Goodbye Sydney

People universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you’re fortunate enough. But that’s not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax maintaining it, you must make mighty effort to keep swimming upward in that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. If you don’t, you will leak away your innate contentment. It’s easy enough to pray when you’re in distress but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments.

This would be my final blog. My Sydney days are over. Many thanks to those who made my stay pleasant and warm...

To my Kiwi gal Jovanna, for always having a glass Vila Maria ready for me, introducing me to Sydney night life, and helping my put my feet on the ground when I was struggling to adjust. 

To my co-star Linda Ngo, for spinning with me throughout Sydney, and brightening my day with her warmth and generosity, and making me smile and laugh sincerely with her happiness, goofiness, and with merely being uninhibitedly fashionable. 

To my Swedish friend Nadja, for her company in many of our adventures, in broad day light at the beach, bush, and city, but also in night time, her easiness to smile, always guaranteeing me to have a good time, and above all giving me a stunning surfer hair style. 

To my Wisconsin roomie Cassie, for being an inexhaustible source of inspiration in the kitchen, being my Clovelly beach companion through times of thunder and sunburns, and of course for all the gossips we shared about our favorite topic: the dramatic landlord couple.

To the entire Garvan Institute staff, but of course particularly my supervisor Kylie.  

Finally, to the provider Virgin Mobile, for allowing me to make free, endless, geeky science phone calls to my dear Dutch friend Lianne in Brisbane.

I cherish all the moments we shared and wish you all the best. I hope our paths will cross again in the future. 

Lastly, of course, thanks to all my loyal blog readers who have stuck with me until the end! 

Time to go home :) 

Vincent. 

Doubtful Sound

Monday we went on an overnight cruise through Doubtful Sound. Known for its beauty and wildlife, Doubtful Sound is the second largest fiord in Fiordland National Park. There are just a view areas in the world where no human has ever set foot. More than 200 days of rain a year ensures not a tree branch to be left bare and brown, moss is present everywhere. The entire forest is intensively green. In order to get there, we had to take a transfer boat to cross lake Manapouri, and a bus to take us to the cruise ship. We started with delicious muffins and we were sailing through this beautiful environment at 13:00 P.M. The entire atmosphere had something magical. There was this distinct smell, and the unspoilt wilderness was mysterious and mist-cloaked. I felt like I was sailing through a fairy tale. As if elves could start to pop up any minute now. It even reminded me a little bit about ''Droomvlucht'' in the Dutch amusementpark Efteling, however this was real. Magical. After a while we started with the water activities and I chose to do kayakking. It was surreal to be kayakking in such an environment. Of course I wanted to have the full Sounds experience, so therefore I also dived into the cold water. Interestingly, these mountains catch a lot of clouds and therefore a huge layer of fresh rain water is covering the top of the sea water. Therefore, it attracts a wide range of marine life, even 4 meter sized white sharks. Luckiky, I was not aware of this until after I dived into the water. But because of these circumstances, the water is really dark. The buffet was amazing. This cruise is known to deliver good food. It was true. In the evening we played Pictionary with a bunch of people and that was so much fun. The next day, it was raining intensely. However, in Fiordland this is a good thing, because the steep hills were showing hundreds of waterfalls as a result. I felt like the mountains were crying. At some point, the boat turned off its engine so that everyone could absorb the scenery in silence. It was unbelievable: dark, black water, hundreds of waterfalls, mist mysteriously moving through the mountains. It was an amazing experience.

Mountain Cook

 After we hitchhiked to Tasman Glacier, and did a day walk to Hooker Valley, we were ready for a bigger challenge. We decided to do an overnight long walk to Mueller Hut. The Mountain Cook Village, named after British explorer James Cook, is a cute, but cold village, which does not have a supermarket or an ATM machine. We basically lived of cookies, chocolate, white bread and potatoes because of our bliss ignorance. The village resides at 700 meter altitude and is surrounded by big snowcapped mountains, of which Mt Cook is the biggest with 3800 meters. Our hiking destination the Mueller hut was located on top of a mountain at an altitude of 1800 meters. This meant that we were going to climb a rough 1000 meters up a mountain! Early in the morning, after we made our preparations we went to the visitor center to purchase our hut tickets and to rent a sleeping bag for myself. Onno already bought one in Queenstown. Suddenly, renting one was not possible any more as of that day. Ah well, armed with thermo underwear and merino woollen vests I was not that concerned. How cold could it be? The ascending started with many, many stair cases. Halfway the mountain, the track became more difficult to climb. There was no longer a clear pathway to walk on and we had to climb up on rocks and little stones. Slowly, more and more snow started appearing. Before we knew it, our ankles were deeply covered in snow. The last hour was tough and we kept slipping away as it was also quite icy. 

Once on top, we were rewarded with the most amazing view I´ve seen so far. The hut provided a 360 degree panorama encompassing glaciers, ice cliffs, vertical rock fares, and New Zealand´s highest peaks. It was a great view for hearing and seeing ice falls, avalanches (=lawine), alpine sunrises and equally unforgettable sunsets. The cold at night was unbearable. We were sleeping at night with a lot of degrees under zero. The old and scruffy blankets did not provide much comfort. The next day, descending the track was really difficult which resulted in a lot of falls and slidings. However, at some point I was in a flow and jumped from rock to rock enthusiastically. I felt like a waterdancer from Game of Thrones series. I bragged a bit up in the hut about the fact that I like to think that I am rather athletic and therefore experienced no problems during the hiking. I am glad these people did not witness my intense muscle pain for the following few days. Honestly, I could not walk for two days after this hiking track. I am still limping today. But it was worth it.

Lake Tekapo

I physically collapsed at the town Te Anau and stayed there healing in a cosy homestay hostel called Rosie’s. I guess my tiredness of post-internship period with a mixture of traveling anxiety had caught up with me.  In addition, I guess that is also the price you have to pay for paradise: foreign pathogens. Luckily, I was not suffering from fever. I just caught a rather intense cold and my muscles were very weak. I spend some quiet days for a week inside reading my book. Fortunately, I was feeling much better when I left Te Anau to meet up with Onno in Queenstown. It was really nice to see each other again after being six months apart. My solo traveling days are over, and now I have a traveling buddy for my remaining days. It’s nice to have a companion here. It was unbelievable, but I really needed to adjust myself into speaking Dutch again. I am rather talkative, but due to not having spoken Dutch for a while now I just kept stumbling on a lot of words. We had one day to spend in Queenstown and we took a gondola to Bob’s peak, which granted us a nice view of the valley in which the city lays.

 The following day we took the bus to our next destination: Lake Tekapo. This lake has a very characteristic turquoise colour. Interestingly, the ice glaciers of the mountains that shape this lake crush the rock particles with such a large force that it creates dust particles through a grinding process. Consequently, this rock flour sediment floats on the glacial melt water and refracts the sunlight beaming down with a blazing turquoise colour. Later that day, armed with torches we made our way in the black of the night to experience the region’s glorious night sky from atop nearby Mt. John. It was a very clear, quiet night and a lot of southern hemisphere stars were amazingly revealed.  After doing a beautiful four hour hiking track the next day, we soaked our tired bodies into the hot pools of Tekapo. Now we are staying at Mt. Cook village. To be continued…

Queenstown and its Goat-Woolen-Sock couples

I just had encountered my first panicky situation in New Zealand the other day. After my body found regeneration in the Hanmer Springs Hot Pools I made my way back to Christchurch with the evening bus. I stayed there for only one night, because the next early morning I had to catch my bus to Queenstown. So that morning I made sure I was at least 15 minutes prior to departure time at the bus stop. I must say, I am actually becoming a rather organised person. My teenager years filled with chaos are behind me now. I have all my important papers sorted in folders. I know exactly where and what to do for any given time. Nevertheless, I thought it was highly peculiar that no-one else was present at the bus stop to Queenstown. Maybe Tuesday morning was just not a popular time point to travel. In addition, I comforted myself with the reasoning that New Zealand is not really dense populated. It still felt weird, though. I looked in my organised papers; I was sure I was at the right spot. Then, at the time point that the bus should have departed it suddenly had hit me: I remembered vaguely that I received an e-mail a few months ago about a change in bus stop. I totally had forgotten to pay proper attention to that notification due to busy times in the lab. Strikingly, it all made sense to me. I had to run to the entire other side of Christchurch towards bus stop Canterbury museum. I like to think that I am a rather athletic person. But running with an 18 kg backpack on your back, and a 5 kg backpack on your front is still quite exhausting, especially if your breakfast only consisted of one banana. (I was going to make sandwiches on the bus).

I could not pay any attention to the pity that was expressed on the many faces of pedestrians when they saw me struggling to come forth. I dreaded every unnecessary clothe piece I had to bring to New Zealand. ’’Cause, I like to have options when I am getting dressed (!)’’ Admittedly, I am not the world’s most practical backpacker yet. Luckily, the bus was delayed. Thank you. I was sure that this very fortunate lucky moment was due to my new bought Maori necklace calling to the Kiwi gods. This necklace is namely supposed to bring luck particularly when traveling. What a great investment that was! Everyone in the bus was laughing at me when I came crawling into the bus with my last breath, sweaty all over, and limping like a retard. But I did not care! I made it. Even though sweaty with sore muscles and hurting feet. The bus ride was at least lovely and relaxing. I had nine hours to recover from my morning exercise.

I saw so many green mountains, and blue-ish, green-ish, turqous-ish clear lakes everywhere. I witnessed a beautiful sunset at Lake Wanaka. It felt like the bus was driving through a painting. I arrived in Queenstown in the evening and its location is just beautiful. I feel like I am being repetitive, but yet again, the city was surrounded by large mountains. Half of the city body actually lays on a mountain, with at its foot a huge lake with clear water.

The hostel is a bit bigger and more commercial than to my liking, and I don’t like the fact that you have to walk outside to reach the bathrooms, but nevertheless I had a good night of rest. Also, the view of the hostel's garden is stunning. The next morning I found a bookstore that sold a book I was desperately looking for, and craving for to read for days: Clash of Kings, second novel of Game of Thrones series. I just had the biggest smile on my face, that it actually had hurt the corners of my lips as they are rather dehydrated due to the dry atmosphere. But who cares about the moist state of my lips, I finally have the seemingly rare book in my possession! I spent the entire morning reading at Queenstown Gardens with a beautiful view.

(I tried to get a panorama shot of this view while I was reading. I like to label the picture as artistic, which secretly functions as a hidden synonym for being failed) Next I wanted to do a nice hiking tour, I had three options with different grade of expertise required: very easy, the Gondola to Bob’s Peak; easy to moderate, short 900m climb to Queenstown Hill; difficult, 1748m climb to Ben Lomond. In order to make this decision, I was observing the state of my body while walking back to the city. I noticed shaky legs, lightheaded, sweaty back and a rather weird taste in my mouth. Therefore, I decided to take the very, very easy grade of expertise required option: sleeping in hostel. I was starting to get sick! After an intensive fruit infusion, and spending a rather quiet day in the hostel (at least I did laundry), I'm hoping to feel much better in the morrow. It might be a smart thing, once fully recovered, to then take the gondola to Bob’s Peak, amongst the elderly. Little baby steps.

The next day I wasn’t still feeling very well. After attempting to tame the mountain Queenstown Hill I made a 180 degrees turn of shame back to town. My body just wasn’t fit enough yet to climb 900 meter. Argh! So I treated myself with a cup of coffee in the sun with my desired book. After a while, a goat-woolen-sock couple was sitting next to me. (I think this is not the correct term in English, but the Dutch will understand me). Upon asking me what I studied, I suddenly found myself defending Science. This couple obviously disliked Medical Research. I had to defend statements such as, ‘’60% of all FDA approved drugs work only through placebo effects’’ and, ‘’ When a drug gives side effects that already indicates that the drug is not really working.’’ So annoying when facts become fabricated! After explaining the intensive procedures, which take up ten years, involved for getting a drug on the market in which you have to demonstrate safety, toxicity, and treatment effects outweighing the importance of side effects. More importantly, that every scientific study performed compares the drug with a representative control group in order to exclude merely a placebo-based effect and thereby ensuring therapeutic potential of the drug. Also, by even defining the term significant difference in Science to ensure that the observation is caused by a therapeutic effect and not by placebo-based effects, they replied, ‘’Yes, that is how it should work. But that is not always the case.’’ Yes-It-Is always that case! I thought best not to mention the scientific articles arguing that actually most of the alternative treatments work through placebo effects. However, I agree, don’t underestimate the power of placebo effects. I love it how drinking coffee makes me ‘’more concentrated’’. Then they continued asking me why medical researchers are not observing the effects of 'energy' on cells, such as Yin and Yang energy. Upon which I replied, irritated, ‘’If you can give me a tube containing this so-called energy, I am more than happy to tell you its effects on cells. But until we can’t characterize, define, and quantify this energy, then there is not much we can do in Science.’’ The woman of the couple said, ‘’I think that’s the problem with Science. It’s all about measuring and proving. This perception is old-fashioned and needs to be changed.’’ My god, such ignorance! The man said, backing-up his wife, ‘’We’ve been investing an enormous amount of money in medical research past decade. But honestly, we don’t have benefited much from it in terms of applied medicine. There is still cancer.’’ I was shocked. There have been made huge advances in medicine past decade! This clearly demonstrates the huge knowledge gap between medical research and society that desperately needs to be abridged. I explained that there were huge medical advances made last decade:

• human genome discoveries reaching the bench side, leading to personalized treatments.
• stem cell therapies in which adult stem cells can become manipulated to acquire essential features of embryonic stem cells. This leads to sidestepping ethical concerns about usage of human embryo’s for research,
• massive decline in heart disease and cancer, of which the latter is caused by more specifically targeted cancer therapies,
• strong prolonged survival of HIV patients due to combination therapies,
• improvements in field of surgery by means of minor invasive or even robotic techniques,
• even in the field of pediatric leukemia has the survival rate increased from 30% towards 80% for the common leukemia form ALL in the past decade, etc.

I can go on all day. Don’t even get me started on the advances in the field of Immunology past decade. Yet, this couple did not seem impressed. What do they expect!? To become invincible after investing in medical research for ten years? They attacked me with the statement that, ‘’Doctors never tell you when side effects are actually worse than being left untreated.’’ Well, honey. I ain’t no doctor. Can’t help you there. I really just wanted to continue reading my book.

The couple left my table agitated. I find it so hard to stay friendly when my passion becomes attacked, merely based on lies, ignorance and incorrect facts. I have much to learn in bridging this gap, so that I can inform the next Ying Yang couple better about the real beauty of Science. Although, when I showed this couple my Yin Yang necklace, they looked at me smiling as if I was not yet lost in the cold and bitter world of Science. I have to admit, sometimes Science does give me shivers.

Kaikoura & Hanmer Springs

I travelled by bus 183 km north from Christchurch towards Kaikoura. The bus rode through beautiful scenery along coastline and in between mountains. I stayed at a cute, small hostel called Sunrise Lodge that is run by an enthusiastic couple. Fresh made chocolate muffins were waiting for me. I’d say I prefer smaller, but cosy hostels above larger, but popular hostels. The first thing I noticed was amazing snowcapped peaks of mountains so close to the sea. Morning clouds were encircling these mountains, resembling rings of planet Saturnus. Marine animals are abundant here in Kaikoura due to ocean-current and other conditions leading to an upwelling force, bringing nutrients up from the ocean floor into the feeding zone of seabed lining the coast.

I did the Kaikoura Peninsula Walkway, which is a four hour loop along the cliffs to South Bay. This was an amazing experience. En route I stumbled into a big, fat, fur seal blocking my pathway, lying in the sun against a rock, while other seals were splashing in the water; enjoying life. Startled, I felt like I was walking in a zoo. But I wasn’t; this was real wildlife.

After two days I travelled by bus 134 km inland towards Hanmer Springs. This bus ride was zigzagging around mountains, from left to right, up and down. It made me feel nausea, but luckily I could hold my stomach content together. But the view was so amazing: bright, green mountains everywhere. Hanmer springs is a beautiful village surrounded by these mountains. The first night in the hostel I was playing the drinking game Death of Fire with Northern Kiwi’s, while the next night I was playing Pictionary with an adorable family. It’s funny how a certain mixture of people determines the vibe of the night. Hanmer Springs is known for its hot thermal pools, benefiting from natural mineral water, clear alpine air, and uplifting environment. The mineral-rich water of Hanmer Springs is naturally warmed by the intense heat radiating from the earth’s core. It was so relaxing to soak my body in these hot pools, while breathing in the cold air, with a view of mountains. It actually reminded me of the day in Budapest after I rowed 400 km with Team Beau 4 Rights from Vienna to Budapest, when we visited a hot pool there. Our sore muscles, exhausted body was laying lifeless in these hot pools trying to recover; good memories. The next day I did a nice hiking track through Hanmer Springs Forest with a fellow Dutch girl I met in the hostel. I am in love with the hostel as well. It’s a wooden house with lots of atmosphere with free chocolate milk and ice cream! Next destination: Queenstown.

Christchurch & Akaroa

Firstly, a few words about the amazing hostel I am staying at in Christchurch. I am staying in the Jailhouse Hostel, which used to be a former prison. You can still tell the past identity of this building by looking at little details, such as the barred windows for example. I thinks it’s so cool, but also weird, to sleep in a room that used to be a prison cell. Anyway, my arrival in Christchurch went really smoothly, and the first thing I noticed was the cold. My Sydney spoiled body is not used to experiencing temperatures below 20 degrees any more. Winter is coming. My body temperature regulation system has claimed new standards. Therefore, I found myself walking through Christchurch with a long trouser, woollen hoodie, and a scarf folded around my neck. But despite these clothing precautions, I was still shivering at 15 degrees Celsius, whereas the Kiwi folk were still walking around in shorts and singlets. Those windows wide-opened, bare chest Stockholm days of minus 10 degrees temperatures seem to be far in the past now. It wasn’t all bad, though. The sun on your face with a cold breeze also has something refreshing, and sobering. I have to admit, the air here is very clean and pure to inhale. My lungs are content. The city center of Christchurch is entirely barricaded and referred to as the Red Zone. The recent earthquake in September that took many lives still left visible scars in the city. Walking there just made me realize how bizarre, and shocking, it must be for a center of the city to be wiped down. I visited the Canterbury Museum and I was glancing through a Photography book about the effects of this earthquake. It had sent cold shivers down my spine. I remembered hearing the disaster on the News in the Netherlands at the time. I was shocked for approx. a brief three seconds and then continued with my life. Now, I was just completely moved. The pictures showed the severe damage of buildings, cars, illustrating the power of nature. But it also depicted the pain and suffering on the faces of unexpected inhabitants. I felt a sting of tears in my eyes, embarrassingly in a crowded museum. Obviously, the tiredness of my two hour jetlag was getting the best of me. Some words about hostel life style. I was really disgustingly surprised about the high amounts of fast food intake by my fellow travellers. I hope I won’t succumb to that.

The next day I booked a bus to visit the city Akaroa. This city lies in the crater of former three volcanos, which now constitutes a valley of three mountains. You can still see different mountain layers material covering each other, indicating different time points of volcano eruptions. Also interesting, is the fact that the entire city has a French culture. A little history: James Cook, British explorer, claimed New Zealand in 18-something. However, two years before Britain arrived in New Zealand, the French had already discovered this land. They were pleased with the potential of New Zealand, and went back to France to inspire the people there to form a community in this newfound promising country. A boat with 66 French settlers, through storm and wind, finally arrived in New Zealand, only to find a British flag saluting them. The British had managed to make an agreement with the local Maori folk, before the French could. Imagine how New Zealand could’ve turned out to be if the French explores had arrived two year earlier. The exact nature of the agreement with the British, French, and local Maori people is really complicated, and is still a very active, debatable subject here in New Zealand. Nevertheless, the city Akarao was given to the French and its French flavour is still very detectable. (In this area, the Germans also had claimed a bay, called German Bay. But during the World Wars, it seemed inappropriate to have a bay called German Bay in a British claimed country. Therefore they had to change their name in Maori: Takipatu) Akarao was a very cute, small city with a harbour filled with bright blue, greenish water, and beautiful green mountains surrounding it, with many, many sheeps. Tomorrow, I am escaping from jail and flee to a city up north from here: Kaikoura.

Happiness to die for

Confusion. That's the word to describe my body's reaction to suddenly not working. My usual adrenalin-filled, workaholic body is now restlessly dragging itself from beach to beach. Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying myself. But I do need some time to adapt myself to traveling life style. As I was strolling along coast line, one of my favourite spots in Sydney, I stumbled across the big, red rocks at Clovelly. These huge cliffs stand at least ten meters tall above sea level, lining Australia coast. Really impressive. But what really impressed me the most was the fact that no-one was around. I was looking into the horizon on my left, and on my right, but there was really no-one in vicinity. It was so amazing to find myself at such a beautiful spot alone. And with that realization, it was then, on those rocks, that it had hit me: I was free. I was suddenly jumping around, singing along with my songs on MP3-player with maximum volume. No-one was there! I could do whatever I wanted, and I grabbed that opportunity with both hands. So, I was going crazy, as you can imagine. Jumping, singing, screaming, shouting to the ocean, provoking sharks and stuff. No-one was there to judge me. I just felt so happy that everything was going so well for me. I just wanted to pause the world and enjoy that feeling. However, my pause button was brutally interrupted when I heard the sounds of a roaring engine. I was not alone. I had failed to look up in the sky. Because I noticed that, out of nowhere, a chopper was flying circles above my head. Ashamed, I fled the cliff. It was not until later that friends told me that that particular cliff was notorious for being a suicide cliff. Whoops!

My brief minutes of joy that overwhelmed me must have been mistaken for the actions of a lunatic just about to jump.

Goodbye Garvan Institute

Friday was my last day at the Garvan Institute. (Though, I still needed to present my presentation on Monday). I was having a goodbye lunch in the cutest Japanese restaurant with all my lab colleagues and several friends from other labs at Garvan. My supervisor Kylie said the most lovely words about my dedication and had spoken out her appreciation. It was really a compliment to me to receive those words as a student from a well-established Post Doc scientist in the field of Immunology. It was very thoughtful of them to purchase me typical Australian goodbye gifts: Sydney Recipe Book, two boxes of delicious Tim Tams, and a tube of Vegemite. I also happily received a card with goodbye messages from my fellow scientists. After unwrapping my gifts, I was sort of expected to give a little Speech. Scarily, under the full attention of every customer in the full house restaurant I might add. Off course, I hadn't prepared anything. But because I was so grateful to their kindness and helpfulness throughout the entire course of my internship, I really did wanted to say a few spontaneous words as a token for my appreciation. It was one of those moments, that when I look back to it I was really surprised that the words came out of my mouth so fluidly and smoothly. For once, my English wasn't limiting the rapid pace of my thoughts as it often does when my brain waves get too excited. Afterwards, we went for drinks in the pub Greenhotel. It was nice to get drunk with my colleagues. As my internship was terminating anyway, I did not had to maintain much dignity. And I surely didn't. Don't tell the Garvan Institute, but I kind of threw up in the toilets there.

All weekend I was preparing for my final presentation, which I had to give on Monday. I must say, normally, I am not that nervous when it comes down to presenting. But also normally, I present to fellow students who have relatively the same knowledge as I have. Now I was presenting in front of my lab colleagues who have been in the field for many years. Compared to them, I know peanuts! Therefore, I was nervous. I slept really badly that night, waking up in the middle of the night to write down nice phrases for my presentation. It was like I was still working on my presentation in my dreams. However, once I started presenting I was actually feeling quite calm and relaxed. I was taking control. I knew my project, and I was talking the talk. I was confident. It was quite scary, though, to be presenting my results in front of prof. Jonathan Sprent, head of the department, and a very respected Immunologist. But he was really friendly and it seemed like I had caught his interest. He, of course, gave great suggestions about my projects, and made me think about things that left me wondering: Why didn't I think of that!? Eventually, he complimented me about my presentation, and he thought that I did a lot of work for such a short period of time. That was a compliment! Because normally, I always have the feeling like you never have done enough experiments. He also asked me when I was coming back again, ha-ha. Finally, my supervisor showed me the assessment form she filled out for me. My final report, presentation, and most of my lab skills were graded with excellent, except for my common knowledge and creativity, which was graded with very good. I was filled with happiness! Overall, my project should be receiving the grade: 9.5 - 10. That would be just the perfect ending of my internship!

I enjoyed working at the Garvan Institute so much. The people are really friendly. The vibe is good. I had the most amazing supervisor. The best colleagues. My project was challenging. Everyday, I was looking forward to be going to the lab. At home, I kept thinking about how to improve my project. When I look back at what I knew before I started my internship, and what I know now after my internship ended: there's a big knowledge gap. I've been taught so much. And it just makes me realize more and more how much I want this, how much I enjoy being in the field of Medical Research. When I get back home to the Netherlands, there is an awesome graduation project waiting for me, which will be a collaboration with Leiden, Amsterdam, and Toronto. Something to be looking forward to!

But until then,

I am going to travel and explore the beauties of down under'!

I am going to swap my medical journals, with good books.

My chemicals, with cocktails.

My pipettes, with a compass.

My laboratory, with beaches and mountains.

My mice, with wildlife.

I am liking this...

Flying to Brissie on my B-day

On my birthday, I smoothly landed in Brisbane to be received by Lianne and Matthew. It was so nice to see them! We enthusiastically walked through the streets of Brisbane, and entered a Bottle Shop to buy a big box of Tooheys Extra Dry (= best Australian beer). Lianne's house in Brisbane was amazing! It was huge. I mean really huge. I was lost in that Queensland house many times that weekend. She's living there with nine other international, outgoing house mates. Among them were Irish boys, whom were drinking away on the big balcony preparing for next days' St. Patricksday. Lianne, Matthew and I hid in her room as we had a lot to catch up to. I hadn't seen Matthew, friend from Stockholm, in ages! The box of TED beer was meant for the entire weekend, but we accidentally drank all of it on that Friday night. Whoops. With beer in our belly, we forgot dinner, called a taxi and went to party in Brisbane Nightlife! These next bits of my memory are a bit blur. We saw so many pubs in both the suburb West End and The Valley.

We also had a lovely midnight pizza snack and went home at an unknown hour. I woke up at 9 AM, and found the Irish Boys drinking again at 10 AM to celebrate St Paddy's. My god, hardcore. Matthew, Lianne and I scored some heavy Bacon & Eggs Brekkie and strolled down Brisbane Center. I was in love with South Bank Parklands. This is a pretty area with an artistic street surrounded by bright purple flowers.

Also, the location of Brisbane's artificial beach resides there. We laid in the grass for hours and ran into the Irish Boys in city center. We joined them for beers in a cheerful pub at 1 PM. We drank while listening to Irish Folk music and the more we drank, the harder it became to unravel the Irish accent.

Drunk Irish boys talk weird. We forgot lunch, and aside from a piece of bread with creme fréche we forgot dinner too. Lianne's house was hosting a St Paddy's house party and soon it became crowded. I was witnessing Irish dance moves and it involved more beer.

Lianne also bought a bottle of Southern Comfort. At some stage in the night, I walked with Lianne towards a room near the living area. She said while opening the door, ''I always hide my bottles in this room during party's. Because no-one ever comes here.'' The door was not even half opened or it got slammed in her face. Though, we did see some-one putting pants on in the brief second the door was open. Haha. Fuck. People were having sex in an apparently not so abandoned room where the bottle of Southern Comfort lives. I knocked on the door and screamed, ''We only want the bottle of Southern Comfort!!'' Upon which the door rapidly opened, and only an arm stretched out with our bottle. After a while, we decided to go the city. We were being overly friendly to our Indian taxi driver and talked a lot about India becoming a Science Powerhouse. Haha, he was happy and we just made his day. Lianne next introduced me to more friends and we went bar-hopping.

We ended up in a big club called the Beat. The vibe was amazing! I just felt like i was given a delicate task to spread my happiness to strangers. I could not stop dancing!!! The music drew me all night long. You would not spot me without a smile, nor dancing body. At a very late, or call it early, hour we took a taxi back home. It was already bright outside and I slept at 6 AM. At 10:30 I woke up and found a house filled with empty beer bottles and passed out people everywhere. Lianne's big bruise like gangrene on her leg, and my bleeding pus thumb raised question marks. We dropped Matt off at the airport and Lianne and I had an amazing lunch with Big English Brekkie and Spanish Omelette. Sunday night we took it easy, as our muscles were very sore. It was so funny to notice that our Dutch language skills were so crap. We kept talking a mixture of Dutch English and said sentences such as ''Het ding is dat...'', and we questioned everything we were saying in Dutch. That night, we watched a few movies. I was so tired. I even fell asleep while watching Brokeback Mountain. Sleeping through Heath Ledger kissing Jake Gyllenhaal is not gay-worthy, embarrassing, but does emphasize the intensity of my tiredness. On Monday I flew back to Sydney. I had an amazing birthday weekend in Brisbane!

Now its time for lots of sleep, fruit, and vegetables. Lots of it.

Winning Karaoke at Stonewall

Last Tuesday night, I joined Linda for her birthday party dinner that was being held in the restaurant ''Commons''. It was nice to meet her - all male - friends. I guess she is a boy-kinda girl. I had so much fun and the vibe was really nice. It was nice to be part of a group of friends eating out. (Instead of watching a group of friends eating out, while you're sitting at a table for one: Hong Kong flashback.) We went to a pub afterwards, and had a few beers. As it was a weekday I was on my way back home, via the Garvan to grab my bike, round eleven-ish. However, again I succumbed at Oxf. Str. when I passed my favourite bar Stonewall. I told myself initially that I wouldn't go in for ''one drink'' - we all know what that means. But when I heard karaoke blasting through the speakers; I was tempted. Also, because I remembered a promise I made myself during my first week in Sydney, when I visited this Stonewall karaoke session on my first night out. I was jet-lagged then, insecure, and intimidated by everything. But I promised myself, that night, that I would come back strong, confident, and crazy and would sing the song Faith by George Michael. I wanted to challenge myself, to feel free and limitless. As my time here is ticking away, I justified my temptation by that promise and spontaneously entered the pub with confidence. The night had come. It was crowded, a drag queen was glittering while hosting the karaoke, and the spotlights were brightly lit on stage. I quickly socialized with some Swedish girls at the bar for moral support. (By the way, to my satisfaction I happily noticed that I really have learned to make social contacts so easily). Upon entering, I immediately signed in my song request. I would not allow second thoughts. I was getting nervous as time was passing. I kept thinking:

I am alone, in a crowded gay bar in Sydney, just signed in a request to sing a Karaoke song in front of mean judgmental gays, and I am not even drunk!

Though, I think doing crazy stuff and challenging yourself keeps the soul young. But all I could think of then was: Why am I doing these things to myself. Finally, the drag queen announced my song and there was no going back. The intro was being played and I was shaking my bootie like George Michael in his tight jeans. I loved every minute of it. I knew the song quite well. It had a nice up-tempo beat. I was using the entire stage, and I think I didn't even sing off-tune ....for most parts that is. I was feeling like a superstar!! My performance was inspired by Jessie J, whom concert I went to see last week. She just has this amazing vibe of: FUCK IT. HERE I AM. LOVE YOURSELF. EMBRACE. I was aspiring to get that vibe across to the audience. They seemed to like it! Everyone was cheering, dancing and I did not get booed away! (Unlike some other participants. Tough crowd). I really connected with the audience. At the end of the night, the drag queen re-announced the potential winner names of the initial, more or less, twenty participants. The amount of cheer volume by the audience would determine the winner. I did not think I was going to win, because I did not bring any friends to cheer for me. But upon hearing my name, the crowd just went crazy! I felt so happy, confident, strong, and sexy. My personal victory achieved. Just the way I imagined it would be when I made that promise, on my first night in Sydney as an insecure, naive boy with big dreams in a big city. (Ok, fair enough, karaoke is more like a medium-sized dream.)

Nevertheless, it felt good.

p.s. the price included 100 dollars. I actually earned money while eating out and drinking beers, which did not involve taking my clothes off. Awesome!!

p.p.s. Next day I was walking on Oxf Str. to go home from work, when this guy approached me: ''Hey, didn't you sing Faith yesterday!? You were awesome!!'' I was recognized on the streets! :D

Spit bridge to Manly Scenery walk

Today was the perfect day to try out my new bought hiking shoes. The wetness of last Thursday's rain had disappeared and the sun was shining proudly. Together with two Swedish girls, Nadja and Emmie, we had decided to do the famous Spit Bridge to Manly Scenery walk. This 10 km walk lines the entire coast line of North Sydney.

The first part was mainly through an area with densed trees, rocks, and waterfalls. It had more of a rain forest kinda a vibe. Even though it was noontime with a strong sun shining, the shades of the trees kept us cool and it was quite humid as well.We spotted at least 20 lizards. It was obviously there niche. They made us feel like we were walking into the movie set of Jurassic Park. It was so

weird to me that such beautiful nature was present so near to the city. I had a feeling as if we were walking somewhere in the Amazon rim boo.After a few kilometers we ended up relaxing at a cute, small, deserted beach with soft white sand and water as clear as blue eyes of a hawk. We chilled there for some time, an ideal moment to escape the heat by swimming in the cold water. We continued our journey and the rain forest ambiance was replaced by a more open, hot area with no humidity at all. It was very dry, as if in a desert. Beside lizards, we also had spotted numerous amounts of spiders in all sorts and shapes. These spiders especially enjoyed each others company and therefore big family spider webs were seen adjacent of one other. Very intimidating I can tell you, to walk past a family of big, hairy spiders. Emmie kept screaming ''Fan''! (swedish for shit/damn!) every time we saw a spider cluster. After a while, Nadja and I noticed through the bush that there was a nice view waiting for us behind the trees. As we tried to work our way through the bush, as real adventurers off-track scratching ourselves in the process, we finally managed to glance at the beautiful scenery of Manly Beach. When we got back on the path we discovered that five meters ahead there was a look-out post with the same view. Haha! Ah well, at least we felt like we ''discovered'' something for a brief moment. Not long after that, we made it to our final destination. It was a nice stroll through beautiful, typical Australian environment.
Especially the combination of the rain forest vibe, private beach moment, and the dry desert feeling made it a diverse bush-walk. And my hiking shoes did an awesome job. Now I am going to sleep, tanned, tired, but content.