Preface: Notice the titles... I’ve been experiencing everything from urban lifestyles to roughin’ it in my ice box home (aka Ft. Knox) with below freezing temps, no space or central heat to wandering through the bush and outback for water samples keeping in mind snake safety and proper tick tactics.
*The Aussie version of Ft. Knox (aka my home - its not all that extravagant but its close to my lab, fully furnished with a great roommate and relatively inexpensive, I really can't complain, although I know my mother could...)
This week had on the other hand had quite the eventful start...
1. I gave my seminar on Tuesday
2. I was finally to be granted access to the fluorescence instrument (with samples to analyze)
3. My mom and a good family friend (Mrs. Harrold) arrived Thursday evening for the weekend
4. I went on another sampling trip to Beenyup Wastewater Treatment Plant where they have a Recycled Water (groundwater injection) Site
In preparation for these 4 major activities, there were many ups and downs throughout the week. Of course knowing me and my ways with presentations, I didn’t sleep much Sunday/Monday evenings because I was busy throwing together my seminar last minute for my research group Tuesday. Like most presentation preparations go, most of the slide making and prep is done within 24 hours of the actual talk. I seem to master this art and was in cram mode for the early part of the week until Tuesday. Of course I fully planned on cleaning up my shaggy beard the night before with a shower in the AM. Little did I remember, I burnt the hell out of my electric razor about a month ago in Canberra (their plus run on 240 V and ours are 120) and the razor hasn’t been able to charge normally, since. I started to shave and realized my razor was dying fast so I got about half my face down before I had to call it quits for the night (sorry I didn’t get a photo of this)! I then got up half way through the night after magically fitting the razor to my phone charger to trim a bit more down of the beard, at this point my goal was to finish with a goat-t if I was lucky. Of course by the grace of God, I was able to finish off the other half of my face and leave it in a goat-t in the AM before it was show time. What a stressful day to start an already stressful day! The seminar was a success and a big sigh of relief for the rest of the week as I had my mom’s visit to look forward to.
I was able to get a bit more productive with my research and focus a bit on running a number of samples on the instrument and work the kinks out with the research as I anxiously waited for the visit of a very familiar face, my mother. This trip has included a lot of personal realizations, a bit of soul searching and minor epiphanies about me which I will probably hold dear to my way of life in the near future. A lot of which spawns from our major family loss nearly 1.5 years ago (most of you know what I’m referring to, if not….just ask) and trying to figure out my career path as I’m quickly approaching graduation and career/soul searching, as well as coping with these family experiences.
To really test myself, I unintentionally chose a place nearly the farthest point on earth away from home (the place I have started to adore with the people I love) as possible. I wouldn’t recommend it, but as I thrive on travel and being the foreigner (of which I’m totally addicted to – that is being the different, foreign one), I embarked on a journey that I was more excited about from a travel perspective (I get to knock another continent off my bucket list), experiencing a new culture, knowing and learning from new people and collaborators, to new opportunity for whatever the future holds and new friends, that I didn’t quite consider my emotional stability and personal state of mind. I don’t intend on rambling off on depressing things here, as I’m in no way, shape or form having any major issues, I just hit a road block dead center and have been incredibly challenged over the past number of weeks. I will just say this has been an incredibly humbling experience as I have learned a new culture, people and way of life while fully appreciating my life at home (in the US) that much more. It is all thought to build a better character and person in the end, mind you drastically boost my professional resume! You might wonder, will this roadblock change my traveling ways? Absolutely not! I just need a bit more time to piece some things together in my life, like a little more permanent location with a job and the next stages of life that should be hitting me soon – as this trip has somewhat helped me piece together my near future goals with graduating the MS and testing out a job in industry in the mean time, before I get rambunctious with my travels again.
My mother’s visit was a great one, indeed. It started off with me having my weekly dinner up in the city with Steven the other American guy Thursday evening before it was off to the hotel, a bit late to meet my mom after traveling from the east coast of Australia to the west coast just for about 36 hours to see me! We caught up briefly for an hour until the last bus brought me back to the ‘hood’ I live in. I did spill a bit of my beans on my mom about my personal challenges I’d been facing over the past number of weeks, probably putting her a bit into a tizzy but with her exhaustion from travel, the timing couldn’t have been better where she could sleep it off until she came by my house the next day.
I had to sample Friday morning, so I got up early to get to lab and prep for a big sampling trip to the Beenyup Wastewater Treatment Plant and Recycled Water Injection Site. We were there to take a number of samples for some ongoing research at the CWQRC of which I was fortunate enough to tag along, grab some samples for myself and in a timely fashion send them home with my mom at the end of the weekend for analysis in the Cory Lab back in NC. As I’m quickly learning, sampling is quite a big deal here in Australia as Water Corp has strict protocols to be followed with sampling (someone was to accompany us through all sample points, as the facilities are not easily accessible for samples as portable pumps were set up to draw water samples out and safety inductions were to happen online and at every site along with a bit excessive personal protective equipment). Back in NC I just check in with my operators, grab my samples daily, weekly or whenever and go on my merry way. Nevertheless, sampling was a success, I got to roll play in the Dukes of Hazard and get home in a timely manner to get into the city to collect my mail from the post office (another long story) and meet my mom and Mrs. Harrold for a nice dinner in the city.
*proudly representing my personal protective equipment and the recycled water site
**drivin' the dukes of hazard mobile (notice I'm on the other side of the car as the driver - things are a bit backwards here but there is reason, apparently because of history - back in medieval times, the knights would carry their jousts under their right arms and ride their horses on the left side when approaching their enemy which has carried over to the way cars are driven in the UK and Down Under - next time, I'll consider playing a little chicken with my road enemies...)
***reverse osmosis treatment train. This is the recycled water site that takes treated wastewater and literally removes everything from it through extremely small pores (on the order of nanometers, where 1nm = 10^-9 m) of a membrane leaving virtually hydrogen bonded to oxygen. It may not look like much, but its an incredible thing scientists and engineers have developed over the past number of years to purify our drinking water
****the change in turbidity (color which is proportional to taste, odor, smell, contamination, etc) over the series of treatment processes. Pretty impressive, eh?
I met my mom at the hotel, brought her back via public transport (city bus) to my neck of the woods, not the brightest idea as I don’t live in the nicest part and considering as we were riding the bus down the street, the bus driver pulled the entire bus over to ask us if we knew exactly where we were going… Of course I didn’t like that kind of attention because I like to try and keep an incredibly low profile when I travel (from previous experiences elsewhere), it made my mom quite nervous which I did not need! We made it to my home, briefly caught up with Marc and Vik and made it out to a nice Japanese dinner in the city before it was off at 7AM the next morning down to Margaret River (the wine country) for yet another wine tour (two weeks in a row) and journey through the southern parts of Western Australia. The all day wine tour was fabulous (see pictures) and we made it back in decent time for one last walk through town and a nice dinner before my mom was off at 4AM back to the states. She had a 5 hour flight from Perth to Sydney, a 14 hour flight to LA then a nice 12 hour layover and another 5 hour flight to Richmond, VA. Boy do I a) owe her bigtime for the visit and b) idle that women! With the week I just had, on Sunday morning, I got up around 10, checked out of the hotel for my mom, went to church and rested some of the afternoon as I was pooped and had another busy week ahead of me. I am quickly approaching my travel back to the states as we’re already counting down less than 3 weeks until I leave these parts. The next weeks didn’t have much but research and work related things to look forward to, of which some of the research is expected to be quite interesting at least until I head out east for a week or so en route to the good ole’ USA.
* my attempt at art - nevertheless a photo of the Indian Ocean at one of the most southern points of the western coast of Australia
** follow that walkway through the water for about 5000+ miles and you nearly reach Cape Town, South Africa
*** I thought why not give it a shot and dive in head first. I was preparing for the hostile coast of Australia to eat me up and take me for a long, cold ride on the back of a whale
****Finally, we spotted a whole group of wild kangaroos just hanging out for a family nap
*****My mom and I outside the last winery.
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