BONDI (pronounced like Bonzai but with a D)

Beach Day! I woke up at about 9:30 to get an early start to the day so I could spend as much time at Bondi as possible. Now, Bondi Beach is probably the most famous Sydney beach and it's supposed to be simultaneously awesome and jam-packed with people. I got everything ready for a long day at the beach and I even applied sunscreen before I left the apartment (amazing, I know). In order to get to Bondi I needed to take the underground train and then walk about 4km to the beach. Technically, I could have taken a bus instead of walking, but firstly where's the fun in that - and secondly that's more expensive! When I got the the Town Hall train station I was able to navigate it no problem. I bought my ticket for the way there and for the return and boarded the train. The ride only took about 10 minutes total and I found myself at Bondi Junction. I walked out the station to find a huge mall to my right and a bunch of small tents manned by individual vendors. I figured I could stop by and look at things on my way back so I began the trek to the beach. Luckily, my sense of direction didn't fail me. I had only really looked at the google map once before leaving the apartment and there was about 4km of walking to do in order to get to the beach. However, I was able to find my way just fine and after about 45 minutes of walking I arrived at Bondi! There were a bunch of shops lining the beach so I walked up and down those first. I ended up buying a 5 dollar pair of sandals because my current ones are about dead, and then grabbed some lunch at 'Bondi Fresh.' I got a schnitzel sandwich which is basically a chicken parm sandwich and followed it up with a coffee boba from Tea Works. Both were delicious and after they were finished I walked down to the beach.

The sand was great! Its the really small sand that's all powdery and awesome. I walked down to the water and although it was maybe a little chilly it felt great as a contrast to the super hot weather. I walked the length of the beach with my legs submerged, but since I had all my stuff with me and no one to really leave it with I decided I would leave full out swimming for another day. On one end of the beach there was actually a huge professional surfing event going on. I walked over in time to see the open segment, semi-finals, and the final round. It was really cool seeing what all the surfers could do and how talented they are. There were apparently a bunch of world famous surfers that I was watching, but seeing as I don't follow the surfing world none of the names rung a bell. So I just sat and watched and thoroughly enjoyed. By the time the competition ended it was about 4:30 so I decided to get my legs into the ocean once again and then settle onto the beach to read for a little while longer. After another hour or so I decided the sun had really taken it out of me so I should probably walk back. Unfortunately the walk there was all downhill so I knew the walk back would be a little rougher on me. Surprisingly the walk back seemed much faster than the walk there. Have you ever noticed that when you go places? The return trip is always a snap compared to the way there. I think it's something about the uncertainty on the way there - you don't know how far it is or when you'll get there so it seems longer cause you're thinking about it.

When I got back I decided to walk the mall a bit. Before I got inside the mall I passed this gorgeous flower shop, and guess what? I found my new favorite flower! Now, generally I'm not a huge flower girl and little known fact that I doubt anyone but like two of my friends could tell you is that my favorite flower is honeysuckle followed loosely by lilies. However, honeysuckle, which has been my favorite flower since I was about 9 has finally been overtaken by something called Narines. They're beautiful, and I don't know why but I just really really like them. When I finally entered the mall I found a Borders and even though I have a kindle I just had to go inside! And, yet, here was another place that is WAY more expensive in AU. Thank goodness I bought a kindle because there is NO WAY I could afford to buy those books! After, I wandered around the mall a little more and found a target and then a pet store. Now, I literally almost bought a cat today. Like, I seriously lost my mind for probably 10 minutes after seeing the cute kittens because I got all the way to talking to the owner about the the price and started bartering with them before I snapped out of it and realized there is no way in hell I could have a cat here. If I showed up with a kitten my flatmates would flip and what would I do in 5 months? So, luckily when I realized what I was doing I promptly left the store before I could start bartering for deals if I got both a puppy and a kitten. After I left I walked down to the food court where I found Max Brenner's Chocolate restaurant. For some reason it was calling to me, so I decided I had found my dinner joint. I ordered a waffle and a Mexican hot chocolate. My dear goodness the waffle was DELICIOUS. It was served with strawberries, bananas, ice cream, and a chocolate drizzle and I can say with 100% confidence that that is the best waffle I have ever eaten in my entire life. The hot cocoa wasn't as great unfortunately.... It was okay, but not exactly the good 'ol spiced cinnamon Mexican hot chocolate that I'm used too. I think there was like too much spice or something? Either way, overall I give the restaurant a thumbs up and would definitely go back.

Finally at about 7 I figured I should be heading home. It had been a long day and I could feel a burn start to appear on my legs. By the time I got to my apartment I saw the definite signs of red on the front of my legs and realized I might have spent a bit too much time reading on the beach. Luckily for me the only part of me that got burned was my legs and I can deal with that. I finally put on that laundry that I'd been planning to do all week and drank a ton of water. I also watched the second half of 27 dresses, the second half of Alice in Wonderland, and planned a bit of my Sunday. When my roomie got home she mentioned that she went to visit Jonathan (the missing flatmate) and that he was in a place with immigration about 2 hours from here. He's currently figuring paperwork out and trying to apply for the proper papers to stay here. At this point no one knows if it'll get approved, so he's kind of in Limbo. Hopefully he gets to stay. He was such a nice guy the few days I was here with him.

Day 20: Meet-Ups

No A.M. today. Why? Cause I was supposed to conference call with a potential advising professor for Ohio State! After a long time of trying to set up a date (made more difficult by me being on another continent) we had finally settled on Thursday 8pm EST which mean Friday at noon for me. I adequately prepared myself for the skype call by reading his 5 or so most recent papers, his online blog, the lab page he maintains, reading up on his current graduate students, Ohio State, the program in general, and rereading my Ohio application (yes, I needed to brush up on myself). hahaa. I was nervous, but prepared, but nervous. Before I left LA I had one phone call with a potential professor and that had gone smoothly, but really with these things you don't know what they're going to throw at you - if they're going to ask you for your 2 year plan, your best case scenario research topic, your goals 10 years from now, or what your favorite ninja turtle is. You never know!! And they have ALL the power... Well, most of the power, they want you to like them too I think. After some stress of being unable to find him on skype I finally was able to connect and as it turns out he was putting his kid to sleep which resulted in a bit of a later sign-on than expected. The call went really well though. I liked him a lot and he mentioned he thought I could be a good fit in his lab which was exciting. But, only time will tell what happens. I'm just glad everything went smoothly and I didn't make a crazy fool of myself by saying something stupid, or making a weird face into the camera. haha.

After the call I spent some time unwinding in my apartment and surfing the web for possible groups to join in Sydney. I've been loving it thus far, and surprisingly am not very lonely, but I figured I should find some groups and meet some people *before* I start to feel that way. ahhaa. I actually really lucked out and found an awesome site that has a bunch of different groups that do meet-ups. The groups range from anything, business, social, environmental, new in town, artsy, workout, ect and you can basically join a group that interests you and people in that group organize meet-ups. I joined a couple social, a couple outdoorsy, and an environmental one and actually saw that the girls group I joined was having a drinks outing that night. So, I clicked the "I'm attending" button and got ready for the night. The outing was actually really cool. The bar, which was luckily literally 1/2 block from my apartment, was really cool. It was called Oscars and the vibe was really chill. There were a bunch of couches and I found the group sitting on a circle of them. There were 9 girls that were attending and I got to chat and meet them all. They were really great and it was just a fun girls night out. There were people that were foreigners like me, a few that had lived in Sydney their whole life, and a few that landed somewhere in between that spectrum. I'm pretty sure I was the youngest there, and the ladies ranged in age probably from about 25-50. I ordered an Oscar Rascal, which was basically a raspberry vodka drink that was to die for (crushed raspberries and everything). We sat and talked for about 2 hours and then a few of the girls ducked out for the night and the rest of us went to grab a late dinner at the harbor. The six of us went to an awesome Italian place right on the harbor and I ordered some yummy 4-cheese gnocchi. We ate and talked for probably another solid hour or two and decided it was time to head home. As a mini-group we decided that we'd go clubbing together next Friday, which should be fun and we all exchanged numbers and such to plan the outing. I also talked to two of the girls about doing a beach day which will probably happen within the next couple weeks.

A couple things I learned from the night:
*Circular Quay is pronounced Circular Key
*Cairns is pronounces Cannes, like the film festival - they kind of do wierd things with adding and dropping r's as they please
*I've begun to say "yeah" like a true Aussie
*I'm sure I noticed before, but I've never written it: no pennies in Australian currency, they don't exist)
*US medical insurance SUCKS compared to the Aussie universal health care, and most Aussies are dumbfounded by how complicated ours is
*The Netherlands are a MUST visit sometime in my lifetime
*No tax is, once again, crazy baller (no figuring out how much tax and tip to put in on the bill cause there's no tax, and you only really tip if it's crazy awesome service)
*Kissing on one cheek is the general way to say goodbye, not handshakes or hugs.
*Aussie women are seriously hilarious!

Day 19: Solo Gel Pipetting (So Science-y I can hardly hold in my excitement!)

I have officially given in. I could no longer resist. The urge was too great and my self control too low. So Thursday, the tenth of March two thousand and eleven, the third Thursday I have experienced in Sydney: I had Starbucks. In case you're wondering Sydney Starbucks is (surprise surprise) more expensive than Starbucks in the states. But, the craziest thing - they don't have iced coffee. Yes, I repeat, there is no such thing as an iced coffee. When I ordered a grande hazelnut iced coffee the barista looked at me as though I'd gone insane. He asked me if I meant a hazelnut coffee, and I said, 'no, a hazelnut iced coffee' to which he replied only by gesturing to the hot coffee pots and giving me a confused look. I then looked on the board and found an iced latte option (i guess that's the way to get your iced coffee) and ordered a hazelnut iced latte. Also, after getting my drink I went to grab one of the coffee sleeves. Yes, I understand that they're supposed to be used for hot drinks so you don't burn your hands, but I have also found they do wonders for not freezing your hand off with cold beverages. Second weird thing about Sydney starbucks: the sleeves DON'T FIT the cold drink cups. Ridiculous. I know that they're not what they're primarily used for, but I was so sad when I went to slip it on and it didn't fit (awkward that's what she said joke inserted here? nOOO thank you, this is a family blog people!) Anyway, after getting over my shock and sadness I walked the rest of the way to the museum. Luckily, I arrived to a very pleasant surprise. It was to be another day of working in the lab doing PCRs and Gels (ie. more pipeting and working with cool lab equiptment for Sarah) - WOOT! This time we ran two PCRs simultaneously and worked with a few different primers to try and produce the best barcoding result. After the PCRs are done we run a gel to check and see that we actually got dna material from the samples. This time, Andrew let me do pipeting onto the gel which is actually really difficult. Basically you pipet the sample into a really small well that has been created on the gel. It's difficult to get the sample into the well and even more difficult to stick the pipet in far enough, but not so far as to get it stuck. After a few kind of failed attempts I got into a groove and sailed through the rest of the samples. The result of the gel? We got useful DNA material!! YAY! Operation PCR: Success :) After the PCR and gel I organized old samples in the office and did a little more photo editing work. I wasn't going to come into the office on Friday so I tried to get everything as complete as possible for when I next come in. Thursday night and guess what?! More thinking about laundry but not doing it, more surfing the web, and more relaxing. I made some delicious egg, red pepper, and soy sauce rice dish that perfectly hit the spot, watched a TV movie with my flatmate (bonding time! hahaa) and called it a night.

Day 18: 95 tubes of legs on the table (to be sung to the tune of 100 bottles of beer on the wall)

Okay, so for as much as I was on time on Monday I was LATE on Wednesday. I was meaning to get there at 10am, the usual, and instead arrived at about 10:45. Woops! But it was okay, as usual. I started off the day editing the tons of photos I took with the tripod the day before and worked to make them the best they could be :) The morning went by quickly and soon it was lunchtime. I haven't mentioned it, but lunch has now turned into PBJ, rice cakes, and water - without fail, everyday. Surprisingly I have yet to get bored of it, so since its easy and cheap I'll keep going with it till I do. I normally just eat in his office (and when I say his office I mean the entire upper floor of the building, so no, it's not a bit cramped. I eat and read and generally get right back to work. Once the editing was done Andrew decided it would be a good idea to start compiling plates of specimen to be sent in large quantities to the Canadian lab. So, I commenced on that project. Basically I have a plate that has 96 small tubes. Each tube is filled with a few drops of ethanol and one by one I take the specimen (who are all pinned ie. dead), and with tweezers pluck a leg from them and place it into the corresponding tube. Once all 95 tubes are filled and closed (the last one is left blank) the plate is complete and ready to be sent off. Its a very meticulous process because you can't lose your place on the plate nor on which specimen you are on. Additionally, you have to be very careful of preventing cross-contamination because if the dna from one gets into the other tube the dna coding is worthless. So between every specimen I put ethanol on the tweezers and burn it off, destroying any hint of the previous moth. After completing about a plate and a half I looked up and realized it was 5pm - time to go! So I packed up and skidaddled right out of there. What did I do in the evening, you ask.... NADA, Zilch, Nufin', Zero. I chilled, thought about doing laundry but didn't actually do it, thought about going to rent a movie but watched one on TV instead, considered walking to the harbor but decided that the couch was too comfy and the pjs were too awesome. Wednesday night - relaxin and chillaxin.

Day 17: Late Morning

Andrew had told me on Monday that he would be in meetings from about 10am till about noon, so I should just come in anytime I wanted before noon. So, ladies and gentlemen, what time does that mean Sarah Young will show up? 11:30! Still earlier than noon, but no earlier than need-be. I was able to enjoy a nice leisurely breakfast that I made with boiled eggs, toast, and a really yummy chai latte and even surf the web a bit before coming in. When I got in I went back to photographing specimen and waiting for Andrew to return from all the meetings. Soon after he arrived he decided to go buy a tripod he'd been meaning to get for all the pictures I'd been taking so he dashed away to do that leaving me to basically just read in his office, which was fine by me! I got a lot farther in my book by the time he'd gotten back. Once he did we set up the tripod, the extra flashes for the camera, and the display apparatus and I was off, once again taking specimen photos. All I gotta say, is THANK GOODNESS for that tripod. The photos had been taking me painstakingly long because they have to be perfectly in focus on a very specific part of the wing and when you're holding the camera, adjusting the focus, and trying not to shake or move it can be slightly difficult. So, the tripod assisted in much faster photography and a much happier Sarah. In the second half of the afternoon I had been able to photograph the same number of specimens that I photographed on Friday, Monday, and Tuesday combined! Tuesday night ended up almost identical to Monday night. Grabbed some milk on the way home, crashed, and surfed the web in the evening. I even watched a movie or two before succumbing to sleep for the evening.

Day 16: Officially Lab Certified :)

Monday morning started off nice and morning-like. Now, I am someone who prides herself on her promptness. I try very hard to be early to almost everything and very rarely end up late. However, the last week or so at the Museum the lack of official time I am required to come in has led to late mornings. Generally I shoot for 10am, and generally I make it in by 10:15 but there are occasional slip ups. Monday, however, I had a meeting scheduled with the guy in charge of all the labs in the museum at 10am so I really had to get up, get going, and arrive at the museum on time. I was happy to see that given the requirement of 10am I was back to my usual self, showing up at 9:45 and waiting outside his office for 15 minutes. haha. The walkthrough itself took about 45 minutes. He took me through all the different lab areas, pointing out important features as we went and informing me of any and all potential health hazards. Luckily, it seems as though there aren't too many terribly hazardous chemicals in the lab, so there's really only so much damage I could do if something went wrong. He did inform me however, that a specific fume hood was where they do testing on various birds that are sent to them from the government and sometimes other countries that they test for various very deadly viruses and diseases. Sooooo, lets just say I will be staying as far away from that fume hood as possible. No dead bird infections for me, please :)

After walking through the labs (which luckily I was already fairly familiar with since I had already worked with Andrew in them) we just sat and went over additional safety information and logistical stuff. The guy was extremely nice and I actually really enjoyed the 45-minute run-through. After, I ventured back to the 'old infants school' (the name of the building that Andrew's office is in.... weird, I know, but I guess that's what it used to be wayyyy back when!) The rest of the day I worked in his office taking more photos of specimen and organizing some display boxes to determine which specimen would be used for our next collection. In the afternoon Andrew mentioned that next week we will be discussing and deciding what specimen and project I will be heading during my time here for a paper for me to co-publish with him! He seems very excited about the idea and very determined to make sure I get to have something published, so that's exciting. At the end of the day I packed up and headed out after my tasks were complete. I stopped on my way home to grab a few groceries and once I got home I totally crashed. For some reason I was wholly exhausted and I ended up spending most of the night just chillin'. At the end of the night though I decided to give myself a mani/pedi and it turned out super successfully. I put flowers on them and everything!

Day 15: Lal Qila

Sunday Sunday Sunday! My original plan for Sunday was to attend Toybox, the Mardi after party that is help in Luna Park from about noon till 8. However, because they were sold out and the tickets were scalping for about 200 I figured I'd venture elsewhere. Soo, I decided that it was a perfect day to seek out some delish Pakistani food. That's right ladies and gentleman I only held out on pakistani food for two weeks before I gave in. haha. Unfortunately, Sydney is definitely not swimming in Pakistani cuisine so I basically had two to choose from, and one of those was within walking distance, so I easily found the winner. It took me about an hour to walk all the way there, and it was nice because I was able to explore part of Sydney I hadn't seen before. The restaurant was in Surry Hills and on the walk I saw a lot of Lebanese places and little ma' and pop shops. I arrived at Lal Qila (which was on Cleveland and YOUNG ST!!) to find a really homey cute restaurant. When I got there it was just me and one family that was finishing up their lunch, so it was nice and quiet and the waiter was quick to help me out. I was looking specifically for nihari, but though it was on their website it wasn't on their menu. So I enquired with the waiter and he got all excited that I knew something that was off menu (I guess I don't look like someone who would know a lot about pakistani food, how surprising!) haha. I ended up ordering nihari, 2 naan, and samosas. The food was delicious. The samosas were especially good and the ambiance was nice. I talked for a while with the waiter who was interested to know how I knew about Pakistani food and was curious as to where I was from. He was a really nice guy and the short talk was really refreshing. At the end of the meal he kept asking if I wanted dessert and I kept saying I would pass and went with chai tea instead. When he came out with me tea he also brought out Gulab Jamun and said it was on the house for me. Like I said, he was really really nice. By the end of the meal I was STUFFED and was happy for the hour walk back to the apartment. On the way back I stopped at an International Student Festival which had live music and when I finally got back to my apartment I only had about 45 minutes before I had to head out again to meet my roomates at their church. They had invited me to the 5:30 service in the morning and I told them I'd give it a go. The church, Trinity Lutheran, was in Chinatown and the entire service was given in Bahasa Indonesian. They luckily had headphones that translated the entire service. The sermon was really great. It was all about helping to increase and propagate each others faith as a community. How helping each other to expand and solidify our faith will help each of us grow and become stronger as people and as a community. Yalin, my roomie, has been attending the church for about 10 years so she has a really strong group there and she introduced me to everyone. They were all extremely nice and all said they hoped to see me next week. I was impressed by how welcoming everyone was and I do think I'll be going back. Afterward, the church hosts dinner for everyone but because I was so full from lunch I took a rain-check and went home. On the way back I grabbed some boba mostly because it looked too good to pass up and stopped a few times before I got back to watch some street performers and a salsa dance class. In the evening I watched some TV, did my nails, and got ready for work the next day. Woo, here comes Monday...

Day 14: MARDI GRAS!!

Saturday! My one goal? MARDI GRAS!!! The Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras was happening all month and there were a ton of (kind of expensive) events going on throughout February that all culminate in the Mardi Gras Parade. The Parade is free and seeing as I'll probably only be in Australia once I thought I just HAD to attend. The day started with some much needed sleeping in time, making some phone calls and actually making myself some food. As soon as I got ready I was off to wander Sydney once again. I wanted to go to Paddy's Markets (a huge indoor flea market) in Chinatown to grab some nail polish (nail salons are far too expensive to go to them here) and a few other nic-nacs. I walked down to the market going through Darling Harbor and the various shops and restaurants they have there. On my way I passed the Sydney Entertainment Center building, and though I have no idea what actually goes on in there I was impressed by the building itself. I also passed the Chinese Gardens on my way and tried to stop and have a look, but they have an entrance fee so I figured I could go without. When I finally got to the Markets I tried to tackle them by going row by row and comparing prices so I didn't get scammed into buying stuff at the most expensive place. I ended up getting some sunglasses, nail polish, and a purse. I was so proud of myself with buying the purse. Now, normally I am a terrible negotiator. Like, when I went to hawaii my bartering with the shop owners there went a little like this: me "How much is this?" them: "30 dollars" me: "How about 20?" them: "30 dollars" me: "uhmm, okayyy." haha. So, yeah, I give in too easy. BUT, I've been watching Pawn Stars lately thanks to Omar's recommendation and seeing them negotiate so many times their skills have rubbed off on me i guess. The purse was 35 to start and I talked it down to 20! After finishing my shopping there I walked over to Harmony park to chill for a while and read. After sitting there for about 20 minutes it started to rain, so I figured sitting on a park bench might not be the best decision seeing as what I was reading is electronic. So I walked the rest of the way to Oxford street where the parade was supposed to be, and BAM crazy people running around everywhere! People were dressed in costumes, in boas and beads, or not really dressed at all. Everyone was running around fairly drunk and having a great time. Also, apparently walking with open bottles in public is legal cause everyone had booze with them. After walking around for a while to take in all the sights and sounds I settled into where I was going to watch the parade. I started standing there at about 5:30pm and was in the second row. I was standing behind a lesbian couple and a dude with a bright orange mohawk. Soon I was joined by a 26-yr old woman from india and 3 friends from Perth. The three from perth, Sebastian, Linda, and Piper were extremely friendly and we talked for a little while. Sebastian was seriously gorgeous and gay and lovely. He was a hoot (he actually made me really really really really really miss Anthony). They all were sharing around their alcohol and Sebastian and Linda schemed to get Piper (straight) to make out with the random indian girl and lemme tell you, it really really reallyyyyy worked. The hours waiting (the parade started at 7:45) were spend laughing at their antics and viewing all the crazy costumes. Sebastian gave me a Happy Mardi Gras peck and then the Parade was ONNNNN. Okay, now I've never been to New Orleans Mardi Gras and I haven't been to WiHo on Halloween so I don't have a lot to compare it to but the parade was CRAZY TOWN. I have never seen so many topless women, thonged men, or leathered up people in my whole life. Sooo many boobs and butts hanging out it was ridic. There were some hella legit drag queens and a couple actually came over to where we were to kiss Sebastian. LOL. There were a lot of super hot looking gay men and I have never before wanted to be a gay man so badly in my life. haha. During the parade it kept raining on and off, but I guess the bonus of being smooshed like sardines was that I only ever got wet on my head and shoulders so as soon as it stopped I dried quickly. There were a few funny guys standing behind me on egg crates that kept shouting "Hold IT" and "Picture here, Picture here!" At about 9 (3/4 of the way through) my legs and feet were killin' me. I hadn't really sat down since 2pm and I had been standing in one place since 5:30 and my body wasn't too happy. But, I had almost made it through so I stood my ground and enjoyed the rest of the parade. It eventually ended at about 10pm and I bid the Perth peeps farewell as they headed to the Mardi Gras after party. I trekked back to my apartment running into a few fun characters on my way back and stopping by the Scary Canary for old times sake. By the time I got home at about midnight I was soo readdy to just lay and not move for a while. My roomie, Yalin and I chatted about this years vs last years Mardi Gras, and apparently this one was a huge improvement. She also had just made a NY lemon cheesecake from scratch so she offered some to me and it was delicious. Proof that she must be a ballin' pastry chef :D The rest of the night was watching scrubs with Yalin and Willy and resting my feet.

I stayed away from some of the more explicit photos, haha, but you'll get the right idea ;)

Mardi Gras 2011: SUCCESS

Day 13: The Invisible Roomie Emerges!

My work station :) Soon it will have a shnazzy new computer and lots of moths, butterflies, and caterpillars covering the desk!

Wayyyyyyy overslept. I don't know if it was the exhaustion from the previous day or the aversion for going out in the heat I could already feel rising but I woke up a solid hour late. Lucky for me Dr. Mitchell has kind of just said I can come in when I like, so I texted to let him know but I'm definitely not going to be making it a habit. When I got to the office I was greeted by the task of editing, croping, and brightening all the photos I had taken the day before. This took almost as long as taking the pictures themselves but I slowly worked through the stack on Andrew's computer taking a PBJ lunch break and supplementing with some coffee he supplied. Once all the photos were up to par I renamed them all to their proper scientific IDs and organized them numerically. The last task of the day was to enter a bunch of data on spreadsheets to get even more specimen ready to test. Near the end of the day we went down to the collections area to gather more specimen and chat with the collections manager, Dave. They talked for a while and I chatted with a woman that shares dave's office who does all the billing information. She was frustrated by a bad invoice and we shared billing horror stories, me about DM and her about the Museum. We talked for quite a while, and I really like her. She's really funny and just kind of a warm easy to talk to person. After the guys were done talking we went to the collections area to pick out specimen and its weird, but seeing a bunch of specimen all pinned up I got this HUGE urge to rearrange them into block and script UCLA! I don't think they'd appreciate that very much, but I really really wanted to do it! I controlled myself and just helped Dr. Mitchell carry up some trays to start working on for Monday. By about 4pm we both decided to call it a day. I took off back home and stopped by the grocery store (i know, i know, AGAIN) to catch some items I missed so I wouldn't survive on rice and PBJ alone. I came home to a full(ish) apartment and got to see Yalin for the first time since I moved in Monday morning! Anton, Willy, and Yalin were all home and it was nice to see her and Willy both of whom normally work the night shifts of their jobs (I leave at 9am and get home at 5pm, they both leave at 4pm and get home at 4am). I chilled out in the living room as usual snacking on some avocado dip and chips and listening to Anton play guitar. A little while later Yalin, Willy and I chatted for a while about video games, Wii mishaps, our jobs, and how they all knew each other so I could get to know them a little better and get a general rundown of the apartment. Willy said he'd show me where the gym and pool are over the weekend and I found that I really liked both of them. They are upbeat, funny, and generally just nice people. Yalin works as a pastry chef and Willy is the night manager of Woolworths, a big grocery chain in AU. After, I cooked the same dinner as the night before and ended with a rice dessert I make which is basically just white rice, milk, cinnamon, and sugar. I spent the rest of the evening catching up on things I kept pushing aside all week and watching Grown Ups with Adam Sandler. I also paid rent since this was the first time I'd seen Yalin and found myself to be much poorer afterward. haha. Overall I think I'm going to really dig living here. The location (Pyrmont) is awesomely close to downtown (CBD), the people are nice, the room is spacious and clean, and the atmosphere is very laid back and not party party crazy so I know I won't ever have to come home to drunken people throwing up everywhere or rando's that I have to worry are stealing my stuff or anything. I would say thus far the apartment is a success, the job is pretty ballin', and the city is a wonderful. Sydney is a WIN :D

Random moth I found in my apt (apparently now I'm obsessed too) but it's so cool - it's GREEN!

Day 12: Pictures and Dramzzz

I woke up to a lovely text from Dr. Mitchell telling me to come in at 11 instead of 10, yayy! Another morning of oatmeal, watery chai, and a little bit of good news from some grad schools. When I got to work I discovered that my project would be to organize and photograph about 90 moth specimen to get them ready for more collections. Now, I know taking pictures is fun, but boy-o-boy insect pictures are hard work. It literally took me from 11am till 4pm to photograph all 90 because they require special light, very specific camera settings, and manually focusing each because they're so small and detailed. Manually focusing was probably what sucked the most. I took on average 5 pictures of each specimen and kept the one that was best in focus (meaning the middle of the wing was completely in focus and the rest of the insect was as in focus as possible). It was a long day, but I was proud by the end of it because I was able to finish the whole thing. I took a short break in the middle to eat my packed PBJ sandwich (so yummy, something about the PB here is wayyyy better than in the states) but otherwise I worked through and accomplished the task. I went home with a little bit of blurry vision (lol) but otherwise happy and arrived home to just Anton in the apartment. I was trying to figure out if I should go out, but because of the combination of heat and exhaustion I decided another night in was acceptable. I sat down at the computer and figured out a way to make netflix work for me in AU which made me super super happy. None of my other tv websites work here, so I was getting a little bored since we have 9 channels and AU is about 2 weeks behind the most recent US episode of all the shows. Right as I was settling down to watch a tv ep there was a knock at the door. Anton opened it and I heard a few voices asking if they could come in. I was a bit confused, but figured they must be friends of his or something, but I was wrong. 5 people came inside and immediately announced that they were from immigration and they were looking for someone that they heard from a tip lived here. Now, I just moved in and to be honest was struggling to remember everyone's name so I stayed quiet on the couch. When they got into the living room they asked Anton for his name and asked me for the same. They said they were looking for Jae Thi Li Chan and when the lady looked over to me and asked if he lived here I told her I had no idea (real helpful, right?). Anton also said he didn't know, and because his english isn't as strong the speed and accent with which the main lady talked was a little too much for him I think. They requested to see identification from both of us and while I went to get mine Jonathan came home. I came back in the living room as he was being asked to sit down in one of the computer chairs to show his ID as well. Turns out Jonathan = Jae and I guess he must have overstayed his welcome in AU. They took both Anton and my passports to verify them over the phone and ensure that we were both on valid visa's and apparently Anton has also only been here for like 2 weeks kinda like me. They asked Jonathan to talk to him in his room and he and two of the Immigration people disappeared into his room for almost 30 minutes to talk. When they finally came out he had a bag packed and they basically all left with him. As soon as they were gone Anton and I both looked at each other and simultaneously were like WTF!?!? He said that when they first asked to come in he thought it might be a robbery since they didn't say much, but that the whole situation was crazy strange. Neither of us really knew what to do, and since I just moved in and he moved in a few days before me we just kind of sat there talking about how ridiculous it was and how weird it was that they just kind of took him away. Now, I have no idea what they do with people that have overstayed their visa, nor do I know when/if he'll be returning but I assume they have to let him because he only took a duffle bag worth of stuff and things like his computer and dvds and such are still here. It was a very strange experience to have and I sure hope I never get on the wrong side of immigration people cause they were intense and one of the guys was effing HUGE. A little while after they left Anton said he needed to go on a walk because the whole thing kind of startled him and I decided to try and make some dinner. I ended up making rice with grilled red peppers, carrots, chicken, and soy sauce. By the time I was done making dinner Anton came back and we talked about how awkward it would be to have to tell Willy and Yalin that Jonathan was gone. Luckily for me Anton had known Yalin a little before moving in so he called her and let her know and then had to leave again to get to a study group. The rest of the night I was mostly flabbergasted by the days events so I just chilled, watched a movie or two on netflix and decided to take it easy.

Day 11: PCR - no, that doesn't stand for Pretty Cool Reseach, though it could!

Morning two of waking up in my own apartment and it was just as pleasant as the first! I woke up again to see Yalin sleeping in bed after getting back from work at about 5am. I overslept a bit, so I hurried out the door but was still able to make some time for oatmeal and a very watery homemade chai latte. When I got to work Andrew (Dr. Mitchell) said we were starting off the day with the next step of the Barcoding Process, PCRs. PCRs, otherwise known as polymerase chain reactions is a very intricate process that luckily a machine does most of! We went up into a different lab in the super sterile clean area to prepare the samples which basically means adding a bunch of different chemicals, binders, and catalysts to actually sol and replicate the DNA. Once all the proper chemicals are added we put it in a machine to do the actual reactions which involved three major steps: denaturation, annealing, and extension - all done at different temperatures for different lengths of time to produce copies of the DNA. The process takes about 2 hours so while we waited we went out to lunch with the other volunteers in the Entymology Dept. Now, I am by far the youngest volunteer (by at least 20 years) but it was really fun talking with everyone. I was sitting next to a woman that's volunteered for over 5 years and she ended up being a flute tutor! Her granchildren are all in band and her oldest grandson recently traveled to the US with his band to play in a concert which was so cool. I had a slice of banana bread at lunch which was absolutely delish toasted with butter and passed on the lattes everyone seemed to be having because they were ridiculously expensive. When we got back to the lab we retreived the samples from the PCR machine and did what's called a Gel experiment that tests whether or not we got suitable DNA. The test is really pretty and creates kind of a rainbow effect in the otherwise clear gel - it was probably my favorite part of the day. On the way home I stopped by pizza hut to get a $5 pizza mia! I didn't feel much like cooking, and let's be real, who can pass up The Hut?! On my way home I also noticed that there was a HUGE American Express building in downtown and observed that no other major credit card company had a building (that I could see) in downtown Sydney. I found it fairly ironic that of all the credit card companies AMERICAN express was the one doing the best in AU. haha. I went home to enjoy the pizza and once again found myself in the living room with two of the boys while I did some laundry. One of them, Jonathan, saw me sitting on the floor to charge my laptop and actually went and got me an extension cord which was really really nice of him. He also taught me how to use their TV since the remote is tricky and helped me to navigate the kitchen a little better than I was previously. I learned than Anton, the other male roomie is attending UTS in Sydney for engineering and he can actually play the guitar quite well. Jonathan made a little bit of small talk with me which I appreciated, but was mostly into watching The Simpsons on his desktop computer. Mostly they were quiet, sometimes stopping to talk to each other in Chinese, but it was kinda nice just being able to chill out. It's a little strange not having Yalin around in the evenings. On the one hand its awesome basically having my own room, but on the other it could be interesting to see how all these boys warm up to me. LOL. Who knows, maybe we'll all be besties ;)

Pretty American Express Building!!

The Harbor I walk by on the way home.. There was a lightning storm I was trying to snap a pic of, but unfortunately my eyes and my hands didn't move fast enough to snap a pic. To the right of the end of the pic is the Sydney Aquarium and Animal World and to the left is the Maritime Museum :) Nice walk homeeee.

Day 10: Well Hello There, Qiacube!

My bedroom! My bed is the one on the right, and yes, its on the ground, but its surprisingly comfy and the room is pretty large comparatively to the other apts. I looked at! There's a lot of storage space - so much so actually that I can't fill it up at all.. about half of my space is empty! :)

The front of the apt building! Washer and dryer in my unit, gym, pool, and secured access. Woot!

My first full day in my apartment started well! I woke up to get ready for work at about 9 and found that I was the only person awake in the apartment. I took my time getting ready and actually made myself breakfast which is fairly unheard of... Don't worry people, it was only oatmeal! Once I got to work I was excited to see Dr. Mitchell and get working on continuing the barcoding that we had begun on Monday. When I got there in the morning we went straight to work on the 12 samples. We took them out of the heating station we had them baking in at 50'C overnight and headed straight to the lab. I unfortunately committed the faux paux of wearing flip flops on a day that we were heading up to the lab, but Dr. Mitchell said not to worry about it so I guess they aren't too strict around these parts. As we walked up I met the man in charge of the lab area and Dr. Mitchell set up next Monday for me to do my official lab run through with him so I would be able to work through the process alone in order to get as many samples done as possible which made me really happy. I don't know why, but I didn't really think he would trust me with all the lab work alone. I'm just a girl with a degree that doesn't know diddly-squat about DNA Barcoding. He kept using lingo as we went along that I was hard-pressed to keep up with, but he was also good about trying to explain everything thoroughly as we went. In the lab we donned lab coats and gloves and continued the Barcoding process. This basically involved transferring the DNA solution into new test tubes (leaving behind the actual moth matter) and putting them into a machine called the Qiacube. Now this machine is hella legit. Dr. Mitchell thought we were going to have to do all the stuff by hand, but luckily the machine was available and it apparently saved us a lot of time using it. After we headed back to his office and he informed me that they were having a free BBQ for Museum staff for lunch, which was awesome. I had a turkey dog and a beer for lunch (who can say no to a free Australian beer that you've never tried?). I spent the lunch chatting with a couple of the Museum staff and specifically this very interesting woman who does a lot of agricultural research in Papua New Ginneau. It was good stuff. After lunch I worked to photograph the specimen that we were currently testing and called it a day by about 4pm leaving with a print out of a 50 pg. manual Dr. Mitchell wrote for one of his classes on DNA Barcoding, PCRs, and some other stuff I should really bulk up on. I walked home, stopping to buy a few more groceries and necessities I had forgotten to buy earlier at one of the larger markets. When I got home two of the boys were home, but Yalin my roomie wasn't because she works night shifts. So I basically hung out in the living room (that's where the strongest internet signal is), surfed the web, and tried to get a little more acquainted with the apartment. I made some dinner with the rice cooker and worked my way through the manual. It was a little awkward since I had only met the guys once, and since everyone was doing their own thing we didn't talk at all, but I figured that's the way it starts out. So no biggie. I worked my way through the entire manual and thanks to a couple videos that Dr. Mitchell showed me before I left I actually understood most of what it said. After a long hot day I decided to pass out after I finished settling in so I would be ready for another day.