Up until now...

In the summer of 2006, after graduating with a BS in Biology from the UNC–Chapel Hill and spending the summer working as a research assistant, I moved to Canberra, Australia to study pallid cuckoos, a bird that lays its eggs in other birds’ nests, leaving the “host” birds to rear its young. Seth stayed behind to finish writing his dissertation, and within two days in late November 2006 packed up his apartment, defended his dissertation, drove to his home in New York, and flew out to meet me in Canberra.

View of Parliament House from the top of Mt. Ainslie


National Museum of Australia on Lake Burley Griffin (Black Mtn. and the Telstra Tower in the background)


School of Botany and Zoology



Student Union at the Australian National University


One of my field sites, Campbell Park (about 5K from the ANU)

Until early February, the two of us gratefully lived with a high school friend of Mom’s, who just so happened to work at the ANU (where I’m studying). Being a Vietnamese woman with a tall white (Tasmanian) husband, it was eerily similar to living with my parents. We shared the house with an independent cat, Toby, an unruly yet friendly boxer, Jake, a few chickens, and several cockatiels, including a newly hatched chick Seth and I affectionately called Adolph. His name was unfortunately replaced with Tori.

Oanh (Mom's friend) and Hawk

Their home in Canberra

Tori (aka Adolph)

As an undergraduate, Seth spent a year at the ANU on exchange. When he arrived this second time he got in contact with the current Head of College (Ken) at the residence hall where he lived 10 years ago and managed to smooth talk his way into letting us live there for free. In exchange, Seth would work as the Director of Music and act as the Academic in Residence, and I would mentor in biology (oddly, there are very few biology students… instead they all seem to do “Arts/Law”).

Johns College

The courtyard at Johns


The Chapel


The residence halls and colleges at the ANU are the Australian version of dorms in the U.S., although they are very different from American dorms. They seem to take the place of fraternities and sororities, even involving an application process. Most halls and colleges are catered and have a dining hall, have some sort of tavern (the drinking age is 18), love to throw too many formal dinners and cocktails, plus compete with each other in sports and other events.

Our residence hall, John XXIII College, is located right on campus but is not run by the ANU—it is independently owned by the Dominican Order of Priests. (It is considered a “college” and not a residence hall because it is not affiliated with the university). It is equipped with its very own live-in priest (an interesting fellow) and also has a small, rarely attended Catholic chapel connected to it. For being a Christian college, it has the ironic, long-standing reputation for being the loudest, drunkest, sportiest, most law degree-wielding residence hall on campus. It has tamed down many orders of magnitude since Seth was last here, but its proud and twisted status still stands. A “Community of Scholars”, indeed.

The possum who lives above the bin

Seth and his good friend (an ex-ressie), Julien, in the Tavern. They have their photo hanging up behind them

Besides living and eating for free, not having to cook, clean, and grocery shop, and being in a convenient location (no need for a car!), there are also social perks to being at Johns. Never mind the “too cool for you” hard-drinking business-suit wearing 18 year olds; there are heaps of international students whom we have found to be open, interesting, and very welcoming. Most Internationals seem to come from India, Asia and the Middle East, with a handful from Europe and the Americas. At many meals we will find ourselves sitting at a 12-person table with folks representing 10 different countries. Associating with them really tugs at my urge to travel and check out new cultures and places!

A few buddies on my birthday

Since arriving in Australia Seth and I have been lucky enough to travel to Tasmania, Melbourne, Western Australia, nearby Sydney (a must), plus visit a few smaller towns around New South Wales. I started my second field season this past August and also picked up a part-time job working at Dash, a café in the Jolimont Bus Station in the heart of Canberra. Seth put the finishing touches on his dissertation, officially graduated with his PhD, and since then has been helping me as a very cheap research assistant—I will take what I can get ;o) He has also been putting up with Ken (his boss, the Head of College) and several days a week sits in on interesting music and literature classes. He recently gave a guest lecture at the School of Music, and is currently applying for jobs back in the U.S. as a professor of music.