Study-Abroad Semester Down Under

Goodbye!

2009-11-23T01:40:00.000-08:00

The time here passed by so quickly and I really enjoyed my stay in Perth. I made so many friends from all over the world and want to thank everybody for the wonderful time at the ECU student village!

Rottnest Island

2009-11-12T04:47:00.000-08:00

On Monday I did a daytrip to Rottnest Island with Leo and Ingmar (two study colleagues of mine). It is just a 30 minute ferry ride away from Perth.

We enjoyed a beautiful day there and cycled around the whole island.

The beaches are really amazing. The island is quite huge and there are not many people there.

The reason the island is named like that are the animals living there - the Quokkas. They look a little bit like rats that's why the Dutch explorer who discovered Rottnest called the island that way - like rat's nest.

You can find more pictures in the album.

Trip around Australia

2009-10-11T09:25:00.000-07:00

During the mid-semester break (21st of September - 4th of October) my study colleague Uli spontaneously visited and we did a trip around Australia - in just 2 weeks! :)

First we went to Ayers Rock for 3 nights, then moved on to tropical Cairns to see the Rainforest an Great Barrier Reef. After staying there for 4 nights we visited Sydney. From Sydney we took a rental car and did a roadtrip all the way to Melbourne via Canberra.

It was an awesome trip! To see some pictures just click on the area on the image below:

Aqwa

2009-09-06T03:19:00.000-07:00

Today I visited the Aquarium of Western Australia (Aqwa).

It has marine life from many parts of Western Australia.

You can find more pictures in the web album.

Some Impressions of Perth

2009-08-19T07:49:00.000-07:00

Some impressions of Perth...

The beautiful view from Kings Park (Google maps).

The bell tower viewed from the Espalande street (Google maps).

Some skyscrapers (the photo was shot from the same perspective than the previous picture, just turned around).

More impressions of Perth can be found at the web album.

Trip to the Pinnacles

2009-08-01T07:26:00.000-07:00

Today we did a day-trip to the Pinnacle Desert (Google maps) which is around 250km north-west of Perth. It was an organized bus-trip where 80 students from WA participated.

On the way there we saw some scrub-land. It is so funny... once you drive like 10km outside of Perth you are in the middle of nowhere.

The Pinnacle Desert looks like a moonscape scenery and is made by the pillars rising out of the desert landscape.

It makes a really good photo shooting location ;)

More pictures are online at the web album.

Caversham Wildlife Park

2009-07-25T07:19:00.000-07:00

After a long search I finally saw the first wildlife in Australia ;)

Today we went to the Caversham Wildlife Park which hosts different kinds of Australian wildlife.

Some of them can even be petted (e.g. the kangaroos or koalas).

The cutest little fellas are the Wallabys.

More pictures are online at the web album.

First Visit of the Beach

2009-07-22T07:11:00.000-07:00

The first visit of the beach was really impressive! We went to the cottesloe beach by train which is very cheap for students in Perth (Google maps).

It rained in the beginning but fortunately the sun came out after wards.

Finally we enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

More pictures of the beach are available at the web album.

Moving In

2009-07-16T07:03:00.000-07:00

Today I moved into my room at the ECU student village.

Around 160 people live in the ECU Student Village in Mt. Lawley (Google maps), most of them are international students.

I share an apartment with five roommates which are from all over the world. My roomies are: Divya from Mauritius, Brooke from the US, Kim from South Afrika, Henrik from Sweden and Wooju from Korea.

More pictures from the student village can be found at the web album.

Trip to Perth

2009-07-14T08:26:00.000-07:00

After writing my last exam, moving out of my apartment on Friday, and packing on Saturday I could finally start my trip to Perth, WA.

On Sunday at 3am in the morning I left home together with my parents to go to Munich International Airport. The flight took off at 7am, so I had to be at the airport at 5am. All in all the trip consisted of three flights (Munich -> London, London -> Singapore, Singapore -> Perth).

First I had to backtrack from Munich to London, since I wanted to fly with the big airbus (the A380-800). Other possibilities would have been to fly via Dubai with Fly Emirates or via South Africa. But I also wanted to fly with the kangaroo-airline (Qantas). So I first went from Munich International Airport to London Heathrow. This flight took only 2 hours and was very comfortable.

After arriving in Heathrow there was bad news waiting for me though. My flight from London to Singapore was delayed 13 (!) hours. Fortunately Qantas provided a hotel room near the airport during the day, where I got lunch and dinner. I had to leave the hotel in the evening though and had to wait at the airport like 7 hours until the plane finally took off. Fortunately there were many people waiting for the flight as well, so the waiting time wasn't that boring since we went to some pubs at the airport.

On Monday 1am London Time the plane finally took off. And the waiting time definitely payed off!!! Wow... the A380 is so amazing. I have never seen such a huge plane and I think it is currently the biggest passenger plane. The plane has two floors and can carry up to 520 people!

After a very comfortable 13 hour flight I arrived in Singapore at 8:30pm local time. Of course I have already missed my scheduled connection flight since the flight from London has been delayed that long. Fortunately an alternative connection flight has been already organized when I arrived in Singapore so I could immediately continue my trip to Perth.

I finally arrived in Perth on Tuesday 2 am local time after another 5 hour flight. There a representative from the Edith Cowan University picked me up and drove me to a youth hostel where I stayed for the night. During the drive from the airport to the hostel I could enjoy the beautiful skyline.

Finally I'm here! So where are the kangaroos? ;)