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.