Stopover in Sydney and Back Home

I know the last post had somewhat of a final feel to it, but I wanted to follow up and let everyone know that I got home alive. I also didn't mean to make it seem like I didn't want to be home - I'm missing Australia (and wish I could just teleport back after a couple weeks) but it is good to be home.

Sadly leaving our apartment completely empty behind us, Katie, Tyler, and me shut the squished into the elevator with all of our jam-packed bags. We were a sight, with both me and Katie toting two big suitcases behind us, and loaded up with carry-ons. We only got around the corner before we gave in and payed for a taxi to take us the rest of the way to the train station. Turns out that the transport website lied to us though, and we ended up having to wait for an hour before clumsily boarding and waving goodbye to Wollongong. We took another taxi once at central and ended up at Sydney Uni Village, where we were shortly met by Priyanka. After dropping off our backs in her room, we decided to go see the Portugal/Brazil game at Darling Harbour, where they have huge screens set up floating on the water. We got there early to get a seat, but not long after it was absolutely stuffed with over 10,000 people (which made for the most difficult bathroom trip I've ever had to make) and got pretty chilly. After the game we caught another cab back, and slept the night with all three of us stuffed onto Pri's full-sized bed until about 8am.

Once at the airport, we all checked in and got through security without any mishaps (I didn't go over my weight allowance!!). Katie and Pri hung out with me for a bit at my terminal since they left after me, but soon I had to say goodbye and board up. I had gotten screwed over, and was stuck in the very middle of the plane, without being able to see out a single window (which made me kind of nauseous later). The flight was about as good as to be expected for being stuck in a horrible position for 14 hours, and was beyond thankful to get out at LAX, where I was made to drag all my crap for what seemed like 5 miles to another terminal. It was weird to be back in the US - besides the whole being summer thing, I almost ran into about 20 people trying to walk on the left side of the walkway, and tried to go up the down escalator a couple times... The next flight was almost less enjoyable. Even though only 4 hours, I managed to be the very last person to choose a seat, and to my dismay the last seat available involved being squished between two large women who had to raise the armrests to fit into the seat. Hello America. Ironically one of them had some sort of attack of claustrophobia... and they were friends so they kept talking across me, which was annoying. Seeing my parents at the airport was a welcome sight after all that traveling. For some reason I forgot it was summer and half expected it to be dark when I landed at 5:30...

So moral of the story is that I'm home alive and well, and while I sorely miss Australia already, I'm kind of super glad I don't have to do that trip again any time soon. I guess this will be the final post for this blog - thanks to anyone out there who was reading! Hopefully I'll find myself in Australia again.

Here's to You Wollongong, Hope We Meet Again

So it's our last day in Wollongong and although it's fairly warm and sunny out, somehow it still feels a bit overcast with the prospect of leaving in a couple hours looming over our heads. We are only headed to Sydney tonight to stay with Priyanka, but it doesn't make it any easier really to have to pack everything up until the place is empty and leave it behind.

We have been pretty busy with last minute things and didn't make it out to the gardens or campus, but we did go get some delicious fish and chips, complete with chicken salt, for our last lunch here. Walking back along the harbour I got my last good look at the beautiful place I've come to know as home. I've spent the last couple days trying to stick memories of the little things in my memory so I won't forget them. The sound of the birds, the way the ocean smells, all the little things that make a place what it really is - the ones that you can't get from pictures or stories. The experiences. That sort of thing makes me want to touch everything - to remind myself that I'm not floating in memories yet, that I really am still here. Sort of like pinching yourself to make sure you're not dreaming I guess. 

Moving out and leaving behind an empty place always brings me back to my arrival - the place looks the same, and just as awkward as it did then. No matter where I'm moving out of, it always reminds me of the first impressions I had, or how I was gearing myself up to try to make somewhere new my 'home'. About four months ago the five of us trooped into our apartment, I went all the way down to the end of the hall and claimed a bed, not sure what I was in for. Looking back, those four months have been the best of my life, no exaggeration. I've done a lot, and pushed myself far - which is what I believe study abroad should be all about. I'm proud of everything I've done, loved every last second of it, and I'll never for one moment forget any of it. 

Last Night in the Gong

Yes, however much I don't want that title to be true, it is. The past couple days have been lazy ones only filled with going out to do small errands that needed to be done, including getting my hair cut yesterday. 

Today we decided to put off our walk to the botanical gardens until tomorrow and to go say one final goodbye to our neighbors. We said we'd be over in the afternoon and went and snagged an apple pie (in true American fashion) at the grocery store for that. We have been trying to finish off all our last dregs of food, so we grabbed a bag of corn chips after we decided to turn a package of cheese slices and leftover salsa into queso too. Shortly after killing the bowl of queso and bag of chips, we went to hang out at City Beach for a bit, watching the surfers catching the waves. It wasn't long though until we had to reluctantly leave the beach in the nice sunny weather to slip the pie into the oven, making our whole apartment smell heavenly. We brought it over next door and spent the next couple hours socializing with Fatema and Rommie (Yahya was away at uni). They have been such great neighbors - they are always so nice and always inundate us with hospitality - it's sad we have to go and leave them. 

Unfortunately, when we returned to the apartment, we really needed to start packing, which is a daunting task. Somehow I seem to have accumulated way more than I thought I had. Being a traveling pack rat doesn't work too well. Thankfully we have most of tomorrow so there's no serious rush, but I am mostly packed already, minus some organization. We decided to go watch the New Zealand world cup game over a beer or two, so we headed to the Steelers Club after seeing the horrendously long line at Illawarra. We hung out a bit more, headed back to Illawarra eventually to use up some free credit Katie had on her member card, and here we are back at home. 

I've honestly been a bit depressed all night about leaving. It's hard to come to terms with the fact that this is really and truly our last night and I very well might never come back. But. I refuse to think about that just now, for now I'm just concentrating on the fact that we still have anther fairly full day here before we head out to Sydney. Goodnight Wollongong. 

Port Kembla, Last Exam, and Coogee to Bondi

Early on Thursday Jason, Ashley, and Amy left, leaving Katie, Tyler, and me left in the PH. Friday I decided to take a study break and go down to Port Kembla, which is just south of Wollongong, with Katie and Tyler. We had read that whales had just been spotted from Hill 60, which is a hill (obviously) right on the coast, so we hopped on the train and took it four stops to the south. The train station dumped us sort of in the middle of nowhere, so we just started walking towards the coast, continuing down south, picking our way past the big factories and plants down there. Eventually we found a beachy area which we climbed down to and followed around, climbing the rocks and skirting around the steep parts to come to Hill 60 a few kilometers away.

The walk was pretty and it was a gorgeous, fairly warm day out. I've mentioned before that there are five islands in this area, and the biggest one is right off of Hill 60.

We hung out a bit and headed back, making it back to Wollongong in time to catch the market still open. Once back in the apartment, it was study time once more for me.

Saturday brought more study time until about 1pm when I left to take my second and last exam. I haven't really tried to take the bus anywhere on a weekend in quite some time, so I'm glad I had left super early because I had totally forgotten that the buses come half as frequently. I got to my Food Chemistry exam right on time though, after having to trek to the complete other side of campus where I've never even been before. I was thankful that my exam wasn't back in the gym, but I had been nervous about finding the right building and all. The class, which is about 60 students, was split up into a few different rooms and intermixed with other classes. I was put into a large classroom (but not nearly as big as a gym!) which was about half and half my class and an international law class. This time I had desk 19, and I noticed the number on the desk said, "CHEATING LEADS TO EXCLUSION." Little less cheerful than the last one. In all honesty I didn't study for that exam as well as I should of, and because of that it was pretty hard. I'm really counting on the fact that all I have to do is pass though - that exam was 60% of my grade for that class... but yeah, I took 3 hours and 5 minutes to finish my exam out of the allotted 3 hours 15 minutes. Despite the rough time, it felt excellent to walk out and be done. Went home, ate, watched part of a world cup game, and went to sleep.

Sunday morning we headed out to Sydney on the 9:20 train, walking over to the Paddy's Markets from Central to check them out. They were ok, but we bought a couple little things and didn't stay too long. We were hungry, but as we had discovered, all the kebab stands in the market oddly don't actually sell any kebabs. The market is right in chinatown though, and I had gotten a craving for dumplings, so we decided to try a little restaurant on the street, which really didn't turn out to be a good idea. After waiting forever, and being told they didn't have some of their menu items, we were told that we had to spend 5$ for every person we had sitting at the table. Then after suffering through a whole jumble of confusion trying to explain things to the waitress who hardly spoke english and being given something that looked completely unedible, we just got up and left. We didn't actually end up eating until a couple hours later.

We made our way back to Central, picking up a bus to Coogee. Thing is that Katie and Tyler hadn't realized that they had to get their tickets stamped, so when some officers came onto the bus to check everyone's tickets, they were made to get off the bus. I had stamped mine, but I got off with them and waited while they were chastised but not fined. We were put on the next bus which went to Clovelly, just north of Coogee, cutting our walk slightly short. The walk was about 6km I believe, and took us maybe 2-3 hours as we kept stopping for pictures or just to take in the views. The Bondi-Coogee walk is a well-known walk along the coastline from beach to beach. As it was another beautiful day (and really warm!), there were a ton of people out.

The walk was really pretty and we ended up at Bondi, where me and Katie went to find food while Tyler rented a board and went surfing for a couple hours. We grabbed some kebabs for real this time and I bought some sunnies since mine had decided to self-destruct at the beginning of the walk. We hopped on a bus as the sun started to go down, and caught the train all the way back to Wollongong.

Today wasn't nearly as scenic, as we all just bummed around the apartment most of the day and clean a bit. The most I did was go to collect a refund for the time I won't be using my Australian insurance, and decide not to get my hair cut in town after discovering it cost 50$...

Exams

The couple of days after we got back from New Zealand were a hodge podge of things I needed to get done and studying for my first exam which was yesterday. The 14th was Jason's birthday, so we had kangaroo fajitas (which besides the whole 'roo part, had the weirdest toppings for fajitas I've ever seen but they were pretty good). Tim and his friend, Matt, who are both Australian had come over and tried kangaroo for the first time. It always surprises me to learn that most Australians have never even tasted kangaroo, and most of them don't really think much of it. All of us Americans on the other hand all pretty much think it's delicious though... Other than that we made some birthday cake (complete with the same star candle we've used for all three of our birthdays this semester) and played a couple games until everyone was too tired from laughing their stomachs off.

Yahya made another short appearance as he an Rommie brought over a plate of their famous cinnamon rolls and a packet of spices for making Kabsa for each of us to make some when we go home. We have strict orders to make some for our friends and family and report back with how it was :). Hopefully we can get the unmarked super pungent spices through customs though... I can't remember what the US is particular about bringing in, but I definitely have a growing list of things I might possibly have to declare as I come into the country.

Yesterday, as I said, was my first final exam. The actual exam itself was easier than anticipated, and I only took about half an hour to finish it. The exam conditions were intense though. First of all, since there are about 500 students in my class, we were put in the huge gym with a couple other classes. I haven't been to that part of campus since the beginning of the session really, but it wasn't hard to find with the fields in front of it lit up like a huge beacon and massive signs screaming EXAM ENTRANCE .... GOOD LUCK ON YOUR EXAM in oddly unfriendly letters. There were people directing traffic and streams of students into the front doors, past a rambling list of all the student's names taking an exam and their assigned seat. I was I490. Past 4 different people in bright orange jackets who scrutinized my uni ID in comparison with my face, I was allowed into the actual gym, where I was greeted by probably over 1000 desks, most filled with a student waiting for 6:30 to roll around. I did a quick scan of the room, finding section I not too far away, then picking my way through the rows until I found a desk with a piece of paper pasted to it reading, "SEAT: I490. GOOD LUCK ON YOUR EXAM." As I eyed my own little personal good luck wish another woman in bright orange came over and slapped an exam in front of me, motioned to the other two papers already on my desk, mumbled something I didn't understand and left. One of these papers was a scantron-like form that I've seen before, and another one was a form to sign attesting that you are who you claim to be and you won't cheat. These were picked up later during the test, the information being cross-checked with our ID's and faces once more. I appreciate that I don't really get test anxiety, and that due to my watch being behind I had missed all the strict announcements about everything under the sun you're not allowed to do. At 6:30 they announced over loudspeaker that we may all begin, followed by a huge rustling of papers. As I said the exam itself was easy, and I plowed through it as more orange-jacketed proctors patrolled the aisles. Halfway through I glanced up to actually look at the room and realized not only was the entire three basketball fields worth of space filled to the brim with desks, but that the multi-lane track above me had at least 2 more sections on it. I raised my hand when ready, got my papers snipped up by yet another reflective person, and was told to leave. I complied happily, leaving that crazy atmosphere behind for a night of celebration back at the apartment.

Now I just have one more exam, which should actually be tough, but won't be in that same room. Jason, Ashley, and Amy all leave tomorrow morning early for Fiji and won't be back. They are pretty much all packed up, and it really feels like it was just a couple days ago that we were all unpacking and settling in. Katie's friend Tyler has come to visit until me and Katie leave on the 25th, so thankfully it won't be just me and Katie left lonely in the apartment. I'm definitely in denial about leaving and keep avoiding actually thinking about it. Literally every single bus ride I've taken here has involved me thinking to myself about how much I love this place, but today as I went to print something out at uni there was definitely a twinge of something else   behind that thought - of seriously not wanting to leave.

Kiwi Trip was Sweet As, Mate

Apologies in advance for the long-haul post this is bound to be. I'm also having to resist putting in about a million pictures, but I'll be putting them all up on facebook soon if you want to see them. Our trip to the south island of New Zealand made for an amazing 10 days.

The adventure started with me getting a whopping half hour of sleep before we had to get up due to having to write my last paper, but it did get done. Got up at 4am and me and Katie invested in a taxi since it was still a downpour outside. We caught the 5:30 train, groggily transfered an hour and a half later, and reached the airport in good time. Check-in was kind of a pain since we got all the way to the front only to be told that we needed a printout of our return itinerary, which we had to trek across the airport to get, and then come back and wait in a now longer line. Besides that and Katie accidentally leaving something behind at security, the flight to Christchurch was fine. We called up the car rental place as soon as we got past the intense customs procedures (beagle and all) and caught their shuttle to their office.

We loaded our things into a white Nissan that had some years on it and I nervously got behind the wheel... On the right-hand side of the car. I was admittedly anxious about the whole driving on the left side of the road, so I slowly wheeled out of the parking lot and around the corner... proceeding to almost pull in front of a car as I turned onto the main road. Rocky start, but no actual problems, and I'm fairly proud to report that over the next 10 days I only had one other instance where I had another driver angry at me. By the time we checked into our hostel I had tackled right and left turns, roundabouts, and the real kicker, parallel parking.

We wandered around the town as it was getting darker and eventually ate some really good chipotle-like burritos for dinner and ventured out to see if there was any nightlife in Christchurch. Instead since it was so early we mostly just ended up awkwardly sitting around in mostly empty places before heading back due to exhaustion. That said, after a full night's sleep we checked out, grabbed some bagels, a cassette thing for our ipods, typed in Franz Joseph into our GPS, and were on our way. Apparently it had been raining solid for days, but it was gorgeous the day we got in, and in fact for most of our trip except a day or two. The drive was beautiful as well, through fields, to foothills, through Arthur's Pass, and finally to the little blip on the map that is Franz Joseph. We stopped a lot of places along the way for pictures and just to admire the views, as we did for most of the rest of the trip as well. Past Greymouth, we stopped at a little town for a bite to eat and ended up discovering a little black-sand beach, which was pretty cool.

We only had about an hour of light left (the short winter days tried to foil our adventures many times all along the way), so we just took a short hike up to a lookout where we could see the glacier. Even though we didn't end up taking one of the walks on the glacier itself, it was really cool to be able to see a huge glacier. It's sad that it's incredibly tiny compared to what it was just like 50 years ago also, in not too long it might be gone all together.

That night we made ourselves a pasta and garlic bread dinner, complete with classy bottle of wine, played scrabble for a while, and ventured out into the cold to look at the stars. We just walked around the corner, to the end of a cul-de-sac where there weren't many lights, and even there, with ever step we took away from the lighted area, you could see so many more stars. I think that's the first time in my life I've ever really seen the Milky Way. It was amazing. Seeing the stars in the middle of nowhere was actually one of my pseudo personal goals for this semester, and I'm so glad it was clear for us.

The next morning, we decided that instead of taking the long hike out to the face of Franz Joseph glacier, that we would go to Lake Matheson and Fox Glacier, which were on our way to Queenstown, our next destination. I have to admit that we didn't actually plan to go to Lake Matheson, we didn't even really know about it, we were just told that you could see Mt Cook from that part of the town, and realized there was a trail there. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been though. Me and Katie agreed that we could have both just sat there all day long.

From there we drove about 5 minutes to Fox Glacier, and hiked up to a little lookout. Obviously the same sort of thing as Franz Joseph, as I'm assuming all glaciers are basically similar, but Fox seemed bigger.

The road took us down to Queenstown from there. Some of our random stops along the way included a beach with a little cove and sand dunes with a path out to a marsh we decided not to follow, a lake or two and some rapids, all with absolutely the bluest water I've ever seen in my life - it looked like it had been dyed blue. Pretty much all of the water we saw in New Zealand was like that - ridiculously clear and blue - pictures don't even do it justice.

We reached our hostel for the night in Queenstown after dark since we had stopped so many times on the way. We walked the short distance to the centre of town and got these ridiculously big burgers. We hadn't realized how valid the note someone had left on the wall was saying, "Next time I'm going to wear my eating pants" haha. From there we wandered around, poking our heads into the clubs around until we finally decided to go to bed.

Katie got up the next morning and went snowboarding for the day. Shortly afterward I got up, and as I got ready to go wander around town realized that it was gross and rainy out. So I donned by raincoat, grabbed my umbrella, and headed out into the freezing downpour. It was snow up in the mountains, so it didn't phase Katie, was I was soaking after a couple hours of wandering, eating, and checking my email quickly. I had planned on doing a couple of different activities there, but none of them would have been any fun in the rain. I headed back to the room, put my shoes to dry over the heater that was thankfully pumping hot air like a hairdryer, and took a nap until Katie got back. We wandered, still through the rain, and found a really good restaurant for dinner. For dessert and to warm up for our walk back, we went around the corner to Starbucks and got some hot chocolate, soaking up the warmth before braving the cold again. Since we didn't really want to be outside again that night, we settled in and watched a movie before going to bed, so it was a pretty quiet night.

Our fifth day found us checking out, grabbing breakfast, and heading out for Milford Sound. It was still rainy and cloudy out for most of the day, so we didn't stop nearly as much on this drive even though the drive into Milford Sound is well known for being beautiful. Because of that, we got in pretty early and realized that there is literally nothing there except for the lodge we were staying at, another small motel, a tiny café that wasn't even really open, two old fashioned gas pumps, and the cruise terminal. If we would have known that beforehand, we would have brought some food in with us, but as it was we bought some ready-meal type things at the shop at our lodge for dinner. Not the most exciting place we went especially those first few hours, but honestly, I'd say that Milford Sound was actually the highlight of my trip. We basically just putzed around that evening, doing little things. After it had been dark for a while, we ventured out to the glow worm walk that was right out the door of the lodge. The thing was that being a glow worm walk, it wasn't lit at all. And we didn't have a flashlight. So I'll just give you a second to imagine bumbling around in the woods (or bush for you Australians) truly in the middle of nowhere, over little plank bridges and washed out tree roots, with only a crappy faint light of one cell phone to guide you...

We saw a couple glow worms - it was kind of weird, like someone had stuck a couple mini glowsticks around in the trees or something. Before long we got spooked by some weird noise in the bush around us and basically ran back out to the road. Comforted by the sight of the lodge and lights again, and since the clouds had cleared again, we decided to try to go up the road a bit away from the lights to look at the stars again. Only a couple steps forward though and we were spooked again into backtracking once more. You're probably thinking we're wusses by now, but you try to be brave in the pitch dark without any light in the middle of nowhere, and let me know how it goes. We did eventually end up up the road in the other direction, at an opening in the trees. We could see even more stars than Franz Joseph, and saw a handful of shooting stars this time. We also realized that there were glow worms all around us in the trees - much more than had been on the walk. It was really cool to just sit there stargazing with the glowworms acting as funny little extensions of the specks of light above.

Another movie and a night's sleep later, we checked out and went to meet our boat for the morning. The cruise terminal is obviously built for a high traffic of tourists, but there were only maybe 15 people there that morning. Probably more like 10. All 10 of us boarded our boat which was small but pretty nice. The cruise around the fiord was one of the things I had really been looking forward to. It was again absolutely beautiful there. Not only did we see massive peaks shooting up from the water with waterfalls pouring off their sides, but we also got to see fur seals and dolphins! I have to admit that I was probably a little unnecessarily excited about the dolphins (since they are sort of rare to see there), but it sort of made my day. Our two hour cruise took us out to the Tasman Sea and back, and right up to the bottom of waterfalls to wet the whole front of the boat. It was definitely worth it, and amazingly it was a beautiful day, contradicting all the weather forecasts for rain that morning.

Disembarking from the boat, we headed back out the crazy windy roads we had come in, past Te Anau, and on towards Dunedin. We stopped back at some of the places we had on the way in, specifically the mirror lakes which are obviously supposed to be perfect still mirrors of the mountains behind them. As one might guess, rain isn't really conducive to still lakes, nor as it turned out was the wind of that second day, but it was definitely still a better view with the sun out.

Past the mountains, the driving got a little less exciting, and there wasn't much for me to do as we passed flat farmland for hours on end except for count the obscene amount of rainbows that day. I'm not kidding - I saw no less than 7 rainbows over the course of a few hours, scattered across from East to West. We got into Dunedin as it was just getting dark, and we checked into an eight-bed dorm which ended up being our private room. We wandered a bit as we were prone to do, finding somewhere to eat and killing some time drinking hot chocolate.

The seventh day of our trip started with exploring the Otago Peninsula, which is part of Dunedin. At the tip, there is the world's only mainland Albatross colony, along with seals, sea lions, and a penguin colony of blue penguins and super-rare yellow-eyed penguins. Thing is that they charge big bucks to go see all of them and me and Katie are cheap. So we took a few pictures of the lighthouse at the tip of the peninsula and turned down a different road to take us back, passing by the only castle in New Zealand (but we figured that also cost money, so we didn't even really attempt to go in). Once off the peninsula, we made way for Lake Tekepo. We stopped at the Moeraki Boulders - which are basically just a bunch of bizarrely spherical rocks on the beach there - and at Oamaru to see their blue penguin colony. You really only get to see the penguins at dusk apparently, and it was the afternoon when we were there, but they have a breeding area there that you can tour. So of course we had to, and we got to spy on all the adorable little penguins in their homes.

The closer we got to our destination for the night, the icier and snowier it began to get. Again we got there after dark, and thankfully the roads up to there had been nice and clear, but there was a fair amount of snow on the ground. We grabbed some frozen pizzas from the "wee market around the corner", sat by the fire for a bit in the cozy lounge petting the resident cat, and watched a movie on tv until bedtime. The next morning we checked out, petted the kitty goodbye, and promptly discovered that a) the ice needed to be scraped off the windows, and b) we were stuck on the ice/snow of the unshoveled road in front of the hostel. After some finagling we were out onto the clear roads, just driving to find something interesting. We came across the observatory out there that is run by the University of Canterbury and started driving up what turned out to be a long winding road up Mt John, with only a small single lane's worth shoveled out of the snow, and even then we got stuck in the snow at one point. I made a snow angel and we were treated by some pretty sweet views at the top. Never have I ever quite appreciated my waterproof hiking boots as actual hiking boots as I did that day as impromptu snow boots.

Our journey back down thankfully didn't involve us getting stuck, and we headed out towards Christchurch once again, making our circuit complete. We returned to the original hostel, managed to snag one of their 5 parking spaces that time, and had more or less quiet night involving wandering yet again, eventually eating at this "Irish Pub/Restaurant" that was utterly non-Irish. The next day we went in the cathedral briefly, but mostly spent a few hours hopping from tourist shop to tourist shop and intermittently listening to the live music in the square. With a definite feel of running out of things to do, we eventually visited the art museum which was free and saw one of the creepiest/weirdest exhibitions I've seen before they threw us out as they closed.

Walking back a different way, we happened across a microbrewery and decided to share a tasting board, which turned out to be an excellent way to kill some time. 7 small half-glasses of their beers - one of which was a guest beer apparently. 2 of them were really good, one was horrible, another not so great, and the rest fairly good. Later that night we decided to go on the pubcrawl since it was a Friday, which was fairly fun. Some of the places were really quiet and almost boring, but a couple of the places were pumpin', one with karaoke which was fun.

We were sad when our last day came around, the trip had been incredible. Basically that whole day was crappy as well - filled with obnoxious people. From being woken up at 7am by three roommates doing seemingly everything to try to avoid letting the remaining four sleep, to the man who clearly didn't believe I needed my kneecaps as he enthusiastically repeatedly jammed his seat further and further back, to the bunch of 12-yr-olds on the train who wouldn't get up so that not only did we have to stand for the hour and 45 min train ride, but were massively in the way of everyone with all our luggage. We were surrounded by a minimum of 15 children, all seemingly going crazy, and my ipod was completely dead. That said, I never knew I had so much patience.

In any case, it was good to get back home to the Gong, where I only have a limited amount of time left as well, but I'm so glad we had a chance to go to New Zealand - it was an unforgettable trip.

Wait... What Happened to that Semester Thing?? Where'd it Go?!?!!

In my almighty procrastination skills (I might even call myself a procrastimaster as Anna, I believe it was, put it), I will update all my loverly readers on recent ongoings (all 1.5 of you, I'm sure).

Last week on Wednesday was a glow party at Illawarra with a lineup of good DJ's and partly a birthday party for Jen and some other kid. We went super early to avoid the ridiculous cover charge (we are super cheap), and hung out. It was fun - good music, and the glow theme was cool. They had glow in the dark body paint, so of course I got my arm painted, and with the addition of about 10 glow bracelets/necklace was very colourful.

They also had a promotion going on for Jager, and if you bought a Jagerbomb you got this little scratch-off card where you could win something. Tim bought us each one (which was awesome btw) and won 2 keychains and a t-shirt from his 7 cards. Now, this shirt was awesome. I had to have one. It was black with giant orange lettering spelling out JAGERMEISTER on it. And guess what? I scored one. Makes me look like an alcoholic, perhaps yes, but awesome nonetheless. The best part about it was that I got it without ever actually buying one drink for myself (which gave me a losing scratchoff card), taking that card and putting it on top of 4 of Tim's old cards, telling the lady I had bought 5 drinks and hadn't won anything, and she gave me a pity t-shirt. So pumped ahaha.

Thursday was more or less uneventful except that Matt came down for a coffee break and we went and sat in a coffee shop on Crown Street drinking hot chocolate and eating wedges with sour cream and sweet chili sauce (I'm gunna miss that stuff). I had to leave pretty quickly to go print off my lab and turn it in during my lecture, but it was nice. As it turned out, I had absolutely the most stressful time printing my assignment, walked into class half an hour late, settled in, and the fire alarm went off. So instead of not being able to turn in my assignment for being late it didn't matter anyways... ho hum.

So a bunch of dead glowsticks and a few days later, we had intentions of going back into Sydney for another Extreme Adventures party at the Gaff, but me and Katie weren't really feelin it, so we ended up just hanging out pretty much. The next day we did end up going into Sydney, shopping for some long-sleeve shirts, grabbing dinner, and oggling the opera house which is all lit up with giant projectors for the Vivid Festival here.

Priyanka, whom I had met in Melbourne but lives in Sydney, came back to the Gong with us and spent the night. The next morning we walked down to City Beach and were greeted by absolutely MASSIVE waves. The beach was kind of gross actually - the first time I've really ever seen a beach here have junk and trash on it. It had obviously been washed up and since it's been cold and gross, nobody has been at the beach to probably even notice. That day was no exception of course, as it was grey, cloudy, and spitting on us occasionally. There was nobody on the beach, but we noticed a few surfers near the rocks where the waves were particularly huge, and then noticed the huge crowd of people up top near the lighthouse just watching them surf and the big swells. We climbed up to the rest of the people and joined in for a bit. I've never really thought of surfing as a spectator sport but it was one that day haha. As we later found out (and had suspected from the sheer numbers of people there), there was a cyclone/major storm warning in effect, and of course that meant huge waves. Though, we have noticed that in the past two weeks or so the waves have been humungoid on and off; maybe it's just the time of year or something.

I wish that picture did those waves justice. Imagine a tiny surfer in that wave like a fourth its size. In any case, we left the surfers and walked past both lighthouses, and down to North Beach where there were significantly more surfers (and I suspect safer conditions). We contemplated going to the botanic gardens near uni which I haven't explored yet, but we decided gardens are less than fun in the rain and backtracked a bit and headed for a little fish and chips place near the beach. Probably the best fish and chips I've had since I've been in Australia. I don't know if I've mentioned this anomaly before, but I absolutely detest fish. And yet I've had fish and chips here numerous times. Why? Because it's made out of shark and apparently I love shark. Yummm. I've probably gotten more omega-3's in the past 3 months than I have in my whole life! hardy-har. But yes, so shortly after deliciousness Priyanka headed home and we trundled off to work on homework and such, making the rest of that Sunday significantly less fun.

Monday marked the last week of classes, and even then I didn't have a bunch of them. Where did all the time go? I found myself thinking today as I walked to my last class that it literally feels like yesterday that the five of us were bumbling around campus the day before orientation trying to figure out our way around so we wouldn't get lost the next day. Normally I'm so ecstatic for the last day of class, but as I tried to get myself pumped up for it, I just couldn't really muster the gusto. It doesn't feel like it's been a whole semester, and even with that the time that I've been at uni didn't feel like work. I loved every minute of it, even when bored in lecture or dealing with rancid cream in lab (ok, maybe I didn't love that one...). The point is that for once in my life I couldn't manage to be excited for the end of a semester.

Tonight was our farewell dinner, so Matt came down again and took us to Hog's Breath just around the corner per our request. There weren't many people there, and the reservation was definitely unnecessary, but we definitely got treated and the food was delicious. I got garlic mushroom steak which was probably the best steak I've had in a really long time, it was so good. It was a good time and hanging out with Matt is always pretty fun. It turned out to be a real downer though when Matt said goodbye and I realized I'll never see him again. He's the first person I've had to say goodbye to, and it just made me finally really start thinking about the fact that we are leaving really quite soon. I have a feeling that my last couple weeks abroad are going to be sad ones and I have to say goodbye and come to terms with the fact that I do have to go home. I do miss people at home, and I'm excited to see everyone, but I sort of just want to go home for a week and then turn around and come back here. I'll try to put off thoughts of leaving for now though. After all, I'm leaving for New Zealand tomorrow morning (at the buttcrack of dawn for another adventure)... and of course not to mention the paper I have to finish before then...