven’t left the couch ever since. Australian sun is seriously draining! Lucky it’s Sunday, and we have no other plans besides making pizza and watching The Sinner on Netflix. Anyway, here are some photos from the ferry ride today! And me with the Opera House haha!

Enjoy your Sunday! xx

Greetings from Sydney

Blog, Categories, Traveling

I’m just sitting on the most comfortable couch ever, drinking matcha latte and writing this post (after a couple week’s radio silence, oopsie). I’m really starting to settle in here!

During the first two weeks here we’ve tried to make our home as nice and homely as possible. And I think we’ve done a pretty good job, can’t wait to show the results! It’s a little bit ironic, that I moved here on the other side of the world and can’t get enough of Ikea here! 😀

I really like the area where we live in, because we have a huge park and a river walk next to us. The park makes the area a bit more quiet, which I like, but then again there’s a lot going on in the park everyday, for example basketball and cricket. This morning I went for a long walk by the water. First you get a big apartment building village and then huge beautiful mansions by the water, so I think I’ll definitely enjoy running here.

There’s also lots of wildlife everywhere. Or at least I think so as a Finn, because there’s no wildlife, whatsoever, in the Finnish cities during winters. For example birdies are singing all the time here. Or some of them are singing and some of them seem to just have a screaming contest going on, especially around five in the morning. I’ve made friends with two huge garden spiders that just hang in the tree I have to walk under when I’m walking down to the water. I’ve never seen spiders that big before, and I think they are nowhere near the biggest spiders in Australia haha.

Last weekend we visited my boyfriends family in Newcastle and spent a few hours on a beach in Fingal Bay. We also walked around Newcastle a little bit, and oh my the beachfront there is just stunningly beautiful! Even though it was a big struggle to find a place that served food on a Saturday afternoon (and we both got super hangry haha), I would really want to live there someday. Such a nice and relaxed small city where almost everything seems to be in a walking distance.

Although I’m really happy I’m finally here, not everything has been perfect. I’m on a working holiday visa, and seeking decent office jobs on it seems to be almost impossible. The thing is, that you can only work 6 months for one employer. And even though there are lots of temp jobs available, WHV seems to still be an issue for lots of employers. It’s super frustrating and I’ve already had a go at a couple of recruitment agents. And no, i don’t just sit here and wait for them to get back to me, I actually call them to follow up, but most of them just couldn’t be more obvious about wanting to end the conversation as soon as possible. But I know I have to work on my attitude, I’ve only been here for two weeks and I probably should be more patient.

Finns are also entitled to enroll to Medicare, which is a little bit similar to KELA in Finland. On their webpage they say that you’re only entitled to the benefits once you’ve enrolled. Well, I thought that I don’t need medical care during my first week here and postponed it to the second week. And voilà, I needed to see a doctor on Saturday, and of course pay for the whole thing by myself. And it wasn’t exactly the cheapest option to go see a private practitioner on Saturday. But then, luckily, on Monday when I went to a Medicare Center, it turned out they don’t tell the whole truth on their website, and I got to claim my benefits afterwards by showing them my tax invoice.

Other than that, there hasn’t been any other major hardships. Besides coming home to a leaking toilet last weekend (which we fixed quite easily after all) and 3 huge cockroaches that we’ve come across in the apartment so far. 😀

Today is my day off from getting frustrated at recruitment companies and soon I’ll start making some dinner. I’ll try to come back with some photos of our apartment as soon as possible after everything is finished! 🙂

Enjoy the rest of the week!