Chat

I haven’t been writing for a while – I was on holiday (literally) and then I was on geek camp (and still am – but I have my hour of allocated free time now…). I have been having a lot of interesting interactions with people lately. While I was on my holiday, I was skiing in the beautiful New Zealand, with two (sometimes three) delightful health professionals. I love health professionals. My parents are health professionals. A lot of my nearest and dearest are health professionals. I deeply admire them, while simultaneously being completely uninterested about their whole undertaking. I try to avoid meeting them in a professional setting as much as possible.

New Zealand

Powder days

So the skiing was great – the snow was great; the company was great; the weather was great (you know it’s good when I say great four times to describe the same activity – that’s the most excited I ever get about anything). What more could a girl ask for? Better chat; that's what I'd ask for. In the car on the way up the (very windy and steep) ski field road, I had to listen (on more than one occasion) to horror stories about car accidents, skiing accidents and health ailments in general. Then on the chair lift, I had to listen to arms being held on by a tendon, before being amputated and this person being left holding on to this arm. I’m not a squeamish person, but I don't think that this is acceptable small talk.  And you'd hope it would improve.  It didn’t. The skiing did, but the conversation didn't. Opportunity cost, I suppose.

Chairlift conversations...

And then I spent last weekend hanging out at a hostel in Sydney, catching up with a very dear friend of mine and his girlfriend. They were fine – they’re chat was acceptable. But hostels… holey moley… The people that populate hostels are incredible. I don’t know how much time you’ve spent in hostels, but I can tell you now, that they are filled with the #traveller #intrepid #adventurer type of people that talk 24/7 about their intrepid and worldly experiences that make them so worldly and adventurous. I find it very draining. I’m more of the #nobodygivesashit type of traveller. Live and let live; that’s my motto. Hostel conversations also follow a very formulaic structure too – how long have you been on the road? Where’s home? What you are doing here? Where are you going next? My #nobodygivesashit attitude was great for this, as the answer to the ‘where are you going next’ question was ‘science camp’ which is a refreshing conversation stopper, should you ever need one. The #traveller #intrpeid #adventurer types don’t really know what to do with this…

Winter in Australia

And now I am on science (geek) camp, which was initially a relief – finally around people who are on my buzz; nerdy, geeky, perhaps a little socially awkward, like myself. I arrived and was suitably out nerded in the first five minutes of conversation when one of my new found nerd-friends cracked a joke about oceanography, which I didn’t understand. Even after an explanation the following day, I still don’t understand…  It’s all very ‘hush-hush’ here at science camp too. We aren’t allowed to take any photos or run away (apparently there is a firing range really close to where we are). It makes me feel like I am in District 9 or something actually cool… In reality, I am just in The Middle of Nowhere, Australia.

Sydney Opera House

There are some smooth rollers though; a girl introduced herself as Jasmine. The guy next to her turned and said, very smoothly, ‘Jasmine’s are my favourite flower.’ When he was complimented on his florist skills, he quipped he preferred 'the term botanist.'

Australia's East Coast

I don't know what I expected, but so there is so much science on geek camp… I haven’t been this overwhelmed with science for a while… So much to not understand… But there have been cool parts too. We had a talk from a guy who is in the top 100 candidates to go on a one way mission to Mars in 2027. I hope that he gets to go, so that then I can say that I’ve had a talk from an astronaut (it’s actually all about me, in case you were wondering).

Science.