G'day!

I have arrived safe and sound in Melbourne. The flight was mostly uneventful, which is as much as one can hope for. The $4.30 hot dogs at LAX made me think of Farke. Fanciest f*cking hotdogs west of the Mississippi, I’m sure. The flight from LA was late into Auckland, and this translated to an hour and a half late into Melbourne, finally off the plane by 9:30am. The first snag I encountered was that it turns out my old LG Verizon phone does not have a SIM card slot, so I had to buy a whole new phone. $59 including 130 free minutes. More than I wanted to pay, but it’ll work.

I was picked up by someone holding a sign with my name on it(!!) and we dropped my things off and got the university about noon. I got right to work assisting some dissections. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I had baby wallabies in my labcoat pockets within 45 minutes of being here, and I call that a success. Then I helped with some immuno staining, just to learn where everything is and check out their protocol.

I haven’t eaten anything interesting yet. Lunch was a panini at the student union and dinner is quickly-cooling pizza from a place nearby the hostel. The toughest thing so far is remembering that cars and people pass right-to-right here. I almost got into the driver’s side of my host’s car and I’ve been getting some odd looks passing people on the streets when I forget. I’m sure it’ll be like second nature in no time.

My computer’s clock tells me it is 5:38am in my former time zone, and it’s 7:38pm the following day here in Melbourne. Jet lag has not caught up to me yet, but I expect it to in the next couple of days. Good thing tomorrow is packed: meeting for breakfast at 8am, wrangling wallabies in the morning, more lab work, administrative stuff, rock climbing, and hot pot for dinner with the students. I’m psyched about the wrangling! I haven’t wrangled anything since I was in Montana in 2006. I am guessing wallabies will be more difficult than lambs but easier than calves.