Photos!

So I finally got around to posting some of the photos I took in the last month. They're on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=32121557&l=46491&id=7200575

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2061501&l=5fc8d&id=7200575

I hope you enjoy them!

One month in...

Hi again! Firstly, apologies for the late blog posting. I’ve been caught up with work and settling in, and now I’ve finally got a bit of time to catch you all up on what’s been happening with me. Secondly, apologies that I haven’t been able to post pics. I have been having a bit of trouble with the wireless at home, but I’ll try this weekend to post a few of my better ones. To be honest, I haven’t done much that has merited taking pictures since I started work. Still, I’ll put some up from the first few weeks that I was here and from the footy game I went to last week (more below).

We left off last time with the international baking contest for which I had decided to bake a pecan pie. Well, I did, and it turned out really well. I had to improvise a bit because I didn’t have all the ingredients—namely corn syrup and bourbon. Still, the finished product was quite good, and I ended up winning first prize for the best sweet dish in the contest! I got a box of assorted chocolates as a prize—yum!

Interestingly, all candy in Australia is referred to as “lollies.” Not just lolly pops, but chocolate bars, hard candy, caramels, etc. Everything that we would call “candy” is a “lolly” here. Other than that, there are a few other fun Australianisms that I’ve come across so far. When referring to a large amount of something, the term I hear being used most frequently is “heaps of,” as in “heaps of chocolate” or “heaps of RNA.” Bell peppers here are called “capsicum.” Instead of starting a sentence with a verbal filler such as “Okay, so…” or “So…” there are lots of people that use “Look” as a filler. It’s a bit jarring sometimes, because I’m used to people using “Look…” at the beginning of a sentence to signal annoyance or frustration. When used here, it doesn’t convey the same tone, so I find myself flinching a bit sometimes when people say it. For example, when an Olympic medalist's mother was talking to a reporter, she said with a big smile on her face, “Look, I’m very proud of my son.” The other day someone said “Look, what I’m going to do today is go to the store, go buy some flour, and make a cake.” To turn the tables, Americans should take note never to use the word “fanny” in conversation with an Australian, as in “fanny pack” or “Aunt Fanny”. Look it up to see what it means.

Anyhow, back to the main story—two weeks ago I moved from temporary accommodation to a new house! The location is good—very suburban neighborhood but with lots of stuff at my fingertips. It takes about 25 minutes to get into the heart of the city. My flatmate Katrina (Kat) has been really nice and really fun to live with.

The move was not without drama, however. I had planned to buy a bed from Ikea the day before I moved so that it could be shipped to the house the next day. I wasn’t able to do that because of confusing public transport here, so I went the next day. I bought a bed, mattress, a table, and a chair for my room and expected that it could be delivered that day. Wrong. Everything would come the following day, so I spent my first night in my new house sleeping on the floor. Then, when the delivery finally arrived the next morning, the bed frame that I had bought was broken. So my wonderful flatmate selflessly took her valuable time to drive me back to Ikea to exchange the thing. Then I spent 3 hours putting everything together, only to find that the table I had bought also had a problem. The holes that were pre-drilled into the table into which I was supposed to put screws to secure the legs were too small. So, a lady in my lab’s husband selflessly lugged his power drill to my house the following evening to help me out. When everything was finally put together, I went to sleep.

I have also purchased a bicycle to use to drive to and from work, rather than take the tram (which is expensive at AUD 2.20 per 2 hours). The bike is good, and yes, I am wearing a helmet (it’s the law here). I rode it to work for the first time today, actually, and it wasn’t that bad. A little hectic driving on the other side of the road (and also driving in the road with cars at times), but I made it. It was quite pleasant, actually, because I spend half of the ride biking through a really nice park.

I also went to trivia night last week again with Alice from my lab, and I had a really good time. I only really contributed to one question this time (What is the Dutch royal/national airline?) but it was a fun (albeit) atmosphere. Alice also invited me to go with her friends to an Australian Rules Football match last Friday which was really fun! Her friend was having a birthday, and he brought me a toboggan (called “beanies” here) so I could cheer for the Western Bulldogs (who won, by the way, by 50 points). The game itself is really interesting (play doesn’t really stop except for quarter breaks, lots of kicking a very bouncy American football-shaped ball, tackling, three goalposts, really high scores at the end), very different from soccer or American football. Here’s a wikipedia link to give you an idea of what it’s like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_rules_football. It’s a really fun game, and it’s very traditional to have meat pies and beer while watching it—not bad! I have a few pics of the game and of me in my hat, so I’ll post those this weekend.

Let’s see… I’ve still been meeting new people! I met up with my Aunt Connie’s first cousin once removed the other day (same age as me), and that was really cool. Her grandfather and my Aunt’s father were brothers born in Italy, and they each emigrated from Italy to different countries.

I’ve been cooking quite a bit since I moved into my new house! Besides the award-winning pecan pie, I made these tasty cheese biscuits/cookies from the Moravian Cookbook, pasta rustica (for those of you who remember it from Casa Artom), and ratatouille (which I will be having for lunch today).

Other than that, I haven’t really done much touristy stuff because of the move and because after work I don’t really have the time. Things do close here earlier than at home, but it’s not as bad as in the UK. I may do some sightseeing this weekend, but that’s only if I finish planning a trip I hope to take to the more tropical part of Australia at the end of September (Carins/Port Douglas). That should be fun! Otherwise, I miss everyone at home. Please let me know how things are going for you all!

Until next time!

Sorry

I know, I know... two weeks without an entry on the blog... I promise that it won't become a regular thing. I've just been very busy getting settled into my new home, and I've been doing lots of things as well! I've actually got to go to bed soon, but I will try to post a few of the photos that I've taken since I've been here to hold you over until I can sit down and tell you all about my adventures at an Australian Rules Football game, moving into my house, and baking a pecan pie for an "international" baking contest at work. More to come soon, I promise!

Chock-a-Block

Hi all! This week has been full of fun things, so I’m going to have to be a bit brief about them if I’m going to include them in this post and still get to bed at a decent hour.

Due to the fact that my supervisor was writing a huge grant until last Wednesday, I didn’t have to start work until then. Thus, I spent Monday and Tuesday of last week both battling a really bad cold and exploring Melbourne as best as I could. I visited the Melbourne Museum again to see their exhibit about the history of the city. I found it quite interesting, especially some of the old news reels they played about Melbourne in the 40’s and 50’s. There is also this really huge taxidermy racehorse called Pharr Lap who was a Melbourne champion who went to the US to compete in the big races there but ended up being poisoned. It’s a bit weird, this huge stuffed thing, but it’s apparently an important Melbourne exhibit. I also went shopping downtown (since winter sales are going on right now) at some of the cool stores there, but I hesitated to buy anything because I didn’t really have a good handle yet on what my budget is going to be like.

I also met my future housemate Katrina (Kat) at a really cool restaurant on Tuesday night. It’s called “Lentil As Anything,” and it’s a very hippie/funky place near where I’m going to be living in Brunswick. The idea of the restaurant is that there are no prices on any of the dishes—you pay what you feel like the meal is worth at the end and just deposit the money in a little box on the way out. Neat concept, and the food was quite good—lots of curries and Asian dishes.

On Wednesday, I started work. Apparently I’m one of 4 guys and 13 girls in my lab. Makes for nice tea breaks, because someone is always baking something and bringing it to work to share! I spent all day Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday reading papers. Routine starting-up-in-a-new-lab stuff. Wednesday night I went out with Alice (see post below) to Trivia Night at a local pub. I we got 2^nd place, and I helped to answer a few questions (what sport was invented at a YMCA in the 1800’s; what has a longer wavelength, red or violet light; and what is the capitol of Chile?). There was also a question where a man sang the lyrics to a popular song in operatic style (not to the tune of the song), and I got it! Clocks by Coldplay.

Thursday I went to a lunch at the Victorian Harvard Club in the PriceWaterhouseCoopers skyscraper where my big boss Peter Doherty gave a speech about “living in an evidence-based world” to a bunch of people. It was a very nice lunch, and I met some cool people there. The view from the building was fantastic.

That night I went to an ok wine tasting in Federation Square and tried to go see a movie at the Melbourne Film Festival, but it was sold out. I saw Mamma Mia instead (the only thing playing). Let’s just say that I’m glad that I had the wine beforehand.

On Friday I went out to lunch with my lab to a Yum Cha (Dim Sum) place in Chinatown to say goodbye to a lady who is leaving our lab to work at an institute across the street. It was very good, and I tried tripe for the first time (not bad… won’t be doing it again anytime soon). I also learned that my first research project will be about micro RNA expression in CD8+ T cells. After work, I went to a pub with some people from work and met some other people in the department in which I'm working. Everyone here is so nice; I’m very lucky.

Saturday I slept in, went to lunch in South Yarra (posh area) with a Wake Forest alumnus that works here in Melbourne (Andy), walked around the city, did some laundry, and went out to a bar called Cookie with some people from the lab to celebrate one of their birthdays. The place was really crowded, but it was fun.

Sunday I saw a final movie at the Melbourne Film Festival called Wendy and Lucy with Michelle Williams. It’s not a bad film if you are in a slow movie mood (lost in translation slow), and it takes place in Oregon! Afterwards I went out to dinner with Melbourne Ben and Andy and a friend of theirs and had the quintessential Australian pub dinner: Chicken parmesan. Apparently it’s really big here. It was good, although they serve it with French fries rather than pasta.

Yesterday and today have been really kind of slow, but I’m sure that things will kick into gear later in the week. I’m making a pecan pie for an international baking contest that our department is having Thursday (pecan pie is “exotic” and “international” here). I was going to do cornbread, but they don’t have cornmeal… just polenta… and I didn’t know how that would work out. Also, I’m also going to be moving into my house Saturday, so I’ll be purchasing a few essential items (such as a bed) and dealing with that later in the week. I might also go salsa dancing this weekend. Who knows? The adventures will continue…

House Hunting and More

To continue my story from the last post: After sleeping for approximately 6.5 hours, I awoke ravenous and ate two slices of pizza. I tried to fall asleep again, but nothing happened. As such, I did some unpacking and, when 8:00am rolled around I proceeded to the Nunnery kitchen for my complimentary roll, or to put it their way, “breakfast.” I tried Vegemite for the first time, and it’s not that different from this English stuff called Bovril that my mom uses in cooking sometimes. Not bad, but I don’t know how anyone could eat a whole sandwich of just Vegemite—it’s way too salty even for me!

My first few full days in Melbourne were almost entirely devoted to looking for a place to live. After a few fellow Fulbrighters had told me their horror stories about finding apartments (one of my compatriots looked for a full month for accommodation while staying at a backpacker’s hostel), I decided to start making appointments before I left the US to meet potential flatmates and to inspect flats as soon as I arrived. The first place I visited was occupied by two guys who were friendly enough and who had a fairly nice home. Unfortunately, it was located quite a long way from work, and they were asking too much. Afterwards, I walked around their neighborhood a bit, took a tram back to the city (met some Italians who had just been to see the Pope and impressed them with my conversational skills), and wandered around Federation Square, which is Melbourne’s version of Trafalgar or Times.

I inspected many other possible houses/rooms: Victorian terrace houses (row houses) built with lovely wrought ironwork but with much less desirable interiors occupied by nice enough students; a swanky apartment near the downtown area inhabited by a short Kiwi guy whose accent is about as unintelligible as Glaswegian brogue; and the University of Melbourne colleges, built to model those at Oxford and Cambridge. The latter offered me characteristic surroundings (“old” here is 1860’s, even more laughable than in the US) and a truly unique experience as I’d be surrounded by students. However, living in the colleges is very, very expensive, and it would have been required for me to dine at the communal dining hall (with “adequate” food… the Pit at Wake was “adequate”… and I love to cook). So instead, I passed it all over and decided to take a room at a delightful sharehouse in the suburb of Brunswick about two miles from my work. My future flatmate Katrina (Kat) is a high school English teacher who approaches her job with a professionalism I could never have imagined possible for someone as young as she. She’s very friendly, very articulate, very organized, and I think that we will have fun sharing the house! I’ll be moving in on the 16^th of August. That gives me just enough time to find a bed.

Besides trying to find a place to live, I have also done quite a bit of walking around the city. It’s amazing to see all the different kinds of trees and plants that they have down here, from gum trees to gigantic palm trees to strange-looking conifers and flowers. In addition, as the name of this blog attests, the constellations in the sky at night are completely different. I have managed to pick out the Southern Cross, and that’s about it!

I’ve met several people as well. There are the Melbourne Fulbrighters who started their grants in February: Ben (CA) and Emily (PA). Emily let me stay at her Southbank high rise apartment for three days while I looked for interim accommodation, and she is just great. There’s also Melbourne Ben who was introduced to me by a Wake Forest alumnus living in Melbourne. Melbourne Ben is an editor of the equivalent of the University of Melbourne’s student newspaper/magazine. He’s introduced me to his friends at the magazine, and we’ve all hung out a few times (once to see a film at the Melbourne International Film Festival). There’s my supervisor Steve and his wife Nicole who have both been really nice to me (took me to a delicious brunch in a very swanky part of town one morning). There’s Alice, my soon-to-be coworker who is a Ph.D. student in my lab. And there should be more to come! I certainly haven’t felt lonely so far, which is a nice change from my other international trips. In all, the people here have been very, very friendly, and it’s been a smooth transition as I’ve settled in here.

Anyway, I’ve had other adventures and taken some fun pictures, but I imagine that what I’ve written already is quite enough for you today. I won’t be able to put pictures up for a little while because they charge you for every megabyte that you download/upload at the place where I’m staying. Apparently that’s very common in Australia. So when I get settled into my new house, hopefully I’ll have unlimited upload capacity and I’ll wow you with my artistry. For now, I’ve put some pics on Facebook if you haven’t already seen them.

Until next time! Cheers!

New Post Coming Soon!

Hello all, I just wanted to let you know that another post will be coming shortly that will summarize my adventures this past week. I've been very busy trying to find a place to live and to organize all of the bureaucratic mess that is associated with living in a foreign country for a long time. It seems, thank goodness, that most of that has been accomplished, so look forward to another installment!

The Journey (or The Ordeal)

I arrived at Charlotte Douglas International Airport at 5:30pm EST on 5/23 and arrived at Melbourne Tullamarine International airport at 6:05pm AEST on 5/25. The journey took 34.5 hours.

Many of you already know that my trip was only supposed to take 25 hours. The difference must be attributed either to the magic of air travel... or to the the four hour delay that I experienced in Charlotte that caused me to miss my flight to Melbourne from Los Angeles. I was very lucky, however. I had booked my LA-Melbourne flight on Qantas and my Charlotte-LA flight on US Airways. The two are not allied in any way, and I was terrified that I would have to pay for a new ticket for having missed my Melbourne flight. However, after having called the Qantas ticketing office from Charlotte while watching my plane be progressively delayed by 1/2-hour intervals, I arrived at the Qantas ticketing desk in LA and discovered that the airline had rebooked me at no cost onto another flight: a plane originating in NY that had been delayed for 6 hours and would depart from LA at 4:30am to arrive in Sydney 13.5 hours later. I would then catch a flight from Sydney to Melbourne and arrive 10 hours late, but in Australia nonetheless.

Despite the 4 hour layover in both LA and Sydney between flights, I had become in those few minutes at the ticket counter a huge fan of Qantas for being so nice to me. And then I discovered that a defective oxygen tank blew a hole in the fuselage of a plane en route from London to Melbourne, and I reconsidered my opinion.

The flight from LA to Sydney was uneventful, mostly because the television on the back of the seat in front of me, the one that I was supposed to be able to use to access over 100 movies and 180 television shows on-demand, never worked. I slept and listened to my ipod most of the way, but it was still really boring because I was seated in the middle of the plane and could see out of none of the windows. To sooth my suffering, Qantas gave me a $50 voucher for the duty-free catalog. I considered buying another Skagen, but thought better of it. Baileys is better.

When I arrived in Sydney, I breezed through customs (despite what I had read about Australian customs being very strict), washed up in the airport bathroom sink, and proceeded to order myself a large mango-passionfruit-pineapple-guava juice at Boost. The drink was nectar compared to the "salmon" and "quiche" I had received on the plane. Strolling through the Domestic Departures terminal while waiting for my Melbourne flight, I observed that Burger King is called Hungry Jack's here (same design to the logo), that they have recently opened a bunch of Gloria Jean's coffee shops, and that the general convenience store candy assortment contains all (yes ALL) of the sinfully delicious British items from Cadbury that are my soul's true weakness.

The flight to Melbourne boarded on time, and I watched the sun set dramatically over the clouds on the way there. Upon arrival, my supervisor met me (at the gate!) and took me to see both the lab that I will be working in (swanky!) and out to dinner with his wife (who works in the same lab) on Lygon St., the nexus of Italian culture in Melbourne. When I arrived at the budget motel/hostel that I had reserved for myself (called the Nunnery), I was more than disappointed. A spartan room, unlike what had been advertised online, confronted me. It was adequate, however, for sleeping. And I did sleep. Until 5:00am the following morning, when I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. Oh jet lag...