03 February 2009
The Great Adventure, Part 2
The second part of our great adventure was a trip to Kangaroo Island in South Australia. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
29 January 2009
The Great Adventure, Part 1
Another blog update so soon? Yes, indeed! Here is the first installment of a three part series on my trip with three other Fulbrighters around southeastern Australia!
26 January 2009
First post of several catch-ups
Hey everyone,
I'm sorry I've been MIA!! I tried to post a video after Christmas to update you on the last bit of 2008, but it wouldn't upload correctly! Here it is. I'm also going to make a few other videos this week to tell you all about my awesome Christmas/New Year trip and how that went.
I'm sorry I've been MIA!! I tried to post a video after Christmas to update you on the last bit of 2008, but it wouldn't upload correctly! Here it is. I'm also going to make a few other videos this week to tell you all about my awesome Christmas/New Year trip and how that went.
25 December 2008
23 November 2008
I'm in the news!
Well, not really. Follow the link below to the Australian-American Fulbright newsletter. There is a picture of me and the other Fulbrighters meeting with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and I'm quoted several times in the article that follows.
http://www.fulbright.com.au/publications/documents/NovemberNewsletter.pdf
http://www.fulbright.com.au/publications/documents/NovemberNewsletter.pdf
22 November 2008
November Update!
Sorry it's taken so long for me to update the blog! I've got lots to talk about, though, so please enjoy!
26 October 2008
Video Update
Hey everyone,
Here's another video update from me! I must admit that I was a bit tired when I made it. So some things I say may not make total sense. And I say "um" sometimes. And I said "Yah-rra valley" instead of "Yeah-rra Valley". But otherwise, I hope you enjoy it!
Here's another video update from me! I must admit that I was a bit tired when I made it. So some things I say may not make total sense. And I say "um" sometimes. And I said "Yah-rra valley" instead of "Yeah-rra Valley". But otherwise, I hope you enjoy it!
19 October 2008
05 October 2008
Catchup and Canberra
Wow! I can’t believe it’s been more than a month since I’ve posted anything of real substance. That means that this time, I’ve got a real doozy for you. I’m going to have to break it up into digests because I have so much to say!
When I last left off, I was still getting settled into my new housing situation, which has since turned out to be great. My flatmate is really nice and has been a good friend to have nearby. Also, I’m enjoying living in this house. It’s nice to be able to cook when I want (and believe me, I’ve been doing that a lot), and the neighborhood, while a bit far situated from things on the south side of the city, is conveniently close to work. I have been biking to work some days, although recently I’ve gotten a little lazy. It’s just that the weather here never makes up its mind. One day it feels warm and spring-like, and then the next day it’s freezing cold. Melbourne has crazy weather. It usually completely changes in the afternoon/evening so that if I leave the house and take off my jacket, I come back home with it and a scarf on and put the heating on when I get inside! Once things warm up for sure, I’ll be back on the bike.
Spring is in the air, though—we’ve got some wonderful flowers blooming right now, and it’s just warm and breezy enough outside to just sit and enjoy the atmosphere. It actually got kind of hot today. A few weeks ago, I walked down to the Melbourne Botanical Gardens and took a stroll around some of the paths there. It’s a huge place with several buildings. I think that the Victorian parliament sits there, but I may be mistaken. I was there a bit too early for the floral displays to be really impressive, but it’s a very pretty garden all the same, and because it has a couple of big hills in it, you get some good views of the city and the rest of the gardens from it. I also had a housewarming party outside earlier in the month and invited lots of the other Melbourne-based Fulbrighters over for some nibbles and drinks. It was really nice. I’m very lucky in that there are about five of us here in Melbourne, and we have been seeing each other on a pretty regular basis. It’s a nice support group to have—we all understand each other because we are all away from home and friends. And they’re all great people. We even get invited to special events together. About three weeks ago, we were contacted by the American Embassy and were invited to a “Great White Fleet” celebration in honor of the group of ships of the same name that sailed around the world prior to WWI. There, we met the American Ambassador Robert McCallum, a very nice man from Memphis, and his wife, Mimi. The ambassador, when I met him, told me that it was nice to meet me again (he was of course mistaken). Remember this tidbit for later in this blog entry, and hopefully you will see some irony in it. We spent the evening on board ship with the navy personnel of Australian and American ships and watched an Aussie marching band and had snacks and drinks and cake. It was a nice evening. I met some fun people from the US embassy, too. Good networking.
I’ve been making other friends, too— Aussies mostly but some Americans and internationals. This is good, because there were a few weeks at the beginning of September during which I was in a slump missing friends and family at home and feeling out of place here. Now that some more time has passed and I’ve gotten settled even further, I’m feeling better as well. I’ve got a better perspective on how things are going to be for the year, and I’m much more comfortable in my interactions with other people. I was talking about this with one of the other Fulbrighters, and she put it very well. Australia is enough like the United States that you come here and you think that because everything looks the same and feels the same that it is the same as home. But it isn’t totally the same and it isn’t home, and you learn that pretty fast.
My work is going well. I’ve got three projects going on right now (I’ll try to make this as easy to understand as possible). One is characterizing the expression of a protein in T Cells. One is looking at the expression of micro RNAs in T cells. And the other is looking at naive T Cells specific to a particular antigen and studying when they divide during the course of an infection. That wasn’t too bad, was it?
Now for the most interesting part of my entry here! Last Sunday, I returned from ten days of travelling around southeastern Australia. The first place I went was Canberra, the small and unassuming capital of Australia located in the southeast corner of New South Wales about ninety minutes west of Sydney. The second place I went was Tasmania, where I spent my 22nd birthday. Finally, I spent a few days in Sydney.
I went to Canberra to attend the Fulbright Enrichment Seminar. The Australian-American Fulbright Commission is located in Canberra, and the people who administer the award wanted all of the Fulbrights in Australia (about 17 total spread all around the continent) to meet each other and take advantage of what the capital (they spell it “capital” not “capitol”) has to offer. Despite the fact that everyone told me that it would be a dull place, I had a good time. The other Fulbrighters were delightful people, and I really enjoyed hanging out with them during the weekend. Topics they are studying range from studying bush fires to ecological diversity of corals and plants to modern dance performance. We stayed at the Australian National University (ranked 1st in Australia) hotel, and spent most of our sessions there talking about how to make the most of our scholarships and how to adjust to life in Australia. The really fun part came during the “field trips” that we took.
The first trip we took was to the American Embassy, a compound of Colonial style buildings in the “Embassy Neighborhood” in Canberra (that’s just the name I give this vast area where there are heaps of Embassies, themed the respective country). There, we met the American Ambassador again, and he did not remember me from the boat (see the irony?). The embassy is really nice, with lots of antiques and art. Apparently Jackie Chan grew up in that embassy because his parents used to work as house and groundskeepers. The ambassador presented us with pins, we got pictures with him, and enjoyed tea in the house. After that, we went to dinner with the Fulbrighters and enjoyed the almost nonexistent nightlife of downtown Canberra.
The other highlight of the Canberra trip was when we met the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd (or K Rudd as he is affectionately known sometimes), who was elected last year. We took a trip to the Parliament House of Australia (really cool building, built so that it resembles a grassy hill; people can actually walk up these hills and stand over where parliament meets. It’s actually a tradition for families to go there and then roll down this hill, although access has been restricted since 9/11). We began the afternoon by attending question time, which is akin to British question time. Basically the parliament gets two-and-a-half hours in which to ask the prime minister, any of his cabinet, questions about basically anything. It turns very quickly into a vicious and raucous shouting match that hast to be corralled by the Speaker. People are called names, petty insults are hurled—it’s really fun and very different from the way that Americans conduct government. Afterwards, we were ushered on a speedy tour of the parliament (designed with lots of symbolism in mind) and into a conference room where we were greeted by the Prime Minister individually. There was a photo taken of me shaking hands with him, and I’m still trying to get hold of it! The prime minister talked for several minutes, mentioned that there is no greater relationship than that between Americans and Australians (we are treaty allies, you know), and spoke highly of the Fulbright program. Then we took some more pictures, and that was it. A meeting with a world leader in 10 minutes flat!
That night, we had a banquet and were given our Australian Fulbright certificates. We sat around tables with assigned seats and I mingled with several people connected with the Fulbright commission, almost all of whom worked with the government. I did end up having an extended conversation with one of the women about the various wineries around the area. Nice time.
After the Fulbright events finished, several of us stayed on in Canberra to see the city for a few days. The weather was beautiful, and we spent a lot of time outside. We went to Floriade, a mediocre flower exhibition; walked around Lake Burley-Griffin, a lake that splits the main parts of Canberra in half and contains a huge jet of water called the “Captain Cook Memorial Jet;” the National Gallery of Australia where we saw some very interesting Aboriginal art as well as some interesting Australian painters’ works; and the War Memorial, a war museum that tracks Australia’s involvement in all of the wars in which it has participated.
After Canberra, I flew back to Melbourne for the night and then flew the next day to Hobart, the capital of Tasmania. I will continue that story with a post later this week. For now, I’m tired! We just had daylight savings spring forward, and I didn’t get to bed until super late last night as a result. I will post the rest of the trip by the end of the week, though!
When I last left off, I was still getting settled into my new housing situation, which has since turned out to be great. My flatmate is really nice and has been a good friend to have nearby. Also, I’m enjoying living in this house. It’s nice to be able to cook when I want (and believe me, I’ve been doing that a lot), and the neighborhood, while a bit far situated from things on the south side of the city, is conveniently close to work. I have been biking to work some days, although recently I’ve gotten a little lazy. It’s just that the weather here never makes up its mind. One day it feels warm and spring-like, and then the next day it’s freezing cold. Melbourne has crazy weather. It usually completely changes in the afternoon/evening so that if I leave the house and take off my jacket, I come back home with it and a scarf on and put the heating on when I get inside! Once things warm up for sure, I’ll be back on the bike.
Spring is in the air, though—we’ve got some wonderful flowers blooming right now, and it’s just warm and breezy enough outside to just sit and enjoy the atmosphere. It actually got kind of hot today. A few weeks ago, I walked down to the Melbourne Botanical Gardens and took a stroll around some of the paths there. It’s a huge place with several buildings. I think that the Victorian parliament sits there, but I may be mistaken. I was there a bit too early for the floral displays to be really impressive, but it’s a very pretty garden all the same, and because it has a couple of big hills in it, you get some good views of the city and the rest of the gardens from it. I also had a housewarming party outside earlier in the month and invited lots of the other Melbourne-based Fulbrighters over for some nibbles and drinks. It was really nice. I’m very lucky in that there are about five of us here in Melbourne, and we have been seeing each other on a pretty regular basis. It’s a nice support group to have—we all understand each other because we are all away from home and friends. And they’re all great people. We even get invited to special events together. About three weeks ago, we were contacted by the American Embassy and were invited to a “Great White Fleet” celebration in honor of the group of ships of the same name that sailed around the world prior to WWI. There, we met the American Ambassador Robert McCallum, a very nice man from Memphis, and his wife, Mimi. The ambassador, when I met him, told me that it was nice to meet me again (he was of course mistaken). Remember this tidbit for later in this blog entry, and hopefully you will see some irony in it. We spent the evening on board ship with the navy personnel of Australian and American ships and watched an Aussie marching band and had snacks and drinks and cake. It was a nice evening. I met some fun people from the US embassy, too. Good networking.
I’ve been making other friends, too— Aussies mostly but some Americans and internationals. This is good, because there were a few weeks at the beginning of September during which I was in a slump missing friends and family at home and feeling out of place here. Now that some more time has passed and I’ve gotten settled even further, I’m feeling better as well. I’ve got a better perspective on how things are going to be for the year, and I’m much more comfortable in my interactions with other people. I was talking about this with one of the other Fulbrighters, and she put it very well. Australia is enough like the United States that you come here and you think that because everything looks the same and feels the same that it is the same as home. But it isn’t totally the same and it isn’t home, and you learn that pretty fast.
My work is going well. I’ve got three projects going on right now (I’ll try to make this as easy to understand as possible). One is characterizing the expression of a protein in T Cells. One is looking at the expression of micro RNAs in T cells. And the other is looking at naive T Cells specific to a particular antigen and studying when they divide during the course of an infection. That wasn’t too bad, was it?
Now for the most interesting part of my entry here! Last Sunday, I returned from ten days of travelling around southeastern Australia. The first place I went was Canberra, the small and unassuming capital of Australia located in the southeast corner of New South Wales about ninety minutes west of Sydney. The second place I went was Tasmania, where I spent my 22nd birthday. Finally, I spent a few days in Sydney.
I went to Canberra to attend the Fulbright Enrichment Seminar. The Australian-American Fulbright Commission is located in Canberra, and the people who administer the award wanted all of the Fulbrights in Australia (about 17 total spread all around the continent) to meet each other and take advantage of what the capital (they spell it “capital” not “capitol”) has to offer. Despite the fact that everyone told me that it would be a dull place, I had a good time. The other Fulbrighters were delightful people, and I really enjoyed hanging out with them during the weekend. Topics they are studying range from studying bush fires to ecological diversity of corals and plants to modern dance performance. We stayed at the Australian National University (ranked 1st in Australia) hotel, and spent most of our sessions there talking about how to make the most of our scholarships and how to adjust to life in Australia. The really fun part came during the “field trips” that we took.
The first trip we took was to the American Embassy, a compound of Colonial style buildings in the “Embassy Neighborhood” in Canberra (that’s just the name I give this vast area where there are heaps of Embassies, themed the respective country). There, we met the American Ambassador again, and he did not remember me from the boat (see the irony?). The embassy is really nice, with lots of antiques and art. Apparently Jackie Chan grew up in that embassy because his parents used to work as house and groundskeepers. The ambassador presented us with pins, we got pictures with him, and enjoyed tea in the house. After that, we went to dinner with the Fulbrighters and enjoyed the almost nonexistent nightlife of downtown Canberra.
The other highlight of the Canberra trip was when we met the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd (or K Rudd as he is affectionately known sometimes), who was elected last year. We took a trip to the Parliament House of Australia (really cool building, built so that it resembles a grassy hill; people can actually walk up these hills and stand over where parliament meets. It’s actually a tradition for families to go there and then roll down this hill, although access has been restricted since 9/11). We began the afternoon by attending question time, which is akin to British question time. Basically the parliament gets two-and-a-half hours in which to ask the prime minister, any of his cabinet, questions about basically anything. It turns very quickly into a vicious and raucous shouting match that hast to be corralled by the Speaker. People are called names, petty insults are hurled—it’s really fun and very different from the way that Americans conduct government. Afterwards, we were ushered on a speedy tour of the parliament (designed with lots of symbolism in mind) and into a conference room where we were greeted by the Prime Minister individually. There was a photo taken of me shaking hands with him, and I’m still trying to get hold of it! The prime minister talked for several minutes, mentioned that there is no greater relationship than that between Americans and Australians (we are treaty allies, you know), and spoke highly of the Fulbright program. Then we took some more pictures, and that was it. A meeting with a world leader in 10 minutes flat!
That night, we had a banquet and were given our Australian Fulbright certificates. We sat around tables with assigned seats and I mingled with several people connected with the Fulbright commission, almost all of whom worked with the government. I did end up having an extended conversation with one of the women about the various wineries around the area. Nice time.
After the Fulbright events finished, several of us stayed on in Canberra to see the city for a few days. The weather was beautiful, and we spent a lot of time outside. We went to Floriade, a mediocre flower exhibition; walked around Lake Burley-Griffin, a lake that splits the main parts of Canberra in half and contains a huge jet of water called the “Captain Cook Memorial Jet;” the National Gallery of Australia where we saw some very interesting Aboriginal art as well as some interesting Australian painters’ works; and the War Memorial, a war museum that tracks Australia’s involvement in all of the wars in which it has participated.
After Canberra, I flew back to Melbourne for the night and then flew the next day to Hobart, the capital of Tasmania. I will continue that story with a post later this week. For now, I’m tired! We just had daylight savings spring forward, and I didn’t get to bed until super late last night as a result. I will post the rest of the trip by the end of the week, though!
04 October 2008
Echidna!
I will be posting a huge entry very soon about my recent travels around Canberra, Tasmania, and Sydney. In the meantime, enjoy this video of an echidna that I saw while hiking one day!!!
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