Australian Open

Already 3 weeks late, here is my article about the Australian Open. Sorry about the delay but I was quite busy and hadn't time to settle a bit and take some time to write it.

The Australian Open, AO, took place from 17th of January until 30th. It's a part of the Grand Slam series (among Roland Garros, Wimbledon & the US Open) and gather the most important tennis player for 9 round of great play.

Federation Square

For these 2 weeks, Melbourne city is changed by the tournament, the same way it will be for 3 days during the Grand Prix 2011 of Australia. The public place you see just above is Fed Square, a place with a huge screen where you can see live bands, retransmission of sportive events, and during the AO, all the matches. I went there a lot and caught some sunburns on my nose !
Thankfully they give you small carton seats which makes the 3 hours watch easier.

The tournament took place over twenty-five courts, among them three showcourts: the Hisense Arena, the Margaret Court Arena and the Rod Laver Arena (the most prestigious one).

I personally went to see matches on the Hisense Arena, because the ticket were priced at 55A$ for everyday, while the Rod Laver ones were already at 140A$ when I could buy them.

Program of the day I went

I first saw Bryan brothers (1) against Becker & Kohlmann (53). The USA World first double players won easily against the two German ones.

And then the second match was the huge one, Djokovic (3) against Almagro (14).

Djokovic (3) - Almagro (14)

Djokovic won easily in 3 set, continuing his journey to the final when he won against Andy Murray on the 30th of January, earning 2,200,200$. The women tournament winner was Kim Clijster, Belgian girl ranked 3th, in a disputed final against Li Na (9).

I was sad that Federer and Nadal were eliminated so early in the tournament but it is also good hat a new generation of players such as Djokovich, Murray and Ferrer are getting quite better.

French wise, our players performance wasn't very spectacular, expect Gilles Simon who fought bravely for 5 sets in an epic match against Roger Federer.

Accommodation : About my place

Hello there,

Firstly, thank you for your commentaries on the old blog, I was quite happy to read them and  I'm sorry about the inconvenience of having to change the Internet address.

After 6 days in the youth hostel and few not interesting houses visited,  I found the flat I am now living in since 2 weeks. It's a huge sharehouse in Carlton, a 5mn walk from the CBD (Central Business District).

1 : My house 2: Victoria Market 3: Park where I run 4: My university 5: Federation square

>>Click here for bigger picture <<

We are currently 16, among them a lot of different nationalities :

• 3 French, 1 Spanish, 1 English, 2 German, 1 Chilean, 1 Belgian, 1 Peruvian, 1 Brasilian, 2 Chinese, 1 South Korean, 1 Mongolian & 1 Australian

My "room"

Altough I've to share a small 6m² room with a bunk bed, I like having the possibility to talk English at any time and to discover new cultures, ways of life and to have fun to parties with them.

The house organisation consists of 2 women dormitories with each 4 and 6 beds, and 3 rooms with bunk beds in which 2 men sleep.

Claudio, 24 years old from Chile shares the room with me. He has 2 full time jobs as a cleaner so he's not often at home.

The boss

Jeff, the Australian owner of the house, is a mid-thirties relaxed dude who organises barbecues and road trip while always building new room to earn more money ! A$ 140 per week isn't very expensive to be so close of the center of the city but it is still a lot not to have your own room. He also adores his 9 year old cat, Léo, which himself loves, strangely, straws (and also mewing at night to wake us up) .

Australian Catholic Univeristy

My classes start on 21 of February, at Australian Catholic Univeristy campus, at a 10mn bike ride from my Carlton house

We (the 3 ESDES student in Melbourne and me) are planning to do a trip on the Great Ocean Road and to Tasmania for the 2 weeks of holiday we have left.

I personnaly start to settle and enjoy this new life far from home; cooking my own food (I'll do an article about it later), doing my laundry and handling my budget tightly.

Royal Botanic Garden

More to come, stay tuned !

• Australian Open
• Tram versus Bike
• My helpful cookbook