10,284 Miles Later

Before I start this blog, I just wanted to clarify some points of interest to this story. Since I’m traveling without internet my posts can’t have ‘real time’ to them…or whatever this crazy time warp I’m in. So here it goes…layover by layover

Auckland

If I stop drinking liquids, do you think these tears would stop falling from my eyes?

I knew goodbyes to all the beautiful people I’ve meet this semester would be difficult, but I didn’t realize the extent to which my emotions would be stressed. Yesterday, I woke up early for one last beach session before I started the devastating process of goodbyes and checking out of my humble abode. I had my last caf lunch (my famous rice medley) and finished my meal points off with .94 to spare! That took much planning, let me tell you!

I am so incredibly thankful for the time I could spend in Australia and all the wonderful relationships I’ve formed. The fact that it was so difficult to leave shows how much I put into this study abroad experience and how much I have gained. Over the coarse of five months I’ve created a home for myself. It may not have been a walk in the park at times, but along the way some incredible things took place that will forever stay with me and easily be classified as ‘the time of my life’. This is one experience that I wish everyone would experience. My life has literally changed from this in so many ways and I’ve matured more than I ever thought possible.

For my last night in Wollongong, we all stayed in and watched Finding Nemo, and while it may be a cute Disney movie to most, it now has more sentimental value than even the next dramatic love story. Anna, Beth and I sat in our baby loveseat bawling…My trip to Sydney started by maneuvering to the Hotel Formula 1 with two suitcases and lots of kind people along the way. I took this as my last opportunity to enjoy Sydney one more time. There is something to traveling by yourself that I can’t quite point out. It’s liberating and makes you that much more aware and appreciative of your surroundings.

Today I’ve started my journey back home again in Indiana. At the moment, I’m sitting with a classic New Zealand L&P next to the windows absorbing the last summer rays before I board my plane for the longest flying leg of my trip to LA. Thus far I’m incredibly impressed with Air New Zealand. They are by far the nicest airliner that I’ve experienced. I had salmon for lunch, watched 500 days of Summer (which I’m obsessed with), got a whole can of coke, mints at the end, and hundreds of music albums all at my fingertips. Am I in first class? I can’t imagine what that was like…Anna let me know how the other half lives?

Thanks to Drake, I have 22 hours of non-stop dubstep on my computer now…which I’ve been having a solo rager with and Roro provided me with five all-time classic movies to occupy the rest of my layovers. Anna and Beth left me with notes that once again had me bawling this time on the plane…cool guys!

When I was going through Sydney customs, they checked my passport and said, “We hope to see you back.” Automatically, I started to feel my eyes well up with tears. And even reliving that moment is making me cry now. The quarantine officer comforted me after by making conversation about my trip and I found out his son went to Wollongong. What a coincidence! He escorted me through an express line and I was on my way to duty free paradise. I went to the Apple kiosk and quickly updated my status for everyone to know I was alive and on my way home, then after a little perusing it was time for me to board!

Los Angeles

What time is it and where am I? When boarding a flight across the Pacific, it actually feels like a joke. Yeah I mean sure, I would love to be stuck in a plane for 12 hours without being able to move and be told when to eat/drink. Looking at the flight plan and watching the small parcels of land disappear into the vast blue that is the pacific is something to note. Trying to differentiate what time it is in Australia compared to LA and where exactly you are in the world is a fun little game to play with yourself. Unfortunately, my college mentality led me to wait until the flight for dinner and within the first hour I was dying. This could be due to the altitude as well, but wow that was an awful wait. I started to panic thinking about the implications of my decision, which just made everything worse.

On the flight, I watched Transformers 3 which turned out to be a gigantic disappointment (I’m a huge Transformers fan) and Friends With Benefits. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do the one thing necessary for this flight, sleep. Perfect. So when I attempted to check my bags through to Indy and got denied and told to wait until 8:30 that night (it was 9am), I wheeled my luggage in disbelief away from the counter and started to cry. There were no lockers to store luggage, so my next option was to book a tour and hope they held my luggage. After a far too emotional call to my mom about my latest development, a break through came with VIP tour company. I left my bags with the Hilton LAX and boarded a bus for five hours touring the city!

The tour was actually a miracle I’m convinced. It broke up my layover, allowed me to see LA (minus the 20 minutes I crashed asleep). And most importantly it got rid of my horrible baggage that probably started to have a gravitational pull towards them because they weigh so much. Hopefully, once this AirTran ticketing counter opens, I’ll be able to run through security, grab a quality dinner, and find a bathroom with a hand dryer for a great “shower”. Oh the joys of traveling from Australia with crazy connections. It makes for an epic post?...I hope.

Atlanta

Oh my gosh…I’m not even excited about getting home anymore, I just want to take a shower and pass out. I don’t think I’m physically able to make emotion right now because of the zombie state I’m in. Since leaving Sydney I’ve had a total of about five hours of sleep. My flight from LA to Atlanta was okay. My international flights spoiled me with food and in-seat tvs so the change to domestic was drastic. My ears haven’t hurt at any point during my flights which is great! And I’ve met a lot of great people along my trips from around the country/world. Australia, New Zealand, Seattle, Texas, New Hampshire, Miami, Orlando…I wonder who is next! Five hours and I will be in Indy! J

Indy

Before I could realize what was going on, I was landing in Indianapolis. My exhaustion must have finally caught up to me. I didn’t think my emotions were alive anymore, but touching down sent a few tears down. After walking off the plane to the main area to see my family standing waiting for me, I immediately broke down. What a surreal feeling to be in the arms of loved ones again. Just a few days ago I was on the other side of the world and now I’m back. Maybe I’m just too tired and everything is getting intense to think about..

More in-depth posting later when I’m coherent and can think properly! J

Lesson Learned: Sydney

Oh the places we’ll go…or not. Saturday marked the most dysfunctional day of traveling I will ever encounter (in my life), truth. But before I get into my hectic and wonderful weekend, let me back up to the series of events that filled my “study” week.

While I may have been done with classes, the uni visits continued this week from Monday to Wednesday…daily. So annoying, but in the end everything was settled with professors and I was on track to finish my semester well. Monday night a few of the Campus Easters and I rode bikes to North Gong for $8 Steak, the best deal in town and far from the awful cafeteria food! My first attempt at riding a bike failed with a flat tire, thank goodness I was still in the parking lot, but my second was the definition of a cute fixie girl bike. What a joke, but so fun! We had a sweet little family dinner then Beck, Belinda, and I came up with the fantastic idea to ride to Cold Rock (aka ColdStone). This soon turned into an epic pursuit up and down hills blindly traveling down new areas of Wollongong we had never seen before. Impromptu tour, YEWWW! In the end, our adventure only made the ice cream taste even better! Yumm Tim Tam Hazelnut Chocolate Ice Cream. The rest of the week consisted of a few runs along the coastline, some time watching the surf roll in off the Pacific, and reading a solid 9 chapters in my little PR textbook. Gotta love finals! J

As for my weekend, there were far more adventures to be found. Friday, my roommate Emily and I boarded an early train to Sydney. We dropped our bags off in Bronte where her uncle Michael lives and made our way to Bondi Junction for some serious shopping. I bought a few fun things to bring home and some that have been on my bucket list since coming here. Success! That afternoon, we took a tour around Bronte. The suburb/beach was absolutely gorgeous, the houses are so manicured and modern. Good company all around. Is this real life? We walked to Bondi just a few beaches down for dinner and along the way we took in the sites of the sculptures by the sea exhibition. We ate at a great Thai place, my newly found obsession, and then made our way home for the night. We played with Michael’s little kitten, Rupert, for a bit then began the attempt to fall asleep…after we made the little thing wild. Ooops.

Saturday, the day started out lovely. We woke up had a great breakfast then I caught the bus/train into Central to meet Beth. After getting lost far too many times trying to find the correct way out of Central Station, I found her! Thank goodness. With heaps of trackwork this weekend, our handy trains turned into hectic bus routes that took triple the amount of time as usual. Once we finally made it to Olympic Park, the real test came to find where the expo that I was so excited to visit, and locating our hotel. The trusty information center gave us all the help we needed…unfortunately. The expo consisted of one design of shirt and our hotel, well let's just say the convenience factor of staying at Olympic Park and not taking two forms of transportation ($$) was sounding heavenly. Instead of dropping our bags at the hotel, we jumped on a bus to go to Darling Harbor for lunch one last time. And by jumped I mean it took us two hours sitting on a bus in traffic, add it to the karma list haha. After a great lunch sitting on the harbor, we walked to Paddy’s to grab some last minute souvenirs and find the Chinese temple in China town. Again, this was a strike and a miss in the bus rides department. Then to sweeten our afternoon, we missed our stop and had to change buses. The driver felt bad for us so he escorted us to the other bus, gave us a free ride, and gave specific instructions to the driver to tell us when to get off. Directionally challenged, what’s up! Thanks a whole heap even though we had myMulti day passes, it’s the thought that counts! We met up with Nick, one of the first friends we made here, to say a last goodbye before his trip to Bali. Nope, this isn’t real life. I don’t like saying goodbyes, ever. I truly think I will see him again, but the thought that this could be it messed with my head. Once our prolonged and repeated hugs came to an end, we ventured to find our hotel. This was by far the best part and most successful part of our day for sure! We stopped by Wolly’s for some popcorn, yogurt, and mini muffins (college style always) and effortlessly made it to the Sleep Express Motel.

This morning we woke up early to check out and catch the hotel shuttle to Olympic Park for our race. They told us to meet at 6:55, but just our luck...we waited 20 minutes then started to get a little nervous as to where this shuttle may have been. We walked to the gas station to call a cab and thankfully it arrived within minutes. Lesson learned: convenience outweighs stress any day. Sure we saved $30 in the end, but if we would have stayed in Olympic Park, we could have taken a proper shower after the race (instead of a quick rinse at the aquatic centre), slept in a least another hour, and not have the stress of transportation as a tourist. Anyways *rant over* Our race was really cool. We ran around the entire Olympic Park and finished in the ANZ stadium. It was extremely hot (83F) and with the sun boiling your body, it made for an interesting run. The exciting part about the race that I discovered was that it was for the Sydney Children’s Hospital, how perfect! While I may not be able to participate in IU Dance Marathon this year for Riley Children’s Hospital, I still supported the kids! FTK in Australia! J The girls and I all finished within 20 minutes of each other which was perfect timing. After the race, we treated ourselves to Pancakes on the Rocks which hit the spot and continued our great day (all before 11am). The Rocks is a really neat part of Sydney that I had never visited. It’s the oldest part, therefore the architecture is exquisite with so much character. We tooled around the weekend markets for a while, sampling all that we could and finally came to the pinnacle of our afternoon. Like the little kids we are, we stopped at a lolly store named Sticky, to watch hard candies be made. This quick peek into the store turned into us having full conversations with the workers and learning every possible detail about the lolly making process, typical Americans. The unexpected came when they gave each of us handmade lollipops fresh off the rolling pin and a chunk of excess hard candy leftover from the roll. We were in love.

While our weekend hit a few low points, thankfully I can now look back and laugh at the times we had. It was a fantastic weekend, but continually running through my head was IUDM of which I am missing even as I type this post. Troubling…to make up for my absence, I wore my IUDM t-shirts throughout Sydney and took some pictures for IUDM around the world. FTK all the way! …12 days until I’m outbound Australia. If only it were warm at home this transition wouldn’t be so terrible. 

P.S. This video gives me chills...you should probably watch it :) AND if you want to find out more about my passion at IU... www.iudm.org 

Sperrys Now Have Credentials

My Sperry’s were finally given a proper home after my first official sailing trip. Last Sunday Beth and I had a whirlwind trip to Sydney for a day of sailing on our friend Nick’s family yacht. We started early, strolling up to the Fairy Meadow train station only to realize one of us *cough*beth*cough* had looked at the weekday timetable which threw us into a whole different timeline. At the time our perfect connecting train schedule to catch the 10am Manly Ferry looked grim and poor Nick would be waiting at the wharf for another half hour or hour depending on how long we would be waiting to catch our connections. But after sprinting and catching a few sour looks from others through Sydney Central and Circular Quay stations, WE MADE THE 10am FERRY! That was by far the happiest ferry ride I have ever taken, such an accomplishment we couldn’t believe it!

Nick picked us up and gave a quick car tour of Manly which happened to be way better than the small rainy beach I remembered. Thank goodness he changed my opinion! There was a cute little boardwalk with shops and plenty of eateries much like Bondi.

Sailing was a much needed break from the daily grind of studying abroad. One, it was a wicked activity that I never imagined would happen. And two, being around a family environment and interacting with parents was so refreshing. The whole experience made my homesickness subside slightly. We sailed to the point of having the harbor bridge in our sights, than curled around to a bay for lunch aboard. I would love to us all the fancy lingo I learned…but I don’t have the slightest idea how to spell it. Besides messing with the painters and watching for the boom and maisao, that’s about all I’ve got in my workable vocabulary. After we got a little Australian burn and spiked my blood pressure from the fear of falling overboard, we headed home for a restful train ride to Fairy Meadow.

This week it really hit me how quickly my time here is passing, I have under 65 days left. I am flying to Uluru tomorrow until Monday, then next Saturday I’m off to New Zealand for my much anticipated campervan, spaceship, excursion. Then I come back to three weeks of school until exams! It’s insane, I can see the light. Also, after looking through all my travel documents I discovered I’m actually going to be home November 20^th. Luckily I checked! Okay, I really must get to bed before this 5am train. “Good night you princes of Maine and you queens of New England!” J Miss you all! 

If you were curious what we are camping and touring New Zealand's south island with, please watch this video you'll be amused for days. COMFORT ZONE GONE & LOVIN IT! 

T for Tourist

The adventures never seem to cease down unda. Classes may have started but the beach continues to bring the Campus East community closer together with each sunny day. While Teter beach is a lovely IU legendary icon, I think this aspect of a coastal campus is really affecting my outlook. And learning about surfing is way cooler than watching imported sand volleyball! It is a great way we all get to relax and break away from the grind of uni life. I’m keen.

Last night we had a bonfire on the beach after eating at my new favorite place, the North Gong Pub. Best food ever…at least for the price! I think half of Campus East was there. And our great weekend was just warming up.

Today we woke up bright and early to catch the train to Sydney. We made it to Circular Quay and had a great stroll through the botanical gardens and the standard Opera house/bridge sighting. I’m sure the boys loved spending the day with tourists. Don’t worry, we made them join in the festivities of searching Paddy’s Market and taking cliché harbor pictures.

We made our way to Chinatown for a great lunch then Beth and I were off to Olympic Park to reenact the games! In comparison our 40 minute train ride was much quicker than my previous visit to the park. And once we made it our expressions and excitement could have been described as two kids in a candy store. The arenas and stadiums are massive, and to think that a city will spend years in planning and billions is fascinating to me. I discovered a new fountain and grass architecture area and the setting brought goose bumps to my skin. The scene of the sun setting over such a beautiful place is one that is a must ‘when in Sydney’ event.

We wanted to optimize our MyMultiDayPass and decided to travel home the same day. We had no idea what slap happy jokes and eye rolling fun we were about to experience. While waiting in Sydney Central, the train station announced a delay due to injury on the tracks. Our hearts sank instantly. Trains bother me to begin with, I will never come close to the white/yellow line but uhh the thought made me sick to my stomach. After several delays, station changes, and various transportation we made it home 3 hours after departing Sydney. We made it!

Productivity is at an all time high since coming home as well. I have all my homework complete for Monday, pictures are up, and the post is done! Tomorrow we are exploring the Wollongong Shopping Centre for the first time! J

No worries, we're not lost we're exploring!

For our last day in Sydney the skies opened for a gorgeous day at the world-famous Bondi Beach along with a shopping adventure!

Bondi Beach was home to the Sydney Olympic beach volleyball games and a local gathering spot to enjoy the great surfing and eateries along the shoreline. Of a morning, whales frequent the harbor providing a spectacular natural wonder to the ocean. But they are not the only creatures of Bondi, sharks while not an immediate danger have also been spotted along the coast. Yikes! Be brave, I have to learn to surf! This hasn’t deterred anyone from surfing or swimming, but the great feature to the beach is the 50-meter pool that breaks the waves right on the ocean! The pool is a rarity with outdoor winter swimming, this has earned them the title of Bondi Icebergs. The pool is gorgeous set along the ocean. If only I could have swam in it! The winter festival was going on at Bondi with a temporary ice-skating rink set on the beach! It was so strange to see surfers in the background of families skating around in short-sleeved shirts.

If I had to equate Wollongong to any area of Sydney, I would have to gage it upon Bondi. Or at least I’m hoping. The beach life is so relaxed and anything goes really. We shall see tomorrow!

We strolled through the Paddington markets today as well as many stores surrounding Darling Harbor. I bought some essentials for an interchangeable wardrobe and found some stores I love! When I have enough money of my own, I want the entire collection of Forever New. I have never been to a store when I wanted everything, but I found it today. Gorgeous clothing.

I also entered the new world of prepaid SIM cards, uhh how I will miss unlimited texting and never worrying about how long I talk during a call. I have a new feature though, I have a data package! Now I just need to learn how to use the internet on my phone haha. Go Telstra!