September 29: The good news is that sample prep has commenced and is on-going!  There is no bad news because, well, I’m in Australia!  🙂  It has been rainy and cold here and not much will change over the weekend. In fact, the weather may put a damper on our plans to attend Nightfest, but we have dinner in Civic as a back-up plan, and that should be fun, too!  I do plan to go to Floriade one more time, to see the flowers in full bloom, and I will also attend the Handmade Market and maybe get some Christmas presents. Put in your requests now!  In the meantime, settle for some pictures from around Canberra.  Enjoy!

Different denominations of Australian money. Someone paid me $10 AUD for my $1 AUD bill!

 

Nope. No McRoo burgers.

Bike rack art.

 

Nicolle: You’re lucky I’m such a good sister, in that I’m testing out the chocolate bars to be sure they’re good before I send you some.

Michelle: Does chocolate taste different down under? Keep testing just in case 🙂

 

Cockatoos on the neighbor’s lawn.

Lake Burley Griffin: James Cook Memorial Jet, with the National Carillon in the background.

 

 

Nicolle in front of art at the National Gallery of Australia.

At the National Gallery, we saw an amazing exhibit of Aboriginal art.  It seemed quite timely, then, to read about the sequencing of the Aboriginal genome, which shows that they are the first people to migrate out of Africa tens of thousands of years ago.