Back in the Saddle Again

(karen)
We've been in Sydney now for over two weeks, which is the longest we've been anywhere since leaving our old house in Los Angeles. In a way I'm finally fulfilling my dream of being a foreign exchange student (except for all the ways in which I'm obviously not). Travelling to Australia / New Zealand has not been very different at all from being at home in the USA. There are superficial differences like the accent and the wildlife, but apart from that it seems like we ex-colonial folk are all peas in a big pod. I wouldn't have minded being challenged culturally, to think outside the proverbial box, but we will save that for another trip. South America, perhaps? Thailand? In the meantime we are dutifully exploring our home away from home for the next six weeks, as well as finding our new routine for daily life in the city.

Before I left I wrote to a few people at the University of Sydney asking if I could help out in their labs for a few weeks while I was in town. The Australian Center for Field Robotic (ACFR) took pity on a wandering engineer and agreed to let me work with them on their picosatellite project. This is a really interesting project for the students to work on since it will be a full working satellite with all the fixins'. And they do mean pico: it has to fit within a 10cm cube and weigh less than a kilogram. For perspective, it's essentially the size of a coffee mug. I've been busy trying to relearn all the things I forgot during my University schooling 5 years ago, like how to read an electrical circuit diagram, calculating radiative heat transfer, remembering how the attitude determination and control subsytem works, etc. It's all so daunting. I've fallen into my old habits and started setting up a schedule and budget for the project. Curse you Boeing, you've turned me into a bureaucrat. If you are interested in learning a little more about the project go to the CASsat website.

We've been feeling a little lazy after four months of gluttony and little exercise so one of the first things we did in Sydney was get a membership at the Victoria Park Pool, right by the University. The water tastes funny and there are clumps of hair floating like portuguese man-o-war, but at least we're getting the blood flowing again. That's good because it justifies going out and eating all the wonderful food Sydney has to offer. We're making an effort to enjoy as many restaurants as we can in the time we have. So far we've had divine Chinese Noodles in China Town, fish'n'chips at Manly Beach, Thai food in Newtown, and a delightful Sunday brunch in Surry Hills. Pub-wise it's been pretty tame. All the people in the Sleeping with the Enemy housing program get cheap drinks at a place down the street called the Glasgow Arms, which has Budweiser-esque selection but at least it's good company. We've made friends with our housemates and are starting to get introduced to the crowd. Everyone seems to be from Ireland or towns in Northern England, which means they love their pints, are passionate about soccer, and at times are completely unintelligable. Pretty fun so far.

That's our life in general thus far. More anecdotes to follow in the coming weeks. Happy ANZAC Day, everyone!