Work has started full time now that I've gone through nearly all techniques I need to know. It's still a much more relaxed pace than in the US, but I've done my first drug trial on Plasmodium cultures already. It came out well, so now I will be able to move on to more drugs and different conditions (some drugs, for example, cause a delayed death, where the effect of the drug isn't seen until four or more days later, in the next generation of parasites). I also learned how to isolate different stages of the malaria life cycle. I can actually apply one of those techniques in my own research at Emory.

Outside of the lab, I'm trying to see as much as possible. A friend of mine took me climbing to Mt. Arapiles. The rock was amazing and I saw an incredible amount of wildlife (mostly parrots and other birds but also kangaroos and possums). I had my first kangaroo steak in a nearby pub. The accent outside of Melbourne is ridiculously difficult to understand. Even my friend, an Australian native, had trouble at times. So even though I'm in an english speaking country, language is still a barrier at times.

Last night, the researcher I work with took me to a wine tasting. It was an amazing way to "travel" around Australia and New Zealand. They had 50-60 wines from various wine-producing regions. The differences that particular climates can make was astounding. I was lucky to be with someone who knew her wines and geography very well, so I didn't miss out on the subtler differences between vineyards. So now I have a small stockpile of bottles as a result.

I met up with two other HHMI students earlier in the week. One of them had her 21st birthday yesterday, so we ended up having a couple cakes and wine. Today we'll explore all that Melbourne has to offer for free in terms of food and beverages.

This Monday is the Queen's birthday, so I have a long weekend ahead.