Blog 16 - Post Australia

 As I conclude my Australian experience, I find that there is no better time to reflect about my trip than on the car ride to my house finishing up a 30 hour travel day. It has been a full month since I’ve been home and reality is just beginning to sink in of what life is like here in comparison to Australia. I’ve continuously walked on the left side since I landed in Los Angeles from Melbourne and I keep getting bumped into. I’m also not used to people being so unfriendly and the comfort of safety that existed in Australia. I will be at my home in Rockville, Maryland in about 30 minutes and I cannot stop thinking about when the next time is I’ll be back there. I was gone a full month and could not have dreamed of a better month away from home. I got to share some of these experiences with my family and family has always been the most important thing to me which made it that much better. In addition, I love meeting new people and this program gave me the opportunity to make new relationships that I hope, and genuinely believe, will last far beyond this trip. Living with six other guys, most of whom I had never met, was absolutely incredible because they were all great people who had the same goals and mindset that I had during my time in Australia. We all wanted to be engaged in the program as we all loved sports, but also we all wanted to explore the city, go out at night, and most importantly, say yes to whatever opportunity we were offered next. 

The group of students was awesome but I cannot say enough about how much better the TA and professor made this trip. When I was in class after a night out and wasn’t in the mood for class, I kept the thought in my mind that I would not have been here if it weren’t for our professor so I knew I had to stay engaged and respectful. Michael was an awesome dude and we had many great conversations about sports (The pain in being a Commander's fan), travel, and Judaism. He went out of his way for us time after time and even gave us an extra morning to ourselves before the Australian open which we all really appreciated. It was awesome to have somebody as a professor that was so knowledgeable about the country but also someone who could sit back and have an awesome conversation about sports from time to time. This next part goes out to you, Brandon, the TA, the absolute man, a major factor in making this trip so great. You always understood the students' wants and needs and went out of your way to make relationships with every student, even those who were introverted. Going out with you was awesome because you are great at making decisions and understanding which situations we should want to be in and whatnot. It was awesome knowing that you were there to be a responsible “authority” figure yet also just another guy who wanted to go out and have fun. You continued to put the students' needs ahead of yours while also living the best you could and in my eyes it looks as if you did a flawless job keeping things running smoothly. I seriously wish you the best of luck in whatever is next and am grateful to know you and have you be a part of the best two weeks of my life. I would ramble on about more Australia adventures but I feel like I covered a lot in my last 15 blog posts. All in all, this trip went as perfect as it could have gone and I am really grateful for this opportunity. I will definitely be back to Australia at some point and truly hope to move there for a year of my life. I wanted to use this last blog to thank everyone who made this happen and for putting up with me for the last couple of weeks and I hope that students get to enjoy this same opportunity I had in the years to come.

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