I <3 Australia!
Has it really been four months? It just doesn’t feel like time could have gone by so quickly. But with the amount of things that I have done it feels like I should’ve been here for a year or more. I remember being on the bus, and seeing the sign that said International House. This is it. Everything looked so different. The air was hot and sticky. It was 1 in the morning and my mind was bouncing all over the place. I sat down in my room that looked like a prison. I immediately tacked up pictures of my friends so it felt a little more personal. And then I went outside for a cigarette where I met my first Aussie. I think I asked him to repeat himself 20 times, I could barely understand a word he said.
Then there was the weekend orientation trip to Jervis Bay. A lot of time spent in bathing suits. More time spent hanging out with kangaroos and bilbys. It just felt like things couldn’t be any more surreal. Here I was, a week under my belt, and I had already seen kangaroos and had a sausage barby!
And from there it just snowballed. It was really difficult to keep track of everyone’s names at first. I was always forgetting and too embarrassed to ask again. Thank god for the board outside the kitchen with everyone’s photo and names! And we all got very close and it seemed as if all 200 people here were friends. Well that is the truth, for the most part. I mean, there are definitely a few people that get under my skin but mostly I think everyone here is awesome. It’s a certain kind that comes to Australia. And damn will I miss that kind.
I remember on the first really cold night when it must’ve been like 50 degrees I went outside for a cigarette and I was shivering. My Aussie friend said, “Not the tropical paradise you thought it would be huh!?” No, not so tropical anymore. But its still paradise to me.
I’ve done so many things here I never knew or thought I could do. From snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef, to making out with a random Irish man in a Sydney bar, to skydiving, to falling in love with many people in a matter of months. And now I’m finding myself saying goodbye to these people, one by one. The countdown has begun: 12 days left in paradise. And then I go back to a place that has all the people I’ve loved for quite some time. I will be so happy to see them but it will be a bittersweet experience. Because I’m going back to an unchanged world, and its going to be the same as it was when I left it. And that’s probably going to piss me off since I’ve become so accustomed to new and exciting experiences every day for the past 4 months. Getting on that plane in Sydney is going to be harder than it was to jump out of a plane last week. I’m going to miss this place so much. My heart aches now thinking about it.
So I’m not just saying this: I have the most genuine intention when I say I will be back. For good. To live. It might be 5 before that happens but I will get back here. This is where I belong, this is home. It’s where my heart will always be.
Then there was the weekend orientation trip to Jervis Bay. A lot of time spent in bathing suits. More time spent hanging out with kangaroos and bilbys. It just felt like things couldn’t be any more surreal. Here I was, a week under my belt, and I had already seen kangaroos and had a sausage barby!
And from there it just snowballed. It was really difficult to keep track of everyone’s names at first. I was always forgetting and too embarrassed to ask again. Thank god for the board outside the kitchen with everyone’s photo and names! And we all got very close and it seemed as if all 200 people here were friends. Well that is the truth, for the most part. I mean, there are definitely a few people that get under my skin but mostly I think everyone here is awesome. It’s a certain kind that comes to Australia. And damn will I miss that kind.
I remember on the first really cold night when it must’ve been like 50 degrees I went outside for a cigarette and I was shivering. My Aussie friend said, “Not the tropical paradise you thought it would be huh!?” No, not so tropical anymore. But its still paradise to me.
I’ve done so many things here I never knew or thought I could do. From snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef, to making out with a random Irish man in a Sydney bar, to skydiving, to falling in love with many people in a matter of months. And now I’m finding myself saying goodbye to these people, one by one. The countdown has begun: 12 days left in paradise. And then I go back to a place that has all the people I’ve loved for quite some time. I will be so happy to see them but it will be a bittersweet experience. Because I’m going back to an unchanged world, and its going to be the same as it was when I left it. And that’s probably going to piss me off since I’ve become so accustomed to new and exciting experiences every day for the past 4 months. Getting on that plane in Sydney is going to be harder than it was to jump out of a plane last week. I’m going to miss this place so much. My heart aches now thinking about it.
So I’m not just saying this: I have the most genuine intention when I say I will be back. For good. To live. It might be 5 before that happens but I will get back here. This is where I belong, this is home. It’s where my heart will always be.