We say Goodbye and We say Hello!

Well, our time in Oz is coming to a close. It is our last weekend here and we leave for England on Friday. Since our last trip the time has absolutely wizzed by, I mean really flown by, it is quite amazing. Since my last entry we have been really busy. We entertained some other exchangees (Kirsty from Scotland, Marc from Netherlands and Julie from USA) in mid October. Julie visited my school for a day and I went to hers in the Melbourne suburbs a few weeks later. It was interesting to compare and contract an urban and rural school. We went to the Victorian coast (St.Leonards) for a Halloween party in the heat and with the flies. We walked in the Dandenong Hills near Melbourne, which was nice too. In mid November Sarah and I travelled down to Melbourne by train to attend the Victorian Education Department's leaving do, where we had some amazing views of the city, in Rialto Tower. This was a sad time as we said our goodbyes to the other exchangees. At the end of November we visited the Great Ocean Road and had some great walks along the coast, in the temperate rainforest and we swam in the bracing Southern Ocean. It was a relaxing weekend. The following weekend we flew to Adelaide to visit our friends, Simon and Fiona, who recently moved there from Echuca. This was again another relaxing weekend, where we enjoyed some Aussie, Russian, Chinese and Korean tucker. It was also good to catch up with them as we had not seen each other since September. Now, in the final few days down under, we have been saying our goodbyes to the various friends that we have made along the way. We are both quite sad to be leaving. Looking back it would be nice to have the exchange last for another 3-6 months, as, in hindsight, it took us a good 3-4 months to start to feel really settled. It was really from when Sarah got work in April that we began to feel more settled. We have also been meeting more people all the time and now not having the opportunity to get to to know them better. But still feeling sad about leaving is a good sign, because it means that we have enjoyed our time here. Now I will sign off, probably for the last time in Australia, as packing and tidying and more goodbyes loom. Adios Amigos for now.