How do I go about describing everything that happens while studying abroad? Sometimes life just seems so normal as I get on the bus, attend classes, feel completely overwhelmed with the amount of school work I have: these are the things I dealt with while back in the States (minus riding public transportation). But then something happens like our trip to the outback last week- such a surreal experience and a memory that I will always treasure. On Thursday morning we loaded up onto a tour bus with our faithful driver Ian and headed for a long trip out of the city, through the Blue Mountains, and to the flat plains and red dust. It’s an eight hour drive straight through but add in the times of stopping for morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea (they feed us a lot here!) and one stop at an Indigenous center , we arrived approximately twelve hours later. The place we went to is a sheep station and we all got to bunk in the sheep shearer’s quarters. Before going to sleep that night we were presented with a challenge: to sign a sheet saying we wouldn’t shower for the next few days. This was because there were only a couple of showers for forty people but also to conserve water. Not everyone signed it but most of us did and by the end my thought was what would have been the point of showering anyway as the red dust sticks to you and everything you own anyway? I won’t go through all the details of our time there but some of the highlights were riding pick-up trucks or “utes” as they call them here, star gazing (never seen a night sky like that!), having meaningful conversations and hearing people’s stories around the campfire, playing with the many pets and seeing all the feral animals (which included a fox, a wild boar, kangaroos, an emu, and some beautiful exotic birds). Now that I’m back at school I need to switch my focus onto all my assignments that are due next week but I wanted to keep you all updated on my experiences here!
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