So.... what have I been doing lately? I haven't blogged much in a while, that's for sure.
Let's see, there's Newtown, which is a place with tons of bookshops (Goulds, Elizabeth's Bookshop, Books on King St, Moore Books, etc). It is a place with a few small theatres. It has a Dendy Cinema. It has tons of coffee shops and restaurants. It is a place I have spent many hours. It's the arts district of Sydney. It's basically like Downtown Asheville on crack and congested into a couple streets. I love it.
I have gone to Watson's Bay multiple times, enjoying the beautiful ferry ride there, as well as the incredible view of the Pacific Ocean on the cliffs of area.
I went on a day trip to Bondi with Rachel, Tess, and Nick. We did the coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee, which was gorgeous. That day began with frustration. The trains were having maintenance done, so we had to catch a replacement bus, meaning the route was not normal. Due to this, our bus driver got lost. We sat on that bus for a full hour before finally arriving at Bondi. However, the trip ended up being worth it. The coast was gorgeous and the weather was wonderful. We got thickshakes--mine was a chocolate raspberry one that was AMAZING. After enjoying those, we headed to Darling Harbour, where we purchased tickets to Pirates 4 at the World's Largest IMAX. We wandered around Darling Harbour for a good amount of time, enjoying good conversation and finding a small pub in which to have dinner before returning to the cinema. The screen was ridiculously big and gorgeous. The movie was enjoyable, though not great by any means.
Meanwhile, Alice Adventures in Wonderland has been gearing up. I'm the White Knight, meaning I'm one of the largest male roles in the show. My scene is at the end of the show and it's just me and Alice on stage for about 15 minutes (which is one of the longest scenes in the show!). Rehearsals for this have consumed much of my life during the week. The show is exciting and it opens this week. I'd go into more detail, but there are people reading this who I don't want to spoil things for...... so, I'll try and remember to blog about it later after the performances.
Also, I got engaged. I guess I ought to tell that story....
Toby, my current fiancee, came over for dinner last Wednesday. Every week this semester, she, Nick, and I have had a Wednesday outing after our Faith and the Contemporary Artist class. This always took place at the Bakehouse, a locally owned coffee and pastry shop near the school. I jokingly named this outing "Toby Make Out Time" saying that "Make Out" [almost] rhymes with "Bakehouse." The name stuck [for me]. Well, last Wednesday was probably the last Toby Time ever--unless we manage to somehow sneak one more this week; we'll see. Grenville, our teacher for FCA came along as a special guest star to that final outing. The conversation was good, reflecting on our semester as a whole. After finishing at the Bakehouse, we said goodbye to Grenville and headed home to Ross's for dinner. Toby Time continued well into the evening. We played some pool and enjoyed simply hanging out. Then, Toby and I left the house and headed into Circular Quay, where an incredible light show has been going on all this week.
She and I watched the lights shift and change across the Customs House for a while. Then, arm in arm, we walked to the Opera House, where a massive projection stretched across the harbour onto the sails. We went straight to the steps of the famous building and, as we marveled at the architecture, I said something along the lines of, "Toby, these last four months have been incredible and we're standing here and I'm just thinking 'wow.' Our time together has been special, you know? All the Toby Make Out Times and we went to the Outback together and we've just had so many good memories. And, well, Megan Elizabeth Tobin, will you marry me?" I, of course, got down on one knee and presented her with a ring. She accepted and, as we hugged, I lifted her off the ground and spun her around. We walked back down the steps arm in arm and sat down on the edge of the harbour watching the lights and enjoying the evening.
Oh, the ring I presented was her ring already. I was just borrowing it. And she's the fourth person I've gotten engaged to in a world famous city--though it's the sixth city I've proposed in. And though she and I are clearly madly in love, it probably won't last. I mean, after all, we kinda skipped the relationship prior to engagement period. And she's headed back to Connecticut and I'm headed back to Tennessee in just a couple weeks. Oh, and, frankly, it wouldn't be surprising if I impulsively propose to someone in New Zealand next week. Beautiful/famous places just give me this near-impossible urge to propose. It's a hard life I live, knowing I break so many hearts due to impulsive engagements. Ah well. C'est la vie.
In other news, Friday was my last day of official class for the semester. We wrapped up the course with a full day debriefing session, talking about what we'd learned and what would happen upon returning home. We talked about how some people at home are going to be interested in stories from the travels for about five minutes before they quit being polite and go back to not caring. We talked about how some people will genuinely be interested, but will still never truly understand the experiences we've had. We talked about how the only people who will ever really understand are the people who have been on the trip together and we're all separating, spreading out across the country. We talked about how, even if any of us return to Australia, it's never going to be with all of us again. It's never going to be the same. The days of this semester are coming to a close and we're all going our separate ways. We talked about the good times and the bad times. We talked about our regrets. We talked about who we were before we came here and who we are now. We talked about the friends back home who will have changed since we last saw them. We talked about the loneliness one can feel after returning home after a trip such as this. We talked about how hard things may be when we realize that nobody understands us. We talked about how hard things may be when we realize that some of our opinions and our ways of thinking are different from what they were before we came here. We talked about the coming trip to New Zealand and the incredible experience that it is going to be. And we said our goodbyes to Erin, one of our teachers, a Christ-like woman who is one of the kindest, friendliest people I've ever had the pleasure to know and to Aubrey, one of our classmates, a thought-provoking, kind friend who has always struck me as a passionate, intelligent individual. Neither of them are going to New Zealand with us. This makes me sad.
During debrief, we also watched a slide show that Aaron, a great friend of mine, put together of pictures from throughout the semester. It was during this that it clicked in my head that this journey is ending. Everything's coming to a close. The inside jokes, the lingo, the habits, the routines: they're ceasing. I'm not going to be sitting outside the library, eating lunch with friends on a day to day basis anymore. I'm not going to be wandering into Circular Quay to aimlessly catch a ferry just to see where it takes us anymore. I'm not going to go to the bookshops in Newtown or the Botanical Gardens or the Art Galleries anymore. The days of traveling with these friends south to Melbourne and west to Bourke will not occur again. Painting our faces in the Blue Mountains will not occur again. Getting fifty cent ice cream cones at every Macca's and Hungry Jack's we see isn't going to continue. Toby Time is over. Joking with Aaron about not becoming close until the last few weeks is over. Going to Top Ryde City with Nick just to go to Aldi is over. Filling weekends with Rachel, Alessandra, and Tess is over. Watching the slide show was about as melancholic an experience as I've ever had. I watched image after image of all of us happy together. I saw things from the beginning when we hardly knew each other all the way to recent days when we're the best of friends. And at some point watching that damn slide show, it clicked. I suddenly knew just how wonderful this semester has been. I suddenly knew I've been consistently happy for the longest period in recent memory. I suddenly knew how lucky I am. And, worst of all, I suddenly knew it's ending.
Guys, we're leaving. And gosh. I'm going to miss all of this, all of you, so much.
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