Day 11

On Friday, we ran the umu assay and got to use the robot! It follows a program and fills up the wells on the mircoplates. At lunch time, we went out to eat to celebrate Haipu’s birthday. The mall we went to was full of Asian influence; more signs were written in foreign characters than in English. We ate at the Cube Hot Pot. It was a meal unlike any other I’ve had before. You ordered certain ingredients to put in a gigantic pot split into a section with vegetable broth and one for meat with a spicy broth. The water boiled while we dumped in mushrooms, tofu, potatoes, corn, chicken, octopi, and more. I thought it was really good and picking out pieces of food actually led to a filling meal. They set the tables with chopsticks, but luckily they brought out forks, because me + chopsticks =disaster. Some of the appetizers were incredible spicy. One made me cough. At some point the servers brought a box of tissues out.

I carpooled with Hanne home since Beate had to stay longer and work. Hanne was heading into the city for a concert celebrating the opening of the In-Between Bridge. I started peeling potatoes for dinner and must say: it was slow progress. I can’t handle a peeler apparently without worrying about slicing my finger off.

Day 10

Both Australia and Germany were playing two different soccer matches at 4:30 am, but the family decided to watch the reruns at 6:30 instead. I would never get up early. I was glad to hear that both countries won, even though Australia wouldn’t proceed to the next round.

Beate’s going on vacation for a week with her family, and I was planning to take the bus to work. I need to figure out where the bus stop is here at Entox and back in West End though. She asked if I wanted to drive the car which I would have no problems with, except it’s a manual car! I can only drive automatic so the bus it is.

It’s Haipu’s birthday today so we had cake! One was a cheesecake, chocolate and vanilla, with a graham cracker bottom, and the other chocolate with orange flavoring. Delish! I felt so full afterwards. Hanne finished up the E-Screen, split some cells, and prepare cells for the umu bioassay tomorrow. We had to stick them in the incubator and we mixed up some more media. Just some more housekeeping stuff. I did a safety orientation form where Wasa showed me around the lab, things that I’ve already known from working in labs before.

Day 9

In the lab, we did some housekeeping. Refilling the boxes with pipette tips, and going on a hunt for the yellow pipette tips that they’re in dire need of. They have a bunch of the wrong kind without beveling so when you add them to an auto-pipettor, they just fall off! Anyways, it led to the opening of a bunch of boxes and seeing what was within. We also picked up some boxes of bottles from the supply store here. We had to go a bit outside the building rolling along one of those pushable platforms so we had to use the elevator. I’ve noticed that no one uses the elevator here, everyone climbs stairs. It’s actually faster to climb stairs! The elevator moved so slowly I couldn’t even feel it!

I also mixed up some B-buffer solution which was more like chemistry than biology. Weighing out a bunch of different compounds, using a stirring rod, testing pH, it was very comforting to know what I was doing for once. I made something else too, just adding 5 mL of certain things and dumping premeasured things in, but I had to do it in the PC2 lab so some prep work was involved. So I got to do a bit more on my own.

I finally got my own id pass so no more visitor badges. I had to wait a bit for the guy to show up who does the pictures. And he actually used an oldish Polaroid type camera, none of this electronic, press a button on the computer pictures here. It says occupational trainee on it (aka intern) and now I can get into buildings. While I was waiting I was talking to Wasa who’s the head safety officer guy of this group. He was interested to learn that I’m a forensic chemistry major and since he has connections in the forensics area, he’s going to get me a tour! I’m excited since it’s pretty high security to get in. I would see the trace area since the DNA analysis section is under construction and the morgue, well that’s not really related to my passion.

We left pretty late, so back at home: I ate, took a shower, went a bit on the computer, and then called my parents, and brothers in Maine. We chatted for an hour. I’m a tad jealous of their warm weather, but glad not to be in Cincy with 90s F!

Interesting fact: Aussies really do say mate all the time. I thought it was exaggerated. Also, they’re all super friendly. At least all the random people I’ve met are.

Day 8

Today at work I got to use a multi-channel pipettor and practice serial dilution using food colors. It was very pretty seeing how they went from dark to light. I brought my lab coat all the way from US to wear it here. Hanne showed me around a bit and I got to see the second smaller lab down the hall past the food chemistry and organics sections. I also checked out where they autoclave items. Basically it’s a process where they heat glassware and other things to a high temperature for a certain amount of time to ensure that they’re sanitized. There’s this special autoclave tape that you put on everything and afterwards there are stripes across the tape.

We had to change the media for the two containers of cells Hanne was growing. They need food too! So I got to do one in the hood in the PC2 lab. The process basically goes like this: put on this lab coat that buttons in the back, put on gloves and spray them with ethanol, clean out the hood using a paper towel and ethanol, and put everything you need in the hood after spraying it with ethanol. You have to be really careful not to contaminate anything. There are these labeled pipettes that you attached to a handheld machine that can suck up liquid or expel it so you remove the old media, throw away the pipette after putting it back in its wrapper, and then add fresh media.

We left early at three since Beate had another dentist appointment. I decided to walk down to South Bank along the river, a section I hadn’t seen before. The Griffith University’s College of Art was right there by the river! So is the music school too.

It’s so beautiful with the walkway, the Maritime Museum, artificial beach, cafes, and parks.

I would love to go to school there! It was getting close to dusk so the light was really pretty. The beach had gorgeous white, pure sand, and its waters reflected wonderfully with the river right there. The palm trees and birds added to the beautiful scene. They have wild turkeys that will fly and jump around in trees. It’s supposed to be warmer soon so maybe I’ll be able to dip my toes in at the beach!

Interesting fact: Since people drive on the left here, the way people walk on the sidewalks is different too. Usually in America if you’re heading a certain direction forwards (like a paved walking path with a divider or sidewalk) you walk on the right side so that people heading in the opposite direction walk on the left and can pass you. Same thing with standing on escalators, etc. Here, you walk on the left! I nearly ran into people on my first day walking through the city because it took me awhile to notice.

Day 7

My first full day on the job today. First at nine, we had a staff meeting where everyone discusses their work plans for the week in Beate’s group. Then the entire Entox group met up for seminar, which the boss was giving. Beate forewarned me about him and all I can say is oh my god. He would have failed with that presentation in school. It was just minuscule diagrams that he copied from the paper. I felt really bad because he seemed like a nice guy and made an effort, but he was awful at presenting. He had no sense of order and kept trying to show cause and effect even though his experiment could only prove correlation. Stuff that I’ve learned in basic psychology classes.

Afterwards, I followed Hanne around as she did an I-PAM bioassay. She was analyzing 24 water samples from different stages in a water treatment plant. Some of them were disgusting looking, brown. As they progressed, they turned green, and then clear. Basically the process involves a lot of pipetting, analyzing the growth of bacteria in the samples, and after adding the algae, testing the luminescence with the I-PAM machine. We had to measure the absorbance of a diluted algae sample to begin with, but the UV-Vis machine would not work! It was really old, but the older machine was more accurate than the newer machine. After two hours, it finally worked again and Hanne could proceed.

While I was in the lab, someone opened one of the -80 °C freezers. It was totally frosted and white in the inside! I was pretty tired by the end of the day; it was already dark when we left. Since the 21^st of June is the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere, it’s actually midwinter here with the longest night. On the way home, I was trying to figure out what planet I kept seeing. Apparently, everything’s flipped here. The sun still rises east to west, but the moon travels opposite and all the stars are switched too. I’ve also found myself getting used to the left side of the road driving system. It’ll be weird back in the US!

This evening, I saw my first bat in the wild. It flew up from a tree for a second and it was huge like the ones I saw at Lone Pine. Crazy stuff.

An interesting fact for you: Everyone who goes to school, not college, here has to wear a uniform. The younger kids’ uniforms usual include a wide brimmed hat which they need in order to go outside for recess. Girls have to wear long skirts past their knees when they’re older.

Day 6

In the morning, we decided to go to Lone Pines Koala Sanctuary. After parking next to a large body of water, we walked down a path towards the entrance, surrounded by eucalyptus trees. It’s so beautiful to see so many of them growing in the wild. We first headed to the lorikeet feeding, sometime I’ve done before in a zoo. You go in a large cage and hold cups of nectar and the birds will go to your hand. Here, this was completely different. Lorikeets are wild birds here, I’ve seen several. There were tons of them that flew down and ate this rather chunky food from big platters. Also there was a huge square ring that would turn depending on where the birds landed. A small fountain stood nearby where the birds would bathe in, rolling in the water. They flew very close overhead so I had to watch out.

Next we headed up to the main koala section. It was filled with koalas! They had small enclosures, covered by a roof with some branches. Koalas slept in them, curled up into balls. There were many different ages and they actual look pretty different now that I’ve seen so many of them.

We went in the platypus house which was darkened since they’re nocturnal creatures. At first we could only see some shellfish in the tank, but then out of nowhere the platypus emerged. He was small! About a foot in length, swimming back and forth and doing loops. He would grab the shellfish in his beak and break them apart in order to eat them. It was one of the most amazing sights I’ve ever seen.

We walked around a bit more, then down to the enclosure where a presentation over koalas would be given. Over 130 koalas live at Lone Pine! After the slideshow, we could pet one of the koalas. He was so soft! Then we headed over to this open field where the birds of prey show would be taking place. They warned to stay seated during the show and it began. The first bird came from over a hill, swooping down over the field to land on a perch. It had a huge wingspan, one of the largest in Australia. We got to watch each bird eat and be carried around. The Barking owl was awesome! They used our heads as trees and he spread his wings and flew right over our heads! The last bird ate from the sky. They tossed his food into the air and he would snatch it right out of the air!

We entered the kangaroo area next, a large fenced in area with tons of wallabies hopping around and some emus too. They were all there to be petted. I had a sack with food pellets. I put some on my hand, held it flat in front of a wallaby and it ate from my hand! His tongue and lips were soft, leaving me with an empty hand and kangaroo slobber. I also fed an emu. His beak didn’t hurt either, but you had to have a pile of food in your hand because he ate fast! The smaller reddish wallabies were shy and wouldn’t let you too close. There were water bins all around for the kangaroos to drink from. It was interesting to watch them fulfill their thirst.

Lunch was eaten in this open picnic area with koalas around us enclosed only by short Plexiglas fences. Some of them were active and ran across the ground to the next tree. It’s so weird watching them on the ground, they were fast! We got some ice cream and headed off to look at some of the different birds, Tasmanian devils, giant fruit bats and wombats.

Apparently here you don’t see the small bats like you would in the U.S. Instead you see these huge ones! On the way, we saw a mama koala and her baby on her back! It was adorable!! Lone Pine was an amazing experience.

In the evening, we went to a good bye party for one of Beate’s research assistants. We drove part of the way and walked the rest through the bush, and Griffith University. Walking these trails through the bush was fun! It was pretty with all the eucalyptus trees and palm bushes. It was interesting to see an Australian university, but it was completely deserted. Pretty different type campus, than what I’m used to.

Day 5

I got up at ten this morning; jet-lag must be pretty much gone now after three days. Isabel, Beate and I stopped at the library on the way to the market. It’s a tiny little room. I did recognize three authors though, Garth Nix, who’s Australian, Tamora Pierce, and Philip Pullman. I’ve never heard of any of the other books. It was funny to see that they had a self checkout computer with the same exact program our library uses. A little reminder of home.

We walked to the market, past Isabel’s school taking lots of pictures along the way. Here's a picture of what passion fruits look like.

At the entrance of the path through the park where the market was, there was this enormous tree! Very typically Australian. The market was crowded and sold everything that you could imagine. America’s still far behind in their markets.

After the walk home, we made strawberry cake. Yum! A layer of cake, pudding, then strawberries, plus whip cream.

Day 4

No work today. Beate has a meeting so she didn’t see the point in driving back for a small amount of time. She showed me where the Commonwealth Bank was in West End so that I could set up a bank account. It was pretty easy! My other bank at home’s online so I’ve never done this before. I just had to show my passport and sign a sheet of paper. They seemed to get a lot of students setting up temporary accounts since while I was leaving, there was a girl from France doing the same.

In the afternoon we went grocery shopping at Coles. I notice on the way there was a Domino’s here too! They have a lot of different types of fruits and vegetables here that I’ve never seen before, like pamellos(sp?), they look a like a type of melon. The food prices seemed more expensive here than in the States, but there were some similar brand names, like Mountain Dew! Cereal was completely different; most of the cereals were a type of granola mix. The store and the selections were a lot smaller than what I’m used too.

I helped decorate the table and set up for the dinner party. People started arriving at six and one of Beate’s colleagues Ben, brought home brew, beer he made himself. The drinking age is eighteen here, by the way. We chatted a bit and the dinner itself was delicious. For dessert some guests brought fruit salad and apfel strudel, an apple type of cake. I noticed while eating that all the Europeans ate with their fork and knife, the fork in their left hand even though they were right handed, where the Chinese girl and I only picked up our knife when we needed it. Just an interesting tidbit of culture information for you.

The soccer game started at 9:30, Germany against Serbia, I believe. I went to bed at eleven because I was still jet-lagged and it’s tiring staying up late.

Day 3

Again, I woke up sometime early due to jet-lag, but fell back asleep to wake up at seven. It’s cool that I can wake up automatically this early with jet-lag. This morning before having some chocolate cheerios for breakfast, I called my parents and chatted for a bit. Then I ate, packed my lunch, and my bag. I left with Beate, and Isabel, her daughter. We dropped off Isabel at school since she was late before driving to work. When we entered the carpark aka parking lot of the Forensic Scientific Services, FSS, complex which is run in partnership with the University of Queensland, Beate pointed out the different buildings. Next to EnTox, the centre for environmental toxicology where I’d be working was the mortuary sciences building with the morgue. All of Queensland’s forensics needs are met here. The section we’d be in has lesser security. Beate used her keycard to gain entry through the back way and then we headed to the security office to get me a guest pass until I get a real one.

The guard there didn’t even recognize Beate even though she’s been working there for a year and a half and is the deputy director of EnTox! We headed up to her area, down some halls, and through a lab, into an office area where I was introduced to everyone. They were all super friendly. One guy asked me how I pronounce iron, Fe. At first I didn’t understand him because he said it like “ion”. Apparently the Australians don’t pronounce the “r” and it was a bit of an argument between him and Beate who says the “r”. Needless to say, I made Beate happy, and it was a funny encounter.

I met Hanne who was currently the youngest person there; she had already finished her masters so that should show you the age gap. She is from Norway, and is going to show me around. I’ll be shadowing her, and asking her a bunch of questions. The others were British, Danish, and Chinese. Beate took me in her office and showed me some powerpoints on what they do at EnTox, and the projects they’re working on. Basically they’re using a variety of bioassays for different things. After a couple weeks, I’ll be working on my own project dealing with E. Coli. and also learn how to do some bioluminescence tests. She also gave me a research article to read.

Then a little later, I underwent training with two other girls from Hong Kong. This friendly lady explained the procedures and rules of FSS, and we had to fill out a worksheet. She told us that in the summer, they have snakes lying around on the sidewalks and that some birds will swoop out of the sky and attack your head. Thank goodness it’s not summer! I also had to do fire procedure training on a computer and answer a quiz to make sure I knew my safety information.

Afterwards, I went and ate lunch with the other girls that work in Beate’s group in the cantina. Then Hanne showed me a bit around the lab, their HPLC machine, etc. We then went in the PC2 lab which you need special entry to since they work with breast cancer cells in one and salmonella in the other. I observed Hanne do an E-Screen test on a sample. She was performing the test to see if there was any estrogen present. Adding the cancer cells would react with the hormone to multiply the cells. It was interesting. She worked in this special hood and everything had to be sprayed with ethanol first to make sure it was clean and uncontaminated. I got to see a multi-pipettor being used for the first time.

I was pretty tired at this time since it was about two o’clock, and around this afternoon time is when jet lag hits me the most. Beate had to leave early for her dentist appointment so we headed home a little bit later.

Beate had to start prepping dinner for tomorrow night since she was having a good-bye party for one of her research assistants. She decided to make kaese-spaetzle, a noodle-type German dish. I got to help make some of the noodles, it was fun.

Day 2

I walked away, rolling my two suitcases, exiting into the main area where Beate, my god mother, was waiting for me. It feels good to be speaking German again. I kept looking around like crazy, everything so different and new. The plants were completely different, spiky, and trees too. If you’ve ever seen an Australian exhibit at the zoo before or at botanical gardens, that’s what it really looks like. Getting in the car was really bizarre. I had forgotten by this time that they drive on the left here! It’s so weird! Their license plates are thinner and longer, and say what state (aka Queensland, and the slogan The Sunshine State, just like Florida!).

We drove through the city, past the river to her house. They have 7 Elevens here too!

For breakfast, I had my first real passion fruit. They grow wild here! After eating breakfast, Beate gave me some maps and a cell phone. I unpacked and then after everyone had left for school and work, I set out to view the city. The birds I’ve seen are crazy different. Sure, the pigeons and morning doves are the same, but the bird calls in the sky are dominated by these harsh sounds made by birds similar to crows, but larger in size.

I walked to this park along the river, all the while taking pictures. I walked under this arch covered with a pink blooming vine and saw this crazy bird. Two Asians walking behind me shouted excitedly and started chasing after it with a camera. It was the type of bird I would imagine in a zoo.

I continue walking along the path, past the big Ferris wheel, and across the Victoria bridge into the pedestrian zone.

There was a market, tons of expensive clothing stores and food for sale. I crossed over into King George's square in front of the City Hall. Absolutely gorgeous building.

Then I stopped by the Transportation Info Centre and picked up a bus line map for the way into work. I also stopped at the Tourist info center to get an updated map of the city. I leisurely walked back a different route through South Bank, past the museums and performing arts centre, and then through West End, to the townhouse. I love hearing all the Australian accents around me and could not stop admiring the trees.

I read this book throughout the afternoon about kangaroos and learned some fascinating bits of info. Dinner was delish and very funny. Beate and her family love to laugh, they’re a fun group to be around. I was pretty exhausted at this time, but I had to check my email, and then I caught up on fanfic. It was 7:45 am old time by the time I hit the sack.

My Aussie Adventures Begin

The flight to Dallas passed uneventfully. The pilot was definitely good at his job; both the landing and take-off were done smoothly. This was the smallest plane I’ve ever flown on. One seat, an aisle, and two more seats. Most carry on items were added to the baggage compartment because there was no room aboard. I couldn’t even stand up straight. Flying has changed since I last flew, two years ago. Now on short flight, such as this one, you get a complementary beverage, but if you want a snack you have to purchase it. No more free bags of peanuts.

We left late from Cincinnati so we arrived about fifteen minutes late in Dallas. Not that good for me since that left with me a half hour to catch my connecting flight. To my surprise the connecting flight’s gate number was not on the ticket. The pilot read off a list of them so I hoped that I’d heard him correctly. Luckily, the way to the SkyRail was clearly marked and I made it to the next terminal easily. The airport was huge! Walking would not have ended well. I made it to my gate along with a few fellow stragglers and boarded. A three seats, aisle, three seats plane.

We were delayed about 40 min because of the traffic on the runway, there were 10 planes waiting to take off before us! After what felt like forever, we were off. This pilot was really good too! I had the window seat so when darkness fell, the ground lights looked like stars and made beautiful patterns. At a cruising altitude of 360,000 ft I looked upwards out the window to see the actual stars. They were gorgeous, I could see so many. As we approached LA, I went from seeing occasional lights on the ground, clumps, to seeing one huge area lit up. Sadly I could not recognize any landmarks.

The airport was deserted at this hour except for our flight to Brisbane. I had to only walk two terminals further down, before finding myself a seat. This plane was huge! It had 75 rows of 3, 4, 3 seating with a partial second floor that included even more business class! I would highly recommend flying with Qantas at any chance you get (‘cept they only do Australian flights…so you’d have to be going to Australia). They’re now my new favorite airline, sorry Lufthansa, you got bumped.

To begin with, everyone had their own individual monitor, you could pick from tons of different shows and movies like CSI, Mentalist, How I Met Your Mother, Good Wife, and every newish movie including Avatar or play games. I ended up watching Valentine’s Day at the very end. They handed out these amazing menus letting you know that you could ask for snacks anytime that you were hungry. And by snack, you could even request fresh fruit. They had separate vegetarian trays for people, and even offered a hot breakfast (never had that happen). The food was pretty good, I liked it a lot. After dinner, they handed everyone a little snack bag with water, cookies, trail mix, and M&Ms. Also every passenger got not just a blanket, headphones and pillow (which by the way, was a fantastic pillow. It actually had a cover on it and was rather hard instead of being this soft polyester ball), but also a little kit that had a sleeping mask, and toothbrush.

I had an empty seat next to me so I could stretch out a bit, thank goodness. This flight part was 14 hours long. After eating, I must have spent about seven hours drifting in and out of sleep since the next time I checked the time left till destination, only 4 hours were left. I ate breakfast, watched a movie, plus some tv, listened to music, and then it was time to land. Another good flight! Some turbulence, but nothing major. So I only took Dramamine for at the beginning and it wears off, I must be over flight motion sickness!

I’ve missing flying so much. There’s nothing like the feeling of taking off and landing in a plane, watching the ground fly by. I filled out my yellow customs form on the plane and headed to passport control. We had to walk a long distance to get there, the airport was deserted save for those from my flight. I kept staring out of the window. The trees and foliage looked so different. There were palm trees! Made it through easily to baggage claim. That took awhile. My bags finally showed up, right in a row to, so I was scrambling to grab the heavy things off the belt. At least they didn’t go missing with all the transfer flights! Next stop, customs. I put my baggage through an x-ray machine, and apparently there was something suspicious about my blue suitcase, he thought it was some type of medicine. The only thing I had with me was tums though. The customs guy was really friendly and nice though (a bonus of looking young and travelling alone, airport officials are always nicer). I opened it up for him, and he looked through carefully, not to mess up my stuff. Apparently it was my contacts that he couldn’t identify. Huh.