I was up really early this morning, so figured I’d do a bit of writing. The title of this post is what was written on my carry bag after I purchased my textbooks at school the other day, under the Murdoch crest. I liked it! Anyways, about our time here so far: The first day that we arrived in Perth (a Friday), we walked around all day to get our bearings. It was close to 44 degrees Celsius and after arriving at 6:30 in the morning, we’d vowed to stay up until a somewhat reasonable hour to try to kick the inevitable jet lag. After a long day of wandering (“don’t stop walking. Just never stop walking!”), we ended up at Kings Park, which is a huge area of “bush land” right there in the city. It is absolutely beautiful, and we saw a ton of birds, including: Australian magpies, rainbow lorikeets, little corellas, galahs, willy wagtails, wattle birds, and many more. We also spotted several of what looked like little skinks- I still have to try to find out the species. I think Kings Park warrants another visit sometime soon, when a) we have the dogs back b) it’s a more reasonable temperature and c) we aren’t running on empty after about 60 hours with no sleep! Iain and I were both blown away by the parrot species here. In Vancouver, we have pigeons and crows at the park. Here, you’ll find flocks of parrots; no big deal. It does make me cringe even more when I consider keeping cage birds as pets. These guys need to fly!
Transit here is pretty decent, if you happen to be close to or right on a transit line. The suburbs (there are tons and tons of them!) are very spread out, so it makes getting around a time-intensive process if you aren’t right where you need to be. We had come here fully intending not to have a car, and to just use transit. We are now pretty sure that we will likely need to pick up an old beater, especially because we have the dogs. That will probably come after we’ve settled in a place, and I still intend to use transit to get to school. Iain and I both purchased “SmartRider” cards, which get you up to 25% off the regular fare. For me, as a full time tertiary student, I get 25% off of the concession fare, which ends up being a significant savings. Right now, we are living in Hilton, which is a bit of a sketchy neighborhood. It’s about halfway between the university and Freo (the beach town!), and just a ten-minute walk to the bus stop on South Street. That’s the street that Murdoch is on, so it’s just a 10-15 minute ride to school from there.
Perth and its surrounding areas are quite beautiful. It is a temperate, Mediterranean climate, though it feels a little tropical with the palm trees everywhere, and the heat. We've heard that the winters have been pretty dry for the past few years, and the temperature apparently hovers on average between about 15-20 C. It seems really weird to me to have a winter that is that warm, with so little rain! As such, water is expensive here, and is one of the utilities to contend with when renting a place. It's why we don't want a big, grassy garden- tenants are responsible for the care and maintenance (including watering) of said garden!
One of our favorite things to do has been to visit the dogs in quarantine. We miss them a ton, and wish they could be here with us right now, but the 30-day quarantine period does give us time to find a place. Byford Quarantine Station is unsurprisingly located in Byford, which is about 40 KM outside of the city. For us, that translates to 3 buses, 1 train, and a total of 3 hours each way to get to the pups for our one-hour visiting period. The upside is that Byford is very rural, so we have seen wild grey kangaroos every time we've been there. We heard our first laughing kookaburras there, as well! It was also pretty cool to see a hazard road sign that simply said “bandicoots”.
The staff at Byford is lovely, and we feel confident that the dogs are receiving great care while they are there. Still, it’s a kennel. Chester and Dixie are sharing accommodation, which is nice for them and which will make their time there less lonely and more bearable. The first week we were there, the dogs were on their 7-day vet hold, so couldn’t leave their kennel. By last week, they had graduated to being able to use the exercise yards, which is fantastic for them. I did some range-of-motion exercises with Chester’s legs, and a bunch of massaging. I think that the lack of exercise has made him a little extra stumbly, but when he was able to run around a bit, he quickly regained some of his balance and coordination.
I can’t wait to get them back. The major issue for us right now is lack of a permanent place. This has been incredibly frustrating, but we are no strangers to lack of pet friendly housing options! The difference here though is that we don’t have anyone (parents!) to fall back on. We pick the dogs up from Byford on February 27th, and we need a place to take them. We are waiting anxiously to hear about one place that would be perfect for us, and we will know by tomorrow. We have several strikes against us (I am a student and Iain doesn’t have a job yet, we have two big dogs, we’re younger than they would have liked, etc.), but the couple letting the place really liked us. We’ve done absolutely everything possible, so now it’s out of our hands. It would be nice though to get some good news for my first day of school!
Last Thursday, I had my vet school orientation, and met my fellow students for the first time. I LOVED it. Before it started I was a little worried that I would be a lot older compared with everyone else. In Australia, as with the UK, students can attend vet and medical programs almost right out of high school, after just one intensive year of prerequisites. Many of the international students, on the other hand, seem to be closer to my age or older. Age really doesn’t matter, either- I think that vet school is a pretty good equalizer! People are so nice, and I think that many of us had those “first day of high school” nerves. I have met people from all over Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, the UK, Canada, the States…it’s all very cool.
I will be joining some special interest groups on campus as well, including the wildlife, animal welfare, and veterinary surgery groups. I will also be joining the porcine and bovine groups, because I know less about pigs and cattle, relative to some of my other favored species. I will be taking things one day at a time though, and not taking on too much all at once. They keep greyhounds here at the teaching hospital, for blood donation (greyhounds are universal blood donors) and for student palpation/auscultation work. They adopt them out after they have been “retired”…uh oh! Greys are my other favorites, next to the pit bull breeds. Monday I start first semester off with a bang, at 8:30. I have an Anatomy lecture, but other than that, the day is pretty heavy on the Biochem. I have two hours of lecture-type stuff, and my lab. Looking at my jam-packed schedule, I haven't been in class this much since high school.
I just can’t believe I’m finally here. I can safely say that I will be thrilled when school is the major stressor…school stuff I can handle. Goodness knows I’ve been there before, at least to some degree. It’s the “hey, what about a house to live in?’ stuff that can wake me out of a dead sleep in the middle of the night. Still, we’ll manage, one day at a time!
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