Study buddy!

Class this week has gone relatively smoothly so far! 

In my topics class, Professor Abrahams delved deeper into crystal structures. He reviewed specific types of crystal arrangements (eg a simple one being NaCl). Later this week we are actually going to go and see the university mineral collection to complement what we have been learning about in class! I'm very excited about this. I also had my first tutorial this week and it was much different than the tutorials (recitation sections) I've had at home. We were assigned problems to go over for the tutorial beforehand. I did all of the questions, but interestingly not many seemed to have completed them before the tutorial. Professor Abrahams went over the questions in class; much different from what I am normally used to doing. For example at home, I'll work with others on a problem set and go over the answers on my own after a solution has been released. In the recitation section, the tutor (TA) usually covers example problems or extensions of the lectures. I feel like a lot of what I normally do in recitation at home I did on my own time here. It's a bit different, but there is much more autonomy. 

This week was also the chemistry research project social. The course coordinator has the mentors and students meet for a light lunch to discuss different projects. I spoke to a member of the Mulvaney group (3rd choice, quantum dots) who had just started as a postdoc. This group had the largest variety of projects available and seemed to be a good group to work in. I saw Professors Abrahams and Boskovic at the social, so I stopped by to talk to them as well. It was funny because they were both already standing together and discussing inorganic chemistry. I was pleasantly surprised that they both remembered my name because they both greeted me very warmly when I walked up to them. Since I had already met with both to discuss their projects earlier, I had the chance to talk about the Uni with Professor Abrahams. I was able to talk to him about my (WONDERFUL) experience at Uni Melb thus far and discuss with him some of the differences between the Australian system and the one I'm used to at home. He's so friendly and seems like he would be a really great advisor so hopefully I'll be assigned to him! Professor Boskovic kindly introduced me to another study abroad student from the UK, Martin, and the four of us talked some more about how sad we all thought it was that most people at Uni Melb preferred organic to inorganic. I was able to meet another local student at the social as well, Christine. She came over to talk to Professor Boskovic, but after I was able to talk with her a bit as well. Interestingly, Christine told me that this research project course was the first time any of the Uni Melb students were doing "real" research.  At Caltech, it's very common to find a lab to work in right away, so this was surprising to me! I also found out that she's taking the same topics as me in the topics class! Yay, now I have someone I can talk to about my topics!