I have lived in Perth for 9 nine months and had a great time. I didn't go traveling around Australia, but I went to some tours and joined activities. I went short surfing trips sometimes with my friends in Western Australia. I went to a language school, ECU, to study English for the first 6 months. I met many people from different countries through the language school. I had a really good time with them, and I have kept in touch with some of them. I'm so glad that I am still in touch with them even now. If you want to make friends ASAP, I recommend you go to any schools first. An English language school taught us not only Englsh but also Australian culture and its history. The school also provided some activities and tours. We could travel to the Pinnacles, Margaret River and so on as the excursion at the reasonable price.

I lived in the suburb, Mount Claremont, for the first 6 months. It's a very beautiful and homy place. Mount Claremont is located next to Claremont which has a fair-sized shopping center including a club and a pub, the Red Rock, that my friends and I often dropped by after school and also went to on Thursdays. The Red Rock is one of my favorite pubs in Perth. If you have the chance to go to Perth city, I recommend you go there. I sometimes went to night clubs in North Bridge which is located on the other side of Perth city. There are a lot of exciting night clubs and pubs in North Bridge. When you go to North Bridge on the weekend, you will see a lot of people with the excitement.

I lived in City Beach for the last 3 months. It was one of my dreams to live near the beach. When I was at home in City Beach, I heard the sound of waves. I went to the beach to swim, walk, and surf. You can walk with your dogs on the beach because it's allowed to do so there, legally. The ocean is so beautiful, especially in summer. Sometimes, the ocean is like a lake when it gets almost no waves, so it's ideal for swimming. Imagine a clam beach, the trasparent water, and the clear blue sky.

In Perth, you can enjoy all kinds of water sports, such as sailing, canoeing, diving, and so on. I have experienced the very exciting sport called "Dragon Boat racing." I actually was taking part in a local dragon boat team for the last three months. A dragon boat is like a big canoe and about 20 people paddle in the boat - two paddlers sit in a row. Besides, there is one more person, the sweep, who stands at the very back of the boat and controls the direction, encourages the paddlers to paddle harder and let paddlers get the timing right. I met a lot of people through dragon boating. There were Australians, New Zealanders, and English people. They'd been very nice and friendly to me. They taught me kindly and patiently how to paddle well and get timing right. We trained in a huge river, Swan River. While I was in a team, I had three regattas (races). One of regattas was placed in the South, so we traveled to the South, but our men team lost. However, in the first regatta,we had a regatta in our home training place, Swan River, and we got the first prize. Everybody and I were so happy. After the race, we drank a lot to celebrate.It was fun to be drank after the traing and the race. The beer after traing and the race was so delicous. Most of people had beers after training and stayed in a pub to chat. We had BBQ once a week. For me, dragon boat was awesome,awesome experience which I can never forget.

Swan River, where I trained in the dragon boat team is huge and runs through Freemantle to beyond Perth City. People love Swan River and spend time along the river. A lot of people enjoy fishing, canoeing, and sailing in Swan River. We sometimes had BBQ there.

If you ask me to mention remarkable places in Perth, I'd say you'd go to Freemantle, North Bridge, Perth City, the Rottnest Island, Kings Park, and Cottesloe Beach.

I often went surfing during winter, but in summer, waves get kinda slow. In summer, it's better to enjoy other things or travel to the South or North to look for decent waves. I usullay surfed at Trigg Beach. There are some waves on Trigg Beach throughout the year, even during summmer, there are surfable waves on Trigg Beach. Trigg Beach is divided into South Trigg Beach and North Trigg Beach. South Trigg Beach is the beach break and North Trigg Beach is the reef break. Both beaches provide decent waves. I sometimes went to Secret Harbor and Yanchep. I miss those beaches and their waves.

I got something to tell you! When you go to Perth, watch out flies. They're always annoyed me. There're especially so many flies in summer though it depends on places. Even if you try flies away, they'll back to you, immediately. You just cannot help it... There are also so many types of spiders in Australia, some of which have dangerous poison."The red back" is one of them.

Finally, I had a fantastic time in Perth for nine months. I have so many awesome memories. Thank you very much, Elaine, Bruny, and everybody who has been around me.

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