I finally saw a possum. I saw two in one day, but unfortunately both were dead. BUT they weren't flattened like last time, so I took a picture. The one not shown was bigger and much more yellow. I had no idea they were this cute and orange. Sorry if this is a bit inappropriate putting up a dead possum, but I wanted you all to see one. Rest in peace little possum~

I haven't mentioned just how hilly it is here. The streets near my house are almost a joke. Absolutely no one would be able to leave Indooroopilly if the roads were ever covered in ice... Anyways, I took an uphill walk to a shopping center I haven't visited yet. It wasn't very good for clothing ad accessories, like the mall next to me, but I've noticed one thing about Brisbane- food is everywhere. Grocery stores are in malls, even markets, bakeries, and produce stands are in weird places like a shopping center. Oh and indoor cafes, where sitting "outside" is really the inside of the mall. I'm not sure how everyone here isn't fat. I sure am. I've been here almost 11 weeks, and I think I've gained ten pounds (as you will notice by the change in cheek volume in the picture). It's very tragic, but at least I enjoyed all the wonderful food here. I'll start my healthy lifestyle again once I'm back in AZ.

Much like Europe, chocolate here is very good. Fancy Lindt chocolate bars and Cadbury bars are found in huge displays and isles at the grocery store. And while those chocolate bars aren't horribly expensive, a normal, tiny candy bar is a $1 when on sale. I'll bring some back for everyone to see. They are so different and very fun looking- cherry ripe is by far the most popular.

At the shopping center, I finally forced myself into buying a meat pie (I know, so horrible to have to eat something containing pie crust...) It was just average though. Steak and beef filled with gravy are the most popular. I have yet to see a chicken pie. Australians eat their meat pies with ketchup and with their hands. This is a picture of me eating it. I was laughing awkwardly to myself as I tried to quickly snap a picture while people were walking by.

I was reading a blog of my friend in France doing this same research program, and I definitely agree with her- American tourists are so stereotypical, and it's so sad. I rarely ever see Americans in Brisbane, but the times that I have, the ones in their twenties are just obnoxious. They talk loudly and it always seems to be about alcohol, and yell profanities. They just act so disrespectful. Oh well, at least I've made my mark on some people here as a nice, respectful American.

Lastly, I am excited to announce that I may finally have gotten some soluble protein.... on my last week here :(

Background: when you make proteins in a somewhat" artificial" way, they tend to be mass produced (if produced at all) insoluble, which means you can't really do anything with them. I think am the first and only person in the world attempting to get this particular protein produced, and I may have got it!

This weekend I went for a very long walk. I suddenly realized that I only had two weekends left in this amazing city, so I decided to get off near the actual city part and just walk, walk until I had seen a whole bunch of Brisbane. I got off the train and went straight to Roma Street Parklands. It's a big park where people bring their kids to play, but it is also a great place to take a walk and relax. Next, I ran into a grammer school built in the late 1800's. The architecture was so beautiful AND I saw a boxer while I was there. It was an Australian boxer, and it was cute. Soon, I came upon a lovely cathedral. I had only seen the one right in the middle of the city, but this one was just as beautiful. Then, I walked through the outskirts of the city until I found the Brisbane River. I followed the river, looked through some Sunday markets, and spotted some cool cafes I can take Grami to for a riverside setting. Then, I ended up at the City Botanical Gardens. This was also super pretty. I followed the river until I found the actual city again, and I wish pictures could capture what it's like...It's very crowded on the weekends, but in a fun way. It's just like any other shop-filled big city, but with more interactive stuff. There are lots of performers and outdoor markets and cafes mixed in. After over 3 hours of walking, 1 new shirt, and some cheap sushi (which I will miss so much!!) I found another train station back home :)

Today, I made some cornbread to take to work and let my roommates try. No one eats corn bread here and I found that very tragic. I made sweet honey cornbread, and I think everyone really liked it. Please excuse how weird I look in the picture... You know, I don't think they even know what chili is either...

Sometime last week I had a nice dinner with some friends, more Harry Potter of course. I hadn't seen Deathly Hallows Part 1 yet. I am discovering more and more that Asians can handle some serious spice. Mexicans have nothing on them. Their sauces are so spicy! Because I was cooked such a lovely dinner, I offered to cook Mexican on Saturday night. My roommates were going to the Renaissance Festival equivalent here in Brisbane for the day :) so I finally had room to squeeze four more people into my little condo. The enchilada casserole failed, but the oreo ricotta cheesecake was delicious!

On Sunday, everyone from the lab hung out because one of our girls is going back to Singapore soon. I had a real Aussie burger, meaning that it had beet root AND a fried egg on it. Of course, I chose to eat my egg separately. We shopped in the city a bit afterwords where I found an almond milk tea that did NOT taste like my usual at Miss Saigon in Tucson. So disappointing. But I do love this city. The actual city part is so cool. Tons of shopping and people and just amazing-ness.

On Monday, we had a "goodbye lunch" for me at work. Dr. Kappler will be leaving for Germany and a conference in Canada on Thursday until after I'm already back in the US, so we all walked to the fish and chips place off campus. It was pretty yummy, but $$. Oh well. Mai (my semi-boss) made thee yummiest cheesecake ever to go with our lunch, and Dr. Kappler brought me some gifts! She gave me an Australian novel and a stuffed animal bacteria. So nice of her :) On Thursday I plan on giving her my saguaro honey, javelina cookie cutter, arizona magnet, and mexican restaurant gift card.

Last but not least, today I had to give a research update presentation to the lab group. Of course, I did my usual sarcastic, casual, laugh-y talk. But hey, people actually pay attention and I feel like when I taught this way as a TA assistant in biology 181, the kids responded well. Dr. Kappler thought she could stump me with a couple of hard questions, but I showed her :) She seemed to like the presentation and my overall work here. And trust me, she would definitely tell me if she had even a slight problem with how I was doing things. I wish I could keep working here!! I have so much more I could do! I've really only gotten through the baby steps of the project and could use another couple of months...maybe after I graduate? who knows...

One of the coolest things about being in Australia is the fact that I was able to travel half way across the world to look at the other side of the universe. So cool. Are you all aware that the stars are different over here? I'm looking at a totally different part of the universe that I've never seen before!

My boss and semi-boss are going to a conference this week. That means a much less stressful environment, but it also means I need to be super on top of things and independent. I think I can manage though. I'm kind of a pro at enzyme assays now.

My friends Kiong and Linda experienced Mexican food for the first time. We found this little restaurant, and it was quite hilarious seeing them try to pronounce 'quesadilla' and 'guacamole.' I finally got to eat my favorite food in the whole world!! There is nothing better than a burrito with everything in it. We also started re-watching Harry Potter in preparation for the new movie. Although I've never read the books, I do like the movies a lot.

So I want to make a cheesecake, but they don't have graham crackers here!!! Instead, I've been told to use "digestive biscuits". What the heck? That doesn't sound appetizing at all, so I think I'll stick with Oreo's.

Have I mentioned the toilets here yet? They all have 2 buttons to push for flushing. One is for a half flush, and the other is when you need a "full flush". I think that's hilarious :)

Burgers are delicious, and now I have tried them Aussie style = beetroot as a topping

So yummy. And I don't really care for beets...

Ketchup is called tomato sauce here, and you have to ask for it even at french fry places.

Oh my gosh! I saw little sauce packets of Vegemite at McDonald's. I need to steal some next time I'm there! I must try this Australian delicacy

And one other note- pumpkin pie isn't big here, in fact I don't think they even sell canned pumpkin. This is unfortunate. I wanted to bake all these American classics for people at work. So far all I've done is soft chocolate chip cookies. I still have to make nice, fluffy pancakes, bisquick style strawberry shortcake, and real Mexican tacos.

The last few days have been much better :) I'm still getting migraines frequently, but oh well...I'm moving forward in my projects at work; I'm even about to start a repeat of this one experiment to verify my results. It's nice having actual results to show for the work I do :)

Thursday, everyone in the lab, including Dr. Kappler, went to lunch because this girl in our lab is graduating and going back to Singapore. We went to a Japanese place, and I got to see all this beautiful Japanese food. When ordering, I stuck with words that I knew- ramen (I know this from top ramen) and teriyaki beef. It didn't taste like our cheap teriyaki back home, definitely more authentic. Even the dishes were cool looking, wooden and decorated with Asian spices.

Today I took the longest walk ever. I decided to take a bus into the city and then just walk the rest of the way to the market. That was a good walk. There's a huge bridge connecting the part of the city that is south of the river to the north. It was quite relaxing to walk across the river. At the market, I bought farm fresh strawberries carrots, lettuce, spices, bread etc. But then my walk back...I took the long walk back across the river to try and find a bus. I never saw one, so I just kept walking...30 minutes later I saw a bus that said Taringa, which is the suburb next to mine- Indooroopilly (pronounced Indro-pilly) I got on and hoped for the best. Luckily it dropped me off near my Dominoes so I knew where I was! Of course my landmarks are food places...

My roommates left right when I got back :) So I had my homemade baklava from the market, a cup of green tea and watched my Doctor Who finale. Then I made homemade chicken, veggies and dumplings and baked cinnamon cookies. I feel pretty good. Now to study for the GRE

Work has been so frustrating lately. I'm doing things non-stop from 9 to 5, and I come home so tired. And I've been getting so frustrated with this one, dumb experiment, that I literally have to stop what I'm doing and give myself a break before I burst into tears. At this point, I've already began to tear up and have a migraine from stress. I think I have some sort of "get stressed and crabby way too easily" thing wrong with me too. Actually, I know I do. This is my messy, little bedroom. It's my comfort place after work. I either sit on my computer, while drinking delicious jasmine green tea and relax or read The Fountainhead in bed. On the weekends though, relaxing for me is organizing my room, cleaning, and shopping. Speaking of which, I went shopping Saturday and Sunday, and it was quite overwhelming. There is an enormous amount of shops and restaurants crammed in every corner of this city. It's amazing, but also very dangerous. I've gone through like ten accessory shops already (and have some beautiful new necklaces to show for it). In the CBD (the actual city part of Brisbane), there are 3 shopping centers right next to each other and shops and places to eat crammed on every street in between. It's insane. Oh and the girls here have a really great fashion sense. There are some very distinct looks that I'm hoping will catch on in America when its our winter.

Common Australian words/phrases-

"I reckon"

"bloke"

and the worst one to answer- "how are you going?" This is equivalent to "how are you?" and EVERYONE says it all the time, but when I first heard this I was caught off guard. "By train", "by bus? but no, I just need to remember "fine thanks" or I awkwardly answer, "fine, how are you?" (emphasis on not using the word "going")

I have yet to try a meat pie and that is so huge here. That is my next mission.

This past weekend Christine, Julie and I headed to the Gold Coast after I got off of work. It only took about an hour on the train and then a bus into town to our family owned hostel. Our room was quite big, and luckily we had it all to ourselves and our own bathroom. On Saturday, we went to Movie World, a mix between Six Flags (because it's owned by Warner's Brothers) and Universal Studios, but dumber. I woke up with a migraine that day, so I was kind of sick the whole time. But, we went on the few roller coasters, saw some shows, and ate some Australian food- spinach and ricotta rolls, turnovers, basically tons of puff pastry.It was pretty fun.

Then we came home for a nap before our "club crawl". This event is something where you pay $25 and get picked up on a bus, along with a few other hostels, and taken to 4 different clubs. So we got a free drink at every club and had about an hour and a half to dance.

At the second club (which we are now boycotting), we were so hardcore that they had to kick us out...actually, some loser from our hostel gave us fake free drink tickets that we tried to use, thinking that they were real and he was just trying to be nice.

So dumb. Some loser Samoan bouncer escorted us out.

At the last club, I thought I was just being nice by talking to this half elf, half Australian guy, but then he ended up hitting on me all night. He is now known as Mr. Elf. His friend tought us some new phrases-

fair dinkum = are you serious?

hooroo = goodbye

Overall, I really had fun. I'm not one to go out, but I liked this whole club crawl thing, at least with Julie and Christine it was fun :)

The next day we slept half the day away because we are so hardcore and stayed up late. But after that, we got a free shuttle ride into the main shopping/dining/beach area.

The beach was basically deserted because it was very cold, but it was super pretty. We had a beach photo shoot, did some souvenir shopping, got Julie to get her nose pierced, and had fish and chips at a beach-side restaurant.

On Monday we returned home and turned right around to go into the city. Oh and it was a holiday, the queen's birthday, so I was off work :) I had never been to that area of the city. It felt kind of like Chicago actually. There was a huge shopping center and a winter festival going on with an outside ice skating rink. We met my work friends for a chocolate high tea, where they served me this tray of super fancy chocolates and an Italian hot chocolate (just super, super thick).

I miss hangin' with Julie and Christine already, and they just left...

I thought I'd try and explain what I've been doing at work.

Alright, first of all a bacteria cell has a circular genome. So its DNA looks like a circular zipper (two sides, complementary). I needed to manipulate the bacteria cell so that its genome contains a (DMSO reductase) gene, aka a piece of DNA, that I want it to translate into a specific protein (DMSO reductase). (Because that's what DNA does --> is read like directions on how to assemble proteins=cellular machinery) This process is so much more complicated than that and has already taken a couple weeks and is still happening now. Next week I may finally have bacteria that contain "foreign" DNA! This means that I'll be able to grow up the bacteria, let them produce all my protein for me and then blow them up and extract that specific one out. This protein is supposed to be the one that is important for haemophilus influenzae infection ability.

At the same time I've also been doing h. influenzae growths. (This is the bacteria that gives ear infections, among other things.) I have been growing up two strains, in various conditions, then I basically spun the cells at 45,000 rpm to separate out the different layers. This gives me a cell membrane extract, a periplasmic (inside cell part) extract, etc. in which I can test for activity in each section. I can add a certain chemical, such as DMSO, and see if that extract contains a protein that converts it to something else. (That something else triggers a reaction that I am able to monitor.)

Ok so if you're confused that's fine. If not, then yay :) glad you have a tiny idea about what I'm doing.

This weekend was pretty fun...

On Friday, Christine and Julie arrived. They met some coworkers and I for lunch at the pizza cafe, and then I found out that I was allowed to leave early to hang with them! That night we went to Fortitude Valley, aka "the valley", where all the major nightclubs and bars are. We walked around for a bit, ate some ok Chinese food in Chinatown (why does every city have this?), then ended up at a bar. The guy ID-ing us saw our Arizona

licences and was like- hey I'm from Tucson, I went to Pima! and then when we left he was like- Go Wildcats! It was very random. Lucky us, the first Friday of the month was 'ladies night', and we got free drinks! In Australia alcohol is extremely expensive, so that was amazing. And the drink was delicious! We tried some more pretty looking cocktails, got some free carnations, and took the train home. I don't remember if we did anything else that night...

On Saturday we spent a million hours walking around the other side of the river.

First we went to the West End market (West End is a suburb). The market was so cool! Lots of fruits and vegetables, spices, meats, and some interesting, ethnic foods. Christine and I ended up getting baklava. I couldn't resist.

We also got some other cheap groceries. After that we walked to South Bank, the next suburb over. It's kind of the performance area/ cafe-filled part of town. It was a long, but nice walk along the river. (There's a huge ferris wheel next to the river as well.)

Finally, we found an Asian looking restaurant to eat at. It was a very hard decision because there are literally a hundred little restaurants in this little area. Julie and I wanted to try something new, so we both got Thai red curry chicken (made with a coconut cream). It was...interesting. Not bad, but wouldn't order it again. Each time we've gone to a restaurant we have to find the waitress and the check ourselves.

It's the norm to just sit there for hours on end eating and visiting. The Davis girls eat quickly.

Then we walked around the market

in South Bank that was more jewelry/clothing/nicknack's. After that we found a train home. Saturday evening we went to the "bottle shop" and got some cheap wine and cocktail ingredients. We had our own little party in the living room, and then we heading over to my roommates joint birthday party in some far away suburb. It was pretty awkward at first. We sat by ourselves, no one was that friendly, and just looked weird. Eventually, we started talked to this guy named Ivan. He was very nice and looks like Edward Cullen but really tall. It's funny because we found out that he was staying at my house for the next week (working in Brisbane short term but lives in Melbourne).

Sunday I made pancakes with my bisquick!!! Yay :) and then we went to the mall to check out some of the cool accessory stores, the Japanese bakery, the tea store, and to eat some cheap sushi. Afterwards, we met Ivan for the new X-men movie. I really liked it, but then again I always wanted to be Storm when I was younger. But really, it was very good. Afterwards, I had an attempt at making pad Thai and failed, and that was our night. Good weekend.

I thought I would share the fact that work is going so well :)

My boss figured that several "reactions" (easier term for you non-scientific people) would have to be repeated and adjusted, but nearly every one has turned out perfectly. I'm basically ahead of schedule!! AND- nerd alert- I'm so excited that I'm learning these techniques. They are huge in the world of molecular biology, and having this summer where I learn a completely new and different set of techniques, along with all my experience at the UA, I will be a pretty great PhD candidate. I'm just happy. But I'll be happier when I wake up and Christine and Julie arrive! YAY!!! It will be so nice to have best friends (yes Christine, you count) to go places with and not worry if they will enjoy themselves. And tomorrow, everyone at the lab is going to take a long Friday lunch at the pizza place on campus so that Christine and Julie can meet us there :) I would have been able to get off early, but I'm just that dedicated... I really want to get through my digestions. (I realize no one knows what this is)

A line here (like at the movies, at a restaurant) is called a que.

We took the ferry from campus to South Bank yesterday evening. It only costs as much as the bus, but it's so much better. You get to travel through Brisbane along the river :) I thought it was very pretty, and especially on our way back with all the city lights.

We were headed to see the Hangover 2 (which was pretty funny) and have some dinner. They introduced me to this yummy hamburger place that had lamb-burgers. I didn't have one, but it's funny that lamb here is totally normal. Not a delicacy at all. The burger and "chips" (aka big french fries) were delicious and very herbed-up. Unfortunately, I ordered a crispy bacon and cheese burger then realized that bacon here is basically ham.

Before the movie we stopped at a little grocery store to buy snacks. I took one look at the reese's sticks (which I hadn't seen anywhere up until this) and cried. They were at least $2.59 or was it $2.79? Ridiculous.

Work is getting better. I had to turn in a plan to Dr. Kappler today on what I'm doing this week. It was very hard to figure out, but now that I have it, I'm so much more...happy. I love love love having things planned out for work. I'm too naturally scatter-brained. I'm basically running gels, doing pcr, and growing up/harvesting my pathogen all week :)

I had two pretty fun evenings this week :)

I hung out with some people from work and some of their friends on Tuesday and Wednesday evening.

On Wednesday we went to a really pretty cafe that had a small Eiffel Tower on the roof. It felt quite magical. We had cappuccinos and some delicious chocolate, creamy, cheesecake (although it didn't claim to be). It was nice. Last night, we all met for dinner at this place in the union that is basically a sports bar. It's pretty hilarious to see a bar in the student union, but hey, the drinking age is 19 so why not! We went there because they have karaoke on Wednesday nights, but this dumb rugby game was on TV instead. Apparently, it's the Australian rugby equivalent of the super bowl. So, I had my first plate of fish and chips in Australia that night. Afterwards, we went to another iconic Aussie cafe called three monkeys (?). It was much more hipster-ish than upscale Parisian. I had their white chocolate berry cheesecake and an even yummier cappuccino. Due to my sugar and caffeine intake, I couldn't get to sleep either night.

It's fun though asking my new friends all about Singapore and joking around about the stereotypes Americans have and the ones they have for us. Australia gets a lot of what they know about US culture from dumb tv shows.

We are under the agreement that all Asians look the same to me and all Caucasians look the same to them :)

WARNING: I'm probably going to be fat when I return. I'm trying hard not to eat everything in sight, but there are SO many cafes and bakery's!!

A lesson on coffee in Australia: They do not separate coffee from cappuccinos, lattes, etc. It's like whatever you want is at least $3.50 for a small. And I mean really small. On campus, I paid $4.50 today for an emergency coffee that had some foam on top. Come on. Oh and an Americano = long black. A "short black" is still a mystery to me. A long white = espresso shot in pure milk.

Work has been so frustrating. Two reasons:

1. There are so many rules and ways of doing things that I'm just not used to. I have bad lab habits that are absolutely forbidden in Dr. Kappler's lab. Lab coats can't be worn in certain areas, the right waste containers are hard to keep track of, Dr. Kappler actually checks your lab notebook and makes comments in it, and everything is so sanitary and organized. I'm just not used to any of it, and it's frustrating to be corrected every 2 minutes for doing something wrong again.

2. I've been "practicing" the same experiment for 3 days straight, and I'm still messing it up. It is an anaerobic reaction so if I get the slightest air bubble in the cuvette, I get to start all over again. And that is just one way to mess-up out of many. I'm going on day 4 tomorrow.

I am really afraid that when I get back to America I'm going to mess up driving and walking. I'm getting more used to this left side of the road (and sidewalk) thing everyday.

Sometimes I find myself really hilarious. Picture this: I decided that tonight I would allow myself a Domino's pizza because they have a Tuesday special. The condition was that I would have to walk there (15min max). Anyways, I got my pizza (finally) and I was starving and drooling and I decided that I needed my pizza right then. So I ran home. I probably looked insane. I was running full-speed through the neighborhoods, in the dark, with a pizza box.

Domino's is a little different here. The toppings are weird, a little more elaborate, and they don't have onions at all. Uh, I thought mushroom, onion, sausage pizza was a given for delicious toppings.

Today I saw the entire family are rooster/turkey things hanging out together by my bedroom window.

Today was my first group lab meeting. I found out that I have to present in early July :( oh well. It won't be bad once I understand what I'm doing. Lab meetings are a lot different because there are so many young students, rather than older postdocs and such in the Enemark group meetings. They also have a tradition of bringing chocolates and cookies. I tried these delicious orange cream filled cookies, really good chocolate with hazelnuts, and more pods (cookie/candy thing I mentioned before). This time, the pods were mint (like Andes), and they were soooo yummy. I'm definitely taking several bags back to the US.

Weather report: for the most part it's been in the low 70's and sunny every day. It's amazing. Tonight was the first time it really rained. This is unfortunate because I did all my laundry today, hung it outside on the clothesline to dry, went to see Source Code (which I actually liked a lot) and now they are all soaked.

Last night I experienced a bit of the Brisbane nightlife. My roommates took me with them to Chinatown to get some food, then to a 19 year old (drinking age here...) birthday party, then to a hipster coffee shop/bar, then to a pub with a cheesy cover band. Anyways, I found it funny that at midnight, the meat pie and sausage roll cafe was still hoppin. It would have been fun, but I was, of course, my awkward, shy self...I also was in a lot of pain from drinking nearly an entire bottle of champagne. The carbonation made me have chest convolutions for hours. It was bad.

Today was a nice day though. I took a walk to the mall, bought new shoes for work, walked to a corner coffee shop, got a latte there and read for a bit, walked to see the river, and grocery shopped. I bought some Australian cereal just to try. Looks like chocolate corn flakes. The river was mucky and average. No crocodiles, sharks, or snakes seen yet. I did see a wild turkey though.

I have migraine now though. I've had a lot since I've been here which is frustrating because I was doing so good before. Must be the change in climate and food and such.

Work on Friday was very frustrating. I made up all my media on Thursday and that was easy. But Friday I learned how to do an enzyme assay for DMSO reductase. The reaction has to take place anaerobically, which is such a pain. The tiniest air bubble that gets through via the syringe you are using to add the various components, and the experiment is ruined, My day was spent practicing not ruining it over and over again.

On Wednesday night I got to hang out with some of the other students in my lab. All four are from Singapore (which they taught me a few interesting things about). We went grocery shopping first, which was my second attempt at restocking an entire kitchen. It's really overwhelming starting with absolutely nothing in my kitchen. I actually took a third trip to the grocery store tonight. It's only a ten minute walk from my house. Anyways...the Asians, they were fun :) we drove up to Mt. Coot-tha and looked over the city. There's a nice little outside restaurant there, but we just had some dessert. I'm not sure what kind of cake it was (sponge-like with chocolate coconut frosting), but I was told it was an Australian delicacy. The view was spectacular! We hung out for a while- they asked me all about the US and I asked them about Singapore and Australia

I've also been trying as many interesting foods as possible. Brisbane is big on sushi so I had some of that. I also had this delicious whoopie (like the Southern whoopie pie). The cream filling and cupcake part was so good it made me almost throw up afterwards. Relative to the other food prices, the "gyro" meat type wraps are fairly cheap, so I had that. I tried some popular packaged cookies (white chocolate-covered biscuits) and some popular chocolates. These chocolates were called pods (I think) because they sit in a crunchy cookie pod, and the inside is a cherry chocolate. So good. My next mission is to try two things I've seen at every coffee shop. Oh did I mention there are like a million bazillion coffee shops...I need to get a meat pie of some sort and this thing that looks like a pastry crust/filo dough wrap filled with different ingredients-meats, spinach, cheese.

One last thing before I stop rambling. Shopping cart = trolly

More observations

- Rice Krispies = Rice Bubbles. I thought this was hilarious

- Trash bins at the mall are labeled "Rubbish". Also quite amusing

- The Australian pigeon equivalent: another huge bird (surprise surprise)

- Australians say "zed" for the letter "z" and don't use the letter "z" ever. Example- minimise

- The young Australian guys wear shorts that come above the knees and they look good (and they didn't have to speak with those beautiful accents to make me think this)

-Eggs are only brown here and are kept on shelves (not in a fridge)

Today I experienced some Australian birds. I saw lots of birds that I've never seen before. There was a huge wren-like bird that growled at me, a huge blackbird with a yellow beak, and when I got home a huge wild turkey/rooster greeted me at the door. Well, actually he ran away... You know, I don't think I've seen any birds here that are smaller than a large parrot.

Also, while I was looking out my kitchen window watching these people clean their yard next-door, the woman yelled "snake!". But, after searching for it for 5 seconds, they gave up and began raking again. Ummm, why would you keep raking and standing in the piles of leaves if there was a huge snake? Apparently Australians are tough. So now I'm scared that the snake is going to slither its way into my house.

Science stuff- I successfully designed my first primers today! I am so happy that I actually knew what I was doing! So we are going to order the primers tonight so I can start my project :) I also got to observe an RNA isolation.

First day of work

I took the bus (not filled with dirtbags) to work and didn't get too lost. That was quite an accomplishment! I must admit, I did take the "scenic route" from the University bus stop to my laboratory building. The campus is beautiful though, lots of tropical looking trees and really cool architecture. Apparently there is a lake and a river too, but I didn't get lost enough to find those.

Everyone at work is very nice too. And they are all Asian. And I thought UofA was filled with Asians... Today I took 3 hrs to do online safety, etc inductions and then 3 hrs to do a tutorial on a program that helps you to design primers and look at expression vectors. Not fun. But I managed to waste enough time so that I didn't have to do any actual experiments today. That was good because now I have a chance to come home and make sure I understand how to design primers so I don't look like a loser tomorrow.

Oh! Another accomplishment- I walked right in to the "tea room" (where people eat lunch at the lab) and sat right down with everyone. My anti-social is fading away...

some things I've learned so far

McCafe at McDonalds really is a cafe. Dessert display and all.

Possums are normal roadkill.

The toilets are mostly "push a button to flush"

The birds here sound like they are crying or laughing loudly at all times

And something funny~

I was asked by this Asian guy at work if there really are cowboys in Arizona

Arrival

The plane ride wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. Although I wasn't a fan of the plane for dwarfs from phx to LA. And more so, I'm not ok with wifi costing money at LAX and the Brisbane airport. I, being extremely stressed out this week and even more scatter-brained than usual, decided not to write down the address of my house in Brisbane. So I left a great first impression on my boss when I told her I didn't have the address but it was in my email.

She picked me up at the airport, and we tried connecting to the wifi, then tried paying for internet at a computer kiosk thing. Next, we tried hovering around the train station which was rumored to have wifi. Then, we ended up having to drive to some shopping center where we found a coffee shop that had wifi if you bought something. So after wasting my boss's time all morning, I also forced her into a latte because I forgot to grab my wallet on the way out of her car. Eventually I got the dumb address, and I don't think she hates me yet. She seems really nice actually :)

My roommates seem very nice. Ellie and Odin

They took me grocery shopping with them right away and to a place where I could buy a bus pass. Grocery shopping was interesting...Almonds- $16/kg ummm I don't know what that translates to so I just bought whatever, not caring if it was a good deal or not. Even having all different brands made it tough because I could find things easily and wasn't sure if I was looking at some fancy organic brand or not. I managed to buy some essentials though.

I had to cut my suitcase open...Guess I'll be buying a new one before I leave.

Now, I must unpack.