The first day on the job! The research group has graciously welcomed me to the lab and to my new home for the next number of weeks. The major difference about how this group works is there are more Research Fellows than graduate students (from what I can see, but over the past week, I haven’t seen or met many students at all so maybe they are hibernating from the incredibly cold weather we’ve had). There are 4 or so research fellows that I will be working with directly (who are similar to a post-doc in the states) but are full time employees. My thought is, if I want to be a grad student forever, I can get a PhD and do something like what the fellows do here. Teaching won’t interfere much and the pressures of having a fully funded research group won’t exist either (although proposal/grant writing will happen – not to the same level as professors in the states.). Instead of getting real deep here and discussing the insecurities of having to grow up, I suppose I’ll just sit back and see wherever the next series of opportunities want to take me..
*My desk space where I've been writing my thesis. How sweet is that??, I get paid to write my thesis in another country! ...that and of course do some other work too!
The first couple days of work, really haven’t been all that exciting, I would get up early in the morning, have a ‘breaky’ and get to work for 8-10 hours before it was back home at night to hang with my roommate’s partner, Marc (because I still to date haven’t met her) or go to bed early. Until Tuesday, I was following this routine and enjoying the much simpler lifestyle. Transitions to new jobs, places, etc (where a move is involved) always brings a busy schedule to get things going at first, but allows for a routinely transition when you don’t know many people and are starting a new life all over again (with how many moves I’ve made, I often find myself loving and hating these transitions, because it forces me to start fresh, relax a bit and catch up on getting some sleep while taking more time to be healthier, but also tends to be really boring as there aren’t many distractions from the daily life – hence why having a job you like is vital!).
Tuesday I decided to buy a bike. So after work, I arranged to go see a bike I found on the Australian version of craigslist, GumTree. I took the bus down south to Thornlie (which was about 15km from home) to check out this bike. Considering its winter and I get off work at around 6 pm or so, it was pitch black on my journey southbound and I really had the slightest idea where I was going. Regardless, I made it to this guy’s house and checked out the new beast. This bike wasn’t the nicest thing but for a mere 70 AUD I got a road bike, a pink helmet (of which is now is a white Styrofoam domer as I cut off all the pink plastic because it was hideous on me) and a used chain. For the price, it was a great deal and gives me a bit more mobility around town. The hardest part besides learning to wear a pink helmet (state law in Western Australia = wearing a helmet, not necessarily a pink one – I knew my moped helmet would come in handy down here!) was learning how the hell to get home. It was pitch black, I was 15+ km from home and had a hand written map of how to get back home. About 45 minutes later and nearly 30 km down I was close to home and for the first time recognizing where I was. I had the general direction down just kept missing turns because the roads on the map say one thing and on the street say another. But I had a new set of sweet wheels..
*my new set of wheels
For Wednesday, we made plans, Brian, Steven (the other two American guys in Perth) and I to have dinner out and catch up on how things were going, this being the start of a weekly dinner at a new restaurant each week. We hit Northbridge (one of the trendy sections in Perth) for a silly touristy dinner at Outback Jacks (not my choice). The food was decent but the service was horrible. The guys were happy because they were able to try both alligator and kangaroo, which after no lunch was not that appealing to me. At this point with the Qantas baggage incident (in Canberra), the cell phone activation issues and now the service at Outback Jack’s I’m becoming a bit dissatisfied, and frankly disappointed with customer service in this country as it is sadly lacking in some cases (not always as the Gemini Hotel Sydney and even Aaron’s Hotel Perth were great). I understand here, tips aren’t as common therefore people potentially don’t work for them, but something as simple as waiting on tables should not be so difficult. Nevertheless, we have encountered poor service a few times, and don’t anticipate any more.
Thursday I managed to get a gym membership at the local Curtin Stadium (the gym and athletic facilities for students, employees, and surrounding community members). The facilities are pretty nice and give me the chance for something to do on the week nights and weekends. I never thought I would see any, but the gym was full of meat heads which I typically haven’t encountered any in foreign countries. I thought it was just a jersey shore thing, but apparently they exist here too. Yikes.
Finally Friday had rolled around where I was going to meet my roommate for the first time. I had heard nothing but the best things about her from her partner Marc, and also had a good feeling from our communication via email so it was exciting to get to meet her for the first time. That didn’t really work out as she was in zombie mode from the 20+ hours of travel it takes to get from Chicago to Perth! So instead Marc and I had a low key night of watching/learning about the AFL/Australian Rules Football (or footy). We did order some pizzas of which I had the best desert pizza known to mankind – it was a strawberry drizzled with chocolate pizza. We did grab a beer on our way to pick up the pizza at this riverfront bar called Raffles (which was an awesome place), of which I tried my first locally brewed (surrounding Perth) beer, Roger’s. It is my favorite of this area, no doubt. I called it an early night Friday as Marc was taking me out with all his friends for his sister’s birthday, Saturday night.
Saturday morning, I got up early and went to the Perth Zoo to meet up with Brian and Steven to do some more touristy things. We were recommended this zoo over some of the other wildlife parks as it was top ranked by Lonely Planet or something else for being one of the top zoos in the world. After visiting every single exhibit there (spending nearly 6 hours at a zoo), I must say it was incredibly impressive not just because of all the Australian animals – which we all know there are like 7 of the 10 deadliest creatures here in Australia but we were able to get very close to everything. You enter large exhibits where kangaroos, wallabies, birds, etc roam freely in the same area as people and unrestricted (you could box kangaroos, or try and steal a wallaby if you really wanted to!). It was a new thing for me and it was quite funny when a ‘roo happened to run down this guy on the sidewalk. I probably would have freaked out if I turned around to have a kangaroo booking down behind me, whether it was after me or not. Nevertheless, the zoo was great, and the surrounding area of South Perth was really nice, as it was riverfront property with a quaint little downtown. (Perth city is a small, as the Aussie’s title it, central business district (CBD), then because of the massive landspace, there exists a bunch of smaller suburbs around with all sorts of additional things to do. The Swan River cuts through the southern part of the CBD and has a large surface area where a lot of suburbs have riverfront property, for quite the dime too.)
*Simmo, the 40 year old croc that was nearly 3 times my size. yea, I could reach my hand out and touch the glass where he opened his mouth ready to chomp it off.
**the napping 'roo and I
***baby got back (I'm pretty sure that's where this phrase comes from)...the wombat is by far my favorite animal. You should see these guys eat, they are hilarious. They like to burrow themselves in a hole and block the entrance off with their large,hard rumps.
****that is what a tazmanian devil really looks like...nothing like the silly cartoon (of which was one of my favorites)
Finally I got out of Ft. Knox (the nickname my home picked up from being dungeon like and an icebox the first week, before Vik got home) for the night and headed out with Marc to meet some other local Aussies and get to know other parts of the city. It was a standard night out, starting at a classy establishment and working our way around to a few other places until it was home in bed. Aussies are some of the most welcoming, friendly people that make killer social butterflies. They seem to like to get to know the outsiders and learn who you are, where you come from and what you do (as they have to considering 1 in 4 people are immigrants here), which is exactly my kind of style and my kind of place. The people in Perth are great and it’s a bit humorous in where you come from here. Those south of the river conservatively associate themselves with those north of the river as if there is some sort of imaginary Mason Dixon Line (or physical river, call it what you like) that separates the north from the south…I almost get a taste of being back home with all the true southerners and Yankees (like myself). Here I’m a confederate (for the first time) as I live south of the river..
*me south of the river
Sunday morning started off bright and early at 8am because for some reason I couldn’t sleep. I ended up lying in bed for a few hours until it was time to get things together and get down to Fremantle the port of Perth. So I was running a bit late so Vik (my roommate I finally got the chance to get to know a bit) offered me her car head down to the coast to meet up with Brian and Steven for a fresh seafood lunch, a taste of some local brewed beers (of course I didn’t drink because I was driving in a place I didn’t really know let alone on the opposite side of the road!) and tours of the historic Fremantle port. We ended up spending the entire afternoon and evening down in Freo (as the locals call Fremantle) walking the streets, hitting the weekend markets where they make and sell all sorts of trinkets, and eating as much of the raved about food as possible. It ended up being a nice day as we were able to try Cicerellos and Kailis’ for lunch and dinner. We also got to visit the infamous Didgeridoo Breath (where Bob Marley’s twin asked me if I knew how to play the didge or wanted to learn!). Didgeridon’t you just want to quit your life, start doing a lot of drugs and play a hollowed out wooden branch??…JUST KIDDING (note the sarcasm!). Not a chance that would ever happen to me and hopefully none of you, but there are plenty of people that seem to get that craving. All in all, from the fish and chips to street markets and street performances the day was a success while I capped it off with successfully driving a car on the wrong side of the road….check!
*looks like this is what happens when you misbehave (not the first time its happened to me). The guys tried to bribe the lady to leave me in there for the rest of the day, shows what kind of friends I have
**the other beast and I. It was good to me on the road.
Other little notables from the week, Australia happened to make history in two regards:
1. Australia welcomes the first female prime minister! Kevin Rudd was voted out of office as fresh in is Julia Gillard, who in my opinion seems to be a pretty good candidate. She, like Obama carries herself and confidently presents herself very well. Good for the Australian women.
2. Perth hit a record low temperature in June, below 0⁰C. Without central heat, you can only imagine how cold it has been and how 3 years south of the equator during our summer can finally pay its toll on someone – the endless cycle of fall, winter, spring, fall, winterrrr..
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