The End of an Era....

These were the words spoken by a fabulous new friend of mine in respect to my departure of this great continent in only a couple short days.

Since my last post, I have continued my travels around the south and eastern coasts of Australia, making another stop in Melbourne before hitting the great ocean road. For pics, refer to http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2039417&id=1054940637&l=0b68f28446.

To be honest, 10 days by myself was all I could handle. I actually cut my travelling short by a day to return to Sydney to be back amongst people again. It was a fabulous trip and great time, but anything worth doing is worth doing it with someone.

Tonight, a few friends and I head out for an almost final time to have dinner, drinks, and take in the Michael Jackson "This Is It" movie. Perfect evening, I reckon. And tomorrow is the final farewell to this city I've come to love passionately. I fly out to Cape Town, South Africa on Saturday morning at 10:15am. (Sam Welch and Tony Corbin, if you're reading this, it means that Friday night must be a tame one.....I have an early flight!)

This time in Australia has been completely incredible and something that I will never forget. The lessons learned here have been many and varied and in order to keep this rated G, if you want to know what the lessons were, let's chat offline. Just kidding, but in all seriousness, my perspectives have been broaden beyond belief, as has my network. This will not be the last time I'm in Australia, I can guarantee that (unless something unfortunate happens to me in the next year). However, it is, as Sam put it, the end of an era. As Kristen has said, life will never be like this again.

So, my next post will (hopefully) come from South Africa, assuming I have internet access. Our group going to South Africa will be keeping a more detailed and focused blog that you should take a gander at if you're interested. There is a link to it on the left navigation bar.

Until I reach another continent......

Cheers!

A week of firsts.....

Well, since my last post, I have completed my work assignment with Uncle Price in Australia and began my holiday. What does this mean? I am officially off the Uncle Price radar. It's a rather lovely feeling, really.

In the last couple weeks of time in Sydney, Karalee (my roommate) and I enjoyed a visit from a friend of her's from Chicago - Tiffany Westfall - who also, coincidentally, is someone who went to my high school as well. It really is a small world. We also enjoyed the arrival of Karalee's husband, Brian. Our last day of work was filled with little work really, and much more socializing. Our team gave each of us the Australian version of Monopoly as a parting gift. The interesting thing about this version of the game is that it doesn't include any money. Everything is via credit cards and a little electronic computer thing that keeps track of how much each player has. While I suppose this is only the logical next step for this game, I wonder how children will learn to count money without Monopoly money.

Later that evening, KL and I and 8 others boarded a somewhat dodgey looking boat for a harbour dinner cruise with an ABBA tribute group for the entertainment. A great time was had by all, and it was a wonderful opportunity for us have one last memorable time together.

The following day, KL, Tiffany, Brian and I boarded a plane to Cairns, Queensland. This is where the holiday began, as well as the week of firsts.

• First time snorkeling (at the Great Barrier Reef)
• First live encounter with a shark
• First time driving in over 3 months
• First time driving on the left side of the road
• First time driving along a seaside road that hugs cliffs on one side and mountains on the other
• First vacation by myself (KL, Tiffany and Brian left on Monday and I proceeded north in my car to Port Douglas)
• First time in a rain forest (northern Queensland is basically one rain forest after another - this week's news here is that two scientists have found a chemical in some tree's fruit in the QLD rain forest that shrinks cancer tumors overnight)
• First hot air balloon ride
• First time on a beach where there is no development for as far as the eye can see

To view some pics from this week, go to http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2038619&id=1054940637&l=e5ab669482

I've been in Queensland for about a week now and am boarding a plane later today to head down to Victoria to continue my holiday.

I'm becoming quite sentimental about my impending departure from this amazing place. When I was preparing to come to Australia, I was anticipating that once I arrived in South Africa, I'd be an emotional mess because it would be the first time I'd be seeing some great friends from home. However, I'm now beginning to think that I may be an emotional mess in South Africa because of what I will have just left in Australia. I have met some incredible people here and have had the absolute time of my life in the last 3 months. I am going to tremendously miss these people and this country and hope that it won't be too long before I am back.

Well, I'm off to get a skinny flat white and some breaky. More later....