I miss you.

It's been almost two months since I left Australia and I feel as if I am stuck in time. I am no longer in Australia but I am not back at school yet which is causing me to feel lost and alone. I don't have my support system of almost 100 Australian people that I knew in Warnie and I am not back in my old groove with my long time friends at Iowa State.

Sometimes when I'm bored, I find myself reading through my blog or looking through my pictures on my phone from Australia and I feel a sinking feeling in my stomach. You know when you're in a public place and someone says "I have something to tell you" and you feel like your stomach has disappeared and all of your organs are sloshing around and your skin is tingling? That's how I feel when I look through the pictures and realise that it has all happened already and all of my friends are 9576.2 miles/15411.4 km (yes, I googled it) away and there's a 14 hour time difference.

I wake up to their crazy, drunken, night out Snapchats and go to sleep when they are rolling out of bed hungover to go to class. Basically I just want to say that I miss you all so much. I wish I was back there, living with all my old housemates and everything was back to how it was. I know now that if, no, when I come back to visit, nothing will be the same as it was in those four months I was there and that's what scares me the most.

I miss you all more than words can do justice and there are too many of you to tell you individually, so this is to all you crazy Aussies on res, off res, my fellow exchange students, I miss you.

Rain, Rain Go Away...

How does four months feel like 10 years and two weeks at the same time? I remember thinking, "I have more time," and by the time the thought had processed, I was eight days from flying home. 

I'm not ready. 

I wasn't fully prepared for the ways that Australia would change me. I am no longer the same girl who I was when I left Chicago on February 16th. I sometimes think about all of the things I have done and marvel at the fact that I did them. I don't believe that I can put together words in a way to describe the way that Australia has made me feel and grow, so I won't try. I will have to keep this piece of me close to my heart and just always know that it's there.

Sarah left. 

We packed up her room and put it in her mum's car and they drove away.

Jacinta left.

Not completely...

but she is on placement in Cobden for two weeks so she's been staying there.

Kitchens 3 has been rather lonely...and quiet. 

Because of exams, it has been "quiet period" here on res (ha...). 

But we've found ways to make our own fun. 

Intense games of Farkel, putting bras on Aiden, and headstands.

While writing in my journal about how much I love it here 

and listening to my Band of Horses Pandora station, 

I finish writing and look at what song was playing, 

and it just coincidentally had to be Australia by The Shins. 

Fitting. 

After finishing my one and only exam, I got caught up on the second half of Teen Wolf season 3 which shattered my little heart to pieces.

Drunk selfies are inevitable. 

It was recently Friday the 13th, my favourite day, although not many others like it. Quiet period=Dry period, so we watched some "horror" movies in the common room at NRAS. Despite my suggestions to watch Insidious or A Haunting in Connecticut, we started off with Fright Night 2 whose only redeeming quality were the beautiful eyes of the protagonist. After that, by some twist of fate, we watched Teeth. If you've never seen it, don't watch it. Those are images that I can't un-see.

Last night, my friend, Dom's, band played at the Loft and we all went to support him. I wasn't positive of the music genre of his band, and was surprised to find out that it was a 1950's sound, reminiscent of The Notebook. The night was amazing. We were all dancing around like fools, feeling like we were back in the days of saddle shoes and polka-dot dresses. 

We eventually made our rounds to the Shan and the Gal and were in our beds by 3:30 am. 

After such a killer night, the fact that I have to leave hurts that much more.

WARNING: If I were you, I would just listen to the videos and not watch because at one point I just started dancing while recording and the camera was flailing everywhere...and will probably make you nauseous. :)

Perth Day 6: Caversham Nature Reserve

 

Prepare yourself for an onslaught of photos of the most precious Australian animals. For the last day of our trip, Katie and I found this little gem called the Caversham Nature Reserve. I hadn't seen a kangaroo yet...or many Aussie animals to be honest. So we figured that it was the only option to venture there on our last day. We were able to go into an enclosure and pet copious amounts of kangaroos and feed them, and Katie and I's mission, take selfies with them. There were red kangaroos, grey kangaroos, and white kangaroos. We also saw a lot of joeys in and out of their mother's pouches. They were so friendly and so soft, we didn't want to leave.

It was actually incredible how tame they were. Before entering the enclosure, there is a sign telling you that there is no running and not to touch the joeys that are in the mother's pouches. Regardless, there were children running everywhere (which is one reason I couldn't be a zookeeper, I'd want to give a piece of my mind to parents who let their children run amok and not follow the rules). But amazingly, even when the children ran up to the kangaroos, they hardly flinched. Some would hop away, but I saw most not even give a second glance. It was wonderful to see animals so at ease with humans, I just wish that humans would start to respect animals as they respect us.

This little guy was a wallaby who lived with the kangaroos in the enclosure because he didn't get along with the other wallabies of his kind and must think that he's a roo.

The flying foxes were mental. They're basically bats but it was bizarre the way that they crawled along the ceiling of their cage using their claws. We've got these guys all around res.

If I had to compare a koala to anything else on the planet, it would be a uni student. They sleep 20 hours a day and wake up to eat eucalyptus...which also can lead to a feeling of being "high."See what I mean?

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree...merry merry king of the bush is he...

Since I told you my favourite flower, I guess I should also inform you that owls are my favourite bird. They're such extraordinary animals. Yes, we all know that they can spin their head around, but did you know that they have asymmetrical ears, meaning that one side can hear close and the other can hear far away? Also, they have INSANE vision that parallels that of binoculars. Not to mention they are chill as hell. (Also, if I was a Hogwarts student, I'd have an Australian Masked Owl).

These horrific, dinosaur-esque birds are what I have named "demon birds." Not only do they look terrifying, in the bottom picture when I was standing close to the fence, one stuck its head through and tried to bite me. Left that exhibit pretty quickly.

There was no sign explaining what this bizarre looking bird was but it had the same characteristics as a rooster. The stripey bit on the back of its neck also flared up when he was mad, or when he was trying to impress the female living with him.

Finally got to see some of these beauts. 

"It must get old, lying there, day after day, watching people press their ugly faces in on you... Can you hear me?!"

"It's just...I've never talked to a snake before. Do you talk to people often?"

Spotted quolls are a carnivorous marsupial with a killer bite that's second only to the tazzie devil. We got to watch it eat some chicken. It looks cute, but is actually pretty vicious.

This magnificent black headed python was there for people to hold and take pictures with. We were supposed to only hold its tail for the picture and that was it, but while I was holding it, it slithered its head close to my cheek. SO CUTE. Then when most of the people and their kids had gone, I went back over to talk to the zookeeper and see the snake again, and he let me wrap it around my neck and hold it mostly on my own. I just love reptiles.

The wombat we got to take a photo with weighed 30+ lbs and was sleeping the whole time. Her little lip twitched while she dreamed.

When I get back to the states, I think that I will have a blue-tongued skink as a pet.

^^^ Yellow Possums. Sleepy echidna. vvv

The dingos were not at all what I expected. I thought they'd look extremely vicious and scary, but they were adorable...and if I wasn't a little scared of them eating my baby, I might want one as a pet...

We saw the little Tasmanian Devil last. When we went to the exhibit earlier in the day, we didn't get to see one at all. We went back later for the trainer talk and got to see one of the trainers feed them. Once again, another Aussie animal that is exponentially adorable...until it eats your face off.

On our walk back to the bus stop, we saw some kangaroos in the wild as well. It was a funny coincidence because Katie and I had been talking about how people would say that me seeing kangaroos in the reserve wouldn't count because they weren't wild, and we stumbled upon these three. 

Later that night, we went and hung out in the bar/cafe that was attached to the hostel and met some pretty interesting people. It was such a fun experience that I wish we would have discovered earlier in the week. People of all different cultures and from all different countries. The Irish bartender was such a cool guy, and so wass a local Aussie who made Katie do a Jägerbomb with him. There was a guy from Northern England who was celebrating his birthday, as was a super cool girl from Ireland who we sat and talked to for a while about traveling and when the best time to travel was when you're young and you don't have as many responsibilities. She was so cool. It was a perfect end to the trip for me before I had to leave Katie the next morning to fly back to Melbourne.