Sweden has announced that starting from September 2011, students from non-EU countries will not be entitled free education. So this will be the last intake for free education.

For more information check the following links:
https://www.studera.nu/studera/1499.html
https://www.studera.nu/aw/courseGuide.do?lang=en

Applications can be submitted online at:
https://www.studera.nu/studera/1374.html

Last date for online application:
August 16, 2010
Last date to post certified copies of the certificates:
September 1, 2010

Also I guess there will be no English requirements according to this:
https://www.studera.nu/studera/1663.html

What is a united society?

Is it one where there are no differences? Is it one where only one kind of people (sex/race/religion/language) live? Is it one where there are no small groups or divisions? Or is it to merge all the differences and create a new soup?

I don’t think so…!

I think it’s natural for humans to form into small groups. When there are so many differences between us, the one big united society is too remote from reality.

So how can we create a united society?

A united society starts from its differences. It is based on how all these differences work together and create an ecosystem where each of these can complement and coexist. Unless learn to appreciate the differences we will never make it a united society.

It’s the cluttered one that we need.

I’m back to Brisbane after a week at home in Colombo, Sri Lanka. But this time I feel a little different from when I came to Australia for the first time (a couple of months back).

When I came here in April I was excited for being in a new place, that excitement is no more as I’ve started feeling ‘home’ in Brisbane. But when I met family and friends in Colombo, that was really exciting this time than before.

So what made the difference?

It’s the same people and places. So is it ‘time’ that made the difference? I’m not sure. But I think, how small it may be, ‘time’ plays a big role in how we see things in life.

I’m writing this from the beautiful Samford Valley, Queensland, Australia, after an eventful week of traveling from Colombo to Singapore to Sydney and finally to Brisbane.

Thursday 22nd April

Leaving Sri Lanka: It’s always emotional when leaving home for a long period, but I was able to handle it without making it too dramatic. Many friends came to send-off, and even helped me in carrying my 40kilos + 10kilos.

Friday 23rd April

To Singapore: The flight to Singapore was so empty that I could sleep on 3 seats after eating the inflight dinner (the parata and chicken on Singapore Airlines is good… ).

12 Hours in Singapore: Landed in Singapore at around 7 in the morning and Praitheesh came to receive me at the airport. After messing up with the terminal, went to his place in train for breakfast. Then came to city again at around 11 and spent some time roaming around and searching for the Merlion.

The whatever coffee at BurgerKing was a mistake, but we later had fairly good lunch with another friend Bala. Spent some more time around the city and got back to his place at around 5 on bus via Little India. We took the airport bus at around 6 as I had to be at airport at 7.30. Had a light dinner at McDonald’s at airport as I had to keep some room for the flight dinner.

To Sydney: The flight to Sydney was on a Airbus A380, and I was on the main deck (which is the lower deck of the double-decker). The flight was full and the dinner was OK. It was a 7 hours long flight, but I couldn’t sleep much except for the 2 hours before breakfast. The in-flight breakfast was fairly good.

Saturday 24th April

Landed in Sydney: The flight reached Sydney at around 6 in the morning and I was received by my uncle and cousin at the airport. We went straight to his place and I feel asleep till afternoon. Went out for some shopping in the evening.

Sunday 25th April

Anzac Day: It was a long weekend and the shops were closed in the morning. So went out in the evening, to Homebush. It is known as an Asian suburb and famous for its spice shops and many Sri Lankan shops. The funny thing is they even sell the Sri Lankan soft drinks such as Cream Soda, Portello and Orange Barley here. I also bought a pre-paid SIM (Lebara Mobile Australia gives cheaper international call rates, almost same as the calling cards), so now I have a Australian mobile number.

Monday 26th April

Day out in Sydney: Went to UNSW and met Sanchayan, Went to Coogee Beach and spent nearly 3 hours and enjoyed photographing around, Went city and Opera House, Met Hesavan near Darling Harbour, Return by train.

Tuesday 27th April

Lazy Day: Got up late, Went to another suburb with many Tamil shops, Online check-in and additional baggage on Qantas, Went to airport early, Board at 8.45pm take off at 9pm from Terminal 3.

Queensland: Land in Brisbane Airport at 10.30pm, Pick up by Pathmanathan Uncle at around 10.45pm and reach his house in Samford by 11.30pm.

Wednesday 28th April

QUT: Slept a little longer, Went to QUT by 10.30am, The ID card machine was not working, Meet ISS counselor, Went to QUT Higher Research Degree office and filled up the enrollment forms, Went to Information Security Institute (ISI) and meet main supervisor and some other staff, Return by train to Ferny Grove and to Samford.

Thursday 29th April

Travel from Samford: Went to QUT on train via Strathpine to Central, Meet accommodation officer, Meeting with supervisors at ISI, Bought a Go Card ( It’s a travel card which can be used to travel seamlessly on bus, train and ferry services in Brisbane.), Got my QUT Student ID Card, Found a contact accommodation from the Accommodation Services web sire and arranged for seeing the room on Friday, Return by train to Strathpine and to Samford.

Friday 30th April

Accommodation in Brisbane: Went to Brisbane on train via Strathpine to Central, Saw two rooms in Petrie Terrace and St James Street and gave advance for the later, Got money from HSBC ATM from my Sri Lankan account (good thing is the ATM fee is much less and this seems better than bank transfers considering the fees), Meet some UoM seniors who are doing their PhD in Structures, Walk around the city in the afternoon, Return by train to Strathpine and to Samford.

Completing my undergraduate degree, full-time job as a software engineer, two international trips, two published conference papers, some photography, more prepress designs – The year 2009 has kept me real busy all-around. This year was very eventful and little too overwhelming to me, such that I ended up physically (and even mentally) unstable towards the end of the year. This was the first year I had plans, to-do lists and deadlines, yet I ended up in a slight mess.

I’m not very much used to the idea of planning for life, especially in long-term. I never had a yearly plan before in my life, and for 2009 I thought why not give it a try. Towards the end of 2008, I had an idea about what I would want to do in 2009. When I put those on writing, it was a list of items spread across of my interests. It was a so long and scattered, I ordered them in three categories, prioritized and created “My To-Do List for 2009“. Now towards the end of 2009, it time for me to look back, and see if having a plan had helped me.

My final year exams were in February, which I did fairly well and ended up getting a first class. Exams at university were not so exciting to me, but when I look back them at now it feels like a good experience. We had a lot of group study time just weeks before the exam at Mayuran’s place. Usually it would be Kathees, Mayuran, Nishandan, Praitheesh, Ramanan, Shayanthan, Tharshan and me. It was studying the fun way, with Mayuran’s mothers tasteful lunch (and sleepy afternoons).

I completed my undergraduate final year project, Project eID, successfully. It was a group project along with my teammates Anuradha, Ramanan and Shayanthan. I got the chance to be the leader of the team, which was more like a project manager role. Most of the complex parts of the project were handled by my teammates, yet I gained a great amount of experience. We became one of the many good project among our peers. I traveled along with my project team to Turkey and Malaysia, and we participated in international project competitions and exhibitions. We also published two conference papers related to our project.

I also started working on a Google Summer of Code project with Creative Commons enthusiastically, but I failed in halfway mainly due to poor time management and couple of foreign tours I had to undertake. It would be one of the main things I would regret in 2009.

Dr. Chandana Gamage would be the one teacher I would say who has guided me the most. He was my final year project supervisor and at first he seemed like the hardest person to work with. But after more than one year closely with him, he now seems totally the opposite to what I was thinking. Even after the completion of the project he helped me enlighten myself and guided me through out my grad school applications.

Just after completing I joined WaveNET International, Colombo as a Software Engineer on April 1st. But even before joining I had decided that I should go for graduate studies preferably in 2010. So I did IELTS, prepared SOPs, and applied to 5 universities and now I’m waiting for their responses.

I wanted to do certain things for a personal satisfaction. Blogging in English and Tamil was something I wanted to do for a long time and I planned to blog more frequently with quality posts. Thought I moved my English blog to my own domain, nothing much was written here lately. I even stopped writing in my Tamil blog.

I had planned for a trip to India in 2008, but that didn’t workout as planned so I wanted to do some traveling in 2009. And indeed I was fortunate enough to travel to two countries in 2009. Turkey was in May, with Shayanthan and Ramanan. I was a great week at Istanbul, with students from 12 countries with diverse cultures and a city that’s a meeting point of Asia and Europe, Modernity and Culture. Then Malaysia was in July, it too was a nice experience and a small shopping trip with Malalasena.

I bought a new camera, a DSLR, a Canon EOS 1000D (yeah… it’s what I could afford) in Malaysia. I started experimenting here and there, tried landscape, street, events, portrait and still figuring out what I could do. Got into Flickr, and an uncompleted photoblog yet to be launched.

Leo Club activities was something I wanted to focus more in 2009, but it didn’t happen as I expected. I became the Secretary of Leo District Council 306 B2, and I was doing is the job of a designer and a photographer. Yet this has given me a window to lookout from my all analytical work style into creative and aesthetic work.

This is just a long summary of what I did in 2009 and how much of my plans I could achieve. I think having a plan helped me in many ways to keep me some what in a direction and focused. Thanks for reading this very long post (if you have upto here)…!