1 month left

No pictures today... I'm just so happy to be caught up with all my adventures that I thought I'd update with babbling.

I just calculated that out of the 19 weekends I've been/will be in Australia, I've only stayed at home doing nothing of interest for 5 of them... and one of those was right after getting back from vacation when I had a paper due, and another one was right after classes started. So I'm feeling pretty productive. It's true that I didn't get to Tasmania or anywhere too far from Townsville, but Australia is a HUGE country that is very time-consuming to travel in. It isn't like going to a European country where you can sprint around the entire continent on weekend trips.

I had my algae practical exam today... the less said about it, the better. Afterwards the professor gave us all pizza and beer, though. Some other American students and I agreed that we were living the Australian dream, right there.

Also I found a tree frog in the bathroom the other day! My housemate was pretty excited about it- he said he hadn't seen one in a while. (Actually, there were a ton of them in the bathrooms in the Boulia camper park... We had to check the toilets before using them to avoid awkward situations). I got to pick this one up, though! They're so sticky and cute!

I only have one month left in Australia... I'm not anticipating the reverse culture shock that everyone assures me students have. I've had a good time here, but I'm plenty ready to be home. I miss all my friends that kinda get me.

But, with only a month left, I've started plotting my final weeks.

I think I mentioned this before, but I'm going to spend the weekend alone on Magnentic Island, exploring. I'm making sandwiches in preparation tonight.

Next week is the last week of classes, and I'm so ready for it. I'm over classes. I've got a lab report due on the last day, but I've already kinda sorta started it, and I kinda like lab reports, so hopefully I won't lose too much sleep over it.

After that is a week-long break. I'm spending mine on the biggest, longest, and most expensive trip of my time here- I'm going out to Uluru (in the middle-ish). It's a two-day bus trip out there. Katie (my cousin) went out there when she was in AU and said it was amazing and a must-do.

After that is two weeks of exams. I only have four exams, though, so I'm looking into interesting day trips for the days when I don't have exams. After exams I'm going out to Mission Beach, which is the closest that the rainforest and the reef get to each other. Immediately afterwards I'm packing up and heading to the airport to go home.

And yes, when I'm studying/working on reports/doing dishes my mind goes straight to that plane ride home. It's getting harder and harder not to dwell on it. Obviously this won't be a problem when I'm traveling and having fun... but I suspect this next week is going to be very, very grim for me.