Hi! Wow, it’s been awhile, hey? Sorry about the long delay. Life has definitely been crazy since I’ve been home. I haven’t had much to do, but I’ve stayed incredibly busy somehow. I think I’m emotionally exhausted as well! But it’s all good. Today has to be my ultra productive day - everything on my to do list needs to be crossed off! I’m going home this weekend, and starting Monday I work full time for a week, then part time for two more weeks, just some temp work at the bookstore for the rush. I get a discount on my books and merchandise too, sweet! Anyway, life just stays busy! It’s been incredible to not have to work this month that I’ve been home, though. It gave me time to adjust and unwind and do what I wanted and needed, and I still stayed busy! So finally here comes the long awaited, exciting tale of my last adventures in Australia! It seems both like yesterday, and a million years ago. This trip was incredible and I hope you can imagine so through my poor attempt at capturing that in words.
After my long and sad goodbyes in Geelong, it was finally time for me to leave. Jared was nice enough to take my big suitcases since I only took a duffel bag and had to move out of the unit. He was coming up to Melbourne when we were there our last days, so it worked out well. I said goodbye to Jared then headed down to meet the cab with Donald. He had decided about a week before that he wanted to go on the tour with me so I didn’t have to go alone. A couple girls from South Carolina were still there so they came to say goodbye to us as we drove off. That was a difficult moment, driving away from uni for who knows how long, if not forever. We had the cab driver go downtown to stop and say goodbye to Marc really fast, then headed to Avalon airport. That was it, out of Geelong, away from all those people. But we were headed off on a wonderful trip! Definitely a mix of emotions. The flight was good and we landed across the continent in Perth, tired and hungry. We got to the YHA Hostel, my first time, and I was quite impressed. It was actually nice, different from other hostels I’d experienced! We put our stuff away and headed out to find some dinner. We walked a ways, getting a little lost, but eventually coming to a street one lady recommended. It was raining and chilly, but dinner tasted great and the restaurant was pretty cool. Then it was bedtime.
Bright and early the next morning we started our 5 day tour around Western Australia. The bus was full, about 20 people total. Our tour guide/driver was awesome, very energetic and excited to show us his country. Our first stop that day was The Centre of the Universe. I’m not sure why it was named this, it was a gas station and convenience store. And it’s not really in the centre of anything. I reckon Western Australia is terribly desperate for tourist attractions, I mean who wouldn’t want to visit the centre of the universe right? And obviously there is too large a number of people in this world who will believe whatever they are told. They say this is the centre of the universe, “they” must know something we don’t, let’s trust them and go see this wonder so we can just say we’ve been there. That’s what they think, right? So anyway, it was pretty exciting for a toilet break. We drove awhile, before Chris, the driver, noticed he left his gas card at the centre of the universe. We had to make a u-ey and grab it before it was lost forever. Next we stopped at a Dolphin Discovery Centre, but alas there were no dolphins in the bay that day. Things just weren’t turning out so fabulously early on in the trip! Made me wonder. Our next stop was an old cave. A bit freaky in some tight quarters, but cool looking for a cave you know. BUT! Then a little taste of alcohol saved the day! We visited a winery and quickly tasted most of their available wines. The lady was a little crazy and thus quite entertaining. I didn’t like about half of what we tried, but it was interesting, informative, and delightful. We concluded the day with a nice walk on the beach at sunset, how fabulous! It was beautiful and I found some lovely seashells before we found our hostel in Augusta.
Day 2! We were up before dawn. This was a common theme seeing as there is not much in Western Australia, and it’s quite a large place, about half of the country. That’s also like half of the continental US. Yeah, a lot of land. All in 5 days we had to cover this southwest corner of the country. So we drove awhile before reaching our first adventurous stop of the day, the Bicentennial Tree. It was a Karri tree in the forests that they used to keep watch over the land. These trees can grow from 70m to over 85m tall and live to be 150 to 300 years old. Pretty impressive trees really. This particular one has poles sticking out of it all the way up around the tree that you can climb. There is a bit of netting around the “stairs” as well. Needless to say, with my small fear of heights, and the fact that it was rainy, I opted out of climbing. There were about 6 people who did. I wish I could’ve seen the view from the top, but it was a long way up and we really didn’t have too much time there. So it was better for everyone that I didn’t go up! It was still cool though, and fun to throw the footy around a little and such. We stopped at this little café called the Hollowbutt Café, no joke. I laughed. I also got the best sausage roll I had in Australia and a Big M Mocha. I could really go for one of those right now! We were off in search of more fun and found it at the famous Valley of the Giants. It is this treetop walk where you’re up high off the ground among all these karri and tingle trees. There were red and yellow tingle trees that were also quite tall and large. These were especially interesting because they hollowed out naturally after a period and it was this huge empty tree you could stand in, pretty sweet. It was a tree filled day, which I fully enjoyed, especially since Chris was particularly excited about trees! We stopped at this gas station for lunch and enjoyed the company of a couple friendly dogs. The whole afternoon and evening was spent at two different beaches. The first one we stopped at a few brave souls went swimming. It was winter there. Granted, it was decent temperature water, but still quite chilly by my standards. I reckon I was able to wear my short sleeve shirt during the day. That first place I was able to explore awhile which was fun. It was called the Elephant Rocks because there were big huge rocks I guess. I couldn’t see the elephants, and I love elephants. It was a gorgeous Australian day to walk some beaches and hop on some rocks and take some snapshots. Everyone dried off and we were off to the next beach in time for sunset. This place was called the Natural Bridge and Gap. Surprisingly, there was a gap in the rocks that occurred naturally as well as a natural bridge made by the rocks. It was actually pretty cool looking. The area was a bit dangerous with all the rock faces, but we were safe and it was absolutely gorgeous. We saw a whale breaching way off in the distance! We saw the entire sunset over the Indian Ocean there and it was breathtaking. We stayed in Albany in this interesting, confusing hostel. I was definitely sick by this point in the trip which was no fun, but that meant I got a good night sleep when all the others had a big night out on the small town.
Most of the people on the bus were actually on the 3 day tour rather than the 5 day tour, so they all were leaving us on the third day after lunch to go back to Perth while we went on further. We started the day before dawn once again, but this time it was absolutely amazing. We drove a little ways to this point above Albany and the ocean to watch the sun come up over the horizon. It was a spectacular sunrise, too. Wow. Something that made it even better was a rainbow over the water directly opposite the sunrise. We took a short walk down the hill and over to Middleton beach. I enjoyed some seashell hunting a nice swing pushing before we were on the road again. I slept a good portion of the time in the bus since I was sick as a dog. I stole a roll of toilet paper for my tissue supply, and I went through it in a couple days. Yikes. My head was banging. I tried to watch the landscape roll by, it was quite pretty, but usually fell asleep with my mouth wide open. I remained brave and strong and took on our next challenge full force! We arrived at this mountain, Mt. Trio in the Stirling Ranges, 800m tall and proceeded to climb it! It was wonderful really, just difficult when you can’t breathe too well, and let’s face it, no matter how small I may be I am not in good shape. It really wasn’t too difficult though, only for a short period that was quite steep. The view from the top was incredible. I felt like I was on top of the world, I was pretty much in quite some miles at least! It was gorgeous from up there, no matter how hard it was to stand up straight from the wind gusts. I felt accomplished as well. We stopped in a park a little way from our mountain to eat some burgers for lunch before breaking groups and saying goodbye to most everyone. There were six of us left for the last two days. Chris took us to visit his friends, a couple horses and a very old sheep. We made their days by feeding them carrots and apples and bonding a little before out long drive on to Esperance for the night.
Our fourth day was pretty jam packed, but all wonderful. We drove around the bay at Esperance to the national park where we came to another mountain, Frenchman’s Peak at 300m tall. It was pretty steep and all rock, freaked me out quite a bit. I was honestly scared to climb this, especially still being sick and there being strong winds that day. It was all open and seemed like you would just slip right off the side. I didn’t though, and climbed it just fine. I will admit by the time I reached the top I was a little shaken up, a little freaked out since it was a small point on top, but it was good. The view was pretty awesome since you could see the ocean out a ways. Starting to climb back down freaked me out a lot, I didn’t know how I was going to get down. Chris talked me through how to get down the real steep part and we just had a nice conversation the rest of the way down and everything was fine. I went down easily since I was focusing on our conversation. Chris was like, are you sure you were freaked out? That was really fast! He said he’s actually had to carry people down before. I guess I wasn’t that bad, really I wasn’t though, I am a strong woman! Anyway, I felt accomplished again and it was fun. We drove off to the ocean to Lucky Bay. WOW! It was amazing. This was the most beautiful beach I’ve seen in my entire life, not that I’ve seen a ton of them, but still. It was perfect soft white sand with turquoise water that turned to this deep blue further out. Perfect paradise. It was made even better by the fact that we were the only ones there until a couple came when we were leaving! Since it was winter not many people wanted to visit the beach, but it was honestly quite a gorgeous day with the sun shining and decent temperature. We played around there a little while before pulling out our lunch. Then we went off to explore Rossiter Bay just a couple miles down the way. It wasn’t as awesome, but still pretty. After the quick stop we were off to Hellfire Bay, a little scary sounding, and a little creepy place honestly. We walked along the rocks and around corner to Little Hellfire Bay. There had recently been a bush fire so everything was dead, which is what made it a little creepy. It was truly beautiful though. Especially seeing the first signs of new life. Everything was charred and black but there was white sand all over! We found some bones of a wallaby or something. I loved exploring so many beaches and everything, it was great. Chris drove us back to our hostel to drop off dinner that the owner was going to make for us. Then it was straight back on the road for awhile before the sun started to go down. We went along the other side of Esperance on this ocean highway that winded along the ocean. That was amazing, though not quite as much so as the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. We stopped along the way at a couple beaches. The last beach we stopped at was the 10 mile lagoon. There was this really awesome natural reef type thing that you could wade out to and walk quite a ways out into the ocean but still be knee deep in water and be protected from the waves! It was so incredible, I love nature, it amazes me. I didn’t go out very far in it though since I had jeans on and couldn’t roll them up very high. Still, it was absolutely breathtaking and the sand was so smooth and felt amazing. Walking on the beach at sunset, it was a dream! Granted, it would’ve been much better with a special someone, you can’t have everything you want, right?! No, I was perfectly content in that moment really. We drove back to town and made a stop at the jetty to visit Sammy the Sea Lion and get an ice cream cone from the local stand. That was awesome! Sammy was quite entertaining, especially for Louise, the French girl who had never seen one before!
Our last day was definitely a long one. We had to drive all the way back to Perth, and it had taken us three days driving to get to where we were, even if we were cutting through the land rather than going along the coast. The road out of Esperance in the morning was lit by the gorgeous sunrise. Our first stop was for the toilet in cool tiny town called Raventhorpe. Next was the main, and really only, attraction for the whole day, Wave Rock. It’s about all there is in the interior of Western Australia as well. It was pretty cool actually, even though it was just a big rock shaped like a wave. The top stuck out, then it curved in before curving back again. It was neat to see all the erosion after hundreds of years and all the water running down it. We got to climb on top of it where it was just flat rock on top and we could explore for awhile. The view from the top was great, you could see forever as it was quite flat and barren out there. Even so, the land was quite impressive and pretty. There was a short stop at Hippo’s Yawn, another rock. I think they have stretched it a little, but I guess the yawn was there. It was basically just the Hippo’s mouth you could see and you stood up in the centre of the mouth. On our way back to the main road we stopped to move a lizard out of the middle of the road. It was a really awesome lizard, different than anything I’ve ever seen! Chris knew about it and gave us a little lesson on lizards, pretty sweet. Our next stop was in Corrigin at the servo for some gas and snacks. Just out of town was a dog cemetery we stopped to pay our respects at. The people just have to get permission and then they dig and make their own graves for their dogs. It was pretty sad, and also interesting to see the extravagant graves some people come up with. It was certainly a long driving day, but made so much better by having 5 wonderful people to talk to. We all got to know each other pretty well on the 5 day tour, we could turn the music up loud, tell jokes and funny stories, it was a great time. There was Chris the driver, a young guy from Queensland, a girl from France, a Canadian, a guy from Pennsylvania, and then me and Donald. We stopped in the Shire of York for a quick break and rode this wombat at the local park. Then it was the home stretch into Perth where we were all dropped off at our hostels after saying goodbye and hugging it out! The whole trip was really great. It was mostly all extremely beautiful scenery, plenty of beaches, good conversation, some interesting laughs, and really nice weather. We saw some great wildlife as well. I saw lots of wild kangaroos and wallabies, which I really hadn’t much yet. I also saw tons of wild emus! They are crazy animals. Lizards and birds that were new to me were also pretty cool. Much of the land we went through was farmland as well, so sheep and cows were everywhere, and Chris honked at them the whole way! There were hardly any cars on the road the whole trip, there aren’t many people, or really much of anything at all, out in Western Australia. But it is absolutely beautiful country and I’m so glad I got a chance to see it. Donald and I found a souvenir shop in the mall nearby in Perth, as well as a good fast food chicken place for dinner. It was going to be another early morning and long day ahead!
Donald and I were at the airport early and he was the first to leave as he was headed back to Melbourne. I waited for quite awhile so I called my parents and got online since I hadn’t all week. I wasted time well before my flight to Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. I missed my shuttle by about three minutes because it took awhile to get luggage, so I had to wait another hour before heading into the city, it wasn’t worth it to me to get a cab. So I checked into my hostel, wow was that a great place to stay. Not. It was a pokies/bar/bottle shop downstairs and you had to show them your key and they let you in the door to go upstairs. It was on about the only really bad street in town, though right on the edge. However, it was cheap as, only $16 a night, so it wasn’t too big a surprise for me. The location really couldn’t have been better though. I was a street away from everything I was there to see, so I could walk everywhere. Anyway, I went out right away since there were only a couple hours of daylight left. I headed over to the botanic gardens for a bit before walking back and running into the Woolworth’s to grab some muffins for breakfast and Shapes for a snack to carry with me. Boy do I miss Shapes, I could really go for some Pizza ones right now. Anyway, right across the street from my hostel were a whole bunch of fast food places, so I came back there to eat dinner before heading in for the night. I ate at Nando’s, Australia’s most amazing chicken place, I wish we had some here. It was dark then so I went in. That part was sort of no fun because since it was winter, it was dark by about 5:30, not giving me a whole lot of time, and way too much time inside alone. I guess that’s the price of travelling alone as a female. Well, at least for me, some girls went out, but I didn’t feel comfortable doing that. Anyway, I just wrote and read a lot every night. The next morning was my full day in Adelaide. I got up and around early to go to church. I went to the oldest church in the state, the Anglican church a few blocks away. It was gorgeous inside and interesting to go to an Anglican service, I’ve never been to one of those churches before, it was really good. I headed back to explore the botanic gardens a little more. It was going good until this creepy man walked by me. He turned around and started following me for a few minutes. I stopped to see if he would keep walking and I was just crazy, but he stopped and kept watching me, even when I kept looking at him. It really freaked me out, especially since nobody was really around. I started walking towards the main path with him still following, thinking of how I could use my umbrella as a weapon, when I think God sent me a man who worked in the gardens who walked by and I could follow him to safety. The guy stopped following me once another man was around. It freaked me out quite a bit, and made me a hundred times more cautious than I already was. But nothing bad happened thankfully. So I left then and headed back through the mall and cafés before grabbing lunch. Then I visited the old and new Parliament houses before seeing the War Memorial. I stopped in the South Australia Museum for awhile, pretty uninteresting for the most part, but still worth visiting. Next I went into the Art Gallery of South Australia where I saw some great paintings and other art. My favourite was seeing Eros, the cupid, it was gorgeous. These were all on the same street a block from my hostel. I headed over to Ayers House, Henry Ayers that is, for whom Ayers Rock is named. That was pretty cool, very enjoyable. It’s just an old mansion but it was gorgeous and I got a personal tour. The old lady just volunteers but they give tours to everyone who comes in and she was fabulous, it was like talking with a grandma or something, quite nice. I needed that after my day all alone, travelling gets awfully lonely really, so to have some nice conversation was great. I stopped at a souvenir shop, and on to see Town Hall and Victoria Square real quick before it got dark. That night wasn’t so great, McDonald’s for dinner before heading in for the night. I had free internet at the hostel, so that helped pass time a little. I was quite lonely after only two days. It just wasn’t good timing dealing with all the emotions of leaving and going home. The next morning I walked out to the Adelaide Oval for a tour. It was recommended to me by one of my favourite housemates and I didn’t have anything left to see, so I figured why not. It was a great way to experience some of Australia and their culture. It’s the cricket ground, a little boring, but very historical so it was actually pretty cool even if I didn’t understand it all. Then it was back to the hostel to check out and head to the airport for my flight to Canberra, the capital of the country, in the Australian Capital Territory.
My last stop that completed my visiting every state and territory in Australia was to Canberra! It wasn’t a very exciting town, in any capacity, but worth seeing I suppose. There was really not much of anything there, including people. I was glad I only really had one full day there and an evening and morning. When I landed I got the shuttle into the city and settled into my hostel, a YHA, and I was so happy to be there. A clean, new, very nice hostel for not much money, I love YHA. I could finally take a shower and actually feel clean, the sheets seemed ultra clean, and the rooms where pretty new and lacking that stale, damp odor and feeling, how fabulous! Plus, this one was really nice, there was a TV in the room! That made the whole travelling alone and being stuck inside all night much better! Anyway, that was nice to have that. I didn’t want to deal with trying to ind my way around the city because it was definitely not made for walking around, and the busses seemed a little confusing. I was tired of planning everything myself by then so I decided to sign up for this day bus tour that took you to the major attractions and gave you a couple hours at a few of them before it picked you up again. I didn’t know quite what to expect but didn’t care as long as I was going to the Australian War Memorial, really the only thing I truly wanted to see before I left. So I didn’t have to get up til late, it was nice to sleep in a little. The bus came to pick us up right from the hostel and we were on our way. Our first stop was the War Memorial. I made friends with a guy, Andy, on the bus tour. He was about my age and also travelling alone but from New Zealand. I hadn’t actually met anyone from New Zealand, or if they were they had been in Australia for many years, so it was difficult to get used to his accent which was a little bit different somehow. It was really great to have a friend for the day though, we checked out all the sites together and talked some. So anyway, the war memorial was really awesome, I definitely could’ve spent a lot more time there. There were exhibits on WWI and WWII as well as a big exhibit on aircraft in wars and such. Then they had the tomb of the unknown soldier and the honour hall or something like that, on either side there were walls with everyone’s name who had served in all different wars with the eternal flame in the middle. It was pretty spectacular. From there we headed down Anzac Parade, which you can see straight from the memorial down across the lake to the old and new Parliament buildings, it’s pretty cool. Along the Parade there were different war memorials to specific wars and groups of people. We had a short stop at the Captain Cook memorial fountain, it shot 90m into the air and made a rainbow as it fell over the lake. That was pretty. From there we went down to this road with a bunch of flags on it and drove past the old Parliament house before heading to the New Parliament building to stop in for a couple hours and have a look around. I went on the free guided tour so I could actually learn a little something about it. That was really pretty interesting. It was awesome to get to see everything, the Senate and House chambers and such. The guide told us all about what happens and when they meet and where people sit, it was cool. The building itself was neat as well with some interesting architecture and a huge flagpole thing over the top. After this the driver took us through the part of the city where all the embassies are. They all are sort of decorated or built like their home country so that was cool. Of course ours was the biggest one on the biggest plot of land with the most security, a little funny. Our last stop of the day was at the Australian Museum. This building was absolutely incredible, I loved it. The museum wasn’t as wonderful, but still pretty good I guess. Overall, a good day, a good way to see the city even if there wasn’t much of it there to see. There was more I could’ve gone to visit, but I didn’t feel like I really missed out on anything, as long as I saw the memorial! So I got some food at the mall around the corner for dinner and headed in for some TV and chatting with the other girl in my room. She was interesting, and quite the talker! But that was nice. I called it an early night since I had to get up early to go to the airport and head back to Melbourne! I was glad to get back there and be with my friends! My last trip was definitely well worth it, and a wonderful experience, but the last 5 days got lonely for sure. It was an experience I’ll never forget and definitely taught me some things, I felt quite independent. I can make it alone in a foreign country! I saw some good sights and met some cool people, so that was awesome. And I’m glad I got to see three more different cities in the very diverse country of Australia! It was a pleasure.
The past couple of weeks have sure been busy. I had to pack up all my stuff at home, and then come to pack a few things left at my old apartment with my roommate Amanda. Then we moved into our new house with our new roommate Kelsey. We moved her stuff into a U-Haul, and then out of it, then moved our stuff into the U-Haul, and out, and then more of our stuff in and out. We also had to get a whole carload of stuff our of my car, Amanda’s car, and Mom’s van. It was a long day! A couple of Kelsey’s guy friends helped us to move the couches and heavy stuff, but they had other things to do so we had to do most all of the moving. It was a workout, especially in the heat! The very next day I headed to Salina in the afternoon to meet Mark so we could drive out to Ness City for the wedding! We got there Thursday night and worked a little bit on the programs before calling it a night. We got up early and went to the Legion Hall to decorate for the reception. That was another long day! There were maybe 10 of us working on it all day to make it pretty, and that we did. That night was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner following. That was a fabulous meal and nice to have everyone together. Saturday morning started early as well, but we were all very excited, Wedding Day!! We all got our hair done and headed to the church for a bite to eat before getting all ready. Then it was time to get Talicia ready and do our own makeup and such. She was absolutely gorgeous and ran off for pictures. We had to hurry and get all dressed and ready for pictures ourselves. Pictures took a bit longer than planned, but it was all okay. It was then wedding time! Everyone looked great and the ceremony was beautiful. I was so happy for my big brother! We left in the pickups and after awhile went to the reception to eat and start the party! It was a wonderful evening with everyone and I couldn’t be happier for Mark and Talicia. Now I’m back in Manhattan trying to settle into our house and everything. It’s such a cute house and bonding time with my roomies has been fabulous!!
So, that is my last trip across Australia, my last couple weeks there, as well as the last week or so here! It was great. I’ll be happy to show you pictures anytime, or talk about it more if you care to. I miss it so much a lot of the time, I feel bad for talking about it so much at times! But it really did leave a huge imprint on my life and quite a positive one. I’ve been busy though since I’ve been home, and that has also been positive for the most part. I know I’m super blessed and that’s awesome. I still can’t believe I actually got to do that and live my dream, I actually experienced all that! It almost feels like a dream. I’m so happy it was real. I guess that’s all I have for updates! I hope you all are doing well and enjoying this beautiful life. I hope to see you soon! Until then keep smiling and read these quotes!
Let us not be content to wait and see what will happen, but give us the determination to make the right things happen. Peter Marshall
Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ~Colossians 3:12
Let’s agree to use all our energy in getting along with each other. Help others with encouraging words; don’t drag them down by finding fault. Romans 14:19
No matter how small and unimportant what we are doing may seem, if we do it well, it may soon become the step that will lead us to better things. Channing Pollock
Love always, Alissa
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Changes
Hi! The adjusting continues, as I think it will for quite some time. Mostly I’m fully back, but I think of the people and things in Australia every single day. I keep noticing some little things, more differences. My eyes are opened in a whole new way, I see things here that I never noticed before. Some good, some bad. I’m still randomly thinking of things I really liked about Australia as well. It’s strange, that’s for sure, the whole experience. Feelings you can’t really imagine or describe.
One thing I randomly miss about Aus, is that in their regular Skittles, the green one isn’t lime, it’s green apple!! I never eat the lime ones here unless I have nobody around to share with, so I was alone once with a bag there and had to eat the green ones - I was pleasantly surprised! Weird, I know, but it’s something. It is nice to see soooo much green around here, really something compared to draught ridden Australia! I don’t like the vast amounts of overly large vehicles however, I don’t think most people need them, they do too much damage and quite frankly get in the way and annoy me! Dr. Pepper is nice to have again, as well as wild cherry Pepsi! They don’t have either there, everyone is revolted by DP for some reason. It’s also nice to not wear shower shoes, although our units, even the bathrooms, were really quite fabulous. I still have to look at the money, it’s strange. Most of the time I’m fine, but the other day I accidentally gave the lady a 5 and 1 instead of two 1’s and had to slowly count out change. Oh well, I guess anyone could do that. I miss seeing the beautiful sky so so much. It’s amazing. The night sky especially, you can see a million stars, even right on res, it’s absolutely incredible. I could look up forever, it was so awesome! Especially in KC you can really only see a small handful of stars! Even in the country it really doesn’t compare to the southern hemisphere’s sky, I don’t think! I don’t know, I suppose I should stop, I’m making myself sad! I miss all of it so much, just being there. I was in Australia! I really want to go back, and I totally would for a visit over winter break, if I had the money, that’s the only thing stopping me really. Mostly, it is still the people I miss above everything else, without them it wouldn’t have been anywhere close the experience it was! It makes it seem lonely here, not seeing so many friends every single day, that part really makes me excited for getting back up to Manhattan, even though it will be different.
I’ve realized how much I really love writing and reading, and words in general. I wish I were better, some people really have a talent for putting words together that just work so well and sound almost like music or something, even in just a plain old sentence. I’m not sure where this came from, I guess I did a lot more of both this past semester compared to usual. I also absolutely love history, always have. It can tell you so much. I was able to learn a lot of Australian history, even though it’s a young country. I think I know more about the country than a lot of them do! Communication also interests me, kind of goes along with words. How important it all is. People can totally misread things because our words are always so inadequate compared to our thoughts. Even with our huge vocabulary, words don’t do thoughts justice much of the time. The miscommunication is huge since we all interpret words differently, and it can cause problems if we aren’t careful and don’t realize this. It’s also kind of crazy how much stuff I have. I especially notice it after only having two big suitcases of stuff for the past five months, most of it being pretty much essentials. That makes me think why do I have so much junk?! I was fine with what I had for those five months for the most part. Sure every once in awhile I wished I had that shirt or that purse or something, but I have a lot more than even that and I’m not sure why. I guess it runs in the family, holding on to things and having trouble throwing away. Well I’m trying to let go of some of it, as I have for a couple years really. I really don’t know where any of this came from, it’s really not as interesting now that I’m back.
I’m still in the process of writing about my trip, just thought I’d write a little bit more about being home. I’ve been keeping myself fairly busy, although I really miss the money, it’s been so nice to not have to work and let myself get back to normal instead. It has also allowed me to spend time with lots of people which is always good. I talked with my roommate some and we met up for dinner one night which was fabulous! I can’t wait for us to move into our house, with our other roommate! Saturday I went up to Manhattan for the day because Mark and Matt were going to play golf so I thought I’d go along and play for a few hours while I waited for them. That was really nice to drive there and back and get 4 hours alone with Matt, I don’t know the last time I’ve spent so much time with either of my brothers! I’m sure it was tough on him, but I enjoyed it! And while I was there I got to spend time with Carly which always awesome. We talked and went to the pool for awhile and got slushies, all good things. When I came back to KC that evening I met my friend Donald, who I met in Australia but goes to KSU, for dinner at Bravo. That was nice to catch up with someone else and talk about Oz for awhile. Mom picked up the new, and last, Harry Potter book on Saturday so I’ve already read all of that! It was fabulous and kept me busy for a couple days! Now I’m looking forward to a couple Royal’s games, seeing more friends, packing up and moving into our new house, Mark and Talicia’s wedding, heading back to school, and Jess coming to KC in August. Oh, and getting to see my wonderful baby boy, Oliver, again(don’t worry, he’s my hamster)!
Okay, I’ll let you get back to your lives now and keep working on my interesting, exciting retelling of my last trip through Australia! And maybe soon I’ll have a wonderful slideshow of all my pictures ready for your viewing pleasure if you’d like to see them. It’s hard to drastically cut down from 13,000 pictures to something people might actually want to sit through! So just let me know, I’ll be happy to share them. Hope you all are doing fabulously and things continue to be positive. Again, I hope to see you (again) soon. Take care of each other and don’t forget to smile at the world! Quote time:
What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope for the meaning of life. ~Heinrich Emil Brunner
When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life. ~Jean Shinoda Bolen
The really great man is the man who makes every man feel great. ~G.K. Chesterton
Love, Alissa
One thing I randomly miss about Aus, is that in their regular Skittles, the green one isn’t lime, it’s green apple!! I never eat the lime ones here unless I have nobody around to share with, so I was alone once with a bag there and had to eat the green ones - I was pleasantly surprised! Weird, I know, but it’s something. It is nice to see soooo much green around here, really something compared to draught ridden Australia! I don’t like the vast amounts of overly large vehicles however, I don’t think most people need them, they do too much damage and quite frankly get in the way and annoy me! Dr. Pepper is nice to have again, as well as wild cherry Pepsi! They don’t have either there, everyone is revolted by DP for some reason. It’s also nice to not wear shower shoes, although our units, even the bathrooms, were really quite fabulous. I still have to look at the money, it’s strange. Most of the time I’m fine, but the other day I accidentally gave the lady a 5 and 1 instead of two 1’s and had to slowly count out change. Oh well, I guess anyone could do that. I miss seeing the beautiful sky so so much. It’s amazing. The night sky especially, you can see a million stars, even right on res, it’s absolutely incredible. I could look up forever, it was so awesome! Especially in KC you can really only see a small handful of stars! Even in the country it really doesn’t compare to the southern hemisphere’s sky, I don’t think! I don’t know, I suppose I should stop, I’m making myself sad! I miss all of it so much, just being there. I was in Australia! I really want to go back, and I totally would for a visit over winter break, if I had the money, that’s the only thing stopping me really. Mostly, it is still the people I miss above everything else, without them it wouldn’t have been anywhere close the experience it was! It makes it seem lonely here, not seeing so many friends every single day, that part really makes me excited for getting back up to Manhattan, even though it will be different.
I’ve realized how much I really love writing and reading, and words in general. I wish I were better, some people really have a talent for putting words together that just work so well and sound almost like music or something, even in just a plain old sentence. I’m not sure where this came from, I guess I did a lot more of both this past semester compared to usual. I also absolutely love history, always have. It can tell you so much. I was able to learn a lot of Australian history, even though it’s a young country. I think I know more about the country than a lot of them do! Communication also interests me, kind of goes along with words. How important it all is. People can totally misread things because our words are always so inadequate compared to our thoughts. Even with our huge vocabulary, words don’t do thoughts justice much of the time. The miscommunication is huge since we all interpret words differently, and it can cause problems if we aren’t careful and don’t realize this. It’s also kind of crazy how much stuff I have. I especially notice it after only having two big suitcases of stuff for the past five months, most of it being pretty much essentials. That makes me think why do I have so much junk?! I was fine with what I had for those five months for the most part. Sure every once in awhile I wished I had that shirt or that purse or something, but I have a lot more than even that and I’m not sure why. I guess it runs in the family, holding on to things and having trouble throwing away. Well I’m trying to let go of some of it, as I have for a couple years really. I really don’t know where any of this came from, it’s really not as interesting now that I’m back.
I’m still in the process of writing about my trip, just thought I’d write a little bit more about being home. I’ve been keeping myself fairly busy, although I really miss the money, it’s been so nice to not have to work and let myself get back to normal instead. It has also allowed me to spend time with lots of people which is always good. I talked with my roommate some and we met up for dinner one night which was fabulous! I can’t wait for us to move into our house, with our other roommate! Saturday I went up to Manhattan for the day because Mark and Matt were going to play golf so I thought I’d go along and play for a few hours while I waited for them. That was really nice to drive there and back and get 4 hours alone with Matt, I don’t know the last time I’ve spent so much time with either of my brothers! I’m sure it was tough on him, but I enjoyed it! And while I was there I got to spend time with Carly which always awesome. We talked and went to the pool for awhile and got slushies, all good things. When I came back to KC that evening I met my friend Donald, who I met in Australia but goes to KSU, for dinner at Bravo. That was nice to catch up with someone else and talk about Oz for awhile. Mom picked up the new, and last, Harry Potter book on Saturday so I’ve already read all of that! It was fabulous and kept me busy for a couple days! Now I’m looking forward to a couple Royal’s games, seeing more friends, packing up and moving into our new house, Mark and Talicia’s wedding, heading back to school, and Jess coming to KC in August. Oh, and getting to see my wonderful baby boy, Oliver, again(don’t worry, he’s my hamster)!
Okay, I’ll let you get back to your lives now and keep working on my interesting, exciting retelling of my last trip through Australia! And maybe soon I’ll have a wonderful slideshow of all my pictures ready for your viewing pleasure if you’d like to see them. It’s hard to drastically cut down from 13,000 pictures to something people might actually want to sit through! So just let me know, I’ll be happy to share them. Hope you all are doing fabulously and things continue to be positive. Again, I hope to see you (again) soon. Take care of each other and don’t forget to smile at the world! Quote time:
What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope for the meaning of life. ~Heinrich Emil Brunner
When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life. ~Jean Shinoda Bolen
The really great man is the man who makes every man feel great. ~G.K. Chesterton
Love, Alissa
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Reflections
Hey everyone! Life in the states…something to get used to! I’ve been adjusting alright, now things are starting to be more normal. There are so many things that I miss about Australia. There are so many things that I love about being home. It makes for some strange feelings. So I’m still going to put off my recounting of my last trip in Oz. Instead, here comes much that has been floating around in my head and heart since being home!
So, yes, I miss Australia. Heaps! Mostly, it’s the people. I miss all the Aussies, as well as all the Americans - they are some pretty amazing friends. Many of the Americans have all talked about different times and places we could get together, so that’s nice. I can’t wait to get back up to Manhattan and at least have a few friends that were with me in Oz. In January Jared is coming here for a year, so that is something to look forward to and at least I know I’ll see one of the Aussies! I’ve been able to keep in touch pretty well on Myspace and Facebook, as well as email and MSN messenger. Technology is amazing when it comes to keeping in touch around the world!! Between that and keeping myself busy, it’s been alright so far. It’s strange to not see my housemates every day, though. There are so many small things I miss and think of all the time. The food is a big one, namely fish and chips, meat pies, sweet chilli and sour cream chips, Shapes, and Big M Mochas. I definitely miss the clubs and going out, it was soooo much fun. I also miss the accents and different phrases that nobody understands here. I miss walking everywhere, and the beeping walk signals on the streets. I miss the beautiful sunsets, although we have had some good ones here lately. I miss campus and my unit, Evatt 1. I miss the magpies and other birds, I never thought I’d actually say that! Those annoying birds don‘t shut up, but they’re pretty cool really. I miss the lack of humidity compared to here. I really miss being so close to the water. Sometimes I wish I could see the TV commercials, they have some funny ones - "paid for by Australian Government Canberra." I miss seeing gum trees everywhere, and all the other plants there that aren’t here. Really, it is mostly the people. My friends there were amazing, and so fun to be around. It almost feels really lonely now not having them around all the time. On top of my friends, it’s the people of Australia in general. Everyone, everywhere I went, was friendly and happy. The concept of mate is absolutely amazing, and something I wish we had in this country. Everyone considers you a friend, that they will look out for and stand up for, unless you do something to really warrant their disliking you. It’s nice. I also miss the slower, easier pace of life, the no worries way of living. Although I’m trying to live that way anyway, the rest of the country doesn’t as much. I don’t know, there are a bunch of little things I think about every day that I miss, the past 5 months have really been amazing. Being in Australia, and with those people, made me so happy. I really got to live my lifelong dream. How many people can say that. And at only 21 years old. That’s amazing. I’m so lucky, and I love that I got to do this.
There are some great things about being home as well. It is so wonderful to get to see all my family and friends again. It’s nice that after 5 months it still feels like I was never gone with all of them, we go back to normal. I’ve never been able to see or talk to almost all of my family and all of my friends in less than two weeks. It’s fabulous to be able to do that! I love spending time with the people that mean the most to me and it’s amazing that I get to do that so much now, and that they all want to see me and talk to me! That makes being home great and totally worth it. Also, it’s been so nice to be able to drive!! Driving was a bit difficult, just because every time I was turning I felt like turning onto the “wrong” side of the road. It was especially hard to get used to it when there were no other cars on the road and I really had to think to myself, okay, the right side! It feels great to be behind the wheel singing to my music. It’s also nice to have home-cooked meals, as well as the restaurants I’ve missed while I was gone. Food is great! And nothing beats American beef! This may sound weird, but I’ve really enjoyed having carpet to walk on! I wasn’t on real carpet for five months, and I like laying on the floor! Our units had that industrial square carpet you know, not comfortable. The warm weather has really felt good, to have the sun shining and everything. I was getting tired of rain! There’s a certain smell to home too, and that’s comforting. It’s nice to have free unlimited internet as well. Although I haven’t watched much, our TV is also much better for the most part. I’ve enjoyed seeing squirrels around, I’ve missed them! I still get confused every once in awhile when I go to flush the toilet and I have to laugh, I still want to go push the button on top instead of push the lever! Haha. It’s been hard to get used to the money again, especially the coins. I’ve had to really look at them and count it out, people must think I’m stupid! Australian money is much nicer though, the coins are sized as their worth, as are the bills, which are also different colors - makes things much easier. The accents sound more obvious to me as well, and almost seem harsh at times. I really don’t like the word trash, sounds just like it means - rubbish suits me better I reckon! I haven’t been using many Aussie phrases just because I am thinking about it and trying not to because nobody knows what I’m saying! I was talking quickly and not thinking and asked Kirby “How ya goin?” and he was confused, had to stutter! So I try not to confuse people, but it just comes so naturally still for me to say things like that. I still really want to say ta for thank you as well. Again, with being home, it’s mostly the people that make it good.
I know that I am a hugely changed person after these five months around the world. Whether you can see it or not, inside me I’m totally different in some ways. So much has happened to me, and it all affected me in countless ways. I think definitely better, though I’m still dealing with a lot of ways I need to improve. I don’t know if I even completely understand everything about me now, so I don’t think I can put everything in words - but I do know a few things. I’m so much stronger, more than you can know. I can handle what life throws at me. I’m a tough cookie and proud of myself for that. I don’t put up with people as much, you’re not going to walk all over me anymore. I may seem more aggressive or something, it’s just that I say what’s on my mind more. I don’t hide as much of anything as I used to, even the positive. I guess I’ve become more open and honest with everyone. I know I have become a lot happier and sillier, while at the same time becoming much more serious. It’s all depending on the subject or my mood or whatever, but I’ve become much more of both sides, and I think that’s good. I feel so much older and wiser, definitely cultured and travelled, even though it was only one English speaking culture. It does wonders. My eyes, and my mind, have never been more open. It opens your whole world that way too. That’s a happy thought I think. It allows for so much more growth. Every experience gives you something you didn’t have before, so I’ve gained loads of stuff! Another contradictory thought, I think I’ve become much more selfish and much more giving. I guess I have learned to be even more independent and alone, and thus do more for and with myself. But also, I think I’ve started wanting to do even more for people, it brings me so much satisfaction. If I can’t do so much for the people I was used to, then I wanted to for more people. I know you can’t fully comprehend what I’m saying here, and the magnitude of what I’ve been through personally, but it’s pretty incredible. I couldn’t ask for much more. I’ve also become more outgoing, and heaps more confident. I know how worthy I am, and that’s a lot. I know I’m capable of so much. I know who I am and who I still want to be. I’m not as afraid of many things as I was before. Do you think there are enough “I”s in this post?!? Anyway, I have changed immensely, in such wonderful ways.
I’m extremely lucky and I love all that has happened to me abroad. It was definitely life changing in a most positive way that you probably can’t quite grasp unless you’ve been through it. I couldn’t even until it happened, in every stage. I love the friends I made and random people I met, the food I tried, the adventures I went on, the places and wonders of nature I got the privilege to see, the paths I walked, the little everyday things of living there. Everything about the past five months has meant something huge to me. It kind of makes life here seem dull, but home is always home. Although, I’ve lived my dream, it kind of makes me think what now, where now. How do you beat the highest high, you know? It has been interesting, and will continue to be as I keep getting used to life back here and find out what the future holds. If you ask me “how was Australia?” I will simply say amazing. I don’t know what else to say, there is way too much, I can’t even answer that question for you. If you start asking me questions about it, I will tell you everything, and keep on going until you stop me. I could talk for days about everything if you wanted to hear it all. I love when people are interested in my time there. It is so important to me and such a huge part of me now. So don’t think I don’t have much to say when I only say it was amazing, I just can’t even begin to describe it!
My welcome home to KC was SOOO much better than the welcome at LAX! My mom, dad, brothers and their fiances, grandma, aunt, uncle, and two cousins were there!! It was wonderful. It made me feel so happy. When the plane landed it felt good, I was HOME. I couldn’t stop smiling, but I also felt a bit nervous! Jenny and I were talking about how excited we were while we waited to get off and everyone was curious about where we’d been and for how long and stuff, so that was funny to talk to everyone about it. It was like they were all welcoming us home as well! Anyway, it was a fabulous welcoming. Then I had a delicious meal waiting for me at home. The next day I got to go over to my other aunt and uncle’s house to see a few of my cousins. That was a great time as well, so nice to see everyone right away and spend time with family! Matt and Laura showed off their home and cooked a wonderful meal the next night as well. Then I got to see my good friend Matt that first week and go on an ice cream date with him, one of my favourite outings! I also got to see Rob and Albert, a wonderful time. I went out to visit my Grandma in Belton one day. My roommate got back from Italy and I got to talk to her some which was amazing! Last weekend I went up to Manhattan Friday afternoon to take care of some business with our old apartment and new house and my scholarships. That was good to get all that done. Then I went to hang out with Kirby all night! We went out in Aggieville with my friend Brian and some of their friends. That was a fabulous time as it was only my second time out in Manhattan since I turned 21 the end of the semester and then left! Then Saturday morning I didn’t do anything before going to get some lunch and using the library to get on the internet for awhile before it was time to go to Talicia’s bridal shower! I was happy she had one after I got back so I could make it. That was great fun, good to see everyone again. Then we had her bachelorette party. That was a blast!! We played some games and talked and laughed, great stuff. Sunday I went over and got to see one of my best friends after about 7 months!!! Carly is living in Manhattan so that was fabulous to hang out with her a little bit. Then Kirby and I went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix!!! How exciting! It was good, though I thought could’ve been much better, didn’t leave me as excited as the others, and it was worse than usual next to the book I thought, but still very entertaining and enjoyable. Now I have to wait a couple days for the last book!! Yippee. We got some Sonic and I went over to see Carly a little longer. Then I headed off to Lawrence to see Motion City Soundtrack in concert with Virginia. Well we were stupid and didn’t get tickets early and they just happened to be sold out, so that sucked. But I had a great night anyway. We walked around a bit and ate some dinner before meeting up with Rob and talking for awhile. Then Rob and I got ice cream before I had to head back home. It was great to see them, sometimes the friends who’ve known you the longest are the best as they’ve proven they’ll stick around! Anyway, it was a great weekend. I haven’t done a whole lot since then. My mom and I went out to eat with Elise and her mom, that was a good time. I got to talk to a bunch of my aussie friends online the other day. That was really great. And Alex called me to talk and totally made my day! I’m almost totally back to normal as far as unpacking and putting things away. My sleeping and eating are getting closer to being back to normal. My life is changing and slowly finding its rhythm again.
So I guess that’s all for now. Sometime soon another one will come with tales of a last adventure in Oz. Maybe another post someday, telling you more how I’ve adjusted. We’ll see, you never know, keep you all in anticipation, such an exciting life I have! Okay, so I hope I will see you soon if I haven’t yet, or I will see you again soon. Hope things are happy with you and you’re still smiling. Have a wonderful day! And read my final quotes first!
Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly. Dr. Robert Schuller
When a goal matters enough to a person, that person will find a way to accomplish what at first seemed impossible. Nido Qubein
True success is overcoming the fear of being unsuccessful. Author Unknown
Have courage, and be strong. 1 Corinthians 16:13
Love, Alissa
So, yes, I miss Australia. Heaps! Mostly, it’s the people. I miss all the Aussies, as well as all the Americans - they are some pretty amazing friends. Many of the Americans have all talked about different times and places we could get together, so that’s nice. I can’t wait to get back up to Manhattan and at least have a few friends that were with me in Oz. In January Jared is coming here for a year, so that is something to look forward to and at least I know I’ll see one of the Aussies! I’ve been able to keep in touch pretty well on Myspace and Facebook, as well as email and MSN messenger. Technology is amazing when it comes to keeping in touch around the world!! Between that and keeping myself busy, it’s been alright so far. It’s strange to not see my housemates every day, though. There are so many small things I miss and think of all the time. The food is a big one, namely fish and chips, meat pies, sweet chilli and sour cream chips, Shapes, and Big M Mochas. I definitely miss the clubs and going out, it was soooo much fun. I also miss the accents and different phrases that nobody understands here. I miss walking everywhere, and the beeping walk signals on the streets. I miss the beautiful sunsets, although we have had some good ones here lately. I miss campus and my unit, Evatt 1. I miss the magpies and other birds, I never thought I’d actually say that! Those annoying birds don‘t shut up, but they’re pretty cool really. I miss the lack of humidity compared to here. I really miss being so close to the water. Sometimes I wish I could see the TV commercials, they have some funny ones - "paid for by Australian Government Canberra." I miss seeing gum trees everywhere, and all the other plants there that aren’t here. Really, it is mostly the people. My friends there were amazing, and so fun to be around. It almost feels really lonely now not having them around all the time. On top of my friends, it’s the people of Australia in general. Everyone, everywhere I went, was friendly and happy. The concept of mate is absolutely amazing, and something I wish we had in this country. Everyone considers you a friend, that they will look out for and stand up for, unless you do something to really warrant their disliking you. It’s nice. I also miss the slower, easier pace of life, the no worries way of living. Although I’m trying to live that way anyway, the rest of the country doesn’t as much. I don’t know, there are a bunch of little things I think about every day that I miss, the past 5 months have really been amazing. Being in Australia, and with those people, made me so happy. I really got to live my lifelong dream. How many people can say that. And at only 21 years old. That’s amazing. I’m so lucky, and I love that I got to do this.
There are some great things about being home as well. It is so wonderful to get to see all my family and friends again. It’s nice that after 5 months it still feels like I was never gone with all of them, we go back to normal. I’ve never been able to see or talk to almost all of my family and all of my friends in less than two weeks. It’s fabulous to be able to do that! I love spending time with the people that mean the most to me and it’s amazing that I get to do that so much now, and that they all want to see me and talk to me! That makes being home great and totally worth it. Also, it’s been so nice to be able to drive!! Driving was a bit difficult, just because every time I was turning I felt like turning onto the “wrong” side of the road. It was especially hard to get used to it when there were no other cars on the road and I really had to think to myself, okay, the right side! It feels great to be behind the wheel singing to my music. It’s also nice to have home-cooked meals, as well as the restaurants I’ve missed while I was gone. Food is great! And nothing beats American beef! This may sound weird, but I’ve really enjoyed having carpet to walk on! I wasn’t on real carpet for five months, and I like laying on the floor! Our units had that industrial square carpet you know, not comfortable. The warm weather has really felt good, to have the sun shining and everything. I was getting tired of rain! There’s a certain smell to home too, and that’s comforting. It’s nice to have free unlimited internet as well. Although I haven’t watched much, our TV is also much better for the most part. I’ve enjoyed seeing squirrels around, I’ve missed them! I still get confused every once in awhile when I go to flush the toilet and I have to laugh, I still want to go push the button on top instead of push the lever! Haha. It’s been hard to get used to the money again, especially the coins. I’ve had to really look at them and count it out, people must think I’m stupid! Australian money is much nicer though, the coins are sized as their worth, as are the bills, which are also different colors - makes things much easier. The accents sound more obvious to me as well, and almost seem harsh at times. I really don’t like the word trash, sounds just like it means - rubbish suits me better I reckon! I haven’t been using many Aussie phrases just because I am thinking about it and trying not to because nobody knows what I’m saying! I was talking quickly and not thinking and asked Kirby “How ya goin?” and he was confused, had to stutter! So I try not to confuse people, but it just comes so naturally still for me to say things like that. I still really want to say ta for thank you as well. Again, with being home, it’s mostly the people that make it good.
I know that I am a hugely changed person after these five months around the world. Whether you can see it or not, inside me I’m totally different in some ways. So much has happened to me, and it all affected me in countless ways. I think definitely better, though I’m still dealing with a lot of ways I need to improve. I don’t know if I even completely understand everything about me now, so I don’t think I can put everything in words - but I do know a few things. I’m so much stronger, more than you can know. I can handle what life throws at me. I’m a tough cookie and proud of myself for that. I don’t put up with people as much, you’re not going to walk all over me anymore. I may seem more aggressive or something, it’s just that I say what’s on my mind more. I don’t hide as much of anything as I used to, even the positive. I guess I’ve become more open and honest with everyone. I know I have become a lot happier and sillier, while at the same time becoming much more serious. It’s all depending on the subject or my mood or whatever, but I’ve become much more of both sides, and I think that’s good. I feel so much older and wiser, definitely cultured and travelled, even though it was only one English speaking culture. It does wonders. My eyes, and my mind, have never been more open. It opens your whole world that way too. That’s a happy thought I think. It allows for so much more growth. Every experience gives you something you didn’t have before, so I’ve gained loads of stuff! Another contradictory thought, I think I’ve become much more selfish and much more giving. I guess I have learned to be even more independent and alone, and thus do more for and with myself. But also, I think I’ve started wanting to do even more for people, it brings me so much satisfaction. If I can’t do so much for the people I was used to, then I wanted to for more people. I know you can’t fully comprehend what I’m saying here, and the magnitude of what I’ve been through personally, but it’s pretty incredible. I couldn’t ask for much more. I’ve also become more outgoing, and heaps more confident. I know how worthy I am, and that’s a lot. I know I’m capable of so much. I know who I am and who I still want to be. I’m not as afraid of many things as I was before. Do you think there are enough “I”s in this post?!? Anyway, I have changed immensely, in such wonderful ways.
I’m extremely lucky and I love all that has happened to me abroad. It was definitely life changing in a most positive way that you probably can’t quite grasp unless you’ve been through it. I couldn’t even until it happened, in every stage. I love the friends I made and random people I met, the food I tried, the adventures I went on, the places and wonders of nature I got the privilege to see, the paths I walked, the little everyday things of living there. Everything about the past five months has meant something huge to me. It kind of makes life here seem dull, but home is always home. Although, I’ve lived my dream, it kind of makes me think what now, where now. How do you beat the highest high, you know? It has been interesting, and will continue to be as I keep getting used to life back here and find out what the future holds. If you ask me “how was Australia?” I will simply say amazing. I don’t know what else to say, there is way too much, I can’t even answer that question for you. If you start asking me questions about it, I will tell you everything, and keep on going until you stop me. I could talk for days about everything if you wanted to hear it all. I love when people are interested in my time there. It is so important to me and such a huge part of me now. So don’t think I don’t have much to say when I only say it was amazing, I just can’t even begin to describe it!
My welcome home to KC was SOOO much better than the welcome at LAX! My mom, dad, brothers and their fiances, grandma, aunt, uncle, and two cousins were there!! It was wonderful. It made me feel so happy. When the plane landed it felt good, I was HOME. I couldn’t stop smiling, but I also felt a bit nervous! Jenny and I were talking about how excited we were while we waited to get off and everyone was curious about where we’d been and for how long and stuff, so that was funny to talk to everyone about it. It was like they were all welcoming us home as well! Anyway, it was a fabulous welcoming. Then I had a delicious meal waiting for me at home. The next day I got to go over to my other aunt and uncle’s house to see a few of my cousins. That was a great time as well, so nice to see everyone right away and spend time with family! Matt and Laura showed off their home and cooked a wonderful meal the next night as well. Then I got to see my good friend Matt that first week and go on an ice cream date with him, one of my favourite outings! I also got to see Rob and Albert, a wonderful time. I went out to visit my Grandma in Belton one day. My roommate got back from Italy and I got to talk to her some which was amazing! Last weekend I went up to Manhattan Friday afternoon to take care of some business with our old apartment and new house and my scholarships. That was good to get all that done. Then I went to hang out with Kirby all night! We went out in Aggieville with my friend Brian and some of their friends. That was a fabulous time as it was only my second time out in Manhattan since I turned 21 the end of the semester and then left! Then Saturday morning I didn’t do anything before going to get some lunch and using the library to get on the internet for awhile before it was time to go to Talicia’s bridal shower! I was happy she had one after I got back so I could make it. That was great fun, good to see everyone again. Then we had her bachelorette party. That was a blast!! We played some games and talked and laughed, great stuff. Sunday I went over and got to see one of my best friends after about 7 months!!! Carly is living in Manhattan so that was fabulous to hang out with her a little bit. Then Kirby and I went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix!!! How exciting! It was good, though I thought could’ve been much better, didn’t leave me as excited as the others, and it was worse than usual next to the book I thought, but still very entertaining and enjoyable. Now I have to wait a couple days for the last book!! Yippee. We got some Sonic and I went over to see Carly a little longer. Then I headed off to Lawrence to see Motion City Soundtrack in concert with Virginia. Well we were stupid and didn’t get tickets early and they just happened to be sold out, so that sucked. But I had a great night anyway. We walked around a bit and ate some dinner before meeting up with Rob and talking for awhile. Then Rob and I got ice cream before I had to head back home. It was great to see them, sometimes the friends who’ve known you the longest are the best as they’ve proven they’ll stick around! Anyway, it was a great weekend. I haven’t done a whole lot since then. My mom and I went out to eat with Elise and her mom, that was a good time. I got to talk to a bunch of my aussie friends online the other day. That was really great. And Alex called me to talk and totally made my day! I’m almost totally back to normal as far as unpacking and putting things away. My sleeping and eating are getting closer to being back to normal. My life is changing and slowly finding its rhythm again.
So I guess that’s all for now. Sometime soon another one will come with tales of a last adventure in Oz. Maybe another post someday, telling you more how I’ve adjusted. We’ll see, you never know, keep you all in anticipation, such an exciting life I have! Okay, so I hope I will see you soon if I haven’t yet, or I will see you again soon. Hope things are happy with you and you’re still smiling. Have a wonderful day! And read my final quotes first!
Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly. Dr. Robert Schuller
When a goal matters enough to a person, that person will find a way to accomplish what at first seemed impossible. Nido Qubein
True success is overcoming the fear of being unsuccessful. Author Unknown
Have courage, and be strong. 1 Corinthians 16:13
Love, Alissa
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Leavin on a jet plane...
I’m in the US! Sitting here waiting in LAX, anxious to get home. This airport doesn’t give a very welcome home feeling - now that I’m in the same hemisphere I just want to be home. Soon enough. I’m sad and tired and not impressed with America. But hopefully that will change soon. I’ve been up for 22 hours and only slept an hour or so on the plane ride here, and I’ve got another 8 hours til I’m home! I don’t feel like recapping my travels the past two weeks at the moment, so I think that post will have to wait a few days. Maybe this will be a reflection, more emotional, since that’s how my mind is currently working. Although I could also include the past few days. I think I need food and a bed. I apologise in advance if my grammar is poor or I don’t make sense, forgive me.
So I got back to Melbourne on Wednesday, July 4. My flight from Canberra was delayed by an hour so that wasn’t too fun, but no biggie. I got into the city and checked into our hotel by 12 or 1 I think. Then I headed to Elizabeth St for some quick lunch and stopped by the Immigration Museum on my walk back. It was free for concession so I checked it out. The guy seemed weary of me having concession, but I showed him all my cards! The museum wasn’t that cool really, I wasn’t too interested I guess. It’s in the old Customs building though and that was a pretty cool building. I came back and waited in the hotel for the others to come. Jared picked up Loretta and her sister Martha from the airport and brought them in. I came out and we carried all our luggage in, that was fun, especially with our small room. It was so nice to have a real hotel room, especially with our own bathroom, a real treat! We headed out to happy hour at the Hard Rock Café as soon as we got settled. We just ordered drinks for a couple hours and talked and whatnot, it was a great time. We walked back toward the hotel, practically the entire central business district, and stopped for food at Lord of the Fries, yum! Jono came in on the train and was waiting in the hotel when we got back. We all just hung out in the boys’ hotel room for awhile before bed. The next morning we slept a little bit and repacked all our stuff for the trip home from our travelling. We didn’t have a specific plan for the day, but had some ideas. Our first stop was lunch at this café that had fish and chips, one last time before we left, and it was great! We went over to the Eureka tower, the tallest building, to go up to the top. They have the observation deck, but also this thing that’s all glass that sticks out over the edge and it’s opaque until you get over the edge then turns clear. Well for some reason that part was closed that day and we didn’t care as much to go up in it just to see, as Loretta and I have already done that in the Rialto towers. So we needed a Plan B. The boys wanted to check out the Crown Casino, so we walked all through in there without spending a dime. Then what to do. We weren’t sure, but thought we’d check out the IMAX. It was across the city, and had nothing good playing in the afternoon. So we wandered upstairs from the theatre to the Melbourne Museum, it was free for concession, but not adults. Martha was an adult and we didn’t think it would be worth paying to go in for her, so we left. Then we headed to the Aquarium across the city again and went in there. I had been there, but it was good. I enjoyed that and so did everyone else, even Jono who is scared of fish! After a couple hours there we headed back to the hotel to relax a bit and get ready for the evening. Jono had to catch the train home around 6, so we said goodbye to him at the corner 7-11, that was a difficult goodbye for us. Then we left for dinner at the Hard Rock Café and met Loretta‘s friend Elissa there. We got there in time for a couple happy hour drinks before dinner and then had a nice dinner. It was Loretta’s birthday, that’s why we went out nice and such. We made a reservation and so they put balloons on our table for her! They brought her an ice cream sundae for dessert with a candle and made her stand up and we all sang for her, good stuff. The Australian way of singing Happy Birthday is better than ours I reckon, they add hip hip, hooray three times at the end. We were going to take the free tram back rather than walk, but it didn’t come after half an hour so we decided to walk. There was some crazy girl walking around who must have been on drugs or something and yelled at us, it was strange. Elissa was shocked, she said she’s never seen someone like that in Melbourne, she’s from here, or there I guess I should say now. Anyway, interesting little bit there. So we walked home and relaxed and got ready for the morning and leaving before heading to bed. I had trouble getting to sleep because I had so much on my mind with leaving and coming home and such. I did eventually though.
This morning we woke up at 5:30am Melbourne time. We got ready and loaded our luggage into Jared’s car and were off to the airport, one last view of Melbourne. It was pretty sad. We got there in plenty of time and so waited for Jenny to arrive and check in. We found out that she was actually on a different flight than us to LAX, she was stopping in New Zealand first. But her and I are on the same flight back to KC. So Jared couldn’t go past the silver doors there so we waited for awhile. Then we had to say goodbye to him. That was a rough one as well, but made better by the fact that he’s coming to California in January for a year, yay! We went through customs and I got stopped and asked to weigh my carry on. They care what it weighs over there. It was definitely over, but I still had tears in my eyes so that helped, he let me go with it after a few minutes. So we got to our gate and each got a muffin for breakfast, I used the internet kiosk real quick and we were about ready to board then. They boarded us super fast which was impressive since that plane is sooooo huge! I was lucky with my seat, I was one away from the emergency exit and in the aisle, with a guy in the window seat but nobody between us. That made the 14 hour flight so much better since we could spread out a bit. I watched four and a half movies, and a couple TV shows as well as listened to a couple different CD’s. I fell asleep for an hour, maybe two, a little over half way through the flight. They fed us lunch when we got up in the air and it was actually pretty good. Then they gave us our snack packs and a couple times they walked around with juice for us. It was good service really. They served us breakfast before we started our landing and that was nice as well. Everything went well and we got off pretty quickly. We had to collect our baggage and take it through customs, although they didn’t do anything to it or check it at all. We just had to drop it in an area for the appropriate flight we were connecting to. Going through customs I had to answer that I was bringing in chocolate and stuff as the food. Then the second guy asked me how long I was out of the country and I said five months. He looked at me and said “Five months?! What were you doing gone for that long?” I told him I was studying and he just gave me this horrible look. He seemed to think it suspicious I was gone that long I guess. He asked why I was studying and what I studied. It was sort of like, have you never heard of people studying abroad buddy, it’s quite normal! He even made me show him my id card from uni, even though it doesn’t say anything on it and he doesn’t know anything about that anyway. I understand they have to ask questions, but who am I? I just studied in a different country, and he was so rude about it all, like I had done something wrong. It’s not a good way to come back into the country. The LA airport is not a friendly place. It makes me miss Australia. Plus, it’s so intimidating with all the intense security around here, it’s crazy compared to what I got used to over there! And it’s even worse than when I left here actually. They had to search through my bag and I felt a little violated, like the girl went through absolutely everything. She had a long look at my big block of chocolate as well, like it was hiding something, I’m like, it’s just chocolate! Anyway, just extra frustrating when you’re tired and sad and such. Makes me wonder though, it intimidates me who would never do anything, but to someone who would do something, would they really be intimidated enough by it? I don’t know, kinda strange the whole security issue, are they doing it as efficiently as possible. It all seems fairly unorganized and rushed as well. I guess I’ve just gotten so used to something different. I already miss the more relaxed lifestyle of Australia! I’ll just have to make it for myself. I really can’t wait to get home home now. That should be excellent.
And I know this is really short, but I think that is all for this post. I still have ones planned in my head sort of. I need to write on all of my travels the last two weeks. I also wanted to do more of a reflection on what I’ve learned and picked up and how I’ve changed and things of that sort, bring it all together. Anyway, they may take awhile as I’m adjusting to being back in the land of the free, but they will come. I have incredible mixed emotions now so forgive me. I am really excited to be home for different reasons, but I’m also terribly sad to not be in Australia still, it’s incredibly bittersweet. So with that, I am going to go change and clean myself up for the last leg of the journey home and get some food in my belly. I can’t find great quotes for the moment, so I will leave one that sort of suits. I shall see you soon!
Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint on it you can. ~Danny Kaye
Love always, Alissa
So I got back to Melbourne on Wednesday, July 4. My flight from Canberra was delayed by an hour so that wasn’t too fun, but no biggie. I got into the city and checked into our hotel by 12 or 1 I think. Then I headed to Elizabeth St for some quick lunch and stopped by the Immigration Museum on my walk back. It was free for concession so I checked it out. The guy seemed weary of me having concession, but I showed him all my cards! The museum wasn’t that cool really, I wasn’t too interested I guess. It’s in the old Customs building though and that was a pretty cool building. I came back and waited in the hotel for the others to come. Jared picked up Loretta and her sister Martha from the airport and brought them in. I came out and we carried all our luggage in, that was fun, especially with our small room. It was so nice to have a real hotel room, especially with our own bathroom, a real treat! We headed out to happy hour at the Hard Rock Café as soon as we got settled. We just ordered drinks for a couple hours and talked and whatnot, it was a great time. We walked back toward the hotel, practically the entire central business district, and stopped for food at Lord of the Fries, yum! Jono came in on the train and was waiting in the hotel when we got back. We all just hung out in the boys’ hotel room for awhile before bed. The next morning we slept a little bit and repacked all our stuff for the trip home from our travelling. We didn’t have a specific plan for the day, but had some ideas. Our first stop was lunch at this café that had fish and chips, one last time before we left, and it was great! We went over to the Eureka tower, the tallest building, to go up to the top. They have the observation deck, but also this thing that’s all glass that sticks out over the edge and it’s opaque until you get over the edge then turns clear. Well for some reason that part was closed that day and we didn’t care as much to go up in it just to see, as Loretta and I have already done that in the Rialto towers. So we needed a Plan B. The boys wanted to check out the Crown Casino, so we walked all through in there without spending a dime. Then what to do. We weren’t sure, but thought we’d check out the IMAX. It was across the city, and had nothing good playing in the afternoon. So we wandered upstairs from the theatre to the Melbourne Museum, it was free for concession, but not adults. Martha was an adult and we didn’t think it would be worth paying to go in for her, so we left. Then we headed to the Aquarium across the city again and went in there. I had been there, but it was good. I enjoyed that and so did everyone else, even Jono who is scared of fish! After a couple hours there we headed back to the hotel to relax a bit and get ready for the evening. Jono had to catch the train home around 6, so we said goodbye to him at the corner 7-11, that was a difficult goodbye for us. Then we left for dinner at the Hard Rock Café and met Loretta‘s friend Elissa there. We got there in time for a couple happy hour drinks before dinner and then had a nice dinner. It was Loretta’s birthday, that’s why we went out nice and such. We made a reservation and so they put balloons on our table for her! They brought her an ice cream sundae for dessert with a candle and made her stand up and we all sang for her, good stuff. The Australian way of singing Happy Birthday is better than ours I reckon, they add hip hip, hooray three times at the end. We were going to take the free tram back rather than walk, but it didn’t come after half an hour so we decided to walk. There was some crazy girl walking around who must have been on drugs or something and yelled at us, it was strange. Elissa was shocked, she said she’s never seen someone like that in Melbourne, she’s from here, or there I guess I should say now. Anyway, interesting little bit there. So we walked home and relaxed and got ready for the morning and leaving before heading to bed. I had trouble getting to sleep because I had so much on my mind with leaving and coming home and such. I did eventually though.
This morning we woke up at 5:30am Melbourne time. We got ready and loaded our luggage into Jared’s car and were off to the airport, one last view of Melbourne. It was pretty sad. We got there in plenty of time and so waited for Jenny to arrive and check in. We found out that she was actually on a different flight than us to LAX, she was stopping in New Zealand first. But her and I are on the same flight back to KC. So Jared couldn’t go past the silver doors there so we waited for awhile. Then we had to say goodbye to him. That was a rough one as well, but made better by the fact that he’s coming to California in January for a year, yay! We went through customs and I got stopped and asked to weigh my carry on. They care what it weighs over there. It was definitely over, but I still had tears in my eyes so that helped, he let me go with it after a few minutes. So we got to our gate and each got a muffin for breakfast, I used the internet kiosk real quick and we were about ready to board then. They boarded us super fast which was impressive since that plane is sooooo huge! I was lucky with my seat, I was one away from the emergency exit and in the aisle, with a guy in the window seat but nobody between us. That made the 14 hour flight so much better since we could spread out a bit. I watched four and a half movies, and a couple TV shows as well as listened to a couple different CD’s. I fell asleep for an hour, maybe two, a little over half way through the flight. They fed us lunch when we got up in the air and it was actually pretty good. Then they gave us our snack packs and a couple times they walked around with juice for us. It was good service really. They served us breakfast before we started our landing and that was nice as well. Everything went well and we got off pretty quickly. We had to collect our baggage and take it through customs, although they didn’t do anything to it or check it at all. We just had to drop it in an area for the appropriate flight we were connecting to. Going through customs I had to answer that I was bringing in chocolate and stuff as the food. Then the second guy asked me how long I was out of the country and I said five months. He looked at me and said “Five months?! What were you doing gone for that long?” I told him I was studying and he just gave me this horrible look. He seemed to think it suspicious I was gone that long I guess. He asked why I was studying and what I studied. It was sort of like, have you never heard of people studying abroad buddy, it’s quite normal! He even made me show him my id card from uni, even though it doesn’t say anything on it and he doesn’t know anything about that anyway. I understand they have to ask questions, but who am I? I just studied in a different country, and he was so rude about it all, like I had done something wrong. It’s not a good way to come back into the country. The LA airport is not a friendly place. It makes me miss Australia. Plus, it’s so intimidating with all the intense security around here, it’s crazy compared to what I got used to over there! And it’s even worse than when I left here actually. They had to search through my bag and I felt a little violated, like the girl went through absolutely everything. She had a long look at my big block of chocolate as well, like it was hiding something, I’m like, it’s just chocolate! Anyway, just extra frustrating when you’re tired and sad and such. Makes me wonder though, it intimidates me who would never do anything, but to someone who would do something, would they really be intimidated enough by it? I don’t know, kinda strange the whole security issue, are they doing it as efficiently as possible. It all seems fairly unorganized and rushed as well. I guess I’ve just gotten so used to something different. I already miss the more relaxed lifestyle of Australia! I’ll just have to make it for myself. I really can’t wait to get home home now. That should be excellent.
And I know this is really short, but I think that is all for this post. I still have ones planned in my head sort of. I need to write on all of my travels the last two weeks. I also wanted to do more of a reflection on what I’ve learned and picked up and how I’ve changed and things of that sort, bring it all together. Anyway, they may take awhile as I’m adjusting to being back in the land of the free, but they will come. I have incredible mixed emotions now so forgive me. I am really excited to be home for different reasons, but I’m also terribly sad to not be in Australia still, it’s incredibly bittersweet. So with that, I am going to go change and clean myself up for the last leg of the journey home and get some food in my belly. I can’t find great quotes for the moment, so I will leave one that sort of suits. I shall see you soon!
Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint on it you can. ~Danny Kaye
Love always, Alissa
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Goodbyes :'(
HI! I reckon this will be my last blog until I get home since I’ll be on my trip and such. Sad day! It’s been a fairly emotional few days, though maybe to your surprise, no tears! At least not yet. I haven’t actually said goodbye to anyone yet. I suppose those will start today. I’m definitely not looking forward to them. It’s been a busy week even though I’ve had it all free! It’s so easy to occupy yourself for a week. I still have had things to do though, like packing and figuring stuff out for my trip and stuff. I haven’t done enough packing yet probably, but I just don’t want to, it makes it so real! Two of my friends have left, but I didn’t say goodbye to either one of them because I thought I’d see them again! Lee left before I could say goodbye, and Jess left on her trip, but hopefully I’ll see her this summer sometime again. Anyway, it’s sad. The idea is becoming so real, I’ll probably never see most of these people again! At least I’ve made a bunch of American friends as well, that helps that I can see them. Things are so bittersweet sometimes. I almost wish I could stay here another semester. Things have just seemed perfect and comfortable in the past month or so. It’s been amazing while it lasted though. Okay, so what have I done this week?
Well, I had to spend Sunday writing my paper, not a fun task. I took my time and got distracted quite often. My roommates were here so of course I had to spend time with them. But I did get all my research done and forced myself to just knock out the essay in a few hours. It was pretty good I guess, I barely needed any points to pass the class, so I’m not worried. We don’t find out our final grades for a few weeks I don’t think. That’s strange. We also don’t know what our grade on our final exam is, they only give you your final grade for the class on the whole, you have to pay to see more. I don’t like that. I guess it doesn’t really matter though. It rained all day on Sunday and all day Monday as well, it was actually a dreary rain which is rare here. Monday I turned in my paper and got ready before eating lunch at the Bbar with Jess, her friends, and Brandon. I came back to get my stuff to head into Melbourne and all my roommates freaked out on me because there had been a shooing in Melbourne that morning and told me I was going to get shot if I went into the city. So talking to them, I missed the bus. Marc and Scott just waited in town for me until I came in on the next bus. It was a good train ride into the city and we just started walking around. We had no plan but to snap pictures. We walked around the streets of Melbourne haphazardly and found some really awesome buildings. Hayley had told me about some good views from the Sofitel hotel when she visited here so we went to check that out. I couldn’t remember which floor it was from so we had a bit of an adventure. Marc claimed it was like Bond, I’m not sure about that, though it was pretty exciting. We never found the so called great views, but an adventure nonetheless. Next we were led to Federation Square by our spirits and found some great shots. We started to head over to the South bank, but alas we were stopped by a call from Marc’s friend Lindsey. She was going to meet us back at Fed Square. After this short detour we were on our way back to the south bank of the Yarra for some good views of the city skyline all lit up at night. Lindsey was really nice, and a Canadian! We took some pictures along the way, but went straight for the Crown Casino complex down the way to grab some grub from the food court. She had to leave, but the boys and I continued on our trek. We took many a pictures, had many a laughs, an overall grand night on the town. The train ride back was great as well.
Okay, sidetrack. I’m slow at writing, it takes a day or so to actually write one. Anyway, goodbyes suck, I am not a fan. I’ve had two more today, two of my roommates went home today, Katie and Tom. Katie was super nice, and being my first real goodbye it sucked. Tom was my weekend and early morning buddy when nobody else was around. He’s also a great guitar player, so I’ll miss him heaps as well. Everyone else goes home Saturday. Sidetrack is over, I just don’t like the idea of never seeing these wonderful people again, it’s not fun!
And now it’s the next day. It’s hard to write this long blog of what I’ve been doing when all I can think about is how I’m feeling! Anyway, I’ll try to get through it here briefly anyway. We had our last night out on the town last night and it was really good, but sad for sure. Last night we all sent off Nick. I just sent off Loretta and her sister with everyone, that was sad to see her saying goodbye. A couple girls here are taking it especially hard that all of us are leaving. I’m glad that I don’t leave the country for a couple weeks, that way I just have to say bye to people now, then the country, a step at a time makes it a tad bit easier I suppose.
So, the week behind us. Melbourne was fun. Tuesday was just a relaxing day. Although I think it was Monday night that we had the fire alarm go off in our unit. It rained super hard! I went to bed around 1 and it started raining, but it had been off and on for awhile so I didn’t think much. Then it started sounding like a real storm which is very rare here. Hail came eventually and it honestly freaked me out a little because I didn’t think that was normal for here to be that bad. I guess I just fell into a deep sleep pretty quickly because about 15 minutes later I was woken up by the fire alarm, which I’d never heard before. It freaked me out definitely and the first thought was honestly that it was a tornado siren because it seemed like it would be at home, but they don’t have those here! I was way out of it, but went outside to freeze. One guy had an exam the next morning so that wasn’t good for him. So anyway, it turns out with all the hail and hard rain it had leaked through the roof and was dripping a little into my neighbour’s room from the ceiling and that set it off. So we all stayed up for a bit after that before going back to bed. Wednesday Loretta and I went into Geelong to visit the National Wool Museum and the Ford Discovery Centre. This is the largest wool exporting country. And Geelong was the first place Ford set up a factory in Australia. That was fairly un-interesting, but still worth seeing them both, and quite cheap. We went to Happy’s at the Pond’s Wednesday night and had a good time. Thursday the two of us girls went into the city early in the morning to eat breakfast at this Pancake place I’ve been wanting to go to the whole time. Then we caught the train into Melbourne to go to the Queen Vic Market for some final souvenir shopping for everyone. She also had to stop by the Harley store for some people and we finished off the visit with lunch from Lord of the Fries. We napped on the train there and back, always positive. We enjoyed our last caf meal, although it was a bit disappointing, as Thursdays usually are.
Friday was more doing nothing. All week I just sort of laid around and hung out with whoever was around, it was a great way to spend the days. Early that evening I had to say goodbye to my roommate Tom, he’s the one who plays guitar all the time and is always here to keep my company early in the mornings and on the weekends. Friday night was our last night out on the town, and many people’s last nights here. It was a fabulous time, we finished where we started at Room 99. It was great because pretty much everyone was there, so much of res showed up and everyone was enjoying their last night out together. It was sad to leave and call it a night. I stayed up quite late and woke up early this morning to say bye to Loretta, and her roommates and such. Although I’ll see Loretta and her sister in a short time. I came back and sort of wanted to go to sleep but I thought a couple of my roommates were leaving soon so I stayed awake. They didn’t leave for a couple hours though. That was quite sad. I had to say bye to Allister and Ash. Big Al is a great guy and it made it harder that he was so sad to say goodbye. I’ll miss his super Australian “G’Day Alissa” every morning. I was off and on packing and cleaning and such today. After awhile I decided to take some hot apple cider over to Jared because he’s been pretty sick and liked it when I let him try it. On my way out Kiri was packing up her car with Bree. That was a pretty sad goodbye as well. Kiri’s my girl, she’s obsessed with shoes, wants a beaver, and is in love with Elvis. I’ve also made her fall in love with cinnamon toast, cheese dip, and s’mores. I love that girl and I’ll miss our random talks. So then I headed over to Jared’s, with a stop off on the other side of the Wookey’s to say bye to Jono and Tom and to sign Jono’s fridge. That was sad as well, those two guys are pretty awesome as well. We chatted a bit, and planned on ’definitely maybe’ seeing each other for Loretta’s b-day in Melbourne. I’ll be there, and Jared is definitely coming, but all her roommates and those two boys might show up as well so that would be exciting. Anyway, then it was finally to Jared’s to watch over the sick boy since his girl Loretta wasn’t there to anymore! Ha. He was pretty yuck in bed so I left him to it and promised to bring my soup I hadn’t eaten. I left all my food for my housemates. I came back and chilled in my room, talking to my neighbour Lachy for a few hours from our rooms across the hall from each other. That’s always fun. I’ll miss him lots. He was the last one here and he left early evening. That was a tough goodbye as well. He didn’t want to leave and was quite sad as well. Saying goodbye to everyone I did pretty good. I held it in until they left, except Kiri because her and Bree both started to get a bit teary. But after Lachy, he was the last one from my unit, and a close one, so I just lost it. My aussies are now gone. I probably won’t see them. I hate that idea so so much. I can’t explain it. I’m happy it’s easy to stay in touch and everything, but it’s not the same. I don’t get to be here, be around for all the crazy stuff that happens and talk to everyone in person. It makes me so sad. I definitely broke down after that last goodbye. It’s too many goodbyes for me, it’s really quite tiring! Saying goodbye forever is hard, and I’ve never had to do that before. I’m not a fan. I went back over to take Jared his tea of soup and chocolate before I headed over to the Dawson units to hang out with the rest of the Americans that are left. We played some video games and sat around before deciding to go get dinner and see a movie. We got a Maxi Taxi down the road to the fast food places and all got some food, Bubba’s for myself, Brandon and Joe, everyone else went to Subway. The we walked across the street to the movie theatres to see Ocean’s 13. It was pretty good, nothing compared to the first two though. We were all pretty buggered after such a big night last night and not much sleep. We decided to just walk back from there, it was good bonding time for everyone, about ten of us went and we saw Tom, Jared and Val there as well. Anyway, we got back and went back to the hanging out playing video games. It’s been so long since I’ve played Mario Kart I pretty much sucked, but it was definitely good. I had to say goodbye to a few of them then since I’m leaving tomorrow for my trip. That was sad as well. I think there’s definitely a chance I can see a lot of them, but still you never know and we’ve all grown pretty close. It’s strange how that happens. You get so close to these people that don’t necessarily know you as well as friends back home do, but you have that connection, something to share. It’s like we’re all so close even if we’d never be friends back home, and I think that’s pretty awesome, I am a fan. So anyway, the walk back here was hard on me, my last night on res, saying goodbye to everyone today, it’s just so incredibly sad and I don’t like it. Today I definitely didn’t feel like coming home, sorry. It’s just too sad, I don’t want to feel this, I want to be able to see these people! But it is nice to have good family and friends to be going home to as well.
So now I’m trying to wrap this up so I can go to sleep as I already am pretty late and need to get up again in the morning. It’s so hard to write all this when there is so much else going on. I’m sorry this was drastically less detailed than usual and I probably left out a bunch of stuff, but I just wanted to give you a quick update. So tomorrow comes Perth and Western Australia, and then Adelaide and Canberra before coming back to Melbourne for a couple days and then coming home to Kansas! It’s crazy. It’s so real. The past few days it’s become real that I’m actually leaving this place that has become so normal and wonderful to me. I’ll miss it so much, and not seeing these people every day will be so incredibly hard on me. But it’s been amazing, truly. I don’t think I could ask for more. There’s always that, well I could have gone here or done that or whatever, but really I wouldn’t change a thing, or take anything back. I don’t regret anything. I think every part of my journey the past 5 months has been necessary and fabulous in some way. I’m not ready to leave. But to have been able to experience this at all is enough. Someone said, isn’t it great that we are so lucky we have something to make saying goodbye so difficult?! Indeed.
Now I’ll leave you and probably won’t post again until after I’m home! I’ll have to post a few more though at that point to finish off my experience. I will have limited internet access until I’m home, but you can still leave me comments or send me emails or anything you want until then and I’d appreciate it greatly. Oh yeah, this week was the boys birthday, 24 now! That was sad to miss, but lovely that I got to talk to both of them for a few minutes! Yeah, so ciao, farewell, next time I write I’ll be in the same country as you! Hope to see you all soon. Take care of yourselves and those around you. Remember how blessed we are in this world. Don’t forget to keep the faith. And here are a few more quotes to ponder. It’s so hard to choose from all the great ones I have! So there are just a bunch. I’m not sure how to find words myself.
Don't be dismayed at goodbyes. A farewell is before you can meet again. And meeting again after a moment or a lifetime is certain for those who are friends. - Richard Bach
Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. ~Dr. Seuss
Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes. ~Henry David Thoreau
Have courage, and be strong. 1 Corinthians 16:13
Faith is to believe what you do not yet see: the reward for this faith is to see what you believe. ~Saint Augustine of Hippo
Each day is a new life. Seize it. Live it. ~David Guy Powers
Love you all, Alissa
Well, I had to spend Sunday writing my paper, not a fun task. I took my time and got distracted quite often. My roommates were here so of course I had to spend time with them. But I did get all my research done and forced myself to just knock out the essay in a few hours. It was pretty good I guess, I barely needed any points to pass the class, so I’m not worried. We don’t find out our final grades for a few weeks I don’t think. That’s strange. We also don’t know what our grade on our final exam is, they only give you your final grade for the class on the whole, you have to pay to see more. I don’t like that. I guess it doesn’t really matter though. It rained all day on Sunday and all day Monday as well, it was actually a dreary rain which is rare here. Monday I turned in my paper and got ready before eating lunch at the Bbar with Jess, her friends, and Brandon. I came back to get my stuff to head into Melbourne and all my roommates freaked out on me because there had been a shooing in Melbourne that morning and told me I was going to get shot if I went into the city. So talking to them, I missed the bus. Marc and Scott just waited in town for me until I came in on the next bus. It was a good train ride into the city and we just started walking around. We had no plan but to snap pictures. We walked around the streets of Melbourne haphazardly and found some really awesome buildings. Hayley had told me about some good views from the Sofitel hotel when she visited here so we went to check that out. I couldn’t remember which floor it was from so we had a bit of an adventure. Marc claimed it was like Bond, I’m not sure about that, though it was pretty exciting. We never found the so called great views, but an adventure nonetheless. Next we were led to Federation Square by our spirits and found some great shots. We started to head over to the South bank, but alas we were stopped by a call from Marc’s friend Lindsey. She was going to meet us back at Fed Square. After this short detour we were on our way back to the south bank of the Yarra for some good views of the city skyline all lit up at night. Lindsey was really nice, and a Canadian! We took some pictures along the way, but went straight for the Crown Casino complex down the way to grab some grub from the food court. She had to leave, but the boys and I continued on our trek. We took many a pictures, had many a laughs, an overall grand night on the town. The train ride back was great as well.
Okay, sidetrack. I’m slow at writing, it takes a day or so to actually write one. Anyway, goodbyes suck, I am not a fan. I’ve had two more today, two of my roommates went home today, Katie and Tom. Katie was super nice, and being my first real goodbye it sucked. Tom was my weekend and early morning buddy when nobody else was around. He’s also a great guitar player, so I’ll miss him heaps as well. Everyone else goes home Saturday. Sidetrack is over, I just don’t like the idea of never seeing these wonderful people again, it’s not fun!
And now it’s the next day. It’s hard to write this long blog of what I’ve been doing when all I can think about is how I’m feeling! Anyway, I’ll try to get through it here briefly anyway. We had our last night out on the town last night and it was really good, but sad for sure. Last night we all sent off Nick. I just sent off Loretta and her sister with everyone, that was sad to see her saying goodbye. A couple girls here are taking it especially hard that all of us are leaving. I’m glad that I don’t leave the country for a couple weeks, that way I just have to say bye to people now, then the country, a step at a time makes it a tad bit easier I suppose.
So, the week behind us. Melbourne was fun. Tuesday was just a relaxing day. Although I think it was Monday night that we had the fire alarm go off in our unit. It rained super hard! I went to bed around 1 and it started raining, but it had been off and on for awhile so I didn’t think much. Then it started sounding like a real storm which is very rare here. Hail came eventually and it honestly freaked me out a little because I didn’t think that was normal for here to be that bad. I guess I just fell into a deep sleep pretty quickly because about 15 minutes later I was woken up by the fire alarm, which I’d never heard before. It freaked me out definitely and the first thought was honestly that it was a tornado siren because it seemed like it would be at home, but they don’t have those here! I was way out of it, but went outside to freeze. One guy had an exam the next morning so that wasn’t good for him. So anyway, it turns out with all the hail and hard rain it had leaked through the roof and was dripping a little into my neighbour’s room from the ceiling and that set it off. So we all stayed up for a bit after that before going back to bed. Wednesday Loretta and I went into Geelong to visit the National Wool Museum and the Ford Discovery Centre. This is the largest wool exporting country. And Geelong was the first place Ford set up a factory in Australia. That was fairly un-interesting, but still worth seeing them both, and quite cheap. We went to Happy’s at the Pond’s Wednesday night and had a good time. Thursday the two of us girls went into the city early in the morning to eat breakfast at this Pancake place I’ve been wanting to go to the whole time. Then we caught the train into Melbourne to go to the Queen Vic Market for some final souvenir shopping for everyone. She also had to stop by the Harley store for some people and we finished off the visit with lunch from Lord of the Fries. We napped on the train there and back, always positive. We enjoyed our last caf meal, although it was a bit disappointing, as Thursdays usually are.
Friday was more doing nothing. All week I just sort of laid around and hung out with whoever was around, it was a great way to spend the days. Early that evening I had to say goodbye to my roommate Tom, he’s the one who plays guitar all the time and is always here to keep my company early in the mornings and on the weekends. Friday night was our last night out on the town, and many people’s last nights here. It was a fabulous time, we finished where we started at Room 99. It was great because pretty much everyone was there, so much of res showed up and everyone was enjoying their last night out together. It was sad to leave and call it a night. I stayed up quite late and woke up early this morning to say bye to Loretta, and her roommates and such. Although I’ll see Loretta and her sister in a short time. I came back and sort of wanted to go to sleep but I thought a couple of my roommates were leaving soon so I stayed awake. They didn’t leave for a couple hours though. That was quite sad. I had to say bye to Allister and Ash. Big Al is a great guy and it made it harder that he was so sad to say goodbye. I’ll miss his super Australian “G’Day Alissa” every morning. I was off and on packing and cleaning and such today. After awhile I decided to take some hot apple cider over to Jared because he’s been pretty sick and liked it when I let him try it. On my way out Kiri was packing up her car with Bree. That was a pretty sad goodbye as well. Kiri’s my girl, she’s obsessed with shoes, wants a beaver, and is in love with Elvis. I’ve also made her fall in love with cinnamon toast, cheese dip, and s’mores. I love that girl and I’ll miss our random talks. So then I headed over to Jared’s, with a stop off on the other side of the Wookey’s to say bye to Jono and Tom and to sign Jono’s fridge. That was sad as well, those two guys are pretty awesome as well. We chatted a bit, and planned on ’definitely maybe’ seeing each other for Loretta’s b-day in Melbourne. I’ll be there, and Jared is definitely coming, but all her roommates and those two boys might show up as well so that would be exciting. Anyway, then it was finally to Jared’s to watch over the sick boy since his girl Loretta wasn’t there to anymore! Ha. He was pretty yuck in bed so I left him to it and promised to bring my soup I hadn’t eaten. I left all my food for my housemates. I came back and chilled in my room, talking to my neighbour Lachy for a few hours from our rooms across the hall from each other. That’s always fun. I’ll miss him lots. He was the last one here and he left early evening. That was a tough goodbye as well. He didn’t want to leave and was quite sad as well. Saying goodbye to everyone I did pretty good. I held it in until they left, except Kiri because her and Bree both started to get a bit teary. But after Lachy, he was the last one from my unit, and a close one, so I just lost it. My aussies are now gone. I probably won’t see them. I hate that idea so so much. I can’t explain it. I’m happy it’s easy to stay in touch and everything, but it’s not the same. I don’t get to be here, be around for all the crazy stuff that happens and talk to everyone in person. It makes me so sad. I definitely broke down after that last goodbye. It’s too many goodbyes for me, it’s really quite tiring! Saying goodbye forever is hard, and I’ve never had to do that before. I’m not a fan. I went back over to take Jared his tea of soup and chocolate before I headed over to the Dawson units to hang out with the rest of the Americans that are left. We played some video games and sat around before deciding to go get dinner and see a movie. We got a Maxi Taxi down the road to the fast food places and all got some food, Bubba’s for myself, Brandon and Joe, everyone else went to Subway. The we walked across the street to the movie theatres to see Ocean’s 13. It was pretty good, nothing compared to the first two though. We were all pretty buggered after such a big night last night and not much sleep. We decided to just walk back from there, it was good bonding time for everyone, about ten of us went and we saw Tom, Jared and Val there as well. Anyway, we got back and went back to the hanging out playing video games. It’s been so long since I’ve played Mario Kart I pretty much sucked, but it was definitely good. I had to say goodbye to a few of them then since I’m leaving tomorrow for my trip. That was sad as well. I think there’s definitely a chance I can see a lot of them, but still you never know and we’ve all grown pretty close. It’s strange how that happens. You get so close to these people that don’t necessarily know you as well as friends back home do, but you have that connection, something to share. It’s like we’re all so close even if we’d never be friends back home, and I think that’s pretty awesome, I am a fan. So anyway, the walk back here was hard on me, my last night on res, saying goodbye to everyone today, it’s just so incredibly sad and I don’t like it. Today I definitely didn’t feel like coming home, sorry. It’s just too sad, I don’t want to feel this, I want to be able to see these people! But it is nice to have good family and friends to be going home to as well.
So now I’m trying to wrap this up so I can go to sleep as I already am pretty late and need to get up again in the morning. It’s so hard to write all this when there is so much else going on. I’m sorry this was drastically less detailed than usual and I probably left out a bunch of stuff, but I just wanted to give you a quick update. So tomorrow comes Perth and Western Australia, and then Adelaide and Canberra before coming back to Melbourne for a couple days and then coming home to Kansas! It’s crazy. It’s so real. The past few days it’s become real that I’m actually leaving this place that has become so normal and wonderful to me. I’ll miss it so much, and not seeing these people every day will be so incredibly hard on me. But it’s been amazing, truly. I don’t think I could ask for more. There’s always that, well I could have gone here or done that or whatever, but really I wouldn’t change a thing, or take anything back. I don’t regret anything. I think every part of my journey the past 5 months has been necessary and fabulous in some way. I’m not ready to leave. But to have been able to experience this at all is enough. Someone said, isn’t it great that we are so lucky we have something to make saying goodbye so difficult?! Indeed.
Now I’ll leave you and probably won’t post again until after I’m home! I’ll have to post a few more though at that point to finish off my experience. I will have limited internet access until I’m home, but you can still leave me comments or send me emails or anything you want until then and I’d appreciate it greatly. Oh yeah, this week was the boys birthday, 24 now! That was sad to miss, but lovely that I got to talk to both of them for a few minutes! Yeah, so ciao, farewell, next time I write I’ll be in the same country as you! Hope to see you all soon. Take care of yourselves and those around you. Remember how blessed we are in this world. Don’t forget to keep the faith. And here are a few more quotes to ponder. It’s so hard to choose from all the great ones I have! So there are just a bunch. I’m not sure how to find words myself.
Don't be dismayed at goodbyes. A farewell is before you can meet again. And meeting again after a moment or a lifetime is certain for those who are friends. - Richard Bach
Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. ~Dr. Seuss
Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes. ~Henry David Thoreau
Have courage, and be strong. 1 Corinthians 16:13
Faith is to believe what you do not yet see: the reward for this faith is to see what you believe. ~Saint Augustine of Hippo
Each day is a new life. Seize it. Live it. ~David Guy Powers
Love you all, Alissa
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Dad's Visit and Exams!
Hi! I’m done with exams!! It feels great. No more thinking or working until next semester, I get to completely enjoy all of the rest of my time here. Well, except for the fact that I’m meant to be writing a paper right now, I shall get it done soon no problems. I haven’t updated in awhile, I’ve been so incredibly busy. Dad was here and we did a bunch of stuff, then it was time to study hard core for exams, and then taking them all. It’s been hectic, but still good. So I reckon this post will be ultra long! So be prepared, brace yourselves, get comfortable, you may want to grab some popcorn, or maybe it will take a couple sessions, whatever you feel is necessary. On with the show.
Have I mentioned how much I love this place? This semester has been absolutely incredible, and I wouldn’t trade a moment of it. Everything really feels like it was meant to happen, at least in some capacity. The good and bad that has come from the last semester were all meant to be for at least that moment and so much came from all of it. I have learned a million things and changed in a million ways, though I still remain the same in a way, if you can understand that. I’m not sure what my life holds for me when I return, but I guess I just have to take it as it comes. Right now, I’m taking in as much of this wonderful country as I can. It’s weird how much my heart can feel for this country, the land, and the people here. I’ve grown so attached and so close to so many people. I’m going to miss every little thing, and mostly those little things you know. The boys throwing things in the hall or yelling or playing Age on the computer, and Kiri asking me weird things about America, Lee’s stupid sayings and hilarious one liners, high/lows at dinner every night with our caf group, running into everyone on campus and say how ya goin before stopping to chat for awhile. I don’t know, there are so many small things that I think, I’m not going to ever do this again, and it makes me so so sad. I love this place more than I thought I ever would, after only 5 months! I will definitely be coming back a few times, but not knowing when is really hard. I will be losing part of my heart when I leave here, leaving it in so many places and with so many people, it’s insane really. BUT, believe it or not, I am excited to be coming home at the same time. I can’t wait to see everyone, and to have some of the comforts I’ve lived without. It’s a strange feeling. I am a little terrified of coming back, not to sound bad, but there are so many factors. Will I be able to keep the person I’ve become when I go back to ‘normal’, how will I deal with things being normal when I’ve grown so much, will I be able to go back to all my friends like we used to be, will I keep in touch with everyone I’ve met here, how can I keep parts of this culture alive in America, will I be able to fully enjoy myself or feel guilty for that, how do I keep the balance, what will it be like going back to Manhattan and everyone. I don’t know, those are a few of the things I think about. There’s no place like home though, and I am looking forward to so many things that come with being home, mostly all the people. There are just a lot of roller coaster emotions right now. So forgive me if I seem sad sometime when I get back, I really am happy to be coming home, I’ll just be sad to be leaving at the same time. Anyway, enough of that for the moment, I still have a week left with all these people and three weeks left in this country!! The reflections will have to come then!
I’m not sure where to begin, I guess where I left off and go chronologically, always a good bet. I have so much to remember! So I was heading out to pick up Dad and Barbara on Sunday two weeks ago! I went into town and grabbed some KFC before walking up to the Gull bus station to catch that into the airport in Melbourne. I hadn’t been into a KFC here yet, but I just wanted some chips for a snack. I found out they have this special seasoning on their chips here, and it’s amazing! Anyway, I had to wait awhile for the Gull because the bus schedule into town and the Gull schedule don’t match up perfectly. Neither did the Gull bus schedule and Dad’s plane schedule. I mostly slept on the ride up there. When I got there I wasn’t real sure what to do, I’ve never met anyone at an airport before. I checked the arrivals and it took me awhile because for some reason, Dad’s plane arrival was listed on a screen separate from the others with gray instead of red at the top and it confused me. But I found it and which gate it was coming to and such. So then I went through security no problem and went to find the gate. It felt weird, because at home I don’t think you can do that without a boarding pass. I had awhile to wait so I studied a little bit of the notes I brought with me. I actually saw their plane landing and then saw it pull around the corner into the gate a few minutes later! That was pretty cool. I got up and waited for awhile, anxiously awaiting. Then I saw Dad and felt so happy!! We went off to get their luggage, which took awhile for some reason, and hire a car for the few days. We got all that worked out and were on our way. Dad had driven some when they were in Cairns which was really good since Melbourne’s pretty busy, but he did fine. We went back to Geelong, with me as the navigator. I had never driven from the airport to Geelong! I’ve been on the Gull, but it takes a different way because we stop in between! But I got us there fine, it’s pretty much a straight shot down M1, the highway between Melbourne and Geelong. First they checked into their hotel since it was later and some places close their reception early here. Then we figured out a place to eat dinner, I took them to the Wharf Shed Café down on the water. I’d only been there once with Mom, but it was delicious! Plus it was close and the waterfront area is so pretty any time of day. I hadn’t been down there at night actually so it was really cool to me to see all the lights across the harbour and such. Anyway, dinner was good, I ran into one of my friends from uni there, too! I felt so cool that I can actually run into someone I know in the town of Geelong! So they drove me back to uni and we set a time to meet in the morning. I hung out with housemates a little bit before packing and going to bed.
Monday morning I got up bright and early to get ready to go on the Great Ocean Road! Dad and Barbara came to pick me up about 8am and we were on our way. Again, I was supposed to help us get started without ever driving but again I somehow did it right. I don’t know roads around here since I don’t drive, but I remember what things look like and where we turned when we were with whoever, so it works out okay. So, we got to Torquay fine but missed the turn to go to the beaches so we just kept going until Bell’s Beach a little ways down. This is the famous surf beach that I went to right at the start when it was hot. It was still really pretty and the surfers were still out there even though that water had to be frigid! We got back on the road and headed on with our journey. Our next stop was Airley’s Inlet for a quick break and to try a custard tart that was delicious. We continued down this beautiful road before stopping at one of the pull off stops to take some snapshots and enjoy the beauty. Soon we were in Lorne, the little town I stayed in for three days for orientation. I love that little town, it’s so cute. We took a few pictures there and kept on. There were a few pull off spots we stopped at along the way when it looked spectacularly pretty. The whole drive is really great, but I think the prettiest is between Lorne and the 12 Apostles. Every view was new and breathtaking. It doesn’t get old. We stopped in Apollo Bay for a quick lunch of meat pies. That was a nice little town as well. I love it when they are literally on the beach with one main strip, it’s just so cool. After that the road headed more inland rather than right on the coast. We went through some forests and saw some beautiful countryside full of cows and sheep. The land is pretty hilly in there and it was gorgeous. We took a detour to go check out this light house and that was a cool road. The whole way was tree lined with huge gum trees and then you enter this fenced off area with a sign, Give Way to Stock. The cows were all eating right on the side of the road, literally. We got down there though and you had to pay a fair bit just to walk and see the lighthouse, with nothing really there. So we opted out and headed back on our way. After a few more stops to take in God’s wonders in the beauty of nature, we arrived at Gibson Steps. This was the start of the places I stopped off at on that orientation trip. We walked down all those steps to the beach to have a look around. It was quite chilly and windy, it had been raining off and on all day as well. Though at times the sun would come out. The weather really wasn’t bad at all, it didn’t affect anything too much. It was strange though because last time I was there I was in shorts and a t-shirt, this time I was in jeans, long sleeves and a jacket! We had a look there before heading back up the long flights of stairs. Just down the road a bit was the stop for the 12 Apostles. We spent some time there, taking in the views and admiring it all. They are quite amazing really. There are quite a few stops right along that area so we stopped at most of them. Loch Ard’s Gorge and London Bridge were among the stops. The London Bridge had fallen down. It used to be two arches with the land above connecting all the way to the land. Now it’s only one arch that isn’t connected to land. That was interesting. There were so many arches along the way, they are pretty cool. The coast is just beautiful and the water the whole way is this brilliant blue. The waves were pretty big that day so that was pretty as well. We kept on driving for awhile since the sun was starting to go down. We did make one more stop at the Bay of Islands. They were pretty spectacular. I hadn’t gone that far the first time. It was like the 12 Apostles, but smaller and a lot more of them. That was pretty awesome looking. From there we drove until we came to Warrnambool where we found a hotel for the night. We then got Subway for dinner with a bottle of wine and a Vodka Cruiser and watched some TV before calling it a night.
Tuesday was another exciting day. We woke up and checked out of the motel and went straight to the information centre to see about whale watching because it was supposed to be easy there at this time of year. The lady said the whales hadn’t arrived yet this year though. So we went out to another lookout thing to snap some photos before heading further west. We stopped at Tower Hill Reserve that was an old volcanic crater. It was a one way road you drive on the whole way through to see the land and look for koalas and kangaroos. We saw quite a few so that was exciting. We got out of the car and got fairly close to a couple kangaroos before they noticed and hopped off. We also saw a couple wallabies and emus as well. We went back through a second time to climb up these stairs and get a better view. That was the steepest hill I’ve ever seen in my life, it was bigger than the one up to the dorms at KU!! But it warranted spectacular views. After this we headed off to Port Fairy to check out what was claimed to be a quaint little town. That is just what it was. We stopped for lunch at Rebecca’s Café. I’m pretty sure that was the best sandwich I’ve ever had in my life. The meal was so delicious, finished off perfectly with ice cream, and the town was precious even though I hate that word! Stuffed, we hopped back in the car and turned around to head east towards ’home’. When we went back through Warrnambool we drove through the Deakin campus there, taking in the two buildings on campus with the overly large car park. They did have some really nice residences however, called mansions. I am certainly pleased with myself for choosing Geelong campus however, especially for the accompanying town. We drove back inland because it’s much faster and easier to drive, but still pretty since a lot of that land is farmland and such. Terang was one town we passed through and that was exciting since my friend Lachy is from there. I shot a couple pictures out the window and showed him so he told me where he worked and lived in relation to them. It was pretty cool, I got to see where he goes every weekend! When we arrived back in Geelong it was about sunset so we went to uni so I could give a tour. It was pretty short and simple, as campus is fairly small. My favourite part though was getting to show off the back four lakes at sunset. That is my absolute favourite part of campus and especially at sunset, it’s just gorgeous. So then I showed off my unit as well. Two of my housemates were there, Katie and Kiri, so that was nice. While we were here they booked a hotel for the night in Geelong and we planned the rest of the week. I had the evening to myself so I went down to caf with friends and prepared myself for the rest of the week. I packed up a duffel bag Dad brought to take back with him to help me out with getting everything home so that was good.
Wednesday was another wake up early day. I caught the bus into the city so we could leave for Melbourne. I wasn’t sure how parking worked when we got into the city, so it took awhile but we found some cheap parking out at Queen Vic Market since it wasn’t on that day. So we caught the free city circle tram from near there and rode it around awhile to see some of the city. We got off to find a café to eat at. Again, without knowing much this took a little while but we found a great little place and enjoyed some lunch before catching the city circle tram back to the car. We found our way out of the city and onto the right highway to take us on our way down to Phillip Island, on the other side of the harbour from Geelong. (Melbourne’s at the “top” of the harbour sort of, Geelong’s on one side, and Phillip Island is a little further on the other side.) I slept the whole way down there instead of studying, whoops. We bought the tickets for the Penguin Parade at the visitor centre when we picked up some information. Then we headed across the island (it’s pretty small) to the Nobbies, just some big rocks out there. It was getting to be sunset so it was absolutely gorgeous. That’s how it was when we went there as well. We walked around a bit and took lots of photos before heading a short distance to the spot of the Penguin Parade. We got there a little early so I looked around at the little area they had telling you all about the little guys. There were viewing window things of some burrows there and there were a couple penguins in there!! So I cheated the no photography rule, because technically it’s not until you get out of the little building, and took some photos of the little guys! They didn’t turn out too well, but still, pretty cool. So we found some great seats and waited for the Little Penguins to waddle their way up the beach back to their homes! It took a little while. They were just as adorable as last time. I love animals, they always make me so happy! They were pretty cute, but we didn’t watch a whole lot of them come up the beach because when I asked the ranger a question she suggested going over to this other viewing platform where you could see them all right next to you on the ground. I was asking her how old they were and she told me they live to about 7 or 8, although one guy they had way outlived that recently. I can’t remember for sure, so I hate to say it if I’m wrong, but I think she said he was 22, and it was crazy. Anyway, so we headed over there and watched them all waddle by for quite awhile. They were pretty noisy and a bit rambunctious. I cheated again and took a video, in my purse, just to get the noises they were making. We enjoyed that awhile before heading out. We drove over to the big town on the island called Cowes for some dinner. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s winter or what, but most of the places were all closed! We only had a few choices so we went to this Italian restaurant and it was wonderful. Then we decided to leave as it was getting later. We weren’t sure where we were going to stay the night, but planned somewhere between the island and Melbourne. Well, driving back we saw one place but they didn’t have vacancy, and other than that there wasn’t really anything on the highway. So we drove all the way back to St. Kilda, just a suburb of the city, and stayed there. I whipped out my computer and showed off a few hundred of the pictures I’ve taken here so far before going to bed.
Thursday came and we got around and headed into the city for my last day with them. They got checked into their hotel and parked the car before we caught the city circle tram again towards Queen Vitoria Market. We checked that out and walked around a bit. Then we went to a neat little souvenir shop a block or so away. It was getting lunch time so I decided to show off Nando’s! It’s this fabulous sort of fast food chicken place. They have fresh, delicious, grilled chicken burgers and wraps and stuff like that. So then we caught the tram back so I could pick up my back pack from the night before and head on my way. We had to wait a long time again before the tram came back around because it was having problems. Luckily I still made it to Southern Cross in plenty of time, no record breaking running this time! I had more than enough time to buy my ticket and say goodbye and such. It was kind of sad to be saying goodbye again. It’s only a month though, now less! It was so fabulous to get to see my daddy in Australia! I’m so incredibly lucky to have been able to show off this fabulous life changing experience of mine with both Mom and Dad, that makes me so happy. I appreciate them coming and I’m lucky they both could!
On the train ride back home I spent some time studying and looking over different travel stuff trying to figure out what I was going to do. I got the bus back to uni and was here by 4 so I could go in and talk to the STA travel people about things. Since both of the Southern Tours of New Zealand were closed I looked into the Northern Tour. The guys helping me, Cam, told me it was open with a few seats left. I couldn’t decide, I wasn’t sure I really wanted to, so I told him I’d risk it and come back when they opened in the morning. I just had really been wanting to visit the South Island more, and the flights were so much cheaper there because you could take JetStar there. So I pondered it and looked at some other books they gave me with tours within Australia and such. It was hard to decide what to do when you have limited time, money, and want to do so much, but have restrictions of a tour as well. Anyway, I decided not to do the Northern Tour because I didn’t think it was worth it, as much as I desperately want to see New Zealand. I found a tour to Perth and that area though, which I also really wanted to do but didn’t think I would be able to! So, I figured that out. I also did some laundry, caught up on emails and loading all the pictures to my computer. I chatted it up with some of my housemates and studied quite a bit before calling it a night. When I got back I also checked my mail and had gotten a card from both Talicia and Grandma and that was super exciting. I had also gotten an invitation to my housemate’s 21st birthday but unfortunately it’s the day after I leave! I was sad about that, here their 21st is really big and they have these great big nice parties with all their friends and family and people give speeches about them and they have pictures and everything, it sounds so fun and I haven’t been to one! Even in a semester you can’t do near everything!
So Friday I went in to STA travel about 10 to book that other tour. He laughed when I changed my mind again, the same guy worked with me for everything and he was so nice and helpful. He was in training still so I helped him learn a lot since we were doing so much! So I booked the 5 day tour around the Perth area in Western Australia. He helped me book hostels for the night before it starts and the night it ends as well, as it’s early in the morning and late in the evening. So I got all that booked and figured out and paid him and got my vouchers and was ready to go! How exciting! It felt so good to finally have that figured out and finalized! It took about two hours to do everything though. They all told me they were trying to keep me there as long as possible because not many people came in during study week and they were lonely, ha. This tour was cheaper than the New Zealand ones and the flights were much better, and then I can have more time for more things as well. I went back to my room and looked up some flights, did a bit of research and decided to plan out even more of a trip! I booked all my flights right then. After Perth, I’m flying to Adelaide for a couple days, then flying to Canberra for a couple days, and flying back to Melbourne to meet up with Loretta and her sister on the Fourth, two days before we head home! So that means I will have been to every state and territory in Australia, how cool is that!? I got some pretty cheap hostels in the centre of town as well, so that’s cool. For all of that it will be about the same amount of money as the 6 day tour to New Zealand, so that’s pretty exciting!! I spent the rest of the day planning all that out and studying a little bit as well.
Saturday I was planning on studying the whole day, however plans change here and that’s the way it goes. Nick had sent me a text late the night before asking if I wanted to see the Dalai Lama in Melbourne on Saturday. I had remembered he was coming but forgot when and everything. He was supposed to come to Geelong but cancelled. So of course I had to go, it’s the Dalai Lama, how often do you get a chance to go see him talk!? And it was free! So we missed the bus into town to catch the train in time, so got a taxi to the bus station and caught the train into Melbourne where we waited around for quite awhile for Nick’s friend who is at the Burwood campus. We all met up and grabbed a tram that went out to where the talk was at the Optus Oval. It took so long since they stop everywhere, so we were a few minutes late, but it was okay. We went in and sat down on the grass in the middle. It was pretty cool, there he was way up there, a tiny little man! He was fairly difficult to understand. I got almost every single thing he said, but I did have to listen hard. His English was a little poor, but he knew that so it was kind of funny. When he couldn’t think of a word he’d try to explain it and there was this translator who usually got it and would say the word and he’d be like, “ah, yes, (whatever the word was)” It was pretty cute. He was funny about it all, and he was making himself laugh too. He had some really good things to say though. I wrote some of it down so I’d actually remember more of it. He talked for about an hour about compassion and attachment and showing concern for others and things of the like. He talked about how now with the world getting smaller and everything, destructing your neighbour was really like destructing yourself, somehow it will come back to you and affect you as well. He suggested we all need to seriously consider the welfare of others and show compassion and warm heartedness to everyone as we are all connected, it’s not us and them anymore as everything has repercussions through the whole war. I really liked the point he made that he wasn’t talking all about religion. He said you can be happy without a religion and such, but you are nothing without compassion, you can’t be happy without giving and receiving that. I think that can resonate with a lot more people. I thought he was a great preacher though. I never thought about it like that. He said compassion makes your brain function properly, it brings you inner strength and allows us to solve conflicts peacefully. Love and compassion and having a sense of concern for others is what will get us through this life and can make people truly happy. I like to agree with that. Anyway, it was worth it, now I can say I’ve seen him talk in person and really learned something important. It was very frustrating leaving however. The trams were only coming every 15 minutes and they were jam packed with hundred more people waiting. We had to wait for two trams before we could fit into one, and we were in there like sardines. (Or packed in like pickles, if you’ve seen Ellen! Ha.) So we got on that tram, and had to get off and walk a ways to Southern Cross. We were booking it though, I’ve never walked so fast, and I had my heavy backpack with me as well! Unfortunately we missed the 5pm train by about 2 minutes, we heard it pulling out. So that meant we missed the last bus back to uni and would have to get another taxi. Frustrating! So we went upstairs and grabbed some Nando’s for dinner and chilled out awhile before going down to get on the 6pm train a little early. We got good seats and waited to leave. I did good and studied quite a bit the whole way there and back on the train. That helped me a lot. When we got back to Geelong we had to take a taxi back to uni, but it was okay, it was all worth it especially considering the talk was free! I tried to study some more and such when I got back. I didn’t last very long though. Last weekend and the beginning of the week I was starting to feel sick so I went to bed early.
Sunday wasn’t a much more productive day, but it was alright. I went to the grocery store hopefully for the last time. Now I only have a week but I may have to go get some more milk and juice, or just live without for a week. Anyway, that was a good thing done, but time not studying. I got a fair bit done later in the day. I got on a role with my finance studying and just went to town. That’s such a wondrous feeling when you get smart for a couple hours and remain productive, it was a miracle for me really. When you haven’t taken an exam in 6 months, it becomes very hard to condition your brain back into study mode! I can’t really remember much specifics of this week beyond this point. It’s all a jumbled mess. I know my emotions were crazy, I had a million different things running around in my head all week. I stuffed my head with so much information, having three exams in three days. On top of all that was thinking about my trip, planning what to do with the rest of my time here, thinking about how sad it is to be at the end and almost leaving everyone here as well as the internationals, constantly reflecting on my time here and how I’ve changed, being excited about going home for different reasons, being scared of going home for different reasons. There were so many thoughts and such jumping around up there! I studied a whole lot, probably more than for my exams at home. That should be the case though as these are much harder. Tuesday was my first exam in Business Communication and it was fairly easy. It was part multiple choice, 5 short answer questions and a big part of document analysis at the end, but it was all open book. The class was easy and I think I did really well on the exam but I still studied hours for it. Then Wednesday morning was my International Economics final that I was pretty scared about. On Tuesday afternoon Loretta and I went to the library to study together and we were productive for three hours! That helped a lot, but we got fairly distracted later talking with all her housemates. I got very anxious. That exam was all questions, four questions with many parts, that you had to work out and explain, it was a lot of graphs, math and explanations and interpretations. Some of it I knew really well, and other parts were quite difficult and I’m not sure I did it right. I studied with my neighbour and Brandon for finance on Wednesday night and that helped a lot as well. Thursday was my finance exam in the afternoon. It was all working out problems too. There were 11 questions, 5 of which were 10 marks each and the other 6 were a total of 20 marks. It was a lot of math and explanations and interpretations as well. That stuff is challenging! Again, I felt fairly confident going in, although still very nervous, but some parts were really difficult and I’m not sure I did it right. However, I’m confident I passed all my exams which is technically all I had to do. My bus comm exam was worth 30% of our grade, very low. However, finance and econ were both worth 70% of our overall grade! You can see how that could possibly make me anxious?! It was all good though. The hardest thing I think was adapting to the change of testing environment. It was so strange to me and a bit intimidating!! They give all the exams wither at 9:15am or 2pm and they are all in the KD Stewart Centre which is the gym on campus. There are just a few hundred desks set up in the gym and in a smaller room upstairs and you are in an assigned seat number you have to look up on the list. So there are a few different tests being given in the same room at the same time. The teachers aren’t there, it’s just a whole bunch of really old people walking around watching you. They give a little speech before the exams start about the rules and such. Then you get 15 minutes of reading time where you can’t use any calculators or lift up your pencil at all. Then they announce when you can start writing and you have to first fill out this exam attendance sheet on your desk that they check against your id that you have to leave in the top right hand corner of the desk at all times. The old people walk by and check your card against the sheet and you. So taking exams is hard anyway, but with all these different factors it’s even worse! The magpies were soooo loud outside as well! It bugged me! I’ll miss them though. It’s distracting being in such a big room with everyone, and people are always getting up and leaving when they’re done. Also, some exams are two hours, others are three. All of mine were three. So when time was up for the two hour exam the guy would announce pencils down and tell everyone to stay seated while the materials are collected. One time someone stood up and the guy yelled, “candidate 330 please sit down!” It was scary, how did he know his number so easily?! We were just numbers, that’s a bit disconcerting. Anyway, it was very distracting when they announced that and then everyone got up and left. It threw me off. Also, nobody could leave before 45 minutes into the exam, and in the last 10 minutes of the exam. When you were finished you had to raise your hand and they came to pick up your stuff. Also, if you had to use the toilet, you had to raise your hand and someone would come to you and as you got up would look really worried and signal back to the guy at the back with a big t, like when they signal a timeout in sports. It’s scary! Then they follow you out the gym to the toilet to make sure you don’t cheat. It was very strict and intimidating in there. Also, just little things for me threw me off, like the multiple choice answer sheet looks different than the scantrons I’m used to, even though it’s basically the same, it’s just a little difference. You also have the exam booklet, and then have to answer everything in a separate booklet with just paper in it. I’ve never done that. The multiple choice sheet said use a #2B pencil only and I was like, what’s that, is that what I have, I don’t know, it’s #2, but is it B? Ha, just stupid things but it’s still a difference! Anyway, that was interesting.
Every day I went to lunch at caf since I have so much money on my card, I really treated myself and ate a whole bunch of food! I went to B Bar three days and I hadn’t ever been there for lunch! It was really good food, it’s more expensive and they actually serve you compared to caf downstairs where you pick up a sandwich or something. It was really good value though, I still only spent about $10 every day for a full meal with chips and a salad and a Coke. Anyway, that helped relieve some stress as well to eat with my friends, also to eat at caf every night. I spent plenty of time talking with people through the week to keep me from going crazy. Everyone was studying and such though so I couldn’t do too much. After my exam Thursday I felt so relieved, it was awesome to be done. I don’t know anyone else who is done, they all have exams this week as well! So that’s kind of hard for me because I’m done and ready to do stuff but everyone else is still studying. It’s been good though, people takes breaks and such. Plus I do still have that stupid paper. I didn’t do anything at all but relax on Thursday night and Friday morning. Thursday I went over to Loretta’s to share what was left of my cheese dip. I made it earlier in the week from what Dad brought me and all my roommates tried it. They all thought it was so strange but really good. Heck yes it is. So Jared got to try some too, he liked it of course. We ate cheese dip and watched a whole DVD of Friends, good times.
We’re almost caught up, people!! Hang in there!
So, Friday I went on to campus for lunch and then Loretta and I went to check out the tiny little merchandise shop they have but they didn’t have a whole lot. I may go back and get a sweatshirt, we’ll see. I went with her to try to sell back her books, but they don’t do that as much as we do, and unfortunately she couldn’t sell back any of hers. Believe it or not, even if they do take it back, they give you even less for it than we do back home! I had to put a few more dollars on my card to get me through another week of internet and got some money out of the ATM to last me as well. It’s hard right now to be living off as little as possible since I just have to lose whatever I don’t use, in all areas, including food and such as well. I got to talk to Grandma for almost an hour as well!! That was really nice since I hadn’t talked to her in awhile. Later I went back to STA travel because I talked to Donald and he didn’t have anything planned for after school and decided he wanted to go to Perth with me. So I went with him so he could book it as well. That should be interesting. It was good to go back in and talk to those guys again. I had some questions about the luggage anyway so that was good. I went to the library after that to get some books for this paper and then ran into a bunch of people on the way back and spent some time talking with all of them. I got back and didn’t do much. More of my housemates were here this weekend than usual. Most weekends it’s just me and Tom! So it was more exciting and I talked with them awhile and watched some TV. Kiri made some homemade pudding as well. I think that’s just another thing that is a difference in what we call things. I was eating some instant pudding a couple weeks ago and they didn’t know what it was, it came from the supermarket! But they call it mousse. So this pudding she made is what I would call lava cake, it was baked and like a cake sort of on top with the sauce pudding stuff underneath. No matter what it’s called it was absolutely delicious!!
Today hasn’t been productive as it should have been. My paper is coming so slowly. I just don’t want to do it! I did get some laundry and cleaning up done, and I actually went to the library for some research. But there I ran into Marc and we talked for awhile, then I followed him back to Nick’s and we all talked for awhile as well. I’ve been writing this blog all day as well. It’s taking me forever. I hope you understand that although I do this for my purposes as well, it really does take a fair bit of effort from me to keep it updated! This right here is like two papers! If only this could be my paper! Too bad I didn’t write about Australia being the Lucky Country. Hmm. Well, that pretty much catches us up. There were lots more little things in there, but you get the gist.
So, I’ll let you go back to your lives now after that time consuming experience. Just think how long it has taken me to write! I hope you’ve enjoyed it. I really hope you all are doing well and enjoying life. I’m loving it here more than I can express in words. And I’m feeling so many things that I really can’t express in words either. I can be ready to come home at times, sometimes I get a little lonely, it will be nice to go home to people who have known me longer than five months! But it is still incredible here and it makes me so happy. Let me know how you are. Hopefully I’ll get another post up before I leave for my trip in a week, and then before I get home! But I look forward to seeing all of you. Enjoy each other and all the blessings you have around you. Now here are some words that have especially meant a lot to me lately, as well as the whole semester. I have such a huge list of these!
- There is no growth without change, no change without fear or loss, and no loss without pain. ~from The Purpose Driven Life (This semester has definitely equalled growth, and it was for sure scary, and so some pain had to be thrown in.)
- Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not depend on your own understanding. ~Proverbs 3:5 (I know I can’t depend on my understanding, I have none!, I have definitely needed the Lord to help me with that!)
- Each of us was born with wings and has the ability to go farther than we ever thought possible, to do things beyond our wildest imaginings. ~Barbara Stanny (SO true, look at me!)
Love always, Alissa
I figured out how to do pictures!! Whoa! Okay, I'm not going to get carried away, you'll just have to wait til I get home to see the other 14,000. But here are a few in case you forgot what I look like!
Me with the Opera House and Bridge in Sydney.
Me at Wineglass Bay in Tasmania.
Mom and I at Uluru.
Dad and I at the Twelve Apostles.
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