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I am not entirely sure if anybody except for grandpa, (hi grandpa!) reads or checks my blog anymore but I woke up with a a lust to write so this ones for you gramps. I have two weeks left in Melbourne and even that is hard to believe. I have grown to really love this city, although i have never considered myself much of city slicker, even if it was for a short 3 months and a half. I will greatly miss the family who i babysit for every other day, and even their hairless cat Neo. I will miss riding the tram every mornings to the cafe for work, watching as the sun comes up over all the houses and skyscrapers. I will miss being surrounded by amazing art everywhere you go, all my now favorite cafes and restaurants, and of course all the beautiful friends I have gotten the pleasure of making.

Even with Asia, i mentioned once before that every time i left somewhere i got a sudden surge of anxiety, scared that i didn't see it all or do everything i could have while being there. Even now after spending a long extended period of time in one place, i feel it. Of course i plan to pack as much as i can in while on the last leg of being here. Like taking photos of the things i now take for granted but love seeing everyday and want to remember for a lifetime. The saddest part, and always the hardest part is the goodbyes. People who are a daily part of your day to day life and people who you depend on suddenly left behind. That sounds very dismal, and I always have high hopes that i will see them again someday, somewhere in the world, but the initial goodbye is disheartening.

As hard as it is saying goodbye to one place, i am at the same time overjoyed to be leaving to another. Almost everyday it seems right now i get a message from somebody back home saying it feels I've been gone forever and when the hell am i coming back? But i read a beautiful passage in my book the other day; "When you feel homesick, just look up. Because the moon is the same wherever you go, and that home will always follow you wherever you are."- The Goldfinch. It struck me so hard because it's something that when my heart was ever sore from homesickness this past year, my friends and family were there with me every step of the way. All so proud and supporting of my decision to travel, to teach, to learn from the world.Even though that meant not being there for the big things like Christmas, and birthdays but even the little things too. The support and love that i felt all the way on the other side of the world is what has gotten me through every up and down that was thrown my way and I want to say thank-you for making me the luckiest girl in the world. I am counting down the days till i get to see everybody.

Though I have two weeks left in Melbourne, it is still another two weeks before leaving Australia. The plan is to go back to Lismore, a short stay as possible for myself. To gather some things left behind and say goodbye to friends and Yoshiko's family. Then go up the coast and visit some newly made friends and some old ones like Bonnie and Jacob who are now living and going to university in Brisbane. I know from experience that the weeks are going to be gone in a snap of our fingers, but i am going to try to slow down and smell the flowers and enjoy everything that happens before starting another great adventure.