Where the Wombats Are

24 February 2008
Canberra Show
Watson, ACT

View images in Flickr tagged “critters”

View images in Flickr tagged “canberrashow”

Okay, this is the post where I try to catch you all up on the amazing number of new critters I have encountered personally since arriving in Australia. Then I’ll go on to talk about my morning here at the Canberra Show (country fair). My most constant companions in Canberra are the birds. I’ll have to go back and have a look at my Sydney Botanic Gardens post to track down what I saw there (they’ll show up under “critters”), but here in Canberra I am quite clear about what I see (and hear) every day.

First there are the magpies. They are shaped like crows only they are black and white patchwork. There are also what I call mini-magpies. These ones are more the size of robins, but are the same patchwork black and white. There are even magpie geese. I saw them at the platypus pond in Tidbinbilla. They are the size of Canadian geese, but are, you guessed it, black and white patchwork. I don’t quite understand the evolutionary principles here. Australia isn’t really very black or white.

Another batch of fellows that I see everyday on my way to and fro are the galahs (ga-LAH). I thought they were parrots at first. They are shaped like that – rounded head and rounded beak. They are goofballs. They are pink with grey tails and a bit of whitish fluff on the tops of their heads. Apparently they’ve become a jesting term for folks who are being silly, “You’re being such a galah!”

The most irrepressible of my feathered friends are the cockatoos. They are the ones that sound like geese being strangled. They are crazy loud and travel around in large packs. The pack on my bike route is about two dozen or more. They are screaming white, big (more than a foot from crown to claw) and even bigger when they get their bright yellow plumage up on the top of their heads. They’ve been frustrating in that I see them all the time, but don’t have my camera when they are on the ground and can’t get close enough when I do have the camera. They are crazy when they fly about as they will fly quite fast and then just grab onto a wire or branch and go round and round it like a gymnast on the high bar or a trapeze artist. It’s hysterical. I’ve thrown up a couple of photos on Flickr, but there is just simply no way to transmit the experience of being in the presence of a pack of cockatoos.

I’ve seen black swans, at least a dozen different kinds of ducks, and a couple of wading type birds. I’ve seen a blue fairy wren – the most brilliant blue you’ve ever seen – and parakeets so bright I nearly drove my bike into a bush. I’ve seen emus and kangaroos. A giant rabbit (a very large hare I suppose). Fruit bats (flying foxes – yes they are that big). And the adorable little bushtail possums – who are also apparently the ones running around on my tin roof in the middle of the night. And these were all in the wild (well, semi-urban wild for most of them) – not a zoo.

Now this morning I’ve been at the Canberra Show and have seen a host of other animals – except horses: Australia’s got a nasty equine flu going around and all horses are strictly quarantined and prohibited from transport of any kind. But there were bunches other livestock including cows and sheep and goats and dogs and alpacas! I’m a huge fan of the alpaca. They are so adorable. And there were dozens and dozens of them.

The first thing I did was go to the circus – the 20 minute mini-circus. There was a hoops girl, a contortionist, a juggler, and an aerial acrobat – not much, but this is a small country fair. I watched the sheepherding competitions – one dog herds a dozen sheep through various gates and pens and obstacle courses. Some of the dogs were very impressive – no barking, no nipping, just staring really intensely and the sheep would go where the dog wanted them too. Of course sheep are easily intimidated, but it was still pretty impressive. And when the sheep got stubborn, the dog would just jump on top of the pile of them and walk over their backs to get to the one that was holding up the works and bite their ear. I also got to see some sheep-shearing, complete with full band accompaniment and a milking demonstration (milking machine, not person milking). There was also a wood-chopping competition which I tried to get photos of, but every time I came round again they were setting up for the next event. I missed the “crocodile encounters” somehow.

The petting zoo (farmyard nursery) was terrific – there were baby chicks being born from their eggs and slightly older ones swimming around. There were piglets having lunch on one of the biggest sows I’ve seen, and playing with each other. There were some donkeys and a giant chinchilla along with other rabbits and guinea pigs and all kinds of exotic (to me) birds. Unfortunately, the things in the cages were really hard to take decent photos of. And some standard sheep, goats, etc. There were also camel rides with some very resigned looking camels.

This was a classic country fair so there were competitions for vegetables and flowers as well as for the livestock. There were also winners in breads, pies, preserves, honey and that lot. There were even competitions for the best “scene” made from fruits and vegetables and from flowers – the flower ones were very large (6 foot square, and one was probably 8 feet high). There were also some interesting crafts. I took a few photos of beadwork and embroidery, but it was so intricate I really didn’t have the right camera to show it off (or I haven’t learned how to use the one I have properly). The photo of a couple of women spinning wool came out alright though. I also found a brand of clothing (a very expensive brand of clothing) called “Slade”!

Then it was off to the midway, not really that different from any midway in America – same rides (they even had the Zipper! – Slade’s favourite…), same nasty food. There were a couple of new nasty treats that seemed somewhat Australian so I had to try them. One was the Dagwood Dog. This is similar to a corn dog, only instead of the dog on stick being battered with cornbread and deep fried, it is battered with something akin to pancake batter and deep fried (not any better). The girl asked if I wanted it dipped in tomato sauce and I thought, hmm, that might be interesting. Of course she meant ketchup – my surprise. I also kept seeing signs for waffles with cream. I wasn’t sure what kind of cream. Ice cream would be great, sour cream or clotted cream wouldn’t even be too bad, but it was whipped cream. Many of you know I’m not a fan of whipped cream (except, I guess, when it is homemade and part of Pavolova). So this was like a wafer ice cream cone with bad whipped cream in it. Blech. I was very disappointed, and didn’t eat it. Oh well.

The midway even had a “sideshow” – or so I thought. They had all these signs on the outside: “headless woman” “half man-half woman” “1/4 woman” “flea circus” – so I was dying to figure out how they would manage all that in today’s modern world of political incorrectness in the exploitation of freaks. But it was a “museum” of the history of side shows. LAME! The only live thing they had was a cage of mice with toys that looked like carnival rides. One mouse was making the tiny ferris wheel go. If I’d paid money I would have felt cheated. Thank goodness it was free. There were a few new things for me – the trampoline ride (kids in harnesses jumping on trampolines going 20-30 feet in the air) looked super-fun, and I found giant sticks of licorice over a foot long – crazy! The Aussies are crazy about skin cancer and there were “free sunscreen” tables all over the fair. The mantra around here is “Slip, Slop, Slap” – “Slip on a shirt, Slop on some sunscreen, Slap on a hat.”

So this is what I’ve been doing while many of you have been shoveling. Ha, ha!

And now it’s such a lovely summer day I might go for another bike ride. Ta-ta…

Caryn

p.s. I *did* go for a ride and on the way saw a turtle shell on the side of the road (so there are turtles here) and a good-sized lizard (image in with critters). I also saw some folks para-boarding (or some such thing) on Lake Burley Griffin. Basically they’ve got a snow-board (only for water) and a big rectangular sail and the wind pulls them up out of the water and down the lake and they surf the waves. It got very windy today. Easy to ride east, not so coming home west – straight into the wind (enough for white caps on the lake). AND I got a flat. Unbelievable! Got a flat in my other tire last Sunday. Maybe I won’t ride on Sundays anymore. It’s thorns. Lucky for me there was a bike hire shop on the lake that was still open and they were kind enough to help me out. They pulled about a half dozen thorns out of my tire. Tiny little thorns, but SO strong. But now I’ve got the thorn-buster tires on both front and back so hopefully I won’t have a flat next week.

22 February 2008
DJ562 (BNE-CBR)
Somewhere between Brisbane and Canberra

I’m on my way back to Canberra from Brisbane where the Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security was officially launched today. Brisbane was lovely. Very pretty and very hot and steamy. In the US we have the Deep South. Here, we have the Deep North. Brisbane isn’t very deep, but it’s definitely on the way in that it is hot and humid with tropical plants and wildlife. I was so busy I wasn’t able to take any photos, sorry. But I hope to get back up there for a proper visit once Slade gets here. The Brisbane River swirls through and around the city and at one spot there is the Kangaroo Cliffs which are lit up at night and look very cool. I found someone else’s photo of the cliffs at night here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/59175167@N00/1245317636/ and you can see other photos of Brisbane here: http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=Brisbane+cliff&m=text

Some of you have asked me to explain more clearly what I am doing here. Let me start with the history. Back in 2002 I was in a period of self-education where I was going to public lectures at many of the universities around Boston, trying to take full advantage of the tremendous intellectual community that Boston is. I went to lectures in the full range of disciplines, from international relations and economics to neuroscience and physics. From public health and education to music and philosophy. It was fantastic. I am interested in many things and I am particularly interested in bridging the gaps between disciplines. I figured that by going to all these different lectures – many of which were over my head – I would be able to see where there might be threads that could bring them together and integrate them. In my searches for scholars who might be interested in the same thing I discovered Professor Gabriele Bammer, an Australian public health scholar working at Harvard as one of the first scholars in the Fulbright 21^st Century Scholars program. She was doing work on developing a new specialization/discipline called integration and implementation sciences (http://www.anu.edu.au/iisn/) where she was focused on developing theories and methods for integrating research from different disciplines and sectors and translating that into effective policy and practice (implementation) to affect change in large-scale, complex social problems. I was smitten immediately! She and I got together for coffee in Harvard Square and hit it off straightaway.

I began working on research projects for Gabriele as I finished my masters in library and information science. As we went along, some of my growing expertise in knowledge management began to become more and more relevant to integration and implementation sciences. This past year, integration and implementation sciences was included as one of four themes/research areas of the Australian Research Council’s new Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security (CEPS) (http://www.griffith.edu.au/policing-security/) and Gabriele was able to hire me full-time at last!

My title is Integration Research Manager and primarily I will be working on:

a) Executive Sessions, especially generating Australian discussions of ideas arising from the Harvard meetings (Executive Sessions are a Harvard methodology of bringing together innovative and influential practitioners with senior academics to meet a few times a year for a couple of years to try to come up with some fresh thinking on intractable problems. The most famous Executive Session was one on policing in the 1980s, from which the idea for the now ubiquitous practice of “community policing” emerged. They have just begun a new one on policing and public safety. More info on Executive Sessions: http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/criminaljustice/executive_sessions/index.htm)

b) Developing and providing an integration ‘consultancy service’ to CEPS researchers (including course-work – I will be coordinating a Research Integration Course covering everything from problem scoping and boundary setting, to integrating research from disciplines, to managing uncertainty, to research-policy-practice translation)

c) Developing a symposium to exchange ideas from different disciplines and practice areas on making change happen

d) Developing an internationally accepted RFCD-type code for integrative research (these are the Research Fields, Courses and Disciplines classifications the Australian Research Council uses to group types of research. We are advocating for a code that focuses on research on integration among disciplines to reflect the complexity of modern research and problems.)

e) Managing various networks of integration researchers.

Gabriele heads up Theme 3 of CEPS: “Integrating Policing and Security Research, Policies and Programs” and the remaining four members of the team are:

• Applied philosopher and ethicist
• Forensic psychologist and criminologist
• Ignorance and uncertainty analyst
• Information scientist

What do you think about that? As you might imagine, we’ve had some fascinating conversations this week. Even more amusing is that due to a variety of strange developments in the evolution of Gabriele’s work (and mine) I am basically an information scientist doing work on integration and implementation sciences for policing and security based at a centre for public health. Ha!

I don’t know if that makes things better or worse in terms of your understanding of what I’m doing. The practicalities are that I will be helping the various research projects to integrate research from different disciplines and turn that integrated research into integrated policy recommendations for change. One of the things we will be working on first will be getting a better articulation of the work we do, including specific examples. In the meantime, perhaps the most important thing for you to know is that I’m very, very excited to be working on these kinds of things full-time at last. I’m a little out of my league – everyone I work with (dozens of people) are all PhDs but me. But it is going to be an amazing experience. As I said to someone recently, I can already see how much more intellectually and politically mature I will be in five years, but this first year is probably going to be a little uncomfortable for me as I find my way and stake out my claim.

Sunday I am heading off to the Canberra Show – the local county fair full of animals and such. Oh, I think maybe I should start listing all the animals and birds I’ve seen since the last post. On my way to the airport to go to Brisbane I saw the most enormous rabbit I’ve ever seen in my life. It must have been 30-40 pounds. Easily two feet long – HUGE! When in Brisbane I saw Australian possums – definitely not the ugly possums in New England. These things were absolutely adorable. Sorry not to get a picture. Let’s see if I can find one on the web: http://www.lodwick.com/images/Hyde%20Park%20Possum.jpg

I plan to take lots of pictures at the Canberra Show and my next post will probably be a Critters post… much more fun and interesting than all this dry stuff about what I am actually doing for a living (which I will wager none of you could repeat). Til then…

Caryn

p.s. No relevant pictures for this one, unless you count the speck of my head at the back of the room in the picture of the first meeting of the Harvard Executive Session on Policing and Public Safety: http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/criminaljustice/executive_sessions/policing.htm

Or my new page as staff on the NCEPH website: http://nceph.anu.edu.au/Staff_Students/staff_pages/anderson.php

17 February 2008
Pool House
Lyneham, ACT

View images in Flickr tagged “dailyride”

I have begun to establish a little bit of a routine and I’ve taken some pictures of my office, the tea room, my ride to work, my supermarket, one of the balloons I occasionally see overhead, etc. You can find them on Flickr via the link above.

Yesterday (Saturday) I went for a long ride to Fyshwick. On the map it says there are few malls there and once again I’ve been reminded of how often I make assumptions about things. What I think of as a mall in the United States is quite different from what it is here. Fyshwick is actually more like a light industrial and commercial area with some electronics stores, car dealerships, printing shops, kitchen design, etc. And, once again, nothing over one story tall. On the way back, I stopped at the Fyshwick food markets – produce, meat, seafood, bakeries. I tiny little collection of shops. Good fun and good prices. I bought a bunch of mangos – they are AMAZING here – not like the stringy stuff we get in Boston usually.

Last night had dinner with Gabriele and Warren and one of my new colleagues David and his wife Nola. David and Nola had just returned from a trip to Patagonia and Iguassu Falls in Argentina over the Christmas holidays and they gave us a little slide show. That area had been quite a bit down on my list of places to go but it has moved up quite a bit since last night. Patagonia looks like a really amazing place, as did the variety of other places in Argentina and Uruguay that they went. I’m really inspired.

I also discovered a new Australian dessert: Pavlova (named after the ballerina). It’s like a merinque with a soft center and then covered in whipped cream with strawberries, kiwis and passion fruit on the outside. Some of you know that I’m not a big fan of the “fluffy” foods, but this was outstanding – I even had two pieces. I also had lammingtons this week, another traditional Australian treat, for the going away tea for one of the NCEPH staff. Lammingtons are like little sponge cakes (a bit like Lady Fingers) covered in chocolate and rolled in coconut. They were very tasty.

In addition, I discovered that David is a huge birder and in fact has digital audio files of hundreds of bird calls. I’m sending him the list of birds that I’ve got pictures of so that he can send me the audio files and I can link them up for you and you can hear what it sounds like around here.

Okay, off to the café for internet access… Not having it where I live is a bit of a nuisance, but it has actually helped me to read more!

14 February 2008
Pool House at 12 Gill St
Lyneham, ACT

View images in Flickr tagged “apology”

So I’ve been at work for four days and have been getting to know my colleagues and their habits. They actually have tea twice a day. No kidding! There’s a big sign in the hall that says “Tea Room.” It’s a riot. Not everyone goes all the time of course, but there is definitely “tea time” and Gabriele has been encouraging me and Damon (other new guy on our team) to go and get to know folks. It’s hysterical. Everyone I’ve met has been great – very friendly and easy to get along with. Those of you who know what a workaholic I am will be pleased to know that I am already learning how to pace the rhythm of my day to include 15 minutes for tea each morning at 10:30 and each afternoon at 3 to chat and laugh with my co-workers. J

The tea chat today was all about yesterday’s events. For those of you not in Australia, yesterday the 13^th of February 2008, was an historic day. It was the day of the apology. The new prime minister Kevin Rudd opened parliament with a motion to apologize to the “stolen generations” of aboriginal Australians. For those of you that don’t know, the immigrant white Australians treated the indigenous people here the way we Americans treated the Navajo and Hopi and Sioux and countless other free peoples of North America. What’s worse, however, is that from 1910 to the early 1970s, the Australian government removed aboriginal children (particularly “half-castes” – born to aboriginal women of often the white men station masters) from their families and placed them in institutions and church-run schools until they were old enough to work and then set them up with service jobs where most of them were like indentured servants and never got paid. Anyway, it was a horrible policy. At the time, the policy makers justified it as trying to provide the children the opportunity for a better life than they would have in their aboriginal communities. It is mind-boggling to try to understand how any people could believe that being removed from your family and community would be a good thing.

Anyway, it’s been many, many, many years that people (both indigenous and non-indigenous) have been demanding an apology and retribution. The last prime minister, John Howard, refused to apologize, saying it was not this government that committed the removal and so they shouldn’t have to apologize for someone else’s actions. Howard had been prime minister longer than any other prime minister, and Kevin Rudd’s most notable campaign promise was that he would apologize.

The apology itself lasted about 30 minutes and was, I thought, a spectacular and moving speech. I’m sure you can find the text of it somewhere and I recommend reading it (official apology – up to final “future” statement – and subsequent speech). But it was amazing to hear his delivery of it – you really felt his empathy and the depth of the significance of this for him, for indigenous Australians, for all Australia. The speech was given as part of his motion in parliament and was done in chambers, but they’d set up screens out on the lawns in front of Parliament House, which is where I was, with thousands of others. To hear the cheers and see the tears – it was truly moving.

Even as I was riding up there, it felt momentous. Parliament House is on top of a hill looking over the lake and surrounded by trees. As I rode up on my bike, I was running late and through the trees everywhere I could see people streaming up the hill, some running, some walking quickly, all with a sense of urgency and importance. I arrived just as they were finishing the Lord’s Prayer to open the session and as soon as I locked my bike, Kevin Rudd began to speak. Mesmerizing, as more and more people came up behind me on that hill. Throughout the apology I could feel undercurrents going on in the crowd. I became very aware of how deep this issue goes and even certain innocuous (to me) turns of phrase clearly moved people. In my awareness of knowing that I could never fully understand the depth of the issue for Australians, I became acutely aware of how much I know and feel of the undercurrents in American history about the native American story. It was an oddly patriotic experience for me – for both countries.

I have to mention that the opposition leader Brendan Nelson spoke for about 20 minutes after Rudd. He supported the apology, but went into all kinds of strange stories that seemed to try to explain why there would have been good intentions in the first place. It was really quite unsavory and the most interesting thing happened. By about halfway through, I noticed that about half the people in the crowd were facing me. At first I couldn’t understand, and then I realized that they were turning their backs on Nelson. Apparently, some in parliament did the same. It was a completely foreign behavior to me – but very powerful. So much more powerful in its silent demonstration than the yelling and booing that I’m used to.

I hate to end on that note, because the whole experience was very significant for me. I overheard some colleagues talking the hall about how the Aboriginal people needed the apology, but also about they, as white people, needed it too, to help heal the shame they feel in being white and thus representative of the decades of irreparable harm that was done to so many by white Australians. Anyway, it was a very positive experience, and the only way it could have been better was if I wasn’t suffering from such wretched allergies or cold or whatever it is that’s going on. I’ve had to steal toilet paper from the ladies room, because I’m afraid to ask for another box of Kleenex from my new colleagues…. It’s been affecting my brain and I haven’t been quite up to snuff intellectually speaking, which is a little disappointing given that it is my first week on the job, but I think I’m getting better tonight. We’ll see. It’s been much cooler weather and rainy since I’ve been here, but it is supposed to be back up to 25 tomorrow (that’s about 80F) and sunny and stay warm through the weekend. I have to go buy an iron and some dark stockings so I don’t shock all the high level police commissioners and criminologists with my crazy tattoos at the launch of the centre in Brisbane next week.

G’day for now!

10 February 2008
Pool House at 12 Gill St
Lyneham, ACT

View images in Flickr tagged “tidbinbilla”

Tidbinbilla was pretty cool. I liked the drive up there as well. The land is fairly open, dotted with clusters of trees and outcroppings of rocks. The whole area was burned in the fires of 2005 and are growing back through deeply blacked trunks and earth. We drove off the road briefly to see the largest satellite dish I’ve ever seen in person. It’s actually the station that relayed the famous American moon walk greeting in 1969: “One small step for man, one giant step for mankind…”

When we pulled into the visitor’s center, Gabriele made a joke about not going into the shop. I told her I wasn’t much of a shopper, but she said, “You haven’t seen this shop.” Well it was small, but it was full of the most outrageous stuffed animals and puppets I’d ever seen! It’s a very strange when the very first time you lay eyes on an animal it is a stuffed caricature of itself. But they also had some real stuffed creatures, including… yes, a wombat! It was huge! It was like the size of a small pig, with shorter legs, and covered in fur, and sort of the body of a bear, with the face of a guinea pig and woodchuck rolled into one. To see a real one (even if it was dead) was the highlight of my trip to Australia thus far.

We had a chat with the park ranger and she said that there were two koalas out today. She told us exactly where to look for them. I thought this was strange, but they’d done a koala walk about two hours previously and spotted them - apparently koala’s don’t move about much. We drove up to the koala walk and stepped inside the enclosures (which look sort of like the fencing in Jurassic Park) – they had them all over – partially to protect the good/rare/special animals from wild nasty ones. Anyway, first off we read about “Lucky” who was a koala that somehow managed to survive the all-consuming fires in 2005. They found her hidden in a creek bed, totally burnt but still alive. They nursed her back to health and although she looks a bit mangled, it was an inspiring story. I have to say however, that I could only tell how she looked from the pictures because they’d put her on permanent sabbatical in some other part of the park. Nevermind, we carried on, and almost immediately on the trail we came across koala number one – insanely close, in the crook of a tree, but sleeping with his face away from us. He tortured us by frequently re-adjusting his position, but never actually turning his face to us. In addition, although he was close, the leaves of the tree got in the way of getting a really good view of what was showing. Nevertheless, we took photos of me with him to prove it was real!! I will go back! There was another one we could see, but it was way, way, way up in the trees, and even the binoculars weren’t much help.

Next stop, platypus pond! Well, aside from being a delightful little pond with lots of waterfowl to observe, there was no platypi of any kind. BUT, I did get my first encounter with a wild kangaroo – he was huge! We were peering into the banks of the pond, looking for platypi, when I heard this strange thumping behind me. I turned around, and about 10 metres away was a very large adult kangaroo – probably 5 foot standing up. But he didn’t stick around, he was on his way somewhere. I went after him and when he was a safe 25 metres away he turned around to spy me from behind some grass and then hopped off. I went after him again, but he was determined not be found.

Then it was on to look for the rock wallabies, but they didn’t want to be found either. So we went off into some other enclosure where Gabriele and Warren said there used to be kangaroos and wallaroos (yes, you guessed it – shorter and stocker kangaroos that are closer to wallabies). Anyway, since the fire, all the signage about the kangaroos were missing and replaced by a sign that said “Bush Meander” – so we went on a meander in the bush. It was very pleasant. I liked looking at all the different trees and plants and the views across the valley below the Brindabella mountains (well, mountains is a bit of a stretch – but Australia is a very, very old continent and the Brindabellas were, at one time, as high as the Rockies). But I digress. We didn’t see any animals on our meander, except right at the very end four kangaroos went whizzing by into the bushes. By the time I got my camera out they were too far away. It was a bit disappointing, but I still had a lovely day.

As we were just about out of the park, we passed a little picnic area and ball field (an “oval” they’d call it here) with a small family kicking a ball around. Behind them was a whole bunch of kangaroos grazing and lying about. And before I could yell “Stop” Gabriele says, “And there’s and emu!” So Warren slowly turns the car around and we drive over and park. At this point the emu is up on a little rise about a soccer field away. It’s just nibbling at the grass and not paying mind to anyone. I start walking up very slowly with Warren at my back encouraging me to see how close I can get and Gabriele telling me to be careful. I get reasonably close and take a safety picture (in case he runs off before I can get a closer one). I get closer and take another safety picture. And again. And again. And then I’m only 50 feet away! He finally starts moving off, and I follow him, getting a great shot. All of a sudden he starts picking up speed as he moves away from me. Then he does this thing whipping his three foot neck around in a weird twist and then he starts heading right for me! I freeze – what are you supposed to do when an emu charges? Some animals you stay still. Some you definite have to run. Which is it for emus?? Aaaagghh!!! He’s about two car lengths from me when he suddenly swerves and heads off towards the oval where he starts terrorizing the young boy and his grandmother, who starts yelling to the boy’s father. It was all very exciting.

The emu had led us closer to the kangaroo community that were grazing away with absolutely no notice of our little encounter. Once again I started moving closer. Perhaps a dozen were lying about, with small family group nearby. The adult male looked up and raised himself up to check us out – not quite fully upright, muscular forearms poised, huge haunches like the rock of Gibraltar. “Magnificent” I hear Gabriele say from behind me, “Isn’t he beautiful? A classic pose. Classic.” She was right. I think majesty would be the best word. It was absolutely obvious that he could completely knock me out, if not kill me in about two seconds, but he wasn’t menacing – just observant. He wasn’t posturing – just recognizing us.

Apparently he decided we were mostly harmless because he went back to grazing and slowly heffalumped off in the other direction. As we turned our gaze to the other kangaroos, Gabriele (the eagle eyes of the group) said, “I think that one there has a joey.” We slowly crept closer. Gabriele and Warren knew what they were looking for and easily recognized the little hooves sticking out of the pouch. The experience of the slow realization of what I was looking at was incredible. We got closer and close and I was shocked that the mother wasn’t bother by us at all. And if that wasn’t enough, little joey poked his head out to give us the absolute best moment of all. There will never be another first time seeing the precious little face and ears of a joey poking out from his mum’s pouch. As she leaned over to graze, he stuck his head out and grazed too. He even stayed out to strike a pose when his mom stood up as I got within leaping distance. Fabulous! Unbelievably fabulous! Even for Warren and Gabriele, who have seen tens of thousands of kangaroos in their lifetimes, it was a special moment. I didn’t want to leave. But the park was closing, so off we went. What a day!

But then, just as we were gathering speed in the car, Gabriele starts, “They’re boxing! Wow! That’s amazing!” Up on the hill on the right of the road two full-size adult kangaroos were definitely boxing! They were punching at each other with their little arms – giving each other a good boxing about the ears. And then a few kicks with their feet. I was totally amazed, but even more amazed by how amazed Warren and Gabriele were. Neither of them had ever seen kangaroos boxing in the wild. It lasted about two minutes – and I was conscious for every single one of those 120 seconds of what an amazing thing I was witnessing. There was another kangaroo in the background who we expected was a female. It was definitely a battle, but it wasn’t bloody. Eventually, one slowly gave up and hopped away. What a finish to the day!

And that was Tidbinbilla Park!

9 February 2008

City Walk
Canberra, ACT

It’s the first full day of the week-long multi-cultural festival. The city centre is full of various stages with music and performances ranging from traditional/historical to contemporary youth culture. The streets and pedestrian walks and parks are lined with tents of food from all over the world. The longest lines seem to be at the Dutch pancakes and the Belgian beer (which you are able to drink anywhere in the 10 block festival area). So Benelux did well here. I should digress for a minute to just mention that Australians are a pretty green-conscious bunch. There were bins for trash everywhere, but always in threes – bottles and cans, paper (including paper cups), and other trash. Every 10-15 metres, more bins. And it’s a big selling point in the ads I’ve heard on the radio for new homes or cleaning products, etc. And ANU (Australian National University) is silly with the green stuff. Signs everywhere and boxes and bins all over the place. When I got to the toilet and again when I’m washing my hand I’m reminded to recycle and ways of saving energy by turning my computer off. It’s really everywhere. I like it.

The pedestrian areas are clogged with people. Word on the street was that Canberra was quiet, but there are quite a bit of people out and about. I’ve just been sitting and people watching. Fascinating. There aren’t too many African blacks, but there is definitely a healthy Asian population. It’s noticeably odd to be in a community where there are no Latinos. Seen a few of obvious Aboriginal descent, but I’ve learned through reading some terrific literature that there are many with that heritage that wouldn’t necessarily be recognizable. Sally Morgan’s book, My Place, traces the story of one woman’s discovery of her indigenous heritage. Another perspective on Australian history that I’ve read is that of Bert Facey, A Fortunate Life, which represents, I’m told, the way that many Australian’s think of themselves and their history – a hard-working boy/man working the land and triumphing over adversity. Though the details are certainly quite different, the spirit of the story isn’t that dissimilar from the American pioneering life that has become legendary.

Off to Tidbinbilla park tomorrow with Gabriele and Warren. Hopefully I will see some real Australian fauna! Oh, and by the way, the birds that sound like ducks being strangled are the wild cockatoos – huge white birds with big black beaks and yellow spiky Mohawks on the tops of their heads. There is a huge flock of them that hang out in various spots in the 2K section of my bike ride to work. I’ve tried to take photos, but they are usually in the trees and I can’t get close enough. And the few times they’ve been on the ground I didn’t have the camera with me. I’ll get them eventually.

6 February 2008
City Plaza Starbucks
Canberra, ACT

View images in Flickr tagged “settlingin”

Okay, first off don’t criticize me for going to Starbucks. I am desperate for a decent sized cup of coffee. The only thing I’ve been able to get for four days is a “long black” (double espresso) for around AUD 3-4 (USD 2.50-3.50). The coffee may be good, but I want something I can drink leisurely, over time (i.e. something larger than two helpings of Nyquil). Other than that, and the driving on the other side of the road thing, Australia isn’t all that different from America from what I’ve seen so far. The shops have different names, but it’s mostly the same stuff.

Here we are not women and men, but ladies and gents (or, occasionally, the less romantic females and males). The vegetation and architecture is reminiscent of Northern California. It’s the birds that are wildly different. The flock of wild cockatoos I rode into yesterday almost shocked me right off my bike. Of course when I finally had my camera, they were all way up high in a tree – darnit. I’ve seen black swans, wild parrots, black and white magpies (like crows and grackels), ducks with red beaks, and bats the size of cats (flying foxes they call them). I also saw my first wild kangaroos up on Mount Ainslie on Monday. Lucky I had kanagaroo for dinner the night before (much like beef) or I probably wouldn’t have been able to eat something so cute. There is also some bird that makes a god-awful noise like a large duck being strangled. I think it’s the magpies.

It’s pretty quiet here in Canberra. They have great bike trails around the lake and through the neighborhoods, but there aren’t many people on them. The only place where there are buildings taller than two stories are about 10 blocks in the city centre and I don’t think any of those are higher than 10 stories.

Right now I’m staying in a pool house in Lyneham. Robyn isn’t that much older than me and manages much of the victim’s advocacy work in the Canberra judicial system. She’s also working on a Ph.D. at the Australian National University where I also work. Her son Liam is in 8^th grade, and I think I already mentioned Buzz the other day. Lyneham is called a suburb, but it’s really like a neighborhood of Canberra – only a 15 minute bike rider from the city centre. Canberra was a very planned city, so everything is very orderly and the zoning is structured so that each neighborhood has one set of shops (a block or two usually) in the middle and the surrounding area is only residence and a few schools. So you’ve got the Lyneham shops, the Dickson shops, and the O’Connor shops near me. Each set of shops usually has some sort of market, a few cafes, bakeries or restaurants, a post office, laundry hairdresser, etc. The Lyneham shops are probably only a dozen businesses, one of which is The Front – a café I am currently frequenting daily for my internet access since there isn’t any in the pool house and I won’t have an office at ANU til Monday.

It rained on Monday and Tuesday. Good for them as they needed it, but too bad for me. Today was sunny though, and I rode all around the lake and up to the parliament house, which is built into a hill with grass over the top (thought you haven’t been able to walk over it since September 11^th).

I’ve been surprised at how much coverage there is of U.S. news and events. I’ve also been a little surprised at how much more expensive everything is than I expected. The prices are maybe 20-30% more, but the U.S. dollar is currently only worth about 5-10% more than the Australian dollar. And some things are just plain more expensive – AUD 3.50 for a double espresso and AUD 5.25 for a load of laundry (wash only).

I gave myself a few days to get settled in, but the fact is that there isn’t too much settling to do in Canberra. I’ve pretty much sussed it. I’m very excited to officially start my new job. We’ll be heading to the North (Brisbane) in two weeks for the official launch of the Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security. I’m looking forward to meeting all the additional folks around the country that I’ll be working with. I was at the office yesterday for a teleconference and met a few of my colleagues – some of whom I’ve been corresponding with by email for a few years now. Great to finally get faces, handshakes and good cheer live!

Caryn

4 February 2008
12 Gill Street
Lyneham, ACT

First morning in Canberra. A light rain is falling. Buzz, Robyn & Liam’s golden Labrador, is sitting at my feet. Strange birds are making morning noises. It’s somewhat similar to Northern California here. Plenty of vegetation, but somewhat dry. Eucalypt trees. I don’t know if that’s quite how you spell it. Well, it’s definitely raining now. I’m feeling surprisingly undirected and somewhat empty minded. This is good, in a way. It means I’m not stressed. But it’s somewhat of a strange feeling for me. I feel like I’ve forgotten something. I could check my lists, but I’m kind of enjoying not having a list.

I’ve just sat for 15 minutes staring into empty space – shocking. I think I ought to shower and pull myself together now. If my hope was to shake things up by coming here, I’ve begun small by having coffee and toast BEFORE even showering or brushing my teeth. What a radical event! Let me pull out the maps and see if I can get myself oriented…

Caryn

3 February 2008
Gate 17, Qantas 1485
Sydney, NSW

View images in Flickr tagged “sydney”

First experience of Australia last night was confusion about cabs because passengers tend to ride in the front so when the coordinator was pointing me to a taxi with two men in the front I thought they were pals, driving together, and I couldn’t understand why they were driving off. Once I realized my mistake I felt quite silly. I recovered quickly and my next impression driving through the fast fading daylight was that the billboards lining the airport roadways were exceptionally large. The whole driving on the other side wasn’t too troubling and I sorted it pretty quickly. The hotel in Pott’s Point required a brief pass through King’s Cross, which is a bit of a red light district allegedly – but a pretty tame one if you ask me. DeVere Hotel was simple but decent. Some malfunctioning equipment and tears in the curtains but nothing wretched.

This morning was another terrific experience. Up and out by 6:30a on an absolutely delightful walk to and through the Royal Botanical Gardens. The harbour inlets were lovely. The sidewalks were lovely. The gardens were particularly lovely. All the new birds, and the bats! The harbour itself – the water, the views, the hillsides of delightful homes. It was all lovely. I took the ferry from the Circular Quay at the Opera House to Darling Harbour and walked around there for an hour – what a delightful harbourfront gathering place – cafes, water, grass, trees, children’s playgrounds, everything clean and fresh. Another perfect day thus far – it didn’t really start pouring rain til I got back to the hotel. All in all it has been a terrific way to journey here (via Honolulu and Sydney).

Caryn

31 January 2008 (8a)
USS Arizona Memorial
Pearl Harbor, HI

View images in Flickr tagged “honlulu2″

Site of the most dramatic rainbow I have ever seen – a full, bold arc over Pearl Harbor. I am trying to must emotion for the losses but I cannot. I look at the skies and imagine them filled with planes and noise and smoke and smells and terror and panic and energy and action and humanity. That resonates more.

That’s another mongoose I’ve seen now. They look like otters. I feel like I can see more clearly here. Perhaps the air is cleaner. Perhaps I am more relaxed. Perhaps I really am allergic to the cats.

31 January 2008 (2p)

Observation Deck
Diamond Head Crater
Honolulu, HI

A short hike, not hard even with a bum foot. What a view. The hot sun. The cool clouds coming over the mountains. Shadows of clouds on the sea. Dozens of shades of blue and turquoise and green.

31 January 2008 (4p)
A jetty
Waikiki Beach, HI

A perfect day. A perfect, perfect day. Up before sunrise for tour out to Pearl Harbor. Full-on rainbow over the harbor and quiet but powerful imaginings of the past of a sky filled with planes and smoke and noise and smells and a surface alive with souls saving their shipmates, their families, their fellow citizens. A simple city tour on the return – Punchbowl Cemetary, views from the Punchbowl crater, the state capital building, the palace where Queen Liliuakalani was imprisoned (I love the Hawai’ian language). A pleasant walk back to the Coconut Plaza (hotel) and a Skype call with Slade. Intermittent showers and sun while waiting for the #22 bus. Taxi ride with crazy Iraj and the newlyweds from San Francisco – talking about snow in the mountains, Tibetan weddings and stopping for $5 of gas. An easy but interesting hike up Diamond Head crater through intermittent showers, tunnels, spiral staircases and three foot bunker/rampart openings to stunning vistas of rich green hillsides, turquoise seas and a slim slipper of beach holding the sea back from a forest of crisp white ice cube trays of hotels.

A sunny, leisurely walk down from the observation platform through the park and all the way 2 miles down Monsarrat Avenue to Waikiki Beach. A hot coffee in Starbucks while another ten minute rainshower blows down and through from the mountains. A stroll past chess players and seniors lounging in the shade. Removing my shoes at last to walk gingerly over he sand, protecting my sprained pinky toe. Out to the jetty where I now sit in the warm and slowly settling sun, surrounded by small black crabs eager for sun or seawater or both – I don’t know.

Silhouettes of sailboats drift behind clusters of surfers. The low waves slide in steadily, like migrating herds. The laughter of children punctuates the shurfling of the waves, along with car horns and grown-up guffaws in a boulliabase of Pacific Rim tongues. Two young women just came to me to show me the sunset picture they took that has me in it. A romantic image that moved them to share it with me and send to me later. I hope I got sun today, but if I wake up tomorrow as white as I was this morning it will still have been a perfect day.

Clean, fresh air. The brisk winds keep the streets clear of dirt and clutter. The brightness of the green vegetation, blue sky, turquoise sea and white hotels is so crisp. It is like a high definition city – not even a city really; a settlement. Even though the hotels are large and numerous and the streets are full of shops and unapologetic consumerism, the volcanic mountains are still taller and steeper and very close. The sky is still bigger and the sea still wider. The rain showers are hourly reminders of the power of the sky over the plans of men. The ceaseless waves persistently proclaim the endurance of the sea. The mountains leaping skyward live always in the corner of the eye like an older brother or grandparent keeping an eye out, ready to take over if we get too out of hand. It feels like we humans are visiting, borrowing, staking a little claim at the edge of a land that will never be fully ours to destroy. It’s an unusually pleasant feeling.

Caryn