[1]By crossing the international dateline I lost an entire day of my life, and not just any day Halloween! In protest, I've moved my birthday forward a day. From now on I'm celebrating on June 21st instead of June 20th. It might sound strange, but on your deathbed how much would you give to have an extra day?
Obliviously I'm still a bit jetlagged, incoherent, and melodramatic, so I'll be brief.
The last week has been great. I'm settling pretty well in my dorm room, with undergrads swarming all around me. The Australian National Universitie's campus is in the city, but still its own segmented area. The campus and city is very green, with 10,000 hectares of grass and trees (New York’s Central Park is 341 hectares).
I arrived the same day as the Melbourne Cup, Australia's version of the Kentucky Derby. The whole campus shutdown to drink beer and watch the horse race. It was a crazy two minutes.
Everyone's been very nice so far. I've got a desk in a room I share with a PhD student, and I've spent the last week reading through papers, and learning the software and equipment they have here. Looks like there are a lot of different potential projects I can do in the next three months.
I’ve posted some pictures of the campus and dorm here [2]. Enjoy!