The end

Last night (or rather tonight, as I haven't actually slept since) was the perfect way to end an incredible year in Australia. After a lovely last visit to Cottesloe with the McKiernans at sunset, I got dressed up and Ryan picked me up to head into the city one last time. The ASMR Medical Research Week Dinner was held at the very fancy Parmelia Hilton Hotel in the city; we walked through the lobby and upstairs to find a reception room packed with scientists, businessmen and politicians in their gladrags. We grabbed our name tags and attached to mine were instructions on when I'd be collected during the course of the evening to go up and get my award. It wasn't going to be until dessert, so we grabbed a glass of champagne and found the rest of the team, who we'd be sharing a table with. Seeing everyone in their finery was so nice and a welcome change from the sneakers and jeans we see every day in the lab!

The doors to the dining room opened and we were shown to a round table near the stage. Around our table was team Lindy (Ivan, Michael, Wissam, Marcus, Ryan and myself) plus German Jenny, Ivana, Andrew and Kalina. Because they were late to get tickets, Andy and Maria were at the adjacent table with a group of randoms. There was a welcome speech from a lady who apparently used to present the news, then the starters arrived and the Platinum Awards were given out. Andy got one for his talk; it came in the form of $1000! Doing a PhD is clearly a lucrative business for him as he's a really confident speaker. It was at this point that my attention was drawn to the rolling slideshow of the award winners and I spotted my name. My award was funded by the Mothers and Infants Research Fund, which I thought was nice, if unrelated to what I spoke about! The food was delicious and everyone was having a great time.

After the main course, the guest speaker did his speech. Professor David Sinclair is an Australian who's spent his post-doc career at Harvard Medical School working on genes to combat aging. His work is incredible and it was great to hear about the research he's pioneering. As well as describing his work, he spoke about the importance of medical research and stressed how important what we're all doing is, which I think everyone found very inspiring. After his talk, I went up to get my award. I had a photo taken with a representative from the research fund and was presented with a certificate, along with $350. Not a bad last week's work! We then had group photos and photos by institution, so it was cool to be with Andy and the rest of the UWA winners. We then returned to the table for dessert and a few drinks before the dreaded dancing started and we decided it was time to make a move. Seeing scientists so far from their natural habitat gives me the creeps!

This meant it was time to say my goodbyes, which was tough. Lindy and I had a conversation about my PhD; if I want to do it here, I'll have to apply for the international scholarship, which is extremely competitive and requires at least 3 published papers, which I should have by next year with any luck. She made the very good point that I need to do it at a good institution and not necessarily at UWA just because I like the people. Edinburgh and UCL are both very prestigious in our field, but they don't have 6-month summers and beaches... The point is, I'm pretty much sold on doing one now, which is more than I could say when I started here, so that's a huge development. I gave the rest of the team a hug goodbye and promises that I'd be seeing them soon, then Marcus, Ryan, Ivana and I left the hotel to find the cars. We left Marcus at this point (second hardest goodbye I had to make) and dropped Ivana at her halls of residence on the way back to Peppermint Grove.

Team Fitzgerald selfie!

Suddenly I was standing in front of Ryan outside my door and it was time to leave him. We've become such good friends over this year and I really don't know how I'll cope with not seeing him every day. We're very similar and get on unbelievably well; considering he's a self-confessed intolerant, grumpy bugger, the fact that he can't seem to find a flaw in my personality is a huge compliment. However, my tears were kind of a good thing as it verified that I'll be back in Australia very soon. We've already planned that I'll work in his lab when he's a supervisor and we'll cure spinal cord injury together. Sorted.

I got home at midnight, did some last-minute packing and abandoned all hope of sleep due to the sheer excitement of coming home. Candice, Jess and Maggs all drove me to the airport, where I said goodbye and a huge thanks for all they've done for me. Jess will be in England in ten days, so at least that was one less permanent goodbye. So here I am. At the airport. Waiting to board my flight to Dubai. My time in Australia is over and I can't fathom where the time has gone. After what feels like a very rapid nine months, I've developed a huge connection with this country and the amazing people in it and I hope to be back very soon, either for a holiday or to persue a career in science, which I think makes this placement a great success. 22.5 hours now separate me and the UK, where my lovely parents will be waiting with open arms.

Placement: Done!

Goodbye UWA

I just finished my last day at work! This morning was my farewell morning tea; everyone baked cakes and gathered in the tea room to give me a classic EaRN send off. I received my token UWA hoody, apparently the go-to gift for all leaving “Bathies”, along with a card that everyone had written lovely messages in. A few people who no longer work in our building turned up, so it was nice to see some old faces! The only thing on today’s agenda was working on my discussion, which I’ve just submitted for further comments. I’m going to have to remember that I do actually still have alterations to make over the summer, which is going to be difficult when I’m busy being reunited with all my loved ones! However, I think I can afford to give myself the next few weeks off :) By 2pm, I was packing up my stuff and leaving the lab for the final time.

This afternoon has mainly consisted of packing. Looking at my bulging case and the pile of stuff still left to cram in, I’m a little concerned about getting everything home! That old chestnut of wearing ten layers on the plane could well become a reality. I’m going to take a short nap before I get ready for the conference dinner, a.k.a the last time I’ll see all my work friends before I leave the country. It’s going to be an emotional one for sure! I’ll also receive my award, which is pretty exciting. Considering the fact that we’re leaving for the airport at 3am, I probably won’t bother sleeping after I get back from the dinner and just try to sleep on the plane instead. 14 hours until take-off.

Penultimate day

These last few days in Australia are proving to be nothing short of perfect. My second to last day at work was one of tying up loose ends, with a large chunk of good news thrown in for good measure. Campus was absolutely shining in the winter sun at 8am; so beautiful! I spent the morning making sure my lab book was up to date, amongst other exciting things like helping Ryan with his surgery. It's officially the last day I'll decapitate and dissect baby rats: Yippee!

The main meeting of the day was a "handover" with Lindy, which involved returning all the equipment I've been using, telling her where various reagents are stored and filling her in on what needs ordering before the next Bath student arrives. We also went through my final "programme outline, learning and objectives" form, which gets sent off to Bath as part of my assessment for this year. It asks for a mark out of 5 and a comment for various categories like communication, critical thinking, interpersonal skills etc. I was absolutely delighted with what Lindy had written about me, which was very complimentary. I experienced a huge wave of pride as I realised how far I've come since starting out in September as an absolutely clueless undergrad; she told me that I've become an integral part of the team who gets along with everyone and I'll be sorely missed. Most importantly, she also stressed that (if I were to choose to persue a PhD after I graduate) I should get in touch as they'd be happy to have me. As someone who, before the start of this year, was dead set on escaping education as quickly as possible, I now find myself seriously considering it. Three more years in this beautiful country, all in pursuit of getting "Dr" in front of my name, would be an incredible experience. There are huge hurdles to overcome to do it, such as getting a visa and a scholarship, but having my name on three published papers (fingers crossed!) would definitely help my case. We'll have to see what the future holds!

I was just returning to my desk to make some last-minute progress on my discussion, which has taken a bit of a backseat during all the excitement of the conference, when Lindy popped her head round the door. She was emailed by ASMR to check I'm attending the dinner, because I won a prize for my presentation! I'm so unbelievably happy to have done so well at something I've always associated with extreme nerves. Only Andy and I were successful out of the entire lab, which is predominantly PhD students, so that's an absolutely huge achievement for me as an undergraduate student. I'll have to find out tomorrow evening whether the prize takes the form of a large cash sum, but in either case it's a fantastic way to end my time in Australia. I was on cloud nine to such an extent that I couldn't focus on work for the rest of the day! As is tradition within Team Fitzgerald, Ivan, Marcus and Ryan took me to lunch at the University Club, which is members only and pretty fancy. Sitting in the winter sun with a cold one, chatting to three people who have become firm friends during this incredible year, made me realise how lucky I am and put a melancholy twist on the fact I'm leaving in two days' time.

Back at home, I was met with someone who was just as excited to be finishing as I was. Jess handed in all her final assignments today, meaning that university is finished for her forever! Candice was visiting with Maggs (their Mum) for a few days, so it was big hugs and compulsory champagne all round. I grabbed a quick shower before we headed to Bread in Common in Fremantle for dinner. It's an incredible building that I've only visited for breakfast before, so it was great to see it all lit up in the evening with dangling fairy lights. We had Prosecco over a girlie catch-up, accompanied by probably the most unbelievably tasty food I've had since arriving here. Sharing plates of snapper, cuttlefish, beef cheeks and lamb ribs, all garnished in beautiful, fresh local veggies with Yallingup wood fired bread dipped in olive oil. Yum! We then had desserts and cocktails, because I hadn't ingested enough calories yet...

Pretty cool, right?

Jess and her lovely mama

Old Fashioned a la Ryan Gosling

Getting into the car and leaving Freo for the last time was sad. Although I live in Perth, Fremantle is just a short train ride away and has provided frequent breaks from the city. Countless evenings have been spent visiting all the local bars, such as the amazing Little Creatures Brewery, and dining on cheap Japanese food at the Old Shanghai and ice cream from the Gelato. I've spent many Sundays perusing the local markets and picking up trinkets in the countless little boutique shops. Seeing the docks and the river shrink into the distance was quite emotional; I know I have to return one day soon for a splash of culture and maybe a ferry crossing to Rottnest Island. I'm about to fall asleep in Australia for the very last time, before a big last day of work, the ASMR dinner, a sleepless few hours at home and a very early car journey to the airport.

ASMR conference

I just got home from the conference. It was the most draining and fun day, despite the long build-up and all the terror associated with it. It was an opportunity to spend time with the gang from work, I learnt a lot and, most importantly, I took the plunge and spoke in front of a pretty high-profile audience! The Australian Society for Medical Research did not know what hit it.

I was all dressed up at 7am for Ryan to pick me up. We collected Marcus from Claremont and drove north of the city to Edith Cowan University, where the conference was held. After getting completely lost on campus, we finally found the right car park and building in time for registration. This involved picking up a sticker with our names on, I assume for networking purposes, and hanging around waiting for it all to start. Pretty much our whole lab was there, either to present or just to support the team. At 9am, we went into the main lecture theatre for the introductory talks. Jess’ old school friend Britt, who I met at a dinner a while ago, sat down right in front of me; she’s lovely and it was great to catch up with her one last time before I leave.

The room I presented in (it was more full, I promise)

After a short welcome from the organisers, a plastic surgeon specialising in burns took to the stage for the plenary seminar. She showed us some pretty harrowing photos of 80+% burn coverage and worse, mostly of children, which I think most people found pretty hard to swallow. Even people like us, who deal with animal surgeries every day, aren’t used to seeing such horrific injuries and I struggled to fathom how she deals with that on a daily basis. However, after the intial shock factor, she told us about this incredible therapy they’ve developed, which is essentially stem cells in an aerosol. Spraying them onto the edges of skin grafts helps them to stretch as the patient grows, which stops scars from burns sustained in childhood becoming taut and raised in adulthood. Incredible! Forgive me for geeking out about it, but this kind of thing genuinely excites me these days.

The first session began: Those presenting and judging in the three smaller seminar rooms left, but the majority of people stayed in the main lecture theatre which, as luck would have it, is where I was presenting. The least experience people talking in the biggest, scariest room: Makes sense. At least some of the pressure was taken off by Lindy not being present, as she was judging one of the other sessions elsewhere. There were six speakers in my session; here’s what we all talked about:

 It’s lucky that I have the programme to look back on because I was not aware of anything going on around me; it all went by in a blur of nerves! I do vaguely remember Ivana, the other student from Bath, doing her presentation, but being last and having to watch everyone else go up and talk just made me freak out. Before I knew it, it was time to make the longest walk of my life down to the front of the room, making a lot of noise in flip flops. As I started my presentation, it was so nice to have my team’s smiling faces looking down on me from the back of the room and I managed to shake my nerves and give a pretty coherent talk. The questions were all pretty easy to answer too, which was a surprise as I’d done next to no preparation for them. My talk marked the end of the session and, as we breaked for morning tea, I breathed a huge sigh of relief as this meant I could relax and enjoy the rest of the day (and all the free food!).

Next, we watched a session in one of the smaller rooms, which Kalina from our lab was presenting in. Each session featured students of one particular level of experience; as we were exceptions, Ivana and I were lumped in with Honours students (the first year after graduation), and I could really tell the difference between those who presented with me and Kalina’s second year PhD group. They got much tougher questions, that’s for sure! Kalina had a little altercation with a lady who was trying to give her a hard time but failing miserably, which was pretty funny. I was really impressed with the breadth of topics being covered; to think that, just in and around Perth, so much research into a whole host of diseases is going on is pretty fascinating.

Lunch was a solid curry buffet and a chance to get feedback from everyone. Not only did they say I came across clearer and more confident than the others in my session, but Lindy came up to me and said she’d been approached by a few independent people who commented on how impressive I was, which I was pretty chuffed with! For pretty much the least experience person at the entire conference, I’m so happy I bit the bullet and agreed to speak. With all the nice things people were saying, I was probably walking around with a gigantic head for the rest of the day!

The two afternoon sessions were pretty interesting, although I did get a bit drowsy as I haven’t sat through anything vaguely resembling a lecture for a year now! German Jenny (affectionate nickname) and Ryan both did really well in the first one and Andy, despite his cold, did a good job in the second. On that note, it’s winter here now and everyone is ill, so I’m crossing my fingers that I don’t come down with anything before I fly home!

Ryan doing his thing

They put on free drinks afterwards in the university bar and I got my first taste of seeing our supervisors knocking back the wine, which I sincerely hope to see much more of at the conference dinner on Friday night, where we’ll find out if we’ve won any awards. Ryan, Andy, Marcus and I had a few beers and played some pool before we made a move as it was getting late. Ryan and I had dinner at a Sushi bar in Claremont on the way home, which was lovely; he’s my dearest friend at work and I almost welled up when he was saying that they all feel closer to me than any of the past Bath students, so I’m sure I’ll be an absolute wreck on Friday night when I’m saying goodbye!

It’s an early night for me after a very big day, but one I’m really happy I participated in. There aren’t many undergraduates who can say they’ve presented at a national level conference! These next two days are going to manically busy, what with a lot of loose ends to tie up at work and all sorts of social things scheduled, but at the end of it all I’ll be on a plane home. It’s all getting very exciting!

Andy, myself and Ryan

Goodbyes: Round I

I am about to begin my final week in Australia. Just one little working week stands between me and my flight home at 6am on Saturday morning. I can’t believe how quickly the time has passed! In work news: We ran through our talks for the conference on Wednesday in front of the lab group and mine was surprisingly well received, so having to make only a few minor alterations to it is allowing me to focus on my writing. Fingers crossed I’ll have my report almost finished by the time I leave, leaving only minimal alterations to attend to during my long-anticipated summer of freedom. Happy days! Other than the final push on my report and preparing for the conference, I have a lot of admin to get through, most of which consists of compiling a handbook of all the practical methods I use for the next Bath student, who arrives in August and will continue the work I’ve started. Add in some final quality time with Candice and the small matter of packing up a year's worth of stuff and life is pretty manic, but it's a good kind of manic as it means I'll soon be back with my loved ones!

Inevitably, goodbyes were going to have to be scheduled sooner or later. On Saturday, I organised a little lunch with friends from work. It wasn’t a proper goodbye, as I’ll spend next week with them all, but I couldn’t remember the last time we all saw each other outside of the lab! We ate at Grill’d in Claremont Quarter, mainly because it gave Marcus no excuse to bail considering he lives 100m away (he was still late however), but also due to the delicious, healthy burgers they serve. I was a sole undergraduate in a sea of PhD students: Andy, Marcus, Michael, Ivan, Kalina, Alexia and Nick. I had a delicious chicken burger with avacado, bacon and relish, as well as a few ciders!

Andy, Nick, Kalina, Me, Michael and Ivan

Marcus (dressed for an antarctic winter) and Ivan

Alexia: the cutest Russian I know

After dragging my bloated body home and attempting to watch The Great Gatsby in bed (which turned into a booze-fuelled nap), it was time to head over to South Perth for one last dinner with my lovely homestay family, the Billinghams. Jamie pulled up outside my house and I opened the car door to find him frantically scribbling a message into a card. At first I thought this was just him being hugely disorganised in bidding me farewell, but when I saw the Facebook message he was copying from his phone, I realised that it was a "good luck for the conference" note from my adorable parents, who had contacted him as there was no time to post me a card. Thanks you cuties! As we crossed the Narrows Bridge and I saw the view of the city skyline over the river, which I'd become accustomed to after three months in their beautiful apartment, it dawned on me that these would be much more definite and horrible goodbyes. Expertly balancing my bottle of wine, I helped Jamie remove a gigantic, curved screen TV from the back of the car (how the other half live) and we manouvred it into the lift in true “to me, to you” fashion. The door on the fourth floor opened and inside were the beaming faces of my wonderful expat second parents, John and Vic, plus Catriona, her little dog Anzac and greek homestay couple Denai and Tassos.

I cracked open the wine and we caught up on all our news while Vic finished off dinner. We dined on a gorgeous curry with all the trimmings, followed by an old favourite dessert of ours: Jelly and ice cream! They all mentioned how slim I was looking; I didn’t have the heart to tell them that it probably has something to do with no longer munching on their gorgeous three course meals every night... After dinner, we watch John’s video of his recent cycle across the Nullabor plane, which runs all the way from Perth to the South Australian border. Inland Western Australia is so beautiful and he saw loads of snakes, it looks amazing! The night ended around the table with several heated games of Canasta. They gave me a set of cards for my birthday, so it was good to refresh my memory and I plan to teach my parents when I get home. Catriona left, which was emotional enough, but it was then time for Jamie to drive me home. Hugging John and Vic goodbye was so hard! They’ve been so good to me during my time here, not only when I lived with them but since I’ve moved out too and I’ll miss them greatly. Jamie’s also become my buddy and we parted with promises of staying in touch and meeting up if we’re ever in the same country, which actually seems pretty likely given his constant jet-setting. I’m not sure I can deal with too many more goodbyes this week!

So far, I've spent my last Sunday the same way I've whittled away so many since moving to Peppermint Grove. After a lie in, I made my way down to Cimbalino, my favourite café, for coffee and cake to accompany the annotating of papers for my discussion (not ideal, but it's a little late in the day for weekends to be free of work). I then had a wander around all the little shops I love and picked up a few groceries before returning home. This afternoon will be spent alternating between running through my presentation to myself like an insane person and watching the Dockers game; I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm really going to miss watching AFL! Jess gets back from Dunsborough this evening before one final week of conferences and deadlines begins.