This year, I spent my first Thanksgiving alone. In fact, I realized it was a bit sad last night making a bowl of ramen for dinner (don't worry Ma, I put an egg and veggies in it for some nutrients)...
But just because I can't be with my family and childhood friends doesn't mean I don't have so many people and so many things to be thankful for.
I just want to say how thankful I am of everyone back home who has supported me in my decision to run around Australia for three years and continues to support me even though I'm terrible at keeping in regular contact. I am also so incredibly thankful to Pauleen and La Trobe University for the most wonderful 9 months so far of my PhD. It's been a good deal of hard work, but also so much fun and I've had so many opportunities for new experiences and personal growth. Last but not least, I am thankful for all the new relationships I've built this year. I really feel like I have a new family here in Australia - and it will definitely be rough when a bunch of them move away next year.
Sometimes I forget how lucky I am. And while it seems silly that people aren't more thankful on days other than Thanksgiving, I'm glad there's a day where I'm reminded of how very great I have it. This past year has been absolutely incredible here in Australia but I am definitely looking forward to escaping most of the Australian summer and hiding at home for 6 weeks over the holidays!
Friday, November 27, 2015
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Finally, a break
Two months ago, in my last blog post, I wrote:
The honours students are finally done with their projects, theses submitted, and I am so proud of the both of them for scoring a H1 (highest honours)! Woohoo! Now...it's nearly time for next year's honours students to begin :)
I've also been fiddling around with my own project, really trying to narrow down exactly what my "story" is, and the questions I'll be able to answer (achieve-ably) within the next two (maybe two and a half) years. Seeing as my last "real" content-filled blog post was back in August, there's a bit catching up to do.
Long story short, I've sort of changed the direction I'm taking in my PhD (a number of times in the past three months...). When I arrived in Australia, the honours students were already starting a project investigating visual perception in dogs. I found it really interesting so I was heavily involved in their projects and planned to look at canine visual perception via a number of different methods/tests. But at one point, the dog trainer in me went - "wait a second, how can we justify using these training/testing protocols when we don't actually know what methods are most efficient/effective?" So I went back to the drawing board, and now my actual research topic is more relevant to the world of applied behaviour. I'm looking at certain dog training techniques and the underlying motivations and mechanisms that make them work (or not!).
Having changed my topic about six months in, I was a little behind. So of course I've crammed as much as humanly possible into the past couple months. In the middle of October, shortly after getting back from my sister's wedding in California, I presented a research proposal on my new topic to my Research Progress Committee and had my project (and candidature) approved (woohoo!). I've also submitted ethics applications for a couple upcoming projects, and wrote a literature review that will be officially submitted to a journal on Monday. This coming Friday, I'll be presenting my project ideas at a Postgraduate Research Festival on the La Trobe Bendigo campus. It's technically a Health Science student event, but a couple of us Psych PhD students asked to be involved, just for the chance to share our research and meet other postgrad students on campus.
Everything is still pretty crazy, but I decided I needed a weekend off these past two days, so I took Audrey for a trip down to Melbourne. I dropped her off with Jess on Saturday during the daytime since my housemates wanted to go karaoke-ing in the city, then today we took Audrey and Charlotte to the beach for Audrey's first beach adventure!
Pictures, because text is boring:
I will write blog posts more often.Oops... But things have been crazy crazy crazy.
The honours students are finally done with their projects, theses submitted, and I am so proud of the both of them for scoring a H1 (highest honours)! Woohoo! Now...it's nearly time for next year's honours students to begin :)
I've also been fiddling around with my own project, really trying to narrow down exactly what my "story" is, and the questions I'll be able to answer (achieve-ably) within the next two (maybe two and a half) years. Seeing as my last "real" content-filled blog post was back in August, there's a bit catching up to do.
Long story short, I've sort of changed the direction I'm taking in my PhD (a number of times in the past three months...). When I arrived in Australia, the honours students were already starting a project investigating visual perception in dogs. I found it really interesting so I was heavily involved in their projects and planned to look at canine visual perception via a number of different methods/tests. But at one point, the dog trainer in me went - "wait a second, how can we justify using these training/testing protocols when we don't actually know what methods are most efficient/effective?" So I went back to the drawing board, and now my actual research topic is more relevant to the world of applied behaviour. I'm looking at certain dog training techniques and the underlying motivations and mechanisms that make them work (or not!).
Having changed my topic about six months in, I was a little behind. So of course I've crammed as much as humanly possible into the past couple months. In the middle of October, shortly after getting back from my sister's wedding in California, I presented a research proposal on my new topic to my Research Progress Committee and had my project (and candidature) approved (woohoo!). I've also submitted ethics applications for a couple upcoming projects, and wrote a literature review that will be officially submitted to a journal on Monday. This coming Friday, I'll be presenting my project ideas at a Postgraduate Research Festival on the La Trobe Bendigo campus. It's technically a Health Science student event, but a couple of us Psych PhD students asked to be involved, just for the chance to share our research and meet other postgrad students on campus.
Everything is still pretty crazy, but I decided I needed a weekend off these past two days, so I took Audrey for a trip down to Melbourne. I dropped her off with Jess on Saturday during the daytime since my housemates wanted to go karaoke-ing in the city, then today we took Audrey and Charlotte to the beach for Audrey's first beach adventure!
Pictures, because text is boring:
Monday, September 21, 2015
Wedding week!
I'm HOME!
Well, I'm actually in Los Angeles, about to board a plane to go home. I arrived back in America earlier this week, just in time to celebrate my birthday with family. This past weekend, I flew down to LA for my sister's bachelorette party. It was a fantastic (and impressively well-planned) weekend, but now I am thoroughly exhausted and so done with airports and airplanes. I'm looking forward to a busy week of final preparations for the WEDDING this coming Saturday the 26th!
Lots has been happening, which means there is a lot to update on, but lots happening also means I have trouble finding time to write blog posts... oops!
Hopefully things will calm down after the wedding and I get back to Australia and back into PhD-land. I will write blog posts more often. At some point. When I can figure out how to prioritize my life without failing any of my stats classes. My brain feels like it's ready to explode!
Well, I'm actually in Los Angeles, about to board a plane to go home. I arrived back in America earlier this week, just in time to celebrate my birthday with family. This past weekend, I flew down to LA for my sister's bachelorette party. It was a fantastic (and impressively well-planned) weekend, but now I am thoroughly exhausted and so done with airports and airplanes. I'm looking forward to a busy week of final preparations for the WEDDING this coming Saturday the 26th!
Lots has been happening, which means there is a lot to update on, but lots happening also means I have trouble finding time to write blog posts... oops!
Hopefully things will calm down after the wedding and I get back to Australia and back into PhD-land. I will write blog posts more often. At some point. When I can figure out how to prioritize my life without failing any of my stats classes. My brain feels like it's ready to explode!
Sunday, August 30, 2015
One week was not enough
Stats.
For anyone who doesn't know, while I'm here in Australia working on my PhD in Psychology, I'm still enrolled in an online Masters program through Penn State University in Applied Statistics.
So far, it's been OK. I spend maybe 6-10 hours a week on stats homework/studying/exams, which is easily done on the weekend. But the rest of the week, dread and guilt hang over my head. I know that I need to get my homework done and whenever I sit down to browse Facebook or catch up on the latest episode of So You Think You Can Dance, that awful little voice in my head goes "you know, you should really be doing stats homework..."
The summer semester at Penn State just ended on the 14th - and I was looking forward to a little non-guilty downtime. Until I looked at the next semester's syllabus and realized that classes started again on the 23rd of August. One week is not enough of a break!!! I spent this past week in denial, until Thursday night when the guilt started setting in again. The first homework and quiz assessments are due on Monday and Tuesday, so the rest of this weekend will be spent working on stats - woohoo...?
Mostly I'm just unnecessarily whiny. I'm learning useful things and it's really important to me that I have a strong foundation in statistics so I can perform quality research. Just starting semester 4 of 6 (or 7...), let's do this!
For anyone who doesn't know, while I'm here in Australia working on my PhD in Psychology, I'm still enrolled in an online Masters program through Penn State University in Applied Statistics.
So far, it's been OK. I spend maybe 6-10 hours a week on stats homework/studying/exams, which is easily done on the weekend. But the rest of the week, dread and guilt hang over my head. I know that I need to get my homework done and whenever I sit down to browse Facebook or catch up on the latest episode of So You Think You Can Dance, that awful little voice in my head goes "you know, you should really be doing stats homework..."
The summer semester at Penn State just ended on the 14th - and I was looking forward to a little non-guilty downtime. Until I looked at the next semester's syllabus and realized that classes started again on the 23rd of August. One week is not enough of a break!!! I spent this past week in denial, until Thursday night when the guilt started setting in again. The first homework and quiz assessments are due on Monday and Tuesday, so the rest of this weekend will be spent working on stats - woohoo...?
Mostly I'm just unnecessarily whiny. I'm learning useful things and it's really important to me that I have a strong foundation in statistics so I can perform quality research. Just starting semester 4 of 6 (or 7...), let's do this!
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Where are the pictures of fish???
We've been back from the conference for a full week now. It's been a bit of a crazy week trying to get all caught up after a whole week away. Still not quite there yet, but today has been a much welcomed day of recharging (read as: didn't change out of PJs all day)...
As promised, I have one more day in Cairns to share - arguably the best day in Cairns! Our last day, we booked a trip out to snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef. What a magical place.
I didn't bring along my DSLR because it would have been pretty useless, but luckily Nick had a fancy waterproof camera and I've stolen some of his underwater pictures. It was absolutely incredible!!
As promised, I have one more day in Cairns to share - arguably the best day in Cairns! Our last day, we booked a trip out to snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef. What a magical place.
I didn't bring along my DSLR because it would have been pretty useless, but luckily Nick had a fancy waterproof camera and I've stolen some of his underwater pictures. It was absolutely incredible!!
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| I could have stayed forever... |
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| Lots of coral, lots of fish |
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| Such pretty colors |
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| There were a bunch of enormous chubby sea cucumbers |
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| Nick even took a picture of me snorkeling :) |
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| Hello beautiful parrot fish |
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| A GIANT clam! |
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| Shark!!!! |
Nick even captured some cool videos. I've only chosen to upload a short clip from one of them:
Friday, August 14, 2015
The Daintree Rain Forest
Spent the day exploring the Daintree on a small group tour. It was a very good day - with lots of sleeping on the bus (oops...).
Pictures are better than words though, so here's a little peek at what we did today!
We also got super lucky and got to see wild cassowary along the road! Apparently there are only about 1000 left in the wild, all living along the northern border of Queensland/Western Australia. They think there are about 60 living in the Daintree area. I didn't take any photos because he/she was behind some bushes, but I've pulled a photo from the internet for anyone who doesn't know what a cassowary looks like:
Pictures are better than words though, so here's a little peek at what we did today!
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| The only way to get to the Daintree from Port Douglas is by ferry. They must make a lot of money carting everyone back and forth every day. |
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| Crocodile boating tour with our guide Ernie. |
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| The view on the croc tour was stunning. The photos on the boat tour were all taken by Nick - he was very excited about looking into the camera eye piece... |
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| We saw some crocodiles! Maybe 4 or 5? |
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| Kayaking in the Daintree |
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| Pauleen didn't want to go so Nick came with me as well so I wouldn't flip the canoe :) |
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| Spikey but pretty vine plants along the walking path. |
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| Courtesy of the Cassowary Recovery Team |
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Day 3&4 - A bit of sleeping in...
On Wednesday, instead of waking up and getting to the conference for the 8:45am plenary talk, we opted to walk along the beach to the conference center. Took my camera along for some photos. Cairns sure is beautiful!
In the evening after the conference, Tiffani, Pauleen and I went to an aboriginal dinner event hosted by the conference. It was a pretty cool experience.
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| The fire was burning pretty colors - apparently some chemicals. |
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On Thursday, we were originally going to take the day off from the conference and go visit the Daintree but made the ultimate decision to skip Friday instead since there is only a half-day of talks tomorrow anyway. It was a good choice. We saw some really interesting talks today about Learning and Cognition - and Jess and Nick went to one super interesting one about slime moss.
Since we're skipping tomorrow, we've officially finished all of our conference activities. It's been an incredible experience. And my PhD topic has changed about a half million times - oops? I do need to write a research proposal in the next couple days though so I should probably get on it.
Looking forward to exploring the Daintree and going snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef tomorrow and Saturday before we have to go back to real life though!
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