In Which I am On a Boat and Life is Good

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.

MY LIFE IS THE MOST AWESOME LIFE THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED!

I just got back from SWIMMING WITH DOLPHINS! What?! It was probably the most amazing experience in the midst of this huge experience which is the most amazing experience of my life. The Dolphin Centre where I'm doing my research does swim tours which usually cost something like $180 but since I am a research assistant it was free! So I woke up ridiculously early this morning, came down here, suctioned myself into a wetsuit and went out on a boat.

We saw several pods which was fantastic in and of itself. I was right on the bow when a couple of them started bow riding right underneath me! We also saw a brand new baby, only about a week old. This was all just from the boat. I was actually really impressed with their system. I was a little concerned about swimming with wild dolphins, (about them, not about safety) but they way they handle it is really cool. For one thing, the boat has a special engine that makes all the noise above water, and little to no noise underwater, which is sweet. Also, every group they see they watch its behavior before people are allowed to get in. They look for signs of mating, fighting, or feeding, and don't get in if they're doing any of those things. When they do get in, it's about 100 or 150 meters from where the dolphins actually are, and then its the peoples' job to be as interesting to these naturally curious creatures as possible, in the hopes that they'll swim over and see us. You're not allowed to get in the water anywhere near a new calf, and if you touch a dolphin there's a fine of multiple thousands of dollars. There's absolutely no guarantee you will get anywhere near dolphins on these tours. I'm pretty pleased with this system!

So anyway, we got in the water near a group of big males all swimming together. The water was freezing and very murky, by the way, nothing like the Great Barrier Reef. The people on the boat recommend that you make noise, in and out of the water, duck dive, do anything to make them want to know what you are. So we started singing "You're the One That I Want" from Grease and all of a sudden we started seeing fins coming towards us. Straight towards us. Suddenly they were all around us! I could hear them clicking and whirring underwater and then there one was, about a foot away from me, casually swimming by on his side with his belly towards me. It was the most surreal experience I've ever had. I think I got a picture of just how close he got, I believe it is just a close up of dolphin belly. It wasn't really until we got on the boat that I realized what had just happened. It was so fast, too!

Once they left we got back on the boat and saw some more socializing behavior which was cool. We were running out of time but we saw a mother and older calf who looked like they might just be foraging or sort of chilling so we got in the water again. From the water we got to see some more dolphins further away surfing on the waves! There would be a big swell and the dolphin would ride right with it and jump completely out of the water. It was SO cool to see in real life, even if it was far away!

We were trying to get their attention again and I suggested we try "You're the One That I Want" again since it worked the last time. The other two people who were really singing before laughed and agreed so we sang it and sure enough, they swam right under us! They kept circling and coming back, too! I swear both of them were about a foot away from me, swimming right under me in the water. I was in such awe that time that I completely forgot about my camera.

I seriously cannot believe that just happened. I'm actually still shaking a little bit. I swam with wild dolphins in the Indian Ocean. Oh my god. Even if my project is terrible and working for Valissa is terrible and I don't get to see anything in Western Australia or make any good friends or have any time off for the rest of the month, I'm pretty sure it will all be worth it for those few minutes of being that close to something so beautiful in the wild. My life is awesome.

In Which I Don't Have a Lot to Say, But I Say it Anyway

Today marks one week since I came to Bunbury and eleven weeks since I first came to Australia (although technically eleven weeks ago today didn't exist for me because of the whole international dateline thing). This is positively crazy! It feels like it's going by so fast but also like I've been here forever. Depending on my travel plans I only have something like seven weeks left. I want to go home but I also don't feel like I've really experienced Australia fully yet. There are so many places I want to go that I know I won't get to. But more than that, I feel like I still haven't met that many real Australians. Staying in hostels there are always more foreign visitors than people from Australia. There are a few Australians in the hostel I just left that I talked to, but not that many. The thing is, the Australians that live here don't need to talk to random strangers from other countries. They've got lives and friends of their own here, and just go about their business. I don't really know how to get to know Australians here, although I have a few more weeks to work on it (I've given up on finding Australians in Cairns, there are very very few).

I guess that's sort of my problem. I love doing the touristy things and seeing the country, and there's so much that I want to see, but just seeing the country and doing tours with other tourists isn't really the same as experiencing it with real Australians. I did live with Australians for two weeks, and now I'm living like an Australian, but not with them, so I guess I don't really know what else I could do to experience the country, but I feel like there should be something. Maybe that's another reason for me not to live in the hostel, I can try to meet more locals somehow.

On the other hand, I might have so much work the next month that I won't have time to worry about meeting locals, or foreigners, or seeing things, or being lonely, or anything except for dolphins. The past two days it's been dawning on me just how much forty hours per week is and writing a paper on top of it, especially when I have no idea how to write this paper or what to write it about. A month just doesn't seem like nearly enough time to collect enough data to get a 20-50 page paper done (much less enough time to get the data and write the paper). Ah! I was hoping this could double (with some extra work next year) as my senior thesis, but now I'm thinking it might be too crap to use for that and I'm freaking out a little. But not really as much as I normally would about something like this, so that's good.

Anyway, in honor of this quasi-anniversary I will leave you with a few new Australianisms:

"______ as." as in "If you take the seat out that car would be spacious as." (I assume it's just taking off the "anything" from "spacious as anything" but this is something I've only heard since I've gotten here (although mainly from a guy from Sydney and one of the German girls who went to school for a while in Adelaide, so maybe it's not a regional thing. Anyway, it's weird)

"to spit the dummy" as in "Boy did she ever spit the dummy after that." (This takes a bit of explaining, as it's actually double slang. "Dummy" is a pacifier, so to spit the dummy is to throw a tantrum - like when little kids get so upset they spit the pacifier out of their mouth to scream - but it's used for people of all ages throwing tantrums)

"...hey?" They say this instead of "What?" when they don't understand what someone says (apparently they find it rude when people say "What?" which I just found out, so I've probably been pissing off Australians all over the place), also used like "eh?" to get someone to agree with a statement you've made.

"Esky" is a cooler - like you would put beer into - taken from the brand Eskimo, I think. Don't sit on other peoples' eskies, it's very rude, because then they have to ask you to move to get their next beer.

Anyway, I should get back to work. Sometime in the next couple of days I will try to take pictures around Bunbury and post them. Also, wish me luck with my interview for my summer internship tonight, and swimming with the dolphins tomorrow morning!

A Night Out (Followed by a Day In) In Small Town Australia

Tonight I went out with the German girls from my hostel, a girl I met from Albany (Western Australia, not New York), and a bunch of the volunteers from the dolphin centre. I was sleepy and didn’t want to go but decided that since I might end up hermitting for the rest of the month I should at least make an appearance and try to make some friends. Plus, I was interested to see what Bunbury Nightlife would be like. Oh boy.

We went to a place called Fitzgerald’s (the German girls called it “Fitzie’s”) that advertised itself as a “late night Irish pub” or something like that. It started out fairly normal. There was a small, sparsely populated dance floor. They played older but still good dancing music, there were some trampy-looking overdressed girls (I felt super underdressed because I’d packed all my skirts and my one dress in the bag I already brought over to my new house!), but generally it was all good. Then it turned out there was also a live band. I think they were called “Perfect Strangers” (which made me laugh, obviously they never got that 80s show here) and were pretty decent. They mostly just covered American rock music from the 80s. The lead singer looked like a Jon Bon Jovi wannabe (complete with feathered hair), but that’s okay. They were decent and although none of it is great dancing music, I do get a kick out of belting out “Livin’ on a Prayer” with a huge crowd of people (judging from the volunteers it turns out that people all over Europe know every American song). We mostly tolerated them and then every three or four songs they would take a break and the DJ would bring back the good dancing music.

The dance floor was small but it was decked out, unreasonably so. It had a many-pointed star-shaped disco ball, colored lights that were programmed to move and change and all sorts of things, and even fog machines. It was a little ridiculous. But fun, nonetheless.

My favorite thing was the people. The volunteers were fun. I felt awkward because I’m not really part of their group but it was nice to have people to (sort of) dance with. I was asked by a Canadian if the college bar scene in Wisconsin is "just like the movies". I had no idea what to say so I said yes. What movies are there about Wisconsin college bars? I got hugged by a very drunk girl wearing a mauve taffeta dress. Twice. I saw a guy who looked like his name was probably Slippery Simon the Used Car Salesman, or possibly Vinny “The Rat” Macchiato. Complete with bowling shirt and awkwardly younger than him fake blonde bimbo. But the piece de resistance was the greatest hairdo that has ever existed in the history of the world. I wish I had had my camera. It was a mullet, but the back was all in dreadlocks, and to top it all off he had tied two of the dreadlocks around all the others so that it looked at first glance like a rattail. I am not kidding. I didn’t know it was possible to be so many kinds of ugly all at the same time! Even if everything else had been terrible that would have made my night, and probably my week.

I need to go out in Bunbury more often.

Today I moved into the house. I sat around here feeling vaguely awkward most of the day while the owners frantically packed (I was frantic trying to pack for this trip, I can’t imagine packing for two months away with an infant!). I positively wallowed in the internet. I will go ahead and admit this: I am an addict. It’s true. I love the internet. A lot of it is that I’m homesick and so I am facebook stalking people from home quite a bit more than usual, but I just love the internet in general. I didn’t realize how much until I couldn’t be on it whenever I wanted and had to pay up to $6 per hour. It’s not a problem when I don’t have it, it turns out. On the Aboriginal camping trip where there was just no chance I could even see a computer I was totally fine, but sitting in the hostel using my laptop but not being able to check on my friends or my favorite websites is sort of like torture. It’s pathetic, I know, but it’s true. Of course, it’s been worse since I got to Bunbury because there’s been no wireless and internet is more expensive here than it was in Cairns, and I don’t have other things (like real live friends) to distract me as much. So I’ve been on the internet basically nonstop since I got here around 11 this morning.

But that’s not all I did! I also played with a baby. Shannon and Jeremy, the people I’m renting from, have an absolutely adorable 9 month old named Kaylin (I don’t actually know how to spell it). I got to hold her and play with her and watch her while they were packing and she loved me. I am mostly afraid of babies, because I haven’t been around them very much and I’m always afraid I’m going to damage them or they’re going to damage themselves while I’m supposed to be looking after them, but actually getting to play with one (especially one that grinned every time she looked at me and followed me around as best she could, not walking yet) was really fun. I was a little sad they were leaving, so I wouldn’t get to play with her anymore.

I’ve decided to give myself the day off. Today is a relaxation day. Technically this is bad, because yesterday and the day before that were days off from work, but I was doing school work. I still have a paper to finish for school, and I’ve been meaning to go out and explore and do things around Bunbury so I don’t become an insane shut-in, but I’m not going to do that today, either. It’s Easter Sunday and everything in the entire country is closed, anyway (that is one thing I’ve noticed here, they don’t at all have the “I must be able to buy stuff every minute of every day” mentality that there is in America. Almost all businesses – even malls! – close at 5:30, except on Sundays when it’s earlier and Thursdays when it’s “late night” shopping night and things stay open till 9. If grocery stores stay open “late” on other days it’s until 8. That took some getting used to and some mad runs to buy things at 4:45. My question is: how do people ever shop if they work until 5? But I digress). I am lonely and homesick but exhausted from constantly being around strangers, so just for today I will do what I want to do. I will lounge. I will enjoy having a brightly sunlit house (hostel rooms NEVER have enough light) and I will read my book(s) and I will cook stirfry for dinner and I will watch one, if not both of the Shrek movies they left for me to take back to the video store (in return for letting me use their account, which is sweet). I will continue to look at everything on the internet, and I will probably eat several more Tim Tams dipped in Nutella (because I am a fatty and it is delicious). My hope is that if I relax and abuse my internet privileges today, then I will be able to focus on work more tomorrow and will have gotten it at least somewhat out of my system. I think my plan is a good one. It’s been a really long time since I’ve been able to just relax for a day, and I think it will make me feel a lot better. That’s the hope, anyway.

As always, I love and miss you.

Brief Update From the Edge of the World

Since the previous post was written things have gotten better. I actually really enjoyed wandering around town by myself the first day. I met some people at the hostel and the people I'm going to be working with and they all seem very nice. One of the couples I met are going out of town for the next two months and offered me their house to live in while I'm here, for cheaper than the hostel so I think I'm going to do that (I was worried about being lonely, but I think it will be good. They should be calling to confirm sometime soon and I will say yes! Yay!).

I've been a little more homesick just because I don't have anyone here, but I think this will be a good experience, overall. I need to focus on my work a little more but I also found a whole bunch of touristy things to do in this area that I might have money for with the money I'm saving on where I live! Plus I might start taking yoga or surf lessons or something like that. I will find ways to talk to people. I will find out what it's like to be alone, which is an entirely new phenomenon to me (even when I went off to college I started out knowing at least a couple of people). Plus, it's only for five weeks. I'm feeling very optimistic at the moment.

I really need to be doing work, though. Love you and miss you!

Written My First Morning in Bunbury (Not Posted Till Now Due to Internet Difficulties)

OH dear god what I am I doing here? Currently I am sitting in my new bed for the next month, in an oddly shaped and quite run-down single room (thank god it’s a single at least, totally worth the extra money) in Bunbury, Western Australia. I am thousands and thousands of miles from the nearest person I know. Right now I am feeling a lot like I was on that second day of the program when I completely freaked out. Except, I’m not completely freaking out. Most of me is, but there is this part that is saying “You’re alone. Freaking out won’t help, you just have to figure out how to make it work.” Which I think is lots and lots of progress from a few months ago.

Let’s start a little further back. On Saturday we hiked up the highest point on Lizard Island. They told us that sports sandals like Tevas would be fine to wear so that was all I brought, but it turned out that some parts of the “path” were up sheer rocks. Oh yeah, and it was spitting rain so everything was covered with a nice slippery layer of wet. I slipped and fell a couple of times, but I didn’t break anything so it’s okay. I like hiking up things but hate hiking down. After that we had our last ever snorkel which was actually really cool. I saw another octopus! We watched it for a long time and it seemed to be digging. It would disappear into its hole, then come back up a little while later and spit sand out of the hole, go back in, repeat. I have a very shakey video of it. We also saw a bunch of sting rays and a remora! Pretty cool.

Sunday was hard. Three of our number were staying at Lizard Island for their ISPs, so they came to the airport to see us off and basically everyone was crying. It’s amazing how close you can get to people in just a couple of months. When we got home the group felt small and not entirely right. We worked on our papers for the next two days, and then Monday night everyone who was left decided to take me out for my last night in Cairns. We ate at a delicious Asian place and then went to the Irish pub, P.J. O’Brien’s. We tried to go to a dancing place but it was a Monday night and there was literally no one there. So we all ended up back at the hostel bar, hanging out with the bar tender and talking. I ended up having a very heated discussion with a drunken American English major who claimed that science fiction/fantasy could never be literature, it was all just pulp. Conversations I never thought I would have in a bar in Australia.

Anyway, there was lots and lots of hugging and “I’m going to miss you so much, you’ll have so much fun”, etc. Then they came down with me in the morning and we did it all again before I got in a cab to go to the airport. I was really really sad but it hadn’t quite dawned on me yet how alone I was going to be. Actually, it still sort of hasn’t. And even though I hate saying goodbye and leaving people I was kind of excited to travel all by myself.

Most of the day went off without a hitch. Things I need to remember when booking flights: pay attention to where your seat is, and get one by the window, and ask for a vegetarian meal. But Qantas (Australian airline) is lovely and gives lots of food (even if it is mostly carbs) so I was pretty much okay. The man sitting next to me on the first flight even switched seats with me so I could try and see Uluru when we were landing (unfortunately it was on the other side of the plane, but I saw it a little bit. I’ll be back, anyway).

Ayer’s Rock airport is the tiniest airport I have ever seen in my life, besides Lizard Island. We got to walk down a set of stairs straight onto the tarmac like they do in movies but I have never done in real life. Stepping from the rainforest into the desert was pretty cool. Anyway, I walked into the airport, went through security again (I had a pocket knife in the top pocket of my backpack the entire day, I realized, but they didn’t seem to care), went to the bathroom, bought a packet of chips, and then they called my flight. We walked outside and got back on the exact same plane I had been on on the way there, only a few rows up.

This time I sat next to two British ladies. We didn’t talk much. I was super lucky, though, because one of them had ordered a vegetarian meal and didn’t want it, so I got half a vegetarian sandwich and didn’t feel quite as gross, because at least I ate a few vegetables that day.

At Perth I found my bag, and all my stuff got sniffed by an adorable beagle quarantine dog looking for fruit or other things brought into the state. I followed the signs to the shuttle that would take me to the train station but I couldn’t find it and just as I was backtracking to find someone who could tell me where to go I ran into the bus that took me to the same place.

Perth is an adorable city. The houses are small and cute and Australian. Everything looks fairly new (because everything is fairly new in this entire country) and there was a lot of construction, but things were bright and happy and welcoming. Also, I didn’t notice how few Muslims I’d seen in Australia until I got to Perth where I started seeing women in long skirts and headdresses like at home. I also didn’t notice how few fat people there are elsewhere in Australia until I got to Perth and there started to be some again. Also, all of the school uniforms I saw in Perth are the ugliest ones I have ever seen.

The people were very nice, though. I hate buses here (I don’t know if this is what it’s like everywhere else) because they never tell you what stop they are on. This happened in Cairns, too. You have to know where you’re going in order to use the buses here. It took me a long time to get the courage up but eventually I asked the old man next to me where St. George’s Terrace was and how to get to the train station from there. He was very nice and told me when to get off and how to get there. I got a lot of funny looks walking through the city with my Adventure hat (which had gotten somewhat mangled on the plane) and my luggage. I was also wearing real shoes, not flipflops, which I hadn’t done in so long that I got a blister on my heel. I am a pro at asking people directions now. It turns out that the train station is in the back of a building marked “Medical Centre” (which makes perfect sense, of course) but I had to ask at least three more people before I found it. And then I asked a security guard how to get to my train, and he told me to go down a lift into what turned out to be a tiny area outside the station, blocked on all sides by huge gates because of all the construction, with no place to sit and one old man with a handlebar moustache sitting there smoking. He turned out to be really nice too. He was going on the same train as me.

I had two hours to wait, so I went back upstairs and got a croissant and some water, and then I found the only bathroom – which I had to pay fifty cents to use! Let me tell you, that bathroom was not worth fifty cents – and I had a sneaking suspicion that where I was waiting was not where I was supposed to be waiting, so I asked the bathroom guards and one of them actually walked me to where I was supposed to go. That was maybe worth fifty cents. This waiting area had seats.

So I sat and read my book and talked to the man with the handlebar moustache (who had also found his way to the right place) for the next two hours. He was nice and very talkative but somewhat weird. He thought I was fifteen. Do I look fifteen? I do not look fifteen. He also asked me if I had been in Australia my whole life, after I had spoken with my extremely American accent and told him I was studying abroad in Australia.

The train ride was nice, although the sun set pretty soon after I got on the train so I couldn’t watch the country fly by. I read and listened to Bill Bryson (all three of the books I am currently reading/listening to are about people travelling alone, which I think has been helping me out) and talked a little bit to the nice lady sitting next to me, and fell asleep.

When we got to Bunbury Station I thought “Yes! I made it!” My boss for the next month, Valissa, had told me she would meet me at the train station at 8:30 and take me to the backpacker’s hostel, presumably telling me on the way how to get to where I was going to be working, when she expected me there, and lots of other stuff she hadn’t mentioned in the emails.

She wasn’t there when I first got there, which was okay because the train was a little early, it was only 8:20. I watched everyone else get picked up or jump into taxis, and every new car that turned into the station I thought “Oh, that must be her!” But it wasn’t. None of them were her. I stood there for half an hour, with the station security guard standing anxiously behind me, obviously needing to wait until the last passenger was gone before she could shut up the station. I used the payphone to call her but it went straight to voicemail. At 9:00 I left a message telling her I was here and needed to leave the station so the security guard could close up and telling her where I was staying and my cell phone number (although I didn’t have any money on it, so I have no idea if that will work or not). Then I took a cab to the hostel.

Oh yes – sidenote – the security woman thought I was from Canada, which I thought was funny.

So I pulled up at the hostel late (they close at 9 but had said they would wait for me when I told them my train was at 8:30). The woman (who was maybe Dutch or something?) seemed annoyed and said “Did you walk from the train station?!”

She showed me my room and the kitchen and checked me in but said I wouldn’t be able to get any internet access until 8:00 the next morning when the next office person came in. The hostel was less than I was expecting. It’s small and the hallways are dark and windy. My room is extremely tall and long but not very wide at all, and the paint and wallpaper are cracking and peeling, the wardrobe doesn’t close all the way, and there are cobwebs on the high reaches of the ceiling that make me nervous because I have no idea what kind of spiders live in Western Australia. I have one window that looks out directly onto another rooftop and a sort of metal wall.

But, at least it is a single. I dumped my stuff and tried to call my mom, but the payphone was horrible and ate my money. I ended up putting money on my phone specifically so I could call, but then that didn’t work either, so I used my phone card with my cell phone. It worked and I got to talk to my mom and then Bobby which made me feel better, until the phone cut out in the middle of my conversation with Bobby, saying that I had used up all the money on my cell phone. All in all I think a conversation and a half cost me nearly $30 and I’m not sure how using my calling card on my cell phone used up minutes on both. But I got to talk to both of them and that’s the important part.

I thought I would completely fall apart as soon as I was alone, but I sort of haven’t yet. I still feel like I might but I have things I need to do and crying won’t help. I want to thank Daniel very much because last night what I did instead was collapse into my bed and watch Disney’s Robin Hood on my computer until I fell asleep (which was about ten minutes). I have a feeling watching movies alone in my room is going to be a thing I do a lot for the next five weeks, and the only two I have are both Disney movies I got from Daniel, so thanks.

I miss you all. All I really want to do right now is go home, it really is a similar feeling to last time. But instead I’m going to go eat breakfast, figure out a way to post this, email my advisor here to ask what’s going on, and my advisor at home to try and set up a ridiculously hard semester for next year. Hopefully I’ll be able to call Bobby and finish the conversation from last night, and maybe even meet some people in the hostel. I love you. Wish me luck, I’m going to need it.

P.S. Everything is slightly better now. I met a nice old British man who was telling me about his travels and about how he was really scared to travel all by himself, too, but he’s loved it and doesn’t want to go back to England. The woman working this morning couldn’t print me off an internet time code for some reason, so I spent most of the morning roaming the streets looking for somewhere to get internet. The German girls here told me there was a McDonald’s with free wifi not too far away, but I think they meant by car because after half an hour or so of walking I gave up. I did find an internet café eventually, and I used their computer even though it was ridiculously expensive (a dollar for ten minutes). Valissa still hadn’t emailed me (although I did have an email from one of the other potential advisors I had emailed a month ago, telling me I could go back to Queensland and do research on wallabies, which briefly sounded like one of my only options – and not a bad one either, that actually sounds pretty cool and is way closer to people I know. Damn). I emailed Valissa and was freaking out to my mom on gtalk and just deciding to go down to the dolphin centre and see if I could find her when my phone rang.

Apparently Valissa thought I was coming in tonight, not last night. She was really apologetic and kept saying “Oh you poor thing!” and told me she’d come here at 11 and bring me a bike to use to get to the centre. Also, apparently there is a barbeque tonight that I’m invited to.

On the way home I found a café that said it had wifi, so after I meet Valissa I’ll go back down there and hopefully post this and talk to people while I eat lunch. Bunbury is a cute town and I’m starting to get the feel for where things are already (although I haven’t been able to find a Newsagency to pick up a new phone card yet). I get the day to myself today and start work tomorrow, it sounds like. Hopefully I can throw myself into my work and time will fly by and I will not be as lonely. Having internet would also help that. I couldn’t even get on Facebook at the internet café, but I could see my inbox full of people commenting on it wondering if I got here okay.

From Last Night, Will Do Today's Post Tomorrow

Oh goodness, let’s see what has happened since I last updated? A lot, is obviously the answer. I got to drive the boat! It was exciting. Not the big boat, just the little dinghy, but still. I must have not done too terrible a job either, because Jack let me drive it again the next day. While I was driving I saw frigate birds! They are so cool! They weren’t low enough for me to see the red pouch on their necks, but it was still awesome. I also watched a sea eagle hunting (it did not catch any fish while I was watching, but seeing it dive to the water was still really awesome).

I saw two ENORMOUS rays! I may have some decent pictures of them, I haven’t uploaded the pictures off my camera yet. One was bigger than I am, the other was slightly smaller. They were both amazing. I swam with a larger white tip reef shark (this I do not have pictures of), and some more squid (bigger than last time, still adorable). We also saw nudibranchs! I don’t really expect most of you to know what those are, but they are small brightly colored wormy guys with external gills. They’re awesome. I may or may not have pictures of these, too. And a huge blowfish! Not blown up, of course, but still.

Oh! I made a tiny friend! He was a juvenile golden trevally, a kind of pilot fish. Pilot fish are those ones that swim under and around bigger fish and sharks. He was itty bitty and bright yellow with black stripes and he decided I was a good big fish to swim with for a while the other afternoon. I didn’t even notice until someone pointed him out, but he swam under my armpit and in between my legs and under my stomach. Occasionally he would pop up right in front of my face. He was super adorable and I named him Pepito. I wrote and illustrated a children’s story about him in my natural history field notebook, because I’m a nerd.

So now the one really awesome thing that I haven’t swam (swum?) with is a sea turtle. I’ve seen them from the boat but never from up close. I think I might have to wake up super early tomorrow and go down to the beach, I hear they hang out there early in the morning. I think that would be worth it. I also haven’t seen a cuttlefish, which would be sweet but I saw octopi and squid, so I wouldn’t be heartbroken if I left without seeing one. A Nautilus would be awesome too (just to complete the cephalopods) but they are mostly only found much deeper, so I wasn’t really expecting to see one.

In other news: I now have a way to get to Bunbury and a place to stay. This makes me feel a whole lot better, even though I still have a giant list of stuff I have to do within the next week. I’m still a little excited but I’ve mostly moved into the anxious and sad stage. I left all my friends and family at home to come alone to Cairns and then I made eleven amazing friends! And now I have to leave them behind and go be really really alone all the way across the continent! I hope I will make friends there, too.

Okay, well I should go start work on the abovementioned giant list of stuff I have to do. I hope you are all having a wonderful time and I miss you a bunch!