ACU Melbourne : Study abroad university

Hey mates! Tudo bem?


I'm going to talk in this article about our university, ACU. The acronym stands for Australian Catholic University. It's located in Fitzroy, a walk-able distance from the CBD and about 30mn walk from my sharehouse.

Classes started on 21 of February, and we're currently in the week 8 out of 12. The welcoming offered by the uni was very good, with an interesting welcoming speech followed by a trip to the zoo with all international students. I met there a fair bit of French students, but also people from Singapore and Malaysia in nursing with who I talked a lot.

Please teach me how to be smart

To choose my 4 classes, I tried to pick some interesting subjects such as Business Economics and Human Resource Development, which are issues I appreciate and the classes are very intersting. However I had to pick Management and People + Reasoning and Communication in order to pack my classes on 3 days and find a job aside. And the problem with these classes is that they are first year classes, designed to teach you how to think "university-style", and not like a high-school student any more. Consequently these classes appear to me as too scholar and quite dull most of the time. Even if the teacher is funny, interesting, and fan of France & motors sports (lifelong dream : attend the 24h of the Mans or Monaco GP),  he's trying to force us to think in his "one right way" and it is not very pleasant.

The homework asked by teachers is different in its content from what we're doing in France. We have to write 5 essays, ranging from 1500 words to 3000, with a lot of references in them. Your thoughts should always be backed and supported by academic journal analysis, and this doesn't let a lot of place to critical thinking and innovative ideas, which are contained to the choice of your plan and your conclusion's opening. The workload is very similar, even with only 12 hours of classes, I have to study some day at the library from 9am to 6am on some presentations, essays, or similar B.S. Theses 12 hours are divided between 5 hours of tutorials (20 people classes) and 7 hours of lectures (~100 people classes).

Footy match with ACUMates

The campus is not very big, because it is so close to the centre of Melbourne. Accordingly, no accommodation is provided by the university, and you have only a small snack in the university itself. Anyhow, the association life is very diversified, between ACUMates, SIFE, MCSA, the International bureau, Wired Radio and many others. The equivalent of our BDE is MCSA, which stands for Melbourne Campus Student Associations. They organise nice events for international students, working as icebreakers and allowing us to meet each other discovering the city. We had a lawn bowl event (not the one I described in my last article), a Australian football match, some free pizza in the Italian precinct.

Ninja turtle

Also they organised a few parties in the Vault, which is the basement of the ACU, with some pool games, a bar and sofas to relax. Sadly, I didn't attend because of the schedule of these parties, starting at 7pm and finishing at 11pm : Come on guys, I'm eating my dinner at 9pm, how I am supposed to drink Jaggerbombs at that time. Australian way of life is very early (lunch 11am, dinner 6am, appetizer 8pm, hit the club at 10pm, sleep around 2am), and as hard as I am trying to adapt, it is definitely too indie for me.

Great experience overall. I am just a bit disappointed I couldn't take a Spanish class (they only teach Japanese and Italian) and I was worried my level would dramatically decrease during these 7 months. Thanksfully, I can speak it a bit at home with my roomies Marc and Alex (Spain & Peru), and I feel like I'm learning some new words aswell. La basura está en la cocina

See you soon !

Australian sports : Lawn bowls sneak peek

What's up?

Since I arrived in Australia 2 months and a half ago, I've had time to see and play different Australian sports, the 3 most famous being :

• Australian football, also called "footy"
• Cricket
• Lawn bowls

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I went Sunday 3rd of April with the university to see a footy match in the huge Melbourne Cricket Ground and it was really fun (Thanks free meat pie). We also watched a cricket training next to Albert Park few weeks ago.

Although I will focus in this article about lawn bowls.

Fitzroy Lawn Bowling club

I first heard about this sport while we were in the Grampians. It's very popular in Commonwealth nations, and we saw a part of a match on TV between New-Zealand and Australian top women teams. Few days later, Elodie and Marika, two of my flatmates, asked to Lauriane and I if we wanted to go play at Fitzroy Lawn Bowling club, in Brunswick Street, with English friends of them.

We went there and paid 15$ to participate in a small tournament. This is not a lot considered we had 2 beers and a very good barbecue included.

The rules of this game are similar to pétanque, the French game. However, the population playing the game is quite young compared to it. We competed against 3 other teams of 4, not a person older than thirty. 

Biased bowls

The game has 2 steps : First the winning team launch the "Jack", a small yellow ball, then every player in each team launch his 2 bowls when comes his turn, trying to get the closest possible to the Jack. When every player threw his bowls, the team with the closest gets one point, plus one point for every other bawl his team own which is the closest.

So what's the difference with pétanque you will ask :

• You play barefoot on lawn, and drink beer. Carlton Draught beer taste way better than Pastis anyway.
• Bowls are biased : one side is heavier than the other. Hence when you launch the bowl, the trajectory is a curve. It creates special strategies where you can try to get around other bowls and in consequence this sport involves less "fire", or "strike", which are draw where you try to kick other bowls.

Lauriane, Marika, Benjamin

We won the first round, but then got our ass kicked in the final 18 to 3 by some regulars who won 5$ as first prize. It was a lot of fun and a very good experience, although with the winter coming we would better take a jacket next time we want to play at sunset.

Tasmania 5 day road trip

Hey!

To take a break from the already exhausting 2 weeks of classes, Elise, Yann, Justine, Lauriane and I went to Tasmania for 5 days with an organized tour. Our little group of friends took off for the land of the Tasmanian's devil on the 4th of March.

I didn't use my camera during this trip so thanks to Yann for lending me his pictures to put on my blog.

We started on the first day with large falls, Russell Falls, and a beautiful lookout, Donaghy’s Hill. We had some snow at the Lake St Clair. Even, Simon, our guide was quite surprised: it is supposed to be the middle of the summer. We took shelter in the only restaurant around in a 50 kilometers radius. We were very hungry, the cheapest meal was a 20$ burger and it was not even that good! Quite a bad experience to start with. But it was a wonderful trip in the end, between the stunning landscapes and the great fun we all had together.

The most beautiful things we saw during these few days were Cradle Mountains, Bay of Fires, Henty Dunes and Wineglass Bay.


Click on pictures for better quality.

Russell Falls

Donaghy’s Hill

Donaghy’s Hill

Platypus bay

Wineglass Bay

Henty Dunes

Cradle Moutains

Bay of Fires

Bicycling in Melbourne

When I left France for Melbourne one month and a half ago, I already had in mind to buy a bicycle when I would arrive in the city. I had been told it was very flat and consequently I packed my U-lock in my luggage. At first I wanted a “fixie” bike. Also known as fixed-gear or single-speed bike, they are quite popular among the youth all around the world. Originally used by couriers in NYC to have light weight and very reactive bikes, their use expanded to the multi-cultural cities such as Tokyo, Melbourne, Paris and many others.

1000$ dream bike

Sadly, the price for one of this bike is very important. Even if it has less component than your regular mountain bike (they removed the brakes, the gears and all the accessories), you won’t find one for less than 500$ new because of the famous brand constructing them and the design process involved.

I went on Gumtree, a famous English website to trade goods/find accommodation or a job. I found an advertisement about a 110$ Apollo bike (about 80€), very vintage, looking pretty much like my father old bicycle stocked in the Point du Jour. When I called the guy selling it, it happened to be a French guy living in Melbourne since 4 years, so he explained me how he had found it in a recycling bin and rebuilding it from scratch, and then sold it to me after a quick try.

My bike

I can now ride to school in less than 10 minutes if the weather allow me, and move around the city very quickly from point A to point B. However red lights in Australia are really badly tuned and I catch huge headaches having to wait sometimes more than 2 minutes (trust me it’s a lot) to cross a road. Also, wearing a helmet was a first a burden and I felt quite ridiculous with it but everybody has one and I feel a bit safer with it so it’s not a problem for me to carry it around anymore.

 I already had one flat tire but I found a shop next to my house which repair it rapidly for about 10$, a very reasonable price. (By the way Sergio if you read me, you have to go repair my French bike to Decathlon, thanks!)

On the other hand, trams  are practical for long journey, for example to St Kilda beach, 5km away from the city center, but stop at every street crossing and are overall quite slow. Furthermore, their cost is huge: 3.70$ for a 2 hour ticket (2-3 times Lyon TCL prices), provided you don’t have the concession card. I try to avoid taking them unless I really need to.

St Kilda beach

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

Arrival in Melbourne and first few days !

Hello everybody,

This is my first article on my blog about my semester to Melbourne in Australia. I'll first introduce a bit the city before engaging into journalistic experience of e-line and its 5 research subject.

 Check out a small presentation of Melbourne by clicking the page on the right pannel


I arrived on Sunday 16th at 10:30pm at Melbourne International Airport, after about 25 hours of flight.

You would guess it, I was quite tired ! 8 men dorm room in a youth hostel isn't maybe the best to rest (4 of them snored) but the multicultural experience couldn't be better. If I recall correctly, 4 of them were German, one Australian from Adelaïde, and 2 Swedish guy.

The Youth hostel itself is the biggest in Melbourne, although a bit expensive (30$A a night). I initially booked there for 3 night but I may stay a bit more waiting to find a more permanent accomodation. Lots of French, Belgium, Canadian, I'm not too lost, but also many Aussies, Americans, Asians. A great way to share and talk with sympathic people.

Here you can see the youth hostel, called Melbourne Metro YHA.








I wandered around in town during these 2 days and I stumbled across the Queen's Victora Marketplace, a huge market of every food availaible in the world but also manufactured objects. About 3 times "les Halles de Lyon", this is a very famous place in Melbourne and a lot of it's citizens come here to shop for organic (bio) food, while tourist are happy to buy Indigenous Australians products like boomerangs and didgeridoo.

The next 2 photos picture the entrance of the market place and a small booth managed by indigenous Australian.

Colorful and full of life, I think I've already found the place where I'll do my grocery shopping (assuming of course I'm not too excentred from the city in my future accomodation.)











Main means to travel around Melbourne for me are trams and bikes. I'll do a full article on this later but I just wanted to introduce quickly the City Circle. It's a free tram which run around the CBD (Central Business District), intended for tourists who want to take a quick look at Melbourne most famous buildings. Locals also use it as a free way to go to work from across the city centre. It's also a good place to meet people, as they are people from many nationalities all around the world and from whole Australia who take it.

Thank you for your attention, I hope you will enjoy it !

Sorry for the quality of the photos which were taken in bad weather.

See you !