What are you made of?

Brad Pitt asked me this question this morning in the Sydney airport. Well, he asked me it through an advertisement for cologne but I know he was talking directly to me, haha. The last few months I have figured out what I'm made of.

I went to dinner last night with my friends at a pub across from IH and then I said good-bye to everyone this morning. On the way to the airport, I think the taxi driver was a little concerned for my mental health because I couldn't stop crying. I won't lie- it was really, really hard to leave Sydney. I feel like I was just starting to get comfortable there and I made some really great friendships. But it was such a big mix of emotions because I am so excited to be home. I cried all the way through customs until I saw several other study abroad kids crying when I knew I needed to pull it together.

The last several months have been such an emotional roller coaster. I feel like I have grown up so much and learned so much about myself and other people. The future is pretty exciting- I have 3 interviews tomorrow for internships with the government (Treasury and OPIC), and I have 2 more lined up next week. I also got an offer yesterday from a friend for an all expenses paid trip to Ecuador next spring (pretty amazing, huh?) I plan to graduate next fall and then hopefully get a full time job in trade policy with the federal government. I'm also planning to take the foreign service exam next spring because I think I'd really like to be a diplomat (on the economic track) in the future. Who knows, I'd also love the chance to live in Sydney for a few years sometime in the future.

I hope that you have enjoyed this journey with me! That's all folks :)

Last Day in Sydney

Photos from my last day in Sydney- I cannot believe I am all packed and ready to leave tomorrow. It's a mixed bag of emotions- I'm so excited to come home to see my friends and family but I am so upset to be leaving here. Today it took me forever to get all my errands done. Then I went down to the Harbour this afternoon to take it all in one last time. Tonight we got dinner and just enjoyed the skyline one last time...

View of the Sydney skyline from the IH roof


View from Victoria Park

Friends out at the Rose Hotel


Me and a Aborigine performer down at Circular Quay- awesome music




It took about 8 tries to get this! :)


I present to you the Opera House!

Sarah sees more of Sydney

Today I went to see more places. Started out a 8 am on the bus to Palm beach. Then we wandered to Chatswood (nice suburb), the Sydney Tower in the CBD and all the Christmas decorations!

I freakin' love this country even in the rain (I'm jumping even though it looks like I'm sitting down...)

Palm Beach

Christmas decorations in the CBD

View from the Sydney Tower... we didn't get a very good sunset because of the rain...

The green part in the middle is Victoria Park which is right across the street from where I live

Since we didn't have a good sunset, I made up for it by taking ridiculous photos in the souvenir shop!! (that's a outback hat and boomerang)

Self-explanatatory :)

The store David Jones has the entire Nutcracker story in the store windows- it played music and the puppets were moving!

Sarah sees New South Wales

Photos from my road trip through the state New South Wales with one of my Australian classmates.

View of the Pacific from Bald Hill


Kangaroo Valley

Flies on my back- they were swarming me!!!

Fitzroy Falls

Baby Market (presumably where you can buy babies ;) ) Next to an Adult Store. ONLY IN SYDNEY!!!

Sarah Goes Across the Harbour Bridge

My weekend in doing all those touristy things I should have been doing over the semester. It's been pouring all week but luckily we got a nice morning before the rain started up again to walk across the Harbour Bridge! (finally! this is normally one of the first things people do here, haha)

Guess you can tell by now this is the Opera House...


CBD (Central Business District = downtown Sydney)

From the top of the pylon- can you see the people walking on top of the bridge?

I love this city!!!!

Yay! We made it across what my internship supervisor called "Guantanamo Bay"- see all the fences and security cameras? I also think we saw at least 4 security guards in 30 minutes.

Sarah Goes Kayaking

We went kayaking for the afternoon in the Middle Harbour, near the Spit Bridge.

I'm getting good at these self-portraits!


Can you tell I was really into it? ;) It took us about an hour to go like 100 yards because my arms are so week and uncoordinated, hahaha

We rowed over to a beach on the other side and decided the water was so nice just to go swimming in our clothes. Hey, I'm not gonna come back for a long time! ;)

Me soaking wet and freezing cold- maybe the whole swimming in my clothes wasn't the best idea I've ever come up with. Let's just say it was a long bus ride home! :)

Sarah Goes to Manly Beach and North Head

Last weekend my friend and I took the ferry from Circular Quay across the Harbour to Manly Beach and North Head.


Me on the ferry- it was a windy day!

At Shelly Beach- a huge lizard! I'm starting to develop an obsession with these reptiles

Took the bus up to North Head where you can see the Sydney skyline in the background- so pretty!

Pacific Ocean - you can almost see the US on the other side! ;)

What it looked like below if I fell off the cliff

Fun day!

7 days to go...

Wow I cannot believe I have 1 week left! Just when it's getting warm and I'm making friends outside IH, I have to leave! I am soooo excited about going home and seeing everyone!!!! but so enjoying the sunshine here. I don't think I'll be sleeping much in the next week- just trying to soak in some rays before I leave. I made a friend here at the hostel in Canberra. Her name is Belinda and we went on quite an adventure to the grocery store tonight. It's nice to have someone to hang out with here. I'm fine by myself but I think she's been going a little nutty spending too much time alone. I think tomorrow night we are going to try some of the nightlife. There isn't much here but it's warm out and there are all sorts of people around. I'm wrapping up my internship tomorrow- so far I got really good feedback on the reports I've written. I just hope they are somewhat useful since it's taken me months to write them. When I go back to Sydney I have to face the music of PACKING! That is going to be awful- I have collected so much stuff. I have no idea how I'm going to get it all home!!!

Sarah Meet World, World Meet Sarah

I just got back from wandering around Canberra for about 2 hours. I went and saw all the embassies- so cool! I have never visited a US embassy before, but thought I should find it in case of an international incident or something. :P It was fun to see how all the embassies are built in the architecture of the country. The US is red brick, of course, sitting up and nice and imposing on a hill. I'm sure we wouldn't have it any other way.

Today was so much fun! I am so glad I'm doing this internship. It's been a little stressful at times but I think that's because of my cultural misunderstandings than anything else. But we had a really fun, 3-hour long lunch/ Christmas party at the National Press Club. Wine, steak, dessert all included! Andrew got me a really cute kangaroo for the gift exchange. Then we went over to a meeting at DFAT (Dept of Foreign Affairs and Trade = similar to the US State Dept) about IP in Australia's free trade negotiations. I really don't think I was supposed to be there but it was really cool. Andrew said he checked that it was okay to bring an intern- didn't really mention that I'm a US spy or anything, hahaha. So it was funny to hear them talk about the US position on things. I like being a fly on the wall. And since I look like everyone, they don't know I'm not AUstralian until I start talking. Although I did notice yesterday that I was losing my voice a bit because I'm sick and a bunch of people (Even australians) thought I was from here. Now I finally know how to do the accent!

I think tonight I'll just relax and watch tv. I met a really nice girl from Geelong last night watching trashy shows. I was introduced to "Gossip Girl" and other shows I've missed premiere in the last few months. Only a week left to go in this wonderful country- I have a LONG to do list!!!!!

Survey- what to do for my last night Down Under?

I am in the hostel for Round #4 of my internship. It's going really well- I had a great meeting with reps from Austrade (trade promotion) today. So nice and helpful! It's raining outside and I just finished a huge pasta and chocolate cake dinner because I am really sick and feel like I deserve it, hahaha. I lost a ton of weight this semester (through starvation- I knew the horrible IH food was good for something!), and I'm determined to keep it off so that will be the last time I gorge myself! Ugh don't feel so good now... :P

So I'm trying to decide what to do for my last night in Sydney! I still need to walk across the Harbour Bridge and hopefully my friend is going to take my kayaking this weekend. I can't decide what to do though- go to the beach, go dancing in Darling Harbour (won't be the same without Kerry and Saeed!) or just wander around the CBD. Hmm... I know I will be back to Sydney so it's not like I'm saying goodbye forever but I want my last night to be a memorable one. Got any suggestions?

Saying Goodbye

I will be leaving Sydney two weeks from today- what a crazy 5 months it has been! The last couple of days and weeks I have had to say goodbye to all of my new friends here. When I first got to IH I thought oh my goodness, these people are so much younger than me! They are so immature! How in the world will I survive? But we have really gotten close over the last several months seeing each other every day and eating every meal together. It has been hard to say goodbye to them because I don't know when I'll see them next. Some of my American friends like Kerry and Melinda live in DC and Philly so I know I'll see them again soon. It will be much longer before I see people like Pinky and Saeed. But we are lucky it has gotten a lot easier to stay in touch with email, Skype and Facebook.

When I was initially researching Australia and doing study abroad I found this graph below that explains your adjustment abroad and at home. I was thinking about it the other day and I seriously cannot believe how accurante this thing is! A couple of my other friends here have agreed.



It starts out with the honeymoon period where everything is new and exciting, then you hit the culture shock. I found a thing online that said at this point you may be finding faults with your new surroundings and will be contacting family and friends at home more often. It said that "Bear in mind that you seem to reach out to them only during your low points so try to remember to call them when you’re feeling better so they won’t worry"- sound familiar? Hmm... let me think of how many of those phone calls I made!

I think I underestimated going through any of this because Australia is such a developed and advanced country- it's not like I was going to live in Zimbabwe or something. And also they speak English here, so surely it couldn't be that different! I am reading online tonight about cultural adjustment and these are some of the things that now I can relate to:

-Not getting innuendoes.

-Not understanding what people are saying even though they are speaking English.

-Thinking no one likes you.
-Ordering chips and getting fries.

Then you go into adjustment. "Recognize that you are making it through the storm, and revel your successes, new friendships, experiences, travel, etc.! Your survival seems assured!" and finally you reach acceptance where you are able to function in both environments.

I am hoping this graph also comes with an explanation about why you get really awful grades when studying abroad, haha. I studied a lot but still think my grades are probably going to be horrible. Part of that is because my exams in the first half of the semester were atrocious so it was hard to make it up in the end, and the other part is that grading in Australia is really different. Students here don't need to get good grades to get a good job- they just need to pass. So whereas most students in the US aim for an A or B, students here just aim to pass. As a result, the whole grading system is really different and I personally think impossible to adjust to when the US system is so ingrained in you. Or so this is what I'll be telling myself when the final marks are released ;) As long as I graduate next year, I'm not worried too much. In the meantime I'll be enjoying my last few weeks of Australian summertime!

Sarah's Intro to Asia: Malaysia and Singapore Fun!!!

Here are some selected photos from my trip to Malaysia and Singapore. In 9 days, we visited Kuala Lumpur (KL), Cameron Highlands, Georgetown, Langkawi, Singapore and Melaka. It was an amazing trip! Melinda and I took about 1100 photos combined- on No. 900 Daniel started questioning what he was thinking going to Asia with two girls!


I was sooo excited!!!! At the Sydney airport


Cool fountain in Kuala Lumpur- me and Daniel (he's lived in Singapore and Brunei and was our personal tour guide- I don't think we would have survived without him!)

Merdeka Square

Tallest flagpole in the world- I am the little pink dot at the bottom of the pole

At the KL Butterfly Park

Peacocks at the KL Bird Park- we were lucky to be there during mating season so we saw about 10 male peacocks struttin' their stuff! It was really amazing.. that's me behind the bird!

Nightime in KL

View from our room in Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands

Day trip to the tea plantations

Daniel, Melinda and Me

View of the valley from a lookout point- it was amazing being above the clouds!

Trekking in the Mossy Forest- a few weeks ago they found an entire tiger family in the highlands which is very rare

Enjoying some afternoon tea at Boh Tea Centre

Beautiful butterfly at Butterfly Farm #2

Hibiscus flowers

Canopy walk on Penang Hill- don't look down!!!

View of Georgetown from Penang Hill

I think I would have made at excellent soldier! At Fort Cornwallis in Georgetown

Riding on the back of Lasah the elephant in Langkawi. It was so awesome!

Feeding Lasah- can I take him home??

We ran across this cute little guy on the side of the road and I got to feed him!

On the ferry going back from Langkawi to Penang

Sunset over the Straights of Malacca- I think this is my favorite photo from the trip

Melinda and I went to Singapore without Daniel. Will we survive??

We caved and ate Western food!!! Sorry Daniel!

Little India in Singapore- we stayed right down the street

At the Singapore Night Safari (don't worry- the crocodile is fake ;)

So much fun!

Back in Malaysia- in Melaka

Apparently I became the tourist attraction...

At the replica of the Sultan's Palace

Petronas Towers- I am the jolly green giant! :)

Passes for walking across the skybridge

Good bye Malaysia- hello Sydney! Taken at 6:30 am this morning outside the airport. We survived! Malaysia, I will back one day! :)