Livin' On the Edge: The Beginning of the End

Well hello there! I've been away for quite some time because after updating about my travels around Oz, I was chronically studying for exams, making sure I spent as much time as possible with all of my friends and packing. I've been home for about two weeks now, but the last three weeks of class in Australia were some of the best so I wanted to tell you about them!

The week after coming back from holiday was a busy one. Burgmann College had tons of events planned to keep us busy and I started having lots of work to do again. In between doing my final research on windmills for our group project on wind farms, and my attempts to choose a country of interest for my country report, and researching for my art history essay which was to be on Mary Cassatt, I attended a sports and arts banquet (Spartos), Burgmann elections for their residence association and a reminiscent toga party, Symposium. Spartos was lots of fun. I had dinner with some of my best friends, drank with all of my best friends and continued to party... on a Tuesday night!

Phoebe, Fergus, Bella and Me at Spartos in our Burgmann sports gear

That first week back was a lazy one. Everyone was trying to ease back into their piles of work after coming off of a two-week holiday. Luckily going to class wasn't too strenuous and I didn't have too many hours that week. Everyone worked through it and ended on friday with the Symposium, toga party celebration. Everyone gathered their togas from the beginning of the year, or their bed sheets and wrapped them around for a night of speeches and laying around. Everyone sat on the floor of the common room, eating grapes and cheese, as if we were ancient Greeks, listening to people reminisce about events that occurred throughout the year.

Davies, Me, Chelsey and Hugh dressed in Togas for Symposium

At this point, weekends began consisting of a lot of work. My friend Katie and I were to give a presentation in the upcoming week 12 on wind farms with our other two partners. Katie and I spent a lot of time reviewing the project and perfecting it with the information we received from our friend's father, Mr. Aberle, who worked for Western Power Company in Perth, Australia. I was also making trips to and from the library, trying to research Sri Lanka for my Country Report. Luckily there was lots of good, recent information due to the Tamil, Sinhalese war that ended back in May.

In between school work and parties, lots of my friends had birthdays. On one evening, I celebrated my friend LJ's birthday at an Indian restaurant in Dickson, one of Canberra's suburbs. I'd never been to an Indian restaurant before, but decided to take a risk when ordering: I had goat for the first time and it was delicious! My friend Siobhan had a birthday picnic one saturday afternoon which was a fantastic break from studying and writing papers. There were tons of friends there, eating awesome food and just hanging out. I wish I had a summer birthday so that I could go on a huge picnic by the river with all my friends. It was so much fun and relaxing. A bunch of us also chipped in and got her a dress she really wanted and it was fantastic to see her reaction when she opened the present! The following weekend I celebrated Phoebe's birthday with her, having dinner at one of our favorite Asian restaurants in town. It's always nice to be able to celebrate with all of your friends.

All of us at Phoebe's birthday dinner

Everyone at Siobhan's birthday picnic

Eating fairy bread!

Siobhan, Me and Jarrod

Emma and Me

Siobhan, Me and Tara

It was so wonderful to be surrounded by so many friends when work started to get tough. I think living amongst so many friends really helps with that, and that's why I came to love Burgmann so much. You never had to go far to find a friend. I think that's also why it was hard to realize that I had so little time left with all of these amazing people. We were all so busy doing things together all the time that I never got a chance to look forward and realize I would be leaving in a couple of weeks. That feeling didn't really set in until we had our graduation ceremony at Burgmann, otherwise known as Valete.

Valete was held at the end of week 12, before all of the really hard academic stuff was put in front of us. It was a dinner banquet in which those of us permanently leaving the college were recognized and given certificates, just like graduation. Everyone was formally dressed, we had arranged seating and a nice dinner. It was a fantastic celebratory event but also sad, since my friends and I started realizing I'd be leaving so soon. It was a classy night though, full of fun and entertainment.