Australia really is a strange country. Apparently Tuesday is a holiday! For some reason having Friday & Monday off isn’t enough for these people… they need to make it a 5 day weekend. I’m not going to cause a ruckus; A day off is a day off, but some holiday logic is necessary. As it turns out, I’ll be working Tuesday. No rest for the wicked… or graduate student as the case may be.
Tuesday is my first day of experiments. A nervous, yet exciting time in any graduate student’s life. Everything is ready to go, but I’m still not entirely sure what to expect. I’ve become more than a little obsessed with backing up my data. I’m talking every 10 minutes. Its beginning to affect my productivity.
Anyways, the long weekend has been fairly pleasant thus far. Friday involved waking up early to put the finishing touches on my experiments, a few skype/phone calls, a nice mid-afternoon nap and a night at the movies with some good friends. All in all, a nice little Friday. We wound up seeing 300, a film based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel, which was in turn loosely based on the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BCE). I’m sure the majority of my friends back home saw the film months ago, but Australia saw its release on Thursday. I enjoyed it. Excellent cinematography, but a little too much violence (and horse shots) for Jen.
Today was a lazy day of grocery shopping, reading my new book The God Delusion and marking a few papers (I’m TAing a couple of courses at the Uni). I have a new found respect for all the marking my mom does… its tough work!
Monday is our big Easter potluck (or bring-a-plate as they say). Jen & I decided to get a bunch of our Canadian-orphan friends together for dinner & drinks. We ended up inviting well over 30 people, expecting a fair portion of them to decline. Turns out people like us… now what are we going to do? Those of you that have seen photos of our apartment are probably wondering how we’re going to fit 30 guests… should be a fun night 
I’ll upload the photos later this week.
