Arriving in Australia in February 2006 (a year and a half after finding out I was selected as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar) we found Canberra to be a delightful place to live. Not at all like the stuffy and boring place it's made out to be. Okay, maybe a little boring but we spend most of our free time these days at home in our garden anyway! Canberra is beach deficient and you can't blame a sea loving people for holding that against the place, but otherwise I'm convinced that people who live here perpetuate the myth in order to keep away the masses. A pretty dull place to visit, but a great place to live!
As a Rotary scholar I visited clubs around the district speaking about myself, where I'd come from, what I was studying and why I chose Australia. I have been truly honored to represent this organization and have seen that Rotarians do their best to make their communities better places.
If you've been following my blog since last year you'll have seen LOTS of animal photos. At one point I think that there might have been more birds, kangaroos, bats and possums appearing on my blog than yours truly, but my fascination with the wildlife is never ending! I just found this photo of my niece Teagan from when the family was visiting in September 2006. It must be one of the cutest things ever and I have to include it here...
Lest you should think that one can let a two year old go 'round schmoozing with wild animals, I should mention that this photo was taken in a petting zoo...
Studying at the ANU for my masters was a great experience because I shared it with interesting people from all around the world. Graduating earlier this year was really the culmination of waiting to come to Australia and all of the effort put in last year. Brian and I both felt on some level that we were ready to leave Australia once I was finished but alas, I am sensible enough to not pass up good opportunities that come my way. I'm still at the ANU working as a research fellow in sustainability education and really enjoy my job. I do have flickering visions of a PhD (and my supervisors toss in a "Dr McMillin" for good measure every now and then) but I'm happy where I'm at so I don't see any need to pursue a doctorate at the moment.
So, in summary, it has been an amazing experience to live and study abroad for an extended period of time. Australia is great; uncrowded, full of wide open spaces, awesome beaches, kangaroos and koalas, Asian food and fairly environmentally conscious folks. The politics though aren't all that much better than those back home. It's bloody hot in the summer and words like "bloody" have crept into my vocabulary. Sometimes I feel like I fit in but once I open my mouth they know I'm not from these parts.
Speaking of vocabulary, see if you can translate this:
This arvo I felt a bit crook and chucked a sickie, fair dinkum, eh? Chucked me esky and me swag in the ute and went walkabout with me mates out in woop woop. We'd just put some snags on the barbie and cracked a stubbie when we noticed a bloody pom hooning about in his budgie smugglers and whinging that his chook carked it. Reckon he had a kangaroo loose in the top paddock. Struth!
Crack the code and win big!
Now memory lane wouldn't be any fun without photos so I've sifted through about six thousand photos(!) to bring you the last year and a half in pictures (not an easy selection process I might add). I've made a slideshow and posted it on a Picasa web album.
The highlights of the photos include my time at the ANU and in Canberra, friends and family, the best of the Australian animals, visits to Rotary clubs, our Tasmania cycle trip, McMillin holidays around Australia (and Fiji) and some of the national parks we've been trekking in.
If you want to see the slideshow full screen and be able to vary the speed, click on the following link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/JenniferMcMillin/100thPostSlideshow
