Long, Long Bus Ride

Today was relatively unexciting. We left Albany this morning for Perth – the last stop on our whirlwind tour of Western Australia. Woke up early to finish packing everything and saw a beautiful sunrise over the bay. Then by 8 a.m. we all settled onto the bus for the long ride back to Perth.

We made a few stops along the road, including in Kojonup to buy kangaroo skins (a failure, as the lady wasn’t able to get any in stock) and at the Woolshed in Williams, which was a great series of stores with Australian wool products and craft items (interesting, but nothing worth buying in my estimation). Most of the trip, though, was pretty uneventful. I’ve been reading World’s Fair by E.L. Doctorow in the past few days, so it was nice to be able to spend a large amount of time with the book.

Our bus finally reached Perth around 3 p.m. and, after saying good-bye to Joe who has been an incredible driver and guide to Noongar culture for the past two weeks, Danielle, Leighann and I set off to finish some souvenir shopping.

The group met at 615 to go see the Sex and the City movie, which I must say, I enjoyed, as predictable as it was. The movie really reminded me of the greatness of friends, and I can’t wait to get back to my lovely friends at home!

This trip has really been a very incredible experience, but it has also been very interesting as it is one of the few times that I have really ever gotten very homesick. Every day has little battles, though, as I compare landscape and relationships to my own. It might be that this reflection is in light of the fact that I won’t be home for very long before I embark on a very long trip overseas or perhaps that the work we have been doing here is so complicated and challenging. Either way, while I am sooooo grateful for this experience, I am also VERY excited to come home so soon!

Peace,

Jill