Chapter 21 - One Month On

In which our hero hits a home run, and also reflects on living in the future for a whole month ...

Yes, gentle reader.  It's been a month exactly.  Both in the sense of February 11 to March 11, and in the sense of exactly four weeks having passed.  Conveniently this year February has decided to co-operate and play nice, and so four weeks is a month by dates as well.  Good old February.

First of all, I'm enjoying myself and doing well.  By the end of my first week I could get down to the shopping centre and train station, on the bus to campus, and back home without getting lost.  I also knew where the bike shop was, and the post office, and had a phone and some mobile internet.  By the end of the second week I could find my way around campus without getting lost, and I'd been up to Brisbane and down to the beach.  By the end of the third week I'd learned all about dot product and cross product and other complicated vector things, and freaked out, and solved the freakout with some all-weekend studying.  By the end of the fourth week I'd learned to play basic cricket, and also smushed more maths into my head.  As they used to say on 'Made In Canada', I think that went well.

It's weird being here.  It's also weird that it's not that weird.  People are still people.  They utter expletives at their computers when they act up, and the kids still have to ask if they can have dessert, and pout when mom says no.

 (Also, just an aside, I just received a post card from the ARCTIC! YAYYYYYY!).  Check it:

Yaaaay! Thanks Emily!

Anyways.  It's weird because it's February/March and it's all warm all over the place.  It's weird having to put on sunscreen everyday because the sun is so intense you can get burned in like half an hour.  It's weird that people drive on the wrong side of the road.  It's weird that it's February/March and it's back to school time.  Today I caught myself feeling that Hallowe'en was approaching, because I was three weeks into the start of school, so naturally it was nearly the end of September.  I suppose this means it's also not my birthday soon either.  What a bummer. 

It's weird trying to figure out when my friends and family will be online for chatting because they're not on the same clock as me.  It's weird that I can so easily just settle in and be in a routine, and it's like everything is normal.  Home. School. Eat. Sleep.  Make a few friends.  Watch telly.  I guess this is the way it goes.  People have to do that or they wouldn't survive, right?  People move far away all the time, to weirdly different cultures, and weirdly different climates.  They adapt, and figure out how things work, and get on with it.  This is a bit of a weird climate, but only in the sense that there's not snow or real coldness.  It hasn't been unbearably hot yet.  Today was really quite pleasant.  (It gets a bit melty when you're riding up the hill with a heavy back pack and a shopping bag hanging off the handle bars at 2:30 p.m., but otherwise it's quite good.)  Nice breeze, sunshine, not too hot.  If everyday was like this it would be paradise.  There's geckos here, which I just found out are what make that clicking noise at night.  I'm pretty sure there's no lizards native to my part of the world at all.  At least, if there is, I've never seen them.  There's no squirrels here, which actually isn't that weird.  The other night I saw a mystery critter run across the road in front of the car.  Wen Ying thought it was a cat, but I'm pretty sure it was a mystery critter.  I told her that at home it would have been a raccoon or a skunk, then had to explain what a skunk was.  As soon as I said they smell bad she knew what I was talking about. 

This isn't really a weirdly bizarre culture either.  There's a few language differences, but overall we're speaking English, so we'd have to try pretty hard to be misunderstood.  There's things like how we're both former English colonies, now members of the Commonwealth.  The money mostly comes in the same denominations, which is great.  Except the $5 bills are purple, and the $10s are blue, and the $20s are red.  The coins that are the size of a dime are worth 5 cents, and the ones the size of a quarter are worth something besides 25 cents.  Probably 10.  There is no 25 cents here.  No pennies either.  Just 5, 10, 20, 50, $1, and $2.  And they don't call them things like we do.  Like nickles, dimes, quarters, loonies, toonies.  Just 5 cents, 10 cents, whatever.  That's fine.  I guess North America is the odd one out on the world stage on that score.  It's just interesting.

Another thing, too, is that the rain here is really loud.  The other day I was in the library at school and I could hear when it started pouring.  Probably something to do with the buildings not being insulated in the same way they are at home, because they don't need to be.  I haven't experiences lightning and thunder yet here.  Wind and torrential downpours doesn't necessarily mean thunderstorm. 

I don't really know what else.  Every once in a while I'm slightly flabbergasted that I'm doing this, and then I start thinking about money, and then stop to avert a panic attack.  (I am perfectly willing to accept donations if there's any kind benefactors out there ... ).  I feel like I had heaps of profound things to say and reflect on, but they've all vacated my brain.

I think that's enough reflecting.  On to the cricket.

This past weekend I didn't get much work done.  The kids were home, and so I got distracted by doing stuff with them.  On Saturday I did a bit of stuff, but then The Last Crusade was on later so we watched that, then I watched another movie after and did laundry.  Sunday we went to see Oz the Great and Powerful, then it was 3:15, then there was some cake, then Sarah asked if I was going to come out and play cricket, and I said that there was work I should be doing, and she exerted her wise grown up influence by saying "Booooriiiiing", so I went out and played cricket, figuring it was part of my cultural education and experience. 

It was fun when I got the hang of it.  We were just using a plastic bat, and at some point Sarah remarked that it was cracked.  Later on I took a swing at the ball, and the bat broke in two.  Oops.  #2 wasn't too impressed, as I'm pretty sure the bat was technically his.  Luckily there was a backup bat, so play continued.  Very early on I hit one onto the roof, but it kindly rolled down onto the trampoline so it was easily retrievable.  Actually, come to think of it, there's a metal roof on this house.  That's probably why the rain is so loud.

The very first time I hit the ball I dropped the bat and started running, but then had to go back for it cuz that's just not cricket.  You're supposed to bring it with you and use it to touch the safe zone by the other wicket thingy.  It's called the crease.  If you step out of it you can be got out.  Luckily our game only lasted for an hour or less, probably, not several days. 

Near the end I was bowling (pitching, sort of) and #1 was batting, and I kept hitting her with the ball because my arm was tired and my aim was going.  I got hit a few times myself by other bowlers, so I guess we can sort of call it even.  I certainly slept well last night. 

I also discovered that The Graham Norton show is on here on Sunday nights.  It's gotta be last week's episode, though, cuz I think it airs on Sunday nights in the UK, and when it's Sunday night here I don't think it's Sunday night there yet.  Oh well.  It was fun.

Lastly, on the bus home, I saw a dude with a surfboard in a surfboard cozy.  Observe.

Surfboard cozy!

OK, now actually lastly, look what I saw at K-Mart.  (I was looking for a new cricket bat.  I couldn't find a toy one, but the real wooden ones were only $6 - $10.)

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!?! Made by Australia's Choice.  Fer realz.