Anonymous: Hi! Can I ask you where you were based while you were in Australia, like the state or something? Thanks :)
Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia
owlramblings: Hello, I just stumbled across your blog, and I'm glad that you (seem to) love my country :) How's settling it back home going? I'm mostly messaging you because it's very strange seeing something I walk past every day in little ol' adelaide show up in a random place on the internet - Adelaide's Malls Balls (the big silver balls which are iconic for us but no one is quite sure why they're there in the first place) Thanks for posting that photo :) Have a great day
Wow I’m so sorry I’m just getting to this now! That’s so awesome you found my blog though, I’m all settled in back home for the most part, but I do get Australia sick occasionally. Adelaide was an amazing stop around the country. Thanks for the message :)
Anonymous: Hey, I saw you were from around buffalo and I was wondering what district you went with RYE through? I'm from Rochester and I was wondering if maybe we were in the same district! :) (I want to exchange 16-17)
Nope we are different districts, but close! I’m from D7090.
Going on an exchange will make you the happiest and the saddest you will ever feel in your life
(via travelingnutmeg-blog)
xembearx: I have a quick question- you went through Rotary right? And you're from America so you speak English? And they do too in Aus.? How can you do that?? We've all been told (in florida) that rotary won't exchange with same language speaking nations.
Yes I did rotary youth exchange yes I’m from the U.S. and yes I speak English and yes I went to australia where they also speak English lol. Your district may not like the idea of exchange to same language countries, that’s why it isn’t an option where you live. My district does and has been for a while. I think that exchange with a country that speaks English as well is not a bad thing. It is still exchange!! With a different culture, different people, food, music and different living. Plus Aussies have their own version of English and I love it.
And so the end has come
I fly out of Melbourne tomorrow at 8am. It’s my last day with my host family as I’m staying with my counsellor the last night. I will miss my host family heaps, but I know that I will come back to see them. I’m just blown away at the fact that the year has passed. I am devastated to leave my best friends, it’s going to be hard for a while. But it isn’t goodbye..
I will arrive back in Buffalo at 11pm, very jet lagged, blazer filled, and excited to see my family.
Leaving is scaring. Arriving is frightening. It was bound to happen, and I’m ready to face it now.
I come home to the same place but I am now not the same person, but a better me.
The End
The ending of an exchange is scary in so many ways that I don’t even know how to put it in words. We will have to say goodbye to this country that we now consider a home, and say goodbye to so many wonderful people, not even knowing if we will be ever be able to meet them again, and knowing we will never be all of us together like this. It is saying goodbye to the little things that we do here, to the food, to all the stuff we are used to now. Saying goodbye to the life we built in one year, all to be taken away. It is going back home and facing how everything has changed in the year we haven’t been there, how everything has moved on without us, and how we have moved on without everything. Seeing how everyone started their countdown for their returning, and seeing your own days left slipping. Leaving a life behind is truly frightening.
I admire exchange students so much, and all the things we have to go through, you all guys are amazing, you are all so brave. Let’s face this last month we’ve got like it’s the last one of our lives. I really hope we can meet one more time. If this is not the best year of our lives, our life will surely be incredible.