Celebrating One Year and 55 Years

A year ago (almost to the day) I was arriving in Australia, extremely jetlagged but excited to settle into my new home and my Fulbright project. Now I’ve come to the part of my journey when I have to start planning for the return trip to the US. Recently my mind has been filled with so many thoughts, like “Should I stay in Australia until mid-November and try to get a short-term job to earn a few extra bucks while I can (since the Australian pay rate is typically MUCH higher than the US rate)?”, “How the heck am I going to get all my stuff home?”, and “Man, plane tickets to the US are a bit more expensive than I remember them being!”. My massive to-do list for the next two months or so includes, in no particular order, continuing to take thermal camera counts at Bat Cave until I leave, writing a report about the 2012 winter bat survey/an analysis of all the previous winter surveys (which in very rough draft form currently sits at 26 pages), writing a final report about my entire project for DEWNR, writing my final Fulbright report, preparing my 30-minute presentation for the Hungary bat conference at the end of September, preparing a talk for the Friends of Parks Forum in early October, figuring out which visa I need to apply for to extend my stay and applying for it, selling my car, deciding when to go home and buying plane tickets, training the student who will be taking over the Bat Cave monitoring work in how to use the cameras and software, and of course packing and getting rid of stuff I don’t need to take home. My to-do list only seems to be getting longer and I don’t seem to be making any headway with it. It’s one of those things where each thing is so big that I just put it off until the next day, which only exacerbates the issue. I do work well under pressure, so I guess this is no different from how I normally operate. I know it will all get done, but right now it’s a bit hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Perhaps in my pursuit of procrastination, I have begun to get into cooking a bit more. Every night I have been making couscous or quinoa, some sort of protein-based food (eggs, fish, etc.), and lots of veggies like broccoli, green beans, corn (I know it’s not technically a veggie but it counts in my book), and zucchini. I only do very basic cooking like steaming and boiling, but it’s quite fun! And for some inexplicable reason I’ve suddenly had less desire to add lots of salt to my food, which I have always done. I’m also eating a lot of fruit and craving less processed sweet food. Overall I feel healthier and better about how I’m eating, which I suppose is a very good outcome of procrastination!

Now that I’ve had a bit of a rant, I’ll talk about some highlights of the past couple weeks. August 7 was the 55^th birthday of the Naracoorte Girl Guide Discovery Unit, so we celebrated the following weekend by holding an event on the town square. We set up a table for old Girl Guide memorabilia, a barbeque to feed visitors, an old-style canvas tent and a new tent that we use for camping, and field games like Frisbee toss and giant Connect Four. We lucked out for most of the day with the weather (it only started raining towards the end) and we had several old members of Girl Guides stop by to visit and share their Girl Guide experiences. It was amazing to see how the organization has changed over the years. I can’t imagine having been a part of it back in the very early days when girl members were told that “A Brownie always looks smart, clean, and pretty” and that “A Brownie must know how to part her own hair”. These quotations came from a scrapbook detailing how to become a Brownie Girl Guide that an old Girl Guide member made when she first started. Times sure have changed!

 A page out of the scrapbook from the early days of the organization. I can only imagine how our customs and uniforms will be seen by girls in another 80 years or so!

Even in the time I’ve been here the World Association for Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) has ratified the new Promise and Law for Guiding in Australia. The changes were made to ensure that the Promise and Law remain relevant to today’s members in Australia. Below are the old and new Promise and Law:

Old Promise:

I promise that I will do my best:

to do my duty to God, to serve the Queen and my country;

to help other people; and

to keep the Guide Law.

New Promise:

I promise that I will do my best
To be true to myself and develop my beliefs
To serve my community and Australia
And live by the Guide Law.

Old Law:

1. A Guide is loyal and can be trusted.
2. A Guide is helpful.
3. A Guide is polite and considerate.
4. A Guide is friendly and a sister to all Guides.
5. A Guide is kind to animals and respects all living things.
6. A Guide is obedient.
7. A Guide has courage and is cheerful in all difficulties.
8. A Guide makes good use of her time.
9. A Guide takes care of her own possessions and those of other people.
10. A Guide is self-controlled in all she thinks, says and does.

New Law:

As a Guide I will strive to:

• Respect myself and others
• Be considerate, honest and trustworthy
• Be friendly to others
• Make choices for a better world
• Use my time and abilities wisely
• Be thoughtful and optimistic
• Live with courage and strength

I must say I’m particularly glad for a few changes, including the removal of “A Guide is obedient” from the Law (that seems very antiquated) and the change from “do my duty to God” to “be true to myself and develop my beliefs” in the Promise. I think this latter part was long overdue, and I look forward to the day when that change is made to the Girl Scout Promise in the US. As an atheist/agnostic, I find it disheartening that there is still the belief among some members of the Girl Scouts of the US that girls/women who do not believe in God (or a god/s) should not be a part of this wonderful organization. I fully acknowledge that the Girl Scouts/Guides was founded on a spiritual basis; however, I think some members have interpreted this to mean that the organization is a religious one when it is not. Some day the Promise may be changed to reflect this more accurately, and I hope I’m still around when that happens. The changes to the Australian Promise and Law just go to show how times do change and that while the core ideals are (and should be) held constant, organizations like Girl Scouts/Girl Guides must adapt to the times if they want to remain strong and relevant organizations for today’s girls.

 An old canvas tent (left) and a new tent.

 Fairy bread, an Australian treat I just haven’t quite wrapped my mind around. It consists of a piece of buttered white bread covered with sprinkles (or 100s and 1000s, as Australians call them). Fluffernutters are better.

Our birthday cake in front of the Australian flag.

 Some of the Naracoorte Girl Guides, old and new.

 The Guide Hall, where we hold our weekly meetings.

The next weekend I headed off to Adelaide to visit Chris. During my stay, we went bowling, and this time I did MUCH better than when I went with the girls in Mt. Gambier. The first game I scored a 194 and the second game I scored a 140. I think 194 is the highest I’ve ever bowled. Yay!

Chris and I also arranged a visit out to Terry Reardon’s place in the Adelaide Hills. He’s partners with Joan, one of Chris’ lecturers at uni, so it worked out quite nicely. Terry recently bough a marine radar and aerial to set up and monitor bat activity in the sky. Well, more like he got a grant for about $10,000 to buy the stuff. Someday I hope I can get grant money like he does. Because he had just bought the equipment, he was still tinkering with the setup when Chris and I went for our visit. He had built a giant tripod from metal pieces in his shed to hoist the aerial and was running the radar off the battery of one of his (many) old cars. Terry has a skill I only wish I could have: mechanical and electrical know-how and the desire and ability to tinker with and build things. I admired what he had done with the setup and I can’t wait to see the radar in action looking for bats (although that may not happen by the time I leave Australia...). After looking at the radar and eating delicious homemade scones, jam, and soup, we took a walk through the hills and I again admired Terry’s lifestyle. He and Joan have a large chunk of land in the hills, and the area is beautiful. Maybe someday I’ll be lucky enough to have a place like theirs.

 Terry and Chris setting up the aerial.

 The image on the radar. Soon it will be used to detect bats flying in the sky!

 In the hills overlooking Terry’s property. Someday I hope to have something like this.

After several days in Adelaide, I realized I couldn’t avoid work any longer, so I headed back to Naracoorte. Along the way I had a “funny” incident. I was driving along the highway about an hour out of the city when a cop car came up behind me. I had just pulled around someone who was going 10kph under the speed limit, the whole time doing EXACTLY the speed limit. After I merged back into the left (slow) lane, the cop car followed me for about a minute and then its lights turned on. I didn’t immediately think they were flagging me over, but after a few seconds I realized they were. I pulled over and waited. The cop came to the passenger window and asked to see my license and registration. I handed that over and then asked, politely, what was wrong. He said that my car was registered but that there was no license number with my name. I explained that I had bought the car in November and am only here for a year. When he saw my International Driving Permit (the $15 permit I got from AAA) he said, “Ahh, that’s why. They don’t usually put international license numbers into the system.” Phew, I’m glad I hadn’t done anything wrong! He handed back my stuff and as he turned to leave he looked in the back seat and said, “And you should tidy up your car.” Ouch. It’s my field car so there’s a bunch of stuff in it, including several coats and raincoats, several extension cords and power boards, and shopping bags. I try to keep it relatively tidy but field cars don’t usually stay that way for long!

Since my run-in with the law things have been pretty uneventful, except for having a wonderful (and spicy!) traditional Korean meal at Jinhwa’s place last night. As I talked about before, I’m now just trying to organize my life for the next few months. In other words, even busier times await!