What's The Capital of Australia?

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For those of you who answered with: Sydney... that is actually incorrect. The capital of Australia is actually Canberra, a small and sleepy town between Melbourne and Sydney. The name actually comes from the aboriginal term meaning "meeting place"... how's that for some fun facts. So now I'll finish with my lesson and tell you about how the day went. I woke up this morning around 6am and quickly packed my bags (which was difficult since I was splitting a room the size of a handicapped bathroom stall with a 28 year old japanese guy. But I was able to fumble around in the dark and gather all of my things and make my way to the airport. (I checked my flight before leaving for the airport this time). Made it to the airport without much incident, got in around 7AM and got yet another exit row on my flight. Booking with travel agents definitely has its perks. So because of some delays due to fog in Canberra, My flight was delayed about an hour and half, but I got this nice shot at the airport:

But I eventually arrived in foothill town of Canberra around 10AM this morning. The first of the many students arriving from the US or from other parts of Australia. I was greeted by our two hosts Charis and Nancy, who both work for the Australian Academy of Science here in Canberra. Since I was a bit early, I had some time to play around before the others arrived. But wow... hello NSF and AAS, they really hooked us up in nice places for the next few days. I am in a fully furnished and fully loaded apartment complete with stocked frig... here is a quick peek: But I went on a quick run around the town, and it's a beautiful place, a master planned city designed by an American (student of Frank Lloyd Wright). Here are some pictures from my run.

So since the run, we had a quick lunch to reacquaint ourselves with all of the participants in the program and then we took a bus tour of Canberra. A really beautiful city, which was the result of the master plan created by Burley Griffen (great name huh?) But here are some photos of the surrounding areas, the Parliment Bldg, and other things.
So here is a picture of the Parliment Bldg, the symbolism is pretty intresting with this building, Burley Griffin didn't want the building to be placed on this hill since it would mean the people would have to look up at the government, However, the design of the building was such that it was built into the hill with grassy knolls built up on 4 sides to let the public walk up and over the bldg, representing governments place to support the population.

So this evening was fairly laidback, a group of people came over to my apt. to watch the big rugby game... New South Wales vs. Queensland (I was pulling for Queensland of couse) who won handily. But that's about it for now, tomorrow we have a pretty full day in terms of activities, so I may head to bed relatively soon. So until the next entry, have a great one!