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...