But all that’s on my mind right now is what just unraveled about an hour ago. It became apparent over the drinking game we were playing that some of my IQP mates had in fact discovered this very blog. And of course they’ve read all of my inner most thoughts because that’s what this blog is really for. I suppose just in case you guys are reading this now I’ll just take the opportunity again to apologize. I am truly sorry if I have offended you, but believe me when I say when I read back over what I’ve written it’s really just what I’m feeling at that particular moment and I harbor no ill will towards you and I hope that the reconciliation process that briefly began tonight while we were all slightly drunk can continue over the course of our remaining time at WPI. Words cannot express the regret that I feel at this moment for writing and posting what I wrote, but that’s all in the past and I’m glad we’re leaving Australia on good terms.
On the note of apologies, to those of you who eagerly await the Mondays where I update this blog, I apologize for not updating at the beginning of this week or even last week for that matter, I think. It’s just that I typically wrote these blog posts at work when there was nothing to do and it was just a nice opportunity to pass the time, but this past week we’ve actually had work to do so we’ve been working at the library and I didn’t really have any downtime to spend to update y’all on what I’ve been doing. And please, if you really miss me C-term is over at this point and you’ll be seeing my lovely face again soon.
So I guess this post will be extra-long due to the fact that I’ve missed updating last week, and I’ve also had about 1/5 of a bottle of Kahlua and that stuff is loaded with caffeine. Straight Kahlua is disgusting by the way. It’s like drinking syrup and this is one of those moments where I regret being dumb in an attempt to get drunk, but hey it’s the last day of IQP, gotta live it up, right? Three months until I’m legal in the States. Speaking of which, I really have a desire to learn how to mix drinks. I suppose that goes hand in hand with my fascination with cooking. Mixing drinks is basically cooking with alcohol, but without heat, you get to experiment and mix flavors. Perhaps the first thing I’ll do when I’m of age, is buy the components for the Pokémon starter themed cocktails and mix those. Should be a fantastic experience.
Well, IQP is over, all but three of my class mates are leaving tomorrow around noon, and I, oh I, will be leaving on Tuesday. What a smart man I am; booking my flight the way I did, but I really didn’t have much of an idea when I booked it all the way back in like October or whenever I booked it. Well, it shouldn’t be too bad, I cooked all the remnants of food all the apartments had and I have about 5 meals sitting in Tupperware in the fridge, should last me just until I have to leave. Which leaves me with $17 and change in AUD which is perfect because it takes $16 to get to the airport and I shouldn’t be spending anymore money. Oh wait, I need $2 to rent a padlock from the hostel… frick. I need to get one dollar from someone, less than that actually. I need 15 cents to put me at $18 which would be the perfect amount. I’m sure I’ll figure something out. I’ll just look at the ground seeing if anyone dropped 5 cents anywhere. Or maybe the hostel will be nice and let me rent a padlock for $1.85. Who knows? Or I could just suck it up and withdraw a last $20 from the ATM. I’m sure I’ll have no trouble spending money to use all my AUD before I leave.
I don’t really know how organized this post is going to be as I’m still a little buzzed and I can’t really focus on what I’m writing. I just keep coming back to what I wrote and how much I regret posting it. I have plenty of things that I catch before I end up posting them, or filter it after I write and end up deleting. I just wonder how different my IQP experience would have been if I hadn’t been ostracized for the last month or so after they found the blog. But what can I do about what’s in the past. Everyone involved is out clubbing but I’m unwilling to spend $20 to just get into a club. It’s the cheap Asian inside of me.
But I guess since I missed last week I’ll start with that weekend.
On Saturday we went to the Boroondara Sustainable Living Festival to conduct our final data collection for IQP. We got to the meet the Mayor of to the city we were working with, but unfortunately we didn’t have the clarity of mind to take a picture with him; sadness. But we collected all our data and came back. I don’t really remember what I did with the rest of the day; I probably went to the market and did some grocery shopping and just played DS/chilled. But the next day we had a group tour booked for the Great Ocean Road which was fantastic. All of the students, except two who had done it earlier, as well as the professor and his wife came along and we used what was left of the school’s budgeting for “cultural learnings” so the trip was subsidized to cost $40 per person, a discount of about $80 per person if my memory serves me correctly. But basically the Great Ocean Road is exactly what the name suggests. It’s a road that runs along the southeastern coast of Australia and there a lot of landmarks along the way. The tour guide we had was hilarious, and along with the 16 of us from WPI, there were 5 Russians and 3 European girls: 2 Dutch doctors and 1 Swedish? woman. But of course since most of us were from WPI the trip was dominated by the feel of our group there. There were awesome beaches with waves that were unprotected by the bay, wild parrots that were super friendly, cool ocean-eroded rocks and a host of other things. Overall the experience was fantastic and I’d recommend it to anyone who comes down to the Melbourne area.
That pretty much covers that weekend.
The following week was a lot of writing and working on IQP as was this week.
So that covers the last two workweeks of Australia: IQP.
The last full weekend of IQP I don’t remember what I did on Saturday. I think I went to the market again and picked up my last kilo of ground beef. And again I probably just came back and played DS/chilled. But on Sunday I dragged my butt to church and I’m glad that I did. Sadly, one of the main reasons I went was to redeem my free lunch voucher that I received the first week I went over a month ago. But while I was finishing up my free lunch some of the people I had met earlier invited me out to the beach with them and I had a lot of fun just chilling with their cell group. Whether or not their invitation was driven by the sermon topic of trying to be more welcoming towards new-comers or whether it was out of the kindness of their hearts, doesn’t really matter to me. The important thing is that did invite me and I went. I had a lot of fun just chilling at the beach with a large group of Asian, truly an “Asian Invasion” with about 20 of us. Their cell group is essentially the Singapore cell group as all but I think two of them are international students from Singapore. It was a day at the beach where my playing in the sand was not done alone. It was perhaps the most comfortable I have felt all IQP. And that’s what I’m doing for at least one of the days that I have left in Melbourne. Tomorrow there’s the International Student Ministry (ISM) Welcome Night that includes free dinner. Yes I get to meet a bunch of probably mostly Asian students on my last weekend here and then fly across the world back home. Fantastic, maybe I could’ve met my Asian-Australian girl if this had happened at the beginning of the term, but I guess that’s what I get for coming during their summer break. But it’s TOO LATE NOW DAVE. IT’S TOO LATE. That’s really the overarching mood I’m in right now: a mild state of regret. BUT IT’S TOO LATE AND I CAN’T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT. I suppose I should’ve seized my time here but again it’s too late… I’m leaving in three days.
On the topic of three, I believe this is the first time that I’ve ever reached three pages for a blog post. Well the caffeine is keeping me awake, I’m kind of tired of writing and I want to chill a bit.
Again, I’m sorry. I don’t think you guys will ever read this again, but I’m sure in future I will look back to my IQP experience and smile. Perhaps kick myself a little for my mistake, but I think it was a great learning experience for me both socially and academically. I hope I’ll see you guys around campus.
Well, it’s time to watch a Pokémon movie that I took off my roommate. I don’t think I ever thanked you for having your external hard drive full of goodies that you let me rummage through, so thank you.
P-P-PEACE
