Birthday in Sydney
Trip Start
May 13, 2009
1
Trip End
Ongoing
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Saturday, May 23, 2009
I know it's been ages since I last wrote but we've been getting settled in Sydney. After a great summer in the Sunshine Coast, QLD, learning to surf and generally enjoying the sun, we headed to Brisbane to begin to make our way down to Melbourne, where I had been accepted for a PhD. I had also applied for a PhD in Sydney and had a call to come and have a chat just before we were about to beek a car for Melbourne, so Becky and I jumped in a car and headed for Sydney (about 100 kms from Brisbane) and I met with my potential supervisor at the Commonwealth Science and Industry Research Organisation(CSIRO) at Lucas Heights, south west Sydney.
I ended up going for the PhD in Sydney, although I am enrolled at RMIT University in Melbourne, who were kind enough to waive my fees (which are crazy for an international student) and who are paying me a stipend to live on. Becky and I moved to the south Sydney suburb of Cronulla, which is about 30 mins to the airport and we're only a block away from the beach. We are renting a lovely top floor, 2 bed appartment with a balcony overlooking the sea. Just to the south of us is the Royal National Park (see this travel blog's main picture), which has a beautiful cliff-top walk for miles down the coast.
The PhD I'm working on with CSIRO is a commercial project investigating the sources and bioaccumulation of trace metals in a river system in Papua New Guinea, which receives tailings/waste from a gold mine in the highlands. It is an amazingly interesting project and hopefully I should get to go up to the mine at least once a year to collect samples, starting this August. It is a three and a half year PhD, although I have a visa and funding for four years if I need it.
Becky is doing really well and has two jobs; one in a restaurant and another in a ski/snowboard shop for the winter. She is looking into heading back to Uni to study renewable energy engineering and she can't wait to get stuck in soon.
It has been great to be able to settle somewhere and know that we're going to be in one place for longer than 6 months! Sydney is great (although it has been getting pretty cold here!) and we're really enjoying having our own place. Now that we are settled, you are more than welcome to come and stay so if you're ever in Sydney, let me know and we;ll come pick you up!!!
Lots of love,
Tom
xxx
