Hi everyone! Long time, no blog posts. I'm resurrecting this blog because I'm headed on another international adventure, this time to Canberra, Australia. Wade is coming with too! We'll be leaving around March 30 and staying there for 3 months.
Why Canberra? Well, as a lot of you probably know, my advisor left the University of Minnesota last fall to take a position at the Australian National University, which is located in Canberra. I had the option of moving there permanently or staying in MN to finish my studies. We worked out a compromise where I'm primarily working here but making two 3 month long trips over to Australia while I finish my research and dissertation. This is the first trip. The second one is planned for November to January.
During this first trip I'll be doing a lot of preparation for the second. The second trip is going to be doing experiments and testing of the carbon dioxide capture reactor that I've been designing for the past few years, so during this trip I need to make sure I get all of the necessary equipment ordered that I'll need to do that testing. This includes finalizing the design of the reactor itself and ordering all of the components for that.
I hope to have some time to do some traveling while we're there as well, at least to Sydney or other places nearby. Sydney is about 3 hours by car northeast of Canberra. Canberra itself has loads of museums, so it will be fun to check those out.
We'll be staying on the ANU campus in a 1 bedroom furnished apartment about a 15 minute walk away from the Engineering Building where I'll be working. It includes all of the kitchen utensils, bedding, and things like that in addition to furniture. According to the inventory list, the coffee maker is a French press, so I'll have to learn to use one!
The seasons are opposite in the southern hemisphere, so we'll be visiting during fall and winter. However, the winters there are much milder than in MN (especially this year!). The lows don't typically get below freezing and the highs are in the 50s (Fahrenheit). So it will probably feel more like spring or fall to us.
Right now, we're still waiting on our visa application to get approved. Once that happens I can order the plane tickets and we'll have a better idea of when exactly we're leaving. For now, I'm occupying my time with making a packing list and getting our MN apartment nice and clean before we leave.
I hope you enjoy reading about our new adventure!
--Leanne
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