Blogging from Melbourne today! I'm working in the head office of Engineers Without Borders Australia for a week starting yesterday. I've always had a strong interest in poverty alleviation through sustainable engineering, so I'm hoping to meet a lot of like-minded people this week. So far it's been great. Last night I met a group of volunteers who are about to travel overseas to work on international development projects, which is something I'd love to do, so I got lots of great advice from them. I've also been meeting interesting people from all over the world in the youth hostel where I'm staying, so that's been really great.

I've started a new casual job in surface water modelling at SKM. It's been great doing some more technical work after mostly writing environmental approvals at Aurecon. Also, SKM has some very strong ties with EWB, so I'm hoping to get some opportunities to do international development work. Over the last few weeks I've worked on flood modelling, data collation and sediment/drainage controls for a mine.

Last semester went really well for me, although it got pretty stressful towards the end. Surface & Groundwater Modelling was a great course and I also found it really exciting to get started on my thesis. I've been trying to develop models of groundwater flow and reaction, relating to a project set in the Cook Islands. I was really lucky to be given the opportunity to be part of a large research project and if all goes well, hopefully my results will be useful for the professors and PhD students involved.