The Final Countdown

The final two weeks in OZ went by at light-speed, filled with studying, crying, laughing, saying goodbyes, and livin it up, so I never really had time to sit down and update y’all on my life abroad. As I sit on my final flight from LAXàPDX, I figured I would reflect on the last crazy two weeks.

Sunday: The gang took Catherine’s brother Dalton out in the city (he just turned 18, he can legally drink, he had fun, bada bing.)

Tuesday: I went shopping in the city one last time and got some gooooodies ($5 shirts at Cotton On for their major sale! #winning) and had lunch with my roomies at a random pub to escape the rain. Renewed my phone minutes one last time, and coincidentally right afterwards broke my phone due to the rain. Finished the night by watching my favorite movie Into the Wild streamed on my computer, truly living up the motto of the movie and “sharing happiness” with some wonderful abroad friends.

Wednesday:

Grabbed one last cider at CBH with a good friend and said our goodbyes. Headed to Catherine’s place after to hang out with the gang. We had silly fun and played “Who Am I?”  where we each had a post it sticker of a person on our foreheads and had to ask each other questions to guess who we were. Yes, we are seven years old. I was Santa Clause, and others included Lady Gaga, Snooki, and Mickey Mouse…good times. Ended the night by going to Pancakes on the Rocks and splitting several orders of nachos. Odd that the entire continent of Australia does not seem to have any idea what Mexican food is other than this one restaurant which has the WORLD’S BEST nachos (I swear-like I don’t even normally like nachos, and I could eat a whole plate of these myself). It actually makes me miss Tex-Mex and queso and margs and all those other really healthy things…

friends!

who am I?

nachos and pancakes? what could be better at 2 am?

Thursday:

Checked one of the last thing’s off my Sydney Bucket List and rode the monorail around the city for the day. A $10 day pass was well worth it. We hopped on and off, exploring everything from Paddy’s Markets (the much cheaper and more trashy-souvenir like version of Paddington Markets) to Darling Harbor. We ended at Darling Harbor, sharing wedges and beers, celebrating the sunshine that finally ended the rainy spell and ‘cheers’ing to abroad.

beautiful Darling Harbor

Friday:

Cooked a delicious quesadilla dinner with my roomies to celebrate Jaclyn’s last night. Went out with a crew to a 90’s inspired club for a Teen Spirit night. Perhaps one of the most fun nights we have had out abroad. Drank Backstreet Buckets and sang along to Blink 182. Ended with another night of nachos at Pancakes on the Rocks (had to go one last time!).

babes born in the 90s!

last time with the roomies!

Saturday:

Goodbye Jaclyn :( Then there were three… Moved Jaclyn’s bed into my room and pushed both our beds together to create Megabed (a king sized bed, essentially. One of the best ideas I have ever had, if I do say so myself). I studied most of the day and then got ready for our IES Farewell Dinner downtown. Alexa and Catherine surprised me by showing up in my apartment in their costumes for the evening (keep in mind, this was not a costume party; in fact, most people wore formal attire). They bought every possible trashy Australian souvenir item at Paddy’s Markets and decked themselves out in Aussie t-shirts, outback hats, socks, stickers, fanny packs, koala backpacks, you name it. Definitely lightened the mood since everyone was getting pretty sad saying their goodbyes. We took a cab to the Establishment Hotel and enjoyed good company, catching up, and canapes (servers coming around with appetizers on plates all night). Thais had us each break into groups and select a leader. Each group had to think about how they had changed emotionally, physically, financially, etc. and the group leader gave the summary to the rest of the groups. Although we were slightly annoyed at the activity at the time, it was actually pretty helpful and weird to sit down and think about. All of us have grown immensely and formed such strong friendships. We then had a photo contest where we all viewed the pictures people submitted and voted on our favorites. Some people have travelled to some incredible places! We then got to open the letter we wrote to ourselves day 1 during orientation. That was so strange… Some people had really emotional letters and bawled when reading them. Which is actually pretty incredible to have had such a profound experience. I didn’t take my letter too seriously on day 1 because I was a bit distracted with not having a clue where I was or what I was doing, but my letter still had the basics of things I wanted to accomplish things in Sydney: be open to new experiences, be patient and calm when things don’t go my way, take risks, see everything and travel everywhere, make true friends, and thank my parents back home for allowing me to go off by myself and do this. I would say I can definitely check all of those off. Thais and Beata were the most amazing abroad leaders ever and I am so thankful for their guidance and support throughout this journey. Many tears were shed, hugs were given, and then we headed back home and hung out in Randwick and Lil Darlin and ColdRock Ice Creamery: a good ol’ fashioned night out with my besties.

I miss Megabed...

Aussie hotties

Reading our letters!

Monday:

Happy 21^st Birthday Kelsey! Celebrated my roommate’s birthday all day. We sat outside on the grass by the beach, soaking up the last bits of sunshine, had a fun photoshoot during the gorgeous sunset, and watched the finale of the Australian Voice on TV. I made dinner (chicken, quinoa, and zucchini-I know, impressive) before we headed out to ScuBar. The line was over an hour long so I got frustrated and left, but no worries, Kelsey still ended up having a fabulous night! Enjoyed the friendliest cab driver ever back home and hit the sack early.

me and the birthday girl!

my faves

beautiful sunset with beautiful people

Tuesday:

Yummy dinner with Alexa’s mommy at an Italian restaurant in Surry Hills!

Thursday:

Took my last final exam. Booooo. My exam was in a tent on the middle of the Randwick Racecourse field. It was a mix between a circus and a weird sci-fi alien movie. You had to take a 20 minute bus ride to get to the racecourse, then walk through two underground tunnels before walking out into this stupid chaotic scene. It was distracting, to say the least. I thankfully think I did pretty well on my exam and am now officially on summer vacation! I have had to learn how to adjust to a completely different school system and a much harder school than the one I am used to, but hopefully my grades will transfer better than I think they will! I know I tried my hardest, and I got so much out of this experience that I almost don’t even think it matters. As long as I passed, there is really nothing more I can ask for. In the grand scheme of things, grades will never mean as much as the life experiences I gained abroad. Just in that statement itself I can tell I have grown tremendously as a person. It takes a lot to be able to accept failure and to move on and learn and try again next time. Thanks Australia.

Friday:

Packed all day long. EW. I underestimated how much CRAP I have accumulated. Took much longer than anticipated, but ended up with exactly two 50 pound bags, a carry on, and a backpack. My room looked so sad and boring and I couldn’t be in it for another second, so I celebrated my last night by going to Churasco, a Brazilian BBQ restaurant, with Catherine and Alexa. One last night with the three sissterrrsss. $44 up front for as much food as you can eat (that’s what I talking about!). The waiters would walk around with huge skewers of meat and slice it off onto your plate. They also gave you rice, beans, potatoes, salad, pasta, honestly everything you could ever think of. We had a sentimental conversation, discussing the ways we have changed abroad and cherishing the friendships we have formed. Our bellies full, we headed back to Catherine’s to pop a bottle of champagne and watch the slideshow Catherine created to celebrate our abroad experiences. It was about 20 minutes worth of pure joy and smiles and I am so thankful she made it so we can never forget this (not that we ever would!). We headed to CBH one last night to the goodbye party I organized for myself. Got a few last dances in and said my goodbyes.

goodbye!! :(

Saturday:

I was so anxious about travelling that I couldn’t sleep, so I just decided it was going to be the day I watched the sunrise. It was spectacular on Coogee Beach and was the perfect way to say goodbye to Australia. I finished up my packing and was lucky enough to have a crew come over to help me into a cab and send me off to my 14 hour flight to LA. My wonderful friend went with me to the airport to help me with my stupid amount of luggage, and the lady thought we might want to hang out for a while so she gave me the express pass to get through security and customs without having to wait in line (thank you!!). I will miss y’all terribly, but am so beyond thankful for your friendship and the memories we have created! Until me meet again…

wow... I'm going to miss Coogee oh so much.