Two Weeks Notice

Recently I made an interesting observation. My new years resolution of blogging each week has been blown out the window. Truthfully, I just felt not much had happened in the last two weeks since my last blog. Nevertheless, this is my two weeks notice... my new goal is to at least blog every two weeks.

The last two weeks have gone by fast! Last week has involved a few events. One day I went to the shopping centre and saw a bunch of cops and sections closed off. I found out that a man had been stabbed to death in a store that morning (click here for the story)! Crazy!

News truck outside the shopping centre

I also was able to visit a friend who just had her baby. Her daughter is adorable, and I'm glad they are doing well and that I happened to visit at a good time!

The biggest events last week involved 21 BYU students. A friend of someone I know in Oregon contacted me months ago about a study abroad trip they were organising for some students. Stacey and her husband were doing a big trip with 21 students from BYU (as part of a course) including New Zealand, multiple stops in Australia, and Fiji. Stacey and I arranged for the students to come help with my tiger research for them to get some research experience for a couple of hours. It was a crazy day!

I met the students at the train station and escorted them to my building where I set them up in pairs on computers. One computer died on me, I had issues with two other computers, and my instructions were way too confusing. In the end I was proud of what they were able to accomplish despite my confusing instructions. It was also really nice to hear their comments at the end of how hard they found it. I'm glad they learned that research isn't always easy and that what I do is long, difficult, and tedious at times.

To my surprise the following day I got a call from Stacey. Everyone was stranded at Epping station with all their luggage! They had missed the last bus and couldn't get to the LDS temple housing in Carlingford. I arranged with another church member, Racheal Laugery, to help me pick them up and take them to the next place. Luckily Racheal has a big 7-seater van, I had the car that night, and we live pretty close! I wish I had a picture of them all on the side of the road with their bags. It took Racheal and I three trips back and forth to take all the student and their luggage! I'm glad it all worked out in the end.

As for this week things have been kind of up and down. Sunday I felt very sick to my stomach and I was surprised I survived church. The next day my abdominal pains continued and I felt a lot of fatigue. I couldn't find anything online that fit all my symptoms and I finally decided I needed to see a doctor. Tuesday my supervisor Jennifer drove me to the doctor. I didn't find out what I had, but the doctor told me it was probably bacterial or viral and to just take it easy and see if it gets better. The pains did get less frequent and only flared up sometimes with food. Finally, on Thursday I could eat normal food and had no pains! I still got tired easily, but the last few days have been great and I have gotten some much needed uni work done.

After months of stress working with the zoo trying to get video surveillance of the tigers, Jennifer and I finally decided to give up and move on. Although I'm frustrated I couldn't get any video, this has been a huge relief! Now I can collect my equipment from the zoo and work on just getting through my data instead of still collecting it. Just three months more and I'll be done with my project!