So I meant to post this on Thursday, but here goes. The short version: Wednesday night I went out to dinner and BEER with my new FRIENDS which caused me to be very bleary-eyed during my Thursday morning run, where I saw a beautiful RAINBOW over the lake and close to home, a flock of COCKATOOS :-).
So more details - I've been getting work done this week, which has been good. I still feel like I should be more productive, but it's going well! I have been making dinner at home and stopping at the grocery store on the way home every few days which is nice. Wednesday, 2 friends and I decided to meet up and go to dinner. So one is a guy from the program who's been my roommate for the last week - name's Micah and he's cool. A world traveler, so we have tons to talk about. He's getting his PhD at Colorado in Computational Biology, but he has a CS background. Other is Nancy - a 21 year old not in our program, but here on an internship - a senior at a college in Connecticut interested in psychological, especially with kids. So we decided to be adventurous and bus up to a difference Canberra neighborhood (where none of us had been) and try a Chinese restaurant called Jimmy's that was recommended to us. So we had fun! We got a bunch of dishes and shared them - a peppery beef dish, a chicken dish, a seafood medley dish (with shrimp, white fish, squid and scallops and snow peas), and Chinese broccoli. Everything was really tasty! And we had some interesting conversations - about travel, about water activities (Nancy rows and Micah scubas), about grad school, about American individualism. No shortage of conversation :-). It was fun! Nancy is still young from my perspective - just learning to drink and all. But she's a cool chick. We went to Wig and Pen - a Microbrew beer pub after dinner that was recommended to me. I loved it! Nice atmosphere and I got a chocolate elderberry stout which was dessert for sure! We continued our lively conversation and Micah ended up treating us to dinner, and a 2nd round of drinks (which we didn't want). So I don't know the % alcohol of my beer, but it must've been strong because I was definitely feeling it on our chilly walk home that night! But I felt happy - I was hanging out, checking out Canberra, and had friends :-).
Thursday morning, however, was painful becuase of Wednesday night. So I didn't go to bed until 1am (we got home earlier because Canberra shuts down early, but I was being self-destructive here). Anyway, I had a phone meeting with my US collaborators at 7! So dehydrated and bleary-eyed, I got up for the meeting, which went well. I contemplated going back to bed, but was awake, so just went for my 8K run around the lake... Well, it was TOUGH that morning. Sure it was windy, but really the problem was me :-). I had to walk a stretch, but I made it even with dehydration and not feeling the best. But what saved me - above me there were blue skies, but to the east and west were very dark scary clouds. So when I rounded the 2nd bridge over the lake and came back on the north path, I saw a beautiful rainbow appear. Made me just smile :-). And just in a mini park behind my house I saw a huge flock of cockatoos! Literally like 30. I was complaining to Steve that I never saw them - they see them as like pigeons - nuisances - they are all over ANU. But I was happy to see them! Unfortunately didn't get a picture. So even though I felt like a snail during the run, I actually made good time home.
So let me just say I like going to work here. I get up at 7:30 every morning, and do some kind of exercise before work. Then I get in by around 10. When all 3 of us (Steve, my mentor, and Daniel his grad student) are in, we go for awesome coffee across the street - sometimes grab a delicious muffin too. Then lunch is at 1 - Thursday we got gyros from the union and Fridays the guys always go to a sushi place on campus. Steve is right next door and pops in to see if I need help - without micromanaging. So, it's a nice atmosphere! And everyone is friendly. The building shuts down at 5 - you have to have a key to get OUT of the building too! And around then, or 5:30 is when Steve goes home. I've been staying more like till 6:30 or 7, but that's really late here (everyone else has gone home way earlier). But I like the good internet at work :-). So, it's a nice routine! Thursday I actually gave a talk to our department about my work - basically the talk I gave at the conference a couple of weeks ago. Even though no one else does my kind of research, it went really well - I got a lot of good questions (people were actually thinking about the work and all), and it was fun! I feel more and more confident every time I do this.
So Friday morning, got up and swimming was the exercise! I talked to Nancy who loves to swim, and we met at the nice Olympic pool just down from my house at 8 to swim. Swam close to an hour, and it was awesome! 50m pool, so a long longer than I'm used to, but nice facility. And the water feels warm (which makes me feel slow), but it's winter, so it's nice that it's warm. I mean the pool itself is inside a bubble, so it's heated, but yeah.
So, good week! Although I have to say for some reason Friday I got lonely. There's a couple of things about being here... For some reason everything reminds me of someone. I get reminded of the people I love all the time. Eating pepper reminds me of Ryan :-). Seeing Steve's kids reminds me of my sister's kids. Swimming reminds me of Maria, and running of Christine. Eating dates reminds me of Negin. So many little things! Eating gyros and going to the market last weekend - that was Mom for sure. So, anyway, I'm just saying - I can't some being reminded of all of you. And even if I don't live in the same town as you - I miss you! My friend Maria told me that's a sign of loneliness, and maybe it is. I feel a bit sad now because Daniel and Nancy are in Sydney for the weekend. Micah and I went to a neat movie last night, though, so I feel sorta social :-). We saw Mongol - the movie about Ghengis Khan. And I have my new roommate Jet who moved in. I'm going to go hike in a bit, and meet Steve at the Botanical Gardens tomorrow for lunch with his family. So there are things. But I find that Canberra itself is a city to live in. It's not like New York where I'm bouncing from activity to activity, or where it's known that there are 1000 things going on right now. I am not a tourist here - I live here. Which is what I prefer. But, without my people - I get lonely just living isolated from everything.
But there are things to look forward to - I leave for a long weekend in Sydney on Wednesday myself. And the following week/weekend will be in Melbourne. So more adventures are on the way! No worries :-).
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