Hello again! We apologize for such a long delay between posts. Between exciting adventures and our day to day work, time has flown by.

Since we last wrote, we got to spend our Christmas down in Melbourne, with Emily’s wonderful extended family. I (Erik) have never spent a Christmas in the summer, so it was an exciting new experience to enjoy the holiday season in the warmth and sunshine. That doesn’t mean we didn’t get to enjoy some classic holiday activities, like decorating cookies with Em’s cousins.

On Christmas day, Em’s Australian relatives all came together to enjoy an amazing day of eating and family. Even though I (Erik) was very far from the Christmas I knew, it was wonderful to take part and be welcomed in their traditions and festivities. I can’t thank them enough for making me feel like part of the family.

In the days after Christmas, we prepared to depart for our next destinations across Southeast Asia, including Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Kota Bharu, in our efforts to meet many of the extended family members scattered across Malaysia.

Flying out of Melbourne, our first stop was Singapore. Given that our primary reference point was the beautiful depiction in Crazy Rich Asians, we were extremely excited to explore the pristine state. Our first stay was in the unbelievable Marina Bay Sands Hotel, with its three towers and 50th floor infinity pool!

We stayed in the third tower (on the right). It was a crazy building – the bottom floors had shopping malls, a casino, night clubs, and restaurants. Of course, the main reason we stayed there was for the unbelievable pool at the top.

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Singapore is extremely close to the equator, and is therefore suffocatingly muggy and hot. We had to be careful not to walk too far, for even a half mile felt like an impossible marathon in the heat. Even so, we got to enjoy lots of Singapore’s unique sights, including the massive bio domes filled with flora from around the world.

After a few days in Singapore, we took a short flight to Kuala Lumpur, which is the capital of Malaysia. During our first day, we adventured to the north, where a mountain range concealed a Hindu temple in large caves. After climbing several hundred stairs, you can enter the caves, which are full of Hindu places of worship, statues, artwork, and monkeys.

We also had the pleasure of meeting some of Emily’s extended relatives who lived in Kuala Lumpur. We met up with them one evening and enjoyed some traditional Chinese food together.

After a few days in KL, we flew up to Kota Bharu to meet more family members. Kota Bharu is a small city in the state of Kelantan, situated in the northern part of peninsular Malaysia. It’s about an hour’s drive away from Thailand!

All my life (this is Emily now) I have heard stories about life in Kota Bharu. My grandfather grew up in KB, and most of his 10+ surviving siblings still live here. My grandmother – who is originally from England – lived in KB with him for about 10 years before settling down in Australia. My dad, his brother, and his sister were all born in KB. My dad was 7 when he moved to Australia, and as a result his memories of KB are pretty foggy.

KB is 93% Muslim as the majority of the population is Malay. My family is Chinese and very much in the minority. Erik, my dad, and I definitely experienced some culture shock and stood out as foreigners! The town itself is rather rural and close to the ocean, with a river running through it. We just missed flood season, which apparently gets pretty bad!

It was an incredible experience to see where my grandfather’s side of the family is from and to meet so, so many relatives. It was also very emotional for my dad and me to connect with so much family.

After an incredible couple of days in Kota Bharu, we started our journey back to Sydney, stopping in Singapore for one more day. Erik very unfortunately got quite sick right as we were leaving, but was a trooper and made it home in one piece. Poor thing had Salmonella and we both missed 4 days of work as Erik was the illest I’ve ever seen him and I couldn’t bring myself to leave him in such a state! He made a full recovery, though, and after an only somewhat traumatic 8-hour trip to the hospital mid-week we were both back to work on Friday!

After our big Asian trip/Salmonella-gate, we laid low for a couple weeks. In early February, I (Emily) took a trip to Tasmania with some of my Fulbright girlfriends which was an absolute blast. We rented a car and roadtripped around the island. It was so fun!

Some other fun things we’ve done since 2020 began: We celebrated Chinese New Year with friends, had a “sausage sizzle” for Australia day, more recently had a lovely Valentine’s Day together, and, as always, hung out a lot with our cat.

Cheers!!

Hello everyone! We have some exciting new stories to share from our adventures in Southern Australia and our Thanksgiving down under.

A few weeks ago, we departed on a trip to Kangaroo Island, an island off the coast of Adelaide (the city) in South Australia (the state). Kangaroo Island is barely inhabited and just about crawling with every kind of Australian wildlife you can think of. To get there, we had to take:

• A 2 hour flight to Adelaide
• A 2 hour bus from Adelaide down to the coast (Cape Jervis)
• A 40 minute ferry from Jervis to Kangaroo Island
• And, once on the island, a 2 hour drive in a rental to our stay!

And we are thrilled to say it was completely worth it! KI feels like another planet – just a few 2 lane roads, with Kangaroos around every turn. We spent two nights on the island. The first was in a cozy cottage on a campground, with trees full of koalas!

You couldn’t walk 10 feet without finding a kangaroo friend or some weird bird. The trees were filled with big varieties of squawking birds of all different colors. The kangaroos, despite sometimes being over 1 Emily tall, were very gentle, and certainly didn’t bother us if we got close.

The highlight of our trip definitely came with our hike on the second day. The western half of the island is mostly comprised of national park, and we were recommended a hike called “Snake Lagoon” which runs from the middle of the park to the coast. Along the way, we enjoyed walking along a beautiful dry riverbed and meeting lots of reptiles (should have been called Lizard Lagoon).

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At the end of the hike, we were rewarded with a beautiful deserted beach and an amazing view of the ocean.

Up along the cliffs were some cool caves and rock formations, including one that most definitely resembled a spooky skeleton face. We went in a little but not too far, because we were terrified.

Kangaroo Island was a joy from start to finish. Just driving around the island was an adventure – massive fields, cool rocks, and endless wildlife. Our weekend ended with the reverse of our initial journey, plus a 6 hour traipse through Adelaide while we waited for our flight. If you happen to be off the southern coast of Australia, we highly recommend a visit to KI.

The second notable update we have pertains to Thanksgiving! We unfortunately had to go to work on the Thursday of AND the following day (which was turkey day at home). We were both feeling pretty blue that we couldn’t be chowing down and giving thanks with our families, but we hosted a belated celebration at our apartment which was super fun.

We couldn’t find a turkey in our local super market so instead roasted 2 chickens – Erik was in charge of this + gravy and did a fabulous job! Em was in charge of stuffing, green beans, mushrooms, and pumpkin pie. We invited some of our Fulbright friends who brought along some of their friends as well. It was a lovely little expat gathering 🙂

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One last piece of news that we foreshadowed in our last post…

WE GOT A CAT!!!

This is Mimi, she is a rescue cat who we have been fostering for a month now. We are tasked with housing, feeding, and loving her so she can become socialized before she gets adopted. She took several weeks to warm up but is now very comfortable around us. Mimi’s interests include pats, snoozes, her own tail, and food. She is an avid hunter and even killed a little salamander that got into our apartment through the screen door. She is so cute!!!

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Hello everyone!! Our apologies as we have not updated the blog in some time. The end of October marks our 3-month anniversary of being in Sydney and we are really enjoying ourselves! Some updates from our lives…

#1: We finished Game of Thrones!! Not an Australia-specific update but an important one nonetheless… (we’re a little late to the party but if anyone wants to unpack that ending with us we’re hungry to discuss). With Emily’s newfound passion for medieval fantasy, we are looking forward to enjoying the Lord of the Rings trilogy together (after a ‘nerd break’).

#2: Erik has a job!

Erik is working as a “creative technologist” at a digital advertising tech company called Playground XYZ. After being rejected from coffee shops and hobby stores, he somehow landed a 6-month contract gig designing and programming digital ads. As a lifelong hater of ads, Erik has proven that you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. Despite this, he is very lucky to be learning from other amazing designers and creating the occasional Pokémon ad:

#3: We took a long weekend trip to the Blue Mountains, where we did some amazing hikes – “bush walks,” as they call it – and saw some cool wildlife. Well, we thought it was cool, but apparently those gigantic birds are just called bush turkeys and are pretty common even in the city. With so many exotic birds around, we have taken to a bit of casual birdwatching. We hope to have a collection of bird photos that we can assemble into a ‘bird-nal’ at the end of out trip.

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#3: In an effort to nurture and care for living things, Emily has planted some herbs and flowers. Also we have signed up to be a foster home for cats whose owners are in crisis. We will probably get a cat this week. Don’t tell our landlord. 😀

#4: We had our first cockroach in the house. This is an unfortunate update. Nevertheless, we have decided to stay.

#5: Emily has taken up ceramics, an old hobby she did in high school. There’s a lovely little community arts center two blocks from our house that offers weekly classes. Erik has joined a local rock climbing gym in a nearby town, and has enjoyed watching ten year olds easily climb routes he’s been practicing for weeks.

#6: Emily’s Fulbright research is moving slowly but steadily. She’s realizing that experimental psychology involves a lot of computer programming, something she is not comfortable or familiar with. But she is learning!!! And gets to see lots of cute babies along the way (which makes it all worth it).

#7: Emily’s advisor Denis’ partner Maggie owns a Thai restaurant called Maggie’s Thai. Denis and Maggie invited us for her monthly banquet for friends and family. We ate the spiciest food we have eaten, literally, ever. So spicy that we both felt a little unwell. But so delightful and fun!!

#8: We found pumpkins to carve!! They are most definitely imported and very expensive but we bought and carved Ernie (pictured). Unfortunately Ernie started to rot in two days and attracted about a million little flies. RIP Ernie, he did not make it to Halloween but we had fun making him nonetheless.

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#9: Looking ahead, we have excitedly booked a trip to the irresistible Kangaroo Island in November – a short ferry ride from the city of Adelaide in Southern Australia. Home to Koalas, Echidnas, Wombats, and more, we are excited to meet some Australian wildlife in its natural habitat.

#10: Though we are both very sad to be away from home for the holidays, we are planning on hosting a Thanksgiving celebration here in Sydney with some other American friends in town for Fulbright. We will, of course, miss our families and traditions from home, and will be thinking of you ❤

Hello again! Erik here. When we last left you, we were still in Melbourne, enjoying time with family and exploring the food scene. Since then, we’ve picked up and moved three times! Our first week in Sydney, we enjoyed the comforts of the Sheraton in the heart of the business district with David (Em’s dad). Despite being our first chance to really explore Sydney, our time was entirely spent on apartment hunting– a very different prospect here than in the states. Australian apartment inspections last all of 15 minutes, followed by a strict application process and background examination. Every day, we got up and walked/Ubered to a different part of the city to meet potential roommates or visit an open house.

We did sneak in a little sightseeing. We took an awesome walk around the opera house and the Sydney Harbor Bridge, and got to visit the iconic Bondi Beach!

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We eventually applied for a cute unit in a suburb called Chippendale, which was luckily accepted. The only drawback was a move in date on August 23rd, which gave us 11 days to kill after leaving the hotel. Em found a delightful AirBnB in a suburb close to the train line, so she could get to work (more on that later). Our host, Robert, was very friendly and accommodating. He gave us all the inside scoop on fun things to do in the area, and helped us figure out all the little quirky differences between the US and Australia. It was very comfortable, but we were very excited to move in!

Our next challenges were domestic. We rented a truck and drove on the LEFT SIDE OF THE ROAD to pick up secondhand furniture. The WiFi didn’t work at first (of course) but a gruff-but-kind technician came and sorted it out (“You’re a lucky bastard, you know that Erik?”). All in all, we are very excited with our new place. Though it is a unit, it feels like a little house, and we have tons of space.

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Em here! Yes, we love our little apartment that feels like a house. Plus, we (well, I) have had an absolute blast finding bargains on all the furnishings and being able to nest. We are finally beginning to settle in to our place, and just love the suburb of Chippendale. It houses a couple of big universities so there’s definitely a college town/young vibe, but it’s also very close to the Sydney CBD so it’s got an inner city feel to it as well. It’s perfect for us!!

I’ve just completed my third week at work and am finally starting to learn the ropes. For reference, I’m located at the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development at Western Sydney University. Within MARCS I am working at the Baby Lab, which is a research laboratory devoted to infant studies/developmental psychology research. See here: https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/babylab

And what exactly am I doing there? Well, though I’m somewhat still figuring that out myself, my Fulbright award provides me with funding to conduct my own independent research project. So in essence I am designing a study, collecting data, analyzing the results, and (fingers crossed) submitting a paper for publication. I’ve been thinking about it like a big mega Bates thesis on steroids, but with less help! I’m currently about 2/3 of the way through the design stage.

My study is shaping up to be asking a rather simple question – can infants acquire new words from musical contexts? One of the reasons I love developmental psychology research is because the researchers have to be so creative– you can’t ask babies these questions, so you have to use measures that will help you infer the answers. I am going to be using a behavioral task with the infants in my sample, presenting infants with a lullaby and spoken passage and measuring if they can identify certain words from either. My two mentors for my project–– one an expert in infant speech perception & linguistics, the other in psychomusical acoustics–– have been extremely kind and supportive.

All in all everything has been going well so far. It’s been a bit rainy & cold so we haven’t done much exploring, but plan to check out the aquarium today! We miss everyone back home so much. Sending love!!