Seth Godin

Just read another interesting post by Seth Godin, on his blog:

Conflicted

Everything we do that's important is the result of conflict. Not a conflict between us and the world--a conflict between us and ourselves.

We want to eat another dessert but we want to be healthy and skinny as well. Who is we? Who is the self in self control, and who is being controlled?

We want to stand up and make difference and we want to sit down and hide and be safe.

We want to help others and we want to keep more for ourselves.

It's not a metaphor, it's brain chemistry. We don't have one mind, we have competing interests, all duking it out.

This conflict, the conflict between I and me, is at the heart of being human. One side sells the other. Like all kinds of marketing, it's far more effective if you know your audience. You will do a better job of telling a story (to yourself) if you understand who you are marketing to. In this case, I is marketing to me (and vice versa). The marketing is going on in your head...

Successful people have discovered how to be better at self marketing.

I fully agree with what Mr Godin says. I often find it hard to choose which of all the voices inside my head I should listen to. Mainly because I always try to analyze why voice A thinks I should do something in this particular way, while voice B thinks I should do something completely different. All the choices we make changes our lives step by step. Every second of the day we choose our future by making simple choices. Ultimately everything we do, no matter how big or small they may seem at that moment, determine where we end up in life. Now that's pretty scary! Or is it intriguing..? ;)

Back to school, again!

Hi guys,

Feels a bit strange to go back to uni tomorrow after 3,5 months of summer vacation. Strange but fun at the same time. Can't wait to meet my new classmates and start learning more things in my field again. Getting my nerd on. Only thing is the Oscars is tmrw and I will miss it for the first time in god knows how many years :( "I-landsproblem" I know.  Jen & Jess, please enjoy it a little extra for me - ok?! ;)

February has been filled with many exciting things. Everything from sailor parties to Valentines celebration to silent discos to hosting the Red bull conference to jumping in the rock pools at Springbrook national park to saying goodbye to the last bartender (that was working when I started @ Stingers) to having cocktail training sesh with the Leblon Cachaça people to finding my new fav breakfast place and getting to know numerous amazing people - besides working my ass off! I figured out I've only had about 15 days off this year so far. Haha. Workaholic, yep that's me!

We're finally moving on Thursday. Not very far, but I should really start packing anyway :P Mom, you know how slow I am with these things. Haha.Will be same address as before, just another unit number (234). Glad we're staying in Trilogy. It's a great place to live :)  Jamie will be back from Thailand on Thursday as well so at least I don't have to do all the moving myself. Anyone else who'd like to offer a helping hand are more than welcome ;) We could make a game/party out of it! Haha.

Some new exciting projects are also in the making. Will tell you more about them if and when they actually take off.

Sorry for being such a slowpoke when it comes to updating you of my life here in Australia. I haven't had much time to spend in front of the computer in the last few months. Still haven't even put up all the pictures from Mom's visit - and for a little photo-nerd like me that's pretty serious. Haha. Will try to better myself. Try being the operative word.

Love you guys! xoxox

New semester

I'm not sure how interested you guys are about my uni life in terms of what I'm actually learning about - but I am ;) this is some of the things I will be learning about in the next few months:

1204HSL Introduction to Event Management
Events have long played an important role in human society. Whether they be personal celebrations, festivals, carnivals, or fairs, societies the world over have enjoyed organizing and attending events. Moreover, the event industry has been the business growing success story of the past decade. All events are dynamics and challenging management environments that require expertise in several business disciplines, together with an understanding of the social and cultural impacts on stakeholders. This course will introduce the student to the emerging field of event management.

1003MKT Introduction to Marketing
Marketing is everywhere, everyday and is the process that facilitates the exchange of products and services for the benefit of individuals, groups, organizations and society as a whole. Central to this course is the consumer's perspective, and while you are a student you are also an active consumer in the marketing process, so you will appreciate the approach we take in presenting this course.
There are two key components to marketing. Firstly it can be thought of as a philosophy, an attitude, a perspective or a management orientation focusing on customer satisfaction. Secondly, it is an organizational function and a set or processes for creating, communicating and delivering value for customer and managing long term customer relationships so as to benefit the organization and it's stakeholders in dynamic environments. The study of marketing provides fascinating insight into how organizations create, distribute, promote and price their goods and services to facilities satisfying exchange relationships.

1001HSL Foundation studies
This course will examine the inter-relationships between tourism, hospitality, event and sport under the overarching concept of leisure. It will investigate participation trends, policy frameworks, employment opportunities and management issues within these sectors.

1220HSL Information Systems for Services Industries
This course focuses on the information systems that support the tourism, leisure, hotel and sport industries. It provides the student with a theoretical knowledge of the ways in which information technology is transforming these industries and the likely impacts of technology growth in the future. Students will develop an understanding of how different information system technologies can be applied to achieve specific business goals.

Endings and new beginnings

I've been such a good girl today. Honestly, I feel on top of the game - which is much more than I can say about the other international students who gathered today, when orientation week for the internationals kicked off. So many confused faces! Haha. Although it will be tough to go back into study mode after over 3 months of summer vacation I'm confident I will have a great time back at uni this semester! I'm so ready to get new knowledge peppered into my brain. And with only 2 days/week at uni I think I'll be sweet :) I still have 2 more weeks of freedom though. Two wonderful weeks that I plan to take full advantage off. Especially since the past weeks have been filled with drama. For better and for worse. Can't really go into details, but know that I'm well and safe. As for the others... Haha just kidding. It's been a lot of drama going on though and I wish it would stop. I also wish more people knew how to behave. Always baffles me how some think certain types of behaviors are ok.

Annnnnnyway. Enough said about that. I don't want to get all worked up. Totally unnecessary. Tomorrow is Valentines day and it will be a wonderful day! 

Love you all so much!! Don't know what I'd do with out you!

Você fala português?

Even though there are still a few more weeks until uni takes off again, I can't help but to feel the pressure slowly but surely begin to fester in my body. It could be the fact that all my friends studying at other universities around the world have already started their spring semester and keep posting things about it on facebook. Or the fact that if I had gone home to Sweden now I would have been graduating this semester with my fellow Tourists.. You take your pick. I shouldn't even have to worry too much though, since I'm taking first year subjects this semester. I should be more than ok with the work load, even if I'm taking 6 classes this semester :P I did tell you I'm taking a class in Portuguese on the side right?! So much for taking it easy. Haha. Wed nights/Thur mornings will be spent online talking over video chat with my fellow Portuguese classmates. Sweet. At least I'm learning a new language. Not too shabby. I must say I feel pretty ambitious when I think about it! :)

New Girl

So funny!

Missing piece

Certain days it's just a tiny bit harder to not miss home. Like today. My own Mom's birthday - and I'm not there - AGAIN. I can't help but feel a little bit like a failure for missing out on all these special occasions with family and friends. I know I'm creating new things and friendships here but as they say... the grass is always greener on the other side! How can you not end up feeling like you're missing out? Can someone with the answer please tell me?! It's the constant thing in my life. Being torn between different worlds. I try to live here and now - but how the hell are you supposed to do that when the people in your life are spread out all over the world?? Grr. My great great aunt once told my grannie that sometimes it's ok to miss someone. You are lucky to have someone you care that deeply about that it actually hurts to be away from them. You are even luckier if you have someone who misses you back.

So with that being said, I'm going to do these following things for the next few months before I once again get to see my all my Swedes:

Maybe you should do the same? :) 

So the past few days have been kind of a blur. Not drunken blur, I assure you. Just a blur because I've been working my ass off doing doubles every day and the days just seem to mush together. We've had the lovely people from a music festival called Big Day Out staying with us at the hotel and as always that is reason for us to really show we have our shit together in the bar. Since it's mostly rockers at this particular festival I had no idea who anyone was, unlike others of my fellow Stingers. That probably worked in my favor though as I treated all of them with the same hospitality as I usually do and tried to do my up most for all of them to be happy campers. I thought most of them were the roadies/managers etc, turns out I was hanging out with most of the actual bands playing at the thing all weekend. Oh well. Happy unknowingly bliss I guess.

After all my hard work it felt incredible nice to enjoy a relaxing Thermal massage at spaQ (our new spa at the hotel). My brand new umbrella broke like 3 times on the way to QT (which is about 2,5 blocks from my building) until it finally died on me right when I was crossing the street outside the hotel. Completely soaked I entered the lobby. Probably looked like a drenched cat. Wouldn't be the first time! Anyways. This massage was unreal. I want to go back and get more and more and then some. Learned that (who would have guessed?!) - I have too much tension in my body - and that this much tension in a person is not normal - so I should probably look into A)getting massages regularly B) try some acupuncture or C) ingest magnesium in some form. Not once did she explicitly say: try to stress less. Haha. Realistically speaking though, yes - relaxation is good - stressing is bad. Get onto it woman! I'll try my best and let you know how it goes ;)

So after this beautiful little spoil-myself-rotten-episode at the spa I had to venture back out in a stormy rain-flooded Surfers Paradise. Now this is when you truly notice you are a spoiled brat. You take a cab home from the spa because you don't feel like getting soaked prior to looking at yet another luxury apartment to live in for the next 6 months of your stay (as a student) in Australia.

With that being said; I think we finally found our new place today. Pure joy! When we stepped in I just knew. Like last time. "This is our new home!" It's such a relief. Cross your fingers for us! We want the owners to accept us as permanent residents of this lovely new home.

Being a happy camper again, with one less issue to deal with, Jamie and I settled in watching old movies like Face/Off while the rain was drumming away on the outside. Also waiting for it to mellow out so I could go see my lovely Nicole and play for a bit @ Black Coffee Lyrics. I miss my little American being all chirpy and wise behind the bar. Making me laugh hearing about new & old adventures that this little vixen gets caught in on a regular basis. She never ends surprising me. Which, to me, is a pretty damn fine quality in a person. Needless to say it was a great end to the afternoon and start of the night.

Speaking of nighttime pleasures - last night we had cocktail training at work which as always is a tone of fun. We had Mr Jason Crawley teach us about the "7 drinks you must try before you die". Pretty catchy, huh? He's such a funny guy. I remember him from my first training sesh at Stingers when I was brand new and he was telling us the history of alcohol and joked about both Scandos and Americans - making both me and ms Nicole highly bee-ish and ready to sting back. All in good fun, of course. He is a great teacher when it comes to the history of our business and I wish he was around more often so I could pick his brain.

Either which way - I feel like I'm just babbling on here about things you might not even care about. I have to say one more thing though and that is I'M SO SORRY I'M TERRIBLE AT GETTING BACK/KEEPING IN CONTACT WITH PEOPLE at the moment. Working crazy hours, not having working internet at home and being on summer holidays is not the best combo when it comes to staying on top of all your relationships. I'm truly sorry for that guys. Not my intention AT ALL. I'll try to better myself now when internet seems to be up and running again!

Lots of love,

Ylver / Ylv / Sweet Y / Princess Leia / Avly and well - unless you didn't get it - Ylva!

New year new drama

So this year didn't start off exactly as planned. The first week of 2012 has been eventful to say the least. Many people seem to have had a rough start to 2012. Could it be because this is the year when the world is ending and we're all preparing subconsciously for the apocalypse? I think not. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. A lot of bad things apparently. Hopefully this has just been a way to clear all the bad things of 2012 out of the way - so we can continue on and have a great rest of the year. I say hopefully cause I try to remain positive. The realistic side of me knows we can't live a whole year without some drama along the way. It's just how life is. Still, I have high hopes for 2012. I think it can be a great year if we let ourselves go and run freely.

Xmas in paradise

Hey guys, so sorry I haven't given you any updates from our trips whatsoever. I haven't spent much time online since my mom arrived - Believe it or not. I'm currently on a bus taking us to Hervey Bay where we will take the ferry over to Fraser island. I always say Frazier and T thinks its hilarious I have difficulties saying it without a Z. It's just feels wrong in my mouth without it somehow. Anyway - I'm trailing off point. We're celebrating this year's Christmas on Fraser island and I can't wait! It's supposed to be really beautiful and I'm looking forward to see another paradise! I think this will be my 6th or 7th Xmas abroad - with many more to come!
Either way - I can't stay and talk for too long. This is draining my dear lifeline's battery and you all know I start hyperventilating without my phone! Haha just kidding! Ok maybe it's also sadly partly true.

Hope you all have an absolutely lovely and magical Christmas! I'll try to post more once mom leaves and I get back to regular business ;) muah <3

Finbesök!

Mami sitter snart på flygplanet för att komma å hälsa på mig! Lyckan är total! :)

It's all happening!

Hey guys,

Really sorry I've been slacking lately. Lots of things are happening. Can't really tell you everything at the moment. Some things are still up in the air! I've been a busy bee (as always) since my last final a couple of weeks ago. I know you would tell me to slow down if you were here, Ibell. But there's so many fun things to do when you're on break and I'm just a a do'er!

My mom is showing up on Friday, which I'm veeeery excited about. Our travels start on Monday and I'm glad I'll finally get to see more of this country than the Coast. Maybe I should say BEYOND excited. Vacation is just what I need right now!

I promise I will let you in on all mysteries and everything that has been going on lately asap. But my attention span isn't what it used to be - and my belly is screaming for food - so I think I'll leave it for now. Sorry guys. You know I would love to just blab about everything, but now is not the right time..

Muah! xox

In the meantime - here's some pics from last week for all you none-fb'ers!

Working at a $20 million yacht for the day

5th consecutive Thanksgiving - now on 3 continents and in the 4th city!  

Rainah, me, Ericka and Laisha

Deborah, Luiza, Debbie, me and Ericka @ Work

Rainah me and Deborah 

And yes.. I'm a workaholic who loves my friends at work! :)

19

TIMMAR TILL SOMMARLOV!!! WOOOOHOOO!

KOL och framtiden

Har hänt en hel del kul under veckan som gått. Förra söndagen fick jag o en av mina vänner Rainah biljetter till Kings of Leon av vår chef o tisdagskvällen spenderades därför i Brisbane på KOL konsert.

Dagen efter hade jag min första final exam i Aussie. Som jag hoppas gick bra. Jag skrev till jag fick ont i handen iaf, så lär väl inte vara helt utan marks ;) Resten av kvällen spenderades i Saori´s sällskap på Stingers. Världens gulligaste tjej! Riktigt synd att hon ska åka hem till Japan snart (graduate:ar denna termin). Kanske får bli en trip till Japan i Feb/Mars o titta på the Cherry Blossom som ska vara så fint :P Å hälsa på henne så klart!

I torsdags hände en massa kul som jag inte tänker gå in på här. Vi får se vad som händer den närmaste tiden så kanske jag kan berätta mer sen ;) En sak som jag kan berätta nu iaf är att jag ska brancha ut från baren där jag jobbat och även börja i hotellets café, uppe på övervåningen som hostess för vår väldigt omtyckta restaurang och på lite andra ställen runt hotellet. Ska bli jättekul! Tycker om att utvecklas och det ska bli kul med lite omväxling! Tycker iofs väldigt mycket om de människorna jag jobbar med på Stingers så kommer bli tråkigt att inte se dem varje pass på jobbet.

Nästa vecka ska jag och Nichole försöka sätta ihop en Thanksgiving dinner för jag vet inte hur många... Jag är iaf jätteexcited över att få fira min 5e Thanksgiving i rad!

Åh det är så mycket mer jag vill säga men jag hinner inte riktigt nu! Måste plugga en liten stund till o sen börja göra iordning mig för jobbet. Ska bli intressant att se hur denna kväll utvecklar sig!!

Countdown

4 dagar till och sen har jag sommarlov till slutet av Februari/början av Mars! Hur härligt är inte det??? Men först - finals i Food & Wine Tourism på Måndag och i Entrepreneurship på onsdag morgon. Can´t freakin wait!! 

Other side

En sak som är trist med att vara så otroligt långt borta är att det är sjukligt svårt att hålla kontakten med folk. Å med kontakt menar jag inte bara små meddelande på fb utan samtal via Skype/telefon när man faktiskt kan höra varandras röster o se varandra.. Men tidszonerna fckar upp allt. 9h framför Sverige o 15h till USAs östkust. Fy. Det gör det inte så lätt att fixa Skype dejter precis :( 

Gårdagen

Kom till jobbet igår för att göra en till dubbel och får helt plötsligt vara med i ett photo shoot som de hade planerat (utan att säga till om innan). Lagom lätt att försöka göra sitt jobb samtidigt som ett kamera crew hela tiden försöker rycka i en å säga att man ska komma med o posa för kameran. Men man ska väl inte klaga :P Ska bli intressant att se hur bilderna blev! 

Idag är det bara 4 veckor till Mami kommer! Jag längtar!! 

Conference & Convention mgmt studies

Har suttit o lyssnat på lecture capture hela dagen. Låter kanske som att man skulle hunnit med en del på den tiden - men iom att varje lecture cap är nästan två timmar hinner man inte med så många om dagen. Senaste timmen har jag lyssnat pa en kvinnlig Event Coordinator som berättar om hur plannering gick till under ett stort event i NYC hon nyligen avslutade. Right up my alley med andra ord. Det är intressant att lyssna på andra med samma  passion som en själv. Förhoppningsvis fastnar all info inför provet också. Lite nervös för att man ska ta med miniräknare. Hoppas att det inte blir fööör mycket räknande med nuffror. Om inte så klarar jag mig nog galant. Jag behöver bara typ 1p på provet för att klara kursen anyway :P haha

Melbourne Cup

Klockan 6am imorse ringde alarmet i ett vagt försök att få mig att pallra mig upp och börja plugga. Jag frågade mig själv varför jag inte kunde få all kunskap installerat i mitt huvud á la Matrix och somnade om. Klockan 8 vaknade jag återigen till av det kära alarmet som tyckte att du var det väl allt på tiden. Men se det tyckte inte min kropp som ville snooza 2h till. Oh well. Nog om sömn. Igår va det trots allt Melbourne Cup. Ett av de största eventen i Australien, som jag nämnde tidigare. Därför befann jag mig bakom baren redan kl 11am igår. Å in drällde det kunder. Heeela dagen och kvällen. Folk blev fullkomligt shitfaced och jag hittade en o annan i compromising positions.. Men kul va det!

Här är Deb o jag när vi är o inhandlar fascinators för gårdagens festligheter. Tyvärr finns det inga bilder på oss i våra riktiga outfits och fascinators på från gårdagen, men denna får väl duga.

Nu måste jag återgå till pluggandet. Mr Fraser håller just nu på o förklarar viktiga saker angående food & beverage när det gäller stora konferenser å det kan man ju inte missa ;)