Well, sadly, my computer finally did die and I’ve been unable to write until it was fixed up.  So an apology is necessary, yet I hope understandable. 

Where to begin?

My last few weeks in Australia were, yet again, some of the most life changing and awe-inspiring experiences.  There was a road trip which changed my life and I’ll never forget the things I say on the road for 11 days.

If there was one city I could spend the rest of my life in, I would have to choose Darwin.  A fun city in the Northern Territory which loves country music and really has the way of life I’d missed living in Sydney.  What can I say?  I’ll have my country roots til the day I die, and that’s one thing I’m glad will never change.

I was a foot away from a crocodile,kangaroo, and koala (all in the wild, a much more entertaining experience than a zoo, I believe).  I witnessed a scorched Earth ceremony driving through the Outback . . . I also changed a blown out tire in the middle of the Outback and had amazing Australian hospitality while pulled over, the Australian people might be the friendliest people on the face of the Earth, and there’s nothing like a man who was at least 6’6″ with a mullet pulling over and saying, “Need a little help, mates?”

Devil’s Marbles are in the middle of nowhere while driving through the Outback yet is a site everyone has to stop at.  A barren landscape with these large stones somehow being the only noticeable landmark.  My friends and I spent longer than we should have climbing these rocks, and somehow made it to the top of the largest round stone, surprisingly with no injuries given the manner in which we climbed; more or less jumping from slightly lower rock to higher rock.

I also was traveling during the election season which opened my eyes to the global perspective of how important American politics are in Australian life.  I was asked countless times who I thought would win, and also who I hoped would win.  I was shocked how important our election was to them and questioned why, and learned that ever since WWII and a tiny split between U.K. and Australia that the United States had become their chief ally and that given their relatively small population size the United States was an important component to the Australian way of life.  Another thing I learned was they frowned upon just exactly how much money was spent on the U.S. election throughout the year; and many were taken back that I believed a free market should conduct themselves that way and that money helped further businesses in advertising, marketing, etc. Yet, each has their own opinion, and I was interested in seeing all of their views in life.

Uluru was an amazing sight, sadly I didn’t climb to the top yet perhaps that is for the better.  The mountain is best described as a religious site to the Aboriginal people, and only the men would climb it as an initiation passage to manhood, and therefore the Aboriginal people whom frequent the land don’t enjoy that part of their culture being taken as a “tourist activity”, and understandably so.  The Aboriginal people I spoke to also said that those who have died during the climb hurts them as a people, for it is their belief that those who walk on their lands are the responsibility of the Aboriginal people.  A sadly touching belief system for those who were the original owners of the land. 

Barossa Wine Valley . . . beautiful countryside, amazing wine.  Wish I could remember more about it.

Melbourne was an amazing city.  Very artistic and hip, yet I only spent a few hours there and wish I could have spent longer in the city to truly explore.

That more or less composes the road trip, there was so much more but there will never be enough space to write all which I learned or saw. Which brings me to the part where I headed home, after a final week of saying goodbye to all my friends and the long flight.

The goodbyes were by far the worst experience about Australia, yet I do have tentative plans to visit: Boston College, Illinois (oh how they hated watching the Penn State vs Illinois game with me at 4 a.m.), Texas, Duke, UPenn, and so many more.  Not knowing the next time you’ll see someone that you spent an amazing few months with, and truly became great friends with is a disheartening occurrence.  The more disheartening being “if” you will ever see these people again.  Even typing this paragraph now brings along familiar faces whom I miss and wish I was still near. 

Yet, coming home has brought back the familiar faces of friends and family.  On my 20+ hour flight home Hunter S. Thompson used Mansfield (a town quite close to where I live) and Sydney in the same sentence . . . and all I could think about was how much things had changed since I was last home, and how much I had changed since that time.

Sadly, it seemed I had changed more than anyone else.  Everyone I knew was the same person I had remembered since I left, and only the height of my little sister was the shocking thing.  Perhaps it was the experience of truly being on my own literally half way around the world which changed me, yet there was so much I accomplished in Australia that made me feel like a brand new person in the best way possible. 

It was amazing to come home to my loving family and having an amazing home cooked Thanksgiving meal, yet sitting around only has made me stir-crazy and I can’t wait to get back on the road again; hopefully visiting those I met on my experience abroad.  I was pleased to find out just last night a friend of mine from UNSW will be studying abroad at Penn State in the Fall of 2013, sadly I’ll have graduated by then.  Yet, I am so unbelievably glad she will be studying at Penn State and experience the greatest university in the world.

Well . . . I guess this comes down to my final words, something I’ve never been all too great at.

Someday, I would like to go home. The exact location of this place, I don’t know, but someday I would like to go. There would be a pleasing feeling of familiarity and a sense of welcome in everything I saw. It would remind me of the length of my absence and the thousands of miles I had traveled in those restless years. Winter would come to this place of welcome, this place I would know to be home. Winter would come and the air would grow cool, dry and magic, as it does that time of the year. The trees and the falling leaves would welcome me. I would look up at the moon, and remember seeing it in countries all over the world.

Location: State College, PA