Back in Austin

So, I have arrived safely in Austin after the long flight home from Melbourne. By my count, I have been awake now for about 32 hours (having slept for only about 1 or 2 hours along the way). I wasn't able to sleep on the flight from Melbourne to LAX, but fatigue did get the better of me for part of the flight from LAX to Austin.

The flight went pretty well in that I managed to watch a bunch of movies and, essentially, pass the time. As we came into LAX, we flew past the Hollywood sign - this was the first time I had ever seen that. The customs process was pretty straightforward and I was glad that the process went without any trouble. As I was going through passport control, the guy who was working at the desk was really nice. After processing my passport and stamping me back into the country, he handed me my documents, looked me in the eye, and said "welcome home". Sometimes it is just the little surprising things that make the most impact...

After getting through customs, I had to go through security at the domestic terminal. Since it was about 8:30am in the morning on a Monday in LA, the place was quite busy. I had to get in line way out on the curb - but the line moved pretty quickly and I had something like 5 hours before my flight... After getting through security and making some phone calls, I was able to get on the internet and catch up on some e-mail. I also visited the American Airlines counter to ask about getting a seat change for the flight to Austin. Luckily, I was able to get my seat changed to a window seat (not the middle seat). I was really glad that they had something else available! Several other people were in line at the customer service desk because people were missing flights due to the long lines at security.

I had lunch at the Chili's Too restaurant. By this point, I was really feeling tired since I had been up for about 24 hours at that point... Lunch was okay, but I was getting to the point where I was actually feeling sick. I still had some time to kill, so I tried to walk around for a while to keep my mind off feeling lousy. Finally, it was time to get on the plane to go back to Austin!

The flight was pretty straightforward. It is about 3 hours from LAX to Austin and that feels so short after a 14 hour flight - haha. I ended up napping for probably an hour and a half on the flight - this definitely helped me to feel much better. Landing in Austin was great since I felt like I was finally home. It was even better once I collected my luggage!

Zach's wife, Gina, picked me up at the airport (Zach is in Colorado skiing - I wish I could have gone with them this year, but maybe next year). Her mom and grandma were in town, so she invited me over to have dinner with the 3 of them. This was so nice since I had no food at my apartment and wasn't looking forward to figuring out something for dinner. We had a nice time and really good food. It was great to just talk to people after having spent most of the previous day not really speaking to anyone.

My car had been at Zach and Gina's apartment while I was in Australia, so I was able to drive back to my apartment [staying on the correct side of the road :) ]. My apartment looked great when I got home - though it smelled a little musty. I gathered my 10-weeks worth of mail and started the process of unpacking the absolutely necessary items first. I think it will probably take a few days to get everything unpacked as this week will likely be very busy.

In any case, I suppose it is time to finish up this blog since my trip is now finally over! Thank you to everyone who has been reading this! I hope you have enjoyed learning about the many awesome experiences that I have had over the past 10 weeks or so. I think it is time for me to go get a good night sleep in my own bed!!

Cool Plane and Security

So, as I make these final updates, I am at the gate waiting for my flight to LAX. The Boeing 747 that I will fly on is a specially-painted version. I love how I still get excited about silly things like that - it makes me feel like a kid again - haha! Now I need to go find somewhere to spend the last few Australian dollars that I have...

The gate area is all blocked off with dividers and all sorts of crazy security stuff. There is a sign out in front of the gate that lists the added security measures that are mandated by the U.S. government for travel to the country. Oh well, one way or another, it's time to go home :).

Checked-In and Ready to Go

I am glad that I chose the airport view room as I enjoyed watching planes take off and land this morning. I went early to check-in and hand my bags off to Qantas. Then, I returned to the hotel to enjoy watching TV / the airplanes for a while longer before heading back to the airport to actually go through security. This is pretty easy considering that the hotel is connected to the airport by foot-bridges.

Unfortunately, American Airlines wouldn't let me have the seat I wanted on my flight from LAX to Austin. So, the Qantas lady (who was actually the same person who checked me in when I went to New Zealand), had to put me in a middle seat for my 3 hour flight from LAX to Austin. I'm not thrilled about that. But that flight is almost literally 24 hours away, so I'm not worrying too much about that. A 3 hour flight should feel short after the flight from Melbourne to LAX.

Well, this has been quite the adventure and I'm sad to leave, but also excited to get back to the U.S. I filled out my departure card and it felt good to write 'USA' in the box where you list your destination country. I think it is just about time to check-out of the hotel and head over to the airport to go home :).

All Good Things...

Some ten weeks after leaving Austin on this great adventure, my last night in Australia has arrived. I am spending tonight at a hotel next to the Melbourne airport to make things easier for my flight tomorrow morning. By my calculation, Monday the 15th of March will last about 42 hours for me. I'm not really sure that there is a good way to avoid the jet lag that will probably result from the trip. Everyone here has said that it is much more difficult to travel from Australia to the U.S. I can understand this given the flight times. When I arrived in Australia it took no more than a day (2 at most) to become adjusted to the time difference. Tomorrow, I will leave Melbourne at 11am and arrive at LAX a little after 7am on the same day (but at what will feel like a little after 1am for me). Oh well, I'm sure it'll work out okay.

Earlier today, I met up with some of the folks from CSIRO at the Belgian Beer Garden in Melbourne. Anita had decided to set up a farewell drinks party for me and it was really nice to see everyone one last time on this trip. I don't think the fact that I won't see those people this week at work has really set in. It is probably very similar to when I felt like I couldn't really comprehend being out of the country or away from Austin for 10 weeks. In many ways, Melbourne has felt like home and the people I have worked with have felt like family. I will miss them and I will miss Melbourne...

I remember my first days in Australia. Everything was so exciting and somewhat surprisingly challenging. I remember being so excited about the first meal I ordered and the frustration of trying to figure out how the cafe's worked on Lygon Street. I learned what white coffee is and I figured out how to get around the city on the trams. In those first few days, I did quite a bit of walking around - to the point where I had to stop because my feet hurt so much. But, I managed to figure out the 'lay of the land'.

Matt Hill introduced me to CSIRO and the group there. Over the next few days, I met the rest of the CSIRO group. Anita introduced me to Tim and we went shopping in Glennferrie on the way home from CSIRO on my first day. Anita made me feel at home over a great salmon dinner that evening - it was great to have a home cooked meal. I also learned how to use the trains that evening. The next morning, I was interviewed on TV at the train station. That day turned out to be the hottest day of my stay in Melbourne - the previous night I couldn't sleep and eventually gave up at 5:45am when I saw that it was still 31 deg C outside. Beyond those things, my routine started to normalize as my schedule at CSIRO became more regular. That first week, Anita introduced me to Brian Cherry as I helped sail Brian's yacht in my first yacht race.

Anita had told me to make sure that I made a list of the things that I wanted to do so that I made sure to do them before time ran out. I had made a list of all of the weekends that I would be here (early on) so that I could start planning out my sightseeing adventures. The first few weekends consisted mainly of sightseeing in and around Melbourne. Particularly in the beginning, I felt pressure to get out and do absolutely everything that I possibly could do. I think this was good (in the end) because I really feel like I did as much as I could do. Certainly, there is still more to do and I keep saying that those things make an even stronger case for me to come back!

January flew by and before I knew it, the time had come to go to New Zealand. Getting out of Australia was certainly an interesting experience, but I made it to Auckland nonetheless! After a short time in Auckland, I joined Anita and Tim for the Wagga conference on Waiheke Island. The island provided great scenery and a great backdrop for a conference. I learned a lot about solid-state and condensed matter physics at the conference. It was not the type of conference that I would typically attend, and this made it all the more interesting. Our team won the conference team trivia challenge and, before I knew it, the conference was over and it was time to move to Queenstown.

I still think that Queenstown is probably my favorite spot on the planet. On a trip where so many places seemed so amazing, Queenstown still sticks out in my mind as being the best. I spent 4 action packed days there hiking, horseback riding, whitewater rafting, enjoying amazing sunsets, and so much more. I still think that Winnie's Pizza was the best pizza I had during this trip and my fish and chips meal by the lake at sunset still sticks out as my most memorable meal of the past 10 weeks. I remember feeling amazingly powerful emotions while I was there. It was easy to feel like I could do absolutely anything while sitting more or less in the absolute middle of nowhere. The place just seemed to be full of so much energy and I tried to soak up as much of that as I could. I was often awake before the sun came up and I would stay out watching the sunset until it was dark. The exhilarating trip ended in a whirlwind as I had to run through the Christchurch airport to catch my flight back to Melbourne. I still really have no memory of what the Christchurch airport looked like.

Back from New Zealand, I only had 2 days in Melbourne before my next adventure. Those 2 days were pretty busy though. I pulled a late shift at the SAXS beamline at the Australian Synchrotron with Paolo (with help from Aaron and Cara). I will never forget Cara and Aaron stressing how we needed to make up time since they had trouble earlier in the day. As soon as they left, Paolo turned to me to ask me if I wanted to go have dinner - haha. We had dinner while talking about Italy before we got back to work on the beamline. I got back to the Graduate House around 3:30am that morning and had to catch a flight at 8am.

My next adventure took me to Hamilton Island in the Whitsunday Islands. A swim in the Coral Sea, several great hiking trips, and awesome scenery were the highlights of my short visit. I met a girl, Alex, from Austin in the airport as I left Hamilton Island to head to Sydney. The next few days were a whirlwind adventure between Sydney and Brisbane.

At Coogee Beach, I stood on the edge of a cliff and watched the sunset as waves pounded against the rocks below. That night was one of those perfect nights where everything just seemed right. I was just filled with feelings of appreciation for all of the opportunities that I had been given. I woke up at 5:30am to see the sunrise only to find out that it was cloudy outside, but still got to enjoy the beach in the morning before heading to UNSW to meet Vicki Chen and her colleagues. After my seminar, I took off to Brisbane to tour the city and meet Joe De Costa at the University of Queensland. The highlight of the Brisbane trip was getting to hold a koala and the Jellyfish restaurant - both were amazing!

After Brisbane, I returned to Sydney for 2 more conferences. I had fun getting to know Aaron better during the MSA student conference. I also got to talk extensively with Tony Fane and I met Mikel Duke. In addition, I also met many other students at what turned out to be a wildly successful conference. After the MSA conference, I stayed in the most amazing hotel of my trip for a few nights - 'The Establishment'. From here, I explored the Rocks and Circular Quay in Sydney. I continued to explore Sydney throughout the ICONN conference until finally it was time to return to Melbourne.

For the last few weeks, I juggled my time between CSIRO and running AFM experiments at the University of Melbourne. Even as time wound down, I still was able to hire a car and explore the Great Ocean Road and other parts of Victoria. The past 2 weeks have particularly been a blurr and, before I knew it, it was time to start saying goodbye to places and people. Easily, this 10 weeks has been the most intense and exciting 10 week period of my life. The events listed here only summarize the things that I was able to do. Many of the rest of my adventures are documented in more detail in other posts...

Dr. Freeman said that this trip would forever change me for the better. I certainly think that it has. I believe that this trip has given me a different perspective on a number of things. For one, I feel much more confident about traveling and solving the types of problems and issues that can arise while doing this. I also think that this trip highlighted just how much there is to do out there... I can only image what other amazing places and people exist - just waiting for me to find them!

I wish I could list all of the people I've met during this trip. I have had the privilege of meeting so many interesting and nice people. Everyone from scientists and students to folks like taxi drivers and even a nice couple that invited me to join them for a bottle of wine at a cafe in Melbourne. I am forever grateful to those who shared their experiences and ideas with me. I have learned so much (both personally and technically) from these interactions and conversations. Perhaps most of all, I will miss morning talks over coffee with Anita prior to riding in to CSIRO with Tim...

I am so grateful to all of the people who have helped me get here and have this great experience. I couldn't possibly list all of the people here, but I like to hope that they know who they are... I am also thankful for the friends from back home who kept in touch via e-mail and/or Skype. It always meant a lot to hear from people from back home! As much as I will miss the people here and Australia in general, I also miss my friends and family back home and I look forward to seeing those people soon!

So this has been a glance into the things that are running through my head tonight. I could probably keep writing all night if I wanted to, but I think the overarching point is obvious. I have had a great time here in Australia (in so many ways) and I am so thankful for everyone who has helped me here or helped me to get to the point where I had this opportunity.

Last Day in Melbourne

Today started out with me moving out of the hotel that I have been staying in for the past 2 nights. I packed up all of my stuff (in a more organized fashion this time) and checked-out of the hotel (leaving my stuff with the hotel desk). After leaving the hotel, I went to church for the 11am high mass at St. Patrick's cathedral. I have been going to the earlier masses while I have been in Melbourne, so this was my first high mass. It was quite the experience! The Archbishop of Melbourne was the primary celebrant. In addition to the archbishop, another visiting bishop and 3 priests were taking part in the mass.

This was quite the spectacle of catholic tradition and procedure. Nine altar servers and a choir of probably 50-60 people joined the archbishop, bishop, and priests around the altar. The archbishop and the bishop each had 3 altar servers to tend to their needs (in particular, the altar servers are responsible for holding the mitre (hat) and staff for each bishop). Altar servers are not allowed to actually touch these items with their bare hands - so they wear a special cloth that covers their hands. I had the opportunity to do this once back at home when Bishop Dattilo celebrated a confirmation mass at St. Patrick's in Carlisle.

As this was a high mass, the majority of the mass was sung (or canted). This was really cool since the archbishops voice echoed throughout the cathedral. Even though the mass was a bit longer than usual, it was definitely worth it. I had never been to a 'normal' mass where a bishop or an archbishop was the celebrant (the case back in Carlisle was a special mass for confirmation). It was cool to see how well the movement of everyone around the altar was choreographed. After mass, I walked around the church a bit more and it was cool to get up close and personal looks at everything.

Upon leaving, I was able to get a photo of the archbishop and the visiting bishop greeting people outside of the cathedral. I wish that I could have taken photos inside, but this is not looked upon favorably. When I got to church, I felt kind of strange walking in with my laptop bag and another bag holding 3 bottles of wine. Oh well, I felt better when I thought about the fact that the 3 bottles of wine were gifts for others - haha. Altogether, it was a cool experience and I was glad that I decided to go to that mass.

Now, I am checking up on e-mail and other things before I meet up with the CSIRO crew for afternoon farewell drinks! Anita flew back to Melbourne (from the U.S.) this morning - so there is a chance that I'll be flying on the same plane tomorrow morning (I'm not sure how quickly they turn the jumbo jets around). I'm looking forward to seeing everyone one last time before I make my way out to the airport. I will stay at a hotel near the airport for the night tonight and then I fly out tomorrow morning. It is hard to believe that these 10 weeks have gone by so quickly. I'll have more thoughts on this later. But for now, I am going to focus on enjoying my last day in Melbourne!

St. Kilda and My Last Night in Downtown Melbourne

After my morning of catching up on the internet / walking around, I decided to head down to St. Kilda since I hadn't had the chance to make it there yet. St. Kilda is a beach town located south of Melbourne. I was under the impression that it was pretty close to Melbourne (which is probably true). However, it was far enough away that the decision to walk there may have been a poor choice. In any case, I finally made it to the beach after walking several kilometers to get there. The views were nice, but at the heart of it all, St. Kilda is a beach town. I walked along the pier and took some nice photos of the city skyline/beach. The weather was great for being out and about, so I think the photos came out nicely.

As I was making my way down the pier, I saw some huge jellyfish in the water. As I went further, I saw a guy who was actually getting into the water (with the direction of his friends) to swim up next to a jellyfish for a photo opportunity. These jellyfish were easily 2 to 3 feet long from end to end. It made me think of the final dogfight scene in the Top Gun movie where Maverick tells his RIO (now Merlin since Anthony Edward's character, Goose, had died by this point in the movie) "I'm bringing him in closer" and Merlin's great response is "You're gonna do WHAT!?!". I didn't stick around to see how that guy's photo op with the jellyfish turned out.

I had lunch at a sea-side cafe and had a great barramundi fillet. I had never had barramundi before and I really liked it! After lunch, I walked along the beach and saw some cool sky-writing! After the walk along the beach, I decided to walk back to Melbourne. Even though the walks were quite long, I enjoyed being outdoors and enjoyed the nice weather.

Back in Melbourne, I had to finish up a few loose ends - mainly wrapping the remaining gifts and also buying a few more things for those gifts. I also bought a few souvenirs! I spent most of the later afternoon and evening taking care of that business and also walking around the city a little bit more. I'm winding things down a bit early tonight while watching the Australian version of 'America's Funniest Home Videos'.

Wakie Wakie Melbourne!

Since I ended up going to bed early last night, I woke up pretty early. I went out for an early morning walk in search of a coffee shop to check e-mail / update the blog. Not too many people were out and about this morning. I suppose this makes sense since most would be sleeping in. In any case, it is shaping up to be another beautiful day here in Melbourne. The view from my hotel room was great!

As I walked along the streets, I could see the jewelers busy at work setting out watches, rings, and other jewelery in the store windows to get ready for the day. I'm not entirely sure about what I am going to do today, but I will just figure that out as I go! I should probably spend some time re-packing my stuff in a (slightly) more intelligent fashion!

Last Day of 'Work' in Melbourne

Today I moved out of the Graduate House after packing everything I own here in Australia. After moving out, I dragged all of my stuff a few kilometers down the road to a hotel in the CBD of Melbourne. Luckily, the weather was pretty nice outside, but it is amazing how much farther away things seem when you're carrying probably close to 75 lbs of stuff... Anyhow, I made it to the hotel just fine and left the bulk of my luggage with the desk so that I could make my way back up to the university for one final day.

I spent most of the day doing admin things to make sure that everything is in order since the next few days will be a little crazy with living in hotels and then the eventual flight back to the U.S. I had a lunch meeting scheduled with Trevor Finlayson (retired professor in physics). I had met Trevor via Anita in New Zealand at the Wagga conference. He had suggested that we get lunch at some point at the University. So, nothing like doing these things on the last day! Anyhow, we went to have lunch at the University Club. They don't really seem to have these sorts of the things in the U.S. The University Club is really a 'country club' of sorts and only members and their guests are allowed in. In any case, it was a nice place and a very nice looking building. It was a little awkward at first because I couldn't remember what Trevor looked like, so I was hoping he would recognize me. Luckily he did and I recognized him once I saw him. It was also a bit awkward with figuring out how lunch was being paid for. I paid for my own lunch - which was fine - but sometimes situations like that can be a bit uncomfortable when you aren't really sure what is going on. In any case, we had a nice lunch (great calamari, salad, and bread). We talked for a while and I enjoyed listening to his perspectives on graduate school. In particular, we talked a lot about the differences between pure science and engineering. It was very interesting and I learned a lot. I didn't realize it, but apparently Flame Atomic Adsorption (Flame AA) - a very common analytical tool in chemistry labs - was actually developed at CSIRO in Australia. Eventually, Varian (the current manufacturer) bought out the technology and their spectrometers are still produced here in Australia (just outside of Melbourne. I have certainly heard of Varian and Flame AA, so this was pretty cool to hear that it was developed and discovered at CSIRO. Apparently, Trevor and his group also worked quite a bit on perfecting some of the solid-state physics surrounding the operation of the Flame AA lamps - very cool indeed!

After lunch, I finished things up back at the University. I met with another professor in the chemical engineering department. A synthetic polymer chemist by training, we talked a lot about different polymers and block copolymer morphologies. He was a bit of an intense conversationalist, so it was a fun and lively conversation to say the least! After our conversation, I took one last trip around the campus before heading back down to the hotel for the evening. I spent the early portion of the evening walking through the Fitzroy Gardens. It was a great evening and the weather was just perfect. Afterward, I walked around the city for a while until I settled on a place to have dinner. I think I'll finish off the evening by just relaxing and watching TV.

I am hopeful that the work that we did at the University of Melbourne will turn out to be useful. I am still in the process of analyzing the data (and looking at lots of AFM pictures). Hopefully, we will be able to make some sense out of it. I felt like the visit at the university was a bit short - but I accomplished what I had hoped to accomplish. So, I believe it should be considered successful.

Great Coffee and a Seminar at the University of Melbourne

This morning, I decided to take things easy and work on some data analysis and start the process of packing for the trip home. I also had a nice conversation with mom via Skype for a while. After the Skype conversation, I went to check out a coffee shop that I had heard about the previous night while overhearing another dinner conversation. The coffee shop 'Seven Seeds' may be one of the most awesome coffee shops I have ever been to. You would never know that it existed unless someone told you about it as the facade is very plain. The coffee shop is actually located very close to the University, but you have to walk down a few streets to get there.

When I got the coffee shop, the first thing I noticed was that the atmosphere was great and the place was full of people. Located in a stretch of road that has a very noticeable 'urban' feel to it, the coffee shop had a very underground/urban feel to it. The place just seemed like the type of location where you would want to go to just chill for a while.

In addition to grinding their own beans (as most coffee shops do), this place also roasts their own beans. Large windows allowed customers to look in on the bean roasting process as a few workers were busy roasting another batch of coffee beans. The coffee itself was great (and reasonably priced)! It is probably good that I didn't find this early or else I probably would have spent way too much time and money going there.

After having coffee, I ate lunch in the park outside the Graduate House. The weather was great and it was nice to just be outside for a bit. A lot of university students were walking around and that always makes people watching even more interesting!

Afterward, I went back to my room and finished preparing for my seminar before getting dressed up and heading across the street to the university. I gave a departmental seminar to the department of chemical engineering and I think it went quite well! I felt like the audience enjoyed the talk and I received a few good questions. One girl, in particular, looked like she might have been enjoying it a little too much - haha. I have never seen someone watch a presentation with that much enthusiasm before. In any case, it was a good experience.

After the presentation, I went to dinner with Sandra, Judy, Colin, and Adrian. We went to dinner at an Italian restaurant on Lygon Street - making this my last dinner of the trip on Lygon Street. Unfortunately, I had been to better restaurants along that stretch of road, so that was a bit disappointing. But, the company was good and we had fun chatting away over dinner.

After dinner, I needed to pack up my life here in Australia for tomorrow's big move from the Graduate House to the first of 2 remaining hotels in Melbourne. I'm glad to see that I haven't accumulated too much stuff as I was just able to throw stuff in my suitcases (more or less randomly) and still have no problem closing them! My goal is to actually pack more carefully at some point this weekend. I have a few more bottles of wine to give away as gifts here, so that will change the packing scheme a bit. I also have a few more items that I want to buy here.

Anyhow, I think it's about time to call it a night! I have (for the most part) enjoyed staying in the Graduate House, but I probably won't miss the meals or the lack of air-conditioning (though the weather has cooled down quite a bit over the last few weeks). In any case, I still have a few more days to enjoy Melbourne and I am looking forward to those!

End of the AFM and 'Fort Beer'...

Today marked the last day for working on the AFM!! I was really happy to finish up the last sample. Now I need to sit down and analyze all of the data, but I think that will be less painful than trying to use the instrument. All in all, it went pretty well today with the exception of when I stabbed myself with a pair of sharp tweezers while trying to remove the magnet from one of the glass slides. Oh well, it shouldn't be the end of the world.

I was returning to campus after lunch when I came across 'Fort Beer', which had been built on the university's main quad. 'Fort Beer' had been constructed from Carlton Draught case boxes. Several students were running around dressed up as cases of beer trying to herd other students to the fort. The fort (which was quite large) contained several other students who were busy cooking burgers. I would guess that this was probably some sort of fundraiser. In any case, they were selling burgers and beer for lunch on the main quad of the university - definitely something that would not fly at almost any American university. Sometimes it is just nice to be in a place that is more relaxed. I would guess that those kids were supposed to legally have a license to sell alcohol, but who knows whether they were able to get a license for a fort made out of cardboard boxes. In any case, cardboard box forts are always cool - and this was no exception. I do miss the random fun things that take place on college campuses. I took some extra time today to just walk around campus during the lunch hour. A lot of people were out and about and it was fun to feel like a college student again!

Other than that, the day was pretty ordinary. I came back home a bit early after finishing up the AFM work and I have been working on some data analysis here and there. Tomorrow, I will give my U of Melbourne seminar and then a few of us will go to dinner on Lygon Street - likely to be my last dinner there...

Busy Tuesday

Today was one of those days where you get to experience a whole bunch of different emotions for (most often) unrelated reasons. This roller-coaster of a day essentially started a breakfast when the janitor yelled at me for sitting on the wrong side of the dining room. This was the first time I had heard that there was an 'exclusive' side of the dining room and a 'regular' side of the dining room. I've definitely sat on both sides before and I really don't think anyone else here knows about this or cares either. But, to the janitor he wasn't happy about this. He had a somewhat malicious tone in his voice and so much of me just wanted to do anything from simply looking at him and saying 'no thank you, I think I'll be okay here' to getting up and pouring coffee all over the table. As you can imagine, I got up and moved to 'the other side' of the room to finish my breakfast.

After that somewhat less than ideal start to the day, I got to enjoy the exciting rush of racing down the steps at Flinder's Street Station to catch a train just in time. The doors were closing, so I had to throw myself into the gap so that the doors would open back up and I could get on. Never underestimate the sense of exhilaration and accomplishment found by 'just' catching a train like that - haha!

My day turned nostalgic as it came time to leave CSIRO for the last time (as I have described below). However, when I got back to Melbourne, the sun had come out and I was feeling adventurous. So, I went and walked through St. Paul's Cathedral (Anglican Church - i.e. The Church of England). Though this cathedral sits just a few hundred meters from Flinder's Street Train Station (i.e. I've gone past it almost every day since I've been here), I hadn't gone in yet. The decorations were really nice and the cathedral had a very ornate feel to it. Even the tile work on the floor was very intricate.

I was surprised by how much access visitors had. The main altar (located at the crossing) was closed off, but visitors could access the choir altar (located behind the main altar). They also had a cool baptismal font. The basin had what appeared to be a large steeple sitting directly over it. However, this steeple 'cover' was attached to the ceiling via a cable. It would appear to me that this could be raised during a baptism. If anything, it was unique. They also had a walk-in baptismal font.

After walking around for a while, I made my way toward the large stained glass window by the exit of the cathedral. I walked around outside for a bit and decided to walk some of the way back to the U. of Melbourne. There were a lot of people outside relaxing (it seems like no one actually works here sometimes since this was ~2pm - haha). It was a nice, cool, sunny day for walking around in the city. Eventually I decided to hop on a tram and go the rest of the way back to the university.

There I just wanted to neutralize some polymer samples (this consists of soaking them in a solution of essentially table salt). So, this was pretty easy. I just needed to make up the solution and pour it into the appropriate jars as each already had a sample in it. It went pretty well. One of the students who I hadn't met approached me and I figured he wanted to say 'hi'. Nope, he wanted to reprimand me for not wearing a lab coat in the lab. Now this is just ridiculous when working with water and table salt. In fact, I would bet that I was more at risk putting on the disgustingly dirty lab coat that he gave me.

(By the way, the photo of the beach ball didn't come from the lab today. Rather, I took this photo during the summer of 2004 after we had set this up in the gate area of the Boiling Springs Pool as a joke. However, I thought it was fitting to include here.)

Afterward, I returned to the graduate house to do my final load of laundry. I should have enough clothes to make it until next week and I'll just wash the rest when I get back to Austin. I also had dinner in the garden behind the Graduate House (no grumpy janitors there!). Dinner was actually pretty good tonight - a pleasant surprise! Now, I need to sit down and do some data analysis. I'll be cozy'ing up to the AFM all day tomorrow. So, today was a busy, but all-around generally good day!

Last Day at CSIRO...

Saying goodbye is rarely easy. For me, I usually find that I get attached to both places and people. So even though I will see the CSIRO group one final time on Sunday evening, I felt nostalgic leaving the CSIRO campus for the last time (at least for this trip). I've enjoyed having the opportunity to work at CSIRO.

This morning, I took the train into CSIRO as I have done since Anita left for the U.S. a week or so ago. As much as traveling by train has been relatively easy and stress-free, I look forward to returning to Austin where I am a short 7 minute drive away from my office compared to the hour and a quarter tram/train/bus ride to and from CSIRO.

Still more PALS research remains to be done on several polymer samples from other members of the Freeman group in Austin. This work will fall largely on Cara's shoulders. I have tried to get as much done as I can. I will probably work on the analysis part of the experiments (which can be done from anywhere) in order to continue to push this research forward. I am sure that my fellow group members back in Austin will be excited to get their experimental results!

The weather has finally turned a bit better today (after a large rainstorm this morning). I think it has rained (quite significantly) at some point on each of the previous 4 or 5 days. Certainly this is not the norm for Melbourne - a city that has been in the midst of a serious drought for several years now. I wouldn't mind having some nicer weather before I head home! There are still a few sights that I would like to see in the city and I will just have to see how practical that is given time and the weather constraints.

The First of the Lasts...

Today was the start of my last week in Australia. After returning the car, I made my way over to the University of Melbourne for the day. I am currently working on data analysis - a much more relaxed experience compared to running the AFM.

I am starting to think about getting things ready for the big move later this week. I need to have pretty much my whole life here packed up and ready to go on Thursday evening. From there, I will move to hotels until I fly home. Certainly packing to go home will be easier than packing to come here (since everything has to go this time). I'm curious to see how much I have actually accumulated over the past 9 and a half weeks...

I started reading about what to expect when I return to the U.S. I'm probably the only person that ever gets online to read this stuff. I found it somewhat amusing that they make a big deal out of saying that they don't think anyone is trying to do anything wrong and they want to help people get back into the country. Then the next several pages of the booklet proceed to tell you about all of the t's and i's that you have to cross and dot in order to be allowed back in. I'm sure it's not really that complicated, but they sure don't make it sound simple. Apparently, I need to have receipts for everything I have purchased here? I guess I'm going to need to go digging through all of my receipts to pick things out...

Other than that, things are pretty much business as usual here!

Driving through Victoria

Today was probably my last major adventure (in terms of travel) here in Australia. This morning I started out by driving down to the Mornington Peninsula. I had been down here before, but with the GPS I was able to take a more scenic route along the beaches of Port Phillip Bay. The weather was a little iffy as it had rained quite a bit over night. Unfortunately, it was a little too cloudy to be able to see the city from the beaches, but it was still a nice drive.

I stopped off at a few wineries along the way. It was so much nicer to be navigating the back-roads with the GPS compared to the last time I made the trip to the wineries. After visiting a few wineries and making some additional purchases (mostly gifts for people here), I decided that I would turn north and drive up to the Yarra Ranges National Park.

This drive had been suggested by an Australian driving magazine - and I can see why. The roads were very scenic and fun to drive. Part of the drive went through thick eucalyptus forests and the road was very narrow and not well paved. I made it through okay, but the driving was a bit more intense than I had expected. Later in the drive, the pavement improved and I really had a lot of fun driving through the windy forest roads. It reminded me a lot of driving back home in that the roads were just more interesting (compared to Texas where everything is more or less flat and relatively straight).

Those two components to my trip pretty much made up the entire day. I would say that the renting a car experience went pretty well and I was glad that I was able to do a few more things this weekend. I'm not quite sure what this week or this coming weekend will bring in terms of tourism. At some point, I am going to need to pack and start the process of heading back home...

Driving, Awesome Scenery, & Crazy Storms

Today was quite an eventful day in the state of Victoria... I had been feeling as though it had been just a little too long since the last time I did something crazy cool here, so I decided to rent (or hire - as they say here) a car for the weekend so that I could go do some 'extended' touring of Victoria!

My day started early for a Saturday (6:30am) so that I could pick up the car just as the rental shop opened up. The guy at the desk was really nice (not always something you find when renting cars) and I didn't feel like they tried to pressure me into a whole bunch of extra things that I didn't want (again, not always the case with these sorts of businesses).

My destination for the day was the Victoria coastline that is located west of Melbourne. More commonly known as 'The Great Ocean Road', this stretch of coastline (and the road that travels along it) is regarded as one of the most scenic areas in the world to drive and visit. The whole idea is very similar to 'The Road to Hana' (for those who are familiar with Maui). However, having done at least parts of both, I can definitely say that the Great Ocean Road has much better signage and the road and parking areas here in Australia seemed to be a bit more user friendly compared to the situation on Maui.

In any case, I had to drive pretty far just to get to the start of the Great Ocean Road. So, I set off from Melbourne with a general idea of where I was going (and a GPS unit to fill in the rest). The weather was a little iffy in the morning, but by the time I reached the start of the road, the skies had cleared and it was a beautiful sunny day! I made my way along the road stopping regularly to take a lot of scenic photos. As is the case with the Road to Hana on Maui, you can choose to stop where you want to and you can stay for as long or as little as you would like. Since I was by myself (and trying to get as much done as I could in the day) I opted to make most of the stops pretty quick (as opposed to stopping and swimming at a beach for example).

The scenery and the drive were great. There weren't many cars on the road, so it was very straightforward to get around and I didn't have trouble parking in the pull-off areas. The views were amazing and I took far more photos than I could ever post here.

I will try to list a few highlights here. My first stop was Bells Beach (just outside of Torquay). I walked around the beach for a while and climbed up on some rocks near where the surf was crashing. I caught a few good photos of birds (they always make me think of the birds from 'Finding Nemo' - mine!). This was a good start to the trip as there weren't many people there and the parking was very easy.

Afterward, I went to visit a lighthouse that had been visible from the beach outside of Torquay. Here there were a few paths to walk around and I started to get the feeling of how awesome the scenery was going to be on this trip. I must say though, I didn't feel completely safe at the lighthouse because there were 'No-Superman' signs posted everywhere around the site - hahaha (seriously, I felt perfectly safe - these signs are really 'No-Standing' street signs that are found all throughout Australia, but I think it's more fun to call them 'No-Superman' signs) Afterward, I proceeded along the coast (stopping off at various points as I went). I passed through the towns of Angelsea and Lorne. While it might have been nice to have stopped, I figured that it would be best to press on.

As I moved further along the road, I came across signs reminding folks to drive on the left-hand side of the road. These continued for the rest of the Great Ocean Road. The thing that puzzled me was that they didn't start them until well along the road. So, you would assume that, if someone made it that far without dying, he or she had figured out the whole left-hand side of the road by that time. Honestly, it isn't that difficult to get used to... Any person with a moderate level of intelligence and a willingness to be diligent will have no problem driving in Australia (or New Zealand and England for that matter).

The roads were setup nicely with a lot of opportunities to pull over. This not only helped for taking photos, but it also allowed slower drivers to pull over and let faster drivers go by. I think this really made a big difference in terms of how smoothly the road seemed to flow.

I decided to stop in Apollo Bay for lunch (and was lucky to find a parking space). Apollo Bay is known as a fishing town, so I found a place to eat lunch where I could get a sampling of various seafood. I had the 'fisherman's basket' with shrimp, white fish, scallops, and calamari (served on pasta salad, a garden salad, and fries). It was really good!

After Apollo Bay, the road moves inland for a bit and runs through Otway National Park. The park is largely made up of eucalyptus trees. These make for great scenery while driving. Eucalyptus trees are somewhat like palm trees in that the branches and leaves grow from the top - creating an upper canopy. This makes for a cool 'tunnel-like' experience when you are driving through a eucalyptus forest. It can be hard to focus on the road though, because it is easy for your eyes to drift upwards to look for wild koalas. :) In fact, I saw a couple wild koalas up sleeping in their eucalyptus canopy. The southern koalas (such as those in Victoria) are easier to spot in the trees than the northern koalas (such as those in Queensland) - even though they are technically the same species. The southern koalas have a darker and thicker coat to protect them from the winters in Victoria. However, the northern koalas are lighter in color and they tend to blend in with the trees and the sky a bit more. In any case, it was cool to see them in the wild!

After the park, the road comes to the rock formations known as 'The 12 Apostles'. These rock formations are world famous and widely recognized. I stopped off to visit and immediately could see how much more of a tourist attraction this was. This was the only stop along the road that had its own visitor's center. It was actually kind of unfortunate in how it was setup because it felt much more like a tourist attraction as opposed to being out to see a spectacular natural phenomenon. Nonetheless, the scenery was great and I managed to get some good photos. Unfortunately, by this time in the afternoon, clouds had rolled in and it actually poured rain while I was at the 12 Apostles. I took shelter with pretty much everyone else who was there in the tunnel that connected the viewing platform to the visitor's center. I decided to stick around hoping that the sun would come out after the heavy rain and produce an awesome rainbow. While the sun did come out after the rain, no rainbow ended up appearing. While the weather wasn't great (i.e. bright blue skies and sunny), I think the cloudiness and particularly the time right after the rain produced some really unique views of the scenery. I guess most of the photos show the formations on 'perfect' weather days. However, with the different weather conditions, it was almost like the place had a different and more mysterious appeal to it. I don't think that the photos do the scenery justice at all. The lighting was very difficult and my tiny point and shoot camera can only do so much... In any case though, it was a pretty awesome thing to see. I just wish we didn't have to be restricted to a viewing platform.

Afterward, I drove to Port Campbell to walk around the town for a bit to stretch my legs. I punched the Graduate House into the GPS unit to see what my estimated return time was (from that point) to decide whether I should press on or turn back. I decided that it was probably time to head back to Melbourne, since I was also starting to feel a bit tired. I did not retrace my path back along the coast to get back to Melbourne. Rather, I took a far more direct inland route. I really was in the middle of nowhere though, I was glad I had the GPS because all I could see were farms and open fields for most of the trip home. From Port Campbell, it took me about 4 hours to get back to Melbourne (it certainly took much longer to get there following the Great Ocean Road). So, I did a lot of driving today. It's funny since I wouldn't often consider somewhere that is 4 hours away to be a great day trip. But it's amazing what opportunity and time constraints do to you! I would have ideally liked to make it the whole way to Adelaide and then make the ~12 hour direct trip back to Melbourne. However, it became apparent to me in planning the trip that this would be a bit too ambitious given the time that I have left here in Australia. I am amazed when I think about all of the things I have seen and done in the past 9 weeks. I have had several people here tell me that I have seen far more of Australia in 9 weeks than they have in their whole lives...

The drive back to Melbourne was pretty dull. It was a lot of straight and flat roads through farmland. As I got closer to Melbourne and started picking up the Melbourne radio stations, it became apparent that Melbourne had been hit by a rather significant storm. The radio broadcasters were referring to it as possibly the worst storm to ever hit Melbourne. Apparently, an intense storm of an enormous amount of rain, high winds, and golf-ball size hail hit the city during the later afternoon. They were saying on the radio that many streets were still shut down and that the city was a mess. By the time I got back to Melbourne, I would assume things were better, but they were still not good. I came in near the Docklands and the Southern Cross Train Station (2 areas that were hit pretty hard by hail and flash flooding). Apparently, the roof of the Southern Cross Train Station collapsed during the storm and there is a crazy photograph of this happening and the water pouring into the station on a local newspaper website... I was glad that I had the GPS because I had to be very creative with the route I took to get home. Many streets were still blocked with trees or car accidents and flooding blocked other roads. Finally, I made it back to the Graduate House and it felt good to park the car and just relax knowing I had made it back (I still have the car for tomorrow and I am planning to do more touring). I have read online that there were many injuries from people at festivals since this storm came out of nowhere apparently. This weekend is Labour (their way of spelling it) Day here in Australia. So there were several festivals and outdoor events going on when the storm hit. All in all, it was a sad day for Melbourne. Initial reports indicate significant damages to some buildings and houses downtown and in the suburbs, but I'm sure the extent of the damage won't be fully known for at least a few days. In any case, I'm glad I wasn't in the city with the rented car when it hit... I've had my fill of driving in golf-ball sized hail! So, altogether I am fine and the city will be fine too, but it sure made for an interesting end to the day.

Altogether, I had a great day touring the coastline and it was a lot of fun to get the chance to drive around. Driving on the left-hand side of the road has become so second nature for me that I am worried I will have trouble when I get back to Austin. :) I had also forgotten how much I miss listening to the radio regularly. I have had my iPod here with me, but listening to the radio today, I realized how far behind I am on pop culture! There were so many songs that I had not heard before! Combine that with all the TV shows that I haven't seen in the last 9 weeks and I'm going to have some catching up to do when I get home - hahaha!

Winding Down the Week

Today was a calmer day around the University of Melbourne. It would seem that we are done with the AFM samples. I can see differences in the surface of the material, but interpretation will probably take a little more 'sitting and starring at it' as Dr. Bonnecaze would probably say.

So, I spent most of the day hanging out in my office. I have something like 6 desks to myself in the visiting professor's office suite since no one else is currently using that room. It's pretty nice and I am the only one in the U of Melbourne group (including Dr. Kentish) who has air conditioning in my office - haha.

Toward the end of the day, I met with Dr. Kentish and a few of the students to do a little teaching. I was going through mathematical derivations to describe the experiments that we do in Austin. I also taught them about the mechanism for water diffusion through a non-porous polymer such as those used in reverse-osmosis membranes. This was pretty straightforward and it was nice to have a day where I could focus on other aspects of my work.

Victoria University

Today I visited the membrane research labs at Victoria University's Werribee campus. Werribee is decently far from Melbourne, to the point where many consider it more to be its own town as compared to a western suburb of Melbourne. In any case, by train, it took about an hour to get there and I left after working (somewhat unsuccessfully) on the AFM for a few hours in the morning.

I was glad that I woke up feeling a bit better this morning. I have still felt a little stuffed up, but it has not been nearly as bad as it was for the past few days...

When I arrived in Werribee, I met up with Mikel Duke, Stephen Gray, and two other professors who didn't really talk much. We went to a local restaurant for lunch and I had a great minute steak along with a glass of wine. After lunch, we went to the university and I gave a seminar to the membrane-related groups at VU. The seminar went well and I am hopeful that the students (and professors) were able to learn something from the presentation!

After the talk, I toured their facilities for a while. I was very impressed with the lab setup that they have at Victoria University. Their in-house analytical capabilities are very impressive. I wish we had that kind of equipment right at our finger tips. We have access to all of the same equipment at UT, but it is often either part of a shared-use facility or located in other departments/labs. So, equipment is not always available exactly when you would like it to be. It's not really a problem, but it would be much more convenient to run an experiment across the hall as opposed to across campus.

I was also impressed by the amount of larger-scale equipment and pilot testing equipment that VU has. It is obvious that they are well grounded in industry application and I think it is great that they have large-scale facilities available. Mikel told me that most of it has been donated as hand-me-downs from industry, but it is certainly better than nothing. Altogether, I enjoyed the visit and I was glad that I made the trip. I have enjoyed getting to know Mikel and I am hopeful that this will be one of many friendships that will extend beyond my visit here in Australia.

The train ride back home was pretty quick since I caught an express train (it's so awesome when that happens)! Unfortunately, dinner was not good at the Graduate House. I am really looking forward to being able to cook for myself again. I have missed good home cooked meals while I have been here.

So, now I am finishing up some work for the day. I have a few things to do tomorrow at the University of Melbourne and then it will be time for the weekend! This week has just flown by since it has been so busy. I like to think that I have accomplished a lot this week - I am hoping AFM time will be rewarded with good results once we can compare all of the samples.

CSIRO/U of Melbourne Day

Today was an early morning as I wanted to get out to CSIRO early to take care of some samples with Cara. Unfortunately, I woke up with my head-cold in full gear - not a great start to the day. I took the train and bus out to CSIRO as I have done before. However, this time there were a ton of people trying to get on the bus. The driver was great in that he just kept telling people to get on (to the point where he had to stop letting people validate their bus passes or else the system would reject them because the bus was so full). I have never been on a bus that was that packed. I couldn't reach anything to hold on to, but it didn't matter because I was so tightly pressed against other people (mostly Monash University college students) that I wasn't going to move anywhere. There were people sitting on the dashboard of the bus (literally resting on the windshield). In any case, we made it to Monash safely and I walked over to CSIRO (right next to Monash University).

I got to CSIRO around 8am and had forgotten that no one else gets there that early... So, I sat around and did other work until Cara showed up around 9am and we got right to work on boiling some of Joe's samples in acid. The treatment isn't difficult, but they want me to be around to help with it since I have more experience with this sort of thing. It all works out okay though, I would much rather hang around with the CSIRO group than fight with the AFM...

I caught up with Aaron and got some of the photos from the MSA student conference that was in Wollongong 2 weeks ago. Here is the 'conference photo'. For any readers who are membrane-people, see if you can pick out Anita Hill, Vicki Chen, Tony Fane, and/or Pierre Le-Clech (as they were some of the head-lining scientists and faculty members at the conference).

I also talked with Aaron about his upcoming trip to the U.S. He will be in Austin during South by Southwest (http://sxsw.com) which is a music, film, and art festival in Austin. It's a pretty big deal, so Aaron is having a bit of trouble finding a place to stay in downtown Austin. I made some suggestions, but I think it will be difficult to find a centrally located hotel in Austin during that time. There are certainly other places to stay, but they won't be as close to the downtown area.

After that discussion, I went back down to the lab to find that the steam that had condensed on the outside of the sample vials caused the 'water-resistant' marker to wash away... This was not good... I went back up to the offices to get Cara and start talking about what to do. We went back down to the lab and started to take the sample vials out of the larger holding beaker when she noticed that if you held the samples in the light at just the right angle, a little bit of marker residue was still visible. So, we dodged a huge bullet there and were able to identify (and re-label) all of Joe's samples. After getting the samples sorted, it was time for me to head back to the University of Melbourne.

I came back to find that Judy was working on setting up the AFM for doing hydrated sample work. Apparently, this is far from trivial as we had a lot of trouble getting good images. I guess a lot of it comes down to selecting the right resonance frequency for the tip (which you have to measure) and then setting the right forces and driving force frequencies for the instrument. I understand how these things work at a superficial level only, so I'm not great at knowing what to do to make the image look better. Unfortunately, since Judy is learning too, she's not much better. This is definitely a case where it would be nice to work with someone who has a lot of experience in this area.

So, we struggled our way through the afternoon and finally started getting some decent images when the guy who runs the AFM center came in to say hi. Clearly he was originally American and he immediately picked up on the fact that I was not from Texas. He did his undergrad at the University of Delaware when Andrew Zydney was still a professor there (prior to becoming the chem. eng. department head at Penn State) and he did his PhD at Carnegie Mellon when Darrell Velegol was still a PhD student there (before later becoming a chem. eng. professor at Penn State). So, we had a bit in common there. But I didn't really like the guy from the start. He had a very condescending tone when he asked me why I would have wanted to go to the University of Texas for graduate school (Carnegie Mellon does have a good graduate program, but check the rankings if you're curious to see where UT sits). Unfortunately, over the years, I have met a few people from Carnegie Mellon who have come off as being very stuck up. That being said, I also know some great people who do or did go to school there (including Eric 'Go State' Menendez - who is one of the most genuinely friendly and humble individuals I know). Don't get me wrong, I am extremely proud of both Penn State University and the University of Texas but I try very hard to avoid projecting a superiority complex over others - regardless of where they are from.

He sat down and flew through a tutorial on how to use the instrument. This was nice, except he went through it so quickly that it ended up not being helpful 20 minutes after he left the room. He also made a few other condescending remarks that didn't sit well with me. He was talking about the feedback controller and he made some comment about whether I would know anything about control theory (a standard chemical engineering course that I have taken). I politely told him that, yes indeed Penn State does teach control theory in undergraduate chemical engineering. He also made a comment about the sample being a polymer membrane and mentioned that he had worked for a membrane start-up company - so he knew about membrane stuff. I really wanted to ask him how that company is doing considering that he's running AFMs in Australia now. Anyhow, it just seemed like he's one of those people who isn't completely satisfied with how things worked out and so they take out their frustrations by trying to be dominant over other people. I think he knew that I come from a well respected university and he wanted to take some shots at me since he knows something about using AFMs (whereas I do not know so much about AFMs). I'll live, but with the head-cold and all, I could have done without that conversation.

Afterward, Judy and I tried to collect a few more images before I decided to call it a day. I came back and just finished running through my seminar for Mikel Duke's group at Victoria University. I will go out to Werribee to give the seminar and tour their facilities tomorrow afternoon (after working on the AFM for a bit during the morning). I enjoyed talking with Mikel at the MSA and ICONN conferences, so I am looking forward to the visit!

A Full Day of AFM'ing

So, today was a busy day of working on the AFM and my neck is really sore from sitting at the machine for most of the day... I managed to get a bunch of samples run by the end of the day and I think the data makes some sense - though we need to run more images to know for sure. I am finding that the experiment is very sensitive and this can be rather annoying. Judy left me to do most of the work for the day. This was good because I can sit there and fiddle around with the instrument since I am looking at my samples. This also lets Judy get her work done too. In any case, she came back to check on me a few times and, at one point later in the day, I was recording an image when she came in and started talking. I noticed that the noise in my image started spiking and I also noticed that it was linked to when Judy was speaking... So apparently, the tip is so sensitive that sound waves cause it to resonate and add noise to the image that you are collecting. I think this is one of those instruments where (once you get it working) you don't touch it, talk to it, look at it, or even think about it or else it will find some way to get you back.

I'm getting a bit of a head cold (likely resulting from the other night when it got really cold overnight). I'm hoping to kick this thing soon, but it is making work a little less pleasant in the meantime...

I am finding one thing that I cannot stand about the U of M Chem Eng. building - there are no water fountains anywhere! I don't understand why there aren't any drinking fountains in the building! So, I brought my water bottle back over after lunch since there's no other way to have a drink (it seems).

After a busy morning and early afternoon of AFM time, I went over to the mechanical engineering building for my safety training... Actually, this was more of a workplace health and safety training as it focused on many areas of health and safety. Sometimes I wonder how the people that give these presentations can keep going on and on about this stuff. Anyhow, the meeting lasted about an hour and, finally, I was able to leave and get back to the AFM (after a quick stop across the street to pick up a notebook). When I was on my way back to the Chem. Eng. building, I came across the girl that had just given us the health and safety talk. She was smoking a cigarette out in the courtyard - seemed ironic for the 'health and safety warden'.

After the safety training, I motored through several additional samples until about 7pm or so when I decided to call it quits for the day. I generated about 72 AFM images and I think most of the data looks pretty good. These images will serve as a baseline for later work where we will look at hydrated samples. I analyzed some of the data this evening and the trends seem to make sense - which is encouraging.

After spending about a half an hour writing about a 7 sentence e-mail (in French) to one of my former students (regarding my upcoming trip to Europe), I have decided to call it an early night to try to get rested up to get rid of this head cold!

AFM and the University of Melbourne

This week is already shaping up to be quite busy! This morning was my first day at the University of Melbourne. Interestingly enough, it was also the first day of the fall term at U of M. So, I made my way to the chemical engineering building prior to my 9am meeting with Dr. Sandra Kentish while passing several dazed and confused freshmen. Most of them held maps - probably trying to find their way to their first college class. It made me think about my first day of college. I think my situation was a bit different in that I had already been at Penn State for a week participating in Blue Band camp getting ready for the season. That definitely helped as far as meeting people and learning where things were on campus. In any case, it is always nice to see that some things don't change regardless of where you go (even including sidewalk evangelists - common to college campuses - handing out their prayer books and spreading their message).

My meeting with Sandra went well and I also met the post-doc, Judy, who I will be working with. I was assigned a desk in the visiting professor's office (complete with windows and all!). However, after the meeting, I had to bolt back to CSIRO for a hit-and-run visit to pick up my samples (I hadn't thought about bringing them back with me before I left on my most recent trip). It was a bit inconvenient since it took about an hour each way to get to CSIRO just to pick up samples, but it was necessary. When I got to CSIRO I had the chance to stop in and say hi to Anita. She will leave for the U.S. tomorrow and I could tell that she is quite frazzled about that. I gathered my samples and quickly met with Cara to discuss experimental plans and the schedule for the coming week. I still have a few things to do at CSIRO and it will probably be a bit difficult to balance that and my time at the University of Melbourne. In any case, I'm sure it will all work out.

After I returned to the U of M and grabbed lunch, I started on atomic force microscopy (AFM) with Judy. We started by preparing samples and getting ready to measure the surface characteristics of my polymer samples. I also had the chance to tour the labs and meet other group members. The lab is definitely smaller and somewhat less established than our operations at UT or the lab at CSIRO, but this makes sense since Sandra has only been working in membranes for a few years. In any case, there should be opportunities for me to help them get their equipment up and running.

The AFM is really kind of annoying to run. Loading samples and getting ready to take data isn't too bad, but there are a lot of control parameters and force/frequency settings that need to be adjusted. Apparently, Judy is learning too, so we both tried to make our way through the process of obtaining decent looking images. It's not as easy as those flashy nanoscience papers make it look...

After work, I came back to the Graduate House (just a walk across the street). I did some work and caught up on e-mail from the day. I also tried to fix my schedule for the week since I will likely be going out to Werribee later this week to give a seminar to Mikel Duke's group at Victoria University. I also need to figure out when I will fit the CSIRO commitments in. As I said in the beginning, it will probably be a long and busy week, but things should work out okay!