So far this entire experience has been a little bit surreal - and not having done anything concrete yet, it didn't feel like I was really doing my PhD.
Today, I submitted my very first abstract to a very real conference! I have absolutely zero expectation for getting chosen for a poster or oral presentation, but it was definitely a really good experience to prepare an abstract for the application. The conference is a week-long event in August here. We're still planning to go even if nobody is presenting research, since it will be a lot of fun and a really good opportunity to meet people and hear about awesome research with animals other than dogs. Pauleen says the last time she was at an ASSAB conference she had the best time listening about people's research in ant behavior (I almost typed behaviour...I'm converting!!!) and the like. Plus, Cairns looks absolutely BEAUTIFUL. And it will be a lot of fun to travel.
I also drove a car in Australia for the first time today! Pauleen and I were headed down to Melbourne to see some participants doing scent detection training for one of her other studies, and she let me drive her car so I could start getting used to driving. It actually wasn't bad. The hardest part was getting a feel for how wide my car was so I could stay in the middle of the lane. One thing that was easier was that Pauleen's turning signal is on the left side of the wheel, just like all cars in the US. Apparently most cars in Australia have their turn signals on the right side, so that will definitely take some getting used to!
We saw lots of dead kangaroos on the side (or in the middle) of the road today while we were driving, and a couple of dead birds and a dead fox. I did not take any pictures...
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