The summer months have gone by so fast! It has been I believe seven weeks since I moved into the Indooroopilly Lodge, and at least two months since I have been in this crazy place called Australia. I can say the time has really flown by. It's been such a great summer, 1) because it's been exciting to explore a new and foreign place (without the stress of feeling vulnerable, and they speak english!), and 2) I'm being paid to research things that interest me, at my own pace. In hindsight, this program was quite a find, and I'm really glad that I was able to have it a part of my academic and life experience.
It's been a bit challenging trying to live two lives, 1) the life of a backpacker/traveler by weekend and be surrounded by people constantly on the move, and people who have been on the road for months if not years, then to come back to the steady-pace lifestyle of working in Brisbane by the week. But the multiple lives do keep things interesting and makes for the weeks to go by rather quickly. The month of July truly went by in a whirlwind. The combination of starting to play frisbee on a regular schedule, in addition to the travels to Fraser Island, Noosa, and Airlie Beach made the work weeks rather short.
But it was in July where I really hit a nice stride of meeting new people, and finding a good lifestyle while being here in Brisbane. Don't get me wrong, it's an amazing opportunity to be able to live in another country. But when you're working in another country, coming home, eating dinner, the routine is no different than being at home in the US. That's why having some of the evening activities made such a big difference, it was like finding a community to be a member of, here in Brisbane.
Looking back at June, I think I spent most of the evenings trying to find things to do, and I guess in the long run, it paid off. It's funny to think back about the day that I arrived in Brisbane and took out that funny plastic money from the ATM. But now, it's August, and in twenty-some odds days, I'll be back at the grind in Berkeley, which actually sounds a little exciting in its own right. I'm looking forward to some good Thai food, going windsurfing, and hopefully giving kite surfing a go. But I'll definitely miss the easy-going lifestyle of Brisbane, the clean and safe streets, and probably most of all, just the feeling of being the foreigner on the block.
So to give a short update on this week, I've hit the ground running in terms of writing my report. I've come to realize, that I probably don't even need much of a report, but I would like to have something substantial for my own good. Thus far, I've cranked out about 15 pages worth of substance, but I definitely have a good ways to go. Since I've gotten back from Airlie, I've had two nights of ultimate frisbee and some good days of work at the office at UQ as well as spending some time at the State Library of Queensland downtown. Frisbee tonight was good fun, it was a warm-up night for the UQ undergrads, but I've found that most of the people I met tonight, were Americans studying abroad... strange huh. But it was still a good time overall, it's always nice to meet people in the athletic setting. I also went to the gym a bit earlier today, and even though it's a bit of a more challenging place to meet people, I think I've become quite a regular, and I know most of the trainers there who have broken the ice with me because I apparently do some pretty strange workouts.... who knew?
But I'll be here in Brisbane only for a week longer. In that time, I plan to fit in three kite surfing lessons, a 12 km run, two frisbee games, one real estate meeting, a software workshop, and other odds and ends which are needed before one leaves a city for good. So, in essence, I have my work cut out for me during the next few days. But, I'm looking forward to it! The highs this week will be in the mid-70s and sunny every day. Did I mention that it's rained three days out of the time I've been here, and one of those was when I was deathly ill last week... not too shabby.
Well I'll quit rambling for now, but I just wanted to say thank you for anyone who has kept up with the blog until now... I know I endlessly ramble and have terrible grammar and punctuation. Oh, I also got a compliment on my "cool" american accent today... how fun!
Take care everyone, I hope things are going well back in the states. I have spent some of my downtime here to follow politics, and I think I've narrowed down my favorite presidential candidate, any guesses?
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