Nowra Rollin'

“In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later.”

From jet-setting to Uluru and New Zealand, my wild adventures have slowed to “one tank” weekend getaways. And the ‘cash’ spoken about above, is depleted. With this new pace of traveling comes the reality that I will be leaving unbelievably soon. Flipping through my planner today made my heart skip a beat with just five weeks remaining of my stay in Australia.

Canberra Floriade Festival

These past few weeks, I’ve traveled to the thrilling cities of Canberra and Nowra. From the disappointing attitudes gathered around campus, Canberra seemed like a letdown waiting to happen. But with much convincing and several puppy eyes later (by Beth)…I was on a bus with her to see the nation’s capital for a day of fun filled activities! We boarded at 7 am for a three-hour ride south. Along the way we stopped for morning tea at an adorable little town called Goldburn. With this stop, came a spectacular view of one of Australia’s “big things.” These strange abnormally huge objects are one of Australia’s must-sees. There are 147 of these scattered around Australia, one found in Goldburn, where they are known for their quality Merino wool. For this they have a gigantic male sheep watching over them. It’s a hilarious sight to see and like the little tourists we are…many pictures were taken.

Next stop Canberra! When we finally arrived to the city, we spent a couple hours at the annual Floriade flower festival. Coincidentally, this was the same weekend as the Covered Bridge (my favorite fall family activity). I was bummed I was missing it this year, but Floriade was a slice of what the doctor ordered. It was about a tenth of the size, but the spectacle of flowers was astounding. After about an hour, Beth and I had ventured around the entire festival and were ready for the next stop. After touring the nearby Canberra Museum to eat time, we were off to the Australian National Museum.

We were determined to make the most of our time, so our logical first instinct was to sprint to the kids zone for the best part of our day. We made spaceships then watched them fly around a 3D theater. We felt like children and it was fantastic. Parental guidance probably should have accompanied us through the rest of the museum when our temperament had the best of us looking at the random artifacts placed throughout. After a few exhibits, I came to the conclusion that because Australia is such a young country, they don’t have much to talk about in terms of history. Therefore, walking around the room, your mind would fill with questions about the importance of these things you were starring blankly upon. What are you!? Once again Beth and I became bored after about an hour, this time we compensated with a casual stroll through the massive museum gift shop and a much needed diet coke on the patio. After, we went to a lookout for another drawn out trip stop to see the city below. The most frustrating part of our day was driving past parliament and NOT STOPPING! It is absolutely absurd that we didn’t stop. That would be like going to Washington D.C. and not stopping by the White House. UGGHHH! I’m calm.

My views of Canberra should be pretty well portrayed in my experience mentioned above. It’s Canberra, nothing more nothing less. It was exactly what I expected. I’m happy I went to see the city and check it off the list. But if I didn’t see it, I wouldn’t have missed anything.

The originals

This weekend the three musketeers traveled with Baillie to Nowra to see the unfortunate town with an even worse reputation than Canberra. I know, hard to believe. Imagine everyone’s surprise when we came back and said that we had the time of our lives!

We spent Saturday afternoon with Baillie’s family having way too much sugar with a hint of coffee/tea. They love their afternoon tea time! His sister was the greatest hostess in the world and provided us with our first taste of true Australian cooking. This came in the form of caramel slice and wow (to use Beth’s word), they were phenomenal! I’m kind of salivating thinking about how amazing they were. Anyways! The reason we traveled down was to celebrate one of our first Australian friends acceptance and ship date into the military. We had a great time catching up and once night fell the true colors of Nowra were out to shine. We spent the next few hours getting carried away with people watching and tearing up the dance floor with our moves until closing time. My latest night out in Australia and it’s in NOWRA. The Australians reading this right now are probably dying of laughter, because this is an outrageous fact. It’s great. Once we arrived safely home by Baillie’s sister, even though any one of us could have driven, it turned into a girls night to the max. Do you remember those sleepovers you had as a kid, when you would stay up late, see who would fall asleep first, giggling and telling each other to hush all night? Yeah it was exactly like that. We were tucked away in our beds by 1:30, but in conversation until almost 5. And that was when it hit me, we only have a month left. This three member family we have formed has been through so much in our 6-months together. We’ve cried together, traveled thousands of miles together, and had the time of our lives. These girls know more about me than even some of my closest friends at home. Spending every waking moment in contact with each other, I don’t know what I would have done without them this semester. And to think our time is drawing to a close. L

I am so thankful for the friendships I have made, and the experiences I have gained while here. The time I have had here has pushed me to a whole new place than when I first arrived in Australia. Room 88 is the best. Rory has movie nights at least once a week, and tea is always a great procrastination for all of us to play. I go to Carly for fashion advice, Emily for a bucket list accomplishment partner, and Jackson for a cute little smile (which is always on his face). I love my roommates! As well as all of Campus East. They have really welcomed me into the community and only having 32 days left is beginning to stress me out. I have gone through the stage of studying abroad where I want to go home, and now I’m shocked that the end that I have been thinking about for ages is finally almost here! I have done so much and experienced heaps, but I’m in disbelief. Until full reality sets in, I will soak up the sun as much as possible and live up my time in Australia treating everyday as if it were my last.

I have just two more weeks of school until finals session. In that time I have one story, a test, 2k word paper, and then I’m done! Yay!

Side note: I have been planning a band night for equity scholarships at UOW though my PR Strategy class. That night was last Friday and I’m so excited to say that we raised over $600!

I hope everyone is keeping tabs on the World Cup, it is so fun to watch when you've been there! :) See you soon America!