My nameís Saj.
Itís short form for Sajeeva.
I come from Colombo in Sri Lanka.
I came here as an international student two and a half years ago.
There were a lot of my friends who had already come to this country and they used to tell
me of the life here.
I currently live in Collingwood in an apartment.
Melbourne was considered to be a friendly city.
I currently work in a call centre.
I would say ninety percent of my friends, I met them from work and they would introduce
you to their friends
and then you just form this whole network of friends and the web just keeps spreading.
Does this have a name
or is it just ..?
Chicken cream.
It doesnít have a name.
Iíve been probably cooking ever since I was fourteen years of age.
I guess I like cooking for friends because you just see a smile on their faces when they
taste your food if itís good.
Does that help?
No, this is good.
Actually itís not that spicy.
Sorry!
I had to get used to public transport here, learn the routes to uni and just other things
like how you buy groceries.
I donít think Iíd gone grocery shopping before, for myself.
And learn what exactly, what ëspecialí means, like when things are on special
and I always wanted to be independent and do things for myself.
Have you seen this movie?
No.
L.A. Confidential.
No, is it good?
She won the Oscar for it.
I guess my love for shopping I just, I you know,
it comes with the need to be kind of different in what you wear and having that confidence.
Yeah, I guess my biggest fear was not making many friends because having friends in another
country is probably the most important thing ever.
Having good friends kind of defines what you end up doing in the country
because as long as youíre with them you have more experiences because you do things as
a group.
So that to me is very important because that basically makes up the experiences that you
have.
You know why Iím envious of Jeremy?
Even in economy, itís like business.
Yes, Iím really excited actually about today, something Iíve never done before.
Iím hoping to not make a clown in mind and donít make a fool of myself.
But yeah, weíll see how it goes but really hoping to have heaps of fun.
Actually Iíd just really like to see something that Iíve never seen before.
I havenít been to a real circus before.
The closest Iíve seen of a circus was Britneyís Circus Concert Tour last year.
Hello, Iím Earl.
You must be Saj.
Yes, Iím Saj.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you Earl.
Welcome to the juggling course.
Come on through.
Weíll show you how to go with them.
Right.
You go scooping down,
then weíre going to throw and catch, yep.
Beautiful, and then weíre gonna scoop down and throw and catch, lovely.
The National Institute of Circus Arts has been going for about eleven years and it has
now flourished to this amazing environment we have today.
It is the only full time circus course that we have running in Australia for professional
artists.
So weíre very, very lucky to have this sort of facility and institute in this country.
To me it doesnít seem like this is a skill that can be learned overnight and Iím sure
weíre gonna have quite a few mishaps.
Catch and catch.
One, two, yes, very good, thatís fine.
Thatís fine.
I donít mind drops.
It is really hard but I think with practise it should be fine.
Fingers crossed on that though.
It just goes back to childhood.
I was never very well co-ordinated, and I guess I did sports that did not require much
co-ordination.
I didnít do much sports but the few sports I did was like swimming,
probably it was like the only sport that I did.
I just think I need to working on timing a bit
So thatís all I got at the moment.
Well, you got keep the time, you know, think of your favourite song even and try and keep
it ëBang, bangí instead of ëddddí
Some of the tricks are very difficult.
They just require years of practice, you know half an hour each day on just that trick.
Itís given me something to aim towards.
Other parts are going bad.
Hopefully juggling can cheer me up.
Yeah, that was a good one.
Yep.
My lack of confidence would probably come from family.
Being a failure was just not acceptable but ever since I came here and just been independent,
having to live like by yourself, it just gave me the confidence for life that I needed,
that I didnít have before.
How you going Saj?
You getting better?
Brian been helping out a bit.
Yes, he has.
A bit better I guess.
With the juggling class in general it really does bring the introverted person out, I find,
because theyíre trying things new, itís not natural.
Theyíre feeling a little bit apprehensive about being there and maybe a bit exposed
because of making mistakes but we make that a very friendly environment.
One, two, catch, catch.
Yes.
One, two, catch, catch.
Good, good.
Youíre almost ready for three.
Almost ready three.
Do you think you can do three?
I know you can do three.
I probably can.
Yeah, confidence, thatís what weíre here for.
Weíre gonna build you up.
Awesome.
Yes, thatís it.
Awesome.
When we have a new student that comes into our class, such as Saj, we try to take it
a bit light hearted and not so serious.
Itís more about the journey and enjoyment of the whole thing other than being so serious
about getting the three balls in the air.
So itís sort of like just one big happy fun place really.
Weíre just trying to make it enjoyable.
So Saj, are you ready for some new props?
No, Iím only kidding, no, no.
Okay.
These are very dangerous, I think you should continue back on with the juggling balls.
I made a big blunder there didnít I?
Notice how the diabolo starts to spin.
Yes.
Excellent, we have our first piece of success with the diabolo.
Good, right hand backwards, yes, straighten up.
Right hand backwards, oh good, okay.
That was very good..
Awesome.
Iím gonna try three balls.
One, two, three, yes, excellent.
Youíre half way there.
You probably didnít think you could do this, did you?
Yeah, no, definitely not, because Iím ...
Big surprise
isnít it?
Big surprise.
A little bit of practice
Yeah true.
comes a long way.
I think Saj did a very good job today.
I think it was good that he actually got out of his own comfort zone,
and um, yeah he did quite well.
I think weíve got Saj going on three balls.
Thanks a lot Earl, thanks a lot,
You keep practicing this.
Yep.
Youíll feel yeah, youíll get more confidence about trying some new things.
Thatís good.
Okay?
Yep.
Good work.
Yeah, I mean, I think I feel much more confident than I felt, when I walked through the door
and yeah, feeling good about it now.
Yeah, Iím really glad I tried it.
One, two, three, beautiful.
Excellent, that is really good.
Thatís what weíre looking for Saj.
I donít think Saj is quite ready to juggle those big knives yet but well done for trying.
After the break, we find out about the celebrations at an Australian Chinese New Year.
See you soon.