FINALLY!

Hello to all my soon-to-be-faithful readers! I know many of you have been scratching your heads in utter confusion and unable to contain your anticipation of my first blog entry. Well, to make a long story short, it took a bazillion years (ok, only 7 days) to get my internet set up where I currently reside. It's not fully up and running yet, but it's better than nothing. Something about a proxy prevents me from being able to use Skype and Google Talk, etc. It is very frustrating. I miss David and want to talk to him on Skype. Hopefully the internet business should change soon. What's a proxy anyway?

So, I arrived in Melbourne last Friday at 8 am and I am just now recovering from jet lag. No more waking up at 4 am! yay! There is, however, a bird that makes the strangest bird noise I have ever heard and likes to sing in my window at approximately 530 every single morning. That was exciting. The bird sounds like a cell phone ring. I kid you not.

My first week at work has been amazing. I'm working with a great group of people at Nanotechnology Victoria (NanoVic) developing commercialization strategies for some of their new technologies. I had lunch at a rather "posh" restaurant last week meeting with patent attorneys. I must say, I had a big cheesy grin on my face walking through the heart of the city with a business suit on (or it might have been a grimace from my awfully uncomfortable shoes).

I am finally getting used to this driving on the wrong side of the street business. It no longer totally messes with my mind to sit on the left in the front seat of a car and not drive. I'm also learning to look RIGHT before looking left when crossing a street. I figured out how to work the bus system. I must say, the public transportation system here is pretty freaking amazing. Makes me realize exactly how much Houston has to be desired in the area....


Today Jeanette (co-worker/mentor and personal Victoria tour guide :) ) and I went to St. Kilda for the day. It's basically a beach area on the bay just south of Melbourne. You can see the city across the bay from the beach. It was GORGEOUS. The warmest temperature today was about 70, not a cloud in the sky, cool breeze. Anyone jealous? hehe ;) We met up with Al, one of her friends and had lunch in this restuarant right on the beach and then just walked around and enjoyed the weather.

I'm giving a presentation on nanoshells at the Commercialization of Micro Systems (COMS) conference tomorrow. That should be exciting. I should probably be working on that presentation right now instead of writing a blog. So, yeah, I guess I'll do that. Stay tuned. More excitement to come, I'm sure :)

Interesting Australia fact of the day: a bicycle or car tire is spelled "tyre"

Currently listening to: Smashing Pumpkins
Currently reading: Europe by Norman Davies; The Face by Dean Koontz