And just like that, it was over.

Made the mistake of listening to this while writing this post: Listen while reading

How did I get here?

I'm 21 years old. Every college kid's dream age.

Why was this the day that I had come to dread?

I was about to return to everything that I had ever know, while at the same time leaving everything that I had grown to love. 

The day began at 6:00 am on June 23rd. Sarah, Jacinta, and I woke up and gathered all of our crap together (mostly my crap). I ate a little more chocolate cake for breakfast than needed but, hey, it was my birthday. Finally, at 6:30 we headed off to the bus stop. I should mention that, by this point in my trip, my largest piece of luggage had only one wheel and weighed around 53 lbs. Manoeuvring it to the bus stop while the bottom of it was creating sparks on the sidewalk was a difficult feat.

We finally arrived at the bus stop. Three girls, two suitcases, and a large backpack. The bus ride to the airport was around four hours long. I was expecting to sleep for most of it, but we just ended up talking and recounting the last four months.

And then we arrived. I made my way to the check-in counter where I found out that my check-on bag was a little over-weight. It had to have been my lucky day because the guy working allowed me to check it on anyways because he saw on my passport that it was my birthday. Thank you guy who was at the United desk but didn't work for United. You made one girl very relieved.

Then it was time.

The time that I had pretended wasn't going to happen.

Goodbyes.

I found it quite funny how the hallway to the international area of the airport was paved with red carpet. It seemed almost exclusive, in a daunting way.

There, in front of that elegant red carpet, I hugged my two best friends for the last time. We exchanged notes and quite a few tears. As I walked down the carpet and turned back to see them for the last time, it felt as though something inside of me broke. A piece of my heart fell from the hole in my pocket and will remain with them forever.

Fourteen hours. One movie (The Awkward Moment), three meals, four Diet Cokes, six episodes of Sex and the City, and 45 minutes of sleeping later, I was in Los Angeles.

I must mention that I departed Australia at 11:20 am on June 23rd and arrived in LA at 10:20 am on June 23rd. Back to the future, right Sarah?

I had a five hour layover, so my fabulous cousin, Kelci, came and picked me up in her convertible and drove me around LA. I couldn't have asked for a better 21st birthday than the one that I had. I got to see the Hollywood sign (which you can see from her apartment balcony!). And that was the least of the exciting moments.

We picked up her friend Chelsea and headed to "brunch." Although our brunch consisted of peach bellinis. Which also doubled as the first legal alcoholic drink that I had ever drank in America. 

After drinks, we went to a little gem of a massage parlour and all three of us got massages. After a 14 hour flight, a full body massage felt like pure ecstasy. 

Thank you, Kelc, for giving me such an amazing 21st birthday. <3

We then went to pick up her dog, Tinkerbell, and we were off to the airport. Once there, we ran into a major bump in the road. Kelci wasn't going to be able to get on the flight with me because somehow we were "late." She was able to get on the following flight, so I had to make it through security quickly to make it to my own flight. To my annoyance, I got stopped before the security line because my carry-on was "too wide." So very quickly, I had to open it and remove my tennis shoes to wear through security. By this time, I was getting very flustered when I had to put all of my things through the security check. Only to find out that they would have to run my backpack through again because I forgot to remove my laptop. While waiting for it to scan, I heard the last call for my flight to Chicago. Finally, once everything was through, I took off towards my terminal at a fast walk. Over the intercom I heard, "Alixandra Badly-Pronounced-Last-Name" please make your way to the departure gate." 

And that's when I realised I was that girl. 

The one who would have to run down the terminal. 

And off I went.

Sweating, I took my seat on the plane and proceeded to pass out for the entire four hours to Chicago.

The plane landed.

I was in Chicago. 

When I left this plane I would see my parents.

I saw my dad first. He was wandering around.

And then, I saw my mom come in through the doors.

That I was happy to see them was an understatement.

We got my bags and waited for Kelci's flight to get in. We arrived at my Aunt and Uncle's house at around 2:30 am. At this time, everybody was asleep and I was in dire need of a shower. Before that though, my mom said that she had a surprise for me. She handed me a package that had Jacinta's name on it, but my address. I opened it and found a beautiful Australia necklace that I haven't taken off since (well except when I shower of course). Thank you Sarah and Cinta. <3

The next morning I woke up and my mom said she had one last surprise for me and she went upstairs. I heard a door open, then a tiny voice asking, "Is she here? She's back from Australia?" And I knew it was my three little peanuts. I thought they would have gone home by that time but there they were, ready for me to hug too hard and spoil with their gifts from Australia.

Then we; Mom, Dad, Eric, Kelci, Tink, and I left on our five hour drive home. I told myself to stay awake the whole day so that I could sleep that night, and I succeeded...until I got home and slept for a solid four hour nap.

The next morning I woke up, wide awake, at 4:00 am, so I watched the sunrise. The jetlag got periodically better. The next day I woke at 5:00 am, and the next at 6:00 am. 

I have to say that I didn't mind being up with the sunrise.

Perth Take 2: Leighton Beach & Freemantle

The second day we woke up pretty early and set off to Woolworth's where we got bread, peanut butter, bananas, granola bars, apples, and a huge bag of oranges. This was going to be our food for the week. I had two peanut butter sandwiches a day for five days. #hostellife

We took the train to Freemantle where we found Leighton Beach, a beach recommended to us by one of Katie's friends from back home. We just wanted to relax after the day of travelling we had.

We decided to get in the water because it was significantly warmer than the water back in Warnie. Although this seemed like a good decision, we quickly realised that the waves were basically sand waves and our whole bodies were covered in sand that we couldn't rinse off. I think I had sand in my hair for two days afterwards, even after two showers.

We then decided to go into the city of Fremantle to find some lunch only to find out that there is a street arts festival going on. There were jugglers, acrobats, magicians, artists, vendors, musicians, and dancers. It was such a great vibe and we were so happy to have stumbled upon it. 

Near the vendors, we came across this massive bus. When we walked past, the guy said "Hey ladies, do you want to go in the bus?" We looked at each other, and both quickly said, "No, thank you." He then replied with, "It's a lolly shop." No questions asked, we both took off inside. So much for not taking candy from strangers in creepy vehicles.

We came across this guy beatboxing the didgeridoo on the curb. 

Then, in true flashmob form, these four guys and four girls broke out in old style swing dancing. It was one of the greatest things I had ever seen and I couldn't stop smiling while watching it. The really tall guy (second from the left in the bottom 3 pics) was really goofy and was doing awesome manoeuvres with his legs. The blonde one with the glasses (all the way to the right) looked like a young, Notebook-esque Ryan Gosling. My favourite girl was the one in the pink and white dress. She had dreads that she had pulled up into a "beehive" type hairstyle. It was an excellent performance.

I then spotted a group of "hippies" sitting on some blankets on the sidewalk. One girl was doing hair wraps and I have been wanting one for EVER (right Sarah?) I was going to do it myself but this was so much better. The girls were from France and have been travelling around Australia. I also got a couple bracelets from them as well because I wanted to support their travels.

After the arts festival, we headed back to Perth and went to get some dinner. We ended up going to Nandos, which I've been wanting to go to seeing as it's Niall Horan's favourite restaurant (please, no comments on my 1D obsession, I've already heard it all). The food there was actually really good. This trip was a really great opportunity for me to try a lot of new foods. I am proud of myself for that.

We then walked to find the church that we were going to be going to for the Easter Service the next morning. It was a huge cathedral that looked very majestic lit up at night.

On our walk back to the hostel, there were fireworks being shot off that we stopped an watched for a bit because Katie won't be home for Fourth of July so she won't be able to watch the fireworks back home.