It's official: My physical fitness could be better... After two practices with the Erica soccer team this Saturday and Friday last week I can feel that it is good to be back on the field, and I have met a lot of nice people on the team. However, I can only attend one weekly practice due to a clash with one of my classes, and it is not really enough to get the fitness up. Therefore, I am hoping to get some people together for some casual soccer during the week to fill some of my spare time too.

But enough about my fitness (or lack thereof) - on August 14 I went with a bunch of other exchange students to watch some real athletes compete in an AFL ('Aussie rules football') match between the local team Fremantle Dockers and Sydney Swans. The game was played in Subiaco just west of the city centre and we went there with special 'football trains' and the spirits were high in excitement. The game has to be one of the most confusing sports I have seen so far. It is played on an oval field with a length of around 150 m and with four goal posts in each end. There are roughly 500 people on the field at any given time including players, 8 referees (or 'umpires' as they call them here), water boys and girls, mascots, tactical staff, streakers etc (you get my point...). The game is divided in four periods lasting anywhere from 20 to 35 minutes depending on how much extra time is added.

From our seats high behind one of the goals we had a good view of the events on the field, where the teams try to move an oval ball to the other end by kicking, handballing or running with it before being tackled by the other team. The players use no protective gear, but still they are not afraid to go head-to-head with opponents for the ball. The game was very close and the lead changed several times (til NFL-folket derhjemme: "skiftende føringer", I ved...) before Sydney won by a small margin in the end. The pleasure of viewing the game was slightly overshadowed by the World's most smelly people (I can assure you that they would win the competition without a fight) who had gotten tickets right in front of me and one of the others. The smell was so bad that we had to employ a rotation scheme for each of the periods of the game as well as using every imaginable device to fan of the smell for some fresh air. All in all, we had a good day and it was great to experience a part of the Australian culture.

Other than the footy match, the last two weeks have been full of assignments only interrupted by a short trip to Perth and a trip to the local golf course and driving range. If you think this blog update is too long, this is your clue to stop reading and skip to the end, because here comes a few words and my impressions so far on each of my four classes, for those interested:

Advertising 511, Dr. Rajat Roy, Tuesdays 9-12

My first class is about understanding how advertising works, how it affects people, and how we develop good advertisements based on the marketing strategy of a client (something Denmark obviously has a great need for these days...). The teacher is from India, and he is very knowledgeable in the subject and open to inputs and ideas. Furthermore, he has a love for YouTube, which means we get to watch a lot of interesting and alternative commercials during the classes. That is, when we are not presenting or doing collages like we did back in primary school (tænk "plancher" + klippe-klistre...). Certainly promises to be a good class.

Electronic marketing 585, Steffen Zorn, Tuesdays 18-21 (!)

My next class is has not been as good as expected so far. The teacher is from Tschermany and talks like the Governator in Kalifawnia. He is not new to the field, but has not taught before and that shows in his lack of cohesion and plan for each lecture. And it certainly doesn't help that it takes place right around dinner time in a cold and boring building across campus... The class will deal with topics like e-commerce, online marketing, and Google AdWords (companies paying to have their website show up at the top of search results), which I hope to make use of in my future career. So I guess I have to get through it one way or another...

Tourism and event marketing 570, Janine Wong, Thursdays 18-21 (again, !!)

After a needed break Wednesdays with time to go pay The Tavern a visit, Thursday nights are reserved for this class. It takes an Australian point of departure to the world of tourism and events and has some interesting topics lined out for us. The teacher is just 27 years old and has a distinct Australian accent despite being Chinese. However, for some reason she also favours posters (mere klippe-klistre...) and does not always agree with the class responses to her questions.

Current marketing issues 600, Graham Ferguson, Friday 15-18 (slightly better...)

Despite only starting last week, this class is my favourite so far. The teacher does require a lot from the (post grad) students attending the class since most are working full time during the week, but this also shows in the quality of the discussions in class. The class is about new and emerging issues affecting how marketers do their job such as consumer change, new technology and its application, and the new possibilities associated with social media online. Unfortunately, the class clashes with soccer practice on Fridays, but I had limited options when picking classes and hardly any where non-evening classes.

After this brief rundown of my classes, all that is left to say is that I depart for Bali in 4 days (28/8-6/9). I will be there during the first tuition free week (= holiday) with the four people from CBS and at least five other exchange students. We are flying to Kuta on Bali where we will spend two nights in party central before heading up the east and north coast for some snorkelling, diving and relaxation. Finally, we will spend some days on the Gili Islands for even more relaxation. Other planned activities include white water rafting, culture shock, temple sight-seeing, and perhaps some surfing - pretty much anything that is not related to school.

I will be back after the holidays with more stories from the other side of the World.

Michael