365 Grateful - February (my new job)

So I've been in my new job about 6 weeks now, and I can definitely say that I love it! And I'm very grateful to have been given the opportunity to do it. 

Some things I'm grateful for:

The Slow Lane

Taken while stopped, I promise!

One of the things about my new job that I thought would be the hardest is having to commute every day. When I say commute, of course I'm referring to the Canberra version: 22km of reasonably busy traffic (around 30 minutes on a bad day, 16-20 on a good one), going in the opposite direction to more congested traffic. So, nothing like a Melbourne or Sydney suburban commute (which I'm enormously grateful for!).

Still, perhaps because of the good roads in Canberra, or the fact that there isn't usually that much traffic on the roads, Canberra drivers are notoriously impatient and quite aggressive at times. So I'm very grateful for the slow lane!

On the days that I've tried travelling in the right-hand lane, I've arrived at work in a much more stressed-out state than the days that I travel all the way in the left-hand lane. It might take a couple of extra minutes, but the traffic flows reasonably well anyway, and I don't have people tailgating me and shaking their head at my obviously misguided attempts to follow the speed limit. 

Free Water!

Water - on tap!

The University of Canberra has a 'no bottled water' policy. And there are bubblers and bottle fillers all over the place. I like being able to fill up my bottle wherever I am.

A few other (non-photographed) things I'm grateful for:

• My new friends: I have met some really great people at my new job, and I love hanging out with them. They're great to share a coffee or a beer with, and we have a great laugh when we're together. 
• Learning: It's so cool to be in a learning environment again. While the subject that I'm lecturing in is right up my alley, I'm still learning new stuff about it every day. I'm also doing some tutoring in an Educational Psychology unit, and while I know a lot of the stuff, I'm still learning new things from it! I'm also studying again, which is quite satisfying!
• Teaching! While I made the decision a while back that I wasn't going to go back to teaching in schools, teaching adults is completely different. It's been brilliant so far, and while I know it will get crazy around assessment time, it's great to be in that space again.
• University of Canberra campus: There are so many cool things about working on a university campus: the wildlife (snakes, lizards, birds, rabbits, kangaroos), the great food and coffee (I've found the best coffee ever here!), the general buzz of intelligent and interesting conversations, the green spaces, the quirky people. I love it!

So work is great, and I'm grateful for it! Just gotta work on some ways to stay on there!