Arriving down under in a country founded by criminals

Day 1 – Sydney (alone)

Arriving in Sydney at 6:10am is a fresh start to the day, being once again in a new place, new city and let alone new country for the first time always presents itself with new adventures. You have that overwhelming feeling of what the hell am I supposed to do next while a big sigh of relief, “ahhhh, at least I’ve made it!” So after secretly passing through customs and immigration, I find a free internet stand, take a moment to send an email back home to my nervous Mom and fill her in on my safe arrival to the airport. Little does she know I have to venture half way across the city for a night, fly 22 hours later to the capital territory Canberra for two days then head out another 5.5 hours (via plane) to the farthest, largest and most secluded city in the world, Perth. But we’ll leave that to me to handle and her to worry about after I fill her in on what I’ve been up to over the past number of days.

So I ask for a way into the city from the information desk which seems to be not very helpful as the information was to take bus 400 into the city and get off wherever, of which I'm thinking, "yea I have no idea which stop to get off at let along I'm carrying 3 large bags of research, winter clothes and other stuff"…to get on a city bus with all that baggage does not sound like the best idea. So, I end up hailing a cab and 45 AUD later and 15km down the road I have arrived at my 2.5 star, Gemini Hotel (nearby the UNSW campus where I’m meeting with a researcher at noon). The hotel ended up being relatively nice, with surprisingly three tiny beds in my room (enough for a family of 4) and a distant view of the city skyline out my balcony/window. I was able to check in early (props to the Gemini hotel) and take a load off for a bit.

The mere excitement of being in foreign land often overtakes you and causes you to go off and explore (even if you’re not that type). I wandered the streets for a few hours until it was down to the Uni to meet with the UNSW faculty. Of course crossing the street alone is an exercise as I stopped and looked every which way possible before moving into the street because all cars like to drive down the wrong side of the road. I got to the Uni and of course realized it was a public holiday so nothing was operating and open resulting in no surprise that the faculty memeber I was meeting with never showed up at out meeting . Nevertheless I was a bit frustrated because I left some killer times behind in LA with a couple of my best buds, but am I honestly going to complain that our government flew me to Australia to do research for two months... Who was I kiddng, I needed to get out there and take advantage of yet another free international flight and explore unknown territory (keeping a lookout for all dingos, crocodiles, snakes, sharks, box jellies, kangaroos, etc.).

I got a bus schedule and decided to hit the streets. I got into Hyde Park and started with a walk around checking out the St. Mary’s Cathedral (a sight worth checking out). Then I went up into the Sydney Tower to do some touristy things, of which those that know me will be the first to say I hate being the tourist. One of the best things I tend to do and like to do is make friends with all the locals I can and blend in as much as possible. Regardless I did the tower to develop my next plan of attack. I ended up spending the rest of the afternoon wandering around from the Sydney Opera House to the Darling Harbour and everywhere in between. Considering its winter down here I ended up around 3 or 4pm heading to a restaurant to grab lunch because I figured it would be getting dark shortly. I sat out in the sunshine, reading a book and enjoying probably one of the nicest calamari plates I’ve ever had – of course washing everything down with two never tasted before Australian beers. Typical of my luck, the drugged out crazy guy managed to argue his way into a seat next to me and befriend me. Within 5 minutes of chatting, he told me, “hey mate, between you and me, I f***ing hate the US” shortly after he asked me where I was from and learned I was indeed AMERICAN. Nevertheless he was so wacky the whole waitstaff, like me patiently waited for this guy to eat his probably spit on food and leave.

Total meal = 54AUD (plus all the other expenses I had already incurred, a wicked expensive taxi, a hotel for a family of 4, incidentals, etc). Sydney, you were breaking my bank account the first day on the job, and that “oh I’m on vacation thing” can only last so long. After a little more meandering, I caught the bus back to the hotel and called it a night before it was up and at it on the bus the next morning to the airport to Canberra, where it was a merely 35 degrees (the thoughts of why I left 95 degree weather in NC to go to Australia for 2 months really started to sink in when I was graced with freezing my ass off in Australia of all places). In the middle of the night I of course found myself sleeping on the floor....for some unknown reason, I thought it was a brilliant idea to push the three (smaller than single) beds together to sleep like a King....until I rolled into the right crack and ended up smack dab on the floor..

Day 2 and 3 – Canberra
I was able to awkwardly meet up with some of the other EAPSI Fellows at the Sydney airport, many of whom just arrived from their 14.5 – 20+ hours of travel from LA or the east coast (wherever they were coming from). Of course group travels, international travels, well travels in general never end up working out the way they were planned and our plane ended up getting delayed and delayed and delayed until we all loaded up the plane, starting taxiing off the runway until the pilot gave notification that we were headed right back to the terminal due to plane malfunctions. We sat on the plane for another hour until they canceled the flight and left us all hanging until further notice. Fortunately, our lovely EAPSI Coordinator at the Australian Academy of Sciences was quickly able to book us on another flight with Virgin Blue Airlines. Finally after all that mess we successively arrived in Canberra around a 3PM to sign some paper work, check in the hotel and head to a teppanyaki dinner.

*the Dome is the Office of the Australian Academy of Sciences
**I caught the flying shrimp he threw at me in my mouth (teppanyaki dinner)!

After asking one another the “1. Where are you from? 2. What do you do? 3. Where are you going to be this summer? 4. What’s your name again?” We (the EAPSI Australia Fellows) acquainted ourselves nicely with one another and some of us (those that didn’t just arrive after 24+ hours of travel) were able to sneak out for a few beers in the bustling city of Canberra (population of 300,000 government employees – not the sarcasm). The city, like a lot of places in Australia was quite secluded from most nearby places and was really built to function for one reason, act as the capital territory for the country, which it superseded at.

The next day was slammed packed with orientations, meetings, presentations, tours around the city to include the Parliament House (with Question Time included where the senate parties graciously hammered the Prime Minister and whoever else in government with questions of concern to the country – those that are familiar with British Parliament might recall the heated debates that are typical of British politics). My favorite lines include in all silence “that guy’s an idiot” and Prime Minister Judd managed to call someone from the opposition, “a spineless fool.” If this method of debate were to happen in the states, people would be fighting and blood would be shed but here in Australia it seems to effectively be a way to get business done, if by business you mean allow for public entertainment and the chance to embed how one really feels about his allies or enemies in the Parliament.

I was able to sneak a quick visit to Mr Ren Chen this random convenient store guy to buy my strait off the boat phone from China, cell phone that for Cory managed to buy for 40 AUD with 50AUD of credit. That made no sense to m...My deal didn’t end up working out as well as the phone cost 60 AUD and the chip didn’t work, meaning I had to buy another one which also didn’t seem to activate until I called and pleaded another case to the Optus rep that it was real and please help me make it work (this being a few days later in Perth). After a visit to the National War Memorial, we had a cocktail hour with Australian Academy of Science administration, Academy Fellows, local hosts, researchers and scientists. It turned into a warm welcoming to the program and the country along with a chance to meet established Australian scientists. Shortly after the cocktail ‘hour’ (meaning 2 hours) the students ended up going out for some drinks, travel planning and bonding time before we were to split and disperse from Perth to Townsville and Melbourne with everywhere in between. Excitingly new friendships were made and travel buddies were established for the when the chance to travel on weekends or at the end of the program arrives.

*lots of brain power enjoying new friendships and new drinks
**Australian National War Memorial

Day 4 – Travel to Perth
We had our breakfast after a late night and said our farewells before it was off to Perth for myself and the other two guys, Brian and Steven (me thinking, "keep the frequent flier miles comin' baby"). Before departure, during check-in I managed to get the shaft like Kyle and get charged to check my bags to Perth (costing an extra 50 AUD, 10 AUD/kg) while the 15 others either didn’t go over the domestic weight limit, had waivers or just smiled and winked at the right Qantas employee to get out of paying that fee. I was left questioning multiple people until the manager was called resulting in Kyle and I paying the overweight fee (this being only the second time in my life, I was told I'm overweight - the other being a Dr. claiming me clinically overweight due to some silly BMI index...). I accepted it as I really had no other option and went to the gate. Low and behold after speaking with some of the others, they too were over the so called limit (of 23kg total for domestic flights) and weren’t changed. I was having none of that, and went back to, of course the really cute Qantas employee and politely threw a hissy fit, throwing everyone's name at them until finally they realized they screwed up and charged only 2 of us and let nearly 6 others sneak by (Qantas’s loss on that one – it is all or nothing in my book as I finally convinced them as well, managing to make my 50 AUD and Kyle’s 90 AUD profit back as the Qantas rep phrased it – which to me is non-sense as there was no profit being made there, it was my own expense!). We finally arrived (like previously mentioned over 11,000 miles from home. In fact I looked it up on Google Earth the other day at work and the farthest point away from Chapel Hill, NC is nearly 12,500 miles and Perth so happens to be about 11,500 miles away). I nearly am as far away as possible on this Earth to my home for the next 2 months and English is spoken here!! Talk about food for thought.

*Glow in the dark building, downtown Perth

So , I was able to convince Brian to ride in a shared bus with me to the city, drop our bags and go for a nice dinner before we were on our own to find accommodation, check in at the Unis and get things rolling for the next number of weeks. The bus ride had some adventure as we were rolling down the streets, made a pit stop for a new driver who happened to be a not so friendly middle-easterner (please understand I’m not putting in any racial discrimination or attempts to profile anyone), the act of just pulling over at a random stop and changing drivers with a random guy up off the street was enough for my liking. I checked in, found my way to my bathroom sized bedroom and out on the streets to find a classy Asian meal and get to know the streets of my newest home. Dinner, night and day complete and off to rest before its up and at it all over again.

Day 5 – Check in at the lab
The next morning, I got up relatively early (after waking up at midnight thinking it was noon because of the crazy time change and thousands of miles of travel, to realize it was indeed only midnight) made my way down to the bank to get the account verified and opened before it was check-in time with my research group at the Uni, the Curtin Water Quality Research Centre, thanks to Dr. Singer’s connections. I found a bus, made it down to campus to find a series of Department of Chemistry and a CWQRC Sign to be all torn to pieces and under construction. After sneaking in the hard-hat, zoned out building I quickly realized I was not supposed to be in there and my research group didn’t exist! Fortunately I was able to call Cynthia and find out they were in a brand new building at the most southern point of campus. I weaseled my way across campus to come across one of the most beautiful research facilities I have ever seen (besides the R&D labs I visited in Taiwan back in 2008) or worked in.

* Half of my new research facilities at Curtin Uni
**An outsiders view to part of my laboratory, everything is zoned off...this group does not mess around with health and safety issues (as nearly all research is quarantined)...

My new home was a $116 Million facility supported in a multi-way partnership of university funding, industry money and government grants to support the Chem Centre and Department of (Applied) Chemistry. The facility included chemistry labs for courses and other generic university functions along with security clearance forensic labs for the local police and state of Western Australia work, along with applied industry funded labs for R&D like my group. But, talk about an immaculate facility and pleasant surprise. I was kindly greeted by my new research group at the offices and given the grand tour of my lab, office along with many introductions of coworkers that I’m slowly revisiting each day to learn who everyone really is. Check-in complete, along with a kind message from my new advisors, “Rory enjoy your time here, no need to work crazy hours, get to know the area and get some work done but basically, welcome to Australia and enjoy the Aussie way!”

Just about everything was pieced together for my time here in Perth except for a home which I randomly stumbled across the Student Housing Services office on my way to tour another one. They really didn’t do much for my besides provide me with a printout of housing options in the local and surrounding areas with prices and other specifications included. I managed to meet Marc (my new roommate’s partner/boyfriend) who happened to be house sitting my roommates home as she was coincidentally in Chicago for a wedding. The home seemed to fit the bill, it being walking distance to the lab and relatively cheap with all expenses included, linens included. It was that or live with a friend of a friend way up north (with an hour commute one way via bus) to lab each day. The decision became a bit hard once I met the friend of a friend, Kristen and went out with her friends that night as they are real awesome people, and considering I hadn’t met my current roommate and still haven’t to this date. In the end, I’m living down in Bentley by the Uni in not the coolest part of town but with the price, situation and everything, it was only wise to pick the more convenient location for the hopes of being productive here and getting my thesis written in my downtown so I can graduate when I return home.

Day 6 – Moving In
I hailed a cap bright and early Saturday morning after a fun night out with the new friends to move into my new home. I made it in time, before Marc’s footy (Australian Rules Football) match. I unpacked all my things, checked out some stuff on the web like the surrounding areas, took a hike down to the local IGA before plopping down on the couch and relaxing while watching TV the rest of the afternoon and evening. I was so exhausted from constantly being in hotels and being on the go that I needed some downtime to rejuvenate and have a chance to kick back and process everything that had been happening!

Day 7 – Sunday (everything is closed!)
I woke up early in the morning and headed down to the nearby catholic church – a mere 300 meters away. Not the nicest church I’ve ever seen, but after the long days I had been having and a bit of being on my own, nothing felt better than to get into a church and hear that universal word that is taught home in the states (included their praise and worship music). Talk about finally finding a bit of peace with myself from the comfort of being in a church with similar ways (not that Australia is that different at all). Being this far away from home, pretty much all on my own, especially with the most recent issues dealt with over the past year and a half have done nothing but demand a bit of feeling ‘home’ wherever I go.

After church, I was able to pick up some food and goods from the local store and get cracking on some work I had been putting off over the past week from days in LA with Jack, Katie and Mike to all the travel to Australia and meetings in Canberra. A number of emails, a few hours of data processing and a cup of tea later I was calling it again another night. Laying in bed allowed for a bit more reflection of what in the world I was up to, especially as I was anxiously about to start my first day on the job, Monday morning...