The Beginning of the End of the Trip

It's probably worth noting that I had a phone interview last night with a principal of one of the other schools I've applied to work at in the fall. Wow are my interview skills rusty! I'm pretty sure I completely buggered the interview, as I sure spent a lot of time saying "um" and "ah" and "could you repeat that please?". Ah well. At least I got an interview. If I didn't get the job, well, I didn't get the job and I'll be back at Charlton in the fall. On the other hand, there was another job posting today that I was eligible for, so I applied to it too. All is not lost yet. It feels strange to not have any idea where I'll be teaching in the fall, but on the other hand I know I've got a job to go back to, and that's all that's really important.

Today really did feel like the beginning of the end... of my travels here in OZ. I enjoyed a bit of a sleep-in after all of yesterday's running around, and spent most of the rest of the day puttering away here in my room, packing stuff, tossing stuff, and tidying stuff. I have to move out of my half of the room on Thursday so that Jen Challenger can move in. I have surprisingly little left to pack - and may even have room in my pack to bring home some Tim Tams! Keep your fingers crossed, everyone. (I swear I've eaten more bloody cookies this year than is strictly a good thing, but hey, they're Tim Tams and not available anywhere but here.)

Everything seems to be coming full circle. The weather is back to the same cold, miserable, rain/mist/drizzle/occasional patches of sun that we had when I first arrived in September. The leaves are changing colour and dropping off the trees. I am once again surrounded by bags and suitcases as I begin to pack up my life. There's a couple of goodbye parties planned for me later on this week. I'm almost out of credit on my cell phone, which I won't be recharging since I can't bring it back to Canada. Tomorrow I will go and close my Australian bank account and wire my extra money back home again.

Ironically, I find myself in almost exactly the same emotional state as I was in just before I began this trip! I'm so excited to go home. I can't wait to share all my stories and photos and gifts with my family and friends. I also don't want to leave. I'm afraid I will go home and find that everything and everyone has changed and somehow left me behind. I don't want this trip to end, there's so much more for me to see and do here. I don't want to leave behind all my new Aussie friends. I'm eager to just get GOING already, but at the same time I want to drag this week out and enjoy it for all it's worth.

So - while today I played the hermit and scarcely stirred from the house, tomorrow I'm off to run a whole bunch of errands all over town, and there's my last trampolining class tomorrow night, and shopping to do, and lots more, so I'd better go to bed. Here's hoping I actually sleep tonight! Last night was not good - my brain has started its annoying "wow do I have a lot of things to think about" routine and it would just not SHUT UP and let me be. Here's hoping tonight is better...