Much to be Thankful For

I have spent my first big American holiday away from home. Thanksgiving was last week, and instead of spending it with my whole family in Cincinnati, Ohio, I spent it with fellow U.S. Fulbright Scholars in Canberra, Australia. It was my first major holiday away from my home and family (excluding New Year’s Eve of my sophomore year in high school when I spent a week canoeing in the Florida Everglades with Girl Scouts), and I missed the familiar smells of Grandma’s home cooking and the company of my family. However, I was excited to travel to Canberra to spend the weekend with fellow Americans who were as eager as I was for a bit of home (Australians don’t celebrate Thanksgiving). Luckily, one of the 2010-2011 Fulbright Scholars who was preparing to leave Australia invited us to her place for a Thanksgiving dinner cooked by her mom. Krysten’s family usually has traditional Italian food for Thanksgiving (as they have deep Italian roots) but her mom kindly agreed to also cook some “traditional” Thanksgiving fare like stuffing, corn, and potatoes. We also had a turkey, and this turkey was definitely the most creatively-cooked bird I’ve ever had: one of the Fulbright Scholars who does glass working cooked it in the university’s kiln! By the time dinner rolled around I was starving and watering in the mouth, just like it should be. And let me tell you, all the food was absolutely DELICIOUS! The turkey was succulent and amazingly tasty and Krysten’s mom’s lasagna was fabulous. While we didn’t have a traditional pumpkin pie for dessert, we did have yummy apple crisp and a trifle that one of our Australian guests made. I also brought along some homemade fudge (my third batch. Rosie has inspired me!) which was a big hit. It felt like Thanksgiving in Ohio, as it had been raining all day and it was a bit chilly out. While I did miss spending the holiday with my family, it was great to catch up with the other Scholars and spend the evening with my new family here in Australia. To add to the awesomeness of the night, I met a guy who was a contestant on “Letters and Numbers,” an Australian game show I sometimes watch. How cool is that? I also got to take home a pretty white table cloth and a Thanksgiving table runner that Krysten was giving away. Now I’ll have some Thanksgiving decorations for my house/apartment when I actually get one! And I got two Christmas ornaments, which will go on the little tree I plan to get for my room here. I definitely made off like a bandit!

 Our Thanksgiving feast!

 

My Fulbright family (plus some Aussie guests)

To top off the weekend, on Saturday I went to the Foreshore Festival in town with Lee and Marvin, two other Scholars. The day was full of heart-pounding, dance-inspiring music and the crowd was there to have a good time. I have never been to a legitimate concert like this one, complete with shoulder-sitting (don’t worry, not me), crowd surfing, and mosh pits. I have also never seen so many ripped guys in tight tank tops and tight walking shorts/capris, or so many girls wearing practically nothing. All of which was completely acceptable here. Of course the day wouldn’t have been complete without a bit of rain. Well, more like a downpour. I’m glad I went and was able to get that taste of Australian culture.

Wild and crazy times at Foreshore listening to LMFAO

Me, Marvin, and Lee ready to get our groove on.

First Pups of the Year!

I finally went out to the cave for a census last night for the first time since I hurt my knee over two weeks ago. It was great to get out with the bats again! The females are starting to give birth to their pups (yes, baby bats are called pups), which is 2-3 weeks earlier than normal. The bats came back to the cave from their overwintering sites a few weeks early this year, so we were predicting that they may have their pups early too. Looks like we were right! After the emergence ended I went to the Bat Center to look inside the cave with the infrared cameras and saw some pretty neat stuff. In the farthest chamber, a bunch of adults (probably over 1000) were grouped in about 20 large, tightly-packed clusters. I had never seen that before. Normally in that chamber there are only a few bats flying around, and when I’ve seen the bats roosting in other chambers they’ve always been much more loosely packed. I’m not sure what they were doing in such tight clusters, but they were probably preparing to give birth (all the females tend to give birth around the same day/time). I did see a cluster of four tiny, pink, hairless pups and several individual pups throughout the chamber, but definitely not the numbers I was expecting. The head park guide said there was a crèche (i.e. a group of pups—the moms put their pups in large groups so that when they leave for the night to feed the pups can keep each other warm) in this chamber today, but when I checked tonight, I again only saw those few pups from last night, and this time the adults were not grouped in large, tight clusters. Either most of the females have yet to give birth, or they have moved their pups to areas in the cave that the cameras can’t see. Hopefully the first option is true. It would be a bummer not to be able to see the pups and record information about them (crèche locations, mother-pup behavior, health, etc.). I’m hoping that when I check tomorrow more pups will be visible!

Knee Injury Update

Just a quick update about my knee. As I posted before, I slipped and fell on Sunday and hurt my right knee. I’ve had a compression bandage on it and have been on crutches all week. It’s feeling MUCH better and I can walk on it almost normally. The swelling has gone down a lot, although my ankle and calf are still a tad puffy. It still hurts a bit when I move certain ways, but it’s come a long way since Sunday. I can’t get in to get x-rays and scans for another 2 ½ weeks, but I’m pretty sure I just strained something and it will heal on its own. I’ll get it checked to make sure (my knee isn’t something I want to take chances with!) but right now it seems to be recovering quite well. Hopefully it keeps on improving!

Chinese Visitors

Last night I had a fantastic educational experience: I met with a group of Chinese visitors to talk about the bats in Bat Cave and my Fulbright research. I was a bit nervous beforehand because I didn’t know what it was going to be like. How big was the group? Did they speak English? Would there be an interpreter if they didn’t? They arrived at the cave at 8:00pm, when the bats usually start coming out. I first met the two group leaders, who were Australians from Zoos SA (South Australia). They were taking the group to various natural sites throughout South Australia. They introduced me to the interpreter, a middle-aged Chinese woman. There were about 15 others in the group, most of whom spoke no English. I began by explaining a little about the bats and what we are doing with the project. It was so weird to have to talk through an interpreter! I talked and then she relayed what I had said. While she was interpreting I had to just stand their awkwardly and smile. Quite an interesting experience! Everyone in the group was very nice and they asked some questions, like what the bats eat and how many there are in the cave. When the first few bats came out some of the group members got skittish, and when the resident possums crawled out of the cave they freaked out and backed up. They thought it was a snake! Once they realized it was a cute, furry possum, they immediately gathered around the fence to take pictures. It reminded me a lot of what I was like when I first got here. Even such a common animal as the Common Brushtail Possum elicits such excitement from newcomers! When the bats started coming out in full force everyone was amazed at how many there were and at how fast they fly. I showed them a recording of a thermal imaging count I had taken previously (I didn’t actually set up the cameras for them because of my knee and crutches) and they found it fascinating how the camera can pick up so many more bats than we can see with the naked eye. They also got to see the resident owl fly out of the cave (it lives in the cave during the day and hunts the bats as they come out in the evening). When they gathered to leave and I packed up, they came right up and helped me carry my equipment without me even asking. The Zoos SA leaders thanked me and the whole group started applauding me! One man came up to me and handed me a cute little stuffed animal panda they had brought from China as a thank-you gift. I was completely taken by surprise and touched by their warmth and kind gestures. It was definitely one of the most fun and rewarding experiences I’ve had talking with a group about bats and my work.

P.S. It’s 11/11/11, a numerical palindrome!

 My thank-you gift

I took a trip...

...to an Australian hospital! On Sunday, Cath and I went to Canunda National Park in Southend, on the coast of South Australia, to participate in a Fairy Tern survey. It was a beautiful, sunny day, perfect for a stroll along the coast doing some bird surveying. The park ranger dropped us off at the sand dunes and we continued walking along the trail. We had walked for about five minutes when we came upon a small washout in the trail. I looked at it and told myself to be careful as I crossed it because the gravel/dirt looked a bit loose. Despite that, I still managed to slip and fall. I fell with my leg at an odd angle, with the knee bent sideways and inwards. Apparently Cath heard a pop, although I was too busy falling to notice it. When I landed I knew something was wrong, and within seconds the side of my right knee started swelling up. The pain wasn’t terrible if I didn’t move it, but because it was near lunch time and I was on an empty stomach I started to get very light headed and had to lie down and eat my granola bar to regain composure.

 The one picture I got on the trip, about two minutes before I fell. It’s a miracle my camera survived and is still functional because I had it in my hand and smashed it into the ground when I fell.

Cath called the park ranger and he came back to pick us up. Cath drove me to the hospital. When I got out of the car I heard another pop. Maybe if something had popped out of place before it was now popped back in? While we waited to see a doctor, I had to call the Naracoorte park guides to ask them to go into my room at the bunkhouse, get my Medicare card, and read me the numbers. I hadn’t taken my wallet with me so I didn’t have my card, which apparently was a problem. Luckily they found it and that was all squared away. From now on I’m definitely going to carry my Medicare card with me wherever I go! We waited for about an hour and then I was taken in to see the doctor. He poked and prodded my leg and asked me if twisting this way hurt, if pulling on this hurt, etc. Well yeah it did! He said he thought it was either a ligament strain or tear or a crack in the meniscus. He put a compression bandage on the knee and gave me crutches to use (the first time I’ve ever had to use crutches, oh joy). I had an appointment scheduled with another doctor in Naracoorte for Tuesday, so he told me to have her take a look at it then and go from there. I went out to the reception desk to pay, handed over my Medicare card, and that was that! So easy!

I’ve spent the past two days hobbling around on crutches and hopping around in my room. It has definitely made me more aware of the fact that I’m living alone. How do people who REALLY live alone (at least I have a support network with the park people) deal with situations like this?  My knee feels much better today (Tuesday) but still a little sore and swollen. I went to the doctor in Naracoorte this afternoon, and she still wants me to get an x-ray and an ultrasound to check for ligament tears or a cracked meniscus. Unfortunately I have to go to Mt. Gambier, which is about an hour away, to get them. I’m going to call the clinic tomorrow and hopefully get in within the next few days. Until then I’ll keep hoping for more improvement! And I’ll be using this down time to catch up on analyzing some bat counts that have been piling up...

ABC South East SA radio interview

A couple weeks ago I had a radio interview (my first one ever!) with Alan Richardson of ABC South East SA about my work with bats. No, it wasn’t a live interview, but I was still nervous! It aired during a morning radio session and unfortunately I didn’t get to hear it because I didn’t know when exactly it was going to be on. However, Mr. Richardson kindly sent me a copy of it, so here it is!

My New Car!

I finally bought a car! One of the Girl Guide leaders I’m working with had a friend who was selling her car for a price that was within my (very limited) budget. When I first got to Australia, I thought it would be relatively easy to find a cheap, used car to get me through the year. Turns out things are a tad more expensive here compared to the US, so my low budget (which would have been fine in the US) limited me to mostly dodgy cars that were probably best to stay away from. I lucked out with this find and no longer have to borrow the park guide vehicle after-hours or rely on other peoples’ schedules to get groceries in town or run errands.

I am now a proud owner of a white 1995 Mitsubishi Lancer Executive. It’s a tiny little automatic sedan, with do-it-yourself everything, including crank down windows, side mirrors you have to adjust with a knob, and locks you have to use a key to open. It’s quite a step down from my Subaru Outback at home, which has automatic locks and windows, heated seats, two sunroofs, etc. I actually kind of like that. It's kind of refreshing to have to do everything yourself, and I think it adds character to the car. Also, I actually own this car, whereas my dad owns the Subaru at home. For some reason that little detail makes me much more conscious of and invested in my car. As much as having to pay insurance, registration, etc. stinks, it does give me a better sense of responsibility and makes me proud to be a car owner! 

I still sometimes catch myself getting into the left side to drive when I’m not paying attention.

Melbourne Cup

Today I got to experience one of Australia’s important national events: the Melbourne Cup. This horse race is Australia’s major Thoroughbred horse race and is called “the race that stops a nation” because most people will stop what they’re doing to watch/listen to the race. I went into the park office to join others in watching it. Unfortunately they didn’t have the TV there anymore, so we settled in beside the radio to listen. I was kind of bummed at first that I wouldn’t be able to actually see it, but once I started listening to the announcers in the buildup to the start my heart started racing and it didn’t matter that I couldn’t actually see anything. I picked horse #3, Dunaden, to win simply because 3 is my lucky number. A little after 2:30 they were off, and I listened as the announcers got more and more enthusiastic and fast-talking as the race progressed. Even though I had no real stake in the outcome, I still got really excited and into it. My horse, Dunaden, came out victorious, although by the closest margin in the 151 years of the race (they had to call it by a photograph). I should have made some bets!

Speaking of national events, it’s weird because there’s a whole new set of holidays and traditions to learn over here. Yesterday was Halloween, and while a few people celebrate it in Australia, it’s not a big holiday like it is in the US. Plus living in the park in a rural area makes me feel a little less “in touch” with what’s going on in the rest of the country. While the Melbourne Cup is a big deal here, if Cath hadn’t mentioned it to me today I would have completely forgotten about it. I’m glad she said something because I want to participate in as many Australian traditions as possible while here!