One last hurrah

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What a fantastic night! I'm blogging on Sunday evening, and I can't believe it was only yesterday that Nell, Trent and Katy left, and just this morning that Casey left with Melissa... I'm the last of the 'X-Men' to be here at IH. 😞

I finished my genetics final on Friday morning, much to my relief. It was a big exam--60% of my marks (eep!). The test was held in a huge room (the Exhibition Hall), and I had a slight heart attack before the test. I went to the building I thought my exam was in, only to not be able to find my course listed on the chalk board outside the rooms. I asked an examiner where Building 27A was, and he suggested looking down the street at the exhibition hall. I sprinted there, down the giant hill and thru crowds of people. I was able to find the place, but again couldn't find my test listed. Fortunately I heard someone calling to admit all people to the Exhibition Hall (so I knew I was in the right spot) and then someone called for Biol2009 students. I scrambled inside, dumped my stuff in the pile of bags and rushed to find my assigned seat. I was a little jittery from thinking I'd almost missed my exam, and then just as I started to calm down, the test started. I looked at all the questions during reading period and was able to think of answers for most of them, and started writing in earnest when the exam period began. I ended up writing heaps for all the questions, and hopefully I'll get a good mark. Grades come out on 2 July in Australia... right when I start work at FHL (it'll be on 1 July for me, right when I fly into work!). I hope I got good marks in all my courses.

I got back to my room, called my parents and Jon, and started to pack a little, feeling blue, but looking forward to that evening's events. I'd been slipped mysterious notes under my door (the contents of which were highly secret, and not supposed to be discussed with anyone... hungry banana slug is attacking the muffins!! O__o). At the appointed time in the appointed place (8:30, Trent's room), I arrived with Katy for a night's adventure. We sat on Trent's floor and ate vegemite on bread, vegemite and jam on bread (not so yum... tastes like sweet and sour sauce, which I'm not a huge fan of), mini-meatpies, and Asian food for Katy. There were two gifts on the floor, one for me and one for Katy. We opened them to find Aussie flag boxers, hats, fake tatoos, and socks, and then two flags on the wall. We got 'Aussied up' and went to catch the Citicat, playing with sparklers along the way in Guyatt Park. We rode the Cat into the city, and went to Pancake Manor for a proper supper (fantastic, as usual. I'm glad Casey finally go to come with us! ^___^). Along the way, people kept asking us what game was on, and cheered 'Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!!' (the correct response being, 'Oy, oy, oy!!). It was hilarious and quite fun. I had a lovely time eating pancakes and walking through the city looking funny. ^___^

After pancakes, we went back to IH and up to Casey's room. Written on her door was 'What is one thing that every superhero has?' The answer was on the floor--a cool outfit. Basically, we spent one night some time ago figuring out what superhero each of us would be, and determined that we'd all be X-Men. We have joked about it all semester since then, and tonight was the culmination of the fun. We all made shirts that were for our characters, each person helping to decorate everyone else's shirt. Needless to say, we were up quite late (3 AM!), but enjoyed ourselves quite completely. ^_____^

The fun wasn't over yet! We then went back to Nell's room for a 'debrief for our mission.' Nell had set up pillows, sleeping bags, and Casey's foam roll on the floor, and we had a big sleep-over! It was amazing--again, it was one of those things that we'd said all semester would be really fun to do, and had never gotten around to doing. Nell had set up more gifts in her room. I can't imagine how they all got time to make it, but Katy and I each had a set of scrapbook pages, made by Nell, Trent and Casey, with photos from our adventures. Additionally, I'd been given tea, a beautiful skirt like the one I've admired of Nell's all semester (I am in completely love with Nell's skirts, and I'm super excited to wear this one. Yes, mom, me in a skirt. ^__^), a clip koala (drop bear?!) with a pen, fudge and a postcard from Nell's town (which I will visit soon, I promise!) and the compete set of the adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. I was overwhelmed and thrilled with everything. I can't even imagine how these guys had the time to shop and study for finals! They must have been insanely busy. Besides which, I don't know how I managed to stay so completely in the dark about the whole thing. I knew we'd be doing something, because we'd been slipped notes, but honestly I was just expecting to get a copy of the original Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (the single, first story, which is what I'd told Casey I'd love to buy and have everyone sign before I left). I was overwhelmed by the amount of fun, creativity and generosity of my friends.

We stayed up chatting for some time before we all just crashed at about 4:30 AM. We woke up for hot brekkie at 9 AM; it was a struggle to get most out of bed, but I was feeling fairly chipper, and Nell had evidently woken up at 7:30 and not been able to fall back to sleep. We'd all slept very well, and were hungry for food. The weekend breakfast (usually the best, with eggs and hashbrowns) was disappointing (still frozen hashbrowns, anyone? Mmmm), but I'd bought cupcakes the day before to share with everyone (not expecting the huge night that they'd planned, and also because we have a running joke about 'muffin attacks'), so we had those after breakfast in Nell's room. Yum! Those were good, at least. Good ol' Brumby's Bakery at the Ville.

We helped Katy pack, and I retrieved the shirts which had dried in my empty (*sniff*) closet overnight. They were all dry, but slightly stiff from the paint. We all put on our shirts, very excited. Nell's mom and Trent's mom showed up, and we loaded up the van with everyone's stuff. We took some photos of us in our fantastic shirts in front of the IH sign, and then had a very tearful goodbye. Trent, Nell and Katy were off on an 8 hour drive back to Wauchope, NSW.

Still sniffling and bleary eyed, I chatted to Casey some before meeting Suzi to go to Lone Pine. She hadn't been yet, and wanted to go before the end of semester. I tagged along with her, and we got to see koalas and roos and other fun animals. I totally made friends with the black cockatoo, and wanted to take him home. He was making bird noises at me that sounded like purring, so I made them back to him, and then the started bobbing his head up and down, and then I did too, and then he opened up his wings to show the red underneath and popped up his crest. It was quite hilarious. When I went to walk away, he followed along the side of the cage, making noises at me. When I explained that I had to go, and that I was sorry, I definitely got the head flip and a disgruntled squawk, and he went to go sulk in the corner. When I walked back towards the cage, he flew back to the front to make his funny noises at me again... Jon, you'd better watch out! Looks like you may have to compete with a black cockatoo... ^___^

We caught a bus back from Lone Pine and went back to Uni. I hung around that night, packing, helping Casey pack, looking at the massive pile of stuff that Melissa had to pack, talking to Casey and thinking about going home. I talked to Jon (who'd left me heaps of messages telling me that he knew I'd been kidnapped by Nell, Trent and Case, but to call him when I was able). I went to bed relatively early.

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Today, I got up the next morning and talked to Jon, and then went to brekkie with Casey and Mel. We all had a good chat, and then went to find Melissa's suitcase to take to Casey's car (Melissa gets to go visit Casey's house! I hope she has a great time and enjoys herself as much as I did). Mel stayed with Melissa to pack, and then I went to help Casey move her stuff to her car. Casey had to zoom off to a christening, and we had our goodbye, minimizing our tears. I did cry a little after she'd pulled away, but I'd promised not to mope too much, so I tried to perk up.

I went to Indro with Suzi, looking for a largeish bag I could call a purse (and therefore my personal item while going on the plane). I found one right off that was cheap and large, and got it (much to my satisfaction). Suzi was looking for a blowup kangaroo from Australia Geographic, and was unsuccessful. However, we did get her to Woolie's, where she bought heaps of Tim Tams and some candy for home. I got some Cadbury bars for the plane ride between LA and Boston (where they won't feed me... boooo).

We then caught a bus to the city, and had dinner in Pancake Manor (yum, as always). I then went back to my room and packed more, weighed my suitcases (which are either exactly at 50 lbs each, wayyy under for my international flight of 70 lb each limit, but potentially slightly over for US limit of 50 lb, depending on the airport scale's sensativity... I'm going to have to re-pack and shuffle in LAX so that I can make sure that they are under--I'll be pulling my carryon that's not carryon size in Aus out, and skimming the top layer out of my other suitcase so they'll be weight in the US. Blerggh >__< ). I got a phone call from Nell and co. tonight, which made my day a million times better. It was fantastic to hear their cheery voices just about the time we'd normally be getting together every night. They told me all about their trip back to NSW from UQ, and what they'd done that day (they'd gone to Timber Town, which I get the impression is like Sturbridge Village in MA), and were home having supper (or at least, Katy was cooking eggs). It was fantastic to hear their cheery voices. I really hope they have a fantastic rest of their time together, and Katy has heaps of fun at Nell's place. I'd be so excited to be seeing Wauchope, and I promise I will, sometime soon. ^__^ I've been told that Wauchope, like Ulmarra, is the true secret center of Australia, where there are heaps of fun things to do and good things to explore...

It's an early morning tomorrow, so I think I may try to head to bed a little early. I'm going to attempt to blow the last of my download quota getting free educational podcasts (I'm a dork. it'll be fun) to watch on the plane rides home. I get up for a 7 AM taxi pickup from IH, to catch an 11 AM flight back to LAX (I get in on the same day, at 7 AM. Weird).

Hopefully it's an easy flight home, and I won't be too jet-lagged. I can't wait to see some of you soon, and am sad to leave some of you behind. I miss you Aussies heaps and remember I'll be back soon, promise. I can't wait to come home to see you, Jon! Mom, I'm sooo excited to see you and the fam! I can't wait to finally eat home-cooked meals again and sleep in a bed where there aren't parties down below on the lawn until late in the night. Hope the beach is lovely and we get to go for nice walks together (remember, the blue glass is mine).

Much much love, to every one of you. Miss you heaps! I will be leaving some, but going back to others... No matter what side of the world you're on and whether I'm leaving or coming, remember I can't wait to see you soon.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO <3

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Photos

Stormy Weather approaches...
This was some time before our last night... I was just impressed with how dark the sky was.

Joey!
Cute. ^__^

Look, Nell!
Here are those birds we see around UQ late at night...

Boo!
They look so creepy. O__o

Kookaburras!
My personal favorite.

Crashed Koala
They sleep a lot.

Me and a 'roo
Sporting my fantastic X-Man shirt. ^______^

Noisy Miner Birds
Cleaning up after the Lorikeets were done feeding.

Leaving Australia.
My Jet

'Bye, Australia!
Promise to be back soon.

Hello, America!
The first land in 14 hours.

Comments

[Jon]

I hope you have a great flight back, Sweetie! I can't wait to see you! <3 XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

[Nell]

Emily, what a beautiful recollection of our night. Don't even think of the effort or time it took us, we would have made it bigger and better if we thought it would have been more fun.Anything for you guys, you know that. Keep on remembering it fondly, it summed up our time together. Fun, Hilarious, Food (hehe) and lots of smiles and love. Have a beautiful time with your family and Jon (we are missing him too so i know you'll be enjoying your time with him)

[anonymous]

I don't know why I found this again today. But I had a little sob! We miss you so very very much!