So it appears that I am not, in fact, going down to Denmark with Berenice and Perrine. Apparently I have not worked nearly enough hours for Valissa, which is funny, frankly, because the only days I haven't come in to work are the days she told me not to, but whatever. So I need to work eight hours a day for the rest of my time here in order to get to 200 hours, which was our agreement. I just wish she hadn't waited until yesterday to tell me all this. So instead, I think I'm going to work ten hours a day (at least) and take a day trip with Berenice and Perrine instead. Hopefully we can still go somewhere fun. I'm also way behind on my paper. Ah! But hopefully I should get the data tomorrow, so that would be good.
And at the end of all this I get to spend a day in Perth and fly back across the country and see my friends and frantically write my paper and then go to a big rock in the middle of the desert and then do...something. I still haven't decided what else I'm going to spend 3-4 days doing before I go home, and then I get to be home.
I feel bad, I shouldn't be looking forward to going home so much. I know I should be "in the moment" and enjoy every minute of Australia while I can, but my brain has moved on to the next thing and I can't stop thinking about all the things I want to do this summer (many, if not most, of which will probably not happen). This whole paper/work stress thing is not helping. I'm sure I'll be able to focus on being in Australia when I go to Uluru, and probably even during that day in Perth, hopefully during our daytrip. Until then it is work work work.
Although on Saturday Berenice and Sam (her Aussie boyfriend) did have a party and I met real Australians! It was fun, if a little crazy. It was weird though - they're all about my age but they seemed so much older! I'm not sure why. Not that they were mature or anything, they just seemed mid-twenties as opposed to just barely twenties. I can't really explain it.
Also on the bright side, bed bugs appear to be under control for now. I washed and dried on the hottest cycle every article of clothing I own (which, I found out afterwards, was probably overkill. The article said I needed to do either, not both. So that makes me feel better), and everything else that is remotely papery is in the freezer and hopefully it is cold enough that ten days will kill anything (it said two weeks if you're not sure how cold it is, but at that point I didn't exactly have two weeks). I still have to clean that house, though, and throw away my old suitcase, and every time I go back is opening myself up to new attack! Ah! I feel like I should be wearing a hazmat suit or something.
Oh! And one more good thing. Today a dolphin finally came into the beach! I've been waiting for that to happen since I came here! They have a little interaction zone where you are allowed to stand very still and watch the dolphins if they choose to come in. The one today was Osho and he seemed very content to just swim around in circles, often about a foot away from us. It was amazing. Not quite as amazing as being really in the water with them - I was only in about up to my knees - but still pretty spectacular. I think I'm going to see if I can go on an eco cruise before I leave, too, so I can actually get some pictures of these animals! I don't mind working late one night to go out on a boat in the afternoon sometime this week.
Wish me luck with my pile-o-stuff to do! I need to get back to fin-matching. Sorry life has become boring, I'll try to work on that.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Stress. What Else is New?
So in a lot of ways this week has been disappointing. We drove down to the lake on Wednesday, put on wetsuits, got in the water, sat on the boat, and Valissa was helping me get the wakeboard on when the boat suddenly died and wouldn't restart. We sat there for a half hour to an hour trying to get it to work, but it didn't, so we went and ate pizza instead. The only good part was that I got to see red-tailed black cockatoos in the wild, which was pretty cool. Hopefully we can try again sometime before I leave.
When I got home I decided to check my bed one more time. I found a live bedbug, so I squashed it and put it in a plastic bag as evidence. Then I found two shed skins, one on the bed and one in my suitcase. Gross. I slept on the couch and got covered in new bites - enough that the next day I took benedryl to make the itching stop and then was loopy and dopey all day. Valissa and Holly rightly told me I needed to move out.
I called to set up a meeting with a guy who runs the sharehouse, but it's all the way across town from my house so I'd have to somehow move all my stuff there, after washing it thoroughly. I called Berenice to see if I could keep my clean/new stuff there while I tried to move it and she said I could just come live with her so after asking about seventeen times if she was really sure I said okay. I went to a laundromat and brought a first load of stuff - just enough to get me through the next few days. I washed and dried everything on the hottest setting, and I dried it for almost a full hour. Heat is supposed to be the only thing that kills the things. Unfortunately, it also shrinks things. Including my brand new sweatshirt. Crap. But it's clean! Valissa's partner gave us a mattress (and later a base for it) and we took it all over to Berenice's house. I'm terrified that I'm going to infest it, so I'm being as careful as I possibly can. Not bringing anything over until it's been washed, as soon as I come into the house in clothes that have been to the old house I change and put the old ones in plastic bags in the backyard. I'll feel like the scum of the universe if I get bedbugs in her brand new house (and in Valissa's mattress) thereby infecting the two people here who have been really really wonderful and helpful to me through this whole thing. But if I had gone to the sharehouse there was no way I could get any laundry done that night, so I couldn't have moved and would have had to be bitten for another night.
Luckily, the owners have been really nice about the whole thing. I sent them some information on exterminators and called a few but they were all thoroughly unhelpful. I have a lot of cleaning - both of my stuff and their stuff - to do before I can fully leave the house, and it's going to take a lot of time. A lot of time that I should be devoting to my paper! This is ridiculous and I'm never going to get done on time.
I'm also scared because they recommend putting books in the oven on 120 degrees for 3 hours in order to get bedbugs out of them. Not only do I have mostly other peoples' books here, but I have assignments in notebooks that I need to turn in! Plus some nostalgic papers and stuff that I want to keep but don't know if I can. Plus I feel like I'm going to burn the house down. I've already just bought a new suitcase and am going to trash the old one. I might be doing that with my backpack, too. Too many little cracks and crevices for them to live in. Augh! This is taking up way too much of my time/energy and making me worry way more than I have been since I've been here and it's driving me crazy.
Last night was rugby which was also more or less disappointing. It turned out it wasn't the Allblacks, and they didn't do the haka. I was misinformed. It was still fun to watch, but none of the people I was sitting with really knew what was going on either, and with most sports I found my attention wandering because I'd rather play than watch. It ended up being the Western Force (Australia) and the Crusaders from New Zealand. The Force was way behind for most of the game but then came back to win it, which was pretty sweet. Also they played the Imperial March when the Crusaders came out, which made me happier than it should have. Also I enjoyed sitting near the crazy screaming fans. The guy behind me was especially loud and especially excitable. They were screaming "Go the Force" instead of just "Go Force" too, which made me giggle.
Oh! And I bought french fries from a stand called "American Fast Foods" where they were flying not only the American flag, but also the Confederate one. Awkward. They were serving something called a "dagwood dog" which Berenice's boyfriend asked if it was really American. I think it was something like a corndog. He said they have corndogs here, but it's just deepfried corn. Weird.
I still can't decide if it's worth going to Brisbane/Gold Coast for a couple of days or if I should spend a couple more days in Sydney or if I should just go home after Uluru. Gah!
Not a horrific week, just less good than it could have been. I have a lot of things to stress out about and it's hard to determine which ones I should stress over first. But I suppose I have to remember that if I were at school it would be much the same, only replace bedbugs and travel plans with yet more papers and finals.
Interesting Australian facts:
A comforter is called a "doona"
Australians are not very good at houses. They don't do insulation, or storm windows, or central air or heating, or really much of anything. Having individual air conditioners in every room makes a lot of sense and worked perfectly well at my host family's in Cairns, we only used them in the room we were in. It was nice. Less good for heat, since two of the houses I've been in have only had one heater for the main room and that's it, plus you wouldn't need as many heaters if you had insulation. But, you know, whatever.
When I got home I decided to check my bed one more time. I found a live bedbug, so I squashed it and put it in a plastic bag as evidence. Then I found two shed skins, one on the bed and one in my suitcase. Gross. I slept on the couch and got covered in new bites - enough that the next day I took benedryl to make the itching stop and then was loopy and dopey all day. Valissa and Holly rightly told me I needed to move out.
I called to set up a meeting with a guy who runs the sharehouse, but it's all the way across town from my house so I'd have to somehow move all my stuff there, after washing it thoroughly. I called Berenice to see if I could keep my clean/new stuff there while I tried to move it and she said I could just come live with her so after asking about seventeen times if she was really sure I said okay. I went to a laundromat and brought a first load of stuff - just enough to get me through the next few days. I washed and dried everything on the hottest setting, and I dried it for almost a full hour. Heat is supposed to be the only thing that kills the things. Unfortunately, it also shrinks things. Including my brand new sweatshirt. Crap. But it's clean! Valissa's partner gave us a mattress (and later a base for it) and we took it all over to Berenice's house. I'm terrified that I'm going to infest it, so I'm being as careful as I possibly can. Not bringing anything over until it's been washed, as soon as I come into the house in clothes that have been to the old house I change and put the old ones in plastic bags in the backyard. I'll feel like the scum of the universe if I get bedbugs in her brand new house (and in Valissa's mattress) thereby infecting the two people here who have been really really wonderful and helpful to me through this whole thing. But if I had gone to the sharehouse there was no way I could get any laundry done that night, so I couldn't have moved and would have had to be bitten for another night.
Luckily, the owners have been really nice about the whole thing. I sent them some information on exterminators and called a few but they were all thoroughly unhelpful. I have a lot of cleaning - both of my stuff and their stuff - to do before I can fully leave the house, and it's going to take a lot of time. A lot of time that I should be devoting to my paper! This is ridiculous and I'm never going to get done on time.
I'm also scared because they recommend putting books in the oven on 120 degrees for 3 hours in order to get bedbugs out of them. Not only do I have mostly other peoples' books here, but I have assignments in notebooks that I need to turn in! Plus some nostalgic papers and stuff that I want to keep but don't know if I can. Plus I feel like I'm going to burn the house down. I've already just bought a new suitcase and am going to trash the old one. I might be doing that with my backpack, too. Too many little cracks and crevices for them to live in. Augh! This is taking up way too much of my time/energy and making me worry way more than I have been since I've been here and it's driving me crazy.
Last night was rugby which was also more or less disappointing. It turned out it wasn't the Allblacks, and they didn't do the haka. I was misinformed. It was still fun to watch, but none of the people I was sitting with really knew what was going on either, and with most sports I found my attention wandering because I'd rather play than watch. It ended up being the Western Force (Australia) and the Crusaders from New Zealand. The Force was way behind for most of the game but then came back to win it, which was pretty sweet. Also they played the Imperial March when the Crusaders came out, which made me happier than it should have. Also I enjoyed sitting near the crazy screaming fans. The guy behind me was especially loud and especially excitable. They were screaming "Go the Force" instead of just "Go Force" too, which made me giggle.
Oh! And I bought french fries from a stand called "American Fast Foods" where they were flying not only the American flag, but also the Confederate one. Awkward. They were serving something called a "dagwood dog" which Berenice's boyfriend asked if it was really American. I think it was something like a corndog. He said they have corndogs here, but it's just deepfried corn. Weird.
I still can't decide if it's worth going to Brisbane/Gold Coast for a couple of days or if I should spend a couple more days in Sydney or if I should just go home after Uluru. Gah!
Not a horrific week, just less good than it could have been. I have a lot of things to stress out about and it's hard to determine which ones I should stress over first. But I suppose I have to remember that if I were at school it would be much the same, only replace bedbugs and travel plans with yet more papers and finals.
Interesting Australian facts:
A comforter is called a "doona"
Australians are not very good at houses. They don't do insulation, or storm windows, or central air or heating, or really much of anything. Having individual air conditioners in every room makes a lot of sense and worked perfectly well at my host family's in Cairns, we only used them in the room we were in. It was nice. Less good for heat, since two of the houses I've been in have only had one heater for the main room and that's it, plus you wouldn't need as many heaters if you had insulation. But, you know, whatever.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
In Which Things are Looking Up
Sunday during the day was also not great - not as bad as Saturday, but I was not doing a very good job on the boat and I think Valissa was getting exasperated. I realized that I probably wasn't actually doing that much worse than usual, but that previously I'd had an unusual (for me) amount of patience with myself while I was learning something new. On Sunday I fell back on the old habit of mentally beating myself up for not knowing how to do something, or getting defensive instead of just trying to remember and learn from my mistake. Very annoying. I think it was just because of my bad-mood carry over from Saturday.
However, after work everything started to get better. I stayed in the office for a little while to use the internet (because I'm always afraid I'm going to go over the ridiculous limit here and end up owing thousands of dollars) and got to see the really sweet Dutch girl and the nice guy from England again before they left on Monday. They were both dolphin centre volunteers and were some of the last to leave.
It was a glorious day so I decided to go to the beach. The ocean here is very different than it was in Cairns, for one thing, there aren't stingers so you don't have to stay in the stupid nets. It's way way colder, and there are WAVES. The most intense waves and undertow I've ever swam in (not that I've had a lot of oceanic experience). I made sure to swim near other people, a nice man and his kids. We talked a little bit, and after they left I stayed in for a while and then lay on the beach in the fading sun and read my book. Lovely.
I ate and sat down the veg out for a bit, then Berenice texted me and invited me over. We were planning on going back to the video store because it had been a week and we had to take our movies back and get new ones. I came over and we sat and talked. Her boyfriend had his friends over and it was so weird - the boys sat in the kitchen and talked and cooked and the girls sat at the dinner table and talked. I don't know why, there was almost no crossover. It was weird. Valissa came over for a bit, which was awkward. I just don't know how to interact with her. Sometimes she is really fun and nice and great and sometimes I feel like she is sorry she said I could come help her. I like her, I just don't know how to deal with that or the stress of my project.
Then we went to the video store and I took too long picking out my movies. I'm happy with them, though. I got a nice array: girl power funny (Whip It), what Maria would call "guy humor" funny (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), 1920s British funny (Jeeves and Wooster), New Zealand funny (Flight of the Conchords), and Shakespearean funny (Twelfth Night). I trust you are sensing the theme. Then we went back to Berenice's and I got my wish: she, Perrine, and I watched a movie. It was so nice. We put a blanket down on the floor (they haven't gotten their couch yet, it's still being ordered) and had a picnic of watermelon and watched Whip It, which was an excellent movie. I had to explain a couple of words or idioms, which was fun. I've never really been in a position to do that before. It was really really nice.
Monday was my day off. I had stayed in on Saturday night because going out would have been a terrible idea, so Steph, the German girl from the hostel and I planned to hang out on Monday. I woke up, talked to Bobby and my mom and a few other people for a little while, and then went to yoga with Berenice. It's not really yoga, it's called Body Balance and is sort of like tai chi/yoga/pilates thing. It's okay, and is really good for my legs and stomach, but I really want to try real yoga ever since I did it with Katherine. Then I came home, changed, and ran to the beach to meet Steph. We lay in the sun and talked and tanned and went in the ocean a little bit, but the waves were fierce so we didn't stay in long. I read my book for a little while and fell asleep. It was lovely. I found out when I came home that the sun had been ever-so-slightly off to the side so now one side of my back and the opposite side of my front are much darker than the other sides. Oh well. I showered and changed and walked into town, thinking I had plenty of time to deposit my rent money, but it turns out that banks here close an hour earlier than they do in the states, so I got there right after it had shut. I went back and cooked and read and watched Australian TV (and American TV on Australian TV - they played Myth Busters!) and bought my plane ticket back to Cairns (May 6th, hopefully with a day stop in Perth first).
Then I decided to take Steph up on her offer to hang out with some of the people from the "other hostel". It was the other American's last night before he started his travels around the rest of Australia. We sat and talked and I realized that maybe I do not quite fit with the typical backpacker. It's not that I don't like them, because I do, they're fun. But the whole travel mentality they have is completely different. I can't do the completely free, gypsy traveler kind of thing. It sounds nice, on the outside. I mentioned to a few people that I've been homesick lately and they say that they're not, they don't want to go home. One of the older Australian guys was talking about how he had been travelling for fourteen years, seeing all of Australia because at the end of this year he was going to leave and he was never coming back. Never? I don't understand that. I love travel, and I hope that I do a great deal of it in my lifetime. It would be nice not to feel sad while I'm here, but at the same time I think it's sadder not to miss home. I will be sad to leave Australia, I really will, I love it here, but I love home too and I have friends and family and a great internship waiting for me. I can't imagine not having people and places that you are so attached to that you want to go back there. I hope I travel a great deal during my life but part of travel is having a home to come back to in between. It won't always be the same home, probably, but I love that there are people I love waiting for me, even when it makes me sad.
Today I worked in the office most of the day. I got to meet Lars! Lars is my advisor's advisor and has been off studying dolphins in Shark Bay the whole time I've been here. It was particularly exciting to meet him because I just read two of his papers and cited them in the last paper I wrote. I've never met a reference before. I felt sort of nerdily in awe and felt like I should ask for his autograph.
The itchy bites have gotten worse. I vacuumed and sprayed some more and have been sleeping on the couch, but they haven't stopped. Valissa suggested I talk to the chemist so I stopped on my way home. I showed him my arms and asked what he thought. He said it looked to him like sand fly bites. He said everyone reacts to them differently but that's what they looked like to him, and that you don't feel the sand flies land on you, often the bites don't appear and start itching until the next day. This would explain why I woke up with bites I hadn't had before, and why the bites only started last week (after the first time I went to the beach and to Big Swamp Wildlife refuge). And why the bites have kept happening - I've been going to the beach most days since this started. He said they could take up to a week to heal and said that the flies would not have come home with me. I'm trying not to get my hopes up but I'm going to stay off the beach and away from the swamp for a few days (which will be hard, believe me, especially since I have so little time left with the ocean!) and see if they go away. Cross your fingers for me!
So I couldn't go to the beach today. Instead, I sat at the table on my back porch - a lovely little area overlooking the sea and surrounded by potted plants - and filled out my course evaluation and then read my book while the sun set and the waves rolled in. It is a fantastic book for reading in this beautiful spot, and for reading at all while you're travelling, especially alone, especially for a long time, especially if you are interested in spiritual and religious things. It's called Eat Pray Love, and I'm the third person in the group to read this exact copy, the first two loved it so much. I'm almost done with it and I'm at that point that I get to with books where I don't want to put it down but I also want to read very slowly because I don't want it to be over. I also ate lots of chocolate eggs. The left over easter candy is ridiculously cheap right now and I cannot stop eating them. Well, now I can because they are all gone.
One really amazing thing happened today, also: Rachel decided to come with me to Uluru after all! We booked our tickets today. It was more money than I've ever spent in a single sitting but we've got spots on the tour and plane tickets there and back. All we need now is accommodation! I'm so excited! I still need to figure out what else I want to do before I go home, and when exactly I'm going home, but I'm getting to Uluru and I have someone to go with and I am happy.
The rest of this week is looking really fantastic, too: tomorrow I'm going water-skiing with Valissa and maybe some other researchers and people. Friday we're going to the rugby in Perth, Saturday is Berenice's house warming, Sunday we are having a Crepe party with the two French girls and their Italian friend (and I will attempt to speak French!), and then hopefully sometime next week we are going down to Denmark and the Treetop walk. Somewhere in there I have to work 40 hours a week and write my paper. Ah! I will make it work. I will start right now. I will be motivated, and not get distracted. Wish me luck!
I love and miss you all and thank you for being there for me.
However, after work everything started to get better. I stayed in the office for a little while to use the internet (because I'm always afraid I'm going to go over the ridiculous limit here and end up owing thousands of dollars) and got to see the really sweet Dutch girl and the nice guy from England again before they left on Monday. They were both dolphin centre volunteers and were some of the last to leave.
It was a glorious day so I decided to go to the beach. The ocean here is very different than it was in Cairns, for one thing, there aren't stingers so you don't have to stay in the stupid nets. It's way way colder, and there are WAVES. The most intense waves and undertow I've ever swam in (not that I've had a lot of oceanic experience). I made sure to swim near other people, a nice man and his kids. We talked a little bit, and after they left I stayed in for a while and then lay on the beach in the fading sun and read my book. Lovely.
I ate and sat down the veg out for a bit, then Berenice texted me and invited me over. We were planning on going back to the video store because it had been a week and we had to take our movies back and get new ones. I came over and we sat and talked. Her boyfriend had his friends over and it was so weird - the boys sat in the kitchen and talked and cooked and the girls sat at the dinner table and talked. I don't know why, there was almost no crossover. It was weird. Valissa came over for a bit, which was awkward. I just don't know how to interact with her. Sometimes she is really fun and nice and great and sometimes I feel like she is sorry she said I could come help her. I like her, I just don't know how to deal with that or the stress of my project.
Then we went to the video store and I took too long picking out my movies. I'm happy with them, though. I got a nice array: girl power funny (Whip It), what Maria would call "guy humor" funny (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), 1920s British funny (Jeeves and Wooster), New Zealand funny (Flight of the Conchords), and Shakespearean funny (Twelfth Night). I trust you are sensing the theme. Then we went back to Berenice's and I got my wish: she, Perrine, and I watched a movie. It was so nice. We put a blanket down on the floor (they haven't gotten their couch yet, it's still being ordered) and had a picnic of watermelon and watched Whip It, which was an excellent movie. I had to explain a couple of words or idioms, which was fun. I've never really been in a position to do that before. It was really really nice.
Monday was my day off. I had stayed in on Saturday night because going out would have been a terrible idea, so Steph, the German girl from the hostel and I planned to hang out on Monday. I woke up, talked to Bobby and my mom and a few other people for a little while, and then went to yoga with Berenice. It's not really yoga, it's called Body Balance and is sort of like tai chi/yoga/pilates thing. It's okay, and is really good for my legs and stomach, but I really want to try real yoga ever since I did it with Katherine. Then I came home, changed, and ran to the beach to meet Steph. We lay in the sun and talked and tanned and went in the ocean a little bit, but the waves were fierce so we didn't stay in long. I read my book for a little while and fell asleep. It was lovely. I found out when I came home that the sun had been ever-so-slightly off to the side so now one side of my back and the opposite side of my front are much darker than the other sides. Oh well. I showered and changed and walked into town, thinking I had plenty of time to deposit my rent money, but it turns out that banks here close an hour earlier than they do in the states, so I got there right after it had shut. I went back and cooked and read and watched Australian TV (and American TV on Australian TV - they played Myth Busters!) and bought my plane ticket back to Cairns (May 6th, hopefully with a day stop in Perth first).
Then I decided to take Steph up on her offer to hang out with some of the people from the "other hostel". It was the other American's last night before he started his travels around the rest of Australia. We sat and talked and I realized that maybe I do not quite fit with the typical backpacker. It's not that I don't like them, because I do, they're fun. But the whole travel mentality they have is completely different. I can't do the completely free, gypsy traveler kind of thing. It sounds nice, on the outside. I mentioned to a few people that I've been homesick lately and they say that they're not, they don't want to go home. One of the older Australian guys was talking about how he had been travelling for fourteen years, seeing all of Australia because at the end of this year he was going to leave and he was never coming back. Never? I don't understand that. I love travel, and I hope that I do a great deal of it in my lifetime. It would be nice not to feel sad while I'm here, but at the same time I think it's sadder not to miss home. I will be sad to leave Australia, I really will, I love it here, but I love home too and I have friends and family and a great internship waiting for me. I can't imagine not having people and places that you are so attached to that you want to go back there. I hope I travel a great deal during my life but part of travel is having a home to come back to in between. It won't always be the same home, probably, but I love that there are people I love waiting for me, even when it makes me sad.
Today I worked in the office most of the day. I got to meet Lars! Lars is my advisor's advisor and has been off studying dolphins in Shark Bay the whole time I've been here. It was particularly exciting to meet him because I just read two of his papers and cited them in the last paper I wrote. I've never met a reference before. I felt sort of nerdily in awe and felt like I should ask for his autograph.
The itchy bites have gotten worse. I vacuumed and sprayed some more and have been sleeping on the couch, but they haven't stopped. Valissa suggested I talk to the chemist so I stopped on my way home. I showed him my arms and asked what he thought. He said it looked to him like sand fly bites. He said everyone reacts to them differently but that's what they looked like to him, and that you don't feel the sand flies land on you, often the bites don't appear and start itching until the next day. This would explain why I woke up with bites I hadn't had before, and why the bites only started last week (after the first time I went to the beach and to Big Swamp Wildlife refuge). And why the bites have kept happening - I've been going to the beach most days since this started. He said they could take up to a week to heal and said that the flies would not have come home with me. I'm trying not to get my hopes up but I'm going to stay off the beach and away from the swamp for a few days (which will be hard, believe me, especially since I have so little time left with the ocean!) and see if they go away. Cross your fingers for me!
So I couldn't go to the beach today. Instead, I sat at the table on my back porch - a lovely little area overlooking the sea and surrounded by potted plants - and filled out my course evaluation and then read my book while the sun set and the waves rolled in. It is a fantastic book for reading in this beautiful spot, and for reading at all while you're travelling, especially alone, especially for a long time, especially if you are interested in spiritual and religious things. It's called Eat Pray Love, and I'm the third person in the group to read this exact copy, the first two loved it so much. I'm almost done with it and I'm at that point that I get to with books where I don't want to put it down but I also want to read very slowly because I don't want it to be over. I also ate lots of chocolate eggs. The left over easter candy is ridiculously cheap right now and I cannot stop eating them. Well, now I can because they are all gone.
One really amazing thing happened today, also: Rachel decided to come with me to Uluru after all! We booked our tickets today. It was more money than I've ever spent in a single sitting but we've got spots on the tour and plane tickets there and back. All we need now is accommodation! I'm so excited! I still need to figure out what else I want to do before I go home, and when exactly I'm going home, but I'm getting to Uluru and I have someone to go with and I am happy.
The rest of this week is looking really fantastic, too: tomorrow I'm going water-skiing with Valissa and maybe some other researchers and people. Friday we're going to the rugby in Perth, Saturday is Berenice's house warming, Sunday we are having a Crepe party with the two French girls and their Italian friend (and I will attempt to speak French!), and then hopefully sometime next week we are going down to Denmark and the Treetop walk. Somewhere in there I have to work 40 hours a week and write my paper. Ah! I will make it work. I will start right now. I will be motivated, and not get distracted. Wish me luck!
I love and miss you all and thank you for being there for me.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Long and Ranty and Sad - You Have Been Warned
I'm freaking out. Today marks 3 months since I left Minnesota and I think it might be my limit. Yesterday and today I have felt so intensely homesick! Even though I've had plenty of things to do and have been around people. I don't know how to shake it and it's driving me nuts.
The other thing that is driving me nuts is how itchy I am. I really think this is making the homesickness worse. You see, a couple of days ago I found some big red itchy bumps on my arms and I thought that was weird because I haven't seen any mosquitoes around here. Then I found a bug on my wall and I squished it and it was all bloody which means it's probably been feasting, right? So at Bobby's suggestion I looked up bedbugs online and it looked like the thing I killed! So I washed all the sheets on hot and put stuff through the dryer and even dried the pillows and the comforter (although I didn't have time to fully was them, it's heat that kills the little buggers anyway) and I washed all my clothes and I sprayed the room. I don't know because I didn't mark the bites but I think that I got more that night anyway. Last night I sprayed the room again and I sprayed bugspray on before I went to bed and once again today I can't tell if any of my spots are new ones or not but I am sick and tired of itching! I have no idea what to do with a house with bedbugs in it. I am afraid that the people who live here are going to make me deal with it/pay for it and I don't know how and I'm so stressed out. I love the house but if I were living in the hostel this would be easy. I would freak out at the managers and they would fix it or I would leave or both. I don't know what to do. I'm itchy and I'm sick of being itchy. I was supposed to recuperate from the mosquitoes and the horseflies here! Most of all I'm afraid I'll bring them with me when I leave.
All of this is exacerbated by the fact that I worked today for eleven and a half hours. I went out last night with friends (the two French girls and their Italian friend) which was lots of fun and we even came back early but I only got five hours of sleep (max) because this morning I woke up at five. I got to Valissa's house at 5:30 and we were on the boat by sunrise (a little after six). We were on the boat until 3 and at the office until 6pm. I didn't have my bike so I had to walk home, and that is when all of this really majorly hit. Oh, I also haven't eaten very much today, and I know I haven't been drinking enough water.
On the boat Valissa and I talked about my paper. She was very nice and helpful about it but it is so ridiculously stressful! Everything is way more complicated than it seems like it should be. She doesn't want me to use this for my senior thesis (which I am not as freaked about now because I'm hopefully going to use Zoo Internship Project for that) she was really concerned about how I was going to cite everything - especially my methods - and apparently everything is going to have to go through her and maybe one or two other people before I turn it in or present on it. She will ask Berenice to help me analyze the photos but she wants me to do them her way (in addition to the ones I already need to finish to help her) on my own time and she just texted right now saying she doesn't want me to use any of her previous data (which she said before I could use) so now I can't compare seasonality at all. I'm so screwed. I have like three weeks to do this.
Also, people are backing out on me for going to Uluru. Originally three people were all as stoked as I was to go see Uluru after the program and now none of them are interested and I had said that I wanted to go whether they were or not but considering how much I miss everyone right now the thought of voluntarily going through all this travel and stuff alone again does not sound worth it. I almost want to not change my flight to later at all and just come home after the program is done because I've already seen Sydney (which suddenly people are interested in). I know there's more to see and I know I will kick myself later if I don't do more here but right now I'm tired and lonely and homesick and stressed and itchy and I just want to go home and be hugged by people who love me and go to sleep in a not-bedbug-infested-bed. That is all I want.
I don't know how to deal with any of this. The German girl from the hostel invited me to go out with her and the few remaining volunteers from the dolphin centre and being with people sounds nice but I don't know if I should stay awake past, like, nine tonight, and I'm scared about getting home at night. What I want is someone to stay in and watch a movie with me, if I can't do the abovementioned going home, etc., and Berenice and Perrine might do that with me if I asked them but tonight they are in Perth.
Sorry about all this, I just had to get it all out. Everything was going so wonderfully and then it all fell apart and I'm not sure what happened. Except for bedbugs. Goddamn it.
The other thing that is driving me nuts is how itchy I am. I really think this is making the homesickness worse. You see, a couple of days ago I found some big red itchy bumps on my arms and I thought that was weird because I haven't seen any mosquitoes around here. Then I found a bug on my wall and I squished it and it was all bloody which means it's probably been feasting, right? So at Bobby's suggestion I looked up bedbugs online and it looked like the thing I killed! So I washed all the sheets on hot and put stuff through the dryer and even dried the pillows and the comforter (although I didn't have time to fully was them, it's heat that kills the little buggers anyway) and I washed all my clothes and I sprayed the room. I don't know because I didn't mark the bites but I think that I got more that night anyway. Last night I sprayed the room again and I sprayed bugspray on before I went to bed and once again today I can't tell if any of my spots are new ones or not but I am sick and tired of itching! I have no idea what to do with a house with bedbugs in it. I am afraid that the people who live here are going to make me deal with it/pay for it and I don't know how and I'm so stressed out. I love the house but if I were living in the hostel this would be easy. I would freak out at the managers and they would fix it or I would leave or both. I don't know what to do. I'm itchy and I'm sick of being itchy. I was supposed to recuperate from the mosquitoes and the horseflies here! Most of all I'm afraid I'll bring them with me when I leave.
All of this is exacerbated by the fact that I worked today for eleven and a half hours. I went out last night with friends (the two French girls and their Italian friend) which was lots of fun and we even came back early but I only got five hours of sleep (max) because this morning I woke up at five. I got to Valissa's house at 5:30 and we were on the boat by sunrise (a little after six). We were on the boat until 3 and at the office until 6pm. I didn't have my bike so I had to walk home, and that is when all of this really majorly hit. Oh, I also haven't eaten very much today, and I know I haven't been drinking enough water.
On the boat Valissa and I talked about my paper. She was very nice and helpful about it but it is so ridiculously stressful! Everything is way more complicated than it seems like it should be. She doesn't want me to use this for my senior thesis (which I am not as freaked about now because I'm hopefully going to use Zoo Internship Project for that) she was really concerned about how I was going to cite everything - especially my methods - and apparently everything is going to have to go through her and maybe one or two other people before I turn it in or present on it. She will ask Berenice to help me analyze the photos but she wants me to do them her way (in addition to the ones I already need to finish to help her) on my own time and she just texted right now saying she doesn't want me to use any of her previous data (which she said before I could use) so now I can't compare seasonality at all. I'm so screwed. I have like three weeks to do this.
Also, people are backing out on me for going to Uluru. Originally three people were all as stoked as I was to go see Uluru after the program and now none of them are interested and I had said that I wanted to go whether they were or not but considering how much I miss everyone right now the thought of voluntarily going through all this travel and stuff alone again does not sound worth it. I almost want to not change my flight to later at all and just come home after the program is done because I've already seen Sydney (which suddenly people are interested in). I know there's more to see and I know I will kick myself later if I don't do more here but right now I'm tired and lonely and homesick and stressed and itchy and I just want to go home and be hugged by people who love me and go to sleep in a not-bedbug-infested-bed. That is all I want.
I don't know how to deal with any of this. The German girl from the hostel invited me to go out with her and the few remaining volunteers from the dolphin centre and being with people sounds nice but I don't know if I should stay awake past, like, nine tonight, and I'm scared about getting home at night. What I want is someone to stay in and watch a movie with me, if I can't do the abovementioned going home, etc., and Berenice and Perrine might do that with me if I asked them but tonight they are in Perth.
Sorry about all this, I just had to get it all out. Everything was going so wonderfully and then it all fell apart and I'm not sure what happened. Except for bedbugs. Goddamn it.
Monday, April 12, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, April 5, 2010
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!
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!
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