We have been pleasantly surprised by the infrastructure, food choices and American hospitality thus far. We have a theory that American tourists in Aus are perceived as loud and obnoxious because they have come to expect great service and are dissappointed in Australia. Waitstaff appear genuinely pleased to meet you here, and go out of their way to help. We've only found a couple of exceptions so far. In terms of food. There is such a massive range. You could c...

We've had a day and two nights in Olympic NP in northern WA. The drive in was spectacular, lakes surrounded by steep mountains with snowcaps in the distance reminded us of New Zealand. It gets dark before 5, so when we found our cabin it was very dark, down a small country road. There were cabins and a homestead and we hadn't seen a restaurant for miles. We huddled under the umbrella looking for a sign. Me winding my little friction powered torch as we went. Fina...

The SJDM (society for judgement and decision making) conference was great! Fantastic quality of talks. I got to meet a number of people whose research can inform mine, as well as some of the people who directly initiated my line of research. I had a lot of interest in my poster and some very valuable feedback. I realised the benefits of researching in the US though. Everyone else seemed to know so many people from previous conferences and said see you next year...