G'day from OZ (written previously)

I'm reinstating this journal for my new adventures - in OZ! Australia, that is :-). Sorry it's been awhile since I've written in general - the spring was very busy for me. I got my paper into that conference which was awesome! I gave the talk in Tucson on June 8 and it went super-splendidly - I got best presentation award for the 2-day conference! Wow - kudos to me! That was wonderful. And on May 25 I completed my first triathlon - a sprint one that took me only an hour and 40 minutes! I was so proud :-). So some great accomplishments... And I made a trip to see my sister in SLC in May which was very fun. Then, on the way to Australia, spent a weekend in San Fran with Ryan to see the WHOLE family and celebrate Gram's 90th birthday! It was very special and wonderful time. I'm so glad I got to be a part of it. But... now on to OZ!


I left San Fran at 10:47pm on Sunday June 15th. And I made it to OZ, down under, Tuesday morning at 6:25am - at least to Sydney! The flight was uneventful and
actually not bad at all. I tried to stay up for the first several hours -
watched "The Bucket List" and read my new book "In a Sunburned Country".
Somewhere in there was dinner. Then passed out after that for 3-4 hours, and
woke up a bit for a snacky sandwich and stayed up for an hour, then tried to
sleep again - only made it about 3 hours until they turned on the lights and
served breakfast. So I was up for the rest of the flight. Customs was fine,
collected bags, got sniffed by a dog (my bags), went through quarantine, then
transferred to the domestic terminal (which is quite a drive away!). Sydney
was rainy and chilly. Then boarded short flight to Canberra where I passed out
again, but woke up to get my biscuits (cookies). I looked at the back of the
package and instead of calories it reported energy in kJ! Have to figure out
that conversion... Then was met by a nice government car and did the short
drive to the ANU campus/Australian Academy of Science. They let us check in to
our "Uni House" and shower which was lovely. Then my goal was just to stay
awake all day which I succeeded in!

Joined the group where they were having morning tea :-). Yum coffee. We went
to the Old Parliament for a nice lunch, then did a big tour of the New
Parliament House which was really cool. We actually went into the House of
Representatives where they were doing Question Time and boy is that racey!
Everyone "whinges" and "carps" and points fingers and talks out of turn and
accuses the opposite party of idiocy (lots of booing and here hereing). Very
entertaining :-). The Australian people are so open and nice! While Canberra
is not the most exciting city, I will enjoy being here I think for the outdoor
stuff, but boy it's chilly - especially at night! I saw in a paper the low
this weekend is 1 (celcius of course). Oh, but there are cockatoos and possums
everywhere :-). I walked around ANU after dusk (5pm right now) to have the cold
air help keep me awake! Then we enjoyed a nice Indian dinner. And though I got
a bout of homesickness briefly, I do have a bunch of friends from the program
already - we are talking about potential trips to the Great Barrier Reef one
weekend and NZ after the program, so that picked me up a bit! And I met my host
and he already had plans for me for this weekend - a football (but not as I know
it) match and a hike/picnic with his family. So - I might just make it! Altho
I do have to get used to it being winter, and get used to the time. I had some
very tired moments, but now I've made it to 10pm (7am Austin time), so I think
I'm allowed to go to bed finally! Yippee and Halleluyah.

That's it - more orientation tomorrow, then I am at work starting Thursday and I
will move to my actual housing! Wish me luck...