I started off the day with a trip out to my new job site, ASDM, where I interviewed for my internship position. It was less of an interview and more of a thanks for coming out to meet us, this is what we would like you to do while you’re here; does that sound good to you? Both of the gents I spoke with were very friendly (a recurring theme…) and welcoming. I’ll be assisting them in data collection and analysis for their clinical trials of a new cardiovascular device that they’ve recently developed. More details to come as I’m on the job and get a better feel for the project. I start on Wednesday, 9 o’clock.

After a thirty minute chat with Dr. Jari and the lead mechanical engineer from the cardiovascular project, I headed back to St Leonards station and then hopped a train back to North Sydney to the CAPA office where I had the first day of my Australian Cinema class. We watched an excerpt of The Sundowners, and then a complete showing of Walkabout. I’m still not quite certain whether I’ll be keeping this class or not, as having Mondays off would allow me to take 3-day weekend trips all semester (or just lounge on the beach on Mondays!).

I think I’ll head off to Bondi Beach in the morning, go back to take some pictures and maybe a quick swim if it isn’t too cold (it probably will be). All I’ve got is a Business in the Pacific Rim class at 2pm.
Walking to work today, among the hustle and bustle of the city I began to feel at home in the city. Previous to this I always felt completely foreign, a tourist, but now I begin to feel the assimilation. As I fall into the routine of work and class this will no doubt grow until I feel at home here and have trouble leaving in December.

Saturday night was the final game for the Aussie Rules Football season. It is an interesting sport played with a rugby ball on a cricket field. The game last night was played at the Sydney Cricket Grounds, about a mile away from where we live. The entire group of CAPA students (25!) decided to go to the game, so we wandered our way there about 20 minutes to game time, and managed to actually score seats together! We got seats right near the goal posts, right on the first level. Really great seats for the AU$14 that we paid for student tickets. The Sydney Swans were playing the Brisbane Lions and our team, the Swans, won by a hefty margin. The final score was 17.12 (114) to 6.7 (53). This means that the Swans scored 17 6-point goals and 12 1-point goals for a total of 114 points, where the Lions scored 6 6-point goals and 7 1-point goals.

I rather enjoyed myself at the game. It is an interesting combination of soccer, rugby, and American football. The game in played in four 30-minute quarters, with no breaks during the quarters. This makes for non stop action, unlike American football. If you’re ever in the neighborhood I encourage you to try and catch a game while you’re here.

Today (Sunday) I’ll be making my way out to my internship site, taking the train alone for the first time. The route seems pretty straight forward, I just want to get a feel of the trip and the walk the I have to take on the other side of the train ride. After that I need to do a little bit of grocery shopping to pick up some fresh veggies, rice, etc.

Have my internship interview tomorrow, and first day of class (Australian Cinema). I’ll let you know how they go.

I’ve got some pictures up now from Friday.

Now that I’ve been in Sydney for 3 whole days, I’m starting to get over a little of the whole shock of being immersed into a completely new city, environment, and culture. That shock can obviously affect your perceptions and give you a skewed interpretation of your new home. I feel that I’m at a point where I can start giving clear first impressions of Sydney.
The city is large, over 4 million in Sydney proper, the largest city I’ve ever lived in. With it comes many things, not limited to lots of crowds, lots of buildings, decent public transportation, crime, poverty, diversity, etc.. I haven’t witnessed all of these things, but I’m sure I will over the course of my stay here. There are over 300 different languages spoken in Sydney. It really is quite a diverse group, and you can’t help but notice all the languages you here walking down the street or when you hop on the train.
The public transport is good, I’ve never really lived in a city with a useful rail system. This one seems to be able to take me anywhere I want to go. At least, anywhere I’ve wanted to go in the last three days, and will have to go for my internship. Living a 10 minute walk from Central Station probably has much to do with the usefulness of the rail, as I can grab just about any line in the city. Between the rails, the buses, and the ferries, I’ll be able to get around no problem sans car.
There is a large Asian influence. Being so close to you know, Asia, probably has a lot to do with this, but there are tons of Australians with Asian heritage here. It adds a very interesting dynamic to the city and you can see its influences in many aspects of the central business district.
The city is beautiful. Having some time to spend around the harbor and downtown today I was able to take in the beauty of the city. From the gorgeous skyscrapers (hey, I’m an engineer…) to the breath taking harbor and artistic Opera House, there was nay an eye-sore in sight. It’s also impressively clean for such a large metropolis.
I will like it here. I can definitely see myself already settling in and getting comfortable with my surroundings. I’ve missed turns while walking and found my bearings, getting back to my destination in a completely foreign city. Maybe it was luck, maybe just a good sense of direction, but I think I’m getting the feel of the land.

Yesterday after our program orientation, a group of us made our way to Bondi Beach, taking the rail by ourselves for the first time. We navigated a transfer and then hopped on a bus that took us to Bondi. This was an absolutely stunning scene of a beach and residences built into a cove. We waded in the Pacific Ocean for the first time this trip (likely the first time for some of the group) and walked down the beach to a rocky out-jutting. We climbed out onto the rocks, for a spectacular view of the cove and the one just south of Bondi. Unfortunately I forgot my camera on this trip, but I will be going back, just for pictures if need be.

Today we had our internship orientation, which was a powerpoint presentation about what is expected of us, and what we can expect. We were also given addresses, dates and times for our interview with our placement company. Mine is on Monday at 10am. After that, we walked to the Australian Hotel down in ‘The Rocks’, a historic Sydney district, where we feasted upon the tastes of Kangaroo Pizza and Emu Pizza. The kangaroo was a little gamey, but the emu was very nice and tender. After lunch, we split up and a some of us headed down to the Harbor and around Circular Quay (pronounced key) where the ferries head out. We just wandered, taking in the sites of the Sydney Harbor bridge, the Sydney Opera House and downtown in general. We stumbled upon a didgeridoo player rocking to techno music and took our picture with him, then headed back home for a barbecue hosted by the owner of Georgia House. Must go, missing the barbecue!

I’ll have pictures up soon. I’ll add a link here! Pictures!
Cheers!

I made it! I’m finally in Sydney, after what feels like a week of flying. The fourteen hour flight from LAX to SYD was actually pretty peaceful, and I managed to get a surprising amount of sleep. After landing, and making my way through customs, I met up with several of the other students in the program. None of us had arranged for transport from the airport to Georgia House (where we’re living), so we headed out to find someone that could take us there. We eventually caught an Airport Shuttle that took us there, for a reasonable price (much more so than splitting a taxi would have been).
Once here, we were checked in, given keys, and met with our CAPA (the group running the program) coordinators. Debbie, an ex-pat from US for her masters six years ago and never left, and Zara, a Sydney native, will be our main points of contact for the program. After an hour or so to settle into our rooms, we went on a walking tour of our neighborhood, finding the grocery store, bus stops, and ended at central station where we can hop on nearly any light rail train. They left us there to explore downtown and find our way back ourselves.
A group of us headed off towards downtown, wandering and with no expectations as what to find or to look for. After about ten minutes of wandering we decided to head off to Chinatown for lunch. We had a delicious family style meal, with bottles of Coke (with real sugar!), and headed to one of the shopping arcades downtown.
After doing a bit of window shopping, we decided to stop for some coffee before trying our luck at getting back home. The following conversation ensued at the coffee shop:
Brianna: “I’ll have a regular coffee”
Waitress: “Alright, what kind would you like?”
Brianna: “What kind do you have?”
Waitress: “Oh you know, Cappuccino, Latte, Mocha…”
Brianna: “Do you have any regular coffee?”
Waitress: “Those are all regular.”

And so went the first experience with cultural differences; its hard to find drip coffee in Australia (or at least this part of it). They mostly just drink espresso (as far as I can discern). I had a white mocha, which has actually much creamier and rich than any I’ve had in the states.
After our adventure with the shopping arcade we began our trek pack to Georgia House, hoping on a 343 bus heading down Elizabeth St, which dropped us off right in front our house.
Downtown Sydney was nice, but busy. There are just tons and tons of little shops lining the streets. I look forward to exploring it more over the course of the next few months.
The rest of the night was spent settling in, unpacking, and getting to know some of the other guys/gals on the trip.

Today (Thursday) we have a program orientation, where we’ll be going down to the CAPA office, and being introduced to the program and be given tips of living in Sydney, cultural differences to watch out for, etc.. Then the rest of the day is ours again.
Still nervous about the internship, but I’m sure that will be quelled after our internship orientation on Friday, and my interview on Monday.

After a grueling morning of flights from Milwaukee to Minneapolis, then Minneapolis to Los Angeles, I arrived at LAX around noon local time. After picking up my bags, and wandering cluelessly for a good twenty minutes I wised up and asked where the heck ticketing is for Qantas airlines. After a nice chat with the Traveler Assistance lady, I learned that Qantas had two terminals, and that I, of course, had to walk to the one further away!
On my way there, I was stopped by a gentleman asking if I needed help finding anything. I mentioned I was on my way to Qantas, and he correctly guess I had come from Minneapolis, and was heading to Sydney on a late night flight. He mentioned that checkin for my flight wouldn’t open for another few hours, so I should check out the mezzanine in terminal three, which has free wireless, and restaurants where I could grab a bite to eat, or stop at the bar for a drink. I thanked him for the extremely useful information and headed towards terminal 3 (hey, its on my way to terminal 4 anyways…).
Unfortunately, by this point I had developed a rather nasty migraine headache, so I searched for a quiet sit down restaurant that I could eat in peace with little noise distractions. I discovered there is no where in the airport where you can escape the pesky announcements relentlessly telling last minute passengers to get on their flights or be left behind. Much to the dismay of the wait staff, I hate very slowly, and stayed far past I was done eating to enjoy the comfy seat, and ice in my glass to help calm my headache. After lunch, I found a nice safe spot to curl up with my bags, so I could sleep off the remaining factions of my migraine.

When I awoke, all my bags were still with me. I don’t think I expected differently, but there’s always a chance. I slowly made my way to the Qantas check in and checked in my bags. Its now 4:30, and my plane doesn’t board until 11:05pm. I look around the terminal, realizing there is nothing before and little after security.

I’m now sitting back in the Mezzanine of terminal 3, soaking up free WiFi and free power outlets. Still have three and a half hours until my flight leaves, but I can feel the ten and a half hour layover starting to come to an end. I’m not sure that I’m excited to leave the comfy lounge chairs for a fourteen hour game of act like a sardine, but it will take me to Sydney, so I must endure.

I will shortly be departing on my adventure to the “Down Unda’”. That’s right folks, I’ll be spending the next 4 or so months in Sydney, Australia doing a study & intern abroad program. I’ll be taking classes like Business of the Pacific Rim, Understanding Australia from a Sociological Perspective, and a class to integrate into Australian business culture during my internship. Whilst studying I’ll be interning at Advanced Surgical Design and Manufacture (ASDM). I’m not quite sure what I’ll be doing there yet, and probably won’t until I show up for my first day of work. I’ll keep you posted as I undertake duties.
I’m very excited for the transition to living in another country and adapting to another culture and their way of life. Of course, I will miss all of my friends and family here in the states, but to help soften the blow of that pain, I’ll be keeping in touch with Skype. I have already purchased the plan where I have unlimited calling to the US, and will shortly be acquiring an online number through which all of you guys can call me through, without having to pay international calling fees. Wow, is the internet great or what!
I’ll be trying to post regularly while I’m gone, to keep everybody up to date. For reference, Sydney is 15 hours ahead of the Central Time Zone in the US, so if I don’t answer your call, make sure you’re not trying to call me at 3am! I’ll also be trying to post pictures regularly on Flickr, and I’ll have a dedicated group for all of my Australia pictures.
I’ll also be posting mailing information for those of you who would like to send me stuff while I’m gone. I would much appreciate receiving things from you guys, it’ll really cheer me up!

I leave at 9:00 am central time from Milwaukee, WI on August 25th. If I don’t see you before I leave, I look forward to seeing you after Christmas (I get back on the 21st of December) and catching up.

This plugin has been replaced by ActsAsCSVExportable, check it out!

I am finally releasing my first Rails Plugin: CSVExportable !

As many great things in the Rails community (and Rails itself) this plugin was born out of necessity. The need of the plugin in my projects defined its functionality and the design decisions taken to make it. Of course the project is open source, and free to modify and redistribute with credits intact.

Current version: 0.9
Download (SVN): Stable 0.9
Follow: Continue reading »

Thanks to Konrad, who so graciously invited me along, I partook in my first bike ride of the season today. It is a gorgeous day out in Minneapolis, hovering right around 70 degrees. The feel of the bike under my feet felt magical, once again feeling a sense of connection and oneness (it might have something to do with having pedals that lock on to my shoes!). There is just something about generating your own wind when you’re out riding a bike that you don’t get doing anything else. We headed out down Washington Ave through campus and over the Mississippi river, winding through west bank dodging pedestrians and potholes alike. The destination? The West River Parkway. After finding our way through west bank we head down a glorious hill, picking up speed, feeling the wind.

On the way down, my bike rapidly shifts to the side, from a strong gust of wind no doubt. Or perhaps not:

*thump thump thump* proclaims my bike! Woest me, the end of my first ride of the season ends, just over a mile in, with a flat tire at the bottom of a hill. Well, so much for that idea.

The number of steps from Akerman Hall to the doorstep of my Apartment building. Why’s it important? According to Paul McKenna, the average in shape person walks about 6,000 steps a day. The typical over weight person walks about 2,000 less than that. Now, I’m not claiming to be obese, but I’ve put on a few more pounds over the years than I would have liked. I’ve come a long way since the lean 120 lbs I was during my year of High School Wrestling. Just by making up those 2,000 steps, and making no other changes to my day to day routine, I should start to feel a difference in my clothes in a couple weeks.

Thats just walking to and from campus each day, rather than taking the bus.

I hadn’t realized how long it had been since I last wrote a post on this blog; my goodness. We’ll start with some Solar Car news: We have two beautiful shells, amazing bulkheads, and a hell of a lot of more work to do.

After countless hours at NWA (and I mean countless) we were able to finish off the top and bottom shells with many minor setbacks. Then after a sleepless night (7pm to 5:15am followed by an 8am class…) we had composite bulkheads! They are definitely a thing of beauty, and fit wonderfully in our shells. This last weekend we glued the bulkheads into the top shell, and layed up a lip on the bottom shell to seal the seam where the bottom shell sits on the chassis. This weekend we are planning on joining the top and bottom shells, and after many months of manufacturing, we’ll have one, unified, glorious shell!

Unfortunately, this stuff is all still “top secret” until we official unveil the car, so I can’t post many pictures. I suggest watching these two flickr streams, what you see there is what you’ll get until we go public.

In other news, I’ve picked up a new project. I’m now the lead developer and partial owner of LandOrSlum.com, a landlord rating website. The site started in Pittsburgh and has expanded to dozens of states throughout the country, currently boasting over 800 users and 600+ ratings. The site was written in Ruby on Rails. I’ve been brought in to bring about a bunch of new features, and we’ve decided it will be beneficial to do a complete rewrite of the application.

Besides all that, I’m still working for the College of Liberal Arts Webteam (CLAW!), and am taking all Aerospace classes this semester. Those classes are Aerodynamics, Flight Dynamics and Control, Aerospace Structures, and Instrumentation Laboratory.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so busy in my life. I love it.