Day 20

On Sunday, Anita and I spent the day together. Anita’s staying with me while Beate’s on vacation. She came from Switzerland to work at Entox and is looking for a place to live. We needed to grocery shopping so we walked through West End to Coles. I tried again to get money since I still had no cash and my atm card from the US would not work. I checked my Australian account and I got paid! So now I finally have money and can at last buy things like a new phone card, hair dye, and Shout. Anita can cook very well, luckily for me. I’m saved from eating nothing but grilled cheese and ramen noodles. We walked back carrying the groceries, one heavy bag, but it’s not too far to Beate’s house.

After eating a bit of lunch, we wanted to take the CityCat, the city ferry boats, down the river to the Queensland University campus at St. Lucia. Here for transportation, instead of buying a ticket, you can use a Go card. You put money on it and swipe on and off at these electronic pads on buses, trains, and ferries. I love boats! I’ve only ridden on boats a couple times, but it was so exhilarating to stand at the prow, feeling the speed, with the wind whipping by.

My hair became a mess though. In the open stretches where we drove quickly, I was glad to have my sunglasses on, though on the way back at dusk, my contacts protected my eyes so no tears from the wind.

We strolled around the campus, first by the two ponds, then through all the buildings. At the pond’s edge, I was looking into the water, where some ducks and ibises had just been fed, and saw the water writhing. I thought at first there were large fishes moving, but no, it was a bunch of eels!

Apparently it’s normal to find eels in ponds here. They have a separate building for every major it seemed! There were at least five engineering buildings. The chemistry building looked pretty nice and there was an amazing courtyard area with great structural design.

I loved how everywhere you have these outdoor cafes. What was really cool to see, were outlets outside on these little tables. You could plug in your laptop! Even an engineering building was open to the outside.

I guess with no super cold weather, it works.

We walked back through the city a bit and as it was getting late, everything was lit up.

At this point my camera ran out of batteries though so I’m definitely planning on going back at nighttime! I’ve discovered that I actually like living next to a big city.

I’m really enjoying myself in Brisbane, and I’m already dreading the time when I have to go home. I’ve met such nice, awesome people here who I don’t want to lose contact with. And most of all, I don’t want to go back to boring school with lectures and homework, and no labs. I like the practical side of science. I’m already plotting how to make it back, either with study abroad, doing my master’s or PhD here, or maybe working here someday.