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

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.

Resi Ball!!! And other signs my time is winding down.

*Sigh* My time is winding down, even though I still have about a month left, a week and half of that is after I say goodbye to everyone! It’s making me sad, but I’m enjoying everything even more now. It’s all so crazy, I can’t put anything into words. We talked some about that in my bus. communication class, even though we have a huge vocabulary sometimes putting those thoughts in your head into words is seemingly impossible. I can’t even totally understand and comprehend my thoughts, how the heck am I supposed to express them in words!? I reckon that’s a fabulous thing though. I’m working hard on making the most of my little time left here. Between classes, a little homework, studying, planning trips, seeing the city, talking with people, and going out, I’ve kept pretty busy. This week although I have kept busy, it sort of feels like I’ve done absolutely nothing at the same time. My concept of time the whole time I’ve been here has a been a little skewed I guess. So, now I’ll try to find some structure with this and get on with it. A warning though, I’m not sure I can find too much structure right now as I’ve been a bit scatter brained lately.

I’ll start where I left off. Saturday night was pretty boring and relaxed since nobody was here, but I took my finance test online. That was more difficult than expected. I spent some time talking to a few of my friends, and hung out at Nick’s for awhile and watched a movie. Then last Sunday I went into Melbourne for a few hours to go to the Queen Victoria Market. I’d walked around it for maybe half an hour with Hayley, but didn’t really get to check it out and needed to. Nobody was around here last weekend and I had nothing better to be doing. So I took the train in by about 12:30 and got back to Geelong by 4pm to catch the bus back to uni. I found some cool stuff at the market, but mostly just super cheap souvenir stuff, like a $4 shirt! I wasn’t sure about some things because they seemed a bit cheaply made, but it was still good. I enjoyed the Salamanca market in Tasmania soooo much more because it seemed more like a local market you know. This one seemed more like cheaply made stuff or cheap souvenirs. At Salamanca it seemed like cheap stuff, but quality and homemade you know. They also had more food vendors that were better, and more and better street performers as well. Queen Vic was still pretty good though, and I needed to buy some souvenir stuff since I haven’t really yet. It’s always a bit invigorating going into the city as well, it just has a certain energy I guess. Plus I feel like such a big city girl who can do anything, all independent and such, which is a nice feeling. It’s like when you’re a kid, Look at me mom no hands!, that kind of confidence feels good. It was also really nice because I got to read my book for the hour train ride there and home and the 30 minute bus ride home. Then I read a bunch more of it to finish it that evening! It was wonderful, I love days spent reading, and this was an absolutely spectacular book, The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks. So that was nice. When I got home everyone was back so it wasn’t so lonely anymore! It’s still different that so many people go home on the weekends, because they all go out Wed, Thurs and Sun nights rather than the weekends like home.

Hmm, so on to the week I reckon. Mondays I don’t have class, so I was going to use it this week to be productive and get a head start on things. That obviously didn’t happen. I have lots to do still. I was totally exhausted on Monday for some reason, it was like the weight of the whole semester just hit me or something. It’s been absolutely amazing, but quite wearing! The whole semester has been a big day you know, there’s always something happening or something to be doing, seeing, experiencing. So it is more incredible than anything, but it just hit me that I’ve been so challenged for four months and just kept on going the whole time, so I’m a bit worn out in general! It’s all good, but I just ended up taking a nap and lounging around all day basically. After caf that night Brandon and Donald came over to ask me some questions about Sydney so they could plan a trip. We got off topic right from the start and ended up talking til 1:30am again! I love it, those random and unexpected conversations about nothing and everything are great. And again, it’s just fabulous to be able to invest some time in people and vice versa. So then that made me tired Tuesday having to get up early for class. It was a bit of a strange day for some reason. Still didn’t get much done. Class was pretty good actually, the last ones, a little sad surprisingly. I know I’ve complained about classes some, that at times it can be frustrating not knowing what to expect and dealing with culture differences, but overall I have enjoyed my courses. The teachers at least somewhat interesting and funny people. I have learned some things, too! Especially in my business comm. class, it applies so much to everyday stuff. Most of it was common sense or stuff I’d heard, but sometimes she’d say something that really resonated with me and made me think about our communication on the whole and how much it plays a role in our lives. It’s interesting actually. Anyway, so Tuesday was another somewhat boring ordinary, unproductive day. Then came Wednesday, more of the same. Sort of. The main difference was I talked to Carly on the phone for three whole hours!!! I think I can say with certainty that was the longest phone conversation of my life. It was so wonderful though. I’ve missed talking with her the past four months and now we share something that others can’t always understand. So it was good to swap stories of our experiences and such, and listen to some of her crazy imaginative thoughts! I tried to book a tour with Loretta and her sister to New Zealand, but it was fully booked. So I was at a loss as to what to do, I know it’s my fault for waiting too long, I didn’t even think about it. But I think I have another tour I can go on, hopefully. That night I hung out with my housemates the entire night, playing poker and sitting around, it was a good time. There are some crazy people in my unit which means there’s never a dull moment. It’s good fun. It seems like this whole week I haven’t had a whole lot to do, but I always manage to keep myself occupied. I have no idea where all the time goes. So Thursday was my last class ever in Australia, sad day. We had Australia Today although we didn’t do much. I hung out with Marc for the rest of the afternoon. We had some cinnamon toast (he’d never had it! So I got him hooked, just like I did my Aussies) and pudding and enjoyed a game of hockey. Well, he enjoyed watching the game, I guess I enjoyed hearing him talk and talk about it all. He loves it, it’s amusing to see such enthusiasm from him! It was about time for caf then so we all went down and did not enjoy that, caf all week was pretty terrible for some reason. Anyway, I was meant to go out that night since Loretta’s best friend from home was here, but ended up not. Nobody else was really going out and I knew I wanted to be up to par for the ball on Friday. I hung out with all of them before they went out though and that was a pretty good time. I actually ended up staying up pretty late talking with a bunch of my housemates, but at least I was chilling in my pj’s. It’s so nice to have such a nice big living room so we can all sit around chatting together, that’s always a good time. Friday I had so much to do even though I had no class! I had to do my last assignment and got that in just in time. I had my haircut in the afternoon, I’ve been meaning to get one and it was perfect to get it for the ball. They gave me the “aussie haircut” that everyone seems to like here. I told her I wanted it basically like it was, just shorter, and still with layers. They layer (and thin) the crap out of my hair though! It’s crazy because even with all my hair, it looks like I have no hair now, it’s all gone. I really like it a lot, it just looks so different! Then I went into STA travel to try and book another New Zealand tour and think I’ll be able to do that, but I still have to wait a couple days. That took awhile, but it was alright since the guys helping me were pretty good looking, ha! Oh, and I had to head in to the supermarket since I had no food besides chocolate. Then finally I had to get ready for the Resi Ball!!!

Friday night was the Resi Ball sponsored by Deakin College, they have one each semester sponsored by each college. It was so fabulous. It was sort of like Prom, but better! I just wore my little black dress, but most girls had on little dresses similar, only a few had on full on formal dresses. Jess came over to finish getting ready with me and she helped me with my hair. I was just going to wear it down since I’d gotten it cut, but Jess came with her hair half up and it looked so cute I wanted mine that way too! So with her help I got it looking really cute just half up. So we got all dolled up and that’s always fun. We met up with Donald and Brandon to head down to catch the bus to the ball. We actually had to wait on them because they couldn’t figure out their ties, they’re such girls! We all looked so spiffy! The busses were a little later than anticipated so we stood around being pretty cold waiting. The ball was in Torquay at a place called The Rose, it’s about 20 minutes away. We didn’t get there til about 8 because we had to take the second round of busses, there were at least three of them, too. So it took forever to get our first drink once we got inside. They had beer, wine and champagne for free for us, so I just drank the wine mostly and one glass of champagne. It was really good actually. I tried the wine mixed with orange juice and mixed with raspberry, both very good. They had a do there who played some good music so we could dance all night long. It was such a fabulous time because pretty much all of res was there! I got to be with almost every single one of my friends here at the same time. Most of my housemates went and most of the Americans all went, so it was great fun. The night got a little less appealing when it was getting close to time to leave the ball and then heading over to Home House for the after party. I had to take care of a few different people who were pretty far gone. The great thing was, other people would come and take over so I didn’t have to go home! It wasn’t fun since I was worried about them but didn’t want to leave. Once we got into Home House and I found Jess, who had my purse, I was better and ready for some more fun. We danced there for a couple hours before heading home. Jess had a friend come pick us up so we didn’t have to pay for a taxi which was great. I fell asleep pretty quick then, and didn’t hear anyone else when they came back later. I wasn’t able to sleep in very long though, so I was so so so tired on Saturday. There was a drinking ban on res starting at 9am Saturday since that started Study Week, and then two weeks of exams. So they called it recovery day down at the Pond’s. Some people took that to mean more drinking. There were also a lot of people who just stayed in bed all day. I was up all morning though, so I went about noon with Loretta and Jared. It was also International Send Off day. So we all had white shirts for people to sign and that was fun. There weren’t too many people there and after we got people to sign we were just sitting there so we decided to find some food. Jared took us to Bubba’s, the pizza place close by. Then we had to stop by Cole’s to get some ice cream before heading back to res to eat. We sat around talking about the ball and recounting the night before deciding we were all too tired and our brains weren’t working right and we all needed a nap. I didn’t take one, I don’t know why I just can’t seem to do that here no matter how tired I am. I did end up going to bed before 11 last night though, and sleeping pretty late this morning. I didn’t do much of anything last night besides hang around here. Some of my housemates went home for study week, and others stayed in bed all day, so it was fairly quiet except for a few of us. That was good though, I was pretty exhausted. I did get to talk to Matt yesterday and that was great because I hadn’t in quite awhile. So yeah, that was the ball. It was very exciting, wonderful to get all dressed up fancy and feel so pretty. Everyone looked stunning there, it was fun to see everyone looking their best, at least at the beginning of the night! And it was a bonza night indeed, a real ripper!

Now it’s Sunday and Dad gets here tonight and I’m excited!! I’m not sure what all we’re doing this week but it should be great! I definitely need to do quite a bit of studying though. I’m a little stressed about exams, even though I only have three. It’s really only two that worry me, the two that are 70% of my grade. Yikes that’s a lot of pressure to do well. I should be fine, IF I get enough studying in. Granted, I only have to pass the finals to pass the class. I’ve done really well on the other two assignments in both classes. Actually, I just got my grade for that multiple choice test and I got a 13/15 and that’s just because I ran out of time and had to fill in a random answer on the last two! So that was good. Anyway, I just have to study because they told us basically exactly the topics we need to study for each question on the exam. My bus comm final is only 30% and should be fairly easy, which is a good thing that one’s first. It feels weird to be done with classes and have to really actually study. I can’t believe time is almost gone here. I’ve fallen in love with this country and the people. Everything is just getting perfect lately, when it’s about over. Everything here is normal now, it’s hard to think of all those differences and such now because I forget what’s normal here and what’s normal at home. It will definitely take time to adjust back to home. It’s been a bit of an emotional roller coaster all semester and so much has happened and changed. It’s a bit crazy. And so wonderful. Anyway, I guess I should leave all that talk for later. I have three weeks left with these people, then a couple more to explore this part of the world. I never want to leave this place, and I absolutely can’t wait to get home - both at the same time. I hope home is treating all of you well and you’re able to enjoy summer. It’s honestly felt a lot like autumn here lately, really gorgeous days and just cold evenings, and it’s supposed to be winter. So, let me know how you are. Take a deep breath and realise what all you’ve been given and how awesome this world is. I’ll leave you with some quotes.

“I can change. I can live out of my imagination instead of my memory. I can tie myself to my limitless potential instead of my limiting past.” ~Stephen Covey

“Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.” ~Napoleon Hill

Love always, Liss