Quick flight to NZ

Today we finally got word saying we need to leave Johns by the 31st of January with no chance of staying a little longer before the new Head of College moves in at the end of the February. In an attempt to save on rent and spend our time and money in a much better fashion, we have decided to go to New Zealand for a few weeks, before moving in to a new place. The timing is pretty good, in that if we wait to go to NZ after I hand in my thesis, it would be way too cold to enjoy any outdoor activities without 'proper gear' (ie- we don't have warm coats). Also as long as I can get a little work done (I will be bringing my laptop), it will hopefully be an enjoyable and much needed change in scenery. We just bought tickets tonight (one-way, so we have some time to decide when we want to come back to Canberra), and now we have about 7 days to find a house, pack up and move out of Johns, and plan the excursion! In fact, I know very little about the country, so I will be doing lots of reading the next few days as well!.

Last early morning outing

This morning was most likely the end of my second (and final) field season, totaling about 10 months of watching honeyeaters, duskies, willies, and god knows what else (like echidnas, foxes, wombats, wild dogs, wallabies, water dragons, etc). Especially on an unusually nice cool, crisp morning like today, it made me sad to think that I probably will never be back to my field sites and I may never see some of those kookie animals again. However, if I recall how horrid the heat, flies, and ants can be, it doesn't bother me quite so much to think I won't be spending those long early morning hours outside anymore. In exchange for not tromping around in beautiful parks nearly every day, I will only be writing like a mad person, all day long... ergh.

When I think of it, besides my final seminar, I really don't have a reason to be in Australia anymore. I could essentially go home and write from there. A few months ago I set my deadline to hand in my thesis by May, but my new goal is to be back in the US by early July (in time for Independence Day, nonetheless, hahah!).

Here are a few photos of my main study species to commemorate my last day in the field:

White-plumed honeyeater (by Julian Robinson, Lake Ginninderra)

Willie wagtail (Campbell Park)

Dusky woodswallows (by Julian Robinson)

White-plumed honeyeater feeding a pallid cuckoo chick (by Julian Robinson, Callum Brae)

Which presidential candidate should you vote for?

Too lazy to watch the debates or read up on the presidential candidates? Take this 33 question quiz to see which presidential candidate most closely matches your responses.

http://www.dag.nl/Nieuws/kieskompas.htm

*Thanks, Andrew!

I hate Telstra

The Telstra corporation is the country's large government-owned telephone and internet provider and has a bit of a monopoly here in Australia. By American standards, it is extremely expensive (big surprise). For example, it costs 50 cents to make a local connection with the gigantic Telstra Tower on Black Mtn about 1K away, then depending on if you are using a pay phone, mobile phone, or landline, will charge per minute (or every 30 seconds) on top of that. So on my prepaid mobile phone, I will pay about 1 dollar per minute for any local call. In comparison, to call the USA on my phone card, once I make the local connection I only pay a little over 1 cent per minute.

Anyways, I recently had to buy a new prepaid mobile phone because Telstra discontinued the phone I had before. Just to set up my message bank, my prepaid account of $10 was completely drained (I only listened to one of four messages, and it was a junk call).

Despite the cost, this was especially annoying for the following reasons:
1)There was no clear disclaimer on the phone manual saying I would be charged just to check messages
2)The people who leave me messages have to pay to make the calls, then I would also have to pay to listen to them
3)I began receiving messages before I had the chance to deactivate the message "service" (thus the people calling me would expect I received their message)
4)When I tried calling customer service from my phone there was a connection fee and my call was refused. This is a great way to prevent people from bothering the customer service representatives with their silly complaints.

I sent Telstra an email and this was their response:

Dear Michelle,

Thank you for your email dated 18/1/08, regarding your message bank.

I would like to apologize for the frustration that this situation is currently causing you. Telstra aims to provide customers with a high level of care regarding the quality of service that we give to the customers and I apologize if you feel that we are not meeting your needs.

We cannot provision your request for a refund, however, we can cancel MessageBank for you.
Kindly provide your mobile number, account number, account inquiry password or date of birth and your drivers license for security purposes.

Please do not hesitate to contact us via www.telstra.com if you require further information or assistance.

Yours sincerely,
Mayett
Telstra Representative


Thank you, Telstra, for your understanding and help in this situation.

End of Johns

It's official- it looks as though Seth and I are finally going to have to leave Johns at the end of the month. After making a final appeal to the Heads of College (and even having the support of Caz, the acting Dean), they decided it did not make "dollars and cents" to have the two of us working next year. To avoid having to move off campus and being stressed the final months of my thesis writing, I was almost willing to pay the $290 per week it would cost to stay, but since we will try to leave Canberra before the semester ends we would have to break the 20 week contract and be heavily fined. I suppose most good things come to an end, but at least I realise the two of us are extremely lucky to have been so well set up for most of our stay the past 17 months in Australia. On to the next home...

Seth's Big D

I just noticed today that Seth's dissertation, Structure and interpretation in Luca Marenzio's settings of Il Pastor Fido, was finally posted in the UNC electronic library, all 594 pages of it. Click here if you are interested in reading any of it (just be warned, his main goal while writing it was to exhaust the reader :P ).

Job Hunt

Seth has been busy job hunting these past few months, and a few days ago when he was looking at a musicology opening at a small girls college in Virginia he noticed that they were also hiring a naturalist-in-residence. The position would consist of field site maintenance, leading workshops, communicating science to the public, helping faculty with projects and field trips, etc. I had not even considered looking for jobs yet, but I decided to apply for this one. It requires only a bachelors degree and experience in biology education and knowledge of Virginia natural history. This is the type of job I would like to have when I graduate- one that lets me use biology (and also learn more about it), is pretty low-key, fun, and diverse. I sent off my application last night and heard back this morning. They said that I have "strong qualifications for the position" but they need someone who can start immediately. Unfortunately I am not available until August...

I am a little relieved I didn't get the job (in fact, I didn't even think they would consider me), but I am glad I began thinking about jobs, as well as updated my resume and practiced writing a cover letter.

This morning when Seth and I were at the lake checking out a few nests we found this little baby bird sitting under a tree:
I don't know much about red wattlebirds so I don't know if he was old enough to begin fledging and flapped to the ground or if he simply fell from his nest. Either way, when we came back to see him about an hour later he had keeled over and died, right where we found him. I don't know what happened there, but it was pretty grim.

Snakes alive!

Yesterday when Seth and I were up on Black Mtn I saw my first brown snake; I was only about 2m away from the little guy and nearly stepped on it before Seth pulled me back! It nearly gave me a heartattack! Seth sees them pretty frequently when he is running- this would be his 6th this year- so I always worry about him running in bushland by himself.

Eastern brown snake (Pseudonaja textilis)
*This picture is from the web, thank goodness!*

They are really cute and look harmless, so it is hard to believe they are the second most venomous land snake in the world!

New Years in Sydney

Stephen and Kim's very lovely home in Woden

Braidwood excursion (27 Dec.)

After several more very busy and crazy days in Woden, Seth and I drove to Sydney with Fahad (the person with whom we want to share accommodation when we leave Johns) and his girlfriend, Hayley. Shelden, Carmen and Carlos were out of town but were generous enough to let us stay at their home in Leichhardt while they were away.

View from Shelden's balcony

We made it down by the late afternoon, just in time to search through a flower bed looking for their house keys (for quite a while -- they were hidden well) before hopping over to Balmain Point to watch the New Year's Eve fireworks.




The fireworks were set off from at least 6 points all along Sydney Harbour, and another group shot from high buildings that lined one of the bays. As you can see, the bridge was the center of attention. We had a good spot to watch the fireworks, and it was a relaxing event, but on the way home we had to suffer through a two hour bur ride that should have only taken about 15min.

On New Year's day, Fahad treated us to some Pakistani food and cooked a curry called Chicken Jalfrezi.

Seth, Hayley, and Fahad munching on Chicken Jalfrezi

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the famous Bondi Beach. Seth and I had good intentions, but still could not get ourselves to actually go into water (or even step on the sand!). It just seemed so hot and crowded... We walked around the shops instead.

Bondi Beach

After dinner we all took a walk down to Leichhardt (the Italian part of town) for some coffee.

Fahad and Hayley in front of Leichhardt Town Hall

The next day Fahad did a bit more cooking -- this time Chicken Ginger (not to be confused with Mom's Ginger Chicken).

Fahad and me in the kitchen

That afternoon Seth and I went the the Gallery of New South Wales and checked out the contemporary art exhibit (apparently Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban were there the very next day :P ), then walked around sketchy old Kings Cross before rushing over to the dumpling place called Da Niang (in China Town) before it closed. Not only is it a chain restaurant, and Seth and I don't like going to the same place to eat more than once, but it is soooo delicious and cheap that we have to go there at least once during each visit to Sydney. I daydream about this place all the time.

On Thursday (3 Jan) Seth and I took a quick trip back to China Town to pick up some sweet buns and poke around a few shops. We also spent a bit of time in Paddy's Market, swimming around the vast rows of super cheap veggies and fruits.

China Town

Paddy's Market

Seth looking for sweet potatoes in Paddy's Market

We left Sydney that afternoon. On the way home stopped to see the Big Merino- a giant Merino sheep that is the pride and joy of the town of Goulburn, about an hour outside of Canberra. They say you can actually go inside the sheep and peer out through its eyes that overlook the highway. It is a noble sheep indeed.

The Big Merino- very cool way to end the trip

Now Seth and I are back at Johns. Time to finally get back to real work I suppose...