In 1942, Winston Churchill said in a speech: "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."Any way you see it, I have to face reality and accept that 4.5 months in Perth are coming to an end; in fact, I am flying to Sydney tomorrow.

My last month here has gone by even faster than the previous months. This is probably due to the fact that I have finally settled in (perhaps slightly too late) and really enjoyed my time here. The last month has been full of exams for most people, except me. I handed in my last assignment on November 11and since then I have just been going to the beach, going out and in general making the most of my time here before leaving. The end of school luckily also coincided with the coming of some very hot weather. Temperatures reached 40C last week...

On November 3rd I went with a couple of my Australian friends to watch the local soccer team Perth Glory play against Melbourne Heart. It wasn't a pretty game (0-0), but I did get to see an appearance of Robbie Fowler, who some of you might remember from his days in Liverpool FC. On the 6th it was time for the final BBQ at Erica and everyone showed up for the longest line of the semester to get the free food. The organisers had hired a DJ who did has best at scaring people away by playing the loudest music from 6PM making it impossible to have conversations...

I have been spending a lot of time with some friends from UWA - the other big university in Perth (who I know through people I met on my tour to Exmouth) and also the large colony of Norwegians residing in Scarborough and South Perth. We have enjoyed amazing waves at the beaches in Scarborough and Cottesloe (just days after a tiger shark was spotted there), a nice picnic in South Perth followed by a spectacular sunset view of the city and a good 4 straight days of parties last week. I also took a daytrip to Penguin Island down south with two of the girls from UWA. We saw a few penguins, but all agreed that the island should change name to Seagull Island due to the millions of birds that have taken over the island. From Penguin Island we also took a short boat tour and saw sea lions, eagles and a bunch of pelicans. I also went out with my Australian friends from Erica to celebrate a birthday at Hula Bula Bar - a true Tiki bar with amazing decorations and colourful drinks.

Reaching the end of my stay here also allows me to reflect on my exchange semester here. As expected, the academic part of my stay was a mixed bag of nuts. I had two very good classes, but also two others that very mostly disappointing. The hardest part of my stay here has been group work across cultures since people here have a very different background than my own. But this should help me prepare for my working life where you never know who you end up working with. I feel I have learned a lot due to the more practical orientation and the different way of teaching here. There are always things that could have been different or better, but overall I am happy with my experiences here and everything I have managed to do and see over just 4.5 months.

It is hard to sum up my stay here, but I would say "Pure Perth-fection" comes close. I have made this video that shows a bit of what I have been up to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2-eNYTcnEo

I will be very hard to leave all my new friends here behind, but hopefully I will see them again in the future. New adventures are waiting in Sydney and in New Zealand. In Sydney I will be catching up with Lisa-Maria, who I met on a previous trip to Amsterdam, and possibly a few Curtiners, before heading to Auckland, New Zealand to meet Nico, who I met at UBC in Vancouver back in 2008.

I will see if I can squeeze in a few updates along the way, if I am not too busy having fun. I will be back in cold and snowy Denmark on the 23rd of December. Take care until then!

Michael