Around For A While: 2012

So now, I do believe a final blog post to update everyone on the last month of adventures is in order.

Firstly, I believe I left you sometime in the midst of finals month. Finals were not particularly hard it seems, although in one class I think I did significantly worse on my final than I originally thought based on my overall grade in that class.... but I still did fine in the class and I had gotten back from Thailand like 24 hours before that exam so I'm not too upset about it.

After finals though, I was off to Sydney! Leaving Tommy More was extremely sad though, as were the last few days of goodbyes. Many many tears were shed. When we left, most of the people in Tommy were gone already so it was just the last 20 of us or so standing around on the giant chessboard, crying. I was fine until I saw Steph crying. Then I absolutely lost it. Living in Tommy More was one of the best things about my abroad experience. The people were wonderful and inviting and I was able to make so many friends and really have a true sense of community while I was there. It was a giant part of the best semester of my life and I can't express my appreciation for the staff and students of the college.

Sydney though! It was wonderful. The city is much larger than Perth, probably about 10 times the size. It's a really nice and clean city. The opera house was beautiful, as was the bridge. We also played this really fun game called "play the dumb american tourist." Basically, the way this game is played is you go around the harbor and ask people where the opera house is or where the harbor bridge is. Just for the record, both are EXTREMELY obvious and visible. The looks on people's faces were really great. Also, Simon fake proposed to Kat Chew right in front of the bridge. It was wonderful because Kat's laughing face looks very similar to her crying face. A crowd gathered around and one woman even said "it was so beautiful!" Basically it was the best moment of my life. I died laughing.

After Sydney, it was off to New Zealand! We rented two cars and planned ourselves a road trip around the south island. However, the road trip started out a little bumpier than we thought. Maybe two hours after renting cars and starting our drive, we got in a car accident.... with ourselves. Essentially, one driver braked too quickly and the driver of the other car rear ended them. So... that was quite the experience. We ended up having to get one car towed and finding a new place to stay near where we were. Luckily, the next day we made it back to Christchurch, got two new cars (we had full insurance so we were covered) and only lost a day due to our unfortunate mishap.

Onward we went with our itinerary. We drove down to Queenstown which is basically the party city where bungee jumping was invented or just became really popular or something like that. A group of us went skiing for the day and had a wonderful time. Well Bailey and Nora fell a few times and the snow wasn't the best considering it was the beginning of their season but it was great to ski again. Another group of people tried to go skydiving but due to high winds, did a canyon swing instead. They are far braver than I am though. No way was I going to do that.

Then we were off to Milford Sound (a fjord!) and a wondrous boat cruise the following day. We almost missed it because it took us like twice the time google told us it would to get there (we drove pretty cautiously after our accident). However, we made it just in time and I am so glad we did. It was unbelievably stunning and probably one of my favorite things we did (although everything was a favorite thing).

The following day we drove up to Fox Glacier, saw lots of cool stuff along the way. We stopped in Wanaka for lunch and spent some time by the lake AND went to puzzleworld, which is as awesome as it sounds. The following morning, we then got to hike on a glacier. Probably one of the cooler things I have ever done. The ice was such a beautiful color and we got to crawl through cracks in it and tunnels and stuff. SO COOL! That night it was back to Christchurch where our adventure began. Kat flew out the next morning and the rest of us were super lazy and ended up hanging around where our hostel was basically the entire day. It was near the beach, so a few of us walked around there. It was very odd to see people in winter jackets and stuff walking on the beach though. A far cry from the beaches we had seen in Australia at least.

Jamie, Bailey, and I ended up sticking around Christchurch for a couple more days as well, which was kind of rainy and cold. We sort of assumed there would be more things to do in Christchurch since it's a fairly decently sized city. However, what we did not forsee is the fact that most of the city center was leveled by an earthquake in February 2011. Like most of the places we looked up to stay were still not open. We saw a couple cool things. They built a really cool outdoor mall out of shipping containers for example which had lots of funky little stores full of pretty shiny things. I think I got a pair of earrings there.

Then it was off to Fiji! Fiji, for the record is very warm and very pretty. We got to see Olivia go skydiving and she landed RIGHT next to our resort, which was really cool. We also took a day trip to a nearby island , which was really more like a spit of sand. But it was very beautiful, there was coral everywhere, we went snorkeling a ton, saw some really cool fish and an octopus! Lots of really cool starfish too, which were bright blue. I tried to find Nemo but unfortunately couldn't. Other than that we all just basically perfected the art of sleeping on the beach and tanning. It was great to have a few relaxing days in Fiji after a lot of traveling around and driving in New Zealand.

Finally, it was back to the US. I was able to meet up with my cousin Jo, who lives in LA for lunch and spend some time with her during my layover, which helped a lot of the time pass. Then it was back to MN. I couldn't wait to see that skyline. My parents picked me up at the airport and my mom even had Caribou Coffee! Never has coffee tasted so darn good.

I've been home for just over 2 weeks now. I still haven't quite comprehended everything that I have experienced in the last 5 months. It was the time of my life and I think I'm still a little bit in denial that it's over. Similar to the ending of UNDERC last year, leaving Australia was sad, not because I won't ever go back to Australia again. I know I will. But never again will the last semester of my life happen again. Never will those same people be there and be together. Never will I be able to just pick up and go to another country (or continent) for a week because it sounds like fun. I'm going to be a senior in college soon and then graduate and theoretically be more responsible and have things like a job or grad school or something that will restrict me from doing those sorts of things. I know my life won't have TOO much responsibility after college. However, the amount of irresponsibility that was this past semester abroad will not happen again. The people won't be there again and the funny times we had won't happen again and it makes me so sad. I suppose I shouldn't be sad though. I should just appreciate the time I had in Australia and that I had such a great opportunity to go abroad, see all I was able to see and experience all I was able to do.

Claire

and now! Photos!

p.s. I didn't read through or spell check or edit this post at all, so I apologize if there are lots of grammatical mistakes.