Update of a mundane week. Plus the Brisbane Ferris Wheel

I meant to write this over the weekend but got distracted by the weekend.

Friday afternoon was spent in a writing workshop peer reviewing eachothers write-ups of our research reports. Being the end of a pretty meh week, most people were less interested in working and more in just goofing off. A fair number of our crowd was also antsy to catch their cabs for the airport, as they were spending the weekend in Sydney. More on the weekend soon.

I have also been rather busy with some further preparations for next semester at the University of Cape Town. I had some requirements through EAP which had to be attended to. Additionally, UCI is requiring me, in lieu of an actual country orientation that I would not be in the States to attend anyways, to interview someone from South Africa. I am in a rather insular program here. We have minimal contact with Australians (and I am one of the lucky ones with far more contact with the locals than my friends), much less nationals from a distant continent. Fortunately, however, I have been able to track down a few. Shira's homestay parents are from South Africa, if I can only get the time to meet with them in their rather remote suburb. Additionally, one of the researchers/lecturers/professors in the Biology Department here is from there as well. He and I are trying to meet up on campus later this week.

I have been trying to catch up on the less-program-oriented things from throughout this trip. On our second or third night in Brisbane, a small band of us went to the Brisbane Ferris Wheel in Southbank. At this point, none of us really knew each other and were still essentially sniffing each other out. We ended up having a blast, and I wanted to share some of the photos from it. We did it at night, despite the clever CG of the first couple of tourist photos we posed and paid for. They took our group picture right before we got on, and then processed in a couple backgrounds for us to purchase upon exiting.

We looked so young back then. Rodney and I now are sporting full beards. We have also arguably matured (hold down the snickering).

Rodney, Tyler, Jacqui, Corinne, Erin, Alissa, and me.

What happened to Rodney's arm?

Alissa, look happy...

...now look terrified.

Terror or delight? Hard to tell.

Corinne has terrifying acting talents

The difficulties of low light, rough angle, group selfies

Jacqui settles in for a long ride.

Again, low light, hard angle, group selfies are difficult

The Brisbane skyline at night

I said "Smile!"

That's better.

The tailing photographs show off my love for light-motion effects on low light photography, although their arrangement looks more like my camera and I had an episode.

Ugly Selfie of the Week

In the course of taking a bunch of pictures and trying to be a part of some of them, I discovered that I have a true gift for capturing myself at incredibly unflattering angles, lighting, and moments.

With the enormous capacity for vanity that I possess, I decided to share some of these monstrosities with the world. Perhaps these are true reflections of my soul. Perhaps I am less good-looking than I like to imagine. Perhaps the law of averages insists that some photos are just not good, and synchronicity has provided for their alignment with the times I turn the lens on myself...

Regardless...Who invited Truman Capote on the hike?

That's not writing. It's typing.

Stay tuned for more horrors of self-absorption!

Labour Day Weekend Part 2 - The Revenge of the Beautiful Day!

After the late night of Friday (well, for me) and the relatively early night on Saturday after a lovely dinner with Heather (homestay hostess),  I was unsure what Sunday would bring. I knew I should put some work in on my paper, but the beautiful weather persisted and insisted that I expose myself to it.

Being obliging, I decided to shelf my paper, which had received much attention on Stradbroke Island while others played, and go back out into the world. Mia was game as well, and Heather offered to take us. This was great, as Mia and I were both a little worn out catching buses and trying to figure out the connections.

So, Heather drove us out with her granddaughter Mia, which as you might imagine created some amazing confusion. When Heather and I were getting in the car (in my mind, to pick up my friend Mia), Heather said to me, "We are going to pick up Mia." To this, I replied, "yes we are." Neither of us picked up on it until we had all Mias in the car. "Mia did you put on your seatbelt?" A chorus of "yes" came from the back seat. "Mia, do you need to use the toilet?" A "yes" and a "no" came at the same time...

We first went up to Mt. Coot-tha to the overlook Heather took me shortly after I arrived in Brisbane. It was an even prettier day than when we were there previously. I could see clear to Moreton Bay and even could make out Straddie.

This is St. Lucia. The buildings in the middle right of the picture are the UQ campus.

Brisbane, from high up

Heather, Mia 2, me, and Mia 1

Mia 2 enjoying finger biscuits, but not my jokes about eating fingers

Mia 2

We then went down the mountain to the Brisbane Botanical Gardens. There are technically two of them. One is right on the river, adjacent to City Centre. This one is a little more remote, but quite lovely. My bus to and from school passes through the parking lot, and I have been wanting to go since I started commuting to UQ.

A nesting moor hen.

Turtles basking.

After that, we called it a day. Mia (1) and I had talked about going to the Brisbane library to work on our papers, with occasional rewards for hard work that would involve more exhibits at the Queensland Museum. However, we decided that it was late enough as it was. We dropped Mia 2 off at home, where her parents gave us ginger ale, and he sister showed us their pet chickens.

We dropped Mia (1) off at her homestay, and then Heather and I went home. We had a lovely dinner, I pasted a graph into my paper (ahhh, sweet progress!), and then bed to start the next week.

Conclusion: Reject null hypothesis.
Hypothesis confirmed...the weekend firmly fell into the category of "Does Not Suck."