Backpacker Student: June 2015

Finally, my exams are over and I have completed my studies at Monash and my second year of university! The past month has mostly been spent tying up ends and saying goodbyes, which is always quite hard. My first goodbye was to Sally, who came back to Melbourne for a few days at the end of her trip. Unfortunately I had an exam the day she left so I was a little caught up with revising, but we managed to fit in a pizza and film evening and an afternoon river cruise in her last two days. Saying goodbye was really sad as it had been so lovely to have her here and it'll be a while until I next see her. The rest of the week passed by; I took my exam and went to my last classes. It didn't feel real that the semester was over and I'd no longer see the same familiar faces throughout the week. The exchange club organised a leaving party and it was nice to see lots of Aussie and exchange student friends together. Luckily I managed to fit in some more chances to see friends for birthdays and meals out, and have adopted the policy of not saying a proper goodbye to anyone- firstly because I might well bump into them again tomorrow, but mainly because it's too sad to say goodbye- I prefer see you later because I hope this will be the case. A particularly sad goodbye was to my good Australian friends Juliana and Cathy, who I have known since they studied with me in Liverpool- now I don't know when or where I'll see them next. Cathy chose a really nice steakhouse restaurant in Camberwell for our farewell dinner where we had wine and shared some dishes and desserts. As well as driving me to and from the restaurant and subbing part of my share of the bill, the girls gave me a beautiful rose-gold necklace as a gift; it was so touching, and I was also mortified as my gift to them when I arrived were gaudy union jack shotglasses I got for 88p when the Yorkshire Tourism shop was closing down.

Chris and I also managed to squeeze in a final weekend trip so that I could see a little more of Victoria before we leave. Along with our housemates and my Dutch friend Yoram we drove up to the Grampians for a day's hiking under a heavy fog that seriously hindered the fantastic views you supposedly get in the Grampians; followed by a day travelling along the Great Ocean Road on our way back to the city. We were luckier on this day and had glorious views to see the beautiful rock formations along the coast. We had spent the night in Port Fairy, a gorgeous village by the sea with traditional Australian cottages and a lovely peaceful atmosphere. I wouldn't mind going back to live there. We spent the morning in Port Fairy and, on the recommendation of the hostel owner, went along to see the village's annual Dachshund racing competition, which we were fortunate enough to have coincided with. It was certainly a unique experience and an insight into an eccentric village tradition. I was particularly tickled by the bloke selling hot dogs on the way out.

Another good experience recently has come through my mentoring programme for Indigenous high school students. On Tuesday we visited the school for a special meeting that had been arranged between the school we normally visit and the specialist college on the same site, which also has a small cohort of self-identified Indigenous students. The specialist college seemed to have a really good programme for learning about Indigenous cultures and supporting the Indigenous students in exploring their heritages. We sat in a circle and introduced ourselves so the kids from the two schools, the teachers and us AIME mentors could all get to know each other. The principal of the specialist college asked our students how much they knew about their Aboriginal backgrounds- which often wasn't a lot- and reminded them to feel proud that they belong to the world's oldest continuous culture. Although Adam, our AIME coordinator, told us that asking kids about their backgrounds ('what's your mob?', as the (non-Indigenous) principal asked the students), isn't the approach AIME would take, it still felt to be a really constructive experience and hopefully as a result the two schools will collaborate more often in future. I felt really privileged to have participated.

Aside from these couple of things of interest, the past few weeks have been understandably quite boring as I rushed to finish final assignments and prepare for exams. Exam time is always an interesting period as I go through several phases of existential crisis regarding the pursuit of academic study, fluctuating between feeling intellectually stimulated and purposeful, insecure about my ability to learn, loathing academia in general and resigning myself to suffering. On the other side of that emotional rollercoaster, I feel pretty passive- less jubilant about finishing as I'd expected, but this is probably because the sense of freedom hasn't quite sunk in yet. In any case, I'm really glad that my mum, dad and sister will be arriving in Melbourne tonight and can't wait to see them. We'll be spending a few days in and around Melbourne before jetting off to Exmouth for a fortnight travelling down the coast in Western Australia. I'm really excited to see a new part of the country, particularly one that's a bit less commonly visited and should be really interesting. After that we'll be flying over to Brisbane to spend a few days with family friends before my family heads back home. Me and Chris' plans after that aren't completely set in stone yet, but we are hoping to travel up the east coast by car so that Chris can work, I can see some new places and we can both head to warmer climes. I may also need to make a little stop over in New Zealand in order to extend my stay here on a tourist visa, which will be an exciting diversion! Nonetheless, I still don't feel ready to say goodbye to Melbourne. Although I can't wait to leave this poky apartment in the middle of nowhere, I still haven't had enough of this gorgeous city. But, just with my philosophy regarding friends, I don't know when I'll next see Melbourne, but it may well be sooner than I expect- so I'll just say see ya later. And in the meantime, my family's arrival is drawing closer by the hour and it'll be nice to say hello instead of goodbye!