September 14: Worked on my chemical biology poster this morning. At one point, I had to stop because I really wanted to go to the kite festival at Bondi Beach. I took my laptop with me for the long bus ride, which took about an hour—it's a big city. Once in Bondi, the transfer wasn't very smooth, but after a bit of a delay, I made it! I could already see the kites floating in the air from the bus, which was stuck in traffic. It was amazing to see so many kites, all sorts of designs, shapes, and colors, from all ages! It was quite crowded, though. I found Sunny, Cynthia, and Angela somewhere in the grass and wandered around the area together, checking out the food stalls (which were all very overpriced). One of the food stalls had "Dutch pancakes," or poffertjes, haha—how strange so far from the Netherlands. We sat on the beach together for a bit and chatted. Then we had a long queue for Yo-Chi (that Australian frozen yogurt chain), but we thought it was worth it. Around 6 p.m., we went to a restaurant near the beach for dinner: wagyu beef ragu pasta, a duck and maple sauce, and a kangaroo sausage shared with Sunny. Well, we saw the kangaroo on a plate and thought, "We really have to try this now that we're in Australia." The kangaroo had a slightly smoky/wild flavor, a slightly strange aftertaste. The other sausage tasted slightly like soap? The pasta was delicious, very tender wagyu. Afterward, we all took a long bus ride back home. My evening wasn't particularly eventful; I just worked on the poster until it was finished, a bit stressed, and finally, a final sprint, oops.
September 15: I just put on sunscreen before leaving the house; I felt really responsible, haha. It was also necessary, because I was finally going to do some archery for 1-2 hours (I had signed up for the club a while ago, but it never worked out because of the lab and I don't know what happened), and that was, of course, in the blazing sun. After some initial struggles to find the proof I'd paid for, I got a short introduction to how it works with equipment, rules, shooting, and so on. Definitely enjoyed it; I do love archery. It went pretty well, yay! Around 3 p.m. I had to go home for an internship interview about DNA and optical tweezers; it was an interesting project! Hmm, but now I have two that really appeal to me, and I have to choose :( . In the evening, I relaxed a bit, played guitar, and called my mom and dad, who had all sorts of questions about Australia and how things work here, haha. I also shared the big Sydney day itinerary I'd mapped out for them. They're leaving tomorrow!
September 16: Another lab afternoon, this time I had to do my own experiment, meaning, figure out the details (mostly based on what we've learned so far; I can't just make an experiment up). It all went well. I updated my blog a bit at home, as I'm quite behind. Dad, Mom, and Arthur are officially on their way! How sweet that they're flying halfway around the world to visit me, and Australia, of course. By the way, they have suitcases just as big as mine for six months, haha. If anyone's interested in their perspective on their trip: idemavakantie.nl. I didn't do much else after that; I felt rather unproductive. Oh, the temperature is getting warmer, with a whopping 27C today. (How hot does it get in November, yikes!)
