News from Melbourne, vol. 1
So, I have a bank account, I'm registered at UMelb and I have a phone, so now it's time to send news do the nearest and dearest and reassure one and all that I have not fallen off the underside of the Earth.
But let me start at the beginning:
Last week I was still in a state of limbo, awaiting my electronic visa, so when it finally arrived on Tuesday night I logged straight on to the websites of various airlines looking for tickets. I finally found a decent Emirates flight dparting Thursday night and arriving early Saturday morning, with one stop over in Dubai en route. The next couple days were a blur of packing, sorting out travellers cheques, sending stuff off by post and airfreight and trying desperately to sell my car - all of which ultimately happened in time for me to hop onto the flight on Thursday night.
The first leg wasn't too bad - a fairly empty plane and I had an exit row seat, so I even managed to sleep a bit. Arriving in Dubai was a bit of a shock, though - I really thought the desert at night would be cold, but when I stepped off the plane at 4:45am it was already 32 degrees and humid. What I saw of Dubai was an orgy of raw commerce, and I found nothing really appealing about it, but we did at least get a complimentary breakfast during the layover and there was free wifi, so the wait wasn't too bad. At 9:45 we optimistically boarded the plane to fly to Melbourne. Well, actually we boarded the bus to take us to the plane. The bus driver took a rather long and circuitous route to get us there, but to be fair, the planes probably all look pretty similar to him, too. If all they told him was "It's the big white one with 'Emirates' written on the side," I'd have been confused too. We settled into our seats after the vaguely unpleasant discovery that the airconditioning wasn't working (and every seat on the plane was full), and this became more of a problem as we waited for two and a half hours with only occasional mutterings from the cockpit of "we have a small problem but we expect to be airborne in 15 minutes".
In a packed plane... in the middle of the day... in the desert... in 45 degree heat... with no aircon... for two and a half hours. When they finally asked us to disembark and get back on the buses, none of us had that shower-fresh feeling anymore. The took us back to the airport with promises of showers and lounges (for first and business class) and refreshments (for the peasants in the back). I don't know what the lounge was like, but down in the lower orders we glimpsed a trolley of warm pepsi which was eventually rolled out two hours later, just as we were boarding our new plane. Customer care is neither alive nor well amongst the Emirates staff.
Anyway. We got to Melbourne about 13 cramped hours later, and after another two hours of clearing customs (during which time I was informed that my backpack - with all my fresh changes of clothes in it - would not be joining me in Melbourne at this time) I emerged blinking and somewhat dazed into the Australian morning. And there was Christina! Which was splendid. Had a nap, went to the shops for some emergency replacement clothes and gradually adjusted to this timezone. On Sunday we went to the church just next to her university, which was also lovely.
The next few days were full of admin and recovery from jetlag. On Monday I went in to the University of Melbourne to register, and also met with my new supervisor Rob. He agreed to my proposal to do an ecosystem model of the southern Benguela, having at last accepted that I am completely uninterested in abalone. Of course, this means that I need to throw together something in the way of a project plan quickly, but it's a promising start. The registration process took about three days, all told. It's a bit of an odd system - it happens in multiple stages, and it seems to need a 24-hour break between certain steps. There was also a extra delay when I couldn't log on to the system - they seemed surprised to discover that "smithmd" was not necessarily a unique choice for a username...
Tuesday was fairly frustrating - I ended up waiting an hour in the freezing wind for a tram which apparently only runs during rush hour. I'll get the hang of them eventually, though. As I strolled home that evening I saw a small creature scamper up a tree - maybe a possum? It was dark. Do they get possums here? I must check. On Wednesday the air freight arrived - some of it had been horribly battered about by SA customs, but such is life. The last of the wayward boxes from the initial posting (back in March) has also been collected, so I have slightly more confidence that the three boxes I sent last week will actually make it here...
That's about all the news for now. I've also picked up a new desktop PC and a phone number, so communication and work are both getting easier.
But let me start at the beginning:
Last week I was still in a state of limbo, awaiting my electronic visa, so when it finally arrived on Tuesday night I logged straight on to the websites of various airlines looking for tickets. I finally found a decent Emirates flight dparting Thursday night and arriving early Saturday morning, with one stop over in Dubai en route. The next couple days were a blur of packing, sorting out travellers cheques, sending stuff off by post and airfreight and trying desperately to sell my car - all of which ultimately happened in time for me to hop onto the flight on Thursday night.
The first leg wasn't too bad - a fairly empty plane and I had an exit row seat, so I even managed to sleep a bit. Arriving in Dubai was a bit of a shock, though - I really thought the desert at night would be cold, but when I stepped off the plane at 4:45am it was already 32 degrees and humid. What I saw of Dubai was an orgy of raw commerce, and I found nothing really appealing about it, but we did at least get a complimentary breakfast during the layover and there was free wifi, so the wait wasn't too bad. At 9:45 we optimistically boarded the plane to fly to Melbourne. Well, actually we boarded the bus to take us to the plane. The bus driver took a rather long and circuitous route to get us there, but to be fair, the planes probably all look pretty similar to him, too. If all they told him was "It's the big white one with 'Emirates' written on the side," I'd have been confused too. We settled into our seats after the vaguely unpleasant discovery that the airconditioning wasn't working (and every seat on the plane was full), and this became more of a problem as we waited for two and a half hours with only occasional mutterings from the cockpit of "we have a small problem but we expect to be airborne in 15 minutes".
In a packed plane... in the middle of the day... in the desert... in 45 degree heat... with no aircon... for two and a half hours. When they finally asked us to disembark and get back on the buses, none of us had that shower-fresh feeling anymore. The took us back to the airport with promises of showers and lounges (for first and business class) and refreshments (for the peasants in the back). I don't know what the lounge was like, but down in the lower orders we glimpsed a trolley of warm pepsi which was eventually rolled out two hours later, just as we were boarding our new plane. Customer care is neither alive nor well amongst the Emirates staff.
Anyway. We got to Melbourne about 13 cramped hours later, and after another two hours of clearing customs (during which time I was informed that my backpack - with all my fresh changes of clothes in it - would not be joining me in Melbourne at this time) I emerged blinking and somewhat dazed into the Australian morning. And there was Christina! Which was splendid. Had a nap, went to the shops for some emergency replacement clothes and gradually adjusted to this timezone. On Sunday we went to the church just next to her university, which was also lovely.
The next few days were full of admin and recovery from jetlag. On Monday I went in to the University of Melbourne to register, and also met with my new supervisor Rob. He agreed to my proposal to do an ecosystem model of the southern Benguela, having at last accepted that I am completely uninterested in abalone. Of course, this means that I need to throw together something in the way of a project plan quickly, but it's a promising start. The registration process took about three days, all told. It's a bit of an odd system - it happens in multiple stages, and it seems to need a 24-hour break between certain steps. There was also a extra delay when I couldn't log on to the system - they seemed surprised to discover that "smithmd" was not necessarily a unique choice for a username...
Tuesday was fairly frustrating - I ended up waiting an hour in the freezing wind for a tram which apparently only runs during rush hour. I'll get the hang of them eventually, though. As I strolled home that evening I saw a small creature scamper up a tree - maybe a possum? It was dark. Do they get possums here? I must check. On Wednesday the air freight arrived - some of it had been horribly battered about by SA customs, but such is life. The last of the wayward boxes from the initial posting (back in March) has also been collected, so I have slightly more confidence that the three boxes I sent last week will actually make it here...
That's about all the news for now. I've also picked up a new desktop PC and a phone number, so communication and work are both getting easier.
posted by Sentinel at
1:01 AM
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