Brisbane to Wollongong

I am currently sitting on the train from Sydney to Wollongong after a flight from Brisbane to Sydney. I am heading to Wollongong to present some of my research at the Membrane Society of Australasia Student Symposium. The Sydney trains are double-deck trains and I am sitting up on the upper level. The train ride is something like an hour and 45 minutes, so I have some time to sit down and write.

I traveled with Anita and Matt to the University of Queensland (UQ) this morning for a meeting with Joe de Costa. His group works on inorganic membranes for gas and liquid separations. They have a very nice setup including full sized fume hoods which allow them to do work on carbon monoxide transport. They have a very nice mixed gas system and they have quite a bit of membrane preparation capabilities. After a short tour and discussion about possible collaboration between CSIRO and UQ, we went to a Thai restaurant for lunch before heading back to the hotel. At this point, I broke off and made my way back to the airport for my flight to Sydney.

Unfortunately, I ended up getting stuck in the middle seat on the flight with an extremely obnoxious Japanese kid behind me who kept kicking and pulling on the seat during the whole flight. It was too bad that the kid's mother didn't try a little harder to keep her son under control. Anyhow, the flight was only an hour and 5 minutes long, so it wasn't too bad. Upon arrival to Sydney, I collected my bags and made my way to the train station to catch a train to the Sydney Central train station. There, I finally found my way to the correct train (it was really confusing and there were very few people around to help out). And here I am now.

I enjoyed seeing Brisbane and I think 1 full day of touring the city was pretty good to get the feel for what Brisbane was all about. I had a good time checking out the mall and shopping areas of the city and the koala sanctuary was absolutely awesome! It was nice to visit the University of Queensland and it was nice to spend half of the day with Anita and Matt. They will both be at the two upcoming conferences that I am going to, but beyond that, there will only be 2 days where Anita and I are both in Melbourne before I head back to the U.S. (Anita and I will be able to wave to each other as our planes practically pass each other while she flies back to Australia from a trip to the states and I travel home to the U.S. I will miss our morning coffee discussions and I am certainly very grateful for her kindness in helping me get established and centered during this trip. Her advice on both research and social/sightseeing activities around Melbourne has really helped me quite a lot and it has made this trip even better.

Well, I should probably sign off for now. I'll meet up with Aaron and Ludo in Wollongong when I arrive as I will be sharing a suite with them for the duration of the conference.