Last Post in Australia

Hello Everyone!
Tomorrow (Tuesday the 7th) I am heading home to the states! I will be back in good ol' Minnesota on the 7th at 8pm or so. (Gotta love gaining a day going back home! lol). I had the most amazing time traveling the last 2 weeks. Being able to experience soo many things and be in a variety of places around Australia... i have been so lucky to be able to have this opportunity. I was in Brisbane for a few days and stayed with a family friend. I really enjoyed being in the city and Simon took great care of me, making sure that I made the most out of my trip with tours and explaining about the city and surrouding areas. Not to mention that I was able to go to a pub to watch the State of Origin games and witnessed Queensland beating New South Wales!! :) They have won twice and has made it a win for the state of origins cause there is only one game left. I bought a Queensland state of origins beanie and wore it around Sydney today --- which is pretty gutsy given the area that i was in but i wore it with pride. :) I went to the Sunshine and Gold Coast while I was in Brisbane and got to see the Australian Zoo, famous for Steve Irwin. It was all pretty amazing. Took a bus to Byron Bay, the most eastern point of Australia and is known for surfing. There I went skydiving.... totally amazing by the way!!!, tried out surfing (got owned by a few waves!), and climbed to mount warning to watch the sunrise (the first part of australia that the sun shines on). Then it was on to Sydney. I was able to see the Opera house and Harbour Bridge, go to the Taronga Zoo, visit the Botanical Gardens, walk across the harbour bridge (on the bottom), went to manly beach and just toured all over the city! Throughout the last week of my travels I was with my friend Annie from back at home and her brother. It was a lot of fun hanging out with them --- many memories. :)
It has been so amazing here. All of the things that I have learned and experienced. It is amazing to be able to live in a different place for a while and be able to compare it to life back at home. Things seem different and you get used to life in your new country -- make things back at home almost seem foreign. Stuff like driving on the left side of the road or the tone the phone makes when you call someone becomes something that you get used to. I remember when one of the rangers was taking me home from Billabong Sanctuary and had an automatic and it actually bothered me that it wasnt a manual and the car wasnt shifting. Its amazing that the things you get used to after 21 years and after spending 5 months in another country can totally change the way you view life and every day things.
I hope that you guys had a great fourth of july!! Take much care and talk to you soon!!

Travels

This is the map of the east coast of Australia. My travels originally started up in Cairns, which is a little north of Townsville. What is cool is by the end of my trip I will have traveled the road way from Cairns all the way down to Sydney. I will have a pretty good feel of what the scenery of the coast looks like. A little over two weeks left. I am really looking forward to being able to travel around and feel really lucky to have the opportunity to do so.

Last Day of Uni....

Today I finished Uni. I had my final exam in Rainforest Ecosystems. I think that it went by well, just hope that he is not too strict when grading it.
A lot of my friends have already left. All of my Australian friends are gone and I have a few american friends left. Three are leaving tonight and one tomorrow evening. It has been an interesting day today. One of my friends was getting ready to leave as I went to my exam and then two left when I got back and then two more after lunch. It has been a big day of goodbyes. Tonight I am going to friends apartment with the rest of what remains of our group and we are cooking pasta. Afterwards we are going to Bludgers on campus for some drinks and to hang out. I am meeting up with a friend from Hungary who I first met at the Billabong Sanctuary. It should be a pretty good night. :) Tomorrow I am volunteering at Billabong for my last time. I am going to ask to see if I can hold a wombat! I have held and worked with a lot of the animals there but havent with the wombats -- one of my favorite!!
I just reserved my spot on the train to Brisbane for Sunday! It is going to be an 18 hour ride, getting there at 9:10 the following morning. It will be interesting to see the landscape of Australia. :) I am staying with a family friend who lives there. I am looking forward to that. I havent seen him for 11 years so it will be nice to catch up.
I am going to head out. Have to start getting ready soon and I may take a little nap. Staying up to study for exams kind of takes the energy out of you. . . . .

Great Memories, Great Friends.

The Australian's and I. <3
Morgan, Me, and Hayley waiting for the bus.
Outside of Hog's Breath.
Hanging out in the activity room in GR.


Last night was our last outing. We were all able to get together, which was so nice! We took the bus to Hog's Breath Cafe and had some amazing food! A good change from what at the dining hall. I had a steak burger and it was pretty amazing. What was interesting was it was decorated with american things. License plates from the different states lined the walls, there was even a green bay packers lamp! It was interesting, felt like i wasnt in Australia. Then we went to cold rock, which is the us equivalent of cold stone. I got cheesecake icecream with boysenberry and tim tam toppings. Needless to say, it was pretty fantastic! :) After that we walked to the bus stop to find tha the next bus didnt come back for almost and hour and then we took a 'maxi taxi' back to fit all 10 of us in there. When we got back to GR some of our friends went back to their rooms but there were 5 of us in the activity room in where we played some pool and played a game of spoons. It was a pretty good time. Made for a wonderful evening.
The Aussies loved their presents! It was such a good time and we actually took them by surprise. :)

Last Hurrah in Townsville

Today is the last time that my group of friends will be hanging out. :( We are going to Hog's Breath Cafe for dinner and then the Aussies are going to get some gifts from us Americans. We bought picture frames and took a nice group picture at one of our previous get togethers - so they are going to get that and a card signed by us all. Pretty much everyone is leaving Uni a week from today - I can't believe that time is going by so fast! Just when you start to get into the swing of the friendships that you have made and really feel apart of the group, its time to leave! I have made a lot of great friendships, from various places in Australia and different areas of America.
It is amazing at how fast 5 months can go. Even though I have been apart from my family and friends for so long, it seems like I am going back to home to where i left off. There is going to be some readjusting to get used to and catching up with people, but it doesnt seem like it has been a whole semester.
I had my first final yesterday, I think that it went well. It was for conservation biology and was a in essay format. Today I have psychology. Then two next week and i will be done friday afternoon. This has been the longest I have ever had for exams! One ENTIRE week to study and then two weeks for finals.
Well, I should get back to studying. Today will be a great day - hanging out with my buds tonight AND fish and chips friday!!! Gotta love it! :)
Take care everyone!
Bobbi