6/17: Canberra -> Brisbane

So Canberra was nice and all, but if you ask any Australian, they'll agree that, besides being frickin' cold, Canberra can get pretty dull pretty fast.

Today, I got to escape the frigid capital and go to balmy Brisbane, which is 2 hours north of Sydney.

But before that, we visited the National Sound and Film Archives, which is chock full of INXS, Mel Gibson, Kylie Minogue and really, funny commercials involving stuff like ants, ant-eaters, and "No Holes" underwear.

Anyway, the flight to Brisbane, with two of my Queensland cohorts, was smooth and uneventful. My main concern for that evening, besides finding my house, was finding a pub to watch the US vs. Italy World Cup match. At 4 am, I woke up only to find that the reception in my Dutton Park house for the TV channel that the World Cup was on was completely useless. I dragged myself down to the corner pub, only to find them closed. I wandered around the suburbs until I crossed the river and found myself in downtown Brisbane, where there were plenty of pubs that had been open – but with the game already over. Regardless, it was a beautiful walk along the scenic banks of the Brisbane river, and I got my bearings quite well. Ultimately, I would watch a replay of the game, where the US team survived a referee on crack and two red cards and drew mighty Italy 1-1.

6/16 - Canberra

More touring today.

First, we went to CSIRO, which is like a national lab in the US. There, they do stuff like create super sheep that magically shed all of their wool on command:



They also have stick insects(yes, that 5-armed stick is a creepy crawly thing...). And apparently, security is very tight...





We also went to the National Museum of Australia, which looks more like a Hot Wheels play set on steroids.



They also have this futuristic kids computer playhouse, that is ironically named "k-space." That's a joke for all you solid-state geeks out there. Apparently, there are aliens in k-space:



Did I mention that it’s DAMN COLD here in Canberra? Minus 6 degrees Celsius, which is something like -50 degrees Farhenheit. Or something like that. I’m running out of cold weather clothes fast.

6/15 - Canberra

Today we toured Canberra, which is the capital city of Australia. The most striking building in Canberra is the Parliament building, which cost AU$1.1 billion and 6 years to build. It’s built essentially inside a hill, save for a gleaming superstructure which supports a giant Australia flag.

Parliament: where the Aussie politicians get their funk on




Inside Parliament, we got to see “question time,” in which the representatives in Parliament get to ask the Prime Minister whatever questions they want, and he has to answer them on the spot. Anybody can watch, which is fantastic. So basically, the opposition party made PM John Howard answer all these questions that they knew he didn’t want to answer, and Howard tried to weasel his way out of them, while the rest of Parliament grumbled VERY audibly with “ARRR, ARRRR…. He’s an idiot! ARRRRRRRRRRRR… Who does THAT?!?!” All the Americans agreed that question time is definitely something that America should import, just so we can see George W. Bush make an utter fool of himself.

6/14 - Canberra

At the Canberra airport, we were met by our eager and friendly hosts, Nancy and Charis, from the Australian Academy of Sciences (AAS). We barely fit all of our copious belongings into a trailer behind the bus, and headed for our home for the next three days: the Australian National University. Instead of passing out in our 3-person apartments, we were kept awake with an action packed day of tea, more tea, Australian barbecue, and getting a bank account. Depsite my lack of sleep, I managed to stay up until 11 pm. Then I finally got a full night’s sleep for a change.

Me and all my stuff

The shiny Shine Dome, home to the AAS

6/12-6/14: Getting there

I left San Francisco on the night June 12th, 2006. That morning, I had a send-off party coupled with the United States' first game of World Cup 2006 vs. the Czech Republic. Though the US team confirmed my greatest fears, getting pummeled 3-0, it was good to see people one last time, especially my classmates that will have left Berkeley by the time I get back. After scrambling to get my samples FedEx'ed off without customs throwing a hissy fit, I finally got on BART to SFO, and then flew to Sydney by way of LAX.



My 15-hr flight was pretty relaxed and uneventful, though I didn’t get more than 3 hours of sleep on the plane after having only gotten 1.5 hours of sleep the night before. I got bumped into “Economy Plus” (an extra 4” of legroom) courtesy of the Federal Government and its insistence on purchasing unrestricted fares. It’s pretty clear why United is going bankrupt, though. My plane was dressed in 50’s era décor, and the central movie projector (we didn’t get personalized screens) looked like it was receiving its feed from Bangladesh.

At 6 am, we arrived in Sydney, with the sun barely tinting the horizon and the city lights still outlining the coastline. At the Sydney baggage claim, I assembled with the other 20 people in my program, and we hopped on a short flight to Canberra. The flight was so short, in fact, that it took longer to board and unboard the plane than to actually fly there. Actually, we had to take a bus across the tarmac from the gate to our plane, but the bus ride lasted all of 15 seconds much to our amusement. You wonder how lazy the Australians think we Americans are. Anyway, at 11 am local time, 25 hours after I left Berkeley, we touched down in Canberra.

The Trip

So this is my blog, which I am starting to chronicle my adventures in Australia. I got to go down to Oz as part of the National Science Foundation's East Asia Pacific Summer Institute program. Back in December, I submitted a proposal to go to the University of Queensland to study how how suspensions of nanoparticles alter the behavior of fluids in microscale channels. My proposal was accepted, and through the program, NSF covers my plane ticket, stipend, and living expenses for 8 weeks, so it's a very, very good opportunity. Anyway, on this site I will post regular ramblings and photos of what I am up to, with no guarantee of any level of interesting content or relevance. Enjoy.