There's no way to honestly describe 20 hours of flight time as "good", but all-in-all, my trip out wasn't too bad: 5 hours out to LA, 14 hours to Sydney and then a quick hop over to Melbourne. I read Bryson's "In a Sunburned Country" while in route, which I quite enjoyed, although it seemed largely devoted to three themes: a) there's many ways to die in Australia, b) the early British explorers/colonists made a habit of dying in those many ways, and c) the vast majority of Australia is the epitome of "the middle-of-nowhere". I particularly enjoyed one description of what it's like to be stunk by a box jelly fish (apparently the deadliest creature on Earth): "an order of magnitude more painful than anything humans can possibly comprehend." Can't wait to go swimming in Queensland. Many thanks to those of you who gave us Bryson's book.

I arrived at 11:00am on Sunday, caught a bus into the city, and took a train out to Aspendale where I was booked at a hotel. Unfortunately, the hotel (despite being called the Aspendale Shore Motel) is really in Mordialloc, so after getting off the train in Aspendale, I was forced to back-track about a kilometer or so with all my stuff. That wasn't very pleasant. . .

My accomodations are, however, rather roomy and right on the bay (which I'm told is "safe" to swim in), so I can pretend I'm on holiday.

Spent the afternoon in "downtown" Mordialloc, picking up a few items at the Safeway (yes, a Safeway) tracking down an international calling card, and laughing at some graffitti on the side of a building: "land rights for gay whales". Satire, I believe. . .

Managed to stay on my feet until about 7:00pm, at which point someone flipped the switch to the off position and I slept for 12 hours.

Woke bright and early Monday morning - watched some crap TV (most of it originating in the US) while drinking tea and eating cereal. Made my way over to the local branch of Commonwealth Bank and opened an account, which I hope to someday put money into, and then jumped on a train back into the city.

I spent the early afternoon at the Immigration Museum, which generally made me grateful that I never had to travel 4 months in the bottom of a boat to get to country which is largely inhospitable and attempt to make a living. I'm also grateful that Australia now welcomes people that look like me, but hell, I'm from America, so I can't really point fingers when it comes to racial injustice.

After this post, it's back to Aspendale/Mordialloc where I hope to eat a fine meal and then sleep long and hard.

Tomorrow - my first day at CSIRO (oh, right, I have to work now).

By the way - it's beautiful here. Got a bit sweaty today (high of 90+), but it'll cool off the rest of the week. No clouds to be found.

Unemployed!

Goodbye
Originally uploaded by BLP.

After 3.5+ years, my job at the Pew Center has come to an end. Most of my office is now either in a dumpster or on its way to the other side of the world (oh, and it turns out that sending books from the U.S. to Australia isn't cheap). But this message, scrawled on the back of a goodbye card from my Pew colleagues, is one of the more flattering compliments I've ever received during my brief professional career.

My first home in Australia - the Aspendale Shore Motel. Looks like I'll be there for the first week. Within walking distance to work.

Have Visa, Can Travel

After two months of paperwork, waiting, chest x-rays, waiting, on-line applications, and more waiting, we received notification that our visa application has been approved. Just one more trip to the embassy to have it evidenced in our passports, and we're all set for three years in Australia.

I immediately purchased my plane ticket - departing on Feb. 25th - arriving in Melbourne on the morning of the 27th, after 10,000 miles in the air.

Still juggling housing options. The Melbourne Grand Prix will take place the end of my first week there, and that event seems to have absorbed all the hotels and temporary housing in the city. May have to spend the first week out in the suburbs, after which I'm hoping to find a small apartment for 3-4 months by which point Uta (and all of our wordly possessions) will hopefully have arrived.