Three tourists visiting

I woke up around 9:30 a.m. because Dad called: they were at my door! We'd actually agreed to meet around 4 p.m., after my presentation at the university, but they just couldn't wait, haha. They looked a bit like zombies, I have to say, understandable after that long journey, but I actually thought it was a bit funny. We chatted in the kitchen and served breakfast to their hungry little mouths. Around 11 a.m., I kicked them out because I had to leave soon and wanted to quickly review my presentation. After my pharmacology tutorial, where I listened to all sorts of presentations for ages (some were literally reading word for word from their notes??), I quickly walked halfway across campus to reach the chemistry building for my presentation. I went through it with Charlotte for a bit and chatted a bit, and then it was our turn! It was a nice setup, just in the hallway, the two of us presenting a poster to a single professor who listened to us and asked questions. It went well! The presentation itself and answering the questions both went smoothly, except for one. Afterward, I had a quick chat with someone from the lab and did a final check of my HIRACs (it was a bit of a hassle, but oh well, solved now) and then went outside because it was around 4 p.m. and the people (Dad, Mom, Arthur) would be outside my building. Well, that wasn't quite the case; they'd overslept, haha. So I waited a bit, and then I finally saw them approaching. I gave them a complete campus tour, from the beginning of Eastern Avenue, to the Chemistry building, Fisher Cafe (where we naturally had to get a pie to fuel up) and the library, the Quadrangle, Manning, the graffiti tunnel, Holme, the courtyard cafe, the ovals, the Charles Perkins Centre, and Victoria Park, and then I was done. I felt like a tourist on my own campus with my photographer dad, who had every building in his photo, and a lot of "just stand there" moments too.

After the campus tour, it was time to check out my room. They'd also brought gifts from the Netherlands: Lego plants and a bag of gingerbread nuts, hehe, sweet. I was already looking forward to building the Lego. Arthur was sitting on my bed and spontaneously fell asleep; I'd never seen him so tired. So I quickly went out to get dinner somewhere. I took the bus to Newtown (10 minutes). Mom and Arthur were surprised when I told them you have to stop the bus by sticking your arm out, haha, because if you don't, it just keeps going! We ate at an Indian restaurant, which was nice, but not great. Mom's eyes closed halfway through our conversation, haha. The bus back was a hassle. I thought I'd just take their bus (their hotel is pretty close to mine), but Dad had a rather abstract app and apparently misread the exact time (it turned out to be after half an hour), so in the end, we all took one of my buses after waiting 20 minutes for the other one. While walking, I noticed how used they are to walking on the right and I am to walking on the left, haha. I made one of the Lego plants at home, yeey.

One comment

  1. The tourists are almost back in Sydney. About 100 km to go. And they've become even more of a tourist, now wearing a big Australian hat 🙂 Or is that not possible in Sydney, Carmen?

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