I'm so sorry for the grand delay. Coming back from Australia and heading right out to Montana made things a bit rough. Then there were the hundreds of photos to sort through and organize. Then, I had to focus on getting the paper submitted to peer review for the conference journal. But, after an entire weekend to myself, I think I've got things in order and am ready to go! Now, I just have to decide how to do this.....
I thought about going sequentially. I thought about organizing it by topics. But four weeks is a long time, and Australia is just pretty spectacular. So in the end, I think it's going to be a bit of a hodge-podge. But hopefully that will be enjoyable, nonetheless.
So I'll start at the beginning. I was headed to Australia for a conference. I'm a member of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), and their Cross-Cultural Task Force. Last year was the first of three conferences aimed at broadening the discussion about museums and expanding the voices in that discussion. (That was the Leiden trip last June. Next year is in Istanbul, and while I'd love to go, I'm pretty sure the museum won't support it. But that's a story for later.) I had been cleared to work on the committee after last year's conference, and to pursue some presentations for this year's. Turns out, I had two accepted. Approvals this year were still necessary, and were rather last minute in coming, but off I was. Ah, Brisbane!
Last year we had a fellow working with us for six and a half months, from the State Library of Queensland. Olivia and I became fast friends, and I think the world of her. She became my collaborator for one presentation, and worked to make arrangements for the time in country. My colleague Shannon, who was my other collaborator and the one with whom I traveled to Leiden last year, was a seriously last minute approval. But Olivia got us both involved in a trip to Far North Queensland to visit with two Aboriginal communities and to see the work of the State Library there that we'd heard so much about. Then I was to return to Brisbane for a series of professional meetings. Greg decided to join me and we added a week and a half of vacation to the schedule. So, four weeks away from the office. I couldn't wait!
Sadly, the office was an absolute nightmare before I left. I had no idea the toll it had taken on me until I was away from it. The travel was rough, but I always expect that, especially with long flights. And these were long! Five and a half hours to San Francisco. Fourteen and a half hours to Sydney. Almost two more hours to Brisbane. I had to fly U.S. carriers because of my government ticket, and the United planes were not state-of-the-art. Yes, you get four films, but they are on the central monitors and just play -- no decisions to make about when you want to watch something or what it might be. No options to control your own schedule and interests. I was exhausted though, and did actually doze for about two hours -- a first. But it was LONG.
I arrived in Sydney to see, yes, the golden arches of McDonald's. They must have been just along the runway, they looked so close. The airport was clean and quiet, and it was quite cool out. I made my transfer fairly painlessly, then saw the Burger King sign, although it was called Hungry Jack's there. Gloria Bean's coffee next, then, Krispy Kreme. Oh, it was awful! And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, the Metropolitan Museum of Art store. (Now, this is worth a bit of explanation. Apparently there are some renovations underway at the Met, and some collection is traveling, and it's in Brisbane. So not quite as odd and awful as it originally seemed.)
I love Qantas. A great big plane for this run, and full. The most lovely, healthiest breakfast I have ever had on a plane. And as we flew along, I could not believe how much this part of Queensland reminded me of Maui!
My cab driver had no idea where my dorm was on campus. But I finally got there, and the staff was super nice. Honestly, I could not believe this was a dorm room! Really quite nice. I showered and then crashed for a few hours, then headed out. I needed to find a drugstore and some food, so they sent me on a little walk over to the village. Lovely little place. I found my Tour de France guide, got everything I needed at the little grocery store, bought stamps and postcards, and had a wonderful dinner. I went back to the dorm and started to settle in. Internet took a bit, but eventually, I got it going. My BlackBerry, however, was another story. It absolutely refused to connect. Yes, I changed the network. I tried every network in fact. No dice. But I had several meetings the next day, and still had to do those presentations, since the airplane, because of its lack of modernity, did not have the power outlet I needed to be able to work for extended periods of time. But I didn't last long. I took it as a good sign that the girl in whose room I was staying is named Fleur, and I went to bed.
The next day I headed off to campus and my meetings, and I have some images for that, so I'll end this post here.
No comments:
Post a Comment