And it goes on

[pictures are still missing in this blog entry - coming up!]

Hello everybody!!! Reporting back at last! So, what is the next awesome trip I should tell you about? Oh, yes, Tasmania! That was really beautiful! I had a lot of breathtaking views there, and I tried my best to save it all on my camera. Well, the down side of that was actually that I took way too many photos, so I still have to sort them out. To tell you the truth, I am still procrastinating (my uni here somehow loves to use this word) it, but I decided, it may finally be better to write something in my blog first.

I flew to Hobart (Tassie) with 14 friends. They are Spanish, German, Indian, Canadian, Mexican and Korean! So it was a really nice and interesting international mix! And from the amount of people you can tell that we really had a lot of fun! We hired four cars, and nearly everyone had a change to drive on the left side of the road... and to clean the windscreen when they actually wanted to use the indicators. We drove a lot, did some hiking through national parks to see beautiful beaches, mountains and rainforests and had a lot of sandwiches. You'll get an idea when you see the pictures - coming up!

With this great bunch of people we organized a weekly international sunday lunch, so everybody could prepare a dish from his or her home country to share with the other. That lunch was very popular and became really huge at the end, but died unfortunately after a lot had to leave Sydney.

On one of those weekends I went on a hiking trip again in the very nice surrounding of Sydney, called the Ki-Ring-Gai Chase. It promised to be another of those ordinary but nice and relaxing hikes, until we decided to check out one of those creeks we crossed on our way a little closer. Somehow one of those branches I held on to to get over that creek couldn't bear my weight anymore (I'm not that heavy, the tree was just rotten!) and I fell into the water! Well, it was quite funny then, since I was wet already, I could just walk THROUGH the creeks and waterfalls. So it turned out to be a canyoning trip rather than a hiking trip for me.

On the next weekend (I was dry already and didn't actually get a cold from that last trip) I had the opportunity to go inside the Opera House! Gordon got some free tickets from his flatmate who is working there, so we could enjoy listening to a Welsh choir. It does not sound that interesting, but they were really funny, so it was really great!

I also had a concert myself one day. Not in the Opera House, haha. I played in my uni's Jazz band. But since they do not have a drumset in my uni, I had to play on my Djembe (I bought it already shortly after I arrived in Sydney, I just cannot leave my hands off drums...). So we played a rather African kind of Jazz. ;)

Oh well, and since Sydney is a lot more expensive than Berlin, I had to find a job. I found a casual job in a café in the north of Sydney. I don't earn a lot, but therefore it is fun and I get to learn how to make proper coffees and stuff. I would really like to continue doing this back in the Atomic café in my university in Berlin, but they do not have a proper coffee machine. Maybe someday... ;)

Another thing that I would really like to continue doing in Berlin is climbing! I started to do some indoor climbing a couple of weeks ago, and now I cannot get enough of it anymore! It is really a lot of fun, I make a lot of progress, and it is a great workout! I cannot wait to go again! Mmhh, probably Monday again. Hope I find a belayer!

I actually didn't go climbing for TWO weeks already. Well, the one week, I participated in the East Coast Challenge. That is where all the universities of New South Wales (Australia's most populous state) play in a tournament against each other in a variety of sports. I played Ultimate Frisbee. We were not the best team, since half of us never played before and we did not practice a lot (it was raining a lot...), but we definitely made the most progress during the tournament! Another tournament, and we will beat them all! GO UTS!!!

The last week, I travelled to Melbourne! You would think it is just next to Sydney, but it took me twelve hours on the train to get there! Yes, Australia is huge. Fortunately, the train was going overnight, so I could sleep the whole way (at least I tried to). I spent two days in the city and two days driving along the famous Great Ocean Road with a friend. That was also an awesome trip, with great landscapes, and I could drive a car again, with gear shifter on the left hand side. Now I have more experience driving on the left side of the road than on the right side in Germany.

I mentioned earlier that it was raining here. Yes, that is true! I never could have imagined, but it actually rains a lot in Sydney. Normally twice as much as in Berlin, but this year it was terrible. It just flooded all the streets, and it was so windy sometimes that the streets and foothpaths were full of umbrellas, tossed away after they snapped in the storm. And I nearly didn't bring my raincoat, I should have brought my rain pants as well! I laughed at the thought that it might rain here when I was back in Berlin. :D

What is also really sad, is the fact that I already had to say goodbye to a lot of new friends I met here in Sydney. :'( Uni finished about two weeks ago, and nearly all the international students have to go back to their countries or are travelling around Australia right now. So the last weeks were full of farewell parties and sad goodbyes.

Oh, and even I will have to say goodbye soon. I had a couple of reasons and thought about everything a long time, but finally decided that I will return to Berlin in October already, that means 3 months earlier than I planned before! I hope all my friends in Berlin are a little happier now, since I am really looking forward to seeing all of them again!

My next plans are that I am going to travel around Australia for one month, starting in the first weeks of August. I will fly to Adelaide (on the southern coast), take a trip up to Darwin (northern coast) through the Outback, then visit Cairns and the east coast. I am sure it will be huge and awesome! And to top it, I plan to travel around South Korea after that, since I have some friends there who I want to visit.

I hope I will have time to write my next blog entry a little earlier. I am so very sorry it took me so long to write this, but as you can read, quite a lot happened. I really apologise that you had to wait so long to hear from me again. I would also really love to hear from all you guys in Berlin again!

March

G'day mates!

In a few hours I will enter an airplane again. No, I will not return back to Germany already, first I have to explore Australia further. The next week we will have holidays here which I will spend in Tasmania. I am already very curious about it and I will upload pictures and post all infos here, naturally. Perhaps I will even catch a Tasmanian Devil which I can domesticate.

But before I run off, I will first report about all the cool stuff I experienced the last weeks:

1st weekend, hiking. I uploaded the pictures from the hiking trip already 3 week ago into my photo album, maybe you have seen them already. It was in Wondabyne, about 40km north of Sydney, at the Broken Bay, the Hawkesbury River's estuary. It was a beautiful 12km long hike between genuine dry Australian bush with so-called Gumtrees (Eucalyptus trees, all without Koalas) and big spiders which had to choose just the narrow hiking trails over which to build their webs, out of all the other places they could have chosen.



The following week I have been to Manly Beach for the first time, another famous beach north of Sydney which is best to reach by ferry. There, I also had to experience a bluebottle sting (jellyfish, see my second blog entry). They are much smaller than they look like on the photo, only about 8cm long, but they nevertheless burn pretty much - the small fire blisters were still visible 2 weeks later.

2nd weekend, caving. Yes exactly, that has something to do with caves. I joined that university club (University of Technology Sydney Speleological Society) which I was so enthusiastic about in Berlin already. And that was really worth it! We abseiled into caves at Wee Jasper, to the northwest of Canberra, and explored everything inside. The "squeezes", very narrow passages through which we tried to squeeze ourselves, were really funny, but also the caves with all those stalactites and stalagmites were very interesting!



3rd weekend, cycling. The next week I went hiking in Wondabyne again, but this time on my own, and I visited the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney again. This time I took my bicycle with me so I could ride along some trails and enjoy the beautiful nature.



4th weekend, surfing! At last I got around to surfing! I went to Manly Beach with a couple of other UTS Outdoor Adventure Club members where we hired some surfboards. After some brief instructions from someone more experienced we all rushed into the waves and gave it a go. After a few failures I already managed it rather well and was able to stand on the board nearly every time, before the 4 hours lending period was over and we had to return the surfboards. But I will certainly try and practice it again soon. Anyhow, I was exhausted to death thereafter! I did not know at all how exhausting it would be, since you have to paddle against the waves every time you want to get out into the water again.



Well, but nevertheless I rode home nearly 40km on by bike afterwards. Unfortunately I could not take any pictures of the nice sights over the Sydney harbour that I had on the way, because I did not take my camera with me (for fear of thieves on the beach), but I will soon make up for that and show you the pictures.

Perhaps it looks like I'm not studying anymore, doesn't it? But during the week I am in the laboratory nearly every day. Currently, Gordon and I are busy building up a setup for luminance spectroscopy of excited semiconductors. It is really difficult to get all the needed parts together. That would be no problem at the university in Berlin, they had a multiple of equipment etc. in the Project Lab compared to what this uni has to offer. And also the Labview program they use here to control the measurement is in a considerable disorder and it did not work properly, but I could quickly make everything work.

However, I have to hurry up now and pack in the remaining stuff and go to the airport! Happy Easter to you all! Cheers!

One Month in Sydney

Unfortunately, some time passed already since I last wrote something, but I really experienced a lot. Therefore I have a blog and an on-line photo album now!!!

I did a lot of sightseeing already, e.g. I have been on the Sydney Tower:


Eastern Sydney, seen from the Sydney Tower (see shadow)

Then I made a day trip to the Blue Mountains, about 100km to the west of Sydney. There are really beautiful landscapes!


Waterfall in the Blue Mountains

Naturally, I have met quite a lot of other nice exchange students on all these trips, unfortunately not so many Australians. But I often meet these on the many student parties!

To buy groceries here is the cheapest at Aldi. For everyone who does not want to believe that there are Aldi markets in Australia as well, here is the proof: ;)


Aldi, in the middle of Sydney

Unfortunately, not all the people here are friendly. Thus one night my bicycle was demolished after I left it only for short time in front of the university in order to check my e-mails:


My bicycle, demolished...
Unfortunately, here are really not a lot of bicycle shops, and the few which are here try to rip me off. For the cheapest and worst rim I had to pay 75 aussie bucks and they also could not repair my rim. So I thought I simply try to repair the wheel by myself and surprisingly, it actually worked! Now I am riding cheerfully through the city and to the beach with that wheel.

Apart from all the fun there is still the university, naturally. I did not forget about it... But it is nevertheless rather interesting. Gordon, my friend from Berlin, and I are now busy practicing the handling of electron and cathodoluminescence microscopes and a cathode spatterer. Later, if we can control everything properly, a project will be assigned to us on which we can work independently. We already have our first successes, but the best thing is that we can manage our time by ourselves.


Me working on an Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope

Don't forget to look at my photoalbum (link at the top right)!

Sydney, third day

I am wet, :(

although the day began with such a great weather. I moved into my new flat today (which went rather fast, with only one suitcase...), afterwards I went off to Bondi Beach!

But later in the afternoon, clouds suddenly formed, and while I was still in the water, it began to rain so heavily, that one could hardly see anything! I was fun, though. Unbelievable, how quickly such an overcrowded beach can become empty!

Bondi Beach

Later the sun came out again only for a short period of time. I did not go swimming anymore though. Fortunately, since suddenly a heap of people ran to the lifeguards and children cried - They got stung by a jellyfish, the so called "bluebottle", which apparently burns rather strongly.
(see also http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/01/070123-blue-jellyfish.html )

Just as I wanted to go home then, I met another few Australians, busy playing Capoeira Angola. Then next two hours or so I was allowed to accompany them on a Pandeiro (similar to a tambourine drum).

On the way home it started to rain again, so that I had to take shelter first. However, I could use the time meaningfully and attach lights to my bicycle, which I needed then urgently.

Now I am in the PC room of the university and am already nearly dry again... However, I have to go now, since I really have to eat something!

Sydney, first and second day

Dear friends,

A wonderful greeting to you all from Sydney!!!

Sydney Opera House

Yesterday, I finally arrived in Sydney, quite tired after two very long flights (over Seoul, South Korea). More than one hour later I finally got out of the airport (due to very strict quarantine controls) and was immediately enthused about the great weather, already at 8 o'clock in the morning! I got picked up by Steve, a very friendly Australian who is researching in the lab where I will study. But first, we had a hefty English/Australian breakfast (for over 11 Aussie bucks - somewhat expensive here…). Then he offered to lend me his bicycle which he does not need anymore.

Later he brought me to Billabong Gardens, to the backpacker's hostel in which I wanted to stay for the first couple of days here. I just wanted to take a nap there, when Nina from Berlin, who arrived one day before, and two other students from Cologne told me the situation was serious: There were nearly not any vacant flats left, so we should hurry up and go to search for one as soon as possible. Well, their panic turned out to be appropriate: Right now, a great amount of students arrive in Sydney who all look for flats, and in addition the flats got even more expensive than I assumed before, at least something around 150 Aussie Dollars per week. And if one does not decide very fast, others snatch the flat away from under one's nose.

But nevertheless I just found a flat/room!!! I'm very happy. The flat is somewhat run-down though, but it costs only about 110 AU$ per week. There are two terrace houses which are divided between 17 tenants, everyone has a room and every two share a kitchen. I think there are at least four bathrooms - that will be fun! ;) I still have to meet my neighbour with whom I will share the kitchen. He's said to be very nice and a non-smoker, thus it sounds well. Unfortunately, Nina and the other two are still searching, the place was too dirty for them to take. Hopefully they find something soon.

My room - small, but mine	The kitchen

Unfortunately, I do not have internet connection at home yet (I'm in uni right now) and no landline telephone. But my mobile phone number here is: +61420417248. My address, if you want to look for it on Google maps or something similar: Unit 5, 270 Enmore Road, Enmore, NSW 2042, Australia.

Now I am again somewhat mobile here, thanks to Steve who lends his bicycle to me. During rush hour one is much faster than cars, nevertheless only very few ride bikes. It's good that I brought my helmet with me, because it's obligatory to wear helmets here. Busses are slow and expensive, and I do not know enough about their routes yet.