Time is flying! Another month has passed since my last blog update, but here's what I have been up to since.

On the 9th of October I went with a trip from my residence to Perth Zoo. Only 8 people went and I knew all of them already, so we had a great time. The temperature reached 30C so it was a very authentic experience walking down brown dirt-paths looking at the animals of Australia and the African savannah.

A week later, we would find out, if all our soccer practice through the semester had paid off. On Saturday we played two games against Vickery House (9AM) and Kurrajong Village (2PM). We won 3-0 and 6-2 so things were off to a great start and we hoped to reclaim the title like last semester. The two victories made sure we were already in the final. Unfortunately, the new shirts we ordered had been delayed, so we had to wear old shirts… This weekend was also extremely hot so even the early game was very hard work. The following weekend we had an early game against Guild House, which was boring 1-1 draw since we had little to play for. The final was played at 2PM and everyone was fired up (especially the sun!). In a hard fought battle, Kurrajong Village came away with a 5-3 win to the great disappointment of our team. I had little influence on the final result, since I didn't even get to play in the final… We would have probably won if I had played… The shirts got here 1 week later and are actually very nice except for the fact that our coach had to iron the names on them and they have started coming off already...

The rest of October was all about finishing school, the beach and great parties. One of the highlights was the Perth Oktoberfest on the 24th. I went there with people from one of my classes. We were met with a line outside extending around 1 km due to very bad planning from the organisers. When we finally got in, it wasn't really an Oktoberfest except for the German bier and the traditional German dresses. I had a great time and also managed to meet up with people from my Exmouth trip. Oktoberfest was followed by a great Halloween party at the Tav which included many creative and funny costumes.

On the 31st I went with 50 other Ericans to Rottnest Island, which is just off the coast of Fremantle and Perth. It is a beautiful little island paradise - just 10 km from one end to the other - with nice secluded beaches with crystal clear water surrounded by rough cliffs. We got there at 8AM and rented bikes straight off our boat. So when we docked, we jumped on the bikes and headed out to explore. The plan was to see as much as possible before it got too hot. The island is full of hills so we got a good working heading up to a few lookout points and heading all the way across the island. The weather was perfect and we had a nice day, stopping off for a swim every now and then. The island has very few cars and is inhabited by little creatures called 'quokkas'. They look like tiny kangaroos, but have a few rat-like features which were pointed out by a couple of people. I agreed to disagree and found them very cute.

I finished my classes on Tuesday this week and now I have only 1 assignment to go before I am done with university here (no exams for me!). That means that November will be all about relaxation on the beach and hopefully a couple of roadtrips down south. At the end of the month I will fly to Sydney for a few days before heading on to New Zealand for 3 weeks. Can't wait!

Take care,

Michael