I like the fact that advertisements here are required to disclose the total cost of a contract for things like cell phones. For example, they advertise $69 per month, but then disclose the total is $1,800 minimum over the life of the contract, including up front fees. I think many people would think twice about signing up for some of the things they do if they considered the total cost. Even something cheap like Netflix used to cost us over $200 per year.
Our apartment building has 23 floors, but the elevator goes to 26. Yep, you guessed it, they skipped the unlucky floors. It goes 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26. In Chinese and Japanese 4 is pronounced the same way as the word for death. So there are no unlucky floors with a 4 in them in our building!
We had the first research seminar presentation at school today. The presenter was another American from the University of Washington that is spending about 6 months here. I have started to realize how much I miss being at a heavily research-oriented school. That and having a lot of time to focus on my own research has been great. Misa has been a little sick lately so we're taking it easy this week. The only thing we want to do this week is attend the Harry Potter exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum on Wednesday or Thursday before it leaves Sydney.
