i eat vegemite for brekky

so.. i guess this is it. my last post was october 28th, and it's now.. november 22nd? what happened? well, there are four options

1) final exams & essays
2) traveling!
3) internet is not free here = running out of credit
4) better things to do.
5) laziness.

i'd say it was a combo, but honestly, mostly it was 3 & 5. this past month has been .. awesome. this whole trip has been ridiculous. it's everything i could've ever wanted out of this bloody country, & so much more. and now i am in the process of paking up and LEAVING - to come back who knows when, but will definitely be coming back.

i just got back from sydney & canberra the other day, which i wasn't planning on going to at all but then emcor was driving home from college (she lives in the berra) and so we drove back together, explored c-bang, then hit up sydney. canberra was so incredibly pretty.. it was a planned city, planted in the middle (ha) of sydney and melbourne so as to not let one city be 'supreme' over the other. so although it is still 8 hours from melb and only 2 1/2 from sydney, it's at least not in one or the other. the city was placed in the middle of the mountains, in a 100k squared valley. there's a man-made lake and everything. we explored parliament and old parliament and the war memorial, which were pretty awesome. i haven't even been to DC but i've been to australia's capital.. what should that tell you? we were meant to see and do much more but we spent so much time at the three of them.. which was absoltuely fine, because they were so cool. that's the government-nerd in me talking, take for it what you will.

i am obsessed with this - so the senate and the house each have their own 'colour' - senate is red, house is green. we were walking through old parliament and each branch is pretty much separated and has their own amenities. we wandered into the senate garden, which was nice, flowers and tables and gazebos and red clay court tennis courts. later we walked around the house gardens, same spiel, except - wait for it - green grass courts. maybe you had to be there, me and em found it pretty amusing... the separation went so far as to the type of court that each branch played on. what if you were a better grass court player? do you run for house? anyways. we thought it was funny.

so em's backyard basically is just bush, so we took a walk after tea one night. i got one last look at boxing kangaroos and a really pretty sunset over the mountains.

sydney was pretty cool. it was a LOT different than melbourne.. first of all, the CBD is HUGE, and there are much much more big buildings. i don't know if its just because i'm so far from chicago that i'm thinking this, but yeah. it's just a different lifestyle there as well. we saw the opera house and bridge, didnt climb UP it but we walked over it, and up one of the pylons. we met one of em's friends who drove us around, took us back to her house and we ate lunch, then left again to go to bondi, where topless sunbathing is more than okay. afterwards we went back to the cbd and hit up darling harbour, got some eats, then went up the sydney tower to watch the sunset. the next day we went to manly for the morning and lunch, then back to circuluar quay and the rocks. we went inside the opera house (SO COOL!) and i peed in the toliets there, which had the wickedest sinks ever. then we went to mrs macquarie's chair and got some good pictures (and by good i mean HEAPS) went to st mary's, hyde park, and got some icy poles and just relaxed. so in conclusion, we didn't DO much, but we saw HEAPS. for only 1 1/2 days in syd, i think we did pretty good.

and now i'm back in maryland. most of the people are gone.. siobhan karri and leah left wednesday morning, so when my flight got in on tuesday night i went right to the village, and we gooned the night away. i fell asleep with my shoes on in karri's bed..good thing it was the last night, i reckon she would've been a bit angry otherwise.. but it was the worst thing ever to see them go the next morning.. it just seemed so final. i know i'll see them again, but it was more than that. it wasn't just saying good bye to them, it was saying goodbye to this whole experience. i'm off in 2 days. from australia. something i've looked forward to my whole life is just coming to.. an end. and don't give me that crap about 'every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end'... put it away, semisonic.

it even got sentimental at pa's.. that's when you know it's a bit over extremed. the dj was like " thanks for a great year! we'll see you next semester!" and then proceeded to play a 6-song banger with all the classics, including a tricked out version of land down under. try interpretive dancing to THAT mother.

Also, i don't like this whole saying bye thing. i get an extra couple days in aus but it also means that everyone is going home before me.. so instead of them saying bye to me, all at once, i have to deal with it in doses. it's a bit unfair.

in other news, i decided i am more australian than most people here. i've already passed the citizenship test (albeit unofficial), but the other day i was talking to em about the elections and everything and said "our prime minister" without realising it.. then in syd we were in the visitor center getting maps (duh, tourists) and some girl starts talking to us, turned out she was from california, and the she asks me where we were from. i say chicago, and she goes.. wait.really? i thought you had an accent. it was pretty much the greatest compliment of my life. the problem is, it only comes out when i'm around australians..and then it flows naturally. i was showing jenna my potty time video from the 4th day in australia and she said that my accent has gotten a lot 'better' for lack of a better word. but when i'm talking to mum and pop at home i find myself stopping to correct myself, to talk like them. LAME. i don't like it.

alright. stime to go see across the universe with claire, who i'm pretty sure is my australian twin. more later (although probably not.)

see you stateside.