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Published: October 17th 2009
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Thank you
Thanks again guys! It was really useful as travelbag to take lots of stuff as handluggage (even next to my rucksack) which I otherwise should have been forced to leave behind. Dear family and friends,
Finally I got some time to set up my blog, as promised. I will write in English since I need to improve my English vocabulary and so that everyone will understand.
To answer your questions: I arrived well and the flight was actually not so tiring as I had expected and that all thanks to Camilles travel-pillow. Horay horay for Camille !! In Sidney I missed my flight to Canberra because the rows for the customs are just amaaaazing (I try to be an Australian and thats really one of their stopgaps BUT they did not open my bag, although I had wood microsections and chocolate with me, and they just moved me to the next flight, no worries (another stopgap). That flight then had a technical problem but by midday I arrived finally in Canberra. At the airport I already heard the pronounciation of that word and could start finetuning my ears to Australian: keinberra (with emphasis on kein and a toneless e)
Jack (the technical assistant of the lab) who would pick me up had already left of course so I took a cab to get to the Australian National University
Goodbye party1
Thanks for the lovely evening, it was really delightful. abbreviated like everything here to ANU. There I was introduced to some people around, all very friendly and then went off to look for shops to buy food for the evening and morning (which always follows an evening as you know).
First impression: STRANGE! Really it does not look like a city but more like a big shopping area. Everything brand new, huge glass office buildings, streets and pavements double as wide as ours, big white concrete buildings with galleries at the street side with little shops and restaurants of all nationalities and then in the middle of town....a decadent shopping mall! I really hate it, I can not find anything there because it is so big and I just get confused of so much impulses. Its too big to just walk through it, so I really wonder how people find their stuff here. Luckily I found a supermarket and thus food, what I needed. Amaazing variety of all kinds of veggies (vegetables is too tiring to say of course), the half of which I have never seen before and do not even know how to prepare them. So still some adventures to go! At the cashpoint it took
me always some time to find my way in all these new coins and notes but now I am getting used to it.
It was very warm that day and even walked in T-shirt back to the campus which is big, also very new and with beautiful surroundings. Actually all buildings are interspaced with nice gardens where big red-blue parrots are sitting in the Eucalypt trees and punky doves with a crest (they really look the same as our pigeons except from the crest, very funny). They make weird sounds, very hard and sharp not these nice singing sounds of our blackbirds. The Eucalypt smell is pleasant and hangs in the air.
I stayed at Marilyn and her husband Eldons place in Braddon. Really friendly people, very hospital and nice food, veggie (although Eldon mostly added some piece of meat 😱 so that was not a problem. The first experience: it is terribly cold at night and people do not have central heating. I really do not understand how they manage since they do not wear special clothes but I went first thing in the morning buying a fleece! So my first two weeks I had breakfast and dinner while wearing two sweaters, a scarf and with freezing hands BUT the company was good and I had warm blankets to jump under. EB and MB (really cute that they called each other like that) had a lovely habit, before starting the meal they touched glasses with each other while saying "love, health and happiness". I like that tradition and will do it from now on too!
During dinner Marilyn told me often stories from her fieldwork or other adventures of her research-life and that was really cool to listen too. She is really amazing, how much she knows, how mouch she does and how friendly she is. Their life is bit weird but it seems that they enjoy it and thats all what counts right? They work 7/7 and always till 22h at the end we ended up eating around 23h and that was when I started joking that we could better have a Brinner. It was ok but now I am pretty tired and I do not think I could keep such a rhythm. If thats what needed to be a really good scientist, then I give up here.
I did not had time yet to walk around and discover the forest around (but now all admin stuff is done, yippie!) but one evening we went on Opossum hunt. Marilyn really wanted to show me one, so after dinner (23.30h ;O) we went outside and as she had told me...in the tree just before the house sat an Opossum with some leaves in his little hands, chewing on them. It looks bit like a giant Squirrel and according to Marilyn you have one in almost every three (they seem to be solitary).
Concerning nights, they are really dark! One night I went home somewhat later then Marilyn (who was for once bit earlier to cook) and thus walked home which is a 20min brisk walk BUT I was really bit skared. There are mostly no lights along the roads, there are lots of pastures and trees around, it is totally quiet at night and there is nobody around, desolated....and I was there walking and thinking nobody knows I am here so nothing can happen to me :O) First lesson, night strolls are not really pleasant in Australia.
So, my current situation: I have just moved for the first time, will make the second on Nov 4 and the third on June 30. That was not the plan but I reconciled myself to the facts. I could not find a non-shared flat which was affordable and sharing with someone you do not know does not sound attractive to me. So, when I finally found a free flat of the university itself in Hackett (20 min bike tour from campus) I immediately accepted although its bit old and in fact not worth its price. But then the story begins. Normally I could enter this Friday but at the beginning of the week they called me to say that the current resident had asked for extension of the rent. Luckily they offered me a flat at the same price on Campus and thats where I am now "Judith Wrights Court". Brand new and chic because this is where normally visiting professors stay but also without heating. So, first thing I did that evening was buying a little CD-radio player because I hate silence in house and today I went shopping with Marilyn for veggies in Belconnen (if you want fresh things you have to go to the markets which are only in Fishwick, Belconnen and Farmers market thus not reachable by foot) and in afternoon some non-foodies to get myself organized.
Well, I think thats it for so far. I do not have pictures yet but will do my best to get some asap.
Big hug to all of you!
Miss you (but will survive here, no worries man ;O)
Nele
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veerle86
veerle schmitz
1e comment!! :)
hihihi uw engels begint al als een echte Australiƫr te klinken! Hoort ge nu eindelijk het verschil? Fijn dat het daar precies toch wel echt goed gaat, wij missen u hier ook (maar no worries, we'll survive too ;)) en laat de foto's maar vlug komen want ik ben benieuwd!!!! xx van je zusje aka Tante Veerle