Hey Yo!

I know, I should study, in 3 hours I'm gonna write my second test overseas. Pharmacology. I wonder how this will be. Astronomy on friday was really easy. On thursday I was really stressed and started to study and read the textbook. On friday morning I realized that half of the questions were Multiple-choice. However, Pharmacology shouldn't be that easy.
Some of you might have seen it on facebook and have enjoyed the fotos, some of you didn't. I've made a trip to wineglass-bay on saturday. That's almost 200km in the north-east of Hobart and when I heard the forecast for Saturday I decided to do something.
But well, owning a car is prerequisite for this and so do I. Last Wednesday, when I received my driving licence from home, I went and bought a car. A nice one:
Mitsubishi Sigma, 1986, 200,000km, 113PS, Automatic.
And when I bought a device to connect my MP3-Player to the cassette-player of the car I definitely had to drive 400km and so I got to that beautiful bay.
So we, Rune, Thijs and Me had a finde day, hot, sunny, swimming in the sea. Well, you can imagine, a beautiful day in autumn.
Sunday was supposed to be my study-day (for pharmacology) but well, I was on this keg-party on Saturday evening, hence a bit tired on sunday and not able to do anything else than watching Steven Seagal in "The Patriot". At least he's playing an immunologist and doing some research, trying to find a new drug... This convinced me that I've done at least something for my pharmacology test. Even though the reference might not have the highest impact-factor, and additionally I'm not really sure about the H-factor of Steven Seagal.
But now I go back to my book. See you!

Gidday mates!

After this awesome weekend it's time for another post, I really was looking forward to writing it. However, the University Soccer team lost the game versus South Hobart 0:3. Without me, I'm still not allowed to play.
However, I was on a rafting-trip for the weekend. We left Hobart on Friday, 6pm and arrived at a small camping site at the Mersey river 6 hours later, after having dinner in a pizzeria, half the way up there.
Then there was the first challenge waitin', putting up a tent in the darkness, well not complete darkness since there was full moon. But for me it was a new tent, I bought in the morning, so I've never put it up before. I did a good job, and the tent was standin' upright, when I crawled in for sleep.
The next morning it was quite cold and rainy, but who cares? You'll get wet anyways when you wanna raft down a river. So at 10am we went off for our first trip, we did the same 6km a couple of times.
After two times and an upcoming thunderstorm, we were all feeling cold, so we stopped and had BBQ at the camping site, after that, what do you do when there's nothing else to do? Yap, get in the cars, drive upstream and raft downstream.
The sunday was even better, some of us had quite a hangover from the goon (australian slang word for cheap box wine) and the river was filled up with water (you remember, it was raining the day before). However, the sun was shining, and the water was wilder than the day before, still grade 3 but better. Rune and I, we had two great trips down the river in a small rafts, no one wanted to guide us, so we had to do it on our own and we were awesome ;)
Today the rain came back and I didn't check the forecast so far... But you can't trust the forecast any further than 2 minutes, the weather changes rapidly.
And the foto I'm providing shows a nice little rapid on the Picton river from last weeks raft (Grade 2)
Now I'm off and stuff myself with some chicken breast.
see ya!

Good day!

Today's "eight hours day", public holiday in Australia, actually I think it's in all britain and it's (former) colonies. I'm not explaining what they're celebrating, you can check that out on wikipedia, and I'm not writin' this blog to educate you.
However, I've had a great weekend, with a whole lotta sports going on. Starting with soccer training on thursday, on friday a workout in the uni-gym, in the evening Rune's birthday party. The next day I was hiking the Mt. Wellington. Was a nice hike, although the weather wasn't as good as we were hoping.
The morning was awesome, a few clouds, but mainly fine. During our "climb", the weather changed. And when we were at the summit, it was all in a cloud, raining, very windy and about 3-5°C.
So I've got to go again, the mountain is famous for it's views and I didn't see anything.
Sunday was fine again, and I was gettin' up in the morning early again to get ready for another rafting tour. Hopefully I'll get some pictures soon, coz I didn't bring my camera... Electronic devices and water - bad combination...
They have dry boxes for cameras, but mine is a little to big...
For today I've decided to go running, which I'm gonna do after finishing this post, and in the afternoon... Well finally I should start doing something for uni. I think there's a pharmacology assessment coming up in 2 weeks (or so), and a little bit of astronomy homework to do.
So then, one of my malaysian friends (I still have troubles remembering their names) just finished his shower, so I've got to take that chance and brush my teeth.

see you!

Hey there!

Well, now that it's march I think it's up to another post. Uni is quite nice, nothing has changed a lot since the first week.
In Pharmacology class I had a short discussion with the teacher, coz I didn't like his definition of non-competitive antagonists. He finally admitted that pharamacologists use quite an old definition.

At home I'm still living on toast. It's quite okay, makin' a sandwich every evening, but you have to make some variations. Sometimes you skip out tomatoes, sometimes have it with an egg. Well, next week I think I'm gonna check out that german bakery for some real bread. In the supermarkets they only sell toast, in different variations though.

Have I actually told you about beer in Tasmania? Or alcohol in general? I don't think so, hence I better do so now.
It's not possible to buy beer (or any other kind of alcohol) in a supermarket. You have to go to a bottleshop, mostly at the backside of some restaurants or other shop, marked with a sign saying "Bottleshop - Drive In". I've got to get you a picture of this...
However, beer is sold in 375ml, whereas a six pack is about $16 dollas, which may be about €8. So yes, it is really expensive.
When you're going out you usually drink a pint which is 570ml for about $6-8. Of course you can order a jug, which is 1140ml and sometimes a good opportunity. Usually you'll get a jug for $11, but there are days you can have a jug for $5 from 5-6pm, $6 from 6-7pm and so on. And then they wonder, why young Australians get drunk so fast.

However, I'm not gonna tell you all the secrets about life in Australia now, so I'll keep you reading.

keep on keepin' on and have a nice day!
luke

Hey guys!
It's time for another blog entry, after my first 2 days of lecture. Everything's perfect, so far.

Astronomy: In this course there are mainly first year students, and nothing more than high school maths is needed, no calculus. I think that shouldn't be much of a problem.

Exploration Geophysics: The first lecture was quite boring, coz he's just been trying to bring everyone (all the 6 attendants) on a mathematical level to understand the literature. Of course maths below a level a physicist is used to. However, my big problems will show up when it goes into earth sciences, since I've got no idea of that. However, 5 days field trip, this rocks!

Pharmacology: Yeah, my first lecture with more than 100 other students. That's cool! However, the professor knows my name. Today in the lecture he said, that they have always problems with Science students, their timetable and the practical course, so they should choose their group at first. Well, I came up to him, and told him, that I was science student and would like... blabla. He asked me: "ah, are you Lukas?", "Yes, but how can you tell.", "Well, you're the science student." Whatever, I hope you find it as funny as I do.

Yeah, and there's a lot of sports going on here. On sunday I've been rafting. Not much of a raft, we went up to New Norfolk and rafted down the derwent river. Really calm water, with only a few rapids. However, waterfights help! It was great fun and well, we all got sunburned.

And the next sporty thing: Today I joined the soccer training of the University Soccer Club Tasmania. They're actually playing in the Tasmanian Premier League, was quite a nice training. Not that hard as I'm used to back home, but nice.

Well, well, I guess that's all for now. see you later
have a nice day!

hey there!

The thing about time is, you just have to know: I'm 10 hours in advance ;)
Yesterday I found out that there's a nice bar in hobart, the "republic", really nice music over there.
Well, I'm pretty sure you guys know what going out means, so I'll leave out the details. However it's been a long nite, ended at 9 in the morning sleeping on the beach =)

well that's it for now, I'm gonna join my malaysian housemates for some chinese food.
see you later.

Hey dudes!
How're ye doin'? Coz I'm havin' a fuckin' awesome time!
Well, it's not due to lazyness that I've not written anything during my first 2 weeks here, but due to my missing internetconnection. I just had to wait for Orientation week to get my UTAS email account and password. Now I can access the internet from the top of Mount Nelson, that's where I have my "Villa". It's really nice here, I've got a wonderful view, down onto the city.
However, I'm still alone in my villa, hopefully tomorrow this status will change, well let's see what tomorrow brings.
So far I've done a few crucial things 'round here:
#1 I bought a coffee machine, you can imagine how important this is to me
#2 I bought the cheapest western guitar available at Hobart Music Centre
#3 And I spent some time at the beach.

However, I wasn't swimming so far coz there's a lot of jellyfish in the water by that time. Well let's talk about weather. It's really fine here. In the shadow you might shake a little bit (at least if you're not feelin' comfortable with 20°C), but in the sun it's burning your socks off.

Ha, yeah, you might wonder and want to ask:
Have you seen a wallaby or a possum? Well yes indeed, there are plenty of them just in front of my door, playin' in the garden. Goin' out in the evening let's you meet, I'd say at least, 3 wallabys and some possums.

after all this bla bla I'll say: have a nice day! not check by for more, I'll be updating this more frequently now!
luke