Well hello there everyone. I’m sure at this stage you are all wondering if I am still alive. The answer is yes…of course I am. I realize that I haven’t written to all of you in almost a month and a half…okay a good month and a half. I apologize, but I have been very busy! Doing things every weekend…study during the week. It’s hard to find time to sit down and write…and then when I do…of course I get side-tracked by someone walking into my room. Okay…enough with excuses…let’s dive right in and fill you in on everything I’ve been up to for these last 7 weeks.
After lecture recess, I spent about the next week and a half working on assignments and just hanging here around Uni. My friend Josh from Purdue arrived on the 14th of May for a week-long visit. It was really nice to have someone from home here to share in my experience. He was able to meet all of my friends, which was great. Now I can tell funny stories to someone who will really understand why they are so funny because he knows the person! Anyway…Josh and I are both in the dive club together at home, so it was nice to have him come here so we could go diving. Thursday morning, we headed to Ayr, which is about 45 minutes to an hour south of Townsville. Here, we went with Yongala Dive out to the Yongala wreck. I know that I have mentioned it before, but in case not…it is a ship that sank in the middle of a shipping lane on its way north. It got caught in a massive cyclone. All on board perished with the ship. The remains of all lives lost are still within the confines of the ship. It sank I believe sometime around 1903...in the early 1900’s anyway. Anyway, it is now a shelter area for heaps of marine life. Turtles, sea snakes, big pelagic fish (including sharks), giant Queensland grouper (get up to 9ft long!) all live and are residents of the Yongala. It has been said to be one of the top dive sites in the world. The ship sits on its side…the top of the boat is one side and then one half of the bottom is visible as well. The top of the wreck sits in about 17 m of water, which is about 60 feet of water. The bottom of the wreck is in about 28-30 meters depending on the tide. That means on any given day it is between 90 to 100 feet down.
Josh and I had two great dives on the Yongala. As I’m sure, since I haven’t supplied you with writing, you have all been looking at the photos. We saw lots of sea snakes…which we touched! It’s very crazy to think that this timid snake is one of the most venomous snakes in the world! Very cool. They are curious little guys…swimming up between your legs and in front of your face. They want to check you out as much as you them. We also saw a lot of sea turtles. We saw hawksbills, loggerheads, and green turtles. They were all so beautiful! Check out the photos. Diving the Yongala is so different from the reef. It’s very hard to explain. Basically, the Yongala is covered in corals, but mainly all soft corals. The current is too strong to support the hard corals with the necessary environment like they get on the reef. The density of fish on the Yongala is much greater too. The fish are unreal…if you look at the photos you will see what I mean by the vast numbers of fish living on the wreck. Anyway…it was a great experience being there and seeing all of the wildlife. We also saw a big school of barracuda…a good 50-100 strong. At the bow of the boat, we saw two big Queensland grouper. They were so big that they could have swallowed me whole with little effort! It was so amazing…I had a great time on these dives.
So that was Thursday, Friday afternoon, Josh, Dodds and I headed up to Cairns for the weekend. I know I have mentioned Doddsy…but in case you all have forgotten…she is probably my best friend here. She lives just across the hall from me. She is from Mackay, which is about 4 hours south of Townsville. Anyway…we stayed at her brother’s house. Michael took us to town that night, which was nice to get out and see Cairns. Oh…and just a side note…for those of you reading this…Cairns is pronounced “cans” not “carnes”. The next morning, Josh and I headed out on a boat to the Great Barrier Reef just off of Cairns. We had two great dives there and the photos are posted on my web album page as well. We dove the Whalebone reef and Three Sisters Reef. Both of which were very beautiful. We saw lots of cool things…including a lion fish…which was nice.
That night after diving all day, we hopped in the car and drove north to Cape Tribulation. It is about 2 hours north of Cairns, putting it 6 hours north of Townsville. Cape Tribulation is a beautiful place. It is home to the Daintree National Forest, which is the oldest rainforest in the world. There is no commercialization (or very little) up there. The rainforest literally ends only because the beach is right there. It is one of the only places on earth where the rainforest meets the reef. The two most biodiverse environments on the planet right next to each other. I realize for some of you that means nothing…but it is a HUGE deal! Way cool! Anyway…we spent the night up there and the next day exploring and hanging out on the beach. Unfortunately, we did not see any crocodiles. Crocodiles both fresh and saltwater are known to inhabit the area. Lucky for you guys, but unlucky for us…we did not see any! We did however see a massive monitor lizard. If you look at the photos…I managed to get a really good shot of him (or her). After spending most of the day in Cape Trib, we headed back to Cairns where we spent the night and headed home in the morning. It was nice, we took our time and stopped at several of the lookout points to check things out.
Much of the rest of Josh’s stay was fairly uneventful. I had assignments to do, so he did some exploring without me. He left on the Thursday. The next morning, myself and four other friends left Uni to head out for a weekend of sailing in the Witsundays. The Witsunday Islands are off of Airlie Beach, which is about 2 ½ - 3 hours south of Townsville. We hired a car and drove down. Tyler, Shawn, Brendon, Sheila and I had a great time. Tyler and Shawn are both from the University of Minnesota and live in my hallway. They are awesome guys. Sheila is from the northeast and attends University of New Hampshire. We had such a blast on the sailing trip. The first night however, wasn’t that great because it was rainy, so we all had to stay inside the cabins or at least wear raincoats up top. We ended up making a good time out of it. We made a stop at Whitehaven Beach the next morning. It was still raining; however, when we walked out onto the beach it stopped and the sun came out. It was perfect. As soon as we got back onto the boat a couple of hours later, it started raining again. So while the weather wasn’t the best, it turned out for the best at the times we needed it to. Our boat was great. The crew was very friendly and cheerful the whole time. The rest of the people on our boat were awesome as well. You know how there is usually always ‘the one’ the one who ruins it for everyone…well we didn’t have ‘the one’ so it was wonderful. Everyone was mellow and dealt with the bad weather for the best. Later that afternoon we went scuba diving. It was nice. There were 5 of us certified, me having the most dives…so I lead everyone. It was kind of cool…they sent us off while they were doing introductory dives with everyone else. Everyone complemented me on my leading skills…woo hoo…way to go me! Hah…anyway…it was nice. The dive was in the bay of one of the islands. There were some nice corals there and fish too, but of course nothing compared to the actual Great Barrier Reef (GBR).
The next day we sailed out to the reef. It was nice because the weather finally came through for us to sail. Our boat was an 82 foot retired racing sailboat…very cool. The name of the boat was “Spank Me.” Yes, yes…it was. We all got a kick out of it. Oh and while I’m thinking of it…I’m sure you all saw the photos of me holding hands with Tyler. It was quite funny because my parents asked me about this photo and I just didn’t understand what the big deal was. Tyler and I decided to make a joke out of the trip because the way the sleeping quarters worked…we ended up having to share a double bed. So the joke was that we were in a relationship for the weekend, meanwhile Tyler’s girlfriend is safely awaiting his return to Minnesota. Anyway…so the photos that you see are a joke that we decided to make about the relationship. Another funny thing I just thought of before we get to the reef adventure. There were rules on the boat…rules saying that nothing was allowed to go overboard. If anything went overboard, the perpetrator would have to eat a heaping teaspoon of vegemite. For those of you that don’t know, vegemite is an Australian thing. It’s a spread made from yeast…they tend to eat a little bit on toast in the mornings. The only way to describe it is as the most salty disgusting thing you have ever tasted. Well, anyway…Shawn…accidently sent a beer over the edge of the boat one night. All of us were on deck and he had to eat the biggest teaspoon of vegemite I have ever seen. The photo slide show of his experience has been posted in my album. It was by far one of the funniest things I have ever seen. What makes it so funny is that two nights before this Shawn was saying how he would never drink goon again because he had drank so much that he puked like 8 times. Well…let’s just say that after/during the vegemite teaspoon he was screaming for Sheila to pass him her bottle full of goon. He downed the whole thing in about 2 seconds in order to get the vegemite taste out of his mouth. Absolutely hilarious!
I forgot to tell you another thing! Hah. Before it got dark on this night, they let us out onto the beach we were just anchored off of. As soon as we got onto the beach this cute little critter ran down the rocky beach toward us. I was carrying a cup of tea with me. I believe he was most likely an opossum…but if not, he was a rock wallaby. I will have to do some research in order to find this out. But he was so cute! He drank my tea for me! One girl even held him…he was so friendly.
Anyway…so on to the reef…the weather finally held up for us to go out to the reef. It was nice to be able to sail…sailing is a very very fun thing to do. Although I will say…if you expect it to be nice and warm…think again. It is actually fairly chilly because you are moving so fast and the wind is blowing…a jacket is necessary…sometimes a raincoat depending on where you are sitting on the boat. Anyway, diving out on the reef near the Witsundays was nice. It’s so amazing that I have had the opportunity to dive at so many places along the GBR. This place was pretty cool because it was like a wall that went up and on the other side was open ocean. The current was so strong. There were several swim-throughs, one of which called the cathedral because it is so big. It was really neat. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any sharks! The next day was our last day and they let us out onto this small island to walk around and explore. Here Tyler and I picked up some shells…highly illegal…but shh….no one needs to know. The beach was really nice…we just walked around and took pictures. The boat then made it back to port in Airlie Beach where we had to say bye to everyone. Overall, the trip was really nice and I’m glad we got to see so many things.
Alright…so the next weekend was one of the most amazing/memorable experiences since I’ve been in Australia. I took another trip with the dive club on the great mighty Kalinda. We went out to Wheeler Reef and then to the Yongala the next day. My dive buddy was Tyler, not the Tyler from Uni Hall, but another Tyler. He and I met on the first trip out to the reef. He is a really nice guy. I was very lucky to have him as a dive buddy…we had a great weekend diving together. Sometimes it can be a worry about who your buddy is going to be, but we fit together well in our diving style. Anyway, we did four dives at Wheeler Reef. The first dive we did at one site called the mooring. Tyler and I went to what is known as shark alley. It is the deepest part of this area of the reef. Unfortunately, we did not see any sharks at this location. We did see lots of fish schooling and other cool things. We then moved to another site at Wheeler Reef called the Moon Pool. On our first dive, we explored one area of the reef…the right hand side. On this dive as soon as we got down and swam about 20 meters…60 feet, we encountered a Green Sea Turtle. He was so beautiful! If you look at my photos (which are in the Witsundays album), you will see the amazing shots I got of this guy. He let me get within like 2 feet of his face to take those photos. It was so amazing. Lots of other things were seen as well…as you can see from the photos. Oh yes…I forgot…toward the end of this dive we saw a white tip reef shark swim by. The next dive we dove on the left hand side of the reef (these left and right indicators are in terms of where the boat was situated). At this site we saw heaps of things….too many to list. The major thing we saw was on our way back to the boat, there’s the shelf area of the reef. Basically where the reef goes from like 14 meters down to like 30…it just slopes down. While we were here, I saw about a 5 or 6 foot grey reef shark swim past. Tyler and I were so pleased. Wheeler Reef never ceases to amaze me. I have done 8 dives there and each one has been incredible. The fourth and last dive we had at Wheeler Reef was a night dive. While it was not full of sharks as the last night dive at Wheeler was, we saw lots of cool things. Tyler and I spent our time going around a small area looking at all of the little things. What is cool about night dives is there are lots of little critters that come out only at night. For instance, we saw some big crabs, lots of little shrimp and other little crabs living in corals. We also saw a little scorpion fish (poisonous fish). It was really nice to see all of these little critters at night. When we surfaced, we had a little ways to swim back to the boat…while we were waiting on the line to get back on to the boat, there were a couple of grey reef sharks circling under the boat. It was really neat to see them while we were waiting. We ended up spending a little extra time in the water just snorkeling and watching the sharks feed below us.
That night we headed for the Yongala. The boat ride was a little rocky , and for some it was a bit too much. I however, managed to sleep through it all. Imagine that! I’m so lucky that I don’t get seasick. Anyway, the crew gave those of us who were certified the option of doing a dawn dive on the Yongala. There were others on the boat who were in the process of getting their advanced certifications; thus, they were not given this opportunity. We all agreed that a dawn dive would be a good idea. Basically this meant getting up about an hour earlier and in the water by 630 at the latest. We jumped in as the sun was coming up. The crew needed to know because they would have to get in the water before us in order to place the safety tanks in the water. Because the Yongala is so deep, oxygen tanks are placed at 10 m (30ft) for precautionary measures. Sam and Lui (two members of the dive club) were the dive masters to put the safety tanks in. I must give you a little more background on the Yongala. Because it is situated in such variable conditions, there are ropes that lead down to the wreck upon which you are supposed to use to descend and ascend. No one is allowed to come up off of these ropes unless it is an emergency. Safety stops must be performed before surfacing. Basically this consists of sitting at different depths for various amounts of time to ensure the release of nitrogen bubbles from your body. A 2 minute safety stop is done at 10 m (30ft) and a 3 minute stop at 5 m (15 ft). Anyway, Tyler and I jump into the water talking about how excited we are and how we really really want to see some sharks. Doing a dawn dive is really neat because it is the only time of day when the nighttime and daytime creatures are both active. The nocturnal creatures are on their way back into hiding or wherever it is they go during the day. The daytime critters are waking up and becoming active again. As Tyler and I desended down the rope, Lui and Sam were doing their safety stop on their way back to the boat. I looked at Sam, Sam looked at me. He signaled to me “we saw the sharks.” At that moment, pure excitement ran through my body. I looked at Tyler, told Sam okay and off we went. Tyler and I hit 28 m (93ft) and started to make our way around the wreck. On this dive, we started at the stern of the wreck (back of the boat) and made our way along the bottom side of the wreck. As we came around the bow (front of the boat), I kept searching for these elusive sharks which we had not yet seen. All of a sudden, I see this massive shadow above us…a shark. I jerk over and jab Tyler to get his attention since I cannot yell at him of course. He looks at me and I signal shark (yes there are hand symbols for various creatures like sharks and sea turtles under water). He looks up and we watch is swim into the abyss. The shark looked huge and had to have been a good 10 m (30 ft) above us. We then began to ascend a little toward the top edge of the wreck. We stopped at about 17/18 meters (60 feet). Here we continued our dive along the wreck. We made it about 2/3 of the way down the wreck when all of a sudden out of nowhere comes this massive shark. Pure shock jolts through my body. I don’t know whether to be amazed, awed, or scared. At that moment, watching this beautiful creature glide by, within 10 feet of me…is unreal. The beast I am staring at is a 10 foot female bull shark. She makes her way past Tyler and I and disappears. We make eye contact and give each other the thumbs up.
Tyler and I continue on down the wreck in pure awe at what we just witnessed. As we swim along, Tyler is on my right, a few feet below me….down the angle of the wreck. I am swimming along checking things out, thinking about what I just saw. All of a sudden a chill runs down my spine as I realize there is something next to me on the left. Out of the corner of my eye I catch a glimpse of something large. I look over, and no further than 4 feet from me is the female bull shark swimming right next to me at my pace. She and I had a moment…swimming a long staring each other in the eyes. I look over in pure shock to get Tyler’s attention. As I look over, I realize that right next to Tyler, on the far right…is another 10 foot female bull shark! It was the most unreal experience of my life. For about 7 minutes Tyler and I swam with these two gorgeous beasts. The bulls were schooling this massive school of giant black trevally. At one point, they herded them right on top of us. The sharks are swimming in and out of us like they didn’t care that we were there. They were doing their own thing. At one point, one of the females seemed to be heading straight for me. About 10 feet from me, she swerved to the side and swam back around. This entire time, I was in a state of pure awe and amazement. I realize that most of you are probably thinking I was scared shitless (excuse the language). But surprisingly…even to me…I did not panic. I was utterly calm the whole time. After this 5-10 minute period, it was time for Tyler and I to leave the sharks and head back to the boat. As we sat at the safety stop at 10 meters, Tyler looks at me and holds his hands one on each side of his head shaking it back and forth. I look at him and signal “I know!” We were telling each other how unbelievable that moment was and what shock we were in. As soon as we hit the surface, we were screaming. We couldn’t believe the experience we just had. The best part was, I had taken the most unbelievable photo imaginable. I’m sure at this stage, those of you who are reading this will have looked at it. The photo was not on zoom or cropped or anything. It is as I took it. Unbelievable. Luckily for everyone on board, the sharks were not deterred by divers on this particular day. Everyone who dove on board the Kalinda got to see the bulls that day.
I realize that many of you think this is crazy and not safe. I will tell you, you are wrong. I feel so lucky to have had that experience. It is not every day that someone jumps into the water (not even at the Yongala) and sees bull sharks that close. The chances of a dive like that are a good 1 in 300 at least. I will never be able to begin explaining to all of you the emotion that that particular day, that particular dive envoked in me. I am forever changed from that experience. As if Australia hadn’t already done so much for me, it made one of my biggest dreams a reality. The bull sharks were so beautiful. I makes me so sad that so many people think of them as dangerous beasts that are just out to eat people. They are so wrong. These animals are beautifully built…they have survived the centuries. They are an evolutionary marvel. Beautiful. Okay…I’m done now…I’m sure you all think I’m crazy!
The next dive was awesome, but the sharks had moved on. Tyler and I swam around the wreck and saw several sea turtles, a couple of sea snakes. At the bow of the boat was a massive school of what I think were snapper. It was so cool…I swam right into it and it was as if I were in a cloud. They did not move, but when I swam through them, they parted just enough to let me through. I tried to take some photos, but the photos cannot capture it properly. We also saw a fairly decent sized Queensland grouper in the mix. It was probably 6 feet long, with a mouth big enough to swallow me!
So there that is…this amazing experience. I will never forget it.
Whew…so much emotion and I’m not even close to being done telling you about things. That next week back at Uni was a busy one. I had heaps of papers and assignments due. Friday finally came, and I was off for another adventure. Dave and I headed up north to Cairns and Cape Trib. Yes, I loved it so much that I had to go back. Dave asked me if I wanted to go, and I couldn’t say no. Dave is from Connecticut and goes to UConn.
We took the train to Cairns. A seven hour trip. While the train takes longer, it is much cheaper. Only 30 dollars each way instead of 50 each way. Really, the train is more comfortable anyway. We had a great time chatting, eating, drinking, reading, etc etc. Finally, at 7 Friday night we made it to Cairns. We stayed at Gilligan’s Backpackers Resort, one of the famous hostels in Cairns. That night we just spent walking around Cairns. We walked down the boardwalk, grabbed some food and went to bed, for we had a big day the next day.
The next morning we woke up fairly early and headed to the Marina, where we were taking a boat to Green Island. Green Island is about 40 minutes (on the fast boat) off of Cairns. The island is very tiny, taking only about 30-45 minutes to walk all the way around. It is a sand island, with one resort on it. We spent the day there…from 930 to 430. It was nice being with Dave on this vacation because he is adventurous like me. He likes to go off the beaten track and explore things. We spent some time walking around the island looking at everything. When we first got there, we were walking around…we were about 1/3 of the way around the island, far away from any buildings…and it started pouring rain. We ran into the trees, where we waited for the rain to pass. Once the rain passed, we continued walking on. This pouring rain continued to occur another two or three times on our journey around the island. On each occasion we ducked under trees to keep us from getting wet. Finally, the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful day. We spent several hours snorkeling. While we were in the water, we saw 4 different sea turtles. At one point, Dave signaled turtle to me and there were three of them in a patch of coral. We swam with them for a while, until Dave decided to touch one and they all took off quickly. We continued snorkeling around looking at all sorts of different things. It was really nice. The snorkeling was not great. Obviously we were not on the reef, but the snorkeling was still really nice compared to most places.
We eventually got lunch, laid on the beach, snorkeled more, chatted…etc etc. The day quickly came to an end. We were back on the boat heading back to Cairns. That night we met up with some other people from Uni who were staying in Cairns that night at Gilligan’s. Dave and I went to dinner at a nice Italian Restaurant. It was so nice to have a good meal and get away from Uni Hall food! Dave and I headed back to Gilligan’s where we met up with everyone. We all had drinks and then went to bed. Dave and I were waking up early in the morning to pick up our rental car to head to Cape Trib. The next morning we caught a taxi to the airport where we picked up our rental car. We were extremely happy and surprised with how nice our car was. It was an almost brand new Holden Commodore V6. I realize we do not have Holden in the US, but basically it is a really nice sporty looking car. I will be posting a photo of it on my blog soon. Someone was telling me that the model will be sold in the US in the form of some sort of Pontiac. I was lucky enough to drive the two hours to Cape Trib. It is a very interesting thing this driving on the left side of the road with the steering wheel on the right. I am going to find it curious how I react when I first get home to the way we all drive. Once we arrived in Cape Trib, we began exploring. I showed Dave a couple of the places that we had been a few weeks before. It was nice to get to see these places again, because they will never cease to amaze me. After exploring for a while, we went and checked in. After checking in, we had a quick nap before heading back out to check out another beach. It was so cool. We came across the most enormous tree I have ever seen. The thing was huge and coming out of the ground at about a 40 degree angle. There were so many branches. We looked so small under this thing (see photos once posted). Most of the day was fairly rainy. It drizzled on and off all day, but we still managed to enjoy it. At about 630, we grabbed some dinner, and at 730 we were in bed. We had bought a flashlight with the intention of taking a nap, getting up at 1030 and going around to look for various critters. We were going to go spotlighting to see different frogs and lizards that come out at night. 1030 rolled around and we didn’t get up. We didn’t get up until 730 the next morning! We were so tired!
Once we were up at 730, we got moving and had some breakfast. The rest of the day we spent stopping at every beach along the way in Cape Trib. There are also several jungle boardwalks. We spent a lot of time exploring and walking through these. Our goal was to see a cassowary. Cassowaries are very ancient birds, related to Emus, which are extremely endangered. There are signs all over Cape Trib warning people of them. The chances of seeing one are not very good. It was so funny, because I told Dave about the birds and how the females can grow up to 6 feet 8 inches tall and can be very aggressive. You should have seen the two of us walking along the trails. It was quite a sight to see. I have plenty of video which Dave took to show you all. Finally, it was almost time to head back to Cairns and drop off the car. We stopped at one last boardwalk. While there, we were passing a tour group and the leader stopped us and pointed whispering “hey guys…cassowary.” We looked out into the jungle, and low and behold…there he was. It was a juvenile, but none the less a cassowary. It probably stood about my height…5 feet give or take a few inches. It was so neat to see this. We had been talking about it the whole trip and how much we wanted to see one. We got some photos and moved on, continuing down the trail. It is unreal the jungle. I cannot describe it to you. It is just amazing…the way the trees are, the way their roots form…it’s so cool.
After this boardwalk, we stopped at one last beach on the way home. We ended up walking down it a good ways until it met up with a river flowing out into the ocean. It must have been the Daintree river, because we saw a tour boat going down it. We spent some time exploring this beach, until I said to Dave, “wow…look at that rain cloud…” Dave yelled at me to hurry up, that we were about to get poured on. We started running down the beach back to the car. As we are running, the rain began. It was so funny because it was almost like those scenes in the movies. We were literally just in front of the downpour. Each step I took was just one step ahead of the rain. We made it back to the car and an avalanche of rain hit. We just started laughing.
We then began the journey back to Cairns. Most of the car ride was spent talking about nonsense, but we ended up getting into a deep conversation about this experience…this experience in Oz and mini-vacation. It was very interesting…some of which I will get into here momentarily. Anyway, we returned the car, went back to Gilligan’s for the last night of our trip. The next morning we got up, got on the train and headed back to Townsville.
At that point, it was back to reality and Uni. Exams were fast approaching. It was Tuesday, and my first exam was Saturday. I ended up having 4 exams, Saturday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. I finished on the 21st…just a few days ago. Overall, I think my exams went okay…I should do fairly well in my classes, unless a curveball comes my way. It feels good to be finished with exams, but now I have all of these other emotions to deal with.
I have to say…I do not know that I will ever be able to describe and explain to you all what this experience and place has meant to me. As I walked to my first exam on the 14th, I wanted to write to you all. An overwhelming feeling came over me as I walked to my exam. It was about 730 in the morning, I was crossing the road from Uni Hall onto campus. Campus was dead silent and no one in sight. I am looking at the mountains to my right as I walk across the street. All of a sudden, the silence is broken by two cockatoos that begin their cawing. It just made me smile. It made me think… “Wow, this is Australia.” I cannot explain to you how this one event, this tiny little event in time summed up the whole of my journey. Not my whole journey, but I don’t know. It is one of those things, just like my photographs…you all can look at them and see how amazing they are, but you will never understand the emotions behind the photos. What those photos mean to me. I wish I could share that with all of you.
I told you I would come back to Dave and I’s conversation. You know, part of me is of course excited to come home and see all of you, but I’m not sure I’m ready to say goodbye to this experience and these people. How am I going to explain it all to you? Dave said it really nicely. How am I supposed to explain what it feels like to leave everyone and everything I’ve known for my entire life, leave my entire life behind and come to a place where I know no one and I know nothing about? How am I supposed to explain what is it like to establish a new life, have all of these new experiences, meet all of these new people, come to the point where this place almost feels like home? How am I supposed to do all of that and then just turn around and leave it all behind, say goodbye to everything I have just established these last six months and say goodbye to these people, some of which I know I will never see again and come home? How do I explain to all of you what that feels like? It isn’t possible. I cannot even begin to describe to you all the vast emotions that are inside of me. I have been sitting here all week thinking about how difficult it is going to be to say goodbye.
This place, the people I have met here…they have taught me so much. I am a completely different person now. I look at the world in an entirely different way. I perceive things differently. Australia is the most amazing place I have ever been in my entire life. I will never forget it or these last few months. I know that in time I will be back here. Australia has also taught me that while Indiana and Lafayette were great places to grow up, they are not where I want to spend the rest of my life. I don’t know that I even want to spend my life living in the US. I love it, but there are so many other amazing places in the world. Anyway…ugh…I could go on all day, or all night rather, but I don’t want to get too emotional yet. I am not ready to say goodbye…I still have 4 more days here. And 14 more in Australia. It is not time to say goodbye.
Hopefully this whole message makes sense. I wrote it in a hurry of emotion and thought. I hope to write again before I make the great journey home, but there are no promises. You might not hear from me again until I am home. I will arrive home on the 8th of July. Before coming home I will spend 4 days in Brisbane, 2 in Canberra and 4 in Melbourne. I will be staying at various people’s houses…no more hostels/hotels for me yay! I hope that all of you are well, and I am excited to see you all and tell you everything in detail.
See you soon!
Love,
Krissy
