As usual, this is going to be a long entry. Let's see...nothing really happened on Thursday, I think. Friday I woke up super early for our very first day of data collection! I learned a lot about the boat right away. Berenice, the French research assistant was with us that day but wasn't going to be the next so I had to learn how to do everything she did really fast. I got to drive the boat! I'm not entirely sure this is legal, but it was fun. Boats are difficult because there is a significant delay in anything you do - turning the steering wheel or changing the speed. But I got the hang of it.
The boat trip was long and sunny and cold and windy! Even though I braided my hair and had my hood up most of the time my hair was in ridiculous knots when I got back. My poor hair. It has put up with so much since I’ve been here. Sun and wind and salt. Anyway, it was all worth it because I go to see more dolphins! Obviously not from inside the water but it still made me happy and excited every time. We also saw a couple of penguins! And cormorants, which I love.
A good thing about waking up so early is that we get done really early. I was home by 2:00 on Friday, which was nice but also kind of scary. I’ve found most days that as I’m riding my bike home I start feeling homesick and lonely, with a lot of hours to fill between the end of work and time to sleep.
But! I came home on Friday, opened my computer, checked my email, and there in my inbox was something fantastic. It was an offer for the behavioral management internship at the Minnesota Zoo! I applied for it last summer and didn’t get it and the woman said that me being persistent put me over the edge. It sounds so amazing! I can’t wait. They’re getting a new exhibit in and so mostly I’ll be monitoring the new monkey groups to make sure that they are behaving normally, adjusting to their new surroundings and to each other alright. I also get to observe the grizzlies. And I could even get to do a special project!
After that I was feeling pretty good. I decided to wander around Bunbury, so I brought my camera and set off. As soon as I left my house I heard the weirdest noise. It sounded like R2D2. It was a magpie sitting on the powerlines across the street. I took a ton of pictures and tried to take a video but I think it might have been too windy to catch the noises it was making. Then I heard a raven from down the street. Australian ravens make the most ridiculous noises! Something like a crying robot baby. I tried to get a video of the raven, too, but I don’t think it worked. Then the weirdest thing happened! The raven and the magpie attacked each other! I got a couple of cool pictures and a very shakey video. I watched them for a long time. They kept separating and I thought it was over but then the attacked again! The raven even went and got one of his buddies, but I think in the end the magpie still won. It was really cool to watch.
I wandered towards the main city area, taking pictures as I went of the sea and houses I wanted and anything that caught my eye. I’ll post these on facebook sooner or later. Bunbury really is a cute little town. I like it a lot. I got some groceries at the store and while I was staring at the produce trying to decide what to eat for dinner one of the volunteers from the dolphin centre came over and said hi. We chatted for a bit and she invited me to a barbeque at their hostel that night! It was really exciting, I’m so glad I went grocery shopping! So I bought some fake hot dogs and buns in addition to what I was going to buy, then I bought a reusable shopping bag and carried it all home. I didn’t think my house was that much further from the city until I had to carry a jam-packed shopping bag all the way there! Boy was that a workout for my arms!
But anyway, I sat around for an hour and then headed over to the barbeque. It’s a little awkward because they’ve all been together for six weeks and most of them are leaving soon, so I feel like a bit of an outsider but it was still fun. They are from all over the world and it’s so fun to be surrounded by so many different cultures and so many hilarious people. I planned on just eating dinner and then going home but that turned into sitting around and talking and then they taught me a new game and then they were all going out to a club and I decided – against my better judgment, since I had to wake up at 6 again – to join in. It was the same one we went to before and the music wasn’t great, but it was fun anyway and nice to be around people. I stayed longer than I meant to because I didn’t want to walk back alone, but I was happy anyway.
I only got a couple of hours of sleep, but the next day in the boat all by myself for the first time was good anyway. On the way home I got the same homesickness but I biked past a large open field not far from my house where there was a horse show/country music thing going on so after I went home and ate an entire chocolate bunny that I got on sale after Easter I headed down there with my camera again.
I love horses. I thought it would make me sad and miss Lark to be around them, and it did, but it also made me so happy just to be around horses. I love watching them and how they sound and I even love the horse smell. The weird part to me was that it was a hunter jumper show but they had country music. In the US if there was country music involved it would only be western riding. It was just a strange combination. But I guess it is like Australia, the rough outback frontier country-ness mixed with the prim proper Britishness.
Anyway, while I was petting one of the horses an older Australian guy came over and started talking to me. Apparently his sister lives in Iowa. He used to be a sheep and wheat farmer and now he is a construction manager or something so we commiserated about how we miss farm animals. Then he got a little weird and was saying he wanted to keep in touch and take me to see things I needed to see in Western Australia and stuff like that. This is something that’s happened to me frequently in Australia. Actually, the first time wasn’t even in the country! It was on the plane ride over! It’s usually olderish Australian men and I cannot for the life of me decide if they are being nice or creepy. Is it my American paranoia that makes me nervous when they really just want to be nice and show off their home, or is it naïve to think that they are being nice? I have never been able to decide, so I always err on the side of caution. I did give him my email address, but didn’t tell him where I was staying or give him my phone number and I told him I was staying with people, not on my own. He gave me his phone number and address and everything, but he hasn’t contacted me yet so I think I’m going to ignore it. I know I was just complaining about not meeting Australians, but this just gives me a bad feeling.
After that I wandered down the beach back towards my house. There are very few things prettier than the sunset over the ocean and I get to see it every single day here! It was gorgeous and the waves were crashing and the water was all foamy and it was just wonderful.
The third day on the boat was probably the best. It was still just me and Valissa but I’d gotten better at driving. It was rough getting to the transect but once we were there it was nice. I made the first dolphin sighting which made me really happy! And then the second time we saw dolphins I noticed a mum and calf pair that Valissa hadn’t seen yet and it turned out to be two new individuals! That was really exciting. The calf was brand new and tiny, too! On the way home we saw some kind of sea eagle flying, which was cool. Oh! And on the way to meet Valissa in the morning I finally saw a galah! Galahs are beautiful pink parrots and I’d wanted to see one ever since I’d been here so that made me really happy.
Just as I was starting to feel that familiar homesickness on my bike back that day my phone trilled. It was Berenice, the other research assistant. She was moving into her first house with her boyfriend and wanted to know if I wanted to help her put her brand new Ikea furniture together (I’d offered to help her move before). I jumped at this and went straight over to her house (right down the street from mine). It was fun! I liked putting the furniture together, and I love talking to Berenice. She’s sweet and fun and nice and her accent is fantastic. Her boyfriend is a nice Australian, but very quiet and shy which is rare for Australians, it seems. Seeing her brand new house with all her brand new stuff made me really excited to get my own place and my own stuff. Jeez, I can’t believe that will happen in a little over a year! Crazy!
Well while I was there Valissa called and Berenice handed the phone to me. Valissa explained that they were going to a rugby game in Perth in a couple of weeks and one of their friends just backed out, leaving an extra ticket, and did I want to come? It was Australia vs. New Zealand, which is why they were particularly keen to go (Valissa is a kiwi). I asked, just to be absolutely sure, what kind of rugby it was. Rugby League. The New Zealand League team is the All Blacks! The one sporting event that I really wanted to go to while I was here and figured I had basically no chance of getting to, and here it is! Obviously I said yes, so in two weeks I get to see the All Blacks Haka live. I AM SO EXCITED!!
Berenice and I were also talking about places I should visit in Western Australia and she has a friend coming to visit from France and wants to take her south to a town called Denmark. Denmark is apparently an adorable little community right next to the Karri and Jarrah forests and the Tree Top Walk which Bill Bryson mentioned and I really want to see! She invited me to go with them, but we still have to figure out when. I really really hope it works out!
I also just happened to mention that I wanted to go rent movies and they said that they needed to take theirs back and I was welcome to come along! The people I’m renting this house from have a fantastic TV but only like 6 movies. So I went. Everything is just sort of lining up for me lately, it’s really and truly amazing *knocks on wood*. Anyway, I forgot how much I loved video stores. I know that with Netflix you don’t have to leave your house, but I really loved wandering through the store and grabbing whatever I felt like watching, right then at that moment. I got five movies (one of which was actually a season of Jeeves and Wooster) for something like $7. Lovely.
Yesterday I had a day off. I talked to Bobby for probably way too long on Skype and then went and wandered around town some more. I bought a sweatshirt because while it’s warm enough to wear a tank top and shorts during the day here at night and in the morning it gets incredibly cold. Plus, it’s a good excuse for me to get something with “Australia” written in large letters across the chest and an Australian flag on it. I did some work and sat out on my balcony listening to the waves crash and reading my book as the sun set. I watched Four Weddings and a Funeral. It was a good day.
Today I have another day off. So far I’ve been sitting in my bed talking to people online and typing this up. I’m trying to decide between going to the beach and going to the wildlife preserve. I should probably do some work at some point, too, but that may or may not happen. I should definitely do some laundry. Tonight I’m going to yoga with Berenice and Valissa and then we might be watching Mama Mia (at least, Berenice and I).
In short: I am very happy. Even when I get sad I know that if I just force myself to do something, even as simple as leaving the house instead of just sitting around and moping, I will get happy again. I know that I’ve only been living in this town for two weeks and this house for one and a half, so maybe it will get worse in the coming weeks, but for right now it feels really good to know that I can be happy on my own and make friends and have fun and just be. It’s a good feeling.
As always, I miss and love you.
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