First day in Australia - March 15, 2011

I'm here at the University of Newcastle doing a PhD in Linguistics.

Getting here was not my most favored experience. I was overcharged $60 by Air Pacific for my baggage and wanted to cry from LAX to Fiji. But, as the sun came up over the mountains in Nadi during my layover before heading off to Sydney, my spirit started to warm again. I felt that many blessings were being sent my way as people started to smile at me again. Things went more smoothly and instead of being scared I started to get excited.

When we landed in Sydney I discovered that once gain I was a bit overprepared and more concerned and rule-abiding than was necessary. Customs was a breeze. They seemed almost to be chuckling to themselves that I had bothered to declare my wooden cutting board (and its accompanying ulu), pocket knives, and wooden claves. They didn’t even bother looking at them, although I’d carefully placed them in one location for easy access.

My transportation was easy to find and off we headed to Newcastle. The only other passenger was a cheerful grandmother who loves to travel and insisted on the driver playing tour guide for me, teasing his les-chatty nature with an encouraging, “I wish you wouldn’t talk so much, Bob!”

The first wildlife I saw was a flock of white birds pecking about in the grass in a park. Cockatoos!

“You’ve got those in the States, haven’t you?” Betty, my coach-mate asked.

“Only as pets. Although we have got some flocks of parrots and parakeets in California that escaped from homes.”

“Oh! Really? They’re quite common here. Bit of a pest on the farms.”

Quite tired, I finally checked in at my hotel, showered, bought some groceries and slept for a good 12 hours.

I’m still a bit jet-lagged, but I have to say it’s quite lovely here. I really do like it. It’s only a slight exaggeration to say that the campus is a mountainous rainforest. Everyone I’ve interacted with has been friendly and helpful and in spite of nothing being on a grid and the sun being in a different position in the sky (relatively, of course), I haven’t gotten lost yet (knock on wood).

With everything going so well, I’m beginning to get that feeling I got while doing research in Ghana, that surely something must go wrong – things simply can’t be this perfect. But they were then, and perhaps they’ll stay that way here now.