G'day mate!

Yes, I'm already here for over a month and yes, I already have a week off from Uni -yeah! It's supposed to be a study week and most students use it to write their assignments but since I'm here to have some fun I will be heading of to Exmouth tomorrow! Me and some friends (we'll be 13 people) will rent some cars and drive up the coast to Exmouth (= a little town that is quite far up north at the coast so they have really nice weather there (around 30 °C).
I'll give you the details when I'll come back (next Sunday - that's a week )

So what else has been going on? Well Uni life is still the same except that the sport courses have finally started. I'm taking a Hip-Hop class, fencing and a surf class to keep me entertained ;)
Well Hip-Hop is Hip-Hop, there's not much to tell about that but Fencing and Surfing is really cool. I always wanted to try out fencing and I'm really enjoying it. (besides the fact that you sweat enormously under the gear) It's far more difficult than it looks like and now I really know why we have to wear so muh protection....

And yes I'm taking a surfing course. I overcame my fear of mean animals in the ocean (I'm not joking when I say that there are really big sharks here) and decided to do something for my image and learn to surf ;)
I had my first surf lesson last Saturday (and yes, surfing instructors are not only good looking in movies but in real life as well ;) ) and we were pretty lucky because it was an unusual nice day. Of course the water was still freezing cold but we got wet suits.
Surfing is really fun but at the same time pretty difficult. I expected getting up on the board to be difficult but I really underestimated the strong waves and current in the ocean. The most difficult and exhausting part of the surfing was to get a few meters away from the beach to get to the point where you can actually start surfing. Thanks to my dad I have had my experiences with tough waves in Europe but this is nothing compared to the strong waves and rips here. But the beach was beautiful as you can see here...

that's some news from me again. I have to finish packing now.
see ya!

mmmmh Kangaroo

Hey mates,
another week has passed and I'm still happy and alive (I declared war to every spider).
Luckily the rain has stopped and I'm slowly feeling better again (due to the stupid rain I catched a bad cold/flue). Although the wind is still very cold you one can see that everyone is enjoying the sun and the absence of rain. Suddenly the parks on campus are filled with students studying, sun-bathing, eating or doing whatever and I feel like I'm on a typical University.
Since a few asked me how the courses in Australia are I'll give a short introduction. Students take about 4-5 units every semester. I'm taking : Microeconomics, Tourism Management, Interpersonal Communication and Australian Studies. One unit usually has about 3 contact hours a week, which are split up into a Tutorial and a Lecture (1 1/2 lecture and 1 1/2 hour tutorial or something like that). The lectures are the same as in Austria (About 200 people and no attendance required) But the tutorials are pretty much like school, which means you are in small classes and get to do all the fun stuff as writing assignments, doing group projects and oral presentations. So students actually have to do much more during the whole semester than in Austria. Another challenge is understanding some Asian students or also tutors since their pronounciation of the English language differs quite a lot from the mix that I'm used (Australian, American, British, and Skandinavian English)

Talking of different nationalities. I've finally met an Austrian!
Well, it was Wednesday, very early in the morning and I was sleeping. Suddenlty my flatmate woke me up because I had a phone call. Everyone who knows me a little knows that I'm not a morning person! So still tired I went to the phone and was really confused when someone told me that someone from Austria wants to talk to me..... after I while I remembered that I once talked to someone whose flatmate was from Austria and since then they have tried to get a hold of me. And the funny thing is that he is from Graz as well. Although I was still very tired I managed to arrange a meeting with him and it was really nice talking to someone from Graz. He is much older than me and writes his diploma thesis here, but it's still very nice to have someone from home around ;)

For those of you who have seen my pictures and love kangaroos as much as I do: I had one of those lovely creatures for dinner ! I kinda feel bad admitting it, but they are actually very good. but for my defence: I was invited for dinner. As you all know the Olympic games started on Friday 08.08.08 at 8.08 p.m. (yes, even the original time has a meaning) and according to the number 8 we were 8 people having dinner and watching the Olympic opening ceremony. And my friends cooked kangaroo and since I hardly ever have a real warm dinner I just couldn't say no ;)


doesn't it look delicious? ;)

Since I'm already posting pictures, why not one more: me in my room. Lots of Love from Perth ! Irene

sun's shining :)

Hey mate!
It's saturday and the sun is shining. It's not raining so far and I can't express my happiness about that ;) Josh, my Austrlalian flatmate, told me that it hasn't been raining much the last couple of years, so the rain is really good for the farmers. Well, atleast it has one purpose because I'm already annoyed by it. My cheap H&M umbrella is already damaged from the strong wind and so it isn't much help to me anymore....
But I don't wanna complain, today the sun is shining and that's just great.

Since I don't get to do any sports here (for the moment, the courses will start in mid August) I try to go for a run every now and then. I usually go with Kamilla, my friend from Denmark, but yesterday she couldn't and so I went on my own. Well, I shoudln't have done that cause of course I got lost. Kinda embarrassing to admit, but atleast I had a good work out since I went much further than I had intended to. But I found my way home and I've learned my lesson ;)


Last night I went with some friends to to the house of the two Danish guys, I got two know here, and they cooked dinner for us. It was so nice to have a real meal again in a really nice house. Afterwards we went out to Northbridge, that's the place where everyone goes out. So there are many clubs and you might think that it's a really cool place to go. Well, it is really alright and I had a lot of fun last night but I'm still amazed that most of the clubs there close at 2.00. So about 10 minutes before 2.00 the music stops and all the security guys start shouting at you to leave the place...... very friendly.

hope you're enyoing your summer!