Perhaps it's about time for me to post?

G'day from Melbourne, Australia!


I am halfway through my ten weeks of research here and everything is going well...except for the fact that it is winter and I am already fighting my second cold, heh.

During my second week here my dad came to visit. The airport doesn't seem to be connected to public transport very well so I rented the car for the day of his arrival and had an exciting time driving on the left side of the road in a small car like you might find in Europe. Along with sightseeing and restaurant sampling (the best food in Australia!) around Melbourne we travelled to Sydney for a long weekend and guess what we especially made a point to see there?

In terms of accommodation, after spending the first few days in a hostel near the Melbourne Uni. I spent the first month in a shared flat in North Melbourne. Unfortunately the other two students (did they go to class or anything at all? hah) weren't the most active folks and spent a great deal of time with their televisions, and the building unit didn't exactly have central heating...yikes. I was almost dealing with it alright until the landlord mentioned after my first two weeks that the rent would be increased in the next month. Naturally I began my search for something else and ended up in a wonderful terrace-style house on a well-known street in an area of town known as North Carlton, about the same distance away from the university. Along with a good heating system (really does make a huge difference!), the four other people sharing the house are very social and I have enjoyed doing stuff with them.

There are also two other HHMI students here in Melbourne as well and I was able to meet up with them right away (straight away? hah) especially when I didn't know anyone at all upon arriving in Melbourne. This past Sunday we rented a car and travelled to the "Mornington Peninsula" to see some of the Australian coast line and even made it over to a winery tasting right before it closed for the day. Just a couple of weeks ago we also went to a Australian Rules Football game which was a bit different!

My research seems to be progressing slowly... mostly standard techniques so far and there have been some issues with contamination involving a strain of the lab's model organism so we'll see how things go in the coming weeks!

Cheers,
Thomas