I am currently sitting amongst piles of clothes, souvenirs, and random stuff that needs to get in my suitcase. This may be Hogwarts, but I haven’t seen any magic wands that might be able to pack for me, so I will be working on that today since I fly out tomorrow! I can’t believe the semester is over already, I feel like I didn’t have enough time. Funny since when I got here I felt like I had a million years to experience Australia.

I don’t think a good sense of time is something I possess. Not only did I think I had an eternity upon arriving, but I never dreamed I wouldn’t be ready to leave after coming to study abroad in australia for an ‘eternity’ (aka 5 months). I’m one of the last American Australia study abroad students at St. Johns and I found myself tearing up several times today. First in the morning when I was saying goodbye to Lisa and Stacy, then twice later in the afternoon whenever I started packing. The waterworks haven’t come out fortunately, but I was surprised to find I had such an attachment. I shouldn’t have been though, we’ve been singing songs all semester about how St. Johns is our home of joy and bliss. It really has been. It’s hard to think about how I’m leaving home to go home…

At the same time, I’m stoked to see my friends and family again. I think once I am actually home and re-settled into the familiar…. I’m not really sure what it will be like actually. I do know that I’ve become quite fond of Australia, although it could never take the place of America for me. I really have no idea how I’m going to feel when I get home, and as I’ve shared with you, I don’t have a good sense for time or realizing how feel about things. I definitely hate this awkward, long drawn out goodbye though and it will be nice to be firmly in one place instead of this limbo I seem to be stuck in at the moment. It’s going to be a long plane ride…

I have never had so many vacations in one year, it’s great! Although I will be sending every paycheck this summer towards paying off my credit card… awesome. It’s definitely all been worth it. I already told you where I was going, now I’ll tell you how it went.

It started off completely on the wrong first. I intimated earlier that I had some issues with my travel agent, now I can solidly tell you to NEVER USE STUDENT FLIGHTS. I’m not the only person who has had issues with that company. I won’t get into the nitty gritty, but basically as I was showering the night before my 7:30am flight to Fraser Island I realized that I didn’t have any hard copies of my travel vouchers or flights. What a nightmare. Everything worked out okay, but as you can imagine I was freaking out. Not only did my travel agent not change the few things he said he was going to, he also never called to let me know he even had the vouchers, and when I was talking to him Saturday night not only did he not apologize, but he acted like I was a jerk and why am I upset considering he has all the vouchers and why is his boss angry at him? Gee yea I guess I should be reassured that 12 hours before my flight my travel agent has my vouchers and I don’t, no worries there… I actually ended up hyperventilating that night for about an hour and a half because of the stress of that situation and the stress of finals and packing and how I’m coming to the end of my stay.

Although it started off on the wrong foot, it actually ended up being a fantastic trip. Fraser Island was nice. Not my favorite travel destination since I arrived to study in australia, but my friend Becky came with me and I swam across a lake and saw a wild dingo! It would have been nicer if the weather was nicer; it was predominantly cloudy with rain here and there. Afterwards I took a bus to Airlie Beach where I went on a 3 day sailing adventure on the Matador!!! Truly amazing. I snorkeled, scuba dived, and on deck we were lucky to see several dolphins, a whale, sea turtles, and an eagle. On the dive in Blue Pearl Bay there were so many fish just swimming right around me!! The coolest one was this giant Maori Wrasse which was about my size and letting us pet it. Seriously amazing. My only regret was that we only had about 15 minutes on Whitehaven Beach, which might be the nicest beach I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

It’s a good thing I got my fill of the beach in the Whitsundays, because I didn’t really see it in Cairns. Even so, Cairns was an equally amazing part of the trip, if not more so. I met a lot of great people at my hostel and my days were jam packed with activity. I took a skyrail over the rain forest to Kuranda, took a hot air balloon ride at sunrise, went white water rafting, had a day of scuba diving, and finished off with bungy jumping!! First I’d like to say that the Great Barrier Reef is as great as people say it is. The colors weren’t as vibrant as I expected, but I saw some awesome coral, chased a sea turtle, and of course found Nemo. Second, I am never going bungy jumping again. Scariest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life!! I was going to back out, but couldn’t get a refund at the point I decided that, so I figured I’d go and get my free t-shirt even if I didn’t jump. Then at the top of the platform I was scared out of my mind, but somehow the guy at the top got me to jump after the count of five and I screamed my lungs out. It was a lot scarier than sky diving.

After such a fantastic trip I’m a little tired and finding it hard to get back into study mode. I have a philosophy and accounting final in a few days though, so time to buckle down and study. It’s so weird that everyone participating in australia study abroad programs are starting to leave though!

I have been home from studying in ireland a full two weeks now, and life still doesn’t feel the same. I almost feel a little bit like I did when I first arrived to study abroad in Ireland because it takes a lot of adjusting to the time and surrounding s to get comfortable. There also come the difficulties of trying to get into a routine. Being back at home doesn’t require the same kind of adjusting because everything mainly needs to be refamiliarized rather than entirely different. It’s mainly been about trying to go back to my normal life now similar to how it was before I left, but I also try to incorporate aspects from my lifestyle in Ireland. Some changes that I have made are things like bringing my own bags to the grocery store (because it’s what everybody does in Ireland), having tea and biscuits often, and preparing myself for the weather on the days that it feels like rain. These little things are great additions to my life back in Minnesota, and I feel it’s a way for me to not fully lose the person that I became while in Ireland.