As all the shops are open until 9pm, I have even been able to sneak in a bit of shopping after work. The hotel is situated right next to a mall, however due to the highway and car park, they recommend that you take the hotel shuttle rather than attempting to walk.

For once I have the upper hand as a native English speaker, and it is I who is able to translate from the local vernacular. I must admit, it is refreshing to be able to communicate effortlessly with everyone around me, making small talk with the taxi drivers and hotel staff. I can even understand all the TV channels, which gives me the privilege to watch such informative documentaries such as “Extreme Couponing” and “Kate plus 8″.

At 3 AM on Tuesday January 15 2008, I joined fifty other mac geeks at the Pre-keynote meet-up outside the Apple Store on Stockton Steet (I’m the one in the long brown coat and cream pants in the middle), and we walked together to join the line at the Moscone Center, where there were already around fifty people waiting. Despite the early hour and the bitter cold, the atmosphere was electric with anticipation. We spent the next six hours in conversation over breakfast donuts and coffee, reminiscing over past Apple flops and successes, and speculating on what Steve would unveil during the big event.

Photo by Adam Jackson.

Finally, they unlocked the door, and we streamed into the hall to see Steve Jobs striding on stage in front of an audience filled with MacBooks and iPhones. He talked about the four billion iTunes song downloads, the new apple TV, and unveiled the MacBook Air. To conclude the event, Randy Newman – the composer for Pixar – sang a few songs, including Toy Story’s “You’ve got a friend in me”, saying “I always root against corporations, ’cause that’s how I am, but not this one”.

Photo by Tech Show Network.

This was just the beginning. I spent the next two days visiting all the booths, from Adobe to Microsoft to BusySync to Gelaskins, attending presentations on hardware and software, and even purchasing my very own iPhone – receiving a complementary case from one of the vendors. It was exhilarating to be surrounded by so many members of the Mac community in such a dynamic venue.

Photo by smenzel

By the end of the second day I was completely exhausted, trying to fit a lifetime’s worth of Macworld experiences into 48 hours. There were 191 educational sessions, 479 exhibitors, and 47,908 attendees. Luckily, one of the exhibitors was MetroNaps – a company that provides an essential service and which permitted me to trial one of their pods for much need rejuvenation.

Photo by laughingsquid.

I think that’s enough to keep me busy for twelve months or so. It is a bit overwhelming to be faced with so many changes, but I realise how lucky that we are to have this opportunity, so the main emotion I feel is excitement. We had a great time in North America over the past two years, and while I think we are better suited to Europe, I am very thankful for all the happy memories that we have of the United States of America.

After spending an hour out in the blistering morning sun, we decided to take a short cut back to the restaurant for lunch. Unfortunately, I had left my iPhone back at the hotel, so we had no map. Some passers by gave us directions, and we set of, we later discovered, in entirely the wrong direction. We were now in the middle of the Hilton golf course residential villas complex, and yet the footpaths were entirely unshaded. Everyone else was travelling either in golf carts or in SUVs, as this was still the USA, after all. The path twisted and turned, and although we passed miles of sparkling time-share apartments, we could not find shade nor shelter for ourselves. After an hour of trudging under the blistering Hawaiian sun, we emerge back at the shops, and stepped into the bliss of air conditioning. I downed a great deal of water, and savoured the luxury of cool air, shade, and hydration.

That afternoon we ventured across the other side of the island to see Volcanoes National Park. We walked through an old lava tube, and emerged into the damp rich rainforest, filled with birds and towering trees. We spent sunset overlooking the caldera of the active volcano, and as it became dark, I could see the pale orange light illuminating the smoke from the vents, and listening to the restless magma rumble and grumble below the earth.

As we only had two nights in Hawaii, I wanted to make the most of it, so I decided to book us on a helicopter ride across the island. A few days beforehand, Adrian had a nightmare where I raised my arms while I was under the rotors, and lost both my hands. He had also seen quite a few movies where the people in the helicopter fare very badly. So he was quite worried about flying in a helicopter over the world’s most active volcano. As we entered the cockpit, Adrian made sure that my hands were firmly by my sides, even though the rotors were still. There were five of us in the helicopter, with Toshi as our pilot. I sat next to him as his co-pilot. We were all buckled in, with our noise-cancelling headphones and microphones for talking with the rest of the crew.

Toshi pointed out the landmarks, crops, and formations as we glided through the clouds to the other side of the island. We were staying on the dry side of the island, black and desolate apart from the fluorescent green of the irrigated resort townships with their McMansions and golf-courses. As we crossed to the other side of the mountains, the land suddenly became lush, filled with squares of eucalyptus and macadamia nut trees. Finally, we were flying over Volcanoes National Park. Most of the park is vast rainforest, but amongst this life we saw huge black gashes caused by recent lava flows. The most recent lava flow occurred a few months ago, and is still pouring out to the ocean through a lava tube. As the lava stream cools, it retreats from the surface and forms a red hot tube underground filled with fast flowing lava. I have walked through old and cold lava tubes, but I have never seen one in progress. As we flew over the top of the tube, we saw the white water vapour from recent rains, as well as the blue sulfur dioxide from the lava vents. Part of the roof of the tube had collapsed, and we were able to peer down and see a pool of red hot lava swirling below the crust. In other nearby spots, some of the lava was still on the surface, visible in intense red waves that contrasted the the blackness of the rest of the landscape.

We followed the lava tube for a few kilometers, until it reached the Pacific Ocean. There, it poured out into the water, with black eruptions emanating from the cliff, and a huge plume of white water vapour rising from the point of contact. Yellow sulphur formed a ring around the entry point, and the island of Hawai’i grew larger beneath us as we watched. We flew back to the helipad via some spectacular valleys and waterfalls, and we returned to our hotel safe and sound, with all our limbs intact, and our minds full of the images of lava swirling below us.

As we were walking back, we saw the heads of a turn of sea turtles bobbing in one of the coves, and after breakfast we returned with our snorkelling gear. Just a few meters from the shore we were able to float above them, watching them graze on the plants just below the surface, and elegantly glide together through the warm rays of the morning sun that pierced the water.

It is a magical place. Adrian and I spent two and a half hours hiking through the treetops of coastal redwoods, watching the chickadees, and spotting a chipmunk and a squirrel. We took the ocean view trail, heeding the disclaimer that the trees are now so high, the water is no longer visible. We only met one other person on the trail, and it was so still and peaceful, among these giant living beings that are centuries old. We have had such a busy month preparing for the move, that this day of peace was exactly what we needed. We even spotted a loveliness of ladybirds, clambering together to preserve warmth in the cool air.

To farewell the USA, we are spending three nights in San Francisco. We spent the first evening relaxing quietly, as I was still feeling quite sore. I had chicken noodle soup at a downtown diner, and then we went to see “Role Models” because of a cranky looking clip on The Daily Show. We laughed and enjoyed ourselves, and then headed back to our hotel at Union Square.

The next morning I woke up at 5:30 to find some oatmeal from Starbucks, and then we were picked up at 6:30 for our day trip to Yosemite National Park. Designated a World Heritage site in 1984, it is full of grand vistas. The sheer granite cliffs form huge valleys, laced with waterfalls above snow-dusted forests. We saw Bridalveil Falls, El Capitan, a 3 593 foot high granite monolith, and Half Dome, which was never a full dome.

After lunch (I had soup again), we went for an atmospheric walk through Tuolumne sequoia grove. As we were 6 000 feet up, the ground was lightly dusted with snow, and a thick fog enveloped us. The sequoias, the world’s largest living organism, emerged from the mist and towered above us. One fallen giant rested on its side, slowly returning to the soil. We watched a silver belly squirrel carefully pack its nuts into the ground, and spotted a parcel of deer scamper through the long grass.

For dinner I had mashed potatoes with gravy and yogurt. Returning to San Francisco, we stopped beside the Bay Bridge and admired its strings of light leading the way back into the city.

Stanford
I had always wanted to study at Stanford, and now I finally had the opportunity. Later on in the course, they even gave me an umbrella for coming the furthest to attend. My dorm-room was a very freshman experience, but the Advanced Course in Immunology was great. All the other students were really friendly, and didn’t form the impenetrable cliques that sometimes form at conferences. The good lecturers usually spent an hour or so going over the classic experiments in the field, and then the next couple of hours encouraging us to explore the unanswered questions that they were leaving to the next generation of researchers.

I had my post-doc interview at Stanford, and met some of the leading researchers there and heard about their unpublished work. Their offices are decorated with their own images on the covers of Cell and Nature, the department is full of exciting discoveries and inventions, however the working environment is very focussed on the individual.

I went on a walking tour of the university, and saw the Stanford Church and the main quad, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted who also planned NY Central Park. I also saw the large Rodin outdoor sculpture gallery, and the first Google computer in the basement of the William Gates Computer Science building. Mr and Mrs Stanford had created the university in honour of their son, Leland Stanford Junior. One of the conditions of the original founding grant was that tuition be free for all students. Obviously, this last condition no longer holds, and now undergraduates pay $38,000 a year to attend. The weather was amazing, and the ground squirrels very cute, but with San Francisco so far away and no on-campus housing for post-docs, I was told a car was almost compulsory.

Seattle
One final weekend in Seattle before returning to Australia. As I had caught a cold at my immunology course, Adrian and I had a relaxing weekend filled with naps and gentle activities. He took care of me, even walking to the store to buy me three different types of Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream to soothe my throat. We saw the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, found a bright apartment in Fremont with a stunning vista to rent, went to the movies, and treasured all the shared joys that we could squeeze in before I had to fly back to Australia.

That evening we watched Fantasmic! – a pyrotechnic and theatre show on the water, and then experienced the new Pirates of the Caribbean that now features several animatronic Johnny Depps. I had gone to Disneyland thirteen years ago to see the Haunted Mansion, only to find it closed for renovations, but this time it was open and I could experience its 999 happy haunts. Sleeping Beauty’s castle was very beautiful in the night, lit up in pink and blue from below.

The next morning we saw Disneyland in the daylight. Adrian was disappointed at the entrance – he was expecting something imposing and intimidating, rather than some flowers and a small plaque. I was feeling brave, having survived California ‘Screaming, so we headed towards Space Mountain. The first time I was so scared I could barely keep my eyes open, but I enjoyed it so much we repeated the experience straight away, and felt like a true astronaut, streaming through star fields and exploring the universe.

We also soared over London in a pirate ship on Peter Pan’s Flight – one of the original Disneyland rides from 50 years ago. We had fun picking the countries represented in It’s a Small World, and I saw Yetis when I rode the Matterhorn Bobsleds. We then wandered though Downtown Disney to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 2 in the excellent movie theatre with ultra-comfortable seating, crisp audio-visual, and, exclusively for me, perfect company. By this time I was feeling super-brave in my Tinkerbell mouse ears, and we experienced the Tower of Terror, which now makes me feel very nervous every time I catch an elevator. We both loved Disneyland so much, we are planning to visit again soon, so we can experience the other attractions and revisit our favourites.

I had my first post-doc interviews, and everyone to which I talked said they loved living in Seattle. Giving my seminar was very intimidating, because even though it was an informal seminar in a small room, there was an amazing amount of expertise in the audience, including two of the keynote speakers from last year’s Australasian Society for Immunology conference. I was a little nervous, but I think that I gave a good talk, and everyone seemed very interested and asked lots of excellent questions. I had interviews with lab-heads, and received a written post-doc offer from my favourite PI, which was very flattering.