As we ascended, the window to my right soon became filled with an awe-inspiring view of the city, the harbour, the bridge, the opera house. But the view soon gave way, flickering back and forth as we raced into and out of clearings in the clouds. I tried with everything in me to hold onto that view, tried to hold onto my life there, tried desperately to find a semblance of solid ground to stand on and to suddenly not be on the plane which would take me further and further away for the next 16 hours.

But I failed. All I could do was watch and hope for the short glimpses that would soon end, turned fully around in my seat so I could watch it for as long as I could, until I could no longer see those fantastic cliffs marking the edge of a country which I had learned to call home.

I left an active life for a sedentary one, exchanging winter for summer once again. Days spent sunning and reading, nights spent dreaming of Oz.

lol oops. I hate myself for not keeping up with this. It’s really quite easy, making short little blurbs about what’s going on. I even had a few in mind that I wanted to post previously, but now they are just obsolete. But I guess I can do a quick little roundup of the past week.

Lost a library book. Swore I remembered placing it somewhere and seeing it the next morning. Swore ghost stole it. Later found it hiding under a shirt on my bed. Still not sure I was the one who put it there.

Missing Australia and Sydney like crazy. In a drunken rage, almost purchased tickets to go back. Except even when under the influence I am smart.

Went to New York City for a day and hung out with my friends Elissa, Michael, and Grittney. Didn’t do anything out of the ordinary besides finally try bubble tea, but it was fun, and Elissa’s first time in the city. Terrible, terrible train ride home courtesy of approximately 30 drunken fools. Man in front of us said it was one of the worst train rides he’s had in 21 years.

Have decided to make an active effort to get tan. Will spend one hour in the sun each day. Just one, to avoid burning.

Wanted to be writing a lot this summer, but it just doesn’t look like that’s happening, does it?

Other than that, nothing special. Meh.

This is hard for me to do… I don’t have a scanner that I can use and there’s only so much you can see from a webcam photo. But I’ll try.

Can’t see much. These are notes from one of my classes, but I’ve long since stopped taking notes and started doodling things like this…

And this…

Don’t judge.

Bellows Falls, Vermont
Springfield, Vermont
Inverness, Florida
Springfield, Massachusetts
State College, Pennsylvania
East Longmeadow, Massachusetts
Sydney, New South Wales

Guess which one’s my favorite?

Headed to the beach instead of doing homework. Ohhhhh well.

The seats on Sydney’s CityRail are reversible! So if the seat is facing the opposite direction of the way the train is traveling, and you’re basically going backward, all you have to do is stand up, pull your seat toward you and voila! There’s a seat now facing the same direction as the train is going!

It’s really useful (some may call it magical) for people like myself who get motion sickness and need to see where they’re going.

Unless I’m a moron and just never realized it, even the Metro-North trains to/from New York don’t do that!

Impressive.

About to start week five of the semester here. I cannot believe how quickly time is passing by. As much as I feel like I’m taking advantage of everything I can, it also feels like I will never see and do everything that I want to. Uni is keeping me extremely busy, I’m barely even keeping my head above water as it is, and things are about to get really serious in the upcoming weeks. I wish I didn’t have to care about my grades. I wish I was like those other lucky bastards whose grades go back to their home institutions as a simple pass or fail.

Damn you Penn State. Damn. You.

So most of my time has been spent doing as much work for class as I can to get ahead (or pretending to do so). But not everything here is workworkwork.

Last weekend was pretty full of fun things. On Saturday I had a surf lesson at Manly beach, my favorite one here that I’ve been to so far, and it rained. A lot. Bbut that’s ok, because you really don’t feel it in a wet suit. And it’s really fun! I wasn’t sure I’d be too good at it, but it’s really not all that difficult. I managed to stand up a few times, so I consider it a success! The lesson flew by really fast, but it’s probably good because we were all exhausted by the time it was done. I also got stung by a blue bottle jellyfish, which are supposed to be the ones you don’t want to get stung by. I think I got lucky and only got brushed against, cause the pain wasn’t terrible.

The next day, I had a field trip for a class to the Royal National Park. It’s the second oldest national park in the world after Yellowstone. It was raining on and off again, so the paths were all muddy and flooded, but it was still alright. It’s really beautiful, right on the ocean with these amazing cliffs and beaches. Unfortunately, I never put the battery back in my camera after charging it, so I wasn’t able to take any photos. But at one point I found a leech attached to my leg, sucking blood out of me. I had never had that happen to me before. I wasn’t really sure what to do, but I pulled it out with a piece of paper towel and scrunched it up, and then my friend Kristina stomped on it. Then later she found one on her shoe, and almost lost her mind.

Last Wednesday, me and some friends went to Coogee beach for this restaurant’s Wednesday special - $5 steak, and you get chips (fries) and salad for an extra $2. Talk about a deal! And it was really good, too. A lot of people show up for this. I might have to make it a weekly thing because it’s such a good deal, and I don’t get a whole lot of meat on my own. All I can make is pasta, really, haha. So my body may need it. After dinner we sort of split off, and a few of us went night swimming at the beach. The waves were massive, and it was wicked fun, but there was tons of seaweed everywhere, it made the experience a little bit uncomfortable. Especially because, in my mind, every bit of seaweed was a jellyfish. Talk about paranoia! Eventually we found a place that was pretty clear of seaweed, but then we got cold and decided to head back.

This coming weekend I am headed back to the Blue Mountains as part of a class trip. We will be camping for three days and probably not have phone service - which is kind of the point. I’m pretty excited for it because last time we didn’t get to stay long enough to really enjoy it.

I hope my camera will last for three days. At least I’ll remember to put the battery back in before I leave this time.

I swear.

at keeping up with this. Part of me doesn’t even care, and the other part of me has just been too busy to think about it.

It’s the middle of the second week of classes here at Sydney Uni, and some of my classes are pretty easy, but others are really hard man. I mean I feel really stupid. Probably because even though I’m taking subjects related to what I’m taking at PSU, it’s still a different curriculum, and I don’t have previous study in that curriculum. So my upper-level courses are challenging me. Every time I say something it isn’t right, and the things coming from everyone else’s mouths are straight magic. I need to just stop speaking.

The problem is that in Australia, you really need to speak. It’s a big part of your grade, because you have big lectures and then small tutorials, which are discussion-based. So if I say nothing, that’s bad as well.

But apparently no one gets A’s in this country. So I shouldn’t even care. But unlike many of my fellow study abroaders whose grades will go back as pass/fail, mine and the other Penn Staters’ will go back as we earn them. Therefore, I actually have to give a damn. Gonna drag my GPA down. Why did I come here, again?

Oh yeah, cause it’s SYDNEY, and it’s stunning.

Last week I went on a harbour cruise with a bunch of other kids, and madness ensued as is the case on any booze cruise. Then on Saturday pretty much everyone went to the gay Mardi Gras parade, which is a huge deal here, even though it caters to homos. It was pretty cool actually, even though I didn’t originally plan on going. I have lots of pictures to post (another thing I’m being terrible about doing).

On another note, I got a membership at the public library, and I’ve been running regularly. I feel like I’m starting to have the life that I’ve been wanting. Reading, running, and having a good social life. I actually think I text more in this country than I do in the States.

I’m onto something good. And I’m so looking forward to seeing how it develops during my remaining time.