Three weeks since we left our home in the US; one week since we left our home in Sydney.1 Exciting it is to travel, but it can get wearing after a while. Before we even left for Australia, both of us were at the point of being desperate for someplace to live for more than a few nights, someplace where we could fully unpack our suitcases, someplace that wasn't just "on the way" to someplace else. Now, both of us long for a routine, a "way of life," some regularity we can call "normal"-- and hopefully start getting some work done. I know, what a sob story-- poor D and Chad, they have to travel all around Australia, isn't that awful?
Okay, point taken. It isn't just the traveling, though-- for me, at least, it's the constant pouring-out of money on things like breakfast that we could just as easily eat at home... if we were home. And, it's the fact that since our arrival in Australia, the two of us have yet to spend more than two hours apart.2 Ah, you might say, good practice for our impending marriage... And before you all start to worry about our future happiness, note two things: 1) the sparks of contention that our excessive sharing of time3 might have lit have been few and did not catch anything important on fire. Also, 2) most married people, our future selves included, do not spend 24 hours a day, 7 days a week doing nearly everything together over an extended period of time.
We have learned some important things from this; namely, that as long as D is kept on a regular feeding schedule and shopping and museums are limited to under two hours for Chad, everything is all right. Still, we're looking forward to the little bit of private time and space that "everyday" life will afford once we get back to Sydney.
And speaking of Sydney, we're not in it right now.4 Won't be until next week5 because, for those of you who haven't been keeping up, we're travelling.6 We started out on a train from Sydney to Canberra on Tuesday last,7 spent five days in Canberra, the national capital8 of Australia, most of which was spent with the Fulbright Commission people who fed us a lot and paid for our hotel in exchange for D listening to people from the US embassy and the Australian DIMIA9 talk. Also, we got to meet the acting US ambassador to Australia, a very cool guy named Bill Staunton. And, the Fulbright Commission arranged nifty "outings" like going to sit in the gallery to watch "Prime Minister Question Time" in Parliament. This is a multiple-times-a-week regular occurrence during which the actual Prime Minister10 and his actual ministers have to answer actual questions about actual legislation from actual members of Parliament. Loads of fun-- catch it on TV if you're lucky enough to find it.
Then, when we were done in Canberra, we rented a car and learned to drive all over again. Saw a really big radio antenna dish that NASA was using to talk to Mars, a river named "The Murray" and a big lake with ghostly drowned trees in it, a real gold mine, and a living history museum with a reenactment (of a crucial battle in an 1850s gold mining town) that was conspicuously devoid of actual human figures throughout the elaborate, expensive, 80-minute show.
Tonight we're in Melbourne, that other big11 cosmopolitan city in Australia. Can't say for sure yet 'cause I haven't slept in 'em, but I think the linens in this hostel (The Olembia) win it the coveted "Best Rented Linens in Victoria" award, bestowed, of course, by D. Plus, the Olembia has a cat. His name is Alex.
PS: More details and photos from our trip will be found in the features... but please be patient as it takes time to process the photos, code the HTML, and, of course, generate the creativity to write the text. Remember, I'm supposed to be writing my thesis here!
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NOTES
1And nine weeks since I moved out of my home in Ann Arbor.
2For at least six weeks before we arrived here, too, our traveling and the Christmas holidays in the US had us in each other's immediate presence for many days and hours in a row.
3not to mention, personal space
4Well, actually, we are now in Sydney, because I didn't have my computer while we were gone. But when I was writing this the old-fashioned way with paper and pen, in that now, we weren't in Sydney.
5See previous note. Although you won't be reading this until next week is now, so maybe this is all unnecessary...?
6Yes, my spelling of "travelling" or "traveling" is inconsistent and will remain so.
7That's how they say it here, isn't it cute?
8Yeah, they seem to spell it that way, not the way we Yanks were taught in school...
9Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs. Be nice to them, they control your visa. (And ours.) If you'd like a visa, go visit them here.
10John Howard, duh. I knew that.
11Of course, "big" here in Australia is a relative term. Pop. Melbourne = 3,000,000 Pop. Sydney = 4,000,000
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