Dusting off the camera...

This weekend, I took my baby DSLR out for the first time in a long while. Pauleen and I have been planning to take photos of the dogs for a few weeks now, but we've always either forgotten or run out of time.

This past Sunday, I finally got a chance to shoot some dogs - and I'm pretty happy with how some of the photos turned out! Of course, Miss Audrey is still the cutest one...

It was hard picking just a few favorites, but here we are:

Gabby the Destroyer, looking very innocent.

Baxter just had a haircut and is looking SO handsome and all grown up!

She's obviously the cutest one.

Danny-boy, who we picked up from NSW a few weeks back.

Princess Louie (actually her real name is Lulu)

Candy - and her beloved frisbee

I can't wait!!!

It's official, this August I will be attending and presenting a poster (!!!) at Behaviour2015. We're going to Cairns for a whole week! Of course this trip would not be complete without visiting the Great Barrier Reef, so that's on the schedule too. I am so looking forward to this!

In the mean time, the semester is winding down. Next week is the last week of classes, and then the students have Winter Break for 2 months before the start of the next semester. I'm not doing any tutoring next semester, which means I will be 100% focused on my research project(s).

It's also my 3-month Australia anniversary tomorrow. I feel like I've just gotten here, but at the same time it feels like I've been here forever. I still try to get into the wrong side of my car though - so not quite completely converted yet!

I've also started volunteering at the local RSPCA. It's nice to spend one morning a week supporting a good organization, and the connections I will make there are invaluable. Plus they might let me practice my photography skills on the adoptable animals - woohoo!

Road trip!

Yikes, I've been doing a terrible job of blogging regularly.

It's been busy here, but lots of fun. This past weekend, Pauleen and I took a road trip up to Bathurst, New South Wales. But first, it's probably good to go back a little bit on the updates.

Dog training is now well underway for the honours students' project. The dogs are learning a visual discrimination task and it's fun to see the different techniques each dog uses to try and figure out the rules. So far we have Princess Lulu far out in the lead compared to the other dogs, but we think everyone will figure it out if we give them enough time!

All of a sudden, the semester is nearly over. We've finished marking (aka grading) the student essays, and there is only one more tutorial left, and a video project they have to do before the end of the semester. It's all a bit nuts - time is going by so quickly!

The other day, I got a message from my sister telling me that her company, Alter Eco, now sells their chocolate at Coles, one of the major supermarket chains here in Australia. I was sent on a mission to find the chocolate and take a picture. Of course I forgot my phone when I went shopping, so I *had* to buy one instead - I had no other choice!

I picked the least dark one. Yummy!

 The semester ended last week for my stats courses - which means 2 semesters down, 4 more to go! I'm only taking one class over summer semester though, so hopefully it won't be too stressful. I should figure out when classes start again though...

OK - now I think that basically brings the blog up to speed. This past weekend, Pauleen needed to drive up to Bathurst, NSW to pick up a dog, and asked if I wanted to come along for a little road trip. The trip to Bathurst from Bendigo is about 8 hours if you drive straight through, and about 9-10 hours with breaks for car fuel and people fuel. Bathurst is a fancy little town, about 2.5 hours outside of Sydney. Apparently lots of rich city people own weekend properties there.

Trip from Bendigo to Bathurst, courtesy of Google Maps

On the way up, we were driving at night so there wasn't much to see, but on the way back it was a beautiful drive. New South Wales (or at least where we were driving through) was much greener than home, and we drove past miles and miles of pastures with sheep and cattle. We even saw an emu (which Australians pronounce e-mew) and a camel! I guess some people keep camels as "pets" - although I'm guessing it's sort of like Americans keeping zebras as pets.

On the drive back, we stopped at an iconic road trip stop, the Dog on the Tuckerbox. There wasn't much to see, but we each had a Tucker Box Burger for lunch - with beetroot in the burger. Odd, but I like beets so it was actually quite tasty.

Miss Audrey will be 6 months old at the end of this month. She's growing up so fast - and my time here in Australia is going by so quickly too! Before I know it, three years will be up. Hopefully by then I'll have learned lots, experienced lots, and (most importantly) finished my thesis! :)