Completion

I am now completely and totally and officially done with my semester abroad. I took my last final this morning, I'll get all of my results in December. I even finished packing today, which is good because I get on a plane at 5:45 tomorrow morning. I'm flying to Auckland, New Zealand on the way home so I'll probably post one last time to tell you all about that, but other than that I'm done.

My last day at the beach. The white rectangle in the ocean is the net.

There have been a lot of lasts going on. On Saturday we had our last barbie. I had my last day on the Australian beach. I swam in the ocean in Australia for the last time, which was also the first time I swam in the netted area (they just put out nets because it's jellyfish season and the box jellyfish comes into shore areas to breed and kill people). Today I ate my last package of Woolworths instant noodles. I will finish my jar of peanut butter today as well. I ate my last fresh mango yesterday, it was truly delicious. On Sunday I went to the Night Market for the last time. I also had my last scoop of mango gelato. I even took pictures of my last trip to the Smithfield Shopping Centre to buy my last bag of wholegrain penne. It took me a long time to fall asleep last night because I kept on remembering that it would be my last night sleeping here. That's right folks, I'm staying up all night tonight. In any case, I've had a pretty good time here, and while I'm super excited to go home, I'm also sad to leave tropical North Queensland. I love the plants here, especially the ones that make me think of dinosaurs because they were around when they were. I'm going to miss seeing bright blue Ulysses butterflies. I'm also going to miss finding wallabies when I go for walks and skinks darting into the undergrowth whenever I walk by. I'll miss scanning the path for venomous snakes while I run and checking for paralysis ticks afterwards. I'll even miss avoiding the edges of murky bodies of water to avoid saltwater crocodiles.

My beautiful bus ticket art

As I was packing, I was reminded that I have saved pretty much every bus ticket I bought the whole time I was here. Someone suggested that I scrapbook them, but I didn't want to take them home so I lay them out on the floor in chronological order and made them into "art." I think it says something about my experience here.

Anyways, I just keeping on moving along, and before I know it I'll be back in Oregon and not long after that I'll be back at PLU. So I'll see you around!