Bits and Pieces

We have two months left in Australia and while it makes me a bit sad to see the end in sight, reflecting on how much I have already done and how much I still have planned fills me with the same excitement I had waking up that morning of departure. Over the last 10 weeks I have collected bits and pieces of things that represent certain experiences or particularly fun days. I have pinned them to a bulletin board in my room that is now half full of adventures and memories. 

Here they are: 

Orientation Name Tag: “Kathryn Tafelski. Loyola Maryland. USA. Study Abroad. Arts Clayton.” These identifiers on the tag were all I was when I got here. I don’t think I wore the name tag once, and now it has a stickers from an apple and an avocado stuck to it. 

One Fish Two Fish/Sydney flyer: The one seminar of orientation we all made sure to attend was when the representative from the Extreme Adventure group came. He played a promotional video for One Fish Two Fish that gave us all chills. We ended up attending both trips which was amazing.

“I survived the Edge” bracelet: A yellow wristband I received for going “on the edge” of the Skydeck in the city. The Skydeck is a very tall building with a viewing deck at the top (much like the Sears Tower in America). The Edge is their way of making money off of you by making you pay extra to go in a box that comes out of the building with darkened sides, then goes to clear glass in an attempt to scare you. It was very anti-climatic and a bit disappointing, but the rest of the sights were amazing and made me feel very lucky to be in such an amazing city. 

Tag from AU flag shorts: I bought a pair of shorts from the Blue Mountains gift shop that are blue and have the design of the Australian flag on them. The tag was also a flag, which I kept and hung up on my bulletin board. I later learned in my Australian history class that wearing the flag has become a recent fad, first used in the 2005 Cronulla riots, which was a very racist event, and now worn at sporting events. I now feel a little silly and very touristy for having them. 

Mardi Gras Party ticket: A ticket I never needed to get into a Mardi Gras party in Sydney. 

Django Unchained movie stub: The first rainy day here we went to a movie. I felt a little weird about going to see a movie while I was in Australia, like I should be spending my time in a better way. The movie was great, even though I fell asleep for a little in the middle, and in the end it was a nice way to spend a rainy day with friends. 

Trivia Night stub: One day after our fourth hour of Theology my friend Carol and I decided to join two other girls at the bar on campus for dinner and drinks. To our surprise the bar happen to be closing as soon as we got there for the Chemistry society’s Trivia Night. We were invited to buy a ticket and stay. We were convinced by the 3 free pitchers our table received and stayed to participate in the event and ended up winning the whole thing. It was unexpectedly one of the best nights here. 

St. Patrick’s Day balloon: Towards the end of the St. Patty’s day festivities I went up to my best friend who was talking to a boy at the bar, sucked the helium out of a balloon, and introduced myself. Luckily, they thought it was funny and shared the rest of the balloon with me. I found the deflated balloon in my purse the next day. 

Elizabeth’s Drawings: The night before I left my sister gave me a journal with some pictures she had drawn me inside and in the Easter basket I got from home had a nice piece of cardboard with her drawings of our names and hearts on them. They are beautiful reminders of my favorite person in the world who I am so far away from. 

Hawaiian Leis: These came in the package I bought from the Loyola girl who was here last semester that I wear to random events with my best friend. 

Melbourne Zoo Map and Steve Irwin Zoo Visitor’s Guide: Even though I don’t really like animals, visiting the zoos in Australia have been a really fun time. 

Boomerang Magnets: I bought these in Sydney at the Blue Mountains gift store to hand out as souvenirs to my family. They remind me of how much family I have and how many more souvenirs I still need to buy. 

Scuba Diving CD: When we went scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef a professional photographer was under the water with us taking our picture by a large piece of coral. I look absolutely frightened in the pictures, but I knew I needed to buy one to commemorate the experience. I still haven’t downloaded it off the disk for fear of seeing myself again, so the whole disk just hangs on the board now. 

Bungee Jumping Certificate: The scariest experience of One Fish Two Fish and I got a certificate to prove I did it. 

Great Ocean Road voucher: The first day at Monash they gave us a business card-sized voucher for the Great Ocean Road trip that was included in our tuition. We were told that it was very important not to lose it as it was our ticket to the trip. On the day of the Great Ocean Road we were all made sure we had our tickets, and they were never even collected. 

AFL Ticket: Last weekend our whole group went to an Australian Rules Football Game with our history class. The teacher’s favorite team is Carlton, so everyone wore blue and white in support. I decided to root for Adelaide, the opposing team, just to be sure the out-of-state team would have some fans in the crowd. I became a die hard fan for the day, cheering for players I didn’t know but certainly did not mind looking at. 

Beer Olympics Bandana: One Saturday we decided to hold a beer olympics. I was part of Team Chad, our outfits represented the Chad flag colors and our desire to win. Despite with initial doubt, after Round One we were in the lead. We would have won, but things got a little out of hand, drinks spilled, people got hungry, and the games ended early. I am still very proud and count it as a win nonetheless. 

Assassins Spoon: The twelve-floor building I live in held an “assassins” tournament where everyone got a spoon with a persons name and room number on it and had to tap that person with their spoon in order to “kill” them. You would then acquire your next target and keep killing until everyone was dead. I made my first kill (Bonnie 1115) at the end of the first day with some mild stalking outside her door. My next target was Connor 504, aka one of my best friends here. I leapt for joy at the ease of which I would be able to kill him (and the fun I would have in doing it). I could barely contain my excitement as I pulled out my spoon and tapped him with it. He was instantly furious, a sore loser, and found loopholes in order to come back to life and stay alive. I was killed later that night and was not too upset with my death, as long as she killed Connor quickly, which she did. 

With two months, a trip to the Outback, Bali, and other surprise adventures left, I am sure the other half of my board will quickly fill up with tangible memories for me to take away from this experience.