Dubbo

Well – here I am, all tucked in in Dubbo. Actually, ‘tucked in’ is the last thing I’d want to be – it’s pretty toasty here. It reached 40 degrees, today. That’s like 104 in American. I had a little cheese stick thing during the morning tea break, and it had nearly melted by the time I finished eating it. Now this is the Australia I came to see!!

Dubbo is a decent little town of ~4000 people. It’s kind of in a transition zone – some people say it’s basically the outback; others classify it as suburbia. It has 2 malls, a Target, a McDonalds, a KFC – in many ways, it’s Small Town, Anywhere. But there are several things that make it unique and give you something to get attached to. I suspect the town will grow on me as I get to know it. My favorite thing so far is the Macquarie River – partly because it’s a beautiful river with a great path and it provides a nice shady retreat from the heat; partly because it’s called the “Macquarie” River and I can pretend that I could hop in the river and float down to Ben. [In reality, the river would take me in the exact opposite direction from Ben – the fact that they have the same name is just because Australians picked a few favourite people and named everything after them – but hey, a girl can dream, can’t she?!?]

And I think work will be good. The zoo is quite nice and all the people are super friendly. Tamara, the person I’m replacing, is from Canada, so it’s fun to compare notes about adjusting to life down under. But I'll write more about work, later. So all in all, I'm settling into life in Dubbo. Ben’s worried I might go country, ‘cause it’s that kind of place. He might be right.