I am now working [almost] full time at the Virus Research Centre at the Royal Children's Hospital. I like it a lot - I show up at 8am, and leave when I am finished with my work for the day, which can be as early as 1 pm, or as late as 330-4. Its very laid back, and I am pretty much on my own (unless I need help, and then my supervisor will show me what to do, or explain things to me). I will be working there for the entire semester - which means no classes ever again (AWESOME!). My project is looking at gonorrhoea and why it is becoming resistant to the one class of drugs that we currently have to treat it. So basically, I come in every day and prepare my samples, and program the machine, and set it all to run. The machine looks for mutations in the DNA which may be responsible for gonorrhoea's resistance to the antibiotics. And hopefully, when the research is all done, I will get to publish a paper *crosses fingers*
Other than that, I have been spending a lot of time with my friends! Two weekends ago, Mel, Jacqui, and I went to Greazefest (based on the movie) so it was all 50's cars, hairstyles, music, and fun! We had a really good time wandering around, listening to the music, and watching Mel get her hair done =)
They even had a dance floor in front of the stage, and luckily, I met one of the guys from swing dancing, so guess what we did?
About a week and a half ago, my friend, Andrea, arrived! I originally met her in Perth because she was traveling on the opposite trip from me (she had just come from SE Asia, and I was just going) so I invited her to stay at my place if she ever made it to Brisbane! And here she is! We have been having a lot of fun - last weekend we went to the Ekka, which is a big carnival/fair that Brisane has ever year.
I do have to say that I had never seen chainsaw racing before:
Me eating a dagwood dog (really just a corndog):
And the best part about the whole thing: the petting zoo! Tons of baby animals everywhere!
We also went to Surfers Paradise, and got lucky with some really nice (but cool!) weather.
Andrea sleeping on the beach:
You'd never be able to tell I wasn't in Miami (except for the beanie!)
And why its called Surfer's Paradise:
So thats whats been keeping me busy lately. And for your viewing pleasure, heres a picture looking down my street from the other night:
BTW, Andrea (the one that's related to me!) will be here in 22 days!
