The Place Where You Stop the Story

"Nothing looks the same, even when there's been no change,
Say that something's gonna give, and it's all giving out on you.
When it's all over now, it's all over now,
It's no longer fun and it's all been overdone, so it's all over now."

It's been only 5 1/2 short months but it seems like years since I've been in the States. Australia quickly and quietly engulfed me and seemlessly rebuilt a life around me that replaced the one which I had left in the States. Hot, sun-bleached days and clear, starry nights were filled with adventures and challenges that soon morphed into a daily routine. Much as Maine did over the two and a half years that I've spent there so far struggling through my undergraduate life, Australia became my home. Somehow it took much less time and yet it was just as genuine. I've had a lifetime of experiences and met some truely amazing people who I will never forget and for the majority of my trip I could not even imagine what it would be like when I was forced to re-enter this country. And yet here I sit in my parent's house where, it seems, almost nothing has changed.

And maybe nothing has, or maybe it all has. Luckily I only have to endure it for another week and a half before setting off to a marine lab in New Hampshire where I will be working for the remainder of the second of my two summers this year until heading back to Maine.

I still have no idea how I can possibly convey to anyone that wasn't there everything that happened to me, how I can cram five and a half months of stories into the simple one-sentence answer everyone is looking for when they ask, "How was Australia?"  But I definitely have enough stories and pictures to fill any amount of hours that anyone wants to listen to  :)