Wollongong
It has felt like a long Thursday, though it has actually been a short Thursday. I got to it about three hours after it had already started. My flight from Dallas chased the sun’s shadow all the way to Sydney. I landed at 6am and trudged through customs and finally to my “free shuttle” to the university. It was a straight-up limousine. The drive was around an hour. The driver shouted back to me to check out the view as he detoured through the parking lot of a restaurant overlooking Wollongong, the ocean, and the mountains. The trees have long white, naked limbs ending in tufts of small leaves; or enormously long, fleshy needles; or nothing but a few red flowers. That not-a-huge-white-pigeon was also not a seagull, but a parrot. I was dropped off at my hostel where I dropped off my luggage. I took a free bus to a campus that has buildings labelled by number and is totally devoid of outdoor maps and dense with greenery. I asked a security guy and he said “Is that the building with walls and walls of cool rocks?” Probably. Then Mick, a former coal miner, and I proceeded to talk about rocks for about 15 minutes. Everyone here has been so extremely nice, it makes Iowa look like New York. At my first meeting at my new university, I took a few notes about everyone. Guys in my department were talking about surfing and then interrupted themselves to say, I swear to god, “g’day Dave” to someone who came in. No vegemite spotted yet. I signed many forms, received many important numbers, and visited many centers for many things. I have a student number, a student health number, a bank number, a phone number, a wifi logon number, and a number of things unfinished. Tomorrow I will have to try again to arrange my stipend payments, to be immunized against nasty stuff found in Indonesia, and buy a ticket to Indonesia. It is exhausting remembering to walk on the left and begin dates with the day. And it’s the dead of winter here so I wore a sweater today. I meant to write a bit about the days leading up to this, but ran out of time. I took some pictures here, but they’re all bad and Wollongong, and more-so the campus, are worth capturing properly (I saw a lorikeet). I’m also considering writing this blog somewhere other than tumblr. Something will be done about some or all of these things. But for tonight, my last effort today will be to stay awake until 10pm, not far away now.