30 May, Sydney....time to go

It has been a wonderful experience, working with so many different folks across NZ and Australia. I find it hard to believe that my work responsibilities are done now ;-)  Many many thanks to the University of Newcastle's RIDBC Renwick Centre - Greg Leigh (Director) who approved this endeavor and Trudy Smith (Manager, Continuing Professional Education) for making all this possible. She organized all the presentations with a variety of entities. The Fulbright application process included a lot of paperwork and details. Trudy handled it all with aplomb. 

We will get up early tomorrow and Trudy will take us to the airport for the beginning of our holiday in NZ (beginning in Christchurch). 

I'm posting a few fun photos. Yesterday we took the bus into Parramatta to see the new Star Trek movie. Look at the photo of Rick at the bus station and look at the second photo, the lorikeet in the tree just above his head!! They are my favorites - such beautiful colors.

The cinema is in a 4-story mall. Look at the mega-screen....lots of advertisements. 

And just wanted to post 2 more photos - of course, my flat white which was served in a cup that said "coffee is my life" (how did the barrista know???). And the second, lemon-lime bitters....which will probably replace gin & tonic as my new favorite summertime drink ;-)

And last, this is building our flat is in, on the campus of RIDBC. The landscaping is lovely - especially the huge Norfolk Island pine trees - I used to have one as a potted plant back home!! I hear that the ones on Norfolk Island (sitting off the NE coast of Australia) are really huge.

So, time to wash some clothes, re-pack, clean up and move on. Hopefully, we will continue to have some access to wifi and will continue to post from NZ. We are due home in Rochester on Saturday night June 8 around midnight. The time has flown by!!!