03.31.09
Return to the Upper Left Coast
Since I am no longer in Australia I thought that I would move to a more appropriately titled blog. When I return to Australia either to visit or to live I will be returning to Adventures in Oz. Until then please visit me at:
Love!
02.13.09
The sun is red ….
ash drifts down from the sky and an entire country cries. The fires are slowly dying down but not fast enough.
02.09.09
Bushfire
The temperature had reached 46 degrees and Peter and I were congratulating ourselves on the decision to stay where there was air conditioning instead of spending the weekend in Beechworth. As we walked into Leo’s (a grocery store) we noticed that a thick column of smoke, greasy blue along the edges and yellow brown in the center, rose over the hills of Melbourne. Bushfire. Wow, it’s so close, where is it? We speculated as we gathered ingredients for dinner deciding to check the news later. I didn’t think it would be that bad. I am from the Pacific Northwest, we have raging forest fires and everyone goes about their day but here it is terrifyingly different. The forests are so dry from the drought years, eucalyptus shed bark and branches at an amazing rate and it goes up in flames like it has been soaked in petrol.
It was worse than bad, it looked like the end of the world, a war zone, the inferno found in hell. Sadly this weekend has seen the worst bushfires in the history of European settlement in Victoria. At the time of writing this the towns of Maryville, Narbathong and Kinglake has been wiped out, burnt to the ground with no building left standing. Entire towns no longer exist and sadly many of the residents as well. The death toll has risen to 108 people with more than 5000 people not only homeless but with absolutely nothing but the clothing they had on. No wallet, no id, no precious things and sometimes no family, no pets. It’s not even over, fires are still raging and the bodies of people that didn’t make it out of their houses, that died trying to escape in their cars are going to be found for weeks. Terribly, it is thought that some of the fires were set by arsonists and some fires have been restarted by arsonists after the firemen have put them out.
I cannot begin to describe how tragic and moving this incident is. The news from a Whittlesea emergency center showed a man break down in tears while talking to Kevin Rudd, the prime minister. Mr. Rudd won my eternal respect for wrapping his arms around the man and letting him cry on his shoulder. How many heads of state would do that, how many would be there, without security surrounding them, comforting people in this most basic of ways.
I know that most (if not all) of the people who read this are poor, either students or suffering from the economy, but should anyone want to help please check the following website:
For updates on the fires:
02.04.09
Chinese New Year
Nothing Super interesting has been happening here for the last couple of weeks. We had a week of 40+ degrees with a couple of days cresting 45 degrees. Even a sun/heat lover like me was wilting. It was just too hot to do anything. It didn’t even cool down enough to sleep at night. This week is much nicer being in the low to mid 30’s.
I started work in Jane Elith’s lab on Thursday and Friday last week and will continue until I depart from home. It is a nice lab almost exclusive populated with women (which feels strange) but I feel more comfortable at ARI. I will be learning to apply Jane’s boosted regression tree method and possibly also multivariate adaptive regression splines to the flora data that I have been working with. She has had some good feedback for improving the data set by doing some basic cleaning and collapsing.
This week also ushered in the year of the ox. Happy Chinese New Year! Peter and I went down to the river front downtown to taken in the Crown Chinese Hawkers Bazaar, which was a little street fair put on by the only casino in the state. We enjoyed fresh coconut juice and then had the coconut cracked open so we could eat the cream inside. This is the first time I had done that and I was surprised at how fatty and oily the juice was, but still tasty.
Fresh Coconut
Lanterns
You may notice in the picture of the laterns that all the leaves are crispy and brown looking, that is how hot it has been. Walking down the street it looks a bit like fall. All of the leaves cooked off of the trees and are piled along the curb. It was so hot the possums were falling out of the trees and animals were burning their feet trying to walk on the pavement.
Strangely enough as the time to go home gets closer I find myself getting more homesick. I really miss friends and family and pets. However, I am already getting homesick for Melbourne! I love this city and I love this country and I am counting the days until I can return as a migrant instead of a tourist. The funny thing is that I always wanted to live in Europe because of the history and the age. Autralia, is young and raw and has none of that feeling but I love it regardless.
Better go hang another lode of laundry now. You can dry 3 or 4 loads a day here even when it’s just moderately warm because of the dry wind. It’s awesome but I am starting to see some sun fade on my more frequently hung items 
love you all!
p.s. The bite healed up! so it wasn’t the white-tail spider I was afraid it was. (go read about it if you’re curious, creeps me out too much)
01.30.09
Bitten!
Well it finally happened. I got bit by one of Australia’s creepy crawlies. The thing is I dont know which one. I haven’t fallen over in agony and my flesh isn’t necrotising so that rules out the nastier ones but I do have a painful, swollen, itchy red blotch on the back of my hip (right above where my low rise yoga pants hit), and a swollen, tender lymphnode and am generally feeling a little wimpy. Maybe I’ll post a pick of it 
UPDATE: Here’s the pict! (lens cap used for size referrence)
Mystery Bite
01.22.09
Reshearing
I got a few comments that my hair really didn’t look all that different. What you couldn’t see was the back which was much shorter than I had ever had it. I tried to leave the longer bits up front but it was terrible, just not working for me. So I went back in and kindly asked Renee if she could fix it. My hair is now officially short. Really short.
Crappy Phone Camera Pict
In the yard
Short Hair
01.20.09
Deliciously Warm reaches Searing Hot
Melbourne has been enjoying a week or so of wonderfully warm days in the mid to upper 20s and even a day of 34 but today it was so hot that breathing through your mouth turned your tongue into parched leather in two inhales. Your lips wrinkle and crack and your skin, even though you know you are sweating, is bone dry. The only place that the sweat is not instantly evaporated from is the shaded valley between your breasts and the dip at the top of your ass. Today, according to The Age weather page, it got to 41 degrees Celsius, 105.8 degrees Fahrenheit.
The temp itself isn’t enough to cause the instant dehydration of living tissue, it’s the North wind coming off of the vast desert that forms the heart of Australia. The northerlies have only just started to blow here and even the sounds they make is dry. Rustling of shed reptile skin, grains of sand rubbing across flat tables of stone and over the tops of dunes, dry leaves tumbling across the ground, all of these can be heard in the sound of the north wind through a eucalypt tree. And the smell….warm dust with a hint of Vic’s vapo rub.
I love every second of it.
01.19.09
Being a Social Scaredy Cat and a Sheared Sheep
Looking back on the week I am having a hard time having a clear recollection of any particular day. Each one blurs into the next, all of them spent sitting long hours in front of my PC at work trying not to cuss at it too loudly and trying to keep some kind of upbeat attitude. I have had a hard time as a PhD student keeping myself feeling like I can do it. I compare myself to other students and I wonder if I have the drive it takes to do this. Now that I am a few years in (Sept 2008 would be the beginning of year 3 I think) I feel like I have to finish. And it’s not just the time investment but proving to myself that I can. I never feel smart enough but I know I am. I just need to find the drive that I had for my undergrad work. I will complete my course work in the 2009-2010 year and then spend the next year writing my thesis, hopefully from Australia. So I try to keep my chin up, not beat myself up too terribly, cry when I can’t take feeling stupid, and try to get some good work done while I am here.
A few days do stand out. Tuesday was my first 39 degree day. The wind was from the north, off of the desert, so dry it smelled of eucalyptus from the leaves that were being dehydrated as it blew over them. I loved every second of it. Thursday I rode up to Bendigo with Matt, Graeme, Anne and Michelle to talk to the DSE office up there about a program to encourage farmers to care better for their native grasslands. I saw a pair of zebra finches, a brown falcon and a distant sighting of a little eagle.
Socially this week has presented it’s own special hell for me. Firstly I had to bite the bullet and meet the thoroughly intimidating Jane Elith. She is an amazingly intelligent woman with a hugely busy schedule and yet is still willing to teach me her boosted regression tree technique. God, please let me not look like an idiot. That went over pretty well though beyond arranging when I would come to her office (Thursdays and Fridays for the rest of my stay) and what I wanted to do most of the meeting was her, Matt and Graeme chatting (Hurray, they were my heroes for taking me over there though hopefully they didn’t realize how terrified I was). So I survived that encounter and followed it up with dinner at Matt’s house with Peter. While I know and like Matt I haven’t really spent much time in a social situation with him and I would be meeting his partner, Deb, and their family and a friend. So all in all I was feeling a bit nervous. I was relieved to discover that Deb was a beautiful and lovely person, friendly and very comfortable as was their friend Owen (say owen and that’s exactly what my name sounds like from an aussie). It wound up being one of the best evenings I’ve had in Australia.
New Hair Cut
As for being a sheared sheep…. I couldn’t hack it anymore. I had to get my haircut. I was hoping to make it the entire time but it just wasn’t going to work, my hair was driving me mad! I made an appointment at a rather posh looking salon right downtown in Melbourne, Geisha. It was a very nice establishment and everyone there seemed qualified. Renee, my stylist, was very professional and she really did do a good job but there wasn’t the instant rapport that I have with Alex at Wack in Portland. Alex has an amazing ability to understand my desire for elegant but edgy, feminine but not girly. Sadly Renee just got the edgy bit I think. It is really short in the back. Really really really short Fortunately my hair grows quickly so it will be long enough for Alex to salvage when I get home. First stop after Portland airport…Wack Salon!
Lane
Before and after my appointment I walked around Downtown a bit and just enjoyed the people. The area is riddled with these little lanes, packed with cafes and boutiques. Every alley and dumpster is covered with wonderful graffiti and stencil work that the city finally gave up trying to get rid of and now embraces.
I do find that shopping by yourself isn’t really that much fun. I need to find a girlfriend or a guyfriend that is into shopping. I love the clothes and the style here though they are a bit fussy for the laid back vibe of the northwest. Women here dress up (by our standards) every night and they love their high hells heels.
Today (sunday) I am returning to cycling. My ass bones have finally healed enough that I can sit without feeling like it’s torture and I am really craving a ride. (This is very strange for me but I am not going to question it) I love cycling, who knew? Going to ride to the boat house and rent a kayak and paddle for an hour then ride home. What a perfect day.
Love you all!
01.12.09
What’s in a name?
As many of you know I have been in Australia since November 1 and will continue here until the middle of March. While my experience as a whole has been amazing there has been one experience cropping up over and over that I am a bit tired of: Trying to explain and get people to accept my name. While this is not new by any means, even people in the states tend to double take on hearing it, the Australians seem particularly bothered and sometime completely unable to accept it. Sometimes this is amusing, most times it is a pain, and once it resulted in my figuratively being invisible because their brain couldn’t wrap around actually addressing me.
I had thought that after a life time of listening to nursery rhymes and being called little star I was impervious but this trip has been the straw. Another consideration is that I will start publishing soon and beginning my professional life and if I am going to change I should do so now. I have also been warned that “Twinkle” could be seen as unprofessional and may cause minor, but irritating, issues later. I have loved being Twinkle and am sure that for many that is what I will continue to be called (especially since it isn’t that strange in the corner of earth I am from, Oregon).
So I will be using the first of my two first names, Arwen, from now on. While I dont expect family and long time friends to bother themselves too much about adopting this it would be nice if you were to use Arwen when introducing me or when in a less formal setting. In return I will try valiantly to answer to it For those of you that are curious: I have two first names ,Arwen Twinkle, and one middle name, Elizabeth.
UPDATE: I have had many varied reactions to this but most commonly I hear, “Do I have to call you Arwen now?” No, no one is being forced to retrain themselves. If you really dont want to call me Arwen you dont have to but it would be nice if you felt up to it.
UPDATE 2: Many people ask what Arwen means (if they didn’t recognize it from Tolkein) and an email from Michael Slater tipped me off that it might have meaning outside the world of fantasy fiction. I looked it up and sure enough Michael was correct. Arwen is welsh, it is a variation on Arwenna (if female) and means “muse” or a variation of Arwyn (if male) and means fair or fine. Both of these are perfectly acceptable meanings to me. I find I am quite happy with a name that means muse.
Life: the Novel, part 2
I left out of the last Life entry that on our way to Canberra we decided to take the scenic route, in other words we went by 4×4 track….through a thunder storm….that was dumping buckets. As a result of those and other factors (like Peter giving it the stick a bit) we lost a camping box off of the rack on the back of the Toureg. Sadly this box contained vital equipment for sleeping, cooking and light. Our time in Canberra was spent in a lovely little hotel room that looked like it had been decorated by my Grandmother Lettkeman, fake flowers, porcelain dolls and all. It was quite homey in a sad kind of way and I probably shed a tear or to while lolling in the bathtub admiring the little lacy toilet roll covers.
Baby Koala
Koala Mum and little
Part 2 of my vacation was spent in Beechworth at Peter’s property. I love Beechworth. I have been there 3 or 4 times both for a relaxing weekend and also for field work in the area. It is a lovely quaint little town with boutiques and cafes galore. It even has a wonderful little craft brewery, Bridge Road Brewers, Ben makes the beer, delicious, and Maria makes the food, awesome.
I had been fussing about the fact that I hadn’t seen a koala yet even though I had spent quite a bit of time in the bush. Then as I was eating breakfast on the porch I saw this strange and rather fightening creature walking across the paddock next door. I was sure that my eyes were playing tricks on me, I absolutely could not figure out what it was. It looked rather like a hyena or a low budget werewolf. “Peter, what the hell is that thing? Oh, it’s a koala!”. Once she had started climbing the tree I could identify her. Who knew that koalas, with babies on their backs, looked so bizarre!. I grabbed my camera and hopped the barbedwire fence snapping away gleefully with my camera. The two of them were remarkably unimpressed by my photographic genius until I turned the flash on, that earned my a couple of dirty looks.
Just as a random cute photo, here is an echidna I came acrossed while in the field. They are quite silly and bury their heads when they feel endagered. (An effective ploy given how spiny they are). However, if you hold still enough they will eventually uncurl and continue rooting for ants and other yummy bugs. This one was only about a meter away and was very adorable. I learned from this little fellow that echidnas can blow snot bubbles. Sadly I was unable to capture one on film.
