Take Me Back to the Start (Flashback to Australia)

Happy Friday everyone! It's time for Flashback Friday and I'm on to the semester when I studied abroad in Sydney Australia.

Deciding to study abroad in Australia was easy, I just wanted to and that was it. It was never really a question. Actually getting on the plane by myself to go to Australia was by far one of the scariest things I ever did. It was also one of the best things I ever did.

My first stop in Australia was not Sydney at all (well technically I had to stop in the airport there...) but Lady Elliot Island where I took a week long course on coral reefs that somehow counted as my science + lab credit.

Tough life, I know. Lady Elliot Island is an island so small you have to take a 9 person airplane to get there, and you can easily walk around it. Every night we had to hand write papers while literally watching our professors drink in the "island bar"...but it was easy to join them after we finished. Sorry but, when was the last time you tried to handwrite a paper? It hurts your hand!

Anyway, Lady Elliot Island was a cool experience and I made one of my best study abroad friends on the trip, Alicja, who was also living on campus when we got back to University of New South Wales in Sydney.

I choose to live on campus even though most study abroad students live off campus on the beach because I was hoping to have a bit more of an Australian experience. That ended up being an awesome decision. Even though some of my friends were also study abroad kids, one of my best friends was from Sydney and we hung out with mostly Australians on the weekends.

So what did I do for 6 months in Australia?

Ate amazing strawberry crepes at a place called "Pancakes On the Rocks"...

Drank berry blast smoothies at a place called "Boost Juice"...

Student taught adorable kiddos in cute uniforms who always laughed at me when I didn't understand Australian terms...

Went on beautiful walks on the Cliffs of Bondi to Coogee...

Traveled to places I had only dreamed of seeing...

Did things I had only dreamed of doing...

Saw Christmas decorations in a tank top...

Made Australians become Red Sox fans...

Went wine tasting in the Hunter Valley wine region...

Lol, I love this picture but seriously the wine was good, I think this was when they gave us something else haha.

Became too close to Yankee fans...

And if it's possible, had way way too much fun...

Ah. I went a little crazy with the photos, but there are just too many good ones :)
Not only did I do all of those things above, but I also learned a lot about myself on the other side of the world.

I can get on a plane and go to Australia by myself. I can travel by myself. I can live by myself. I can even have fun doing it. But I choose to stay here, 3 miles from the house I grew up in because even if I can go anywhere, I most want to be here, with my family, with my friends. I can go all sorts of crazy places, but in the end this will be home.

"I feel fine, so fine
In knowin' that this road I'm wanderin' on
From time to time always leads me home, back home." -Home, Tim McGraw

What is a huge risk you have taken that had big rewards? Can you pinpoint a time you learned a lot about yourself?