Kerry gets a real job

Now that I'm 30, I decided that maybe I'd try this 'real job' thing. But it's only temporary, so if it doesn't work, I'm not committed.

Through a series of fortuitous coincidences, I ended up with a potential job before I even arrived in Australia, and now it's turned into an official thing. I'll be working at the Western Plains Zoo as the Reproductive Technician. The person currently in that position needs to take some time off to focus on her PhD, so I'll be filling in for her for 6 months (Jan-June). Basically, I'll be doing the same thing as I did for my thesis (playing with poo and trying to figure out who's pregnant), but with different species of feces. I might be able to start some stress research projects, as well.

So it'll be nice to feel like I have more of a purpose, here, but the bad part is that the job is 6 hours away from Sydney, in a little town on the edge of the outback called Dubbo (DUH-bo). Ani and I will head out there, and Ben will go back and forth as it works around the fly schedule.

So a side note: there are a lot of things in Aussie lingo that sound like kid-talk (we will discuss this more in a future entry). But when I got the packet of paperwork the other day, we about lost it when we saw the letter about the 'buddy system.' Not a 'mentoring program,' or anything like that - a buddy system. So rest assured, even though Ben won't be with me the whole time, I will have a 'buddy' to help me adjust to life at Western Plains Zoo.

AND I get to work for a company that has a platypus for it's logo!