24/12 | UPDATE: Updated my Resume (not that I've had much to add during my time as PhD)... (professional
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24/12 | Merry Christmas and a Merry New Year !!
Hey everyone! I don't know if I'll have time to write a xmas letter this year - if I do it might be as late as January - but hope you all have a great Christmas anyway!
Hope you all have a fantastic new year - may 2008 bring you many new excellent adventures. :-P
24/12 | Trip to America
Guess who has just been on their first trip to the United States!
Yes, poor little Noske in big scary America.....
The best part of the trip was that it was free! Unfortunately it was a working trip (funny that no one agreed to pay me for a free holiday), which meant that out of the two weeks I was away I only really had a couple of days which I could treat as proper holidays. Never-the-less I made the most of free-time and had awesome trip.
On the 23rd of November I took the 13 hour flight from Brisbane to Los Angeles International Airport, where I had my photo taken and fingerprint scanned. Just before leaving on the trip Debbie gave me a small bottle of that evaporating hand sanitizer stuff to put in my bag. I thought she was over-reacting of course, but Los Angeles Airport is the dirtiest airport I've ever seen, and so it wasn't long before I was washing my hands like mad. After a long wait I then flew across to Denver airport which was on the other end of the spectrum - probably the cleanest airport I've ever seen - and after getting advice from two astrophysics students (yeah, I don't know what astrophysics students are either) I caught a very crowded bus to Boulder. At boulder I was picked up by David Mastronade, an old friend of my supervisor, and spent the first night with David (a research god) and his lovely wife Louisa (also a research god). They were pretty much the nicest people you could ever meet and even took me to lunch the next day and so my first impression of American's was fantastic - minus LA airport of course. Unfortunately I only had a single day to explore Boulder before starting work/study, so I mad the most of it. David and Louisa suggested I look at the mall and then catch the bus up the mountains to see a place called Nederlands. Being winter most of the trees had no leaves (except the conifers of course), but the place was still very beautiful and it had been snowing the day before I arrived, so there was a thin blanket of white over everything.
I took a bus up to a ski-resort, where I was half-tempted to try skiing, but decided it would be a better idea to explore. The Nederlands was an awesome little Mountain town situated next to a frozen lake and more "trinket" stores and "snow-hippies" (a different variety than the hippies we have in Australia) than you could throw a pine tree at. As I wandered from store to store and had lunch inside a big empty German restaurant perched poignant above the town I spoke to some really nice people inside, and most of them told me that my best chance of seeing wildlife was at "Estes Park" (in the Rockies) at dusk. Unfortunately no buses went to the Rockies, but Hitch-hiking is legal in Colorado so I was keen to try it. Hitch-hiking is of course illegal in Australia, and so it was all very new and exciting to me. For the fist 10 minutes with my big thumb and little sign up on the road people driving past made a funny "he was only this big" sign with their thumb and forefinger to me which I later discovered meant "I'm only going a short distance that way, but I feel you pain, being out in the snow". Then a trucky stopped and gave me a permanent marker to marker to make my sign clearer. Over the road was a cute little store called "Nikki's Nook" with a guy who could talk four legs off an Elk, and he gave me a big pink piece of cardboard. And so now, with my awesome new sign it was only five minutes before a car stopped and I met "Rocky" (yes that was his name and destination) and his nephew Trevor, who was about my age. Rocky was actually wanting to show Trevor some wildlife, even though he was a bit skeptical about seeing any. I told them the locals sounded pretty sure that dusk was the right time, and sure enough when we got to the park we were greeted by some magnificent Elk... one of which walked within 20 meters of us as we stood next to the car and took photos of him. The scenery inside the Rockies National Park was incredible with it's giant pine-covered snowy mountain scape, and we were lucky enough to see a pack of Kyoties too. And of course there were lots of squirrels everywhere .... they may be as common as rocks, but they are so cute though! Rocky and Trevor lived in Boulder, so before they dropped me off I shouted them dinner at "Chillies". Mmmm ... gigantic American-sized meals.
That single day ended my exploration of the Rockies - I'll have to try and go back there one day. The next five days I spent working with David, and actually made quite a bit of progress with him helping me compile his code. Everything went pretty smoothly - I gave a presentation which everyone really liked, and the University of Colorado was a beautiful university to walk around.... complete with quite an impressive history for a small university town.
On Friday it was time to leave Boulder and travel to Washington DC to attend the big annual American Society of Cell Biology conference - the second major party of my trip. Andy, one of the group leaders from Boulder, drove me to the airport since he was going to the same conference. One of his ex-student came too, and the three of us shared a taxi to the city. I stayed in at the "Grand Hyatt"; just two blocks from the convention center; where I shared a room with my supervisor Brad. It was a VERY lavish hotel and, as Brad commented, it looked like something straight out a James Bond film. The conference itself was apparently only half the size of previous conferences, and probably not quite as good, but even so it was quite impressive. Poster presentations was a major part of the conference, and the entire floor below contained thousands of posters, and almost a hundred company displays/stalls scattered between them. My poster presentation was on Wednesday, and went pretty well; quite a few people stopped to talk, although, being my first poster presentation I picked up a lot of good ideas for next time which I have listed here. On Thursday - the last day of the conference - Brad gave a presentation, and that was by far the most interesting (and relevant) session for me. Actually it was really great sharing a room with Brad. I was a bit worried, but I needn't have been - in fact we spend most nights drinking together. One night Brad stayed late with some old friends from the University of Colorado. I couldn't handle the pace so I came home early, but at 1:00 in the morning Brad stumbled in. "Where have you been - I've been worried sick". Luckily I was awake, and Brad decided to order room service, and we both ate ice cream.... he told me that his wife would kill him at home if he tried eating a pint of ice cream.
At one of the special sessions during the conference I also met a very nice girl called Stephanie who was Jewish and - unlike many scientists - was very lively and had a terrific sense of humour. I explained to her that there aren't many Jewish people in Australia and she was probably the first Jewish person I'd ever met, and so she asked me if I wanted to celebrate Hanukkah with a few of her friends old friends from high-school. Wohoo! Not many Australian's I know would be friendly enough to invite someone they'd just met for dinner. Hanukkah was lots of fun - her friends - Sarah, Martha and Amanda- were heaps of fun and I helped cook traditional latkes (potato pancakes) and Stephanie lit the candles and rang in the start of the eight-day holiday. I was actually worried I'd be the only non-Jewish person there, but actually Stephanie was the only Jewish person there and the "traditional" dreidel we played with was plastic and played music. The night was lots of fun, but eventually it was time to go home to Brad.... who was still out drinking.... again. :-)
Luckily I had an extra day-and-a-half in Washington after the conference to explore, and so I decided to pay to go on the double-decker bus tour which took me to all the major monuments. A double-decker bus was definitely the best way to see all the monuments, but unfortunately it was so cold on the day I could only really spend 20 minutes on top (where you get the good view) before I had to walk inside to warm up.. and then repeat the process. I also had a good walk the Capitol, Washington Monument - and the highlight for me was the Abraham Lincoln memorial. Reading the excerpts from his speeches before and after the civil was.... reading about his fight to abolish slavery and seeing his great looming statue was surprisingly powerful stuff I didn't cry, but I came pretty close to a tear. That was definitely my highlight, but unfortunately I didn't have any time to go inside any of the Smithsonian museum (which are all free). Maybe next time.
And that about summarises my trip.... more than you want to read anyway. Oh - almost forgot - I also met a very wonderful family who showed me their home and hyperactive dog the day before I left! I've always wanted to go to America, and while this was a good trip, I really think I'd need to spend longer and take a road trip through all the various states and big national parks before I got a real feel for it. If I ever visited again I'd make sure it was around spring too - even if it means contending with more tourists. Most of the Americans I met were friendly and louder-than-your-average... but hey - just like here there are all sorts. :-)
