Sydney

Australia carries a lot of mixed emotions for me. Nick and I studied abroad in Australia nearly 7 years ago. We absolutely fell completely and totally in love with it. But it started off quite rough.

My dad died three months before we left for Australia. We considered not going, but knew it wouldn’t be what my dad wanted. It wasn’t an easy decision to leave my family and travel halfway around the world. But we did it. And I’m very glad we did.

We stopped over in Cairns for a few days, before heading down south to Canberra. While dealing with grief and stress, I somehow I managed to somehow come down with kidney stones. We went into town to try to get to the hospital, but it was boarded up. Because when it rains it pours—and it was seriously about to pour. A cyclone was headed straight for Canberra and we needed to evacuate. 

Since Nick and I went to different colleges, we were in different exchange programs. I met my exchange program, where Nick explained to the program director my situation. After much back and forth, my program decided to hire a bus to drive somewhere around 24 hours from Cairns to Sydney. Me and my kidney stones boarded the overnight bus, and left Nick (who was able to catch the last flight out). 

At this point, I knew no one. I’m in extreme pain. I’m scared. I’m grieving. I don’t have a phone. I barely can process what’s going on. And I just left the only person who could make me feel better. My guardian angel, an older German student who was also on exchange, was committed to caring for me, feeding me water and homeopathic medicine.

Her dad passed away from suicide not too long before. As an older student studying abroad, she struggled to relate to anyone, but put all of that aside and focused on making my trip better. Her fiercely inspiring independence and mothering is the only thing that got me on and off that bus safely. I did lose my glasses on that bus but what else it new.

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere we stopped for dinner. Our program director pulled me aside. There was someone on her phone, calling for me. I nearly broke down. This had been one of the hardest days of my life and all I needed was something familiar. Nick was on the other line. In a pure panic, he searched every email I had, and dialed every number he could find in hopes of getting in touch with the program director. He wanted to make sure I was safe. And now that he called, I was. 

The other exchange students asked about the call. How in the world did he track you down? I explained the story and of course some dumb bitch muttered ‘psycho’ under her breath. 

Eventually, after even more challenging days and nights, I was emotionally reunited with Nick.

Every day on this trip, we spend a solid 24 hours together. We've been a part for an hour or two here and there the few times I've gone to the market alone or he's gotten a tattoo. Maybe it’s psychotic. Maybe it’s love. Maybe it’s a combination of both.

Coming back to Australia wasn’t just emotional for us. It was also very exciting. It’s here that we learned how much we love to travel. We also made some amazing friends that I'm forever thankful for. Their friendship brought so much fun to an otherwise dark time in my life. 

So. That’s all I have for Sydney. A story from our past. I’ve always fantasized about living in Sydney. So I put my camera down and focused on our time here.