I’ve been in Australia for about 2 months now, and it has been quite a rollercoaster.

I am finally done with the study part and have moved on to my internship. I’ve only been at it for a little over a week, but I can already tell it will be an incredible experience.

Working has been a huge adjustment, especially because this is my first office job. Sitting in an office for eight hours is not the most exciting part of this trip. It is incredibly difficult to keep my focus when I can look out the window and know all the amazing parts of Australia out there that I am not getting to see!

So when people talk about the vacation stage of studying abroad, it is absolutely a real feeling that is extremely hard to shake! I wish I had prepared myself more for this feeling, though I’m not sure there is anything I could have done. I guess this is one of those ‘has to be learned by experience” things. 

The honeymoon stage is starting to wear off and the daily commute is becoming pretty mundane. I am no longer snapping pictures of everything I see and annoying people on social media. I am not able to go to the beach everyday or do anything new and exciting everyday. Instead, I kind of feel like I am back in the real world, which has led me to be a bit homesick.

Now that this place seems familiar, I am forced to realize this is not my home and this is not a vacation. I am far away from the people that I love. I do have a couple more months here. I have been feeling pretty sad, and it has forced me to pick myself up and learn to get over it.

Instead I have to make each day a new adventure. When I am bored at work, I have to come up with ways to be productive. I have to opportunity to come up with new ideas and things that could benefit my office. I have to find the adventure in small things, like take a different route home than when I came to work. Try a new coffee or coffee shop. Try a new food. Listen to a new band. Get to know the people I’m surrounded by a little better. Work out more.

I realized, all these things are ways to make home a new adventure too, and I hope that when I get back, I will be used to this. Maybe this will become my new lifestyle.