I like Canberra. So I never thought that I would say that, but Canberra is really growing on me. I'm totally an urbanite through and through, but I'm starting to warm up to Canberra. It's a nice small town. It's not too busy. It's always sunny here. I really enjoy my job. I'm meeting lots of great people and making new friends. One new friend in particular... but I'll leave it at that. ;)
I've gone up to Sydney twice in the past week. It's not an entirely bad 3.5 hour bus trip. I went up last Monday for work. I had the privilege of sitting it on a meeting hosted by AusAID (the Oz equivalent of CIDA or USAID) who was consulting with a number of NGO's and other AIDS service organizations on their HIV/AIDS strategy for 2007-2011 in the Asia-Pacific region. It was a really interesting meeting and I got to meet a lot of the movers and shakers with respect to HIV/AIDS w/in Australia. Very, very cool.
I also went up this past weekend just for the heck of it. Highlights include clubbing like crazy into the wee hours of the morning, visiting Taronga Zoo where I splurged and got my picture taken with a koala bear, watching the Chinese New Years parade, and having dinner with some distant relatives. It was so good seeing them and hearing about that side of the family that I don't normally have a lot of contact with. They told me all sorts of stories (e.g. life in China before the family moved to HK) and showed me pictures. It was SO good.
Other than that, life is pretty good here in Canberra. My plan is to be here about mid-May and then take up traveling again before heading home in early August. Look forward to seeing you guys then.
I will post pics of my weekend in Sydney soon.
