Welcome back, readers!
My time in Australia is nearly done, and while I'll be sad to leave this beautiful country, I'm also happy that I'll be back in New York soon. I've recently been experiencing a great deal of homesickness. I've lived away on campus for my entire college career so I never thought I'd be one to get homesick but I was definitely proven wrong.
Even though I was only home for a day before I flew to Sydney as I had just moved out of my dorm room at my college, I didn't experience any type of homesickness for the first few weeks. It hit me really unexpectedly while I was on Facebook the other day. I was just scrolling down my newsfeed when I came across a video on my brother's timeline from Father's Day weekend. He and his wife had a gender reveal party in our backyard with all of our friends and family. They were holding a bag full of either pink or blue balloons, asking everyone to guess whether they thought the baby was going to be a boy or a girl. To my surprise, blue balloons came flying out of the bag. I was convinced the baby was going to be a girl!
Photo: my brother and his wife at the gender reveal party - It's a boy!
I was so happy to learn that I'm going to have another nephew soon, but also really sad that I couldn't be there with everyone. I suddenly started missing not only my home, but my city, like crazy. I miss the late night pool parties in my backyard with my siblings and longtime friends, spontaneous trips to the delis by my house, and getting to spend time with my sister's 2 year old son, (and my godson) Jayden. Summers at my house are chaotic to say the least, but they're certainly memorable. Summertime is really the only time me and my siblings all get to spend time together since I'm usually away at college and my brother is often on call in the Air Force. As we get older, my siblings and I get less and less time to all come together.
Photo: my backyard
While I have acclimated pretty well to living in Sydney, I've never been in any city besides NYC for this long. In NYC I'm a local, but here, although I'm welcomed and enjoying myself, I'm a foreigner. It's a bit unnerving to not have been raised here like so many other people have. I find myself feeling nostalgic walking through Sydney on my way to work as I think about walking through my own city. I never truly appreciated how convenient it is there until I came to Sydney. It's been strange not knowing where anything is. I miss having delis on every corner, knowing which way traffic is coming, and not being afraid to J walk. I also really miss driving my car. Taking ubers here stresses me out because I still panic when they turn into the left lane since I keep thinking they're turning into oncoming traffic when they're not.
Photo: everyone having fun in the pool
Obviously I'm having a great experience here, I think I'm just missing the familiarity I have at home. I will always remember my time in Sydney and I plan on visiting Australia again in the future, but I'm glad that I'll be reunited with my family soon. I have so much to tell them and I'm sure they'll have a lot to fill me in on as well. I can't wait to catch up with them when I get back, but in the meantime I'm just going to focus on making the most out of the time I have left here in Sydney with all my new friends in the program.